Well the football team has had it’s last spring practice before the Orange and White Game, and Junior offensive lineman Steven Jones, senior defensive back Jonathan Wade, and redshirt freshman Dan Williams all earned most improved player awards for their spring work.

Positive words from defensive coordinator John Chavis about Wade:

Jonathan probably has made his biggest step during this spring toward becoming a player that’s going to give you the same level of play every day. And that’s what we look for. Jonathan’s become a technician and understands better the fine details of his position.”

UTSports.com has a bunch of audio and video, including coach Chavis on the defense, Chavis on the O&W game, Chavis with Bob Kesling, coach Cutcliffe on the offense, and Cutcliffe with Bob Kesling.

By the way, posting has been light for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of work under the hood in preparation for next season. If anyone’s interested in the blogging side of the sports blogosphere, I’ve found the video tutorials on Flash, PHP, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks at LearnFlash.com and lynda.com to be most helpful. Ditto the Installing WordPress on Your Own Windows Computer and WordPress Theme Dissection tutorials from urbangiraffe.com.

It’s The Question.

It was the question two years ago after former Tennessee Volunteer quarterback Casey Clausen had exhausted his eligibility. Who would replace Clausen? Sixth-year senior C.J. Leak? Or one of the dazzling freshman, Erik Ainge or Brent Schaeffer? And what exactly was Rick Clausen thinking? Did he really expect to play?

We know how that turned out. Sort of. Ainge and Schaeffer were named “co-starters,” with Schaeffer actually taking the first snap, and the two of them handling the rotation fairly well. Leak switched positions and then barely played. Then Schaeffer was injured against South Carolina, and Ainge was injured against Notre Dame. Behold, Rick Clausen, who saved the season.

It was also the question last year. All of last year. Who would lead the team, Clausen or Ainge?

We know how that turned out as well. Let’s call it . . . um . . . “not good.”

It’s still the question two full years later. Who’s our quarterback? Is there Life after Death Valley for Erik Ainge? Will the promising young Jonathan Crompton overtake Ainge? Will Ahead-to-the-Past offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe work his Manning/Shuler/Martin mojo on either of them?

The Question. Who’s our quarterback?

And while we don’t have The Answer, there are some little “a” answers.

Ainge’s mistakes last year were on display for the Big Orange Nation, but his biggest mistake did not come to light until this past week.

We didn’t learn until after the last snap that Ainge had turf toe much of last season. And while it was apparent that he did not have a solid grasp of what was happening last year, he admitted neither his toe injury nor his confusion to the coaches.

The coaching staff tried to hand the entire playbook to Ainge and let him run with it, but Ainge simply did not understand it all. Said Ainge, “I could tell watching myself that I was confused. I was dropping back and I was confused. Not confused on what route guys were running, but trying to be too precise and too perfect.”

His biggest mistake? Not telling the coaches. So why did he keep it all to himself?

There was a quarterback contest going on. “I felt I had to try and keep pace,” Ainge said. “It would be one thing if I was the guy or the starter and I said this was too much and we need to make it more simple. That would be one thing. But when the whole offense is doing something and there is a quarterback who can handle it, for me to say we need to tone the whole offense down and back down a notch, that is tough. Looking back should I have said some, yeah, but you never know if that would have meant that I would have never played at all. I think it kind of depends on the position of the quarterback. If you are “the” guy then you can say, hey I don’t like that or I want to do more of that. You are kind of like a coach in that setting.”

Well, now that they know, what are they doing about it?

They’re keeping it simple. They’re working on fundamentals. Cutcliffe is breaking Ainge down and re-coaching his mechanics. He’s teaching him to listen. He is explaining why defenses are doing what they are doing rather than just teaching recognition of alignments. Players will not have options. For example, if wide receivers are to run a route, they are to run that route with precision regardless of the circumstances. Said Ainge, “I am going to get him running this route so good that you know he is going to be there.”

As coach Cutcliffe is re-coaching the fundamentals, he is rebuilding Ainge’s confidence. “The way you gain confidence is absolutely knowing you what to do with the ball every time the ball is snapped.”

So who’s the quarterback? Is there Life after Death Valley for Erik Ainge?

It’s too soon to tell, but Coach Cutcliffe’s Reanimation of Erik Ainge project is well underway. And there’s a live one on the shelf just in case.

