Vols Recruiting Efforts Filling Its Needs?

Lets look and see if we are filling needs.

Not many of the guys that the Vols are thought to be gettting are going to contribute right away. In fact, none of them are expected to contribute immediately. Thats a good thing, but in light of a 5-6 seaqson can be seen as a bad thing too. Are these guys we are bringing in not capable of upgrading the depth or in some cases the starting player at a position(that is really not fair to the incoming player).

QUARTERBACK
We have a 2 year starting QB returning and an inexperienced red-shirt freshman returning. Behind them are a group of non-factor QBs providing depth.

*Commitments: Nick Stephens. Stephens should provide depth in the case of an injury/transfer to either Ainge or Crompton. He could even move to the forefront if both QBs prove to be ineffective next season. Good job in filling a big need.

RUNNINGBACK
We return mostly players coming off of surgery/injuries. We do not have one premier runningback returning healthy. Foster will return from shoulder surgery. Coker also will be retunring from shoulder surgery. We should not count on Montario Hardesty to contribute at all. He had reconstructive surgery on his knee. That is a 1-2 year recovery period. Yancey is not in the mix.

*Commitments: Dustin Lindsey. Can't say that I am excited by this. Lindsey is said to be a good athlete but is not a prime time tailback that you would expect at UT. The Vols have failed miserably in filling this [b]huge[/b] need. Phil Fulmer laid an egg here.

WIDE RECEIVER
We return about everyone. We don't have immediate needs at WR. We need more help in coaching them than we do in filling talent voids. We will likely lose several members of this group after next season. Bret Smith and Jayson Swain will be seniors. Meachem will be a redshirt junior, but could leave. Something for him to think about is that the 2007 drafft will be LOADED with great talent at WR. If he is not one of the top 5 or so, he will cost himself millions of dollars by coming out for ther 2007 draft. The Vols will need a lot of help at WR after the 2006 season. There will not be any top WRs left after 2006 season(unlless meachem stays). This a depth and development need position.

*Committments: Brett Vinson, a speed merchant, Stephaun Raines, another speed guy, and Quenton Hancock. We get some youthful speed. Vinson is the most highly rated of this group. Still we don not land the best players in the land as we have in recent years. I wonder why? We fill depth needs adequately.

TIGHT END
We have three tight ends on the roster. Chris Brown and the Cottam brothers. The way we use our tight end, these gusy are a waste of talent. Brown does nothing but make big plays when he is thrown to. However, we might as well play offensive tackles at tight end. We are as apt and proficient at using the tight end in our offense as a lesbian is at using a penis.

*Commitments: Three...count them...one...two...three tight ends. Lee Smith, son of former Vol Darryl Smith may be a more along the lines of a Jason Witten in size, agility, and speed. Michael Goggans has been a UT commitment for a long time and may bail to Auburn. Luke Stoker is another long time commitment. These guys may be very good. However, to sign and keep them at tight end is flat out stupid as hell. Now, if these guys are being brought in with the idea of moving them to defensive end or in a fullback capacity, then fine. Otherwise...we over-filled a position with ZERO need.

OFFENSIVE LINE
Few offensive linemen contribute during their freshman season at UT. FNGs on the OL are expected to beef up and learn the roles of all positions on the OL. Fulmer has long believed in the ability for all linemen to be interchangable. I have to say, I agree wiith his philosophy there. While every player may not be suitable for each position, it is still good for them to know each others roles, steps, and responsibility.

*Commitments: Jacques McClendon, Ramone Johnson, Cody Pope, and Darius Meyers. McClendon is supposed to be a beast. The others are solid depth down the road. Outside of McClendon or Johnson, we did not bring in a man-child who can be dominant in line play. Still a solid filling of depth needs.

DEFENSIVE LINE
We will lose several defensive linemen next year, after losing several top players this year. There are some top signees from a year ago, waiting to contribute. Still you can never get enough top talent on the DL. We also get JT Mapu back. How effective will he be after a two year absence?

*Commitments: Victor Thomas, Walter Fisher, Jarrod Shaw, Chase Nelson, Blake Garretson. Fisher was a beast in high school. However, it remains to be seen how good of a group this is. They are reportedly solid players, but this is not a group that blow you away on paper. The Vols have been good at developing defensive linemen in recent years. Is this quantity over quality? It remains to be seen.

