KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The publishing company's letter showed up in my mailbox Sept. 23, 1996. I remember the date because of what happened two days earlier: Florida scored 35 points in the first 20 minutes en route to a 35-29 win over No. 2 Tennessee before a stunned Neyland Stadium crowd.

	Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer has lifted Tennessee to new heights since taking over for Johnny Majors.

Then came the letter promoting Vols coach Phillip Fulmer's new book: "Legacy of Winning." The sub-title was just as timely: "It Doesn't All Happen on Game Day."

Sarcasm seeped from my keyboard.

There's not a snicker's worth of sarcasm today. The sarcastic book review has gone the way of Steve Spurrier's Citrus Bowl jokes.

It's time for a second printing.

The original was about a man destined for the Citrus Bowl Hall of Fame. The second will be about the sixth-year head coach who has won back-to-back SEC championships, gone 12-0 and been named national Coach of the Year.

Keep the same title. It fits.

Fulmer is 66-11. His winning percentage is .857. You don't need Jeff Sagarin to interpret that.

Fulmer has delivered what he promised when hired as Johnny Majors' successor. He said he would take the program to the next level. The next level is in Tempe, Ariz., where the Vols will play Florida State for the national championship. Win or lose, the Vols at least will have made it to the national championship game.

And the coach will have made more progress than his team.

The Vols finished in the top 10 the previous three seasons and finished second in 1995, yet Fulmer received few coaching plaudits. Even last season when the Vols won the SEC championship, Georgia coach Jim Donnan beat out Fulmer for SEC coach of the year.

The popular perception was that the Vols had as much talent as any team in the country. The Vols' shortcoming was coaches, not players. Other coaches would tell you that off the record; the Florida rivalry spoke for itself.

The Vols still have more talent than any team in the SEC, but the national perception of their coach is altogether different. Perhaps Peyton Manning had something to do with the old perception. He sometimes made a coach's job look too easy. Couldn't anybody win with Peyton Manning as his quarterback?

There was nothing easy about this undefeated season. Fulmer had to break in a new quarterback and replace injured star running back Jamal Lewis after the fourth game. His team had to walk a fourth-quarter tight rope to win four games.

The Vols displayed both poise and intensity in the scariest moments of those four games. That reflects on the coach.

If you observed Fulmer during the most stressful times of this season, there was no evidence of stress. Whether his team was beating Kentucky by 30 or trailing Syracuse by 2, Fulmer's expressions and body language offered no hints of the score.

His team played accordingly. Together they looked unshakable in the shakiest of situations.

It's often hard to distinguish a coach from his team. Does the team play with poise and confidence because its coach exudes the same virtues? Or does the coach appear unflappable because his team is unfazed by the most dire circumstances?

Is Fulmer really a better coach this season? Or is this his most-coachable team? Certainly, he had help.

Middle linebacker Al Wilson qualifies as one of Tennessee's all-time great co-captains. Even though Tee Martin was a first-year starter at quarterback, he immediately established himself as a leader.

Throughout UT's lineup, you have players who have led by example players like wide receiver Peerless Price, defensive tackles Darwin Walker and Billy Ratliff ... the list is almost as long as the team's roster.

Fulmer wrote in his book: "Many people have the ability and talent to get it done from an operational standpoint but not too many can get it done from a leadership standpoint."

The Vols haven't always got it done on the field or on the sideline. Not until this season.

The book was just ahead of its time.

(John Adams writes for The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee.)