That was pretty spot-on. Crompton did have a couple WTF moments, ie throwing 5 feet short OR 5 feet high several times. I was waiting to hear "Josh Nunes, please report to the UT locker room, Josh Nunes". He was there with Breahaut and they'll both be suited up at Neyland next year.

There's gonna be a lot of names from both teams going way early in the draft (Berry, Foster, Embree, Harwell, Verner). Can't wait for next year's game already.

9/2/2008 2:51:45 PM

Berry leaving after his sophomore year? haha

9/2/2008 2:53:06 PM

haha I meant drafts. Embree is a Freshman, he made that crazy catch on 3 and long during the late TD drive. He's gonna be real good.

9/2/2008 3:08:41 PM

Article pretty much sums up my thoughts exactly:

Quote :

" The fervent Tennessee fan base barely had time to embrace the long awaited season with open arms on Monday night before it was reduced to a befuddled mass of disappointed Orange-clad supporters searching for answers. Few seasons have started with this much anticipation, and few have caused this much consternation after one loss. Tuesday was mostly about hand-wringing, finger-pointing and a general outpouring of frustration from a group of fans who never saw a 27-24 overtime loss to UCLA coming. Now though it's time to pick up the pieces, sift through the rubble and see if we can put things in perspective. In no way am I trying to sugarcoat Monday's loss, it was brutal, embarrassing for the Vols and a supreme let down for those looking for a sterling debut from the new-look Tennessee offense. But where do the Vols go from here, what were the main problems on Monday, and can those problems be fixed. Quick Offensive Thoughts For starters, I think we can all agree that the offense never got in a rhythm on the night, especially in the second half. There's plenty of blame to go around for that, but from my perspective one of the most puzzling aspects of the night was the playcalling on second down. The Vols had 28 second down plays in the game. On 17 of the 28 the call was a passing play. Obviously, situations like distance and the clock influence that, but several times--six times actually--Tennessee threw the ball on second-and-6 or less. I'm sure that the defense dictated that to a certain degree with it's own set, but that just doesn't seem like the best way to help a new starting quarterback on the road. That's doubly true given the success Tennessee had running the football. It's been pointed out over and over again in the since the game went final but the most mystifying element of the loss to me was that the Vols rushed for 177 yards (5.2 yards per carry) to a paltry 30 yards on the ground for the Bruins and lost. That's not the type of thing you see happen to Phillip Fulmer's team as a rule and it's something that I bet has caused the head coach considerable consternation in the last 24 hours. Typically, if Tennessee is able to consistently move you on the line of scrimmage, it's going to be a long day. To see the Vols not press that advantage was a bit mystifying. With the way Tennessee was running the football, and with the trouble the Bruins were giving Crompton on third-down, both he and the offense could have benefitted from a few more third-and-twos instead of third-and-six. Down and distance at times certainly contributed to UCLA being able to pin its ears back and come with plenty of extra people in obvious passing situations. Offensively, the bright spot is the ground game and the success it had against what was at least a solid Bruin defense. That's something to build on. Crompton has to play better simply from an accuracy standpoint that's obvious, but he's also got to get more help from the staff in terms of putting him in situations to be successful. This may be a minority opinion, but I'll be surprised if you don't see significant improvement from Crompton in his next start. Clawson should have a much better feel for what his team's strengths are after this week, and it's hard to imagine that film study won't lead the coaches to believe that the run-pass-ratio (48-28 in favor of the pass on Monday) needs to be adjusted. Personally, the over-riding lesson I took from the opener is that the run game is there, ride it, especially with a new quarterback taking over under center. Defensive Thoughts On the defensive side of the ball it's hard to imagine how things went so wrong in the second half. Kevin Craft looked like a bewildered first-time starter in the first half while throwing four interceptions, and then he morphed into Joe Montana circa 1989 in the second half. Heading into this one I thought the Vols' secondary vs. Craft was the biggest advantage Tennessee had. That looked like pure genius at halftime, not so much in the second half. How much were the defensive backs hamstrung by the scheme though? Tennessee was victimized time and time again by quick-hitting patterns in the second half, with Craft going almost exclusively to a three-step drop. