Another Vol Arrested

Last night another Tennessee football player was arrested. Vince Faison, the 27 year old former baseball player was charged with a DWB DUI, while cruising the strip in Knoxville. Just in case your keeping count, that brings the total of off-season arrests/citations to five.

Fulmer released a statement today regarding the punishment of Faison.

“Vince has embarrassed himself and his team. We expect all our players - scholarship or walk-on - to be good citizens. Any breaking of a law is serious. A DUI is a very serious offense. Vince will be suspended for two games and required to undergo alcohol evaluation and counseling in addition to other internal punishments.”

I don’t even know what to say at this point. Faison has not even practiced with the team, and he’s already in trouble. You can’t blame this on Fulmer, he can’t be recruiting and babysitting at the same time. On the other hand, I’m not going to sit here and judge Faison, but at some point our players have to realize the spotlight that they are under at UT. Until that day comes I guess we’ll still be called, UThug.

All-American Football League Draft

Just in case you missed it, the draft was televised today on CSS. Tennessee took Bryan Randall with their first pick, which sets us up strong at the quarterback position, considering we already have Tee Martin on the team.

2 Tennessee Bryan Randall QB Va Tech
11 Tennessee Tim Sandridge DL Va Tech
14 Tennessee Pete Traynor OL Iowa
23 Tennessee Derrius Monroe DE Va Tech
26 Tennessee Joel Clinger OL Missouri
35 Tennessee Bobby Blizzard TE Norht Carolina
38 Tennessee Darnerien McCants WR Deleware State
47 Tennessee Richard Koonce LB East Carolina
50 Tennessee John Richer TE NC State
59 Tennessee Abraham Elimimian CB Hawaii
62 Tennessee Reginald Doucet DB Middle Tennessee
71 Tennessee Thadis Pegues DL Rice
74 Tennessee Darrel Dowery WR Kent State
83 Tennessee Nick Hannah LB East Oregon
86 Tennessee Peter Claudius? DB Florida State
95 Tennessee Tee Martin QB Tennessee
98 Tennessee Jason Hall DE Tennessee
107 Tennessee Jason Mitchell LB Tennessee
110 Tennessee James Wilhoit K Tennessee
119 Tennessee Charles “CJ” Fayton WR Tennessee
122 Tennessee Benedict Ibisi OL Tennessee State
131 Tennessee Raushan Rowser OL Tennessee State
134 Tennessee Lawrence Smith OL Tennessee State
143 Tennessee Dwone Hicks RB Middle Tennessee State
146 Tennessee Andrico Hines QB Middle Tennessee State
155 Tennessee Marcus West DE Memphis
158 Tennessee Christopher Wright WR Lane
167 Tennessee Steve Josue LB Carson Newman
170 Tennessee William Henry OL Clemson
179 Tennessee Woodrow Dantzler QB Clemson
182 Tennessee Maurice Simpkins LB Coastal Carolina
191 Tennessee Justen Rivers LB Eastern Kentucky
194 Tennessee Kenneth Hampton III WR Kentucky State
203 Tennessee Jeremy Darveau OL Louisville
206 Tennessee Chris Tucker DT South Carolina
215 Tennessee Rod Smart RB Western Kentucky
218 Tennessee Ahmad Smith WR Tennessee State
227 Tennessee Travis Dorsch P Purdue
230 Tennessee Thomas Houchin Kentucky State
239 Tennessee Michael Gomez LB Illinois
242 Tennessee Brandon Phillips OL Arizona State
251 Tennessee Darnell Hood DB Michigan
254 Tennessee Ola Dagunduro DL Nebraska
263 Tennessee Jake Slaughter FB Auburn
266 Tennessee Mahlon Carey RB North Carolina
275 Tennessee Spencer Toone LB Utah
278 Tennessee Jeff Magdaleno WR La Verne
287 Tennessee Keenan Carter DL Virginia
290 Tennessee Darvin Lewis LB Central Michigan
299 Tennessee Jeff Mroz QB Yale

 

A couple names that immediately catch the eye, besides the UT alums, are Rod “He Hate Me” Smart and Dwone Hicks. Hicks was a stand out at MT, and was even a darkhorse for the Heisman his senior season. He was quick enough to make a couple rosters in the NFL, but never could stick with a team.

The Alabama team is significantly worse, and I got money they won’t even win a game. It is not even worth being in the same post as Tennessee’s team, but I’m sure we will have it up later.

