COLLEGE SPORTS: Fulmer and Summitt Bring UT Caravan

By The Continuous News Desk

Published: May 19, 2008

JOHNSON CITY – Coming off a Southeastern Conference East Division championship, it would seem Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer didn’t need any extra inspiration for the 2008 season.

Yet Fulmer, who starts his 17th season Sept. 1 at UCLA, admits to feeling “reinvigorated” about this year. The reason? New blood on the offensive coaching staff, most notably coordinator Dave Clawson, who joined the program in January after a successful run at Richmond.

“I think he’s just as anxious to see what the offense is going to evolve into as anybody,” Vols play-by-play man Bob Kesling said Monday morning when the Big Orange Caravan stopped off at Munsey Church.

Many fans have howled for changes in the offense, even as last year’s team featured a 3,000-yard passer (Erik Ainge), a 1,000-yard rusher (Arian Foster) and a 1,000-yard receiver (Lucas Taylor). The departure of offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe – who accepted the head coaching job at Duke in December – and Clawson’s hiring has satisfied the vast majority.

Clawson’s scheme is a mix of UT’s traditional power running game, the “West Coast” passing attack and the spread formation which has become the offense du jour around college football.

“I think we’ve made the transition reasonably well, although there’s still work to be done by the players and coaches,” Fulmer said. “We still have to put the whole thing together this summer and in preseason to find out what we’ve got.”

On paper, the Vols would appear to have a lot. Foster and Taylor head a list of eight returning starters on offense, including four linemen from a group which allowed the fewest sacks (four) of any team in the Football Bowl Subdivision last year.

Yet one of the newcomers mans the vitally important quarterback position. Junior Jonathan Crompton, who showed flashes of excellence as Ainge’s backup the last two seasons, looked sharp in the Orange-White Spring Game despite playing with a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Crompton is a better athlete than Ainge and seems to be a good fit for the new offense, but Fulmer isn’t quite sure what to expect yet.

“He looks comfortable in the system and it’s a quarterback-friendly system,” Fulmer said.

If Crompton can at least be competent and avoid drive-killing mistakes, UT should average close to 30 points per game, even against a schedule which features Florida, Auburn and Georgia in the first three SEC games.

Fulmer likes his team’s composition, if not the schedule. How the Vols make it through the rough early stretch will depend on how a thin defensive line holds up. While Demonte Bolden and Dan Williams appear to be solid starters at tackle, there is little depth behind them.

“Finding guys behind them is going to be critical,” Fulmer said. “We might be able to move some guys around [from defensive end] to help, but that is a huge challenge for our team – to find competition for those positions.”

That’s not an issue anywhere else on the field. The team has SEC-caliber depth wherever one looks, especially in the defensive backfield, where six guys with starting experience are back.

Yet in the SEC, particularly in the East, depth and talent aren’t a sure sign you’ll win. Given its schedule, UT could play better than it did last year and still lose four games.

With the tough SEC slate, plus a difficult season opener, Fulmer said this spring had a little extra urgency to it. As always, his style remains hands-on.

“We spent a lot of late hours that you ordinarily wouldn’t spend in the spring,” he said. “I kept a headset on in scrimmages so I could have conversations with [Clawson] so I could make sure we’re on the same page.

“I do not want to be one of those coaches who is disconnected from what we’re doing. If I don’t know what we’re doing, our players will pick up on it. I’m always going to be involved with the offense and the defense.”

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