Good article by Chris Harring - "Not According To Plan."

http://www.nfldraftblitz.com/index.php?c=2&a=774

I wish we could have kept Brent Schaeffer, but things just didn't work out. Ainge would be much farther along if Fulmer hadn't been so determined to give Rick Clausen playing time.

I hope Fulmer has learned that if you have two QBs, you don't have any. Even Spurrier couldn't make that QB-rotating crap work. Remember, he didn't win a National Championship at Florida until he settled on one guy.

I think Ainge will take every snap this season (barring injury). We should see much improvement from last year offensively.

Looks like we're going to be playing Nebraska in 2016 and 2017. Let's hope that by that time both are top 5 teams again:

http://sports.iwon.com/news/06222006/v1408.html

Nebraska, Tennessee Agree to Games in 2016, 2017
Jun 22, 5:53 PM (ET)

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Nebraska and Tennessee have agreed to a home-and-home football series for 2016 and 2017, the schools announced Thursday.

The Volunteers will visit Lincoln on Sept. 10, 2016, and the Cornhuskers will play in Knoxville on Sept. 9, 2017.

"The University of Tennessee and the University of Nebraska share rich football histories with great coaches, players and fans," Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "Knoxville and Lincoln are two of the great college towns and I know our respective fans and teams will look forward to these games with great anticipation."

The teams have played twice with Nebraska winning both times. They met in the Orange Bowl at the end of the 1997 season and in the Fiesta Bowl to cap the 1999 season.

"This is a series that is great for college football, and one that I know I will be anticipating," Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson said.

Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer lost both of those bowl games against Nebraska.

"I have followed the history of the University of Nebraska since my playing days. Coach (Bob) Devaney and Coach (Tom) Osborne, those were two individuals I followed during my early coaching years at Wichita State and since I have been here at Tennessee," Fulmer said.

Finally, it's here. At 5:30 EST Tennessee plays California, and we'll see if things have gotten any better. Cal is ranked #9 - do we have a chance? Many say not, but I will reserve judgement until I see the game. This is one of those seasons where I don't really have predictions. Hopefully we'll be getting back on track - back to winning the SEC and competing for National Titles.

This is asking a lot, given Fulmer's dogged determination not to change the offense at all. Will we be successful after bringing OC Cutcliffe in, reloading with better players, and keeping on doing what we've always done on offense? Or will this be another sub-par season with a lot of questions left unanswered? We'll have to wait and see.

Two defensive starters are out for the season following the Air Force game:

http://sports.iwon.com/news/09122006/v3408.html

Big Al I just felt bad for you being the only person to post on the Tennessee page so this is just me saying hey to you and props for the fact that you keep on posting even though nobody out there is responding. Be Proud...Stand strong. Keep on keepin on and one day, just maybe, this board will find another Tennessee fan.

Thanks! I'll just keep the faith, hold down the fort. Probably more folks will jump on the bandwagon after we handle Florida this week. :lol:

I hope they play with the same fire and intensity they brought to the Air Force game.

Fulmer is fired up for the Alabama Game, as am I:

http://tinyurl.com/y45rqy

3:30 PM 10/21/06, Neyland Stadium! I'll be there, and afterwards I'll be having a huge steak and a few glasses of wine in celebration of our having moved another step towards an SEC championship. I have to believe Florida will lose another SEC game, while we will not.

Young players get history lesson from Fulmer

By DREW EDWARDS, edwardsd@knews.com
October 17, 2006

All Josh McNeil wanted Sunday night was bite to eat.

What he got was yet another impromptu history lesson on the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry.

A fellow diner stopped Tennessee's redshirt freshman center and let him know just how important Saturday's home game (3:30 p.m., TV: WVLT) against the Crimson Tide is.

"There was some guy who was like, 'This is it. If you don't beat Alabama, your season's down the drain,' " McNeil said. "I was like, I hope it's not that bad."

If the No. 7 Vols (5-1, 1-1 SEC) should lose to Alabama (5-2, 2-2) it wouldn't be the end of the world.

It would only feel like it.

While other games against division rivals like Georgia and Florida loom a little bit larger on UT's schedule for fans, you'd be hard pressed to find one that means more to Tennessee's coaching staff.

UT coach Phillip Fulmer grew up a few short miles from the Alabama border in Winchester.

As a player, he went 3-1 against the Tide, including a 41-14 upset victory over then-No. 2 Alabama in 1969.

And then there are the 15 seasons as a head coach and 13 seasons as an assistant coach he's spent around the rivalry.

"Tennessee-Alabama is a special football game," Fulmer said. "This day and age with the BCS, every game's important, but I think it's important for our players to realize the guys on both sides that have worn the orange white of Tennessee forever look at this third Saturday in October as being special."

Offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe's history with the rivalry is a little more unique.

The Birmingham, Ala., native graduated from Alabama before he married into a Tennessee family.

"I got their perspective on what they thought of the Tennessee-Alabama game. That was the huge game for all the Tennessee people," Cutcliffe said. "It's got great class. There's a lot of things that created the intensity of the Tennessee-Alabama rivalry."

Sometimes the challenge is letting the players know just how much history is involved.

Haywood Harris, a former sports information director who is the athletic department's historian, gives a presentation about UT history for players before the season.

Alabama, which Tennessee first played in 1901 and every year since 1928 except for 1943, is certainly part of it, but that's not where the Tide lesson stops.

Beginning during last week's open date, Fulmer has been giving his players a refresher course.

"Coach Fulmer's addressed that all week last week and this week, making sure they understand it," Cutcliffe said. "He's done a great job with it. He's been around it a long, long time and played in it. The older players do maybe as good a job as we would do, telling the young players what this game's like."

The lessons have stuck, sophomore defensive tackle Walter Fisher said.

"It's more history in this game than I ever even knew of," he said. "It dates back to when the schools pretty much first started, I guess."

He's even seen a different side of Fulmer this week, too.

"A way different side," he said. "Monday we went full pads. We haven't did that since I've been here. It's been intense."

Senior offensive tackle Arron Sears, one of four Alabama natives on UT's roster, knows that.

"Alabama and Florida are the two biggies," "But Alabama has some hate blood around."

In high school, McNeil always caught the game on television from his home in Collins, Miss.

This weekend, he'll take his first snaps on the third Saturday in October.

And if his experience is anything like senior guard David Ligon's, his eyes will open wider on Saturday.

"Especially when you're a freshman, that first time you're on the field down on the sideline. Everything comes out," he said. "You realize how big this rivalry is."

Copyright 2006, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.

Especially for Fulmer, who's a POS. He spend more effort on testifying against opponent teams in the SEC than coaching his own players.

Bama has respect for the Vols front 4 on their D, who are as always exceptional & damn good, as Cal & others have found out, but I think Tennessse can't afford to underestimate a Joe Kines Tide defense either. S/B low-scoring & boring smashmouth game tomorrow.

Roll TIde. Get 2 in a row on Fulmer! I hope Gilberry bludgeons Ainge into a local hospital. THe last thing he sees before unconscious s/b the BAM in BAMA on the front of the Alabama helmets.