College Football Coaches as Star Wars Characters
Phil Fulmer: Padme Amidala
Padme Amidala’s career was entirely complete by the time she was 15. Everything noteworthy she did (outside of marrying one of the most destructive members of the Sith ever) was over by the time she was 18.
Okay, so she had a Senate career after being Queen. Who cares? If you were President of the United States, would you want to go back to being a Senator? Of course not.
Anyway, Phil Fulmer had the same thing happen to him at Tennessee. From 1993 to 2001, Fulmer captured seven Top 10 finishes, two SEC Championships, and a national championship in addition to reigning supreme over all head coaches as the winningest active coach throughout that period.
Then it all went downhill. From 2002 to 2008, Fulmer had three seasons in which his teams finished unranked, no Top 10 finishes, two losing seasons, and no season with fewer than three losses, all culminating in a disastrous 5-7 2008 campaign that got him fired.
His firing plunged Tennessee into a period of college football irrelevance that they are barely climbing out of right now. The death of Amidala plunged the Galactic Republic into Empire control. Had she remained alive, she might have been able to save Anakin from the Dark Side.
But she was the reason he turned to begin with. And Fulmer was the reason for the downfall at Tennessee to begin with.
As a result, they are perfect for each other.
But happier endings await.
Next: Gus Malzahn: Luke Skywalker