Phil Fulmer was carried off on the shoulders of his players for the final time as Tennessee's head coach.

It's sad to see him go. It's even sadder to see where this program has fallen to. However the saddest part of all is a half empty Neyland Stadium on Phil Fulmer Appreciation Day.

The announced attendance was 102, 338 which is apparently how many tickets were sold but observations from the press box put the number around 65,000. That's sad and I'm in Las Vegas so I got an excuse for not going.

Well, I'm 3 days away from a vacation. I'm going to Nashville, TN and hopefully I will get to see multiple people who mean a lot to me.

In any event, my job is pretty stressful and last week was looking pretty bleak for a minute. I had shoot the Dana White Video Blog. Long story short I followed around Dana, President and savior of the UFC, for a day and a half. I rode in a Ferrari and a Mercedes. I must say, a Ferrari wasn't on my list of things to get but driving that thing back to Stockton in the Spring and Fall with the top down would be pretty fucking cool. Not to mention the ride would go much faster.

I think things went pretty well, I'm still employed, and he approved the one I cut and posted on youtube. I switched off to his regular guy on Thursday late afternoon and later that night I was outside the compound at MGM venting to my immediate boss about something else an Dana came by. For the first time he said my name when asked. He said "thanks Brad".

I know that might sound dick to some of you. 'Dude, you're fucking boss doesn't even know you're name?' Look, this guy has more people's names to remember than I have vested in Chevron stock. It would be the equivalent of Roger Goodall, commissioner of the NFL, knowing the name of a peon in the web department.

On Saturday night when we looked like we we're getting close to being done with UFC 91 I realized I had three guys looking at me as their boss. That made me feel good to the point that I cracked a smile.

How long will this confidence last? I don't know but things are looking better.

Look, it's pretty damn obvious that I may not be the coldest beer in the cooler however I do notice some shit.

Such as,

Why is wienerschnitzel near the stripper clothing stores?

For one,  the only people you meet outside of work work behind a bar and one of them, the girl, gets fired.

You jog 2 miles a day and can't right now because you're feet hurt and the dr doesn't know why.

why cant cab drivers speak english? i mean thye have a license.

 Two things for me that are bigger than a black man being elected President of the United States.

1. Phil Fulmer forced out after 17 years as head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers.

2. Some random reason, my mortgage payment went up by $89.00.

Yes it's cool that a black man is President. Yes it's ground breaking and historic and yada yada yada.

Folks, I didn't grow up in the civil rights era. I grew up in  California with a 57 flavored gringo dad and a full blooded Mexican mom. This shit don't matter to me. I looked beyond that many, many moon's ago. Granted most people haven't and by the way, most of those people live in California and not the South where I lived for 10 years.

I understand the significance of that but aren't we missing something? The fact that people would look beyond the color of ones skin? I think that's cool.

By the way let me just state this for the following to clear my mind:

I love and respect McCain. He's a hero of mine and I voted for Obama. I hate Biden but don't trust Palin. I also know that this is the opportunity of a lifetime for someone my age to make his mark financially in the stock market and in life. The last time we had a Democratic President my Grandfather said this, 'I don't like Clinton but I sure as hell made a whole lot of money while he was President.'

But still I'm more interested in celebrating he career of Phil Fulmer and wonder who the next head coach would be.

Phil Fulmer is out as the University of Tennessee's head football coach.

He's Tennessee native who gave 35 years to the university as a player and coach. His current record is 150-51 with 1 National Title.

The reason he's out is simple, Tennessee is losing ground to their biggest rivals Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and LSU. Tennessee hasn't won an SEC title since 98 and have lost 31 games since the end of the 2001 season.

Should Fulmer have been give a chance to fix this? I think so. 1 to 2 more years.

However he's not going to get that chance.

So the question becomes, who is Tennessee going to get? Now this could go one of two ways, either AD Mike Hamilton finds the next Bob Stoops or Jim Tressel or he finds the next Bill Callahan or Mike Dubose.

In any event, Tennessee is entering a new chapter. One that will have a tough time living up to the standards that Fulmer set.

Thanks Phil.

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Phil Fulmer will step down at the end of the season. Dude.
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