First of all, I want to get something out of the way: I root for a 1-2 football team that is giving up 41 points per game and doesn’t look anything like a Southeastern Conference football program.
Those numbers aren’t pretty. There isn’t anything heartening in them. But they are real. As we sit today, Alabama is 3-0, though they blew a 21-point lead to a one-dimensional offensive team with the second-worst defense in the SEC and a coach stupid enough to have Felix Jones on the bench with Darren McFadden cramping in the final drive. Also, a coach stupid enough to throw on third down when Bama had no timeouts. But they found a way. They’re 3-0. I’d trade places with them in a heartbeat.
So, go ahead and gloat, Bama fans. Talk about your past. Get excited about your present. Beat your chest about the future. Just remember what your record is against UT since 1994 and talk to me the third Sunday in October. I’m not talking smack. Those are facts.
Now, on to the greater issue.
Sitting around the table at a Gainesville restaurant with a couple buddies Saturday night, we pondered just how far we’ve fallen. We also hashed out just what is going on with a program that had been so proud. The two bedrocks Tennessee football has been built on are running the ball and playing hard-nosed defense. It’s quite obvious that the Vols can’t do either right now. When you look at the athletes, the recruits UT has, it gets only moderately better. The talent is there, but the last time any talent was developed was quite likely the late 1990s.
How bad is it talent-wise? In the past seven years, Phillip Fulmer — a former offensive lineman — has had two offensive linemen drafted. TWO! In seven years. Wide receiver U. can’t throw the ball downfield. Everybody goos over Cutcliffe when the Vols can’t get the ball in the end zone against a good team. The running backs can’t hit holes the few times the offensive linemen open holes. And, worst, John Chavis’ defense couldn’t stop me, Boomtown and Crimson Daddy in a game of two-hand touch.
I’m unabashedly ashamed. And I’ve had it.
As any of my friends know, I’ve been an advocate for getting rid of Fulmer for a long time. As I sat among UT fans and family members in The Swamp, those feelings only intensified. It was so bad that Urban Meyer had his starters in late into the fourth quarter.
Why? Because he has no respect for a UT program that simply doesn’t deserve any right now. Also, because he fears no retribution in the next few years from a team that quite obviously has a gulf the size of Fulmer’s belly between it and the cream of the crop.
Regardless of what Alabama fans have to say, there is no gulf between the Tide and Vols. There are problems on both teams — vast problems. But now, UA is getting top-notch talent, too, and about the future, I can understand why they’d be more optimistic. They have a coaching staff who now develops talent. UT fans don’t know what that’s like anymore.
Case in point: How much better is Demonte Bolden than the day he arrived on campus? How about Rico McCoy? Jon Hefney? Jonathan Crompton? Arian Foster? If anything, some of those guys have regressed. Look at the defensive philosophy. We have 5-foot-8 cornerbacks, tiny safeties who were once corners, linebackers who are the size of safeties and defensive ends who were recruited as linebackers. The entire defense is based on pressuring the quarterback and staying in lanes.
But they are slow. They don’t just look slow. They are slow. And they blow too many assignments. That’s coaching, folks.
So, Fulmer says in Sunday’s press conference that the scheme is working. What the heck? How? I’m sorry, but when Ryan Karl is one-on-one with Percy Harvin in the open field in pass coverage, that ain’t workin’. It just ain’t.
Stepping back, I think the majority of Vols fans thought 1-2 was a possibility, and UT definitely has the talent to run the table. It has it, but it won’t do it. Running the table after giving up 60? That’s laughable. So, get it OUT of your head.
Where the problem with the fanbase lies is NOBODY thought this would be a 1-2 team allowing 41 points per game. NOBODY thought a Florida team that lost nine defensive starters would hand Tennessee its worst loss in 26 years. NOBODY thought that we’d be so embarrassed we dreaded going to work on Monday.
College football is about team pride. It’s about loving your program. When the pride and the love is abused, it hurts. At that point, it’s time for a change. I’m buying the UT-Arkansas State game on pay-per-view next week because I love my Vols, but I don’t understand them. I won’t abandon them, but I won’t condone the arrogant stupidity and futility of a coaching staff-passed-by.
The face of college football is changing. The schemes are changing, and simply, the game is changing. EVERYBODY is fast now. Scheme is as much important as talent. Granted, Florida has much better talent than UT, but we’re a year removed from blowing a lead against the Gators before losing a 21-20 heartbreaker. What it amounts to is Meyer is getting his guys in there, and his scheme is simply too much for Fulmer. The longest-tenured SEC coach simply looks lost trying to fix the leak, and the water continues to gush out.
Tennessee football right now is a gaping wound. I hate to say it. But the game is passing by Fulmer and Chavis. Alabama has talent — not the talent it will have in a few years, but enough talent that they can win games and they can look like a football team. They needed a change, and they got one. They had a little fire injected into a group. The talent they have has awakened. They believe.
And as far as Fulmer goes, the man is the reason why we talked about Tennessee in the same breath as national powers. He got us there, and we should ALWAYS appreciate him for that. He’s simply worn out his welcome, much like Bobby Bowden. It’s just time to move on.
For once in my life, I envy what Alabama did, what Florida did. They got rid of the problem, popular or not. They hired a brilliant mind and the best money could buy. Watching the Vols from The Swamp on Saturday, I couldn’t help but think that the game is changing, and everybody in orange is going to be left behind quickly if a change isn’t made.
It’s not too late, but it could be soon enough. We’re a middle-of-the-pack SEC program right now, and we may not even be a middle-of-the-pack TEAM this year. Boomtown was right in one regard: We’re slipping, and we’ll lose it if not careful. We’re flat-out bad as a team this year and mediocre as a program. If that’s what Tennessee wants to settle for, that’s fine. That’s essentially what we’ve been for the majority of our existence. But we don’t have to stand for it. We’ve experienced greatness, and with the money pumped into the program, it can happen again.
To keep up, we have to keep evolving. To keep up, we have to get in new blood. Right now, this coaching staff is living in 1998. We can talk about Bama fans living in the past, but their administration went out and DID something to ensure they have a future.
It’s time we did the same.
Ghost of Neyland
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