LawVol at Gate 21 is up to his magic again…

Well, we can’t let our Bama brethren outdo us now, can we? Honestly, that’s not the reason for this roundtable. The reason is there are a whole lot of questions that need to be answered in the couple of months leading up to the season, and I would think that we orangish blogger experts would be just the ones to do it.

So, here’s the drill: Every week, a different UT blog will “host” the roundtable, coming up with five questions that he — and every other UT blog participating — will answer. When they answer, we will link them here. That way, the hungry Vols fan can read multiple points of view on the questions he craves.

At the end of the week, the host blog — this week, yours truly — will do a roundup, featuring two answers for each question from the participants. The blogs planning on participating are as follows: Fulmer’s Belly, Gate 21, Rocky Top Talk, Loser With Socks, Moondog Sports, The Power T, Your Mother Slept With Wilt Chamberlain, UT Vols Football Blog, and the Southeastern Sports Blog.

KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR UPDATES. EVERY TIME A DIFFERENT BLOG ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS, WE WILL POST THE LINK HERE ON THIS BLOG.

• Moondog’s answers
• UT Vols Football
• Fulmer’s Belly
• The Power T
• YMSWWC
• Losers With Socks
• Gate 21
• Rocky Top Talk
• Southeastern Sports Blog

WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK. KEEP YOUR ANSWERS PG-13 (family blog), and give us come feedback in the comments section. If you’re a Vols blog and we left you out, it wasn’t intentional. Let us know, and we’ll be more than happy for you to join us. Now, on with the questions:

1.) How good/bad do you think Jonathan Crompton will be in his first year as a Tennessee starting quarterback and what makes you think that?

I know there is some worry about Crompton after spring practice, but I’m not one of those people concerned. He was going against a secondary that should be as talented as anybody in the league, and he was learning a new system. Also, last year, he pretty much knew he wasn’t playing with Ainge entrenched as the starter. While I’m not condoning his general lack of interest – a red flag for any redshirt sophomore – it ended up not affecting him since Ainge never got hurt. Since he became “The Man,” he dove into Dave Clawson’s playbook, organized mandatory workouts with receivers and performed well in the spring game. Is there a chance he’s not going to be able to cut it? Of course. But the kid was the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country behind Mark Sanchez coming out of high school, and everybody wanted him. He chose the Vols over USC and Georgia. He has talent. With Ainge, you never got to see any on-the-fly decisions or any risks when the situation called for it. If a play broke down, he simply threw it away. David Cutcliffe even went on the record saying that when Ainge had to make split-second decisions early in his career, bad things happened, so he took away that luxury. With Crompton, you almost expect him to make plays when plays break down. Of course, with that comes more mistakes, but I think there are going to be more players making plays because of Crompton. Ainge had “his guys” at receiver, and those didn’t include any young, exciting playmakers. As a result, Crompton threw to Denarius Moore and Gerald Jones on the second team. I think if Crompton can minimize the mistakes (a HUGE if) he’ll be more of a leader than a liability. At least, I hope so.

2.) This question was posed on our site a few weeks ago by the Bama boys, and it brought some good discussion, so given UT’s rich history of scheduling home-and-homes with top-shelf BCS programs, what school would you most like for the Vols to play in the future and why?

I have two choices: Clemson and Penn State. Like I said a couple of weeks ago in the response to the Bama Roundtable, we owe both of those programs for different reasons. The Tigers beat us in the Peach Bowl a few years back, but more than that, they’ve absolutely owned us on the recruiting trail in the past couple of classes. Last year, they took Antoine McClain from us on Signing Day. They also snagged Kenneth Page and Brandon Thompson, whom we were recruiting. This year, they – along with Alabama – are our chief competitors for several players, most notably Stephon Gilmore. We need to wear them out and expose them for the posers they are. Secondly, there’s Penn State. The reason for this one is simple: Since the 1990s, they’ve whipped us in bowl games, and if there is one Northern team that ruffles my feathers, it would be the Nittany Lions – even above Ohio State and Michigan.

3.) A lot has been made of our lack of depth at defensive tackle. With Demonte Bolden, Dan Williams and Walter Fisher pretty solid, what other player do you think makes a big move toward becoming dependable?

I know most people’s pick is going to be Donald Langley, but it’s just too hard to step right in and perform well when you haven’t experienced any game action. I really like Chase Nelson. I know that he has been one of Fulmer’s “looks-like-Tarzan-plays-like-Jane” guys, but as a junior, it’s now-or-never time. Before his injury last year, he actually had flashes of being the player we thought he’d be when he was recruited out of Oklahoma. And, if you recall, Bolden didn’t produce at all until his junior year. I think if Nelson has a big game early in the year – say, against UCLA – he could develop that belief in himself, and we will watch him blossom into another dependable body.

4.) Neyland Stadium has undergone some wholesale external and internal renovations during the offseason, updating and improving the overall appearance. If you could change one thing about Neyland, what would it be?

For goodness sake, Mike, let’s get the friggin’ bleachers out of there. I mean, if we’re having to pay out of our butts for season tickets – and in my case, scalped tickets – AT LEAST let us be comfortable during the game. With the amount of money that athletic department brings in every year, you can’t tell me they can’t equip Neyland with chairback seats all the way around. By the time the game is over, our asses feel like the team’s after they play Florida. The brick exterior is certainly necessary, and the player renovations are, too, but beyond that, if anything is more important than accommodating Joe Fan, you tell me what it is.

5.) Different UT fans have different opinions on last season. Was it a success? Was it a failure? Why do you think so?

Maybe failure is too harsh a word… OK, it is too harsh. But I don’t look back at last season fondly, no matter how hard I try. If we’d have beaten LSU, sure, then I would have. But to me, losing in the SEC Championship game just re-hashed the disappointments of the early season. Any time you give up 100 points to your two biggest rivals and make it to the SECCG, you have to consider yourself fortunate. And as far as natural steps of progression go, it was the next one on our way back from The Year That Goes Unmentioned. But this year needs to be better. Beating Florida (easier said than done) is the key, and if that happens, it could be a special season. But it didn’t happen last year, and any Vols fan who knows a Bama or Gators fan hasn’t lived it down. It’s almost a necessity to beat them to feel good about the year … AT LEAST one of them. On a scale of 1-10, I’d say last year was a 6 or a 7. But I’m not happy with mediocrity.