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a football coach, but it didn't appear that the defense ever made an adjustment to consistently take away those short slants and quick-hitters to the tight end. It looked like more often than not the Vols were content to give up a soft cushion and try to keep things in front of them. That's understandable when your up a couple of scores, but this one was tight and it was apparent early on in the second half that Craft was a different player and UCLA was working with a different game plan. I'm not advocating that you get up in a receivers face on every down, but if you can't play a little bump-and-run with Eric Berry and Demetrice Morley in centerfield...well, I'm not sure what the criteria would be. The pass rush could have been better--the Vols sacked Craft only once--but the front four generated consistent heat in the first half. The move of going to the short drops largely rendered them ineffective in the second half though. Though there's no way to overlook the Bruins' final touchdown drive to take the lead, trying to look at things objectively I probably saw more to like about the defense than to be seriously troubled by going forward. Forcing four turnovers, turning one of those into a touchdown and holding the opponent to 30 yards rushing should be enough to get it done on most nights, so in my mind, it's hard to pin this one on the defense despite the late UCLA drive. This is a long way from the most formidable offense Tennessee will face however, and you can bet some SEC coordinators left Monday's game wondering if they couldn't attack the Vols by spreading them out and throwing it quickly. Odds and Ends Our frequent guest Doug Mathews made a couple of comments last week in Chalk Talk that proved to be prophetic. In assessing the upset potential of the match-up Mathews said: "We may not get anything in our return game, but we can't give UCLA anything there. We don't have to have a big special teams play to win, but UCLA does need one. "The other part of it is, and this goes right back to last year's first two losses. Untimely turnovers on offense, they have to eliminate that. We were a good team overall last year at protecting the ball, but one of the reasons why we lost at Cal and at Florida was because we gave them seven points while we were on offense." As it turned out, the Vols committed both the sins Mathews warned about. Take out either the blocked punt for a touchdown for the Bruins or Arian Foster's fumble on the five-yard line going in and the outcome is almost certainly different. I'm not interested in throwing any stones at Foster. He's a stand-up young man and a quality SEC-tailback, but he's also shown himself to be snakebitten by the fumbling problem in key spots in his career. That just can't be debated anymore. With Hardesty healthy and running with authority, you have to wonder if the staff doesn't weigh that fumble heavily. The special teams weren't a negative in terms of coverage, and there were some definite positives with Gerald Jones in the return game, but that punt block almost certainly influenced Fulmer's decision to trot Daniel Lincoln out to try a couple of 50+ yard field goals when attempting to punt the Bruins deep might have been the more prudent call. It goes without saying that the protection and Chad Cunningham's routine need to speed up. Both are fixable issues. Final Thoughts There's no way to paint Monday's loss as anything but a huge disappointment. At the same time though it doesn't doom the season to any degree. Tennessee has two weeks to get better and nearly three weeks to prepare for the ultimate test when Florida comes to town. The Tennessee team that played on Monday night probably doesn't have a chance to stay on the field with the Gators. Call me crazy, but I think there is a Tennessee team in there somewhere capable of competing in the SEC East. Whether or not the coaches can find that team in short order though is the million dollar question. "

