That has to be it, right?

Tennessee can’t bring Phillip Fulmer back now.

Put aside the losses for a moment. Put aside the inept offense. Put aside the decade that has passed without an SEC title. Put aside the utter inability to compete with Nick Saban and Urban Meyer in recruiting or on the field.

Just look at the empty seats in Neyland Stadium. Look at the uncommon number of fans dressed in red.

Look at the man, standing on Phillip Fulmer Way, holding two tickets in the air.

“Where are they?”
“Lower bowl.”
“How much?”
“Fifty dollars for the pair.”

So that has to be it, right? When $50 can buy two lower bowl tickets to the Alabama game?

Tennessee fans aren’t buying Fulmer as the head coach of the Tennessee Vols any longer. After Saturday’s emphatic 29-9 loss to Alabama, why would anyone?

This was supposed to be the game that would save Tennessee’s season and the head coach’s job. It was going to be like the Georgia game last year.

Fulmer might have certain deficiencies, but he would rally his lads for a mighty effort against Alabama.

“We absolutely must play well in this ball game!” said Fulmer.

They absolutely did not play well. They played like a team that badly needs a new football coach.

They played like they played against UCLA, like they played against Florida, like they played against Auburn and Georgia and you know the whole depressing list.

• First series: 9 yards.
• Second series: -9 yards.
• Third series: 4 yards.
• Fourth series: 2 yards.

Way to rally around the ball coach, guys.

Or maybe that’s not fair. Maybe the players did their very best. Alabama hammered Tennessee Saturday night for the same reason Florida hammered Tennessee earlier in the season. They have more playmakers on both sides of the ball.

Remember Fulmer’s quote when Tennessee came in with the No. 36 recruiting class last year?

“I don’t concern myself with it,” he said.

Alabama had the No. 1 recruiting class. Think Saban concerned himself with it?

For the record, Tennessee finally got a first down with 13:42 left in the second quarter, which sparked the sort of ovation that some crowds reserve for touchdowns.

The Tennessee crowd knows better by now. They’ve seen how this movie goes. The Vols got a break when Alabama’s Javier Arenas unaccountably fielded and fumbled a punt away at the Alabama 5-yard line. If the Tennessee offense could just punch it in, who knows how this one would turn out?

That’s what you call a hypothetical question, of course. The Tennessee offense promptly threw it in reverse, losing 9 yards to the 14 to set up a dispiriting field goal.

The Vols wouldn’t score again until halfway through the fourth quarter, by which time Alabama led by 26. The seats were mostly empty at that point. A couple Tennessee fans wore bags on their heads.

And, no, there can be no joy in this moment, in watching what has to signal the end of a distinguished coaching career.

Saturday’s game was Fulmer’s 200th as head coach at Tennessee. He’s won 150 and a national championship.

But the national championship was a decade ago. Tennessee has lost its last four games to Florida and Alabama by an average of more than 26 points.

Fulmer said all the right things after the loss, of course. He said he’d get it fixed.

But inside, you knew what he was thinking: That has to be it, right?

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By GEOFF CALKINS The Commercial Appeal
Originally published 11:39 a.m., October 26, 2008