The Tennessean is reporting that Marsalous Johnson, a redshirt freshman defensive back, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault for waving a toy gun at Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer.

Details regarding the utilization of coach Fulmer’s stinger forthcoming.

GoVolsXtra.com’s John Adams dreams up his own ideas for Media Guide cover art for each SEC school. For instance:

• Kentucky: A picture of a football as the centerpiece with a small picture of a deflated basketball in the left-hand corner, and the SEC East basketball standings in the right corner: 1, Tennessee; 2, Florida; 3, Kentucky.

  The headline: “We’re Not A Basketball School Anymore.”

* * * *

• Ole Miss: Half the cover is a picture Ole Miss fans partying in the Grove before the game. The other half is a picture of opposing fans partying in the Grove after the game.

  The headline: “It’s Only A Game.”

Nice twist on the old “we’re not an X, Y, Z school anymore,” and the Ole Miss jab is just precious.

Here’s mine for Florida:

A full body image of quarterback Chris Leak being hammered by an oversized Urban Meyer into a round hole at the 50 yard line, with shaved-off slivers of the image curling off to each of the four sides to accommodate the fit. Tim Tebow is warming up in the background.

The headline: “Round peg. Round hole.”

If you could animate the thing, he’d be springing up out of the ground like a greased jackrabbit, sort of like Michael Jackson suddenly appearing out of a cloud of smoke at Superbowl XXVII.

What are your ideas?

Pre-game

By late October, the Tennessee Volunteers had lost to its three biggest rivals. Special teams goofs had cost the team the Florida game. The Georgia loss was directly attributable to a punt coverage breakdown and a slew of penalties resulting in awful field position for most of the game. Against Alabama, the opportunity cost of two fumbles inside the ten and a muffed punt at midfield combined to result in yet another heartbreaking loss.

The Volunteer Nation began its root cause analysis, and everybody had their opinions. Doesn’t winning necessarily follow excellent recruiting classes? Was it just fluke after fluke after fluke? Was it just because four out of six opponents were ranked in the top 5 at the time we played them? Was it the Spotlight Effect? Was it the season-ending injury to Jason Allen?

And what would happen now that Gerald Riggs was out for the season? Was Arian Foster really in the same league as USC’s Reggie Bush?

One thing we did know for sure: when Steve Spurrier returned to Neyland Stadium for the Volunteers’ next game, he’d be bringing his bag of tricks. While the Volunteer offense seemed unlikely to encounter the suspicious powdery substance, the defense might be able to induce Darth Visor to grimaces like never before because this time his Storm Troopers were armored in garnet and black instead of blue and orange.

The game

Rick Clausen’s excellent performance in the LSU game was growing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror, and on this day it would melt completely into the horizon. Clausen got the start, but threw an interception on his first pass of the second offensive series. The Gamecocks capitalized on the mistake with a touchdown three plays later.

Ainge then came in and drove the team 72 yards in 12 plays for a touchdown. On the next offensive possession, a possible touchdown pass to Jayson Swain was ruled out of bounds, but the team did drive 32 yards for a field goal. Arian Foster was running exceptionally well, and the offense appeared to have found its rhythm with Ainge.

Like most good news this season, it was short-lived.

The offense failed to capitalize on two South Carolina fumbles in the first half. When the Gamecocks fumbled on their own 30 yard line, the Vols lost a yard on three plays and then missed a field goal. When SC later fumbled on their own 18, the Tennessee offense drove 18 yards only to fumble inside the one yard line.

Look at the mess on that drive chart on both sides of the ball. Interception. Fumble. Field goal missed. Field goal missed. Safety. Fumble. Fumble. Interception.

The Vols were ahead at the half, both in points and in lost opportunities.

Britton Colquitt put together a pretty nice game with six punts for 226 yards. Three of his punts were inside the five yard line and another was inside the 20. You could convince yourself that Arian Foster also had a good game if you were able to repress the memory of his fumble within a blade of fescue of the goal line. He averaged almost six yards on 25 carries for a total of 150 yards.

In the end, though, Spurrier had worked his mojo against the Vols yet again and strolled of Rocky Top with a 16-15 victory.