Personally I’m excited about the new league. There will be another draft for players that didn’t get picked in this one and for players that didn’t sign up or get their degree in time. One thing that I think needs to be changed is a rule that will allow seniors graduating in the spring to join the league even though they haven’t received their degree, yet. That way they don’t have to wait a year to play, and the league could be used as a stepping stone to improve their chances of making an NFL roster.

Either way I think I am going to enjoy this league.

Marlon Walls is all Vol

Finally Tennessee lands a commit, and a really good one at that. Marlon Walls, a four star outside linebacker out of Olive Branch, Mississippi committed to the Vols today on his official visit. Walls was thought to be going to Ole Miss, but when he stepped on Tennessee’s campus he knew that was the place for him.

Athletically it doesn’t get much better than Walls. He runs a 4.55 forty at 6′3 225.

There is a couple of things to love about the Vols picking up this commit. First of all he is pretty much an in state kid, considering the fact he played in Tennessee for a good part of his high school career. I would even consider him more of an in state player than Chris Jordan, who transferred to Tennessee for his senior year. In fact, Walls grew up rooting for the Vols and idolizing Leonard Little, and you got to love having a player that has always dreamed of playing in orange. Furthermore, according to many of his teachers and coaches he is a really high character person as well.

However, one of the other benefits of picking up a commit from Marlon Walls that will likely be looked over is the fact that Marlon’s brother is a “super-stud” according to Scout.com. He is only a freshman at Melrose, but he is already getting plenty of attention from some big schools. That’s light years away from now, but its still good to know.

It just feels great to have someone commit to Tennessee. Maybe this will help gain a little momentum going into signing day.

Kentucky Upsets Tennessee

The Vols got handed their second loss of the season last night at Rupp Arena. Kentucky played a good hard fought game, and capitalized on an off night for the Vols to pull the upset. That may be the one thing that amazes me the most about this loss, we didn’t have one player have a good game, and we still nearly pulled it out at the end. Its kind of hard for me to get mad at a loss like this, because at least now we have improved to the point that it is possible to be upset by Kentucky at their place.

However, there are a couple of things that have to concern Vols fans about the way we played last night. First and foremost is our inability to stop a good low post player. Patrick Patterson was a beast in the paint all night, and we couldn’t do much to stop him. Duke Crews will definitely help when he comes back, but that will probably be our biggest weakness all year. Another thing that is of some concern is our team free throw percentage. We weren’t that bad last night but Kentucky definitely had the advantage, and  that could hurt us down the road.

One positive to take away from the game last night was the way Chris Lofton played in the first half. At one point during the game he actually dribbled the ball!! And best of all, he was heading in the general direction of the basket!! He still has not found his stroke from last season, but he definitely showed signs of getting his mojo back. However, the offense didn’t seem to click when he was the go to guy in the first half. In my opinion, we are at our best when Tyler Smith has the ball in his hands because he has the ability to do it all. As of late he has cooled off quite a bit, but if we can get Tyler and Lofton going at the same time we could really put up some points.

The biggest thing to remember here is that this is not like football, its not the end of the world when you lose a game. We’re still in a good position to pick a number one seed, and we should still win the SEC. Pearl will figure out high to cover up our weaknesses, and Lofton will get back to being he used to be.

“Sure are getting heavy Chris, anytime your ready to takeover just let us know”

ESPN Does it Again

Okay. I finally found something UT and Bama fans can agree on, ESPN hates Tennessee and Alabama. I’m usually not to big on the whole conspiracy that ESPN purposely favors teams over others, but recently it is hard to deny.

We’ve all seen the way they hate Saban and Alabama (who could blame them, lol). There is no doubt that they would have treated all of those stories differently if they would have occurred at other universities. Their hate for Saban actually makes me like them, so lets not talk about that.

As far as the Tennessee stuff goes, it has gotten much worse here lately. First of all there was the Outback Bowl in which the announcers completely ignored Tennessee’s existence. At one point I actually yelled at Ghost to turn it back to the Tennessee game, thinking he had turned the channel or something. For instance, they showed Tyler Donovan’s parents more than they showed Phillip Fulmer, literally, I’m not joking.

Even the sideline reporter set up shop on the Badger’s sideline for pretty much the entire ballgame, so he could tell us about the Wisconsin coaches complaining about the officiating. I think I may have heard ”helmet to helmet” more times than “football” during the game. It got so bad we seriously thought about muting the television and listening to the game on the radio, even though it would have probably been delayed.