There’s some excellent video of Coach Cutcliffe’s latest media appearance at UTSports.com. He really sounds like what the team needs. To be fair to the rest of the coaching staff, though, a 5-6 season has a way of making one more receptive to a message.

That the Tennessee Volunteer football team is emphasizing the fundamentals for spring practice is music to Volunteer ears everywhere. The practice reports seem to indicate that the coaches and players have learned all of the right lessons from last year’s disappointing season. Here are just a few bits of encouraging news:

• The coaches have learned not to over-praise players. The Tennessee coaching staff is apparently not taking the bait when reporters repeatedly ask them which players have impressed. New offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe recently answered such a question by saying that nobody was stepping up, which, of course, does not sound good at all. But he followed that statement up by saying that they were trying to develop accountability, and I take the statement as an acknowledgement that pedestaling certain players last year had a negative impact on their own performance and on team chemistry.
• The team is focusing on . . . the team. Coaches are requiring the players stand with their respective unit during team periods. “Individual expressions of style are mostly gone” from team apparel. (I don’t exactly know what that means, but it has a nice ring.) Cutcliffe has said, “If somebody messes up, then everybody’s going to pay for it.” I’m Remembering the Titans here. Coach Carter. A host of other sports flicks in which the team gels as a result of coach-imposed team accountability.
• It’s an all-the-time thing. That’s Cutcliffe talking again. “Winning takes an effort that’s an all-the-time thing.” Good, good. More please.
• It’s all about the little things. More Cutcliffe: “Little things. Attention to detail. Break the huddle. Listen in the huddle. Line up right. All the little details. We haven’t been as good as we need to be.” I like it. When was the last time the team was told to break the huddle? Oh, and the players now have to tuck in their jerseys. No big deal, you say? Are you sure? One foot in front of the other gets you where you’re going.
• It’s all about discipline. Offensive players were recently barked at for not lining up correctly, and they had to do extra calisthenics. Wide receivers are being punished for dropping passes. Both the offensive line and the wide receiver corps have been told to drop weight. What better way to both improve the speed and performance of players and instill a little disipline in the process? If you’ve ever lost a significant amount of weight, then you know that it’s a day-by-day thing, focused discipline over time.
• Unminced words. Cutcliffe on his quarterbacks: “Consistency is not good. We didn’t throw the ball as well as we can throw the football. That better not be our best effort.”

The Tennessee coaching staff is leaving nothing to chance. If any player was left unbroken and unhumbled by last year’s disappointing season, he will be broken and humbled this spring. The team, and the players, are being reduced to their most fundamental components so that those building blocks can be properly reassembled as a team whose whole exceeds the sum of its parts.

The injured Phoenix just slaps its crippled wings against the pavement; it must die before it can rise from the ash.

Scout.com’s Jimmy Hyams has an excellent article today on the rebuilding of Erik Ainge. Hyams wonders whether David Cutcliffe will mean to Erik Ainge:

• what Galen Hall meant to Penn State’s Michael Robinson;
• what Norm Chow meant to Southern Cal’s Carson Palmer;
• what Al Borges meant to Auburn’s Jason Campbell; and
• what Charlie Weiss meant to Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn.

Let’s hope.

Been sort of out of pocket for the last several days during the whole sifting of the Tennessee Volunteer coaching staff. This post should serve as a record of me catching up.

Of course, it all started Sunday with head coach Phillip Fulmer announcing the firing of offensive line coach Jimmy Ray Stephens and receivers Coach Pat Washington.

“I appreciate everything Jimmy Ray and Pat have done for Tennessee over the years,” Fulmer said. “This was a difficult decision to make, but I feel it is in the best interest for the future of our football program.”

On Monday, the Vols officially announced the re-hiring of David Cutcliffe as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator to take the place of former offensive coordinator Randy Sanders, who fell on his sword on October 31, 2005.

Some key info about Cutcliffe:

Under Cutcliffe’s tutelage as offensive coordinator from 1993-98, Tennessee twice led the Southeastern Conference in total offense and three times was the league’s rushing leader. The Vols finished no worse than fifth in scoring offense, including leading the SEC in 1993 and placing second nationally with an average of 42.8 points per game.

The Vols were 63-11 during that span with three SEC Eastern Division crowns, two league championships and the 1998 national title. Cutcliffe received the Frank Broyles Award in 1998 as the nation’s top assistant coach and was a finalist for the honor in 1997.

