In 2002 Head Coach Phillip Fulmer, a former UT assistant football coach, and a Nashville booster were admonished by UT for violating NCAA rules in dealing with football player Eric Locke. The university’s probe into reports of wrongdoing in the transfer of Locke from Alabama to Tennessee was completed in spring 2002.
Fulmer received an official letter of admonishment for having a 15-minute meeting with Richard “Juicy” Locke, Eric Locke’s father, on June 7, 1999. At that time Eric Locke had left the University of Alabama after one season but had not been given a release. UT also imposed a penalty of not allowing Fulmer to go on the road during the evaluation period in May, and two scholarships were forfeited for 2002. The former assistant coach, Doug Matthews, was accused of influencing Locke’s decision to transfer to Tennessee and of helping him to gain summer employment, as well as use of a car for personal business from Gary Neil of Neil-Sandler Buick in Murfreesboro.
Locke enrolled at UT, sat out one year, and played for UT in 2000. Fulmer dismissed him from the team in March 2001 after Locke admitted to stealing a teammate’s ATM card and making $2,400 in cash withdrawals.