Post game

Might Tennessee, who began the season with national championship aspirations, had just lost to the perennial 4th-in-the-SEC-East South Carolina Gamecocks. They had fallen to 3-4 overall and 2-4 in the SEC. They were 0-3 in the SEC East, which they had been pre-season favorites to win.

The horror of the loss was captured best by GoVolsXtra’s John Adams:

You can’t comprehend the magnitude of the loss unless you know a little something about the winners.

South Carolina lost by 23 points to Alabama and by 41 to Auburn. It ranks 111th in the country in rushing and 85th in rushing defense.

There’s more.

The Gamecocks start two walk-ons on offense. They lost arguably their best player, wide receiver/quarterback/running back Syvelle Newton, to a season-ending injury last week.

Their injury situation only got worse against the Vols. They lost two more wide receivers — Carlos Thomas and Noah Whiteside — to game-ending injuries in the first half.

With all that stacked against them, the Gamecocks would have to play a mistake-free game to have a chance, right?

Not hardly. They lost two fumbles and threw an interception in the first half. They were penalized 10 times.

And still, UT had lost.

Things had gone from downright Rosy to downright ugly on Rocky Top. Players were beginning to openly fuss at each other on the field. Both quarterbacks were dazed, glassy-eyed, and exasperated. Someone painted “Fire Randy Sanders, please!” on the Rock on the UT campus, echoing the chant by a pocket of fans toward the end of the game. Local radio reported that some fans were throwing objects at the players as they left the field.

Having had an emotional meeting with his family immediately following the game (audio link), Sanders fell on his sword the following Tuesday. He would serve out the rest of the season, but would give up the offensive coordinator role and play calling duties. Players responded to the news with shock and hostility, some engaging in a full-on rant with media microphones recording it all. Many media guys and bloggers could relate, some saying they had the wrong guy or that it was a good start.

Not pretty. Not pretty at all.

And it wasn’t over yet.

Well, the SEC Media Days has come to an end, I think, and the college sports blogosphere is sorting through the rubble. Here’s a couple of shiny objects that have distinguished themselves from the pile, at least from the VFRT perspective:

Yes, the media placed the Vols third in the SEC East. No big surprise there. Although some are picking the Gators as the team most likely to be this year’s Tennessee, the media likes them first in the East with Georgia close behind. The Volunteers were a distant third at that, garnering just five more votes than South Carolina. Whatever happens in the East, Auburn is the absolute favorite to dominate the West and win the championship game.

There were six Volunteers named to the pre-season media All-SEC team. Offensive lineman Arron Sears and defensive tackle Justin Harrell made the first team, running back Arian Foster, defensive back Jonathan Hefney, and kicker James Wilhoit made second team, and cornerback Jonathan Wade made the third team.

The national media is getting into the action as well. CBS Sportsline’s Dennis Dodd weighs in and says expect a little improvement, but not a lot, after last year’s Rocky Flop.

And the ESPN Insider Blue Ribbon preview of Tennessee is absolutely massive and includes bits of information I had not heard elsewhere, such as the fact that a new wide receiver drill involves catching bricks. That should teach you not to drop the ball and to catch with your hands. There’s also this more detailed description of Fulmer’s animated reaming of the team following Marvin Mitchell’s summer arrest:

Dealing with the law [for Mitchell] was easier than dealing with Fulmer, who had grown accustomed to the peace and tranquility afforded him by months of good behavior among his players. Fulmer went bonkers in a team meeting after Mitchell’s skirmish, screaming, throwing things and threatening to kick the next player who caused trouble off the team. True to his word, Fulmer ran off lineman Raymond Henderson a couple of days later after he made an inappropriate comment to a mother and her young daughter at a restaurant.

I guess he does have his stinger out.

I’m with Georgia Sports Blog’s pwd, who is feeling overwhelmed by the recent onslaught of news and information to wade through. But here’s a really quick run down:

SECSports.com has a ton of great information on this week’s SEC Football Media Days, including pictures, video, and audio. Fulmer’s interview is here. Interviews from rival head coaches can be found on this page.

