Both Bruce Pearl and Phil Fulmer, have enemies in certain corners.
That’s what happens when you provide incriminating information about
one your rivals to the NCAA. Whether upholding the integrity of the
game, or simply taking shots at an opponent, the views on the actions
of each are varied. In 1989, when Pearl was an assistant coach at Iowa,
he was dejected to lose the recruiting battle for a star player to
Illinois. Suspicious of the Fighting Illini, Pearl managed to record the boy’s high school coach
admitting to illegal benefits. Illinois was subsequently punished and
Pearl entered career purgatory with the “snitch” label clearly affixed
to his name. In 2005, Pearl found an big-time athletic director willing
to look past his sneaky ways. Mike Hamilton, the A.D. at Tennessee, had
already weathered a similar storm a year earlier. In January of 2004,
it was revealed that Fulmer had provided the NCAA with damaging
information about Alabama recruiting practices. Informant Fulmer was
able to pin crimes on Bama which played a part in their stiff penalties
from the NCCA in 2002. If they need a trainer, Brian Mcnamee is
probably unemployed.