The Daily Times

A sports columnist at the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal World reported on Tuesday that a close friend of Phillip Fulmer’s said the former Tennessee football coach is interested in the vacancy at the University of Kansas.

Tom Keegan, a veteran sports writer, quoted Rich Jantz, a friend of Fulmer’s, as saying that Fulmer was interested in the job and to pass the word to the KU administration.

Jantz, an insurance salesman in Lawrence, is said to have met Fulmer in 1974 when both worked in the Wichita State athletic department and they remained friends.

“He told me a little over a week ago, ‘Let ’em know I’m interested,’” Jantz is quoted as saying.

“The guy had a 152-52 record playing in the best conference in America. He wanted the job two years ago.”

If Fulmer did express interest in the job two years ago, he was passed over for Turner Gill, who was fired on Nov. 28 after two losing seasons, including a 2-10 experience in 2011.

Jantz paints Fulmer as a charismatic personality and as someone who would micro-manage every aspect of a program.

“He’s in control of everything. He’ll be busy doing something across the room, and I’ll be talking to someone else. He hears every word of it,” Keegan quotes Jantz as saying.

Fulmer, now 61 years old, took over the head coaching position for the Volunteers in 1992, following Johnny Majors. The Blount County resident was 152-52-1 at Tennessee and won a national championship in 1998. He was relieved of his duties in 2008.