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.

Here’s a breakdown of the Tennessee Volunteers’ offensive struggles against the Georgia Bulldogs last Saturday:

• Vols’ First Possession. Tennessee’s first play from scrimmage was a 33-yard completion to Bret Smith. Chalk one up for a big play by the receiving corps. On the next play, however, Aaron Sears false starts, and the Vols are suddenly looking at 1st and 15. First and second downs net one yard, and a third down completion to Meachem goes for 11, generally good enough to get another set of downs, but not if you need 15 yards. Punt.
• Vols’ Second Possession. One of the rare, no-penalty drives, this possession began with another big play by a receiver, a completion Chris Hannon for 25 yards. The drive stalled out after a nine-yard completion to Meachem.
• Vols’ Third Possession. After Georgia scored a touchdown (with UT contributing ten yards on two penalties), the Vols returned the kickoff for only 12 yards and was penalized another 6. Starting on the 6 yard line, Tennessee did get one first down on a nice 15-yard run by Riggs, but on the next play, a communication error between Rick Clausen and Gerald Riggs resulted in a five-yard loss, so they were looking at 2nd and 15. On a no-gain second down, the Vols’ offense (Aaron Sears again) got a facemask penalty that Georgia declined. On 3rd down, they got 13, again generally enough for a new set of downs, but not if you need 15.
• Vols’ Fourth Possession. Georgia downs its punt at the Tennessee 2. The Vols play it safe and punt after gaining only one yard on three tries.
• Vols’ Fifth Possession. This possession was the high-water mark for the Vols’ offense, but ended with no points. Starting at the 26, Riggs ripped off runs of 8 yards, 9 yards, 1 yard, and 3 yards before Clausen made two consecutive completions of 23 yards and 11 yards (more big plays by receivers). Riggs then rushed for another 4 yards, and the Vols were threatening at Georgia’s 15. Notice no penalties or mental errors to this point. Alas, Clausen overthrew Bret Smith in the end zone and on the next play threw an interception.
• Vols’ Sixth Possession. Lucas Taylor caught Georgia’s punt at the 11 and ran to the 14, but Tennessee was penalized 6 yards and had to start on the 8 yard line. Still, they stayed ahead on downs, completing passes of 20 yards and eight yards, and drove down to Georgia’s 38 yard line. But then Riggs and the right tackle both give Georgia’s defensive end a straight path to Clausen’s blind side, and Clausen fumbles when he’s hit. A Volunteer offensive lineman falls on the ball, but the referee simply stares at the player cradling the ball on the ground until a Georgia player strips the ball from him, at which time the ref blows the whistle. Georgia converts the comedy of errors into three points.
• Vols’ Seventh Possession. Taylor returns the kickoff to the 26, a tie for the Vols’ best starting position of the game. There were no penalties or errors, but they go three and out.
• Vols’ Eighth Possession. Taylor returns the kickoff to the 26, but Tennessee was penalized 19 yards, so they started at the 7. Again, the receivers make a big play, this time a 28-yarder to Jayson Swain, who simply stole the ball from the defender. They make another first down after that before getting two 5-yard penalties. Yet they overcome those and make another first down with an 18-yard completion to Swain. They then get to 3rd and 1 only to receive a 15-yard penalty. They can’t convert on 3rd and 16, and they punt.
• Vols’ Ninth Possession. Jonathan Wade actually ran his interception on the preceding play in for a touchdown, but the officials ruled him down at the one-yard line. Hey! Good field position! Clausen snuck it in on the first play.
• Vols’ Tenth Possession. Thanks to a forced fumble by Jesse Mahelona recovered by Inky Johnson, the Vols got the ball back on their own 27 yard line. Two mistakes in a row for the Dawgs and the momentum seems to be turning. Clausen throws a 16-yard strike to freshman Josh Briscoe on 3rd and 7, but Briscoe is stripped, and Georgia recovers.
• Vols’ Eleventh Possession. The Vols’ defense held, but Georgia’s punter pinned Tennessee back on the one yard line. Tennessee could only muster eight yards before punting to Georgia, who ran it back for a touchdown.
• Vols’ Twelfth Possession. The game was essentially over at that point. The Vols made one first down and actually got ahead on downs, having a 2nd and five on the Tennessee 40 yard line when Clausen had to fall on a bad snap. That made it 3rd and ten, and they couldn’t convert.
• Vols’ Thirteenth Possession. The last Vol drive doesn’t really count, but they had no penalties or mistakes, and actually made a few big plays, including a 24-yard touchdown completion to Meachem as time ran out.

So the Volunteer offense had 12 meaningful possessions. It started almost half of those possession inside their own ten yard line, two of them inside their own five. Three times, the poor field position was directly attributable to Volunteer penalties.

On 4 of their drives, the Vols got behind on downs, either because of penalties or other mental errors.

Their good drives ended in turnovers.

Coach Fulmer’s assessment (subscription required) appears to be on target:

“We had 63 plays in the game Saturday, and 54 of them were outstanding, well-executed plays,” Fulmer said.

“We had 12 mistakes by different people that ended up costing you down and distance, field position or points.”

Ugh.

But still, if — IF — the Vols can cure their offensive woes, they still have a lot to play for, even after losing to two SEC East rivals.

They’re merely mostly dead.

Okay, so the Tennessee Vols lost to Georgia for the fifth time in six games, but Freaktoe and I had a good time at Neyland Stadium on Saturday.

Our comp tickets — thanks, Jimmie Miller, Esq., and Hunter, Smith & Davis! — were high up in the lower section at the south end zone, Section K, Row 63 to be exact. They gave us a great view of the Pride of the Southland’s Power T formation:

as well as the team running through the T:

I took several other pictures, but we were a bit too high to get anything very good. Freaktoe had two Cokes, peanuts, popcorn, and a few M&Ms, and we were only one row from the top and about 20 feet from a bathroom, so we only had to tick off two people instead of ten for Freaktoe’s five bathroom breaks.

Here’s a free tip to fathers taking young daughters to football games: less Coke, more peanuts.

The loss — and especially the as-yet-unknown-extent of beloved Jason Allen’s hip injury — put a damper on things, but we had a pretty good time. Freaktoe was actually quite into it when Jonathan Wade intercepted D.J. Shockley’s pass and ran it back for what should have been ruled a touchdown. (Rick Clausen snuck it in on the next play, and we got our seven, anyway.)

It’s a bit strange to hear Freaktoe telling people that we just had terrible field position all day. There’s hope for her yet.

In the A-Child-Can-Dream-Can’t-She file: About halfway through the 4th quarter, Freaktoe asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we actually made a touchdown?”

Yeah, that would be nice.

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.