However, they may have one-up themselves the other night when after the Tennessee - Ohio State game the announcer thought he ought to say in his closing comments out of nowhere ”this win still doesn’t change what happened last year.” Really? Did anyone say it did? ESPN then followed that with a catchy headline on their website that read, “A Year too late: Tennessee finally tops Ohio State.” WHAT IS THAT? If that is not biased, then I don’t know what is.

(Of course, this post does not apply to Chris Low. I still love you. Please come back).

An Exciting Day to be a Vol

Today a new era began for Tennessee football, Coach Clawson and his wide receivers coach Latrell Scott were finally officially announced.

From what I can tell Phillip Fulmer made a fantastic hire. Clawson is young, innovative, and runs the kind of offense that can be changed to fit our personnel. Latrell Scott is a young black man that has turned down numerous opportunities to coach at BCS schools, and is considered a great recruiter by Coach Clawson. Scott will have some pretty good players to work with at Tennessee, and he seems like a guy that knows how to get young talent on the field given the fact he had a freshman receiver that nearly had a 1000 yards recieving this past season.

On top of the announcements made today it is all but official that Arian Foster will be coming back for his senior year. Barring injury Foster will almost certainly be the all-time leading rusher in UT history, which includes many fantastic running backs (not bad for a three star that people thought was too slow to play running back at this level). I think Foster made a great move by coming back for his senior year. His draft grade was in the second round, but I think he probably would have landed much later than that because of the great junior running backs that are coming out.

I’m just glad that this thing is finally over, so we can get back to recruiting. It was no coincidence that Fulmer waited until today to announce because the recruits were in town. Hopefully the players see what I see in Clawson and decide to come to Tennessee. As he said today his goal is to win a National Title at Tennessee, and call me delusional if you want but I believe he can do it.

Video: Dave Clawson and Scott Introduced

Finally Some Good News

Most of the news coming out of Knoxville here lately has not been good to say the least. It all started with Cutcliffe leaving, and now it looks like we are probably going to lose Foster and Mayo to the draft. This news wouldn’t hurt as bad if we were bringing in one of our normal recruiting classes, but currently we sit at tenth in the SEC in recruiting, according to Rivals. However, things are starting to look up. In a couple of days Fulmer will hire an offensive coordinator, and a staff shortly after. This might help a little on the recruiting front considering players usually like to know who they will be around everyday for the next four or five years.

The recruiting season is far from over, and Tennessee will have plenty of official visits from really good players over the next month. Among these prospects there are a couple of big guys that will be huge for this class. Offensive linemen Kenneth Page and Antoine McClain will be on campus before signing day and the word is Tennessee is in front for their services. McClain is also being heavily recruited by LSU and Bama, but even Bama analysts say Tennessee is the leader at this point. If we were to sign these two guys we would fill our OL need for this class.

Antoine McClain (espn.com)

However, Tennessee also needs to land a couple linemen on the defensive side, especially at defensive tackle. Number one on my wish list right now would probably be defensive tackle Stacey McGee. McGee is a member of the Rivals 100, number six rated DT in the country, and number three rated player in the state of Oklahoma, but best of all most consider him a package deal with the number one rated player in Oklahoma and teammate, wide receiver Jameel Owens. In case you forgot, last year we pulled out two guys from the state of Oklahoma that were considered a package deal, and after the bowl game I think its pretty safe to say were pretty happy with Gerald Jones and Denarius Moore.

Jameel Owens

McGee is not by far the only defensive tackle that the Vols still have a chance at. One of the other big names on that list is Under Armor All American Brandon Thompson who just added Tennessee to his final three with Clemson and LSU. Clemson is currently in the lead, but we’ll have the last shot at changing his mind when he comes to Knoxville for an official. Thompson is listed as the number seven ranked defensive tackle in the country. Other defensive tackles headed to Knoxville for an official include Jeremy Lewis ( no. 15 rated defensive tackle, soft verbal to Miami) and Huntsville, Alabama product Jomarcus Savage (no. 40 rated defensive tackle). We should be able to land a couple of these because of our lack of depth at the position which could promise early playing time.

These linemen will be extremely important to this class considering that we landed so many skill position guys last year, and not so many up front. Our recruiting has been bad to say the least so far, but I think we could still have a pretty good class if we landed a couple of these guys.