Fired Up and Focused is apparently the theme this year. “I’d never been through anything like I just went through,” Fulmer said. “It was a new experience. You’re darned right. My stinger is out pretty good.”

Another quick piece of information is that even the QBs and running backs will shed the green jerseys for select pre-season scrimmages.

All for now.

NOTE: If for some reason the drive charts below stall, try the larger versions on the Animated Drive Chart page.

Pre-game

To date, the Volunteer journey had taken them from lofty, pre-season fantasies of the Rose Bowl, quickly down to earth against UAB, and through the mire of a special teams debacle against Florida. They had squandered any momentum obtained from one of the greatest comeback victories in the history of college football against LSU by producing an efficient but boring win over Ole Miss. The penalty-plagued field position nightmare against Georgia for their second loss of the season to a team in their own division had placed them not so firmly at the edge of the precipice.

On the home front, the mood had not quite curdled, but it was beginning to sour. Tension between the Knoxville media and quarterback Rick Clausen was mounting, fullback Cory Anderson was being denied playing time because of his complaints about a lack of playing time, and Jason Allen was gone for the season.

Not exactly what we had planned. Instead of 5-0, the team was 3-2 and heading to Tuscaloosa to take on an archrival rising in the rankings with a bullet. The Crimson Tide would be the Vols’ fourth opponent in six games that was ranked in the top 5 nationally, and they were looking for revenge against the neighborhood bully.

The game was really too close to call. John Pennington first picked the Vols, then changed his mind, primarily due to the wake up call the Tide received against Ole Miss the prior week and partly due to the fact that Vols hadn’t played more than one good half of football in five games. John Harris of College Football News picked Alabama to win 21 to 20, but CFN itself picked UT to win 16-13. Subtract 10 from each score and switch the teams, and they’d have nailed it.

Adding to the always palpable hype this year was the fact that Phillip Fulmer had skipped the annual SEC Media Days in Alabama the prior season on the advice of his attorney and the personal jurisdiction implications of Pennoyer v. Neff and its progeny. Fulmer couldn’t exactly phone this one in.

Imagine walking into a room full of people that detest you. Multiply that by a factor of 3,000, and you’ll get a whiff of what Coach Fulmer will experience tomorrow when he jogs onto the field. Venom. Malice. Rancor.

Consider the table set.

The game

The score should have been 17-6 (perhaps 17-3) or, at the worst, 9-6, UT. But unfortunately, it was worse than worst. If you think that’s a logical impossibility, well, then you didn’t see the game.

Note: A larger version can be seen on the Animated Drive Chart page.

Mistakes. Costly ones:

• Second drive, second and one at the ‘Bama nine yard line, and Gerald Riggs fumbles. Inside the ten and not even a measly field goal attempt.
• A muffed punt (identified as a fumble at mid-field on the 2nd half drive chart below) on ‘Bama’s third drive of the second half at mid-field led to the Tide’s first three points of the game:

Note: A larger version can be seen on the Animated Drive Chart page.

And then, The Drive, in the words of GoVolsXtra’s Mike Griffith:

“First-and-goal inside the 5, and it was going good,’’ UT left tackle Arron Sears said. “We definitely could have got it in.’’

On first down at the 3, tight end Justin Reed raised out of his stance early. The penalty led to a spot at the 9, still first down.

Arian Foster was dropped a yard behind the line of scrimmage on the next play, setting up a second-and-goal.

Rick Clausen, scrambling right, appeared to have enough room to run close to the end zone, if not in it. Instead, Clausen chose to throw the ball away – from beyond the line of scrimmage – and UT was penalized another 5 yards and a loss of down.

Facing third-and-goal at the 15, offensive coordinator Randy Sanders called for a screen to fullback Cory Anderson. Anderson sprinted hard for the end zone, but Alabama linebacker Roman Harper got his helmet on the ball. Anderson fell forward as the ball squirted out of his hands and out of the back of the end zone, giving the Tide the ball back at the 20.

Meanwhile, left guard Rob Smith lay writhing on the ground with a rib contusion. The severity of the injury is not known.

“It was like a series of bad dreams,’’ Sears said.

The UT defense finally buckled and allowed the Tide to drive 63 yards for the game-winning field goal with 13 seconds to play.