9/3/2008 7:39:55 PM

just talked to my buddy in Knoxville and he sold all his tickets yesterday ahhaha. Tennessee is better than they showed Monday, but they'll probably start the season 2-4 unless they get it together in a hurry.

9/3/2008 11:28:50 PM

oh yeah, they will almost definitely be 2-4, first 6 games, lost one already, 3 of the opponents left are in the top 10:

loss to UCLA
lose to Florida
lose to Georgia
lose to Auburn
win vs. UAB
win vs. N. Illinois

9/3/2008 11:34:53 PM

Quote :

"The University of Connecticut has agreed to play a two-year football series with the University of Tennessee in 2015 and 2016 with the first game at Rentschler Field and the second contest at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. The contest in East Hartford between the Huskies and Volunteers will take place on Sept. 26, 2015 while the rematch will be in Knoxville on Sept. 3, 2016."

Why would your boys slum it up in East Hartford first? Now they can't even buy out the return trip...

9/4/2008 3:29:07 PM

yeah, cause they would look to buy out of that

9/4/2008 3:46:18 PM

well, at least Fulmer isnt being his normal "aw shucks you win some, you lose some" retarded self... I like that they are fucking pissed off losing to that team, they should be.

Quote :

"Three days after the Vols' season opening loss at UCLA there was hardly a warm-and-fuzzy feeling on the practice field. Phillip Fulmer was very clearly not 'over' Monday's loss, a sentiment he loudly shared with his team during the late afternoon workout, as well as with the media in post-practice comments. Fulmer's frustration came through loud and clear on Wednesday, and it was the same scenario on Thursday when he was asked how the team was bouncing back from a disappointing defeat. "What's the mood of the team? I don't know, I wouldn't say it's very good. I hope it's not very good. They should be disappointed," Fulmer said tersely. "We lost an opportunity where we were the better team and we screwed up enough times with different things to los toe a team that was a good team but not a great team by any stretch of the imagination. We'll play six or seven teams better than that team probably this year. Not to take anything away from them. "I think this is probably a good time for us. It gave us time to watch the tape multiple times as a staff, to see it completely with the team, to evaluate personnel. We had time to discuss what we can do differently or better and so forth. And we can stay mad for a couple of days, we don't have to turn our attention right to UAB." Everyone from Fulmer on down voiced the same kind of frustration with the 27-24 defeat, with the prevailing theme being that the Vols let one slip away. Defensive coordinator John Chavis, speaking with the media for the first time since reviewing the tape, called the loss one of the most disappointing of his coaching career. "I don't think it's too strong (to call it the most disappointing ever). We let one get away that we should have won. I don't want to discredit UCLA at all. They did a great job and they did what they needed to do, but we let one get away that we should have won, and now we've got to learn from it. That's life though, because we have disappointments in life. But that was as big of a disappointment as I think we've had," Chavis offered."

9/5/2008 12:23:28 AM

meh, UAB game this weekend, I will be there, its at noon, might just stay drunk from tonight.


After that, the first three SEC games are:

Florida, Auburn, Georgia


yuck


0-3 in conference
2-4 to start the season

9/12/2008 12:30:26 PM

they'll win one of those games... they always do.

9/12/2008 12:38:49 PM

i'm just happy they won today

9/13/2008 3:46:22 PM

just got back in from the game, hot as FUCK out there, so damn miserable. Game went well I guess, Defense was dominating (but it was UAB ) but still a good show. I am calling it again, baring injury, Eric Berry will be an all time great, so instinctual, its amazing. Calling this too, Crompton has a LONG ways to go and will get eaten alive by Florida next week. He's basically like me in NCAA09, he picks one receiver before the hike and just stares at him and throws it to him no matter what... I dont think I saw him go through maybe 2 or 3 progressions (that I could see from the stand, i.e. head turned) the entire game.

Florida will demolish this team unless they make a LOT of improvement in one week

9/13/2008 9:56:10 PM

Damn I wish I could make the trip up to Knoxville for the game...but I'm too busy with school right now. It's usually a hell of a ball game and I expect nothing different this time around.

9/15/2008 9:06:45 PM

no, its going to be an ugly ass beating


Florida - 47
UT - 10

9/15/2008 11:00:45 PM

9/17/2008 2:00:44 PM

15 till shit sandwich time

9/20/2008 3:15:38 PM

hey NC State won today, anything is possible

9/20/2008 3:23:27 PM

haha, I just dont see it happening

shitty special teams... imagine that

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 3:36 PM. Reason : d]

9/20/2008 3:33:25 PM

GOD DAMMIT, you fucking KNEW that was going to come, you KNEW it

9/20/2008 3:43:10 PM

This is getting messy.

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 4:00 PM. Reason : yikes punt return]

9/20/2008 3:49:19 PM

yeah, this is pretty much going how I thought it would

9/20/2008 4:00:32 PM

ok so maybe there is a limit of one miracle per day and NC State already used it sorry

9/20/2008 4:01:25 PM

god dammit... this is fucking retarded

9/20/2008 4:21:56 PM

I can't stop laughing...good lord

that poor bastard

9/20/2008 4:21:57 PM

You kind of saw it coming...fumbles, fumbles, fumbles.