So Close

Tennessee made a great run, and we were only a couple mistakes from completing it. We had LSU right where we wanted them, which says a lot about this football team. We just made a couple big mistakes that cost us the game. I could probably sit here and name off about ten plays that could have went a little different and Tennessee would be playing in the Sugar Bowl, but things went LSU’s way and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

I’m proud of this football team. Some Tennessee fans may not be, but this team came along way throughout the course of the season. We overcame a lot of obstacles, the biggest being the loss of five defensive backs, and we still were in the position to beat the future National Champions in the SEC Championship game. I think thats pretty impressive.

For all the people that doubted this football team, its kind of hard to doubt them now. They went up against one of the best teams in the country, the best in my opinion, and stood their ground. All that I expect them to do is give it everything they’ve got, and they did that in the Georgia Dome Saturday night and throughout the year, and for that I’m proud to be a Tennessee Vol.

Erik Ainge

I know Erik Ainge is going to get killed by the media and fans for throwing those two interceptions. There is no doubt about it his fourth quarter mistakes had a huge impact on the outcome of the game, but we never would have been there without him. Ainge never makes throws like that, he’s even so careful with the ball that it irritates me at times. Maybe the pressure got to him, but he does not receive all the blame for this loss. His receivers couldn’t get open the majority of the game causing him to have to squeeze his throws in some pretty tight spots, and Cutcliffe even admitted he didn’t help out his quarterback very much. Not to mention, if Daniel Lincoln makes one of his two missed field goals we don’t have to score in our two trips to the end zone. So the only thing to say is this was a team loss, and Ainge should be remembered for what he was, a good, at times great Tennessee quarterback.

A Trip to Remember

The trip down to Atlanta this weekend didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, but it was a great experience. We got down there about noon that way we could go to fanfare and enjoy the atmosphere. The coolest thing about Fanfare was seeing Vol great Willie Gault, who still looks like he could suit for the Vols today. As for the stadium atmosphere, one thing that we noticed not too long after we got there was Vol nation had come out in full force. For every LSU fan, there were at least three fans in orange. Because of this the stadium atmosphere was awesome. It was just a cool experience, and even though the game didn’t turn out like I hoped it would, it was great one to watch.

Volstothewall’s Live Blog of an Instant Classic

12:05-I arrive at the Ghost’s house. His house is a great place to watch a football because of his beautiful big screen HDTV, but last time I was here was the Alabama incident, so if we start losing like that again I will most definitely go home.

12:28- Almost game time. Just like every game this month, this one is the biggest game all year. Looks cold out there, which is good because we’re going to need all the help we can get to stop Woodson.

12:32- Touchdown!! First play of the game. Great call by Cutcliffe. Maybe this is going to be easier than I thought. Arian Foster continues to amaze me. He’s almost always pound for pound the strongest guy on the field, and he can also crank it up a notch when he has to in the open field.

12:40- We’ve come out hot. We’re even making plays on defense. Woodson looks very average so far.

12:41- Looks like Fulmer got himself a new jacket, looks sharp out there. Ghost said he’d like to have one just like it, size and all.

12:48- Went for it on fourth down, but didn’t make it. I like the aggressive play call, but Ainge checked down too quick to Arian Foster, and missed a wide open receiver down-field.  I like that we have a smart quarterback, but in situations like that sometimes I wish he would try to make something happen. Could have been a huge play, oh well.

12:55- Elix Wilson sacks Woodson to put them out of field goal range. Great play. Wilson looks really good. He earned some playing time by showing out in the Arkansas game, and we’re starting to see that game wasn’t a fluke. Love the blitzing strategy by Chavis. I hope he sticks with it.

12:59-  Sixty yard completion to Brad Cottam down the sideline. Sucks he hasn’t got to play more for the Vols because he’s been injured so much. I wish the NCAA would have gave him that medical redshirt, that’s a lot of speed for a man that size. In my opinion, he looks like an NFL tight end.

1:10- Wow, Chris Brown just nearly made a circus like catch. Bad throw by Ainge, but an amazing effort by Brown. Worst throw of the day by Ainge, and could have still been caught.

1:15- Eric Berry just dropped an interception, but nevertheless a great play. He’s still amazing. If they let freshmen on the all-conference team he might make it.

1:16- Daniel Lincoln comes up short on a 48 yard field goal. That would have been nice. Oh well, can’t really be mad at the guy he’s one of the best kickers in the country and he’s only a freshman. If it wasn’t cold and windy he probably would have made that one.

1:30-Touchdown Kentucky. That was way too easy. Defensive backs looked young and inexperienced on that drive. We can’t let them hang with us because eventually they are going to get on a roll.

