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

Still high off their big win in Baton Rouge, the Volunteer football team got back to Knoxville at some ungodly hour Tuesday morning. Rocky Top was buzzing about Rick Clausen’s come-off-the-bench, come-from-way-behind victory against his former team, and there was no question that he was the quarterback and the undisputed leader of the team. In the midst of all of this attention, Clausen let it slip that he had had fleeting notions about packing up and leaving town the previous week when the coaches had named Erik Ainge the starter after Clausen had basically outperformed him. He added that he had quickly dismissed the thought, as he felt he owed it to his teammates to play his role, whatever that might be. Fans and the media didn’t dwell for too long on this line of questioning, as Clausen was currently king of The Hill, but it would come back to haunt him later.

The talk of the town all week was where the LSU game ranked as one the team’s all-time best games and whether there was life after Death Valley for Erik Ainge. There was almost no talk about the team’s next opponent, the Ole Miss Rebels. The situation was ripe for a let down.

The game

There was, however, no let down. Look at all of those wonderful solid orange lines. Fifty-six yard drive for a touchdown. Fifty-three yard drive for a . . . missed field goal. Oops. Forty-six yard drive for a field goal. Twenty plus yard drive for a . . . blocked field goal. Oops again. Add to the picture an interception for a Volunteer touchdown, and things were looking pretty good. Britton Colquitt didn’t even punt until the last Tennessee drive of the first half.

The second half was more of the same. Colquitt opened the second half with his second and last punt of the afternoon. After that, the Vols drove the field pretty well. Ole Miss didn’t seem to have as much trouble driving down the field as they did in the first half, but they did give up a fumble that led to a Tennessee touchdown and cap off a 95-yard drive by throwing an interception to Corey Campbell in the endzone. In the end, the Vols had 172 yards rushing (127 from Gerald Riggs) and 206 yards passing. Ten different players caught passes, including six receivers, three running backs, and one tight end.

Post-game

All that said, the game seemed to some . . . well, boring. Blogger John Pennington didn’t get around to posting his post-game “blahg” for two days, and I must have been similarly induced into a state of stupor, as I didn’t post anything about the game. For all of the efficiency displayed by the team, there was a distinct absence of big plays. The longest play of the day was a 25-yard reception by running back Arian Foster. The team was efficient, but the fans were bored.

Over the course of the next four games, however, bored would be looking pretty good. Georgia Bulldogs up next.

According to Scout.com (subscription required), Tennessee is losing the recruiting season, ranking 33rd nationally and ranking below No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Georgia, No. 9 LSU, No. 14 Auburn, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 21 Alabama and No. 27 Kentucky. (!)

The game’s not quite over yet, though, as the Vols could finish in the top 20 or top 15 if they get some of the prospects still on their list.

College Football News’ John Harris is bucking CFN’s official pick (Tennessee 16, Alabama 13) and making his own.

According to Harris, the key matchups in tomorrow’s game between the Volunteers and the Crimson Tide are:

• the ability of Tennessee’s defensive line to beat Alabama’s offensive line and the Bama run attack
• the Alabama wide receiver corps (which has lost Tyrone Prothro, its best receiver) against the Tennessee secondary (which has lost Jason Allen, its best cover corner and tackler)
• the Vol offensive line, which has been struggling, against the Tide front seven, which has been exceptional.

Harris’ conclusion?

After the close call at Ole Miss last week, the Tide returns this week to Tuscaloosa, where they played an almost flawless game against Florida. They’ll need to continue to harness the emotion and passion of the Tide faithful to knock off a desperate Tennessee team. Similar to the way that Michigan fought back against undefeated Penn State, expect Tennessee to take Bama’s best shot and hang around for four quarters. Brodie Croyle will be the difference as he’ll continue to find open receivers and move the ball as they have this season. He’ll need a big play from one of his receivers, and expect him to get one that wins the game for the Tide. Alabama – 21 vs. Tennessee – 20

John Pennington has changed his mind and is no longer picking the Tennessee Volunteers to beat Alabama this Saturday, largely due to the wake-up call the Crimson Tide received against Ole Miss last week and partly due to the fact that the Vol offense hasn’t played more than one good half in five games.

