Well, it’s not quite the Dawgosphere, but Vologosphere has at least grown by one. A hearty welcome to the fray to Corn from a Jar, who is kicking things off with a series on 5 Signs the Vols are Making Me Prematurely Old. Poor guy is suffering from hair loss, persistent headache, and chest pain. All because of the Vols. No mention of what the recent flurry of off-the-field discipline problems has done to the guy.

Sifting through all of the news about the dismissal of freshman tight end Lee Smith and the suspension of Marsalous Johnson, I did find some news that’s actually about football:

• VolQuest.com has a lengthy article on the position battles to expect during fall practice.
• GoVolsXtra.com has its Alabama preview up.
• Inside Tennessee’s Randy Moore says Georgia won’t win the SEC this year because their two weaknesses are at QB and defensive back, the two areas that get teams beat.
• Former Vol QB Brent Schaeffer has finally been cleared to play for Ole Miss.
• For UT, however, Gerald Williams is still in limbo.

All for now.

Just a quick note, GoVolsXtra.com is reporting that coach Fulmer has kicked freshman signee Lee Smith off the team after his arrest for drunk driving this morning and has suspended defensive back Marsalous Johnson four games for pointing a toy gun at an off-duty law enforcement officer on I-40.

Fulmer’s comments:

As for Marsalous, he has been suspended from the football team for the first four games regardless of the outcome of his court appearance for not following my instructions to walk away from any potential trouble. When classes begin (Aug. 23), he will be required to move back into the dorm and return his car to his home as well as performing 50 hours of community service. His practice status on the team will be as a member of the scout team.

Any reinstatement of Marsalous depends on his attitude and demonstration of accountability.

Regarding Lee, I have made the decision that he be dismissed from the football team. I have great respect for the Smith family and for Daryl as a former Volunteer. It is my sincere hope that this will be an opportunity for Lee to mature and get his life in order.

Apparently, some of the facts of Johnson’s situation are in question. He is denying that he pointed the gun at the officer.

This would be getting even more attention if it weren’t for even bigger news out of Oklahoma.

Ugh. CBS Sportsline is reporting that Lee Smith has been arrested for DUI.

That’s two incidents this week and four since May.

Somebody put on the brakes.

It is unclear whether Tennessee freshman football player Lee Smith, who was one of UT’s top recruits this season, is involved in a brewing scandal at Powell High School. Powell assistant principal Kim Kallenberg is being investigated for allegedly having an inappropriate relationship with a student and tampering with several students’ grades.

Smith signed a sworn statement yesterday saying that he did not have a sexual or inappropriate relationship with the 36-year-old Kallenberg. The GoVolsXtra article does not mention whether he commented on the grade fixing in the statement. Smith did, however, score a 25 on his ACT, which seems to indicate that he was not in the market for grade fixing. UT has no current plans to investigate Smith’s involvement or lack thereof, but says that it will continue to monitor the situation.

Ouch. Ouch! That hurts, stop it! Ooowwwwwwwwww.

I can put all of today’s earth-shattering news into a single sentence: Defensive tackle Justin Harrell got his tonsils removed, and Luke Stocker, Jacques McClendon, and Lee Smith are enrolled in the first session of summer school while most of the rest of the newcomers are expected to enroll in July for the second session.

Before starting the player pages for Tennessee’s newest recruits, I of course had to figure out who should be first, and that turned out to be more of a chore than I thought it would, mostly because it involved math. So the first of the player pages will have to wait until this weekend.

But I have ranked the players according to how the various recruiting services viewed them. Here’s my methodology, as subjective as it may be: Since Scout.com and Rivals.com seem to be the Pepsi and Coke of recruiting sources, I first averaged the star ratings of each player and ranked accordingly. I used ESPN.com’s “grade” for each player to break any ties. Any ties after that were broken by complete subjectivity without any thought whatsoever because it was getting late.

So here are the newest Tennessee Volunteers, sorted by highest ranking:

This weekend, I’ll start the player pages, beginning with Walter Fisher. See ya then.

The results are in for yesterday’s National Signing Day, and the Tennessee Volunteers followed up their horrible 5-6 season with a decent, but sub-par, recruiting season.

Scout.com has the Tennessee Volunteer 2006 recruiting class ranked at No. 24 nationally and No. 7 in the SEC behind Florida (No. 2), Georgia (No. 4), LSU (No. 7), Auburn (No. 9), Mississippi (No. 15), and Alabama (No. 18).

Rivals.com has Tennessee at No. 23 nationally and No. 7 in the SEC behind the same teams.

ESPN? No. 15 nationally, and No. 6 in the SEC, behind all of the same teams except Ole Miss.

Here are the players that committed yesterday:

• Quarterbacks
• Nick Stephens
• Running Backs
• Dustin Lindsey
• Wide Receivers
• Quintin Hancock
• Stephaun Raines
• Tight Ends
• Lee Smith
• Luke Stocker
• Offensive Linemen
• Ramone Johnson
• Jacques McClendon
• Darius Myers
• Cody Pope
• Defensive Linemen
• Walter Fisher
• Blake Garretson
• Chase Nelson
• Jarrod Shaw
• Victor Thomas
• Linebackers
• Dorian Davis
• LaMarcus Thompson
• Gerald Williams
• Defensive Backs
• Justin Garrett
• Kickers
• Chad Cunningham
• Daniel Lincoln
• Athletes
• Brent Vinson

Get to know these guys with me starting tomorrow, when I’ll start compiling information about the new players, giving each one a dedicated page.