LINEBACKER
We lose a lot at linebacker this year.We will count on several inexperienced young ment to step up and take over at linebacker. Last years class was filled with good talent. We have to hope they live up to their billings.

*Commitments:LaMar Thompson and Dorian Davis. None inspire fans to beat their chests and get excited over. We still may bring in a couple of more good guys. I'm not so sure we adequately filled our needs here. Part of that pictures reamins cloudy until the young underclassmen show what they are capable of doing.

DEFENSIVE BACK
This is the most experienced and best part of the team IMHO. Not a lot of voids or depth issues. We are deep, experienced at DB.

*Commitments: Justin Garrett. Depth not an issue. Its always good to have more athletes onboard.

KICKERS
We return both Wilhoit and Colquitt. I am not sold on Colquitt. He is very inconsistant. If a better punter is available, bring him onboard. Wilhoit has one year remaining, so bringing in a kicker to mature and develop is important.

*Commitments: Chad Cunningham and Daniel Lincoln. I don't know anything about these two guys. If one can firstly, push Colquitt, and secondly kick under pressure, then great. You never know what you get with kickers sometimes. Can't say thumbs up or down here.

OVERALL
We are not bringing in many if any true impact players. As mentioned earlier, that is both good and bad. You would hope you would bring in a couple of guys who can contribute some play-making abilities immediately or at sometime in their freshman season. The closest we probably have in that reagrds will be Brett Vinson. Phil Fulmer is now reaping in recruiting from what he has sown on the coaching and managin end of the UT football program. The top players blew Fulmer off very early on this season. The top prospects did not view UT as a good place to showcase their talents and develop their skills.

The Vols will sign mostly a class of solid players who will be regarded as depth for the future. We were able to fill some numbers in regards to dpeth, but we did not fill the quality needs of our depth to the level we have grown accustomed to. We have not kept pace with the jobs that Florida, Georgia, LSU, and Auburn have done in recruiting and playing on the field. Those programs are taking two steps forward while we have taken two steps backwards. We will see the results of these trends and movements in the coming years. I hope that I can be proven wrong in time, but using the past 7 seasons as a barometer, I have little faith in that becoming a reality.

Uncovering The Fulmer Urban Legend

The legend of Phil Fulmer has been very overblown. Fulmer did earn a National Championship. There was a lot of luck that helped the team, but a team has to get a few breaks in most cases in order to win a championship. Outside of that special season, Fulmer really has not done much. In fact, it can be said that he has grossly underachieved in most seasons prior to and after the 1998 dream season.

"It's a game, and our staff trying to overthink with less than steller IQ's is as absurd as it gets. Fulmer has wasted most of his HC'ing career trying so hard "not to blow it", he has seen teams with two and three times the talent...eek by and get blasted when the talent was even or close...by guys that went out and played the game the way it was meant to be played. He has been schooled by all "schools of ball" Florida's finesse and the Huskers brute and some of the in between lately from Auburn and UGA."

SCV leaves little doubt that Phil Fulmer has been asleep at the wheel for the past 7 seasons and this past disastrous 2005 season is a direct result of Fulmer trying to get by with the bare minimum and a headful of arrogance.

"Fulmer is the classic "technician" that thinks the "whole" is just a sum of the inputs. It explains why he values pure talent so much and has absolutely "no football personality" to think of. He does not understand or believe in the "intangables", like psychology and a true philosophy. And why the great coaches and leaders can "drop their "franchise" into any program and hit the ground running. Read "the E Myth" and the analogy of the "pie lady"... fits Fulmer to a tee, he does not see or understand the value in true systems (sure you tweek to compensate for change), and thinks all problems are fixed by just "working harder/putting in more hours" doing more of the same stuff that was not working in the first place. The business world is full of these types...running head on into bankruptcy...of course Phil has a "rich uncle" (the UTAD) that keeps writing him blank checks...and letting him take a huge compensation...when the financials are falling apart. He is burning equity that Neyland and Dickey earned....and is arrogant enough to think it is his...if the UTAD is dumb enough to keep him afloat, more power to him."

The UTAD can not continue to pass the buck and make ends meet. Another poor season will force UTAD, Mike Hamilton's hand. The ovine-like fans will no longer be able to continue making excuses for a coach who's bulb does not burn as brightly as some fans seem to think.

Manning Shows His Ass

Manning shows his a$$?

