Talking Points: Tennessee Volunteer players keeping the shadows at bay

by Joel Hollingsworth on Jul 16, 2009 7:42 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Tennessee football

The Shadow knows. Like the rest of the team, Daniel Lincoln is trying to fend off the forces of darkness:
"As a kicker you can't have a memory about the negative things. If you leave any doubt in your own mind, the next time you go out the shadow kind of overtakes you. You can't let the demons take over. You can't let the negativity of what happened in your previous experience affect your next experience. We all get opportunities this season to correct the mistakes that we made and get better from them."
Fans can help by not stuffing the noxious cloud into a peanut canister and preparing to spring it open at the first sign of trouble.
What black cloud? Worried about the lack of experience at linebacker? Rico McCoy isn't. Oh, and Rico's expectations for Eric Berry this season? Eight interceptions, 300 return yards, and 100 tackles. Sounds reasonable.

On the bright side . . . John Adams notes a silver lining in the recent rash of injuries suffered by veteran wide receivers:

Their absence in preseason training camp will provide more reps and a greater opportunity for four freshman wide receivers, as well as a couple of veterans seemingly in danger of falling by the wayside last season. UT wide receivers coach Frank Wilson addressed those issues on the The Sports Page radio show Tuesday morning. Wilson said quarterback Jonathan Crompton just told him how impressive freshman wide receivers Nu’Keese Richardson and Marsalis Teague have been in preseason workouts.

Somebody's getting ripped off. Josh McNeil, Cody Pope, and the Sullins boys are swapping their salads for the hamburgers of Chris Scott, Jacques McClendon, Jarrod Shaw, and William Brimfield.

Now what do I do with it? So they got the Rock up on a truck. Now what? They're waiting for a section of Pat Head Summitt Street to be paved before moving the thing to its new home across the street. For some reason, I have an image of Mike Hamilton with the Rock in his arms screaming, "Why didn't you tell me you weren't ready before I picked this thing up?"

Gran's the man. Tennessee's special teams used to be coached by Fulmer, the offensive and defensive coordinators, the position coaches, the stadium vendors, and the first lucky caller to the pre-game radio show. Now? Eddie Gran. And Eddie's done away with the spread punt formation.

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Comments

What's my prize?

For finding the first trick link?

;-)

Tennessee WILL beat Georgia on the way to 9+ wins in '09!!!

by VolBrian on Jul 16, 2009 8:38 AM EDT reply actions

Oh

Nevermind, screw up on my end apparently. Problem between the chair and the keyboard…..

Tennessee WILL beat Georgia on the way to 9+ wins in '09!!!

by VolBrian on Jul 16, 2009 8:39 AM EDT up reply actions

Reading that spread punt article,

I was struck by the incidental humor of Florida using the spread offense while we used the spread punt. Make of it what you will…

(Side note: I’m seriously considering adding the “the” in front of “spread offense” the same way that “the” is added in front of “Ohio State University”. This is in honor of all those media pundits who recognize the core truth of the universe that there is only one spread offense.

…Think I should?)

by David Hooper on Jul 16, 2009 8:43 AM EDT reply actions