Majors Will Not Coach in Bowl

Johnny Majors, the football coach at Tennessee who is leaving his alma mater after 16 seasons under a $600,000 contract buyout, said Friday he would not coach the 17th-ranked Volunteers in the Hall of Fame Bowl on New Year’s Day against Boston College.

“I have decided to step aside and give up my coaching responsibilities,” Majors said after a team meeting.

Majors said he did not want his situation “to be a distraction to the team in its preparations for a very tough game.”

The university already had named assistant head coach Phillip Fulmer as Majors’ successor, effective immediately for recruiting. Fulmer would have taken over the rest of the job after the bowl.

Majors announced his decision one day after criticizing the way his contract negotiations were handled and described by the university.

Majors, 57, talked at length about his departure in copyright stories in The Tennessean of Nashville and The Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Majors said he twice reached informal agreements to extend his contract before his forced retirement, announced Nov. 13 and effective the end of the year.

The interviews came amid reports that Majors is a top contender for the coaching job at Pittsburgh, which he led to the national championship in 1976.