I think it’s only a matter of time before the offense starts clicking, but winning at Tuscaloosa this weekend will be tough even if they get on track.

It’s not exactly a closely-guarded secret that the Tennessee Volunteers are acutely affected by others’ impressions of them. As a general rule, great expectations lead to great disappointments (either an outright loss or an unimpressive win) and double-digit spreads motivate them to prove everyone wrong.

This phenomenon occurs both collectively and on an individual level. If you haven’t noticed it yet, watch it for awhile, and it will become clear.

As one corporate example, the 1997 team was led by Peyton Manning and staffed with NFL talent, but they underachieved (a bit). The next year, there were essentially no expectations for the entire season. After all, Peyton was gone, and Tee Martin had never started a game. When Jamal Lewis was hurt early in the season, all hopes went down the drain. But by the end of the season, the team was undefeated and ranked number 1 in the country. Even then, though, their opponent — a one-loss Florida State Seminole team — was favored to win the BCS National Championship game. Heck, after they won, the commentators chalked the Vol win up to the fact that FSU had to play with a third-string quarterback.

The next year, with essentially the same team returning (plus Jamal Lewis), the expectations were again sky high, and the team underachieved yet again.

On the individual level, watch just about any player the week following a week during which they garner significant attention. It’s most often a bust.

There are exceptions to the Spotlight Effect — see, e.g., Jason Allen and Jessee Mahelona. The exceptions are generally found in very mature and experienced players, those that not only are solid character guys, but have probably already fallen victim to the Spotlight Effect a time or two and vowed to never let it happen again.

Still the general rule holds true. When the Spotlight shines, the team, unit, or player often wilts, and when the Spotlight is directed away from the team, the unit, or the player, they excel in the peripheral glow in an attempt to get back into the Spotlight.

So, under the Spotlight Effect, who’s due for good and bad performances this week against the dreaded Georgia Bulldogs?

Expect Good Games from:

• The Wide Receiver Corps. The “this is one of the most talented group of receivers in the country” meme is finally dying off. The receivers have been praised to high heaven since the final whistle last season, and it was only this week that a new meme began to propagate. Former Vol and current lawyer and sports agent Tim Irwin apparently called them out on a local t.v. or radio show earlier this week saying that they “looked like Tarzan and played like Jane.” John Pennington has been saying the same thing for a few weeks now, and Knoxville sports radio hosts and callers have jumped on the band wagon this week. So, the Spotlight is off the group and they finally have something to prove. Expect that they will.
• Rick Clausen.This poor guy is still not getting getting his due. UT fans seem to appreciate him — in a sort of backhanded way. “Oh, he’s a great leader and decision-maker. Too bad he can’t do anything but dink it around.” So everyone, including the coaches, are telling Rick that he can’t throw the long ball. You’d think they’d have learned not to tell Rick he can’t do something. Maybe he can’t throw it 80 yards, but I don’t know that he can’t throw it 40 or 50, and really, that’s plenty. And so what if he can’t? Isn’t he the same style of quarterback as David Greene, who became the winningest quarterback in SEC history? Check that, in NCAA history. I think that Rick is too mature and experienced to suffer the negative effects of having the Spotlight shine on him, but I think he’s still motivated by people telling him he can’t do it.

