Next Vols coach has big opportunity, big expectations

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If you're looking for a great opportunity and a great challenge, call Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton. He has a job for you.The pay is high. So are the expectations.Coach Phillip Fulmer met those expectations for a long time. He won two SEC titles and a national championship in the late 1990s. He won a high percentage of his games.But he didn't keep up with the competition. That's why UT and Hamilton had no choice but to make the coaching change announced Monday.Tennessee hasn't won an SEC championship since 1998. It has lost 19 games in the last four seasons. It has lost six of nine games so far this season and was barely competitive against Florida, Georgia, Alabama and even South Carolina.When Fulmer was at the top of his game, he could beat everyone in the SEC but Florida and coach Steve Spurrier. He beat Georgia routinely and changed the course of the Alabama-UT series in the Vols' favor.As tough as the SEC was then, it's even tougher now.Mark Richt, not Ray Goff, is the coach at Georgia. Nick Saban, not somebody named "Mike," is the coach at Alabama. Spurrier, not Sparky Woods or Brad Scott, is the coach at South Carolina. And Florida has gone from one great coach in Spurrier to another one in Urban Meyer.Those are just the guys Tennessee has to face on a yearly basis. LSU, which floundered for most of the last decade, has won two national titles in the last six seasons -- first under Saban and then last year under Les Miles. Although Auburn is struggling now, it went unbeaten just four years ago and has won six consecutive games against Alabama.Kentucky and Vanderbilt have improved. Arkansas will improve under Bobby Petrino, who is in his first year as head coach.That's what UT's next head coach will be up against. But as mountainous as that challenge might appear, it shouldn't obscure the opportunity.UT's football program has state-of-the art facilities and a budget that would make a third-world country proud. It has a stadium that turns recruits heads -- straight up. It's a traditional program with passionate fans. And a recruit has to spend only one weekend here to appreciate that.Recruiting is what Fulmer did best. Recruiting is also what creates the most concern among fans that realize Tennessee can't compete with Florida, Georgia or even Alabama when it comes to an in-state recruiting base.But Fulmer isn't the only coach who can recruit nationally to UT. Bruce Pearl is doing it in basketball, and that sport can't match the tradition of UT football.Fulmer took Tennessee football to a national title, but he didn't raise it from the dead. The Vols were 38-9-2 in the last four seasons under Johnny Majors, Fulmer's predecessor.Recruiting nationally isn't enough when you're competing against the likes of Saban and Meyer. Getting the players is half the battle. You have to develop them, too, and that's where UT has fallen short too often.UT can't hope to make the media splash that Alabama did in hiring Saban. And there's no obvious super coach lurking off the BCS path as Meyer was when Florida sought to save itself from Ron Zook. Remember, Notre Dame wanted Meyer, too.UT can still find the right guy. It just might have to look harder.My advice: Don't limit the search to offense or defense, young or old, North or South, college or pro.The candidate doesn't have to be from UT or the SEC. But he needs to understand them both.It's a huge challenge. And a great opportunity.(Contact John Adams at adamsj@knoxnews.com.)(John Adams is sports editor of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee.)