By Sports Animal Staff / @SportsRadioWNML

Jimmy Hyams and Vince Ferrara talked with University of Tennessee director of athletics Phillip Fulmer Wednesday afternoon on SportsTalk.

Fulmer discussed fans in Neyland Stadium this fall, how much money the UT Athletics Department pays annually to the university, what football means to schools around the country, some “what if” questions about ticketing, fans and this season’s football schedule, Jeremy Pruitt’s success and development as a coach and much more.

Here’s what Phillip Fulmer said about fans in Neyland Stadium this season:

“We’re planning on absolutely having it full.”

Here’s what the UT AD said when Vince asked him if Tennessee planned to beef-up UT’s future football non-conference schedules like many others in the SEC have:

“It was interesting. When I came into the conference as an AD I said, ‘Gosh, why don’t we all play two Power 5 teams, out of conference Power 5 teams?’ And then, after being an athletic director for a couple of years, certainly the appeal of the dollars and the crowd and those kinds of things. We’ve just been fighting like heck to get ourselves back in the mix for the conference. I think those things (more and tougher non-conference games) will come in time. I kind of see better now. Let’s pay attention to the ones we got and let’s go win those. Then we’ll worry about the others later.”

Jimmy then asked Fulmer if it’s difficult to schedule Power 5 teams:

“It is a little bit. It’s an interesting dynamic.”

Listen to that entire interview below.