Expect a Poor Game from:

• The Secondary. In stark contrast to the high expectations of the wide receiver corps, everyone has said from day one that the Vols’ biggest weakness was its secondary (apart from Jason Allen). But the thing is, they’ve actually played quite well. For two games in a row now, the secondary has made big plays, first with Jonathan Heffney’s interception-for-an-almost-touchdown against LSU and second with Jonathan Wade’s interception-for-a-touchdown last week against Ole Miss, and the group has rightly received its due this week from local media and fans. Unfortunately, Spotlight Theory suggests that will be the kiss of death this week or next. Let’s hope, though, that this group is mature and experienced enough to thwart the theory. Allen can, and perhaps Wade has learned his lesson (subscription required):
  

  “Last year, there were times when I might have had a good game and it went to my head,” Wade said. “Then, the next game was just horrendous.

  “I know now that one game means nothing if the rest of them are bad. I’m just trying to stay humble and stay focused.”

Let’s hope.

John Pennington finally shook off the lethargy induced by watching last Saturday afternoon’s game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Ole Miss Rebels and posted his post-game “blahg.”

For years, Tennessee Vol fans have been clamoring for some unpredictability on offense.

• “They always run the same plays.”
• “They’re so predictable!”
• “If I know what plays they’re going to run, don’t you think a million dollar coach on the other side knows, too?”

Well, be careful what you ask for.

Everyone from Joe Vol Fan on the corner of Cumberland Avenue to the national pre-season pollsters predicted UT’s offense would light it up this year. Even Head Coach Phillip Fulmer got into the act, saying, “I don’t know who the quarterback will be, but I know it will be a good one.”

Well, maybe this was all just part of Offensive Coordinator Randy Sanders’ diabolical scheme. Just when he had everyone thinking the Vol offense would score on every play, he threw us a curve.

The Vols’ offense against UAB stunk. Receivers dropped balls, running backs and quarterbacks fumbled. They stuttered and sputtered.

Well, that was just a fluke. Surely.

But Game 2 against Florida was more of the same, and the first half of the LSU game was the absolute pinnacle of futility.

And just when we were all finally convinced that our beloved Volunteer offense wasn’t as we predicted, Sanders threw us a change-up. Rick Clausen, Gerald Riggs, and the rest of the offensive unit tore it up, torching LSU for 30 second-half (and overtime) points.

So which Volunteer offense will take the field against Ole Miss this Saturday afternoon? And will it play the whole game, or just a half?

Who knows? But Vol fans finally have the unpredictability that they’ve been craving for for years.

I’ll say it again: Be careful what you ask for.

Less than a week until Football Time in Tennessee.The Knoxville News Sentinel’s GoVolsXtra site kicked off the season with a huge 14-page special section. The first page of The College Football Preview ‘05 (large file, and registration is required) is classic Daniel Proctor: a full-page color cartoon made to look like the Candyland board game, except that instead of sugar plums and lollipops, the multi-colored, segmented road is decorated with gators, tigers, and leprechauns.Proctor’s Rocky Road to the Rose Bowl graphically portrays the Vols’ difficult road ahead. After the UAB “Free Turn” game (which really could be anything but a walk in the park), the Vols’ must escape the Gators in the Swamp (U. of Florida) and the Tigers in Death Valley (Louisiana State U.) on consecutive weeks.

Then they entertain Ole Miss at home and have a difficult game against the Georgia Bulldogs before having to travel south where they must survive the Crimson Tide.

And then Tennessee’s former (and current again?) nemesis Steve Spurrier brings his new team — the South Carolina Gamecocks — to Tennessee before the team travels to always dangerous South Bend, Indiana to take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Round the corner to finish with Memphis and Vanderbilt at home and the Wildcats of Kentucky up north, and the Vols’ should end up in Atlanta and the SEC Championship. Win that, and they should be in the Rose Bowl and the National Championship.

A rocky, treacherous road to be sure, but if they can drain the Swamp, survive Death Valley, hold the Tide, best the Irish, and then take care of business at home against Georgia, South Carolina, and the others, they will have earned the right to play for the trophies.

Check out Proctor’s graphic. It encapsulates the entire season’s challenges, dangers — and fun — ahead.

Five days to Football Time in Tennessee.