KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer considered retiring when he was on top of college football. Now his time with the Volunteers is winding down and his team is simply playing out the string.

Fulmer said he mulled retirement after the Vols' 1998 national championship season and in 2001, when they nearly played for another national title.

"We played for the (Southeastern Conference) championship five out of the last 11 years. So it isn't like we just had reason to be looking to retire," Fulmer told The Associated Press.

Fulmer's being forced to leave his job after 17 years. This year, the Vols have lost seven games for only the second time in history. It's only Fulmer's second losing season, though both have come in the last four years.

But Fulmer he doesn't regret the decision to stick around.

Fulmer was urged by his wife, Vicky, to quit after the '98 season. He acknowledges that Vicky and his children, now grown, paid a huge price for the amount of work he's put in as coach.

They talked about it again when the Vols were one game away from playing in the title game in '01 after a 10-1 regular season, but lost in the SEC championship game and played in the Fiesta Bowl instead.

"If we'd won that championship game and played for (the national title) and maybe won it again, maybe you do it then. I had several chances to do other things at other places," Fulmer said without specifying what those other opportunities were.

It seems a stretch that the man who spent four years as an offensive guard, two years as a student assistant and all but six of his 35 years in the coaching business at Tennessee would pursue any other opportunity beside Vols coach.

Several of his assistants who have been on staff at Tennessee through Fulmer's entire head coaching stint also had chances to work elsewhere but chose to remain.

"I've had opportunities to be other places," said defensive coordinator John Chavis, who has been a Vols assistant for 20 years. "This is where I wanted to be working for the man that I wanted to work for."

When Fulmer takes the field at Neyland Stadium for the last time on Saturday night when Tennessee (4-7, 2-5 SEC) hosts Kentucky (6-5, 2-5), more than 150 of his former teammates and players from that time will join him to celebrate.

He's received more calls, e-mails and letters from friends and supporters than he's been able to handle with games left to coach.

"Maybe that's more of that than I ever expected — not that I expected anything. There's been a lot of that that makes you feel warm about it or appreciated. I don't think that softens the change in life," Fulmer said.

He will be introduced with the outgoing senior class as part of pregame senior day activities, and videos on the scoreboard will commemorate his career throughout the game.

Fulmer has tried repeatedly to keep the focus on his team this week as they try to avoid becoming the only team in program history to lose eight games in a season, steering reporters' questions away from topics of his future.

He's said he wants to take time to reflect, though indicated he might coach again if given the right opportunity. He's also hinted he'll write a sort of behind-the-scenes book.

He's got a few hobbies to keep him busy — fishing, bird hunting, spending time in the mountains — and a brand new grandson, Joseph Phillip, to dote on.

In the mean time, he's trying not to think too hard about the fact that it's his last game at Tennessee.

"There's a lot of lasts, you know? It's not like anybody died or anything," he said. "We're going to live a good life, regardless."