OH SHIT

fumble.

9/20/2008 4:22:53 PM

yeah... and now I sense a busted play for an 85 yard TD by Florida

9/20/2008 4:28:02 PM

I'm not a florida fan by any means, but damn Harvin is a game changer every time he touches the ball. The guy can do anything at anytime.

And i'm rooting for tennessee

9/20/2008 4:30:07 PM

HAHA I knew something was up on that, they had 2 guys on 3 different receivers

Crompton is horrible, where did we get this retard from?

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 4:53 PM. Reason : d]

9/20/2008 4:52:45 PM

and the boos rain down, classy

9/20/2008 5:00:18 PM

boo the fuck out of them, they deserve it

9/20/2008 5:02:41 PM

Wow.... Umm. NC State wins and the rest of my teams are losing horribly. What's been the main problem with this game Jaybee? I just got back from the State game.

9/20/2008 5:06:33 PM

Crompton is dumb as shit, special teams coverage has been horrible, lots of penalties, fumbles, INTs.

Florida really hasnt done much on offense at all, they havent had to

9/20/2008 5:09:00 PM

bad day for both of us jaybee

9/20/2008 5:20:21 PM

Eric Berry is the only player worth a shit today

9/20/2008 5:43:58 PM

I'll give Jaybee credit.

He's a Tennessee homer, but he calls it like he sees it.

Stomping.

I feel for you bud.

btw ECU is not a rivarly...2 years in a row, get used to it kids.

9/20/2008 5:46:24 PM

team is fucking horrible.


Crompton is garbage. I hope to god they give Nunes a chance to start next year, or hell, even Nick Stephens.

9/20/2008 5:50:20 PM

I don't know much about your other QB's...links maybe? I've seen nothing but terrible throws from this kid. He can hand the ball off but what QB can't?

Lets see something to look forward to.

9/20/2008 5:52:11 PM

I'm kinda glad State had a game this week and couldn't go to Knoxville for this.

9/20/2008 5:52:12 PM

http://tennessee.rivals.com/cviewplayer.asp?Player=64363
http://tennessee.rivals.com/cviewplayer.asp?Player=84863

9/20/2008 5:54:37 PM

^^ You didn't waste any time getting back from the game and on TWW. I forgot you were in the band, cool seeing you man. lata

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 5:56 PM. Reason : carrots]

9/20/2008 5:56:25 PM

Thats cool Jay...I'm looking for game footage.

At this point maybe Fulmer should do some experimenting....who knows what could happen?!

Redshirt one and throw the other into the fire....but lets be honest. Let your boy take the heat and get these kids ready for the real deal which is SEC.

Good luck.

9/20/2008 6:00:19 PM

wtf? kick this shit

lob that fucking throw you worthless fuck

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 6:06 PM. Reason : d]

9/20/2008 6:05:21 PM

Fulmer admitted defeat there.

GG.

9/20/2008 6:06:43 PM

please retire Fulmer... please


"when you are rolling to the left, and throw to a guy running to the left, its really hard to throw behind them"

Oh but Crompton found a way!

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 6:33 PM. Reason : d]

9/20/2008 6:27:46 PM

Fulmer has had a good run as coach. Now it's time to fire his fat ass. Change will be a breath of fresh air at UT.

9/20/2008 7:26:04 PM

Not that I mind one bit but I was surprised about the lack of fire the UT players had in this game. I figured they'd be fired up for the home crowd and because of the quotes by Spikes. Too many dumbass mistakes didn't help either. A change at the top may be needed to remedy those issues.

[Edited on September 20, 2008 at 7:27 PM. Reason : Go Gators]

9/20/2008 7:27:04 PM

he wont be fired... the dumbshits gave him a retarded ass contract after last year, it would cost something ridiculous to buy him out

9/20/2008 8:27:03 PM

Yeah, that's true. The next few weeks will be interesting for UT, maybe Coach Fulmer can light a fire under the teams ass...someone needs to do the same to him.

9/20/2008 9:43:41 PM

no, they just suck, theres no hope whatsoever. Even if they didnt suck every good SEC team they play this year has a bye week the week before they play them except for Auburn.

9/20/2008 9:50:23 PM