VolNotes:BamaWeek TGIF

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It's Friday!!!!

Put out the flags...Put on your game cap...Make ready the tailgate...Pop The Pride into the CD player....

The Bama Game Is Upon Us!!!

Here's the Friday reading material....

tfpOnline:Inky Named Honorary Captain

Captains are usually an honor held for seniors, but Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer won’t get any complaints for breaking that rule this week.

Junior Inquoris "Inky" Johnson was named an honorary captain for Saturday’s game against Alabama. It will mark his first on-field appearance for the Volunteers since being carted out of Neyland Stadium on Sept. 9. Johnson recently returned to Knoxville after visiting the Mayo Clinic for treatment of nerve damage and torn blood vessels in his right arm and shoulder. Fulmer made the decision Thursday to send him to the field with fellow game captains Turk McBride, Arron Sears, Jayson Swain, Marvin Mitchell, Ben Greene and Antwan Stewart.

"I think this is a nice way to honor him," Fulmer said. "It’s a special Saturday for the Tennessee people to join us in honoring him for what he has done here and the type of person he is — the wonderful young person he is."

[QUOTES]Swain expected to play
The questionable status of receiver Swain appears to be clearing up. Fulmer said he fully expects the Huntsville, Ala., resident to play against his home-state school, despite being hobbled with an ankle injury.

Swain was held out of some drills as a precautionary measure Thursday, but he feels he will be just fine come game time.

"I did a little running, a little jogging, a little planting," Swain said. "It looks good. I’ve been in there getting it treated and doing everything I can to help this team on Saturday."
[/quote]

Return adjustments
With mononucleosis plaguing Austin Rogers, the Vols once again have had to turn safety Jonathan Hefney into the punt returner.

The junior has returned punts in all three of his seasons and is being used as Rogers’ replacement for the second time this season. Hefney has returned three punts for 21 yards this year. Behind him is receiver Robert Meachem, who hasn’t returned a punt this season.

Running backs LaMarcus Coker and Arian Foster will handle the kickoffreturn duties. Foster has yet to take a kickoff this year. Fulmer said he will stick with the same running-back rotation he used in Tennessee’s win over Georgia two weeks ago.

He said Coker, Foster and Montario Hardesty all will get an opportunity to carry the ball. Against the Bulldogs, Foster and Coker took 27 of the team’s 28 carries.

Coker is expected to start, but that isn’t necessarily an indication of who will get the most touches.

tfpOnline:Intensity Up For Bama

Welcome to the Third Saturday in October.

"You can kind of tell," UT quarterback Erik Ainge said, "there are certain things that make this game a little more special than some of the other ones."

What makes it so special?

"In the two states we’re talking about, support of college football runs deep," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "There’s an extra passion among the fans in the state of Alabama and the state of Tennessee."

It’s different for players as well. There’s new pressure and new stakes and new nervousness, which is a reason these games are usually so close.

Such aspects are not always easy to explain if you’ve never played in one. Chattanooga’s John Becksvoort, a UT place-kicker from 1991-94, used a golf analogy.

"You can play round after round," he said, "but the first time you get into a stroke-play tournament, it’s hard to pull the driver back. The Alabama game was kind of that way."

"You’ve got people always pressing you about what you do in the Alabama game," senior linebacker Marvin Mitchell said. "A lot of fans, a lot of people take pride in watching those games and saying, ‘Hey, Marvin Mitchell is the one that stopped them here or Turk McBride is the one that stopped them there.’" It’s true. Take former Vols tailback Jay Graham, now the running backs coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. To many Vols and Tide fans, Graham is remembered best for a 79-yard touchdown run to help complete a stirring comeback in a 20-13 victory over Alabama in 1996. "Once you step foot on that campus and become a part of that program, as a player or a coach, you understand the importance of beating Alabama," Graham said. "The intensity is just so much higher that week. That’s just the game."

Redshirt freshman center Josh McNeil, who hails from southern Mississippi, had a Sunday night trip to a local restaurant halted by talk of the rivalry.

"There was some guy, he’s like, ‘This is it. If you don’t beat Alabama, your season is down the drain,’" McNeil said with a chuckle. "I was just like, ‘I hope it’s not that bad.’ "But I’m kind of starting to understand, to Tennessee people, this is almost the game of the year."

tfpOnline:Many In Bama See UT Bigger Than UA(oops AU..)

....no Alabama player was shy about acknowledging a growing, previously unspoken development along the banks of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa.

The importance of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry has equaled — or even surpassed — the famed showdown against Auburn. If only the Iron Bowl was on the Third Saturday in October.

"That’s the biggest surprise of actually being here," Alabama sophomore center Antoine Caldwell said. "I feel like three-fourths of Alabama Nation would rather us beat Tennessee than Auburn now. Last year, it was kind of a big deal to me, but I didn’t fully understand until after we won that game last year. It seemed like the whole city was elevated. Everybody was partying. I realized how big of a deal it is to beat Tennessee."

