VolNotes:Friday ChickenNuggets

[orange+white=heaven]

With Carolina On My Mind, here are the press's offerings on this rainy Friday.....

If you're headed for Columbia, be careful out there Volunteers...

tfpOnline:4Vols In Home State Game

The only time Tennessee defensive end Robert Ayers laid a finger on South Carolina quarterback Syvelle Newton, his reward was a screaming coach in his face.

High school teammates aren’t supposed to hammer one another, especially when the victim is a top-flight prospect wearing a no-contact practice jersey.

"He didn’t expect it when I got him then," Ayers said. "He’s going to be expecting it now."

This is the game that I’ve been looking forward to all season," Ayers said. "Coming out of high school choosing to come out of state, I heard a lot of negative things. I just want to go there and just have a real good game, so I can quiet the negative speakers and let them know that I made a good decision."

Ayers, Hefney and Young all considered staying in state while being recruited to play for the Volunteers.

"I thought I needed to get away from home," Young said.

"Arron Sears is not that far ahead of where Eric Young has gotten himself to, to be honest with you," Fulmer said. "He’s a really good player. That’s a pretty big statement, especially coming from me about a lineman." As with UT’s other Carolina transplants, Young has special ties to this game.

Gamecocks defensive end Ryan Brown — "the guy I’m going to be up against all night," Young said — is a good friend. So is junior linebacker Curtis Rice, a former teammate at Union High School.

"I told Curt I didn’t want to talk him, not this week," Young said. "We’ll talk after the game."

tfpOnline:Spurrier and Newton

....Spurrier finally had South Carolina where he wanted: Poised to attack.

"Man, we were going to go up and down the field, and we were going to show this new passing game," Spurrier said. "Low and behold, we couldn’t even get a ball off. We couldn’t pass protect. If we did have time to throw, they had us covered or we couldn’t hit anything."
Instead, "The Evil Genius" headed back to the drawing board.

"I said, ‘Man, this is ridiculous. We can’t run that offense right now,’" Spurrier said. "I spent all that time trying to find all these plays, and can’t even get the ball off or hit it anyway.

"Let’s figure out what we can hit."

South Carolina (5-2, 3-2) appears to have found the answer, and his name is Syvelle Newton.

"It’s a little bit different," Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis said, "but they’re making it work. And I think that’s the sign of a good coach. You take what you’ve got and you play to the strengths of it."

"It makes the game more interesting," UT cornerback Jonathan Wade said. "Those plays that seem to break down and you know the quarterback is going to be sacked are not going to be that easy this week. You never know if that ball is going to come back out of there."
"It’s not hard to see why we’re moving the ball," Spurrier said. "It’s because Syvelle Newton is at quarterback, and he can dodge guys and run out of the pocket. It’s a world of difference.

"A mobile quarterback can take care of a lot of problems up front. Let’s put it that way."

"Steve Spurrier is very, very good at what he does," Wade said. "We know he’s going to have a plan ready for us."

According to Wade, the Vols are preparing for "the works" in this game — be it option pitches or a high-flying passing attack. Chavis said he dug through Spurrier’s film of at least four or five years ago, knowing his unit will see "some plays that you don’t expect."

"He has special plays," UT coach Phillip Fulmer said of Spurrier, "and he’s a little more daring than some people would be to run the special plays."

Tennessean:How Fulmer Landed Young

"I had to convince him, actually, that he could play here and was going to be big enough," Fulmer said.

Fulmer is the first to point out that Young, now at 305 pounds, hardly resembles the self-doubting, 265-pound teenager who once sat in his living room.
"Eric has matured," Fulmer said. "He's obviously gotten physically better, stronger. His control of his body's much better. The biggest thing that he's done is that he's gained confidence and he's matured, and he understands his responsibilities and his job."

"Tennessee is an elite program," Young said. "I just wasn't sure I could play here. I always thought they had big, super-huge tackles — 6-8, 340 and all that. But I just had a misconception of them."

"He bought in and redshirted and has taken his time, but now he's a really good player," Fulmer said. "The confidence factor is huge right now. He knows he's pretty good right now. Or at least he should."

Tennessean:Swain and Other Notes

Fulmer said Swain jogged on the side Thursday and added, "I don't know if that's playing football. We're going to take him with us because he's a help to the younger receivers because of his experience. But maybe he'll be better on Saturday. We'll see."

Conforming to Cut: Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge's transformation under offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe has involved more than just football.
Cutcliffe made it clear to Ainge in their first meeting that it was going to be that way.
"He basically said he was going to change the program," Ainge said. "It wasn't where he wanted it to be, so what better way to show the public and show the guys on the team that we're changing the program by having some changes in the quarterback.

"I turned my hat forwards, took my earrings out, started watching a lot more film, started being the first one to workouts and the last one to leave. And that was a direct result of what he was telling me I needed to do."

Kickoff returners: With LaMarcus Coker out with a knee injury, Fulmer said the Vols would probably go with Ja'Kouri Williams and Marsalous Johnson as the deep men on kickoff returns.
Last week, it was Arian Foster and Coker. But with Coker already missing, Fulmer doesn't want to take a chance with Foster.

Hardesty time: After getting just three carries the last two games against Alabama and Georgia, tailback Montario Hardesty should see his workload increase this weekend.
Fulmer said Foster and Hardesty would share the tailback carries now that Coker is sidelined. Hardesty, who had a 43-yard touchdown run in the opener against California, is still not all the way back from his knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament last season.
"His knee still swells some," Fulmer said. "The open date was good for him. But after last week, it swelled back up on him a little. It's just a matter of time. Sometimes, it's nine or 10 months. Sometimes, it's 16 or 17 months before they're completely over everything."

Eat Mor' Chikn'

 

[hohenfelsvol]

TGIF and wish it twas Saturday.

 

[tidwell]

I'm ready for this game! :rock2:

 

[Arclight]

VOLS win.

 

[GAMECOCK]

Spurrier and Newton and Rice and Boyd and Mckinley. Can UT contain them. naaaaaaaa.

 

[Arclight]

"Dream about the world you're gonna live in some fine day"

 

[volmanjr]

Spurrier and Newton and Rice and Boyd and Mckinley. Can UT contain them. naaaaaaaa.

They have medication that will help with delusions you know.:crazy:

 

[jakez4ut]

as always, nice work.