Volstothewall’s Links for Today

 This link is for all you people that try to act like Tennessee doesn’t have the money to do whatever they want to financially. Forbes put together a list of  the most valuable college football teams. Tennessee comes in at number six, just ahead of Auburn and Alabama, which are seventh and eighth respectively.

Even though Tennessee destroyed Georgia and have won 7 out of their last 8 games, LSU is rooting for Tennessee this weekend. That is bulletin board material if I’ve ever heard it.

Check out the uncut version of Saban’s press conference over at EDSBS.com.

Track em Tigers, an Auburn blog, ask the question “Is Saturday’s Iron Bowl a Must Win for Saban” I would say no, but its an interesting read.

The Montgomery Advertiser talks with Alabama’s veteran players who are desperate for a win in the Iron Bowl.

Wesley Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press says that pressure on the quarterback will be key for the Vols against Kentucky.

Two Teams Heading in Opposite Directions

 

Let me start off by saying this is the craziest year of college football I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe that the Vols are one win away from going to the SEC Championship Game after playing like they did earlier on the season. It wasn’t as pretty as the wins over Georgia and Arkansas, but we’ll take it. Vandy put up a good fight, and one thing is for sure they’re not the pushovers they used to be.

I was pretty mad about the game being on pay-per-view, but I figured that Vandy might give us a good game, so it was worth the thirty dollars. Lucky for me Comcast wouldn’t answer my calls, (possibly because of all the hate mail they get from me because they refuse to offer SportsSouth with their basic package) so I didn’t get to watch the first half. Probably a good thing considering Tennessee came out flat, most likely due to everyone expecting them to actually play good. Luckily in the second half I checked the message boards, and some guy posted a link to watch the game online for free (I love that guy, apparently this site shows all of ESPN Gameplan’s games). Thankfully I got to see the better half of a great game.

Former Lincoln County Falcon, Theo Horrocks, nearly killed the Vols hopes of making it to the SEC Championship by blocking an extra point.

I was happy with what I saw from the Vols, at least in the second half. Ainge fittingly stepped up on Senior Day and showed why its nice to have an experienced quarterback in games decided in the fourth quarter. Most people were probably blasting him at halftime because his inability to get things going on offense, but he proved everyone wrong in the second half.

I didn’t quite understand our offensive game plan. For some reason we passed the ball more than we ran it, even though its obvious we’re a better team when we run the football. Hopefully Cutcliffe knows something I don’t. I’ll trust his judgement, as long as we win. However, the running game was good once again when they fed the rock to Foster. He continues to impress with his ability to get tough yards and catch the ball out of the backfield.

Most importantly the defense stepped up when they had to in the fourth quarter, forcing four straight three and outs to close the game. Vanderbilt had a lot to do with that because they decided to get really conservative, but Tennessee’s defense showed a lot of heart in the fourth quarter. Even more amazing they managed to shut down Earl Bennett.

All of those other things helped get us in position to win the game, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the special teams play of Dennis Rogan. This kid is amazing. Usually Tennessee just wants their punt returner to catch the ball, but this guy is phenomenal back there. His punt return got us in field goal range, which turned out to be the game winner. On the kicking team he even made a big play when he forced the returner out of bounds just outside of field goal range despite having three blockers in his way.

Some people may get mad about Vandy almost beating us, but I want be one of those people. Winning is the only thing that is important at this point. As Ainge said this is the playoffs and we advanced through the quarterfinals. We should just be proud we survived another week against a pretty decent Vandy team. 

As for Alabama losing to Lousiana Monroe thats just embarrassing. Embarrassing for Alabama mostly, but also for the SEC and every team they beat. Everyone is going to blame JPW or Shula for recruiting bad players, but it takes a team effort to get beat by the Warhawks, and that includes St. Nick. I’m not saying that Saban is a bad coach, that is obviously not the case, but coaches should be held accountable when their team doesn’t show up to play. I didn’t see the game, along with most everybody else, so I can’t do my usual insightful breakdown of the game, but I think 21-14 and 6-5 pretty much says it all (41-17 I know, its embarrassing).

These two teams are heading in very different directions right now, a BCS bowl is still in sight for the Vols and the Tide may not even get a bowl bid. Things have changed so much since the Third Saturday in October. After that game I think most people thought this scenario would be reversed. Obviously both of these teams have a bright future, but for the Vols the present isn’t looking too bad. I like where we’re at, Kentucky looks very beatable, and LSU doesn’t look as strong as they did early on in the season. If this season has taught us one thing it is, anything is possible.