* * * *

. . . Cutcliffe supervised the development of future NFL first-round draft picks Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning as they rewrote the Tennessee records book. Before them, Cutcliffe mentored Andy Kelly, who has gone on to a long and noteworthy career in arena football.

All told, Cutcliffe has coached eight players who became first-round NFL draft picks, including Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning and running back Deuce McAllister. The Manning brothers both were overall No. 1 draft picks.

The early reaction has been generally positive. SportsAnimal99 host Dave Hooker said on his radio show that he went to the press conference thinking Cutcliffe was a “very good hire” but left thinking he was a “fantastic hire.”

I hear what he’s talking about, and I think it’s because Cutcliffe is saying all the right things. Have a listen to Hooker’s interview with Coach Cutcliffe (subscription required), especially Cutcliffe’s response to the question about whether the team will change its run-blocking scheme, which begins the 6:55 mark. The key comment concerns the aggression (or lack thereof) of the former scheme: “It is very difficult to be on defense offensively.” Music to fans’ ears.

John Pennington has more on the David Cutcliffe Love Parade and Cutcliffe’s quarterback knack, including this insightful bit:

I also think it’s important to remember that Cutcliffe had a knack for putting his QBs in good situations for THEM. Heath Shuler wasn’t asked to be the Check-Machine that Peyton Manning was. Manning wasn’t asked to run draws like Shuler and Tee Martin were.

Pennington cautions Volunteer fans not to get too excited, though:

Smart move? Yes.

Guaranteed success? No. But what move would have been?

John Pennington has thoughts on Tennessee basketball, the Beer Barrel, the Cutcliffe hype, Erik Ainge’s earrings, Coach Fulmer’s tenure, and the odds of Tennessee beating Kentucky this weekend.

Jimmy Hyams makes a case (subscription required) for why the Volunteers need to re-hire David Cutcliffe as its Offensive Coordinator:

Cutcliffe is an outstanding coach. He is a solid play caller. He can develop quarterbacks. Each quarterback he had during his Tennessee tenure improved. He is demanding in practice. He is a disciplinarian. He pays attention to detail.

If anyone can get Erik Ainge out of his funk, it’s David Cutcliffe.

Hyams’ main point is that the Vols need Cutcliffe as soon as possible and that they need to get to a bowl game so that Cutcliffe has more time to work his magic.

If the Vols don’t win against Vanderbilt this Saturday and Kentucky the following Saturday, they will not be bowl eligible, and they won’t be able to practice again until March. That would be too late.

Go Vols!

One more game, and the jury is still out on the Is There Life After Death Valley for Erik Ainge question:

Just last week Ainge was telling a circle of reporters how he had come to realize the importance of dumping the ball off to a running back instead of trying to force a pass downfield. Here’s the exact quote:

“Just because they call a play with three verticals (deep routes) doesn’t mean I have to throw one of the verticals. We have a lot of layoffs and stuff. That’s one thing I’ve gotten away from. I’ve been trying to make stuff happen down the field.”

That comment suggested Ainge had seen the error of his ways and would not be throwing any more ill-advised passes like the ones against LSU (Game #3) and Notre Dame (Game #8) that were intercepted and returned for touchdowns.

“That’s not what I’ve been coached to do,” he said. “If it’s not open, throw it to the running back. A lot of times watching the film I’ve seen where we had guys open short and I was trying to stick something in downfield.

“I think that’s the biggest thing (he has learned) now: I’m going to give us a chance to make the big plays but I need to put us position where we’re not relying on those alone to win the game.”

Hearing these comments, you figured Ainge would go out and make sound decisions in Game 9 against Memphis. Instead, he threw an interception on his third pass attempt and another on his fourth.

Calling David Cutcliffe.

Calling David Cutcliffe.

The lead story on GoVolsXtra this morning has this interesting tidbit:

View Up Top: Fulmer anticipates quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders staying in the press box the rest of the season.

“I thought it went fine (at Notre Dame),” Fulmer said. “David, uh, Randy was really on top of the game and knew exactly what was going on.”

David?

David Cutcliffe was quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 1993-98 and is considered a leading candidate to replace Sanders, who resigned as offensive coordinator last week.

Was Cutcliffe up there calling plays? Quick! Someone break out the tape!

Even if Coach Cut wasn’t up there, is it evidence of who Coach Fulmer wants as his new Offensive Coordinator?