"They’re about in the same boat," Alabama running back Ken Darby said. "You play at the University of Alabama, you’ve got to beat Tennessee and you’ve got to beat Auburn. That’s what folks expect from you every year. It’s like a must. Even if you were going to lose every other game you played, as long as you beat Tennessee and Auburn, everything is a good deal with everybody."

"Everybody talks about Tennessee just as much as Auburn," Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson said. "It’s just as intense of a rivalry, just because it’s Tennessee and the people around here don’t like them any more than they do Auburn. It’s going to be interesting up there."

"They’re not going to let up," Alabama fullback Tim Castille said. "There’s going to be some hitting going on.

"It’s pretty darn close between Auburn and Tennessee, man. It’s just because it hasn’t been consistent that we beat Tennessee. Plus, if I hear ‘Rocky Top’ one more time, I’m going to shoot myself."

tfpOnline:Fulmer Impressed With J.Parker Wilson

John Parker Wilson’s surprisingly solid first season as Alabama’s quarterback has proved something Tennessee’s coach saw long ago. It’s why, back then, Fulmer worked to get Wilson to wear orange.

"Everything everybody thought he would be out of high school, he is," Fulmer said. "He’s just going to continue to get better."

The pairing of Ainge, a confident product of Oregon, and southern boy Wilson will have a lot to say about a rivalry game that could be nothing like the 6-3 slugfest of a year ago. Both traditional defensive powerhouses, Tennessee and Alabama have been carried much of the way this season by unforeseen offensive production.

"You see a crispness," said Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Joe Kines of the Vols. "They are really sharp, really precise. Things look the same. They don’t run a play that looks this way one time and the next time it looks this way."

The Tide’s approach is to blitz quarterbacks and leave receivers in one-on-one coverage with cornerbacks. Ainge said the Vols, who have totaled 92 points the past two games, won’t be deterred by such tactics. "They put (corners) in a lot of one-on-one situations with a deep safety over the top to help," Ainge said. "What they say is, ‘You’re not going to be able to consistently throw the ball against our one-on-one coverage.’"

Thus far this season, Wilson has thrown for at least 200 yards in every game, rarified air for a freshman, particularly one in a program so historically chained to the production of its running game.

Wilson has completed 118 of 197 passes (59.9 percent) and balanced 11 touchdowns with five interceptions.

"For a first-year starter, he’s probably playing as well as any quarterback I’ve seen," UT defensive coordinator John Chavis said. "He’s a tough guy. He gets hit, it doesn’t faze him. Not much rattles him."

Thank God For Third Saturdays In October!!!

If you're travelling to Knoxville today, drive safely...

Go Vols!!!

 

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Tennesseanefensive Backfield Solidifies

"They're, without question, the lead unit on our defense," Chavis said. "It'd be really sad thinking where we would be if those guys hadn't played as well as they have."
Heading into Saturday's showdown with archrival Alabama (5-2, 2-2 SEC), the Vols have had at least one interception in five of their six games this season. The only exception came against Air Force's run-heavy flexbone attack.

As expected, Wade and junior safety Jonathan Hefney have led the group — Hefney has an interception in each of the last three games, and Wade leads the SEC in passes defended — but the two new starters are still rounding into form.
"Stewart's done a good job at corner," Chavis said. "Morley has grown a little bit each week. There's obviously a reason he wasn't starting, but he's grown and playing really good football for us right now."

We did make big plays against Georgia, but we also gave up big plays," Stewart said. "We still need to work on our communication and keep jelling together."
Coach Phillip Fulmer's priority is to keep developing depth.
Junior Antonio Gaines is the only experienced cornerback behind Stewart and Wade. Redshirt freshmen Ricardo Kemp and Marsalous Johnson, who seldom played before Johnson's injury, gradually are being worked into the mix.
"We still can't afford any injuries there," Fulmer said. "We'd be trying to bring some coach out of retirement or something."

Robert Meachem said they can thank receivers coach Trooper Taylor for their improvement since last year.
"Coach Troop is giving them all our techniques," Meachem said. "At first, they used to go for certain moves. Now they don't bite on certain moves. Or if you set them up a certain kind of way, they still stay in their backpedal. It's harder to get open on these guys."

 

[OWB]

The Tide’s approach is to blitz quarterbacks and leave receivers in one-on-one coverage with cornerbacks

Bring it!

 

[hohenfelsvol]

TGIF!! Thanks as always for the consolidating all the quotes and stories.:hi:

 

[hohenfelsvol]

Bring it!

Exactly!! It worked so well for CAL!!

 

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:zeitung_lesen: just topping off

 

[tidwell]

"They’re not going to let up," Alabama fullback Tim Castille said. "There’s going to be some hitting going on.

"It’s pretty darn close between Auburn and Tennessee, man. It’s just because it hasn’t been consistent that we beat Tennessee. Plus, if I hear ‘Rocky Top’ one more time, I’m going to shoot myself."

Tim Castille's future is not looking terribly bright.