Gerald Riggs suffering a season-ending injury was just the icing on the cake.

Post-game

The fall out was not good. John Pennington said that Tennessee’s Parade All-Americans looked like Tarzan and played like Jane. Fans started bailing out.

In the aftermath, Scout.com’s Jeffrey Stewart penned the line of the season:

Defending Tennessee’s offense is like encountering a drunk on a shooting spree with a high-powered rifle: you know he will do more damage accidentally than he will intentionally, and if you patiently keep your distance he will eventually shoot himself.

The Vols were now more than just mostly dead; they were really most sincerely dead.

And it would only get worse. Steve Spurrier was returning to Neyland Stadium the next week.

Just one click link this morning. Billingsley has crunched some serious numbers — stats from all 10,638 college football teams who have taken the field since 1869 — and found the Top 200 Teams of All Time. The best team ever, according to this computer formula, was the 1971 Nebraska team.

Second? The 1998 Tennessee Volunteers. Texas in 2005 was third and The Greatest Team of All Time (2005 USC) was 66, just to put things into perspective a bit. That’s pretty cool, but I’d wager the computer doesn’t know about Clint Stoerner.

Hat tip to John Pennington.

John Adams’ Monday column — Sanders: Fall guy still is Vol guy — has generated a lot of discussion on Rocky Top over the last couple of days. The argument provoking excerpt:

Imagine how Sanders felt when he heard UT football coach Phillip Fulmer’s comments about last spring practice. Every time Fulmer praised new offensive coordinator, he buried his former offensive coordinator by implication.

“David has improved the toughness of our team,” Fulmer said in the spring. “We’re fundamentally better. He has been very demanding of tempo and execution.

“The daily practice habits improved. Not that we were practicing poorly, but not the cross-your-t’s-and-dot-your-i’s extent that we are now.”

It’s as though in his departure, Sanders was given power and responsibility he never realized he had as an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

“I have heard (Fulmer’s comments),” Sanders said. “I’m not going to get into a debate or discussion over that. There were a few things I would have liked to have done differently that we weren’t necessarily allowed to do differently. For this to come out as such does bother me some.”

The talk has centered around whether Fulmer or Sanders is most to blame for the 2005 season. On the one hand, as the offensive coordinator, Sanders was responsible for the offensive woes. Fulmer had delegated this responsibility and Sanders had failed. On the other hand, word is that Fulmer may have delegated the responsibility for the offense to Sanders without actually giving him sufficient authority. In other words, Sanders could only do what Fulmer wanted him to do, and so the onus is on Fulmer.

Me? I think it’s probably a little bit of both and a little bit of neither. A lot of little things were allowed to slide by both Fulmer and Sanders, and by the time they realized the magnitude of the problem, the situation had veered out of control so far that no one could regain traction. Fulmer’s comments about recent practices being better in a multitude of ways has some to do with new OC Cutcliffe, but probably more to do with the attitude adjustment of everyone from the head coach to the water boy resulting from the horribly disappointing season.

What do y’all think?

All right, I’m finally retiring the Who Should Have Been the quarterback Last Year poll. Pretty hilarious results, if you ask me. Even a year of hindsight later, and fans still can agree on which QB to play. Ainge got 55%, and Clausen got 45%. Me, I voted for Clausen, just because of his leadership and because his numbers were better. Still, that vote, and all of the criticism Ainge is getting from me on my Re-living the Tennessee Volunteers 2005 Football Season Series, does not mean I’m not confident that Cutcliffe and Ainge will get the QB situation turned around this year. Ainge has a few little things to correct, and if he does, he’ll be just fine. Perhaps even great.

It’s looking like California at Tennessee is The Game to Watch the weekend of September 2, at least according to Burnt Orange Nation readers. No argument here, of course.

It looks like they’re even giving us a shot to beat the Bears. I’m not sure that the season is over for the loser, like one commenter suggested, but it certainly would lead to rumbles on Rocky Top if we pick up this year where we left off last year.

I’m thinking the Vols are going to squeak by on this one. Official prognostication later. Perhaps after the game.

You do know we can pre-date posts with WordPress, don’t you?