Their bank accounts and free time have expanded, and their golf scores have shrunk.
They've taken fun trips with friends and family, visited college and pro football practices and re-introduced themselves to loved ones after years of being immersed in their jobs.
As Auburn head coach for 10 years, and at Ole Miss before that, Tommy Tuberville is learning to watch football this season while the pressure to perform falls on others.
But Saturday, on the first weekend of the new college football season, it will fully hit Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville that they are no longer head coaches.
"This is the first time since the sixth grade that I don't have football in the fall," said Fulmer, a former Tennessee offensive lineman forced out as Vols boss after 29 seasons coaching at his alma mater, the last 16 as head coach. "I've got the bug (to coach)."
Tuberville, who quit on his own at Auburn after 10 seasons, is itching to coach but isn't scratching as hard as Fulmer.
"It has been tough on Phillip because he's so close (to Tennessee)," said Tuberville, who turns 55 on Sept. 18. "This here was my own doings. I'd just had enough. No mas. I told my wife we'll take a year or two off and see what happens. If anything good comes up, if someone needs a new coach, I might be available."
Fulmer (152-52) and Tuberville (110-50, including his four seasons coaching Ole Miss, 1995-98), rank as the seventh and 14th winningest coaches in SEC history. Fulmer won two SEC championships and a national title in 1998 with a 13-0 team, and Tuberville won one SEC title in 1994 (beating Fulmer's Vols in the league championship game and finishing 13-0). Tuberville's team didn't get a chance to play in the BCS national championship game.
Last year, when the Vols and the Tigers struggled offensively and got off to slow starts that eventually led to a pair of 5-7 records, fan discontent snowballed. Fulmer was asked for his resignation Nov. 1 and Tuberville, tired of a lack of support from the university's most rich and powerful boosters, quit at season's end.
"No question I'm disappointed it ended like it ended," said Fulmer, who turned 59 on Tuesday. "I've taken the high road. It's a big business; things happen and you go on.
"I've been teaching all my life it's not what happens to you, it's what you do when something happens. Now it's up to me to take my own advice."
Even though Fulmer was handed a $6 million settlement to walk, it didn't ease his sense of loss.
"I sat down with a priest to talk about the whole scenario," Fulmer said. "He made a point that before priests become bishops, they ask them to take a year sabbatical and read and study and rest. That's the way I've approached it."
Fulmer has hunted birds in Argentina, taken a position in an investment company, visited several NFL camps, reconnected with former players, kept track of his immediate former staff and been a doting grandfather to his young grandson.
Tuberville, after getting a $5.1 million buyout from Auburn, took a trip to the ESPYs with his wife, went to his son's athletic events, played golf at Pebble Beach and visited college camps as well as the Manning Passing Academy to get fresh ideas.
"It has been fun, but it's too much ingrained with me to sit around," Tuberville said. "My wife said the first week I changed all the light bulbs and the next week I sat around and waited for all of them to burn out. One day, she said, 'Listen, I'm used to being home by myself in the afternoon; you need to find something to do.'"
Fulmer and Tuberville will spend time this season as TV analysts. Fulmer will appear on the CBS College Network studio show from New York on selected Saturdays while Tuberville is on ESPNU's top 25 show from Charlotte every Monday.
This Saturday, though, Fulmer will be in Neyland Stadium to watch Lane Kiffin make his debut against Western Kentucky.
"I'll go to the game and it will be hard," Fulmer said. "I will support those kids. A lot of those kids are still my guys, kids I recruited."
Tuberville said he plans to take his 15-year-old son, Tucker, to the Alabama-Virginia Tech game on Saturday in Atlanta. He said he'll eventually see some Auburn games, but not this weekend's opener against Louisiana Tech.
"I would have loved to have stayed at Auburn and finished out there, but it wasn't in the cards. The Auburn fans were more than fair to me."
(Ron Higgins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.)
column
Post new comment