Peyton Manning was a great Volunteer and arguably the best passing QB to ever play in the NFL. I have nothing but respect for his abilities on the field.

Manning dissed and embarrassed his coach on national TV and then pointed the finger of blame at his offensive line in the post game interview. That's were I draw the line of respect for Manning. That's right out of the Pac Man Jones playbook of excuses.

In the post-game interview he stated he wanted to be a good team mate, but that the Colts had several breakdowns in pass protection. He credited the Steelers for their pass rush but again stated that their were numerous pass protection breakdowns by his team mates.

There were some protection breakdowns on the part of his team mates, but you don't call them out and point fingers at them in post-game interviews on national TV. Its not like every pass he threw today was a good pass.

As far as the dissing of his coach, the shake off of the punt team turned out work fine for the Colts. However, Manning could have called a time out to discuss it with Dungy. The way he handled it, made Tony Dungy look like a total imbecile."

The Forgotten Tight End At UT

Everyone knows that the tight end is the most overlooked position in the University of Tennessee football offensive scheme. The Vols use of the tight end is the biggest waste of scholarships and talent known to collegiate football. We might as well just play another offensive tackle at the position.

In the past, some fans have questioned the wasteful use of the position by Phil Fulmer. His apologists always retorted that the Vols tight ends were not talented enough for the Vols to use consistently in the Vols passing game or they would say that if we had anyone as talented as Jason Witten that we could then and only then feature the tight end prominently in our offense.

Look at the other teams around the country at all levels of football and how they use the tight end in intricate ways other than as an extra blocker. Most teams force the opponent to account for the tight end and make them guard him with a safety or linebacker. Phil Fulmer is content to allow our opponents to cover our tight end with a defensive tackle and allow the other team's defense to let the free man roam the field to make plays unobstructed. Do all of the other collegiate teams in the nation have better talent at tight end than UT? Or are the other coaches just more offensively opened minded and smart enough to fully utilize the entire field?

The Vols have landed some decent tight ends in the recruiting wars in recent years. Chris Jackson is a potential devastating weapon on offense, but is more under-used than John Daly's 3 wood. Then you have the two Cottam brothers. Are other teams' tight ends that much better than ours that we refuse to use them in a way that benefits our offense?

Knowing this, we are recruiting several high school tight ends. Some of them project to be defensive ends or linebackers. For the ones who look to play tight end, why would they trust Phil Fulmer's word that UT will use the tight end in the future? He's been saying that for years and we have only known what the word "tight end" actually means in two of the years. If you look in the University of Tennessee official dictionary, next to word "tight end" it says see picture and one can see a photo of an offensive tackle. Some one is very confused.

College Football At Its Finest - Rose Bowl As Good As It Gets

The Rose Bowl was as good as advertised and was as good as it geets in regards to collegiate football. It was like watching Thomas Hearns and Marvelous Marvin Hagler throwing haymakers at one another for four quarters.

Pete Carrroll and Mack Brown are both to applauded. Both coaches came into this game and showcased more talent than some NFL teams. I honestly have never seen more football talent on one football field in gone game.

What is even more impressive and astounding is that each of those players were allowed to utilize every ounce of God-given talent that they had to the fullest degree. Pete Carroll and Mack Brown did not stymie, stifle, or hold back their players. No, the two great coaches knew they were riding stud thoroughbred horses and let them play the game to the best of their abilities. As a result we witnessed the greatest national championship game in the history of college football. There were no losers in that game. They all played like champions and they all were allowed to play at the optimum level of their skills.

How many other coaches, if they had the chance to coach such talent, would have let the players let it all hang out? How many coaches would have tried to oversteer and hold the players back? How many coaches would have taken such talent and try and grind the game down and hope for winning a close game at the end? That is exactly why Carroll and Brown have taken their respective teams to the natiional title game and why other have not.

We saw the difference in what good coaches do with great talent. They find a way to put such talent in a position where they can best utilize their skills, strength, and speed without trying to slow them down because you arre afraid of losing control. It is also a reason why many of these young men chose to attend those school-because they knew they would be given the opportunty to fully showcase their unique skills. We saw what happens when good talent is allowed to play all out with no one holding them back. Its an exciting brand of football. I'll never forget it, because it is rare that two coaches with so much talent and with so much at stake do what they are supposed to do....let their players showcase their talents and play the game to win - not play the game and hope you are in position to win.