Rocky Top Talk, a Tennessee Volunteers community

1. Tennessee will be this year’s Michigan. You all recall what happened to the Wolverines in their first year under Rich Rodriguez. Expect the same thing to happen to the Volunteers under Lane Kiffin, only more so, for two reasons. First of all, there is absolutely no evidence at this point to suggest that Coach Kiffin fils is on a par with Coach Rodriguez . . . or even that he’s anything other than Mike Shula dressed in dreamsickle orange. Secondly, when you tick off that many of your colleagues in your first few weeks on the job, you’re going to get your comeuppance more than once, and it will be ugly. By mid-October, the Big Orange message boards will be ablaze with the rhetorical question, "For this we fired a national championship-winning U.T. alum?"

When Fulmer assumed the reins of the UT football program in the spring of 1993, the Vols had gone 53-17-4 over the previous six years under Johnny Majors. That represented a 74.3 winning percentage, and fans expected that