When something you've loved more than four decades tells you it doesn't want you anymore, it's difficult not to feel bitter.
And for a time, Phillip Fulmer probably was bitter about how Tennessee forced him out in 2008 though he tells a reporter multiple times how happy he is now. Fulmer guided the Volunteers to a national championship in 1998 and two SEC Championships but was told to resign in the midst of a 5-7 2008 season. Tennessee replaced its Hall of Fame alumnus with Lane Kiffin, who lasted a single season before leaving for USC.
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Fulmer didn't feel welcome hanging around his alma mater during the Kiffin and Derek Dooley years. He famously said Kiffin's "arrogant attitude turned people off" and questioned how he even got the job during a stint as a CBS analyst. But he's developed a good relationship with current head coach Butch Jones -- they exchange text messages -- and now takes his grandson to the occasional practice. It's helped alleviate hard feelings after Fulmer was told to hit the road before he was ready.
"I'm not mad at anybody at Tennessee," Fulmer says. "Everybody that fired me got fired. I'm good."
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Fulmer, born and raised in Tennessee, has always loved to hunt and fish though time to do that as an SEC head coach isn't easy to find. He's able to do lot more of that now -- he's on an elk hunting trip in Colorado this weekend -- but football is still on his mind even though it's been seven years since he last coached a game.
Whether he's on a boat or out on a field, he can't help but wonder what if? What if the College Football Playoff, a roaring success in its first year, was around during his tenure at Tennessee? Would he have a few more national titles on his resume? Would he have lasted longer at his alma mater if one or two of those Citrus Bowl appearances would have been a playoff semifinal instead?
"I wish we had the playoff back then," he says. "I'd love to have a playoff in 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2001, and maybe even 2007. I didn't want to play one in 1998.
"Us and Florida being in the same division, we cost each other chances to play for championships. Teams like in 2001 when we'd beaten LSU in the regular season and lost to them in the championship game, our fans were handing us roses as we went into the stadium because the Rose Bowl is where everybody thought we'd go. Those things make you look back and say 'God, what if?'"
Fulmer had tremendous success against rival Alabama, at one point winning nine out of 10 games against the Tide, but couldn't consistently beat Florida. The Gators were the main reason star quarterback Peyton Manning never won a national championship during his four years in Knoxville. Florida defeated Manning's Volunteers all four years, sending Tennessee to back-to-back trips to the Citrus Bowl.
Steve Spurrier, then coach of the Gators, famously quipped you can't spell Citrus without UT.
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Fulmer had opportunities to be a coach again after he left Tennessee.
Returning to Tennessee wasn't going to happen no matter how much fans wanted it after the Dooley debacle, but he was in the mix for a few jobs, including Connecticut after Randy Edsall left for Maryland.
When you've coached as long as Fulmer has, it's difficult to walk away. He knew he still had enough in the tank to keep coaching, but came to the realization that no job he'd get at that stage of his career would be as good as the one he had at Tennessee. When the calls came in Fulmer chose family over career.
"You don't do something for that long, and you don't miss it," he says. "But I made a conscious decision to not chase a job that wasn't going to be as good as the one I had and leave six beautiful grandchildren somewhere in Tennessee. I just wasn't willing to do that."
Instead, Fulmer became a partner with BPV Capital Management in Knoxville. He got to be part of a team again, used his recruiting skills to land new clients and helped the company's business development team. He enjoys the work he does and the extra time he gets to spend with his growing family.
He's filled the football fix, too.
Fulmer signed on as a consultant for East Tennessee State's efforts to restart its program after disbanding in 2003. The school asked him to be either the head coach or athletic director, something he was unwilling to do, but he agreed to help in a limited capacity. He enjoyed being around football again. The Buccaneers are in the midst of their first season back this year, thanks in part to Fulmer's work securing funding for the program.
Seven years after leaving the SEC behind, Fulmer says he's happy with his life, happy with the legacy he's left. It's taken him time to go from living and breathing football every day of the year to backing away and focusing on other things. Once considered a hated villain in Alabama, Fulmer now vacations in Gulf Shores and says Tide fans are nice to him.
He insists he's not retired, but instead in the second stage of his career. When assessing his current life, he remembers the advice Alabama athletic director Bill Battle once gave him.
"Coach Battle told me a long time ago in business you have an opportunity every day and in coaching you have 12 opportunities," he says. "I didn't know what it was like to play golf in a sweater, and he's right. Now, I know.
"There is life after football."