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Vols lean heavily on running back Cal passed over
By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer
KNOXVILLE If you don't believe in fate, consider for a moment Arian Foster's path to Tennessee.
The Vols' starting tailback played his final two years of high school football in San Diego while living with his father, Carl, but was never seriously recruited by California.
Tennessee discovered Foster by accident. Former offensive coordinator Randy Sanders traveled to San Diego to see quarterback Richard Kovalcheck play in a playoff game. Kovalcheck's team just happened to be playing against Foster's team that night.
The Vols wound up losing Kovalcheck to Arizona, but Sanders didn't forget about Foster.
Initially, the rest of Tennessee's staff wasn't sold on Foster, but Sanders kept pushing.
"Randy stood on the table for him, which is what you want your coaches to do if they believe in somebody," Coach Phillip Fulmer said. "He was good on film, but it makes a difference when you have a coach pushing the way Randy did for Arian."
Foster, who was only a junior when Sanders first saw him, didn't get an offer from Tennessee until the latter part of his senior season. He wasn't that highly recruited and had all but decided to attend Oregon.
That is, until he visited Tennessee and met Trooper Taylor.
"I talked to Coach Troop for hours," Foster recounted. "He's really the reason I'm here now."
And back to that fate thing, Kovalcheck is also in Tennessee now, albeit at Vanderbilt after graduating from Arizona and transferring to play for the Commodores this season.
There's more, too.
The top running back prospect in California during Foster's senior year was Marshawn Lynch, who comes to Neyland Stadium on Saturday carrying Heisman Trophy credentials.
"It's funny sometimes how everything works out," Foster said. "Right before Coach Sanders came to see that game, I remember my father telling me that if I really wanted to play Division I ball, that every single time you step onto that field, you have to perform because you never know who's out there watching.
"Everything happens for a reason, and I'm right where I want to be."
Foster enters his sophomore season as perhaps the cornerstone of the Vols' offense. He ended last season with five straight 100-yard rushing performances. Only two other Vols have put together longer streaks of consecutive 100-yard games Jay Graham (nine) and Johnnie Jones (six).
Foster will get his chance for six in a row on Saturday against the Golden Bears, and he'll do so in the best shape of his life.
Despite offseason surgery on both his shoulder and knee, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Foster has toned down, while also adding speed. He went through a rigorous offseason rehabilitation and training program that included everything from speed work on the track to some heavy-duty work in the pool.
Foster's older brother, Abdul, ran the hurdles at Florida A&M. He helped prepare a workout for Foster that included more speed training than a year ago.
"Arian had some issues with his knee last year that we tried to play down," said his father, who was a receiver at New Mexico and went to training camp with the Broncos during the early 1980s.
"I'm proud of how patient he was with everything and how hard he worked. I don't know that I could have done everything he did. I'm not saying that just because he's my son. But having two surgeries and undergoing all the rehab work he did and to come back like he has says something about his will."
The Vols were careful with Foster this preseason, but saw enough to know that he's ready.
"He's run stronger, and I think he's run with more explosiveness and acceleration," offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe said. "That's one of the things you wanted to see. A year ago, I'd sit there and look at him and expect him to go to another gear. I think I've seen that, not enough yet, but I've seen it some this preseason."
Fulmer remembers coming over to the UT football complex on some Sundays this summer and seeing Foster in there by himself and sweating through his workout regimen.
There was something therapeutic about the solitude of those sessions, according to Foster.
"My father taught me that the road to success is lonely," Foster said. "That's what it is."
Soon after Foster signed his scholarship with Tennessee, his father was able to negotiate a transfer from the West Coast to be closer to his son. Carl now works in Brentwood as the general manager of the AmeriSuites hotel.
Foster's mother, Bernadette, is also a regular at Tennessee games and racks up the frequent flier miles from Albuquerque, N.M. When she's not in town, she's keeping up with the Vols via the internet message boards on Gridscape.
Even though Taylor is no longer Foster's position coach, the two maintain an extremely close relationship. Foster refers to Taylor as his father away from home.
"He wants to be the best," Taylor said. "When he got here, that's one of the things he always talked about. He wanted to re-write some records here and always talked about the backs Tennessee had in the past and trying to get back to that level.
"The thing about Arian is that he responds. We teased him about the safety from Vanderbilt walking him down and catching him from behind last year, and he went out and worked on his speed. We got on him about carrying the football (loosely), and he carried it to church with him.
"You can scratch his pride, and he'll get it fixed."
By CHRIS LOW
Staff Writer
KNOXVILLE If you don't believe in fate, consider for a moment Arian Foster's path to Tennessee.
The Vols' starting tailback played his final two years of high school football in San Diego while living with his father, Carl, but was never seriously recruited by California.
Tennessee discovered Foster by accident. Former offensive coordinator Randy Sanders traveled to San Diego to see quarterback Richard Kovalcheck play in a playoff game. Kovalcheck's team just happened to be playing against Foster's team that night.
The Vols wound up losing Kovalcheck to Arizona, but Sanders didn't forget about Foster.
Initially, the rest of Tennessee's staff wasn't sold on Foster, but Sanders kept pushing.
"Randy stood on the table for him, which is what you want your coaches to do if they believe in somebody," Coach Phillip Fulmer said. "He was good on film, but it makes a difference when you have a coach pushing the way Randy did for Arian."
Foster, who was only a junior when Sanders first saw him, didn't get an offer from Tennessee until the latter part of his senior season. He wasn't that highly recruited and had all but decided to attend Oregon.
That is, until he visited Tennessee and met Trooper Taylor.
"I talked to Coach Troop for hours," Foster recounted. "He's really the reason I'm here now."
And back to that fate thing, Kovalcheck is also in Tennessee now, albeit at Vanderbilt after graduating from Arizona and transferring to play for the Commodores this season.
There's more, too.
The top running back prospect in California during Foster's senior year was Marshawn Lynch, who comes to Neyland Stadium on Saturday carrying Heisman Trophy credentials.
"It's funny sometimes how everything works out," Foster said. "Right before Coach Sanders came to see that game, I remember my father telling me that if I really wanted to play Division I ball, that every single time you step onto that field, you have to perform because you never know who's out there watching.
"Everything happens for a reason, and I'm right where I want to be."
Foster enters his sophomore season as perhaps the cornerstone of the Vols' offense. He ended last season with five straight 100-yard rushing performances. Only two other Vols have put together longer streaks of consecutive 100-yard games Jay Graham (nine) and Johnnie Jones (six).
Foster will get his chance for six in a row on Saturday against the Golden Bears, and he'll do so in the best shape of his life.
Despite offseason surgery on both his shoulder and knee, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Foster has toned down, while also adding speed. He went through a rigorous offseason rehabilitation and training program that included everything from speed work on the track to some heavy-duty work in the pool.
Foster's older brother, Abdul, ran the hurdles at Florida A&M. He helped prepare a workout for Foster that included more speed training than a year ago.
"Arian had some issues with his knee last year that we tried to play down," said his father, who was a receiver at New Mexico and went to training camp with the Broncos during the early 1980s.
"I'm proud of how patient he was with everything and how hard he worked. I don't know that I could have done everything he did. I'm not saying that just because he's my son. But having two surgeries and undergoing all the rehab work he did and to come back like he has says something about his will."
The Vols were careful with Foster this preseason, but saw enough to know that he's ready.
"He's run stronger, and I think he's run with more explosiveness and acceleration," offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe said. "That's one of the things you wanted to see. A year ago, I'd sit there and look at him and expect him to go to another gear. I think I've seen that, not enough yet, but I've seen it some this preseason."
Fulmer remembers coming over to the UT football complex on some Sundays this summer and seeing Foster in there by himself and sweating through his workout regimen.
There was something therapeutic about the solitude of those sessions, according to Foster.
"My father taught me that the road to success is lonely," Foster said. "That's what it is."
Soon after Foster signed his scholarship with Tennessee, his father was able to negotiate a transfer from the West Coast to be closer to his son. Carl now works in Brentwood as the general manager of the AmeriSuites hotel.
Foster's mother, Bernadette, is also a regular at Tennessee games and racks up the frequent flier miles from Albuquerque, N.M. When she's not in town, she's keeping up with the Vols via the internet message boards on Gridscape.
Even though Taylor is no longer Foster's position coach, the two maintain an extremely close relationship. Foster refers to Taylor as his father away from home.
"He wants to be the best," Taylor said. "When he got here, that's one of the things he always talked about. He wanted to re-write some records here and always talked about the backs Tennessee had in the past and trying to get back to that level.
"The thing about Arian is that he responds. We teased him about the safety from Vanderbilt walking him down and catching him from behind last year, and he went out and worked on his speed. We got on him about carrying the football (loosely), and he carried it to church with him.
"You can scratch his pride, and he'll get it fixed."