Pictures from espn.com

Taking a Turn to Negative Town: Letter to Fulmer

During some casual conversation over some Arkansas hog earlier this week, 3SIB’s Ghost of Neyland and Rocky Top Talk’s Joel struck up the subject of negative media. It seems that Phillip Fulmer, Jerod Mayo, Demonte Bolden and the boys got their boxers in a knot over the entire free world questioning that they could shut down Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.

Well, what did the Vols do?

They went out and manhandled the tandem. Don’t let DMac’s 117 yards fool you. That game was controlled by the Big Defiant Orange Defense.

So, rather than give them written french kisses, Joel and Ghost decided to badmouth the Vols to no end. So, basically just disregard everything from the previous post by Ghost, because from here on out, he’s going to absolutely wax ridiculous against the Vols. Joel’s already started things over at Rocky Top Talk and we here at 3SIB, of course, will comply. We’ll do anything for the rest of the year if it means a repeat performance of the Georgia and Arkansas games.

So, without further adieu, VolstotheWall will get the Vol-bashing off to a resounding start. Enjoy. (And, um, UT, this better work. We’ve been wanting to compliment you guys all year. But we feel it’s essential to try the reverse psychology on you guys.) So, Go Big Orange! I mean, Go to Heck Big Orange!! Or, something like that.

Dear Phillip,

I have to admit I doubted you could get the job done anymore. Who could blame me? I sat in the stands at the Swamp and watched our team become gator bait in the second half? Then I watched them get blown out by UAT, after believing they had turned things around?

Nevertheless, a lot of things have changed since that “incident” in the ghetto, and again I think you may have this team back on the right track. I’m not even sure those first couple of losses were completely your fault anymore. All the injuries to the secondary sure didn’t help things any. We made JPW look like a good SEC quarterback, for crying out loud. I understand its hard to plan for that many injuries and dropouts at one position when there are only so many scholarships to go around.

On the other hand, Chavis should have made better adjustments to help out the younger players, but thats not your fault. However, there is one thing I don’t understand, why was I wrong for doubting you and this team? I still haven’t got over those two losses to Florida and Bama, and I still am not completely sold on you being able to keep this team at the top of the SEC.

I still support this team, and that includes you, too. You’re the only coach I can even remember being at Tennessee. You brought this team to the top, and I could never forget that. I may still doubt this team sometimes, but I won’t pick them to lose, and that includes LSU. I doubted you because every time I thought we could get back to the top, we lost. I think thats understandable. You and your players call out the media every week because they doubted your team, why? Are you just using the media to pump up your players? If thats the case then thats okay.

Considering we’re a MAJOR part of the media covering Tennessee football, here at 3SIB, we’ll play along, even if we think you’ve turned this team around. If you need bulletin board material, you got it.

 

Tennessee Hasn’t Changed Much

Phillip Fulmer hasn’t proved anything, yet. This is still the same team that quit against Florida in the second half, got their butts handed to them by Alabama, and wasn’t ever really ready to play against Cal. Sure we’ve stepped up here lately and won a couple of games, so what. Each of the teams we beat are games we should have won.

John Chavis still can’t coach either. Wow, he was able to stop a one-demisional offense thats impressive. He even said himself that it was the simplest defensive gameplan he has used since he became the defensive coordinator at Tennessee. It was the same with the Ragin Cajuns, whose quarterback’s throwing ability compares to likes of Johnny Damon and my mom, and not to mention they’re one of the worst teams in college football. South Carolina couldn’t throw the ball in the first half because of Chris Smelley, and then they put Blake Mitchell and lit up Chavis’s defense up. So before UT starts bragging about all the improvements they’ve made, maybe they should stop someone with a quarterback.

Even though we’ve won a couple games here lately you can’t give much credit to our offense. Erik Ainge is doing his best Kelly Washington impersonation. Montario Hardesty is trying his best to win the Steve McNair toughness award, but Lucas Taylor is nipping at his heels. The freshman standouts Lennon Creer, Denarious Moore, and Gerald Jones have not lived up to the hype. They all had good games against terrible teams. Every time they see the field against the big boys they haven’t done much of anything. The offensive line has been good, but thats largely in part to Ainge’s NFLitus and Cutcliffe refusing to throw a pass beyond ten yards.

This Tennessee team has yet to prove anything other than that know how to get blown out by their biggest rivals. I don’t know what it is. The talent is there, but the heart isn’t I guess. We shouldn’t be thinking about making to the SEC Championship game, until this team beats Vandy, which I doubt will happen.