Heisman Pundit has a series on Great Heisman Injustices, and today he looks at the 1997 decision between Peyton Manning and eventual winner Charles Woodson. That was the year the Volunteer faithful began calling the award the Heistman.

HP concludes that although Manning was worthy, Woodson was, too, and so 1997 cannot be considered a great injustice. Head on over and let him know what you think.

But be nice.

Beloved former Volunteer Peyton Manning was on campus Wednesday and Thursday to, among other things, work out with the team. While here, Manning commented on last year’s season-long quarterback controversy:

I think being in a rhythm is important. It may take you one play to get in a rhythm or two or three series. If you are having to come out every two series, that’s not easy to do. Now you don’t use that as an excuse as why he made this throw or made this decision. The thing I always liked when I was here was the loyalty, the commitment I had from coach Fulmer, coach Cutcliffe. Sure you’d like to have some of those throws back … but they stuck with me. I’d like to see that with Erik this year. I think he’s earned it.

Manning won the starting quarterback role his freshman year, but only after (1) Jerry Colquitt’s injury in the season opener; (2) Todd Helton’s subsequent injury; and (3) rotating with Branndon Stewart for a few games. Manning said that Ainge “really threw the ball well” on Wednesday.

More on last year’s QB debacle for Peter and Burnt Orange Nation coming soon, hopefully within the week.

UPDATE: Knoxville media guy Jim Wogan has posted a portion of his video interview with Manning.

John Pennington on Tennessee Volunteer Quarterback Erik Ainge:

I have said for a couple of weeks that UT should turn the season over to Erik Ainge. “Ainge has more upside.” “Ainge will be back next year.” “If UT doesn’t want another QB controversy next year, they’d better see as much of Ainge as they can between now and the end of the season.”

Well, as Gilda Radner used to say, “Nevermind.”

All of the reasons for playing Ainge still hold true. Except for the last one. The coaches, after just 4 passes vs Memphis (and an almost carbon copy of his LSU start) should have already seen enough of Ainge to know what they’re dealing with:

A very fundamentally-flawed headcase.

Poor decisions come with 19-year-old QBs who’ve only started and completed 2 games. That’s part of growing up. Not every Vol QB is going to have Peyton Manning’s learning curve.

But terrible fundamentals on top of the mental errors can’t be accepted. A dumb pass might just be a dumb pass if it’s thrown well. A dumb pass thrown by someone who no longer even tries to set his feet… well, that’s death.

Of Ainge’s 4 passes vs Memphis, three times he failed to set his feet before throwing the ball (this includes the non-interception that was brought back due to a questionable “roughing the passer” call). On the other pass, the long, floating duck-like INT, Ainge had someone laying at his feet. So he couldn’t step into the pass. Rather than realizing this, he relied on that big arm of his and shotput a ball 25 yards down field.

The question remains: Is There Life After Death Valley for Erik Ainge?

Jimmy Hyams says UT must play Rick Clausen, not only in order to win, but to help Ainge recover:

So now what do you do if you’re Fulmer?

You hand the keys to Clausen. He has proven he can beat mediocre teams like Vanderbilt and Kentucky. He did it last year. He did it against Memphis.

You shut down Ainge. If you’ve got the shanks, stay away from the golf course for a few weeks or a few months. Don’t destroy Ainge’s confidence any longer.

Let your new offensive coordinator try to dig Ainge out of his dilemma.

But don’t let Ainge continue to bury himself, his confidence and his team.

But Pennington believes that Clausen won’t be able to beat Vanderbilt or Kentucky unless they’re dumb enough to blitz him.

Indeed, what do you do if you’re Fulmer?

The Tennesseean is citing a source within the Tennessee Volunteer football program as saying that Head Coach Phillip Fulmer and Offensive Coordinator Randy Sanders have had ongoing discussions about Sanders’ future with the Volunteers.

With Tennessee’s offense in its worst funk of the Phillip Fulmer era, Randy Sanders could be on his way out as offensive coordinator.

A source within the UT football program told The Tennessean yesterday that Fulmer and Sanders have had ongoing discussions centering around Sanders giving up his coordinator duties.

The source emphasized that nothing had been finalized, and it was unclear whether Sanders would step aside immediately or finish out the season.

Sanders first spoke to Fulmer late Saturday about the possibility of resigning following Tennessee’s 16-15 loss to South Carolina. They talked again yesterday.

Everyone’s talking about the fact that former offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe, who developed both Peyton and Eli Manning, is back healthy and living in Knoxville. He’s said, though, that he will not return to the Vols at the expense of Randy Sanders, with whom he is good friends. I’ve wondered for a couple of weeks whether Athletic Director Mike Hamilton might be working quietly behind the scenes to coordinate a graceful exit for Sanders that would make Cutcliffe feel more comfortable about returning. It sounds like it might be happening.

More later.

John Pennington’s random thoughts for the day:

• Is there a happy medium between a Johnny Majors-esque live-in-fear-for-your-job mentality with respect to assistant coaches and the Fulmer-ish we-are-all-a-family approach?
• Ohio State fans handle disappointment better than Tennessee fans.

OSU is a mirror of UT in almost EVERY way this season. But their fans packed the stadium and were IN the game from start to finish. Even when Michigan State was capitalizing on OSU special teams fumbles… the fans would immediately re-charge their batteries and begin screaming again with the ensuing kickoff.

That’s what Neyland Stadium USED to be. Personally, I think Vol fans grew spoiled during the Manning Era (and the immediate aftermath) and now they look at the game as they would a film or an opera. “Entertain me!” Sure that’s a fair assessment.

But Vol fans used to look at the games as THEIR chance to get involved. They seemed to believe that they were as important a part of a Vol victory as the team was. And that’s a far cry from, “Entertain me!”

• An outsider’s perspective on Neyland Stadium:

“The most uncomfortable stadium in America.” The seats are too small from side-to-side and there’s very little room front-to-back, either (according to [Pennington's friend]). If you’re not driving your knees into someone’s back, then somebody else has theirs in yours.

• Volunteer bowl projections look disappointing.
• You know any Kentucky football coach has his work cut out for him when the local media has pre-game coverage of a basketball practice during football season.
• Calls to replace Randy Sanders with Trooper Taylor because Trooper offers a lot of excitement is like “choosing a doctor because he’s got good hair.”
• Gerald Riggs is “Cedric Houston Part 2.” Good, but not great.
• The guy who created firerandysanders.com (intentionally not a link) deserves the same treatment. Go read Pennington’s suggestions here.
• Tennessee might have been able to beat Alabama last week, but now that the Crimson Tide has had their wake-up call, it’s much more difficult to call.

Pennington, as always, is full of insight. Today’s blog is lengthy, but worth the read.

John Pennington makes the case for a change in the Tennessee Volunteers’ football philosophy.

Like any good argument, Pennington’s starts by establishing a solid factual premise. The stats, he says, clearly show that the Volunteer football program is on the decline:

• The Johnny Majors Era. From 1985 to 1992, Tennessee got blown out (defined as losing by 13 points or more) only once every season on average.
• The Phillip Fulmer Era, Part I. From 1992 to 2001, the Vols got blown out, on average, once every two and a half seasons.
• The Phillip Fulmer Era, Part II. Since 2002, the Vols are being blown out about twice per season.

Having established the first premise, Pennington sets up the second, that the reason for the decline is a failure to adapt to changing times:

But I do believe that Fulmer needs to realize that the game has “caught up” with him a bit. Since the Vols’ terrible 2nd half vs LSU in 2001 (that cost them a slot in the BCS National Title Game), the Vols have gone from GREAT to GOOD.

In other words, what worked with Manning & Lewis, Martin & Henry and Shuler & Garner… hasn’t worked as well with Clausens, Houstons, and Riggs running many of the same plays. (Those are all good players, but they’re not early-round NFL draft pick-type players).

* * * *

This isn’t a unique phenomenon. Steve Spurrier ruled the SEC roost for nearly a decade, only to see the rest of the league catch up to him around the turn of the century… dropping his Gators to a yearly 9-2 level. (Still quite good, but not a National Title contender.) Rather than adjust, Spurrier fled to the pros. Now that he’s back in the SEC, will he adjust his system to match his talents? We’ll see.

Pennington then concludes that Coach Fulmer should remedy the failure to adapt to the times by reconsidering his football philosophy. Perhaps a “tweak,” sort of like Joe Paterno’s, whose chucking of the I-don’t-play-freshman world view has led to Penn State’s best start in years.

Or perhaps something more drastic, like Bear Bryant’s legendary 1971 scrapping of Alabama’s traditional offensive scheme in favor of the wishbone, which Pennington said “was equivalent to the Mississippi River running backwards.”

Pennington’s conclusion:

The point is this, if a coach isn’t moving forward, he’s moving backward. The coaches with the greatest longevity and success are the ones who are able to re-invent themselves (or at least “tweak” their systems) when there are signs of cracks in the foundation.

I believe the stats above show cracks in the foundation. The SEC and the nation are catching up to Phillip Fulmer. Will he be willing to make some changes? Or will he suffer the consequences of standing still?

Time will tell.

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.

As promised, John Pennington posted on Sunday afternoon a much more detailed analysis of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Florida Gators.

Last night’s post made several observations about the fan reaction to Saturday night’s game. He starts with some (oxymoron alert!) modest gloating about his posts suggesting ending the quarterback question and limiting the receiver rotation but notes that fans will continue to second guess the quarterback position the rest of the season.

Pennington then concludes another excellent post by suggesting that fans are wrong to pin the offensive woes on scheme or play calling when they are instead due to poor execution, and by noting some dissension between Head Coach Phillip Fulmer and Offensive Coordinator Randy Sanders, including saying that he was able to confirm with an insider source that Fulmer was high on Erik Ainge while Sanders was high on Rick Clausen.

One thing not mentioned, and I wasn’t able to listen to the radio during my drive time yesterday, but is no one yet talking about re-hiring David Cutcliffe, who is now available and in the area, and who coached both Peyton and Eli Manning into the NFL? I’m not advocating it — I think Pennington’s right that Sanders is too often unfairly villified — I’m just surprised if no one has considered the possibility yet.

John Adams’ column on GoVolsXtra.com (subscription required) notes the Florida Gators and new head coach Urban Meyer are on a campaign to reclaim the Swamp:

The Vols gave up 48 unanswered points in The Swamp in 1995. Peyton Manning lost the Heisman Trophy there in 1997.

In 1996, Florida averaged 56.8 points in six home games. In 11 years, from 1990 through 2000, the Gators lost only four home games.

The 12th year didn’t start out much differently. The Gators averaged 52.8 points in winning their first five home games. No wonder, they were a 17-point favorite to beat UT on the way to the SEC championship game and maybe even a national title.

But since UT pulled off that historic 34-32 upset, The Swamp hasn’t been the same.

It looks like they’ve lost seven home games since then.

By the way, Dave Hooker yesterday on his radio show described the Swamp as becoming more like a little cess pool.

All in fun.