Vols’ Fulmer: “We need our edge back”

By Darrell Laurant  |   Friday, March 03, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Tennessee Volunteers
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Perhaps the most often-asked question at the end of the 2005 college football season involved the University of Tennessee; it was a short and simple one.

What happened?

Regarded as a possible national championship contender -- or at the very least, a BCS bowl team -- the Tennessee Volunteers struggled early in the season and collapsed at the end, finishing 5-6 and spending the bowl season at home.

Needless to say, the large and vocal Rocky Top crowd was less than thrilled. Head coach Philip Fulmer was a frequent target of blame, along with offensive coordinator Ricky Sanders (who was made the sacrificial lamb and fired), quarterback Rick Clausen (six touchdown passes, six interceptions), the offensive line (for not protecting Clausen), RB Gerald Riggs Jr. (underachieving and often injured), the astrological signs and the Almighty.

"It was rare, certainly, that we did not play up to the standards that we established here," said Fulmer earlier this week at the beginning of spring practice.

The operative term during the offseason was "damage control." When Sanders exited, former OC David Cutcliffe was brought back from the University of Mississippi. Game film was dissected, put back together and dissected again.

"Everything's been reviewed and looked at," said Fulmer. "Certainly, we have to find and grow our leadership. We need to get our edge back."

On closer examination, the first half of UT's 2005 season -- while disappointing -- wasn't all that bad. Red flags did go up when Fulmer's team only beat Alabama-Birmingham 17-10 in its opener, and a subsequent 16-7 loss to arch-rival Florida was a definite setback. But the Vols then knocked off LSU in Baton Rouge, 30-27 in overtime and beat Ole Miss convincingly. The offense sputtered again in a 27-14 loss to Georgia and took the day off against Alabama (6-3, Tide). Then things got ugly, with losses to South Carolina as well as Vanderbilt and a brutal beating (41-21) at the hands of Notre Dame.

Early on, the Tennessee staff rotated Clausen and Erik Ainge at quarterback in a desperate attempt to get the offense going. Amateur psychologists among the UT faithful saw that ploy as wrecking the confidence of both players. Nor did it help when defensive leader Jason Allen suffered a season-ending hip injury midway.

But that's all in the rear view mirror now, and Fulmer said: "I can't remember being more eager about a spring practice since my days as a player."

If nothing else, the Vols may have scored some good karma in 2005. The team generously agreed to fly back from LSU without spending the night so as not to displace a Holiday Inn Select full of Katrina refugees. In appreciation, the hotel chain later sent a $10,000 check to the UT athletic department.

Moreover, Erik Ainge is back at QB, minus Clausen. But which Erik Ainge -- the kid who threw 17 touchdown passes as a freshman or the Erik Ainge whose five scoring tosses in 2005 were trumped by seven interceptions? Part of the mystery might be physical -- apparently, Ainge suffered from a severe case of turf toe last season that limited his mobility.

Redshirt freshman Jonathan Crompton is being groomed as the QB of the future, but some of the more irreverent Tennessee fans would probably love to see the emergence of another Volunteers quarterback with arguably the greatest name in college football -- Jim Bob Cooter.

Sophomore Arian Foster will be the feature running back, having benefited from extensive 2005 playing time while Riggs was hurt. Trooper Taylor has been shuffled from running backs coach to receiver coach, where his job is to figure out how the entire pass-catching corps only managed to gain 987 yards and score seven times (an off-year for most individual Florida receivers). Leading returning wideout Robert Meachem and speedy Lucas Taylor (the Vols' return man as a freshman) will be the keys.

The Tennessee Volunteers defense performed heroically last fall until it finally buckled under the weight of injuries and the strain of spending so much time on the field. Then graduation took a major toll, but Fulmer sees LB Justin Harrell, DT Turk McCoy and DB Antwan Stewart as a promising core group.

Fulmer knows that another season like 2005 will mean a mandatory career change. And that the Southeastern Conference and the Tennessee alumni are unforgiving.
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