Neo
09-01-2006, 08:42 AM
http://www.sectalk.com/boards/images/logos/Tennessee.gifUnless Tennessee makes run in SEC, coach may not be around long.
By: Matt Hayes
Sporting News
It's only one game, right? Forget that. It's the season.
"We're starting to figure out what kind of team we're going to be," Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge says.
They'll have no question after this weekend.
Say what you want about the Vols' meltdown last season.
Blame it on coaches or players or karma, but understand this: The season opener against championship-caliber California will define this season -- and coach Phil Fulmer's shaky future at his alma mater.
Win and the road to redemption suddenly is smoother. Lose and …
"I don't think about things like that," Fulmer says. "My job is to get this team playing like it should."
And therein lies the problem. Tennessee hasn't played to its potential in years -- since a gutty, opportunistic team won the national title in 1998. In the seven seasons since, off-field problems and incidents of on-field underachievement have outnumbered championships by, say, 2,000 to 0.
If it were just the first loss to Vanderbilt in 23 years or the first losing season in 17 years or yet another loss to Steve Spurrier, last year's 5-6 finish would be a hiccup for a guy who has done too much to be pushed out the door for one bad season. But for the first time in the history of coaching (sarcasm, everyone), it's not all about wins and losses.
It's about the personality of a team, a program and its leader. Tennessee's problems aren't about X's and O's -- although the rehiring of assistant David Cutcliffe will energize the offense -- they're about the Jimmys and Joes and their inability to stay off the police blotter.
Problems off the field eventually filter their way onto it. Before last season, during an offseason in which eight players were arrested or cited, Fulmer publicly ripped his team for spending more time in Central Booking than Central American studies. Then came the 5-6 disaster, and after another arrest and incident this spring, Fulmer went ballistic and threw water bottles in a team meeting.
Three months later, three more players had been arrested. Look, every team goes through problems with wayward players. The difference is, Fulmer twice warned his team -- and each time the warning failed to sink in.
That is the sign of a coach losing his team.
Fulmer has made surface changes; you know, the kind that appease fat-cat boosters, high-level administrators and message board nuts. He fired two assistant coaches and pushed out a third. He even brought back Cutcliffe to run the offense and, more important, to instill some semblance of discipline and order.
Everything, they say, is big and orange and beautiful again. "We've grown a lot from last season," tackle Arron Sears says. "We've changed as a team, our mentality, our focus."
Don't bet on it. This team hasn't dealt with adversity yet. The Vols are one bad game against one good team from this season looking a lot like 2005. That team, Cal, and that game are days away.
This weekend is the season for Tennessee. The confidence and emotion that would come from a victory over an elite nonconference opponent could be enough to change the course of a team and a coach headed for a divorce.
That, or the dejection and deflation of loss could morph into the undoing of Fulmer and the Vols.
"I've always looked at myself by nature as an optimist," Fulmer says. "But I'm also certainly a realist."
The reality is, the meter started ticking long ago.
© 2006 Sporting News
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14609897/
By: Matt Hayes
Sporting News
It's only one game, right? Forget that. It's the season.
"We're starting to figure out what kind of team we're going to be," Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge says.
They'll have no question after this weekend.
Say what you want about the Vols' meltdown last season.
Blame it on coaches or players or karma, but understand this: The season opener against championship-caliber California will define this season -- and coach Phil Fulmer's shaky future at his alma mater.
Win and the road to redemption suddenly is smoother. Lose and …
"I don't think about things like that," Fulmer says. "My job is to get this team playing like it should."
And therein lies the problem. Tennessee hasn't played to its potential in years -- since a gutty, opportunistic team won the national title in 1998. In the seven seasons since, off-field problems and incidents of on-field underachievement have outnumbered championships by, say, 2,000 to 0.
If it were just the first loss to Vanderbilt in 23 years or the first losing season in 17 years or yet another loss to Steve Spurrier, last year's 5-6 finish would be a hiccup for a guy who has done too much to be pushed out the door for one bad season. But for the first time in the history of coaching (sarcasm, everyone), it's not all about wins and losses.
It's about the personality of a team, a program and its leader. Tennessee's problems aren't about X's and O's -- although the rehiring of assistant David Cutcliffe will energize the offense -- they're about the Jimmys and Joes and their inability to stay off the police blotter.
Problems off the field eventually filter their way onto it. Before last season, during an offseason in which eight players were arrested or cited, Fulmer publicly ripped his team for spending more time in Central Booking than Central American studies. Then came the 5-6 disaster, and after another arrest and incident this spring, Fulmer went ballistic and threw water bottles in a team meeting.
Three months later, three more players had been arrested. Look, every team goes through problems with wayward players. The difference is, Fulmer twice warned his team -- and each time the warning failed to sink in.
That is the sign of a coach losing his team.
Fulmer has made surface changes; you know, the kind that appease fat-cat boosters, high-level administrators and message board nuts. He fired two assistant coaches and pushed out a third. He even brought back Cutcliffe to run the offense and, more important, to instill some semblance of discipline and order.
Everything, they say, is big and orange and beautiful again. "We've grown a lot from last season," tackle Arron Sears says. "We've changed as a team, our mentality, our focus."
Don't bet on it. This team hasn't dealt with adversity yet. The Vols are one bad game against one good team from this season looking a lot like 2005. That team, Cal, and that game are days away.
This weekend is the season for Tennessee. The confidence and emotion that would come from a victory over an elite nonconference opponent could be enough to change the course of a team and a coach headed for a divorce.
That, or the dejection and deflation of loss could morph into the undoing of Fulmer and the Vols.
"I've always looked at myself by nature as an optimist," Fulmer says. "But I'm also certainly a realist."
The reality is, the meter started ticking long ago.
© 2006 Sporting News
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14609897/