Vols, Tide battle on field, court

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Phillip Fulmer first beat Alabama as a Tennessee player in 1969.

As coach of the Volunteers, he's lost only twice in 12 games against the Crimson Tide.

But nothing Fulmer's ever done on the field has irked Alabama fans the way his involvement in an NCAA investigation of the Tide did.

Since Alabama was sanctioned by the NCAA in 2002 for recruiting violations, some passionate Crimson Tide fans -- who also happen to be attorneys -- have targeted Fulmer, accusing the coach and the NCAA of illegally smearing Alabama football.

The 17th-ranked Volunteers (3-2, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) head into Saturday's game at Alabama having won nine of the last 10 in the series, but the fifth-ranked Tide (6-0, 4-0) is undefeated and looking to start the season 7-0 for the first time since 1996.

Still, the subplot involving Fulmer is what makes the 88th meeting between Alabama and Tennessee truly unique.

"Everything that's happened since I've been here, fan-wise this is their biggest game of the year. There's an intense desire to beat Tennessee," Alabama quarterback Brodie Croyle said.

Two court cases related to the NCAA's investigation of Alabama have already concluded.

Since last year's Alabama-Tennessee game, booster Logan Young of Memphis was convicted in federal court of paying $150,000 to steer star recruit Albert Means to Alabama, and an Alabama jury awarded former assistant coach Ronnie Cottrell $30 million for being defamed by recruiting analyst and NCAA secret witness Tom Culpepper.

Fulmer and other coaches testified before the grand jury that indicted Young and gave the NCAA information about Alabama.

"It's not something I'm concerned about. That's in the past. It's kind of been resolved in Memphis in U.S. District Court," Fulmer said. "I'm sure there's some lingering energy about that, but there's nothing I can do about that, nor do I care to concern myself about that."

Yet a defamation lawsuit filed against Fulmer in Knoxville has yet to be resolved, and there could be more legal action stemming from Fulmer's interviews with NCAA investigators in 2000. Two years later, the NCAA put Alabama on five years' probation and banned it from bowls for two years.

"Coach Fulmer was a very busy boy back in the first part of the new millennium. I think even the most hard-core Tennessee fan is going to be appalled at the stuff it turns out that their coach was doing when he might well have been spending his time more productively coaching his football team," said Memphis attorney Philip Shanks, an associate of Cottrell's attorney Tommy Gallion, who has been leading the legal campaign against Fulmer.

He said the attorneys are determined to get a deposition from Fulmer, which the coach has dodged so far.

"Alabama football is important to me. The University of Alabama is important to me, and Phillip Fulmer lied and committed numerous criminal violations in his quest to destroy the University of Alabama football team," Shanks said.

"I'm not going to let it drop until somebody -- some unbiased law enforcement authority -- has looked at this and has decided whether he needs to be brought before the bar of justice."

Time is not on their side with the statute of limitations ticking.

Fulmer's involvement dates back five years, when he talked with NCAA investigator Rich Johannigmeier about various Alabama recruits and shared the widespread belief that Young was buying blue-chip players. Fulmer thought his comments would remain secret, but interview summaries became public in January 2004 after the NCAA turned them over to federal prosecutors investigating Young in response to a subpoena.

Cottrell's attorneys contended the documents supported their claim that Fulmer gave the NCAA information on Alabama in return for the regulators overlooking violations at Tennessee.

Fulmer wasn't a defendant in Cottrell's lawsuit, but the interviews became the basis of a 2004 lawsuit by former Alabama recruit and Tennessee player Kenny Smith, who is represented by Shanks. His recruitment was part of the Alabama violations the NCAA uncovered.

Smith, who played one year for Tennessee in 1997, objected to Fulmer telling the NCAA about rumors that the player's mother was romantically involved with an Alabama assistant.

Meanwhile, the American Football Coaches Association, NCAA and Fulmer asked a Tennessee court to proclaim that what coaches tell investigators is immune from legal action.

After the Smith case was dismissed in Alabama, the family refiled it in Knoxville in January. A judge is considering whether to dismiss it.

While all this legal wrangling and accusations against Fulmer have consumed some Alabama fans, in Tennessee it's viewed mostly as a nuisance.

"I could honestly care less," Tennessee tailback Gerald Riggs said. "If anything, we sit back and laugh about it."

Sports writer John Zenor in Montgomery, Ala., contributed to this report.

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