Sanning: Fulmer made the right choice in firing Warlick, hiring Harper

I would hate to have been in Phillip Fulmer's position back in March, and that has nothing to do with Tennessee football.

Enter Holly Warlick and UT's storied women's basketball program.

The writing had been on the wall for quite some time. Warlick, one of the outstanding assistants who served under legendary coach Pat Summitt for decades, was failing to live up to expectations.

Under her direction, the Lady Vols failed to reach a single Final Four let alone win a national championship - something that was almost common under Summitt. Warlick would know, she was an integral part of those teams.

Clearly, that didn't translate to longterm success once she took over the reins in 2012.

After leading the Lady Vols to the SEC regular season title in 2013 and claiming the SEC Tournament Championship the following hear, Tennessee never quite found the same level of success under Warlick.

For years, fans in the Knoxville area were calling for her to be fired - and rightfully so.

She's done tremendous things for the Tennessee women's basketball program and she should be commended for it. Her jersey hangs from the rafters for a reason. As a player and coach, Warlick was special.

It was just time for both sides to go in separate directions. And when it came time for Fulmer to find her replacement, he swung for the fences by bringing in former Lady Vol and then-Missouri State head coach Kellie Harper.

I was well-aware of Harper's reputation from her time as a player. She helped the program win three consecutive national titles from 1996-1998 and was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team in 1997.

The skepticism from my end, and there admittingly was not much, came from her lack of experience at the helm of a Power Five program.

Needless to say, I was wrong. Fulmer knocked this hire out of the park.

The outside world may have waited until Tennessee's upset win over 15th-ranked Notre Dame on the road on Monday to start buying into the hype, but I was sold from the moment I sat in on UT's first practice session.

Practice, however, is far different from in-game situations.

I'm sure Warlick ran a tough practice and I'm sure it seemed as if everything she drew up behind the scenes was going to play out perfectly once the game started.

Then the in-game intensity settles in, and as a team, you find out who you are.

Under Warlick, the Lady Vols were a middle-of-the-pack bunch once her tenure reached its conclusion. Their loss to UCLA in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament last season was indicative of that.

Despite entering this season unranked, Tennessee went on the road and beat a solid Fighting Irish team that, while not boasting the services of Arike Ogunbowale anymore, was a 15.5-point favorite at home.

Rennia Davis' tour-de-force performance may have had a lot to do with that, but it's a coach's job to galvanize his/her troops, and Harper was able to bring the best out of the Lady Vols in South Bend.

Am I overreacting to early-season success? Probably. It's impossible to predict the future, especially in a sport like basketball where momentum swings are common. throughout the season. We saw Rick Barnes and the men's team win 19 consecutive games last year before ultimately flaming out late.

Tennessee's biggest tests are still ahead of it - the Lady Vols still have to take on the likes of Texas in the coming weeks before SEC play kicks off in January, but the light at the end of the tunnel has vividly resurfaced.

And Harper is the primary reason why.

Photo Credit: Maury Neipris/Tennessee Athletics