Roundup of the Tennessee blogosphere's reactions to Phillip Fulmer's departure

Reactions to Fulmer's departure from around the Tennessee blogosphere:

• The absolute must-read of the day comes from Will at SouthEastern Sports Blog, who looks at the Four Horsemen of Forced Resignation and concludes:
  

  Fulmer is leaving for a program's decline and a refusal to settle for mediocrity. It's important to note that the new head coach struggled in his first season at all four of these schools. In fact, no one has come into an elite BCS program from the outside and had championship success in their first year. Those are the facts.
  
  . . . .
  
  Fulmer's situation is also different than Ohio State's - Cooper never got Ohio State over the hump. Fulmer is Lloyd Carr. If our next head coach starts 2-7, how will we react?
  

• Clay Travis:
  

  1. If this doesn't make you sad you aren't a Vol fan. You can agree or disagree about whether this needed to happen, but even still, I'm sad. Since 1992--when I was only 13-- to this fall now that I'm grown and have a child of my own, Fulmer has been on the sidelines for my team. What's more, I'm 29 and this will be the first coaching search for UT football that I've ever been alive for. That's special. You only have to look down to Alabama to see how special that is. I hope that whoever we hire is here for 10 years or more. Did you realize that there have only been 20 head coaches in UT football history?
  
  . . . .
  
  4. Love him or not, Fulmer is a good guy. A good guy in a sea of bad ones. I hope that whoever we bring in next understands why Tennessee football is a unique and special place.
  

• Gate 21:
  

  Watching that press conference was . . . near torture. If you didn’t find that press conference hard to watch, I might have to question you as a Tennessee fan. Seriously. It was tougher than watching any of our games this year, and that’s obviously saying something. At first I could hardly even look at Tuesday’s News-Sentinel, which had a front page close-up photo of Fulmer fighting off his own tears.

• More from Gate 21:
  

  I guess I am just tired of all of the negativity, tired of all of all of the complaining, tired of all of the unrest in the Orange Nation.  I love the Vols, have been a season ticket holder for nearly a decade, and  spend more time on issues pertaining to Tennessee athletics than I care to admit.  Still, I’m just very, very, tired after all that has transpired this football season.  Of course, I am sure that Coach Fulmer is far more tired than I am.
  

• The BruceBall Blog:
  

  I felt mixed emotions when I heard he was out this afternoon. After seeing the man bare his soul in front of friends, family, players, and media in a press conference today, I’m heartbroken. The man bleeds orange, and I can’t even imagine what all of this is doing to him inside. It’s obviously tearing him apart. He’s devoted his entire adult life to this program, and since I was 13 he has been my team’s coach. This is the end of something special. Tumultuous and frustrating at times, but special.

  As the football program goes through a period of transition, please treat Coach Fulmer with the class and respect he deserves.

• Vol Ball:
  

  But as we look ahead, I personally I can not wait to walk into Neyland Stadium for both the Wyoming and Kentucky football games.  I can’t wait to hear Neyland Stadium rockin’ for Phillip Fulmer.  To think that I am going to be a part of something some monumental makes me feel truly blessed.  I respect Phillip Fulmer and I will be cheering for him harder than ever over the next month for what he has done for myself as a  fan and for Tennessee football.  And even if I have to pay the big bucks for these last two tickets I undoubtably will shell out the cash.
  

• Fulmer's Belly, as they do best, are taking the humorous route, concluding that Athletic Director must not be a very hard job.
  
• 3SIB continues its Better Know a Candidate series with a look at Doug Marrone.
• And just so it's all in one place, RTT's contributions: I said that Fulmer will always be Tevye to me, hooper compared the whole ordeal to the murder of Caesar, and Meyton Panning is, in a word, distraught.