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As the fallout from Phillip Fulmer's firing at Tennessee continues, parents of players have begun contacting the compliance office to inquire about the process for transferring.

Among those is freshman tight end Aaron Douglas, one of the best young prospects in the program and the top prospect in the state of Tennessee a year ago.

Douglas' father, David, confirmed that they will explore the possibility of transferring if that's what is best for Aaron, who is redshirting this season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The Douglas family is about as steeped in the Big Orange family as it gets. David was an offensive lineman on the Vols' 1985 SEC championship team and later played on the Cincinnati Bengals' Super Bowl XXIII team. Fulmer was his offensive line coach at Tennessee. Aaron's mother, Karla, was a starting center on the Lady Vols' national championship basketball team in 1987, which was the first of Pat Summitt's eight national titles.

The entire Douglas family has taken Fulmer's ouster hard, and David said the hardest part was the realization that the Tennessee family they'd come to know and love was being torn apart.

Karla wrote a letter to David and Aaron expressing her feelings about Fulmer's firing. The family forwarded a copy of the letter to ESPN.com.

Karla wrote: "Our family has been rocked. Everything we have tried to instill in our son about relationships, loyalty and treating people how you want to be treated is being tried. He is staying positive, because that is the way a champion and a competitor thinks. But he is also thinking about his values and what he believes in. Does he want to play for a coach and have a relationship or go through two or three coaches and know that the fans and the administration are in control? We are a sports family and we understand that business majors are running college athletics, but that is not what we believe in. We believe in family, relationships and how individuals are treated."

David said Fulmer and his staff went out of their way to make sure that Tennessee football was a family.

"But Tennessee is now like everyone else in the college game," said David, who played six seasons in the NFL. "It's just about Saturday and wins and losses. Forget about developing young teenagers into men unless they win you games and make you money on Saturday."

David said the essence of how much Fulmer loves Tennessee came Monday night when he mentioned to the Vols' coach that Aaron might transfer.

"He said, 'Don't you do that. Tennessee is where he needs to be whether I'm there or not,'" Douglas recounted. "That's what kind of man he is."

David reiterated that all they were doing was exploring what their options were and that Aaron would have the final decision on whether or not he wanted to transfer. It's worth noting that Aaron's only official visit was to Tennessee, even though he was a highly recruited player coming out of high school in Maryville, Tenn.

"That's because of the Tennessee family and because of Coach Fulmer," David said. "We still love Tennessee, but we're also loyal to Coach Fulmer."

Chris Low is a college football writer for ESPN.com. He covered Tennessee from 1997 to 2006. Send your questions and comments to him at espnclow@aol.com.