Cody Pope is going to be OK & Other Talking Points

• Yesterday, the big story from practice was starting Center, Cody Pope being taken to the hospital. With our razor thin o-line depth, this was a huge concern on the field, but more importantly Cody Pope is by all known accounts a good guy and we hate to see these things happen. This from his twitter can allow us to rest easy, for now.

"Thanks for the prayers, I'm going to be just fine." 

Did you hear? He’s a pescetarian.

• With Gerald Jones out, Dooley has been looking for somebody to take over on punt returns. David Oku is listed as the primary backup, but DBs Janzen Jackson and Eric Gordon have also gotten some work. Oku’s fellow tailback Tauren Poole got a look back there yesterday as well.

Well they say if you have two quarterbacks, you really have none. In that case, if we have four punt returners, how many do we really have? Punt returner controversy!!!! Oh the horror!!!!

• Backup tight end, Mychal Rivera signed with Oregon in 2008, so he knows all their secrets.

"Since I had my (scholarship) offer from Tennessee," Rivera said, "I looked the schedule up, I (saw) Oregon, I said, 'I have to come here.'

Chalk one up in the pro column for aggressive scheduling.

• Tennessee played 12 freshmen on Saturday. That’s tied with Auburn for first  second in the SEC behind Florida who played 15. Well, we’re first  second in at least one category… tied for first second… sigh…
• Did you like the Nike fashion show on Monday? Well, some of the Tennessee players did. This from Malik Jackson:

"I asked Dooley today if we could have some jerseys like that, and he laughed at me. But, whatever, you can only ask."

I want to like you, Malik. But how about you play in more than one game against an FCS team before you start asking for new uniforms? K?

• Brief Basketvol Note: Memphis forward & 15^th ranked overall prospect is visiting Tennessee this weekend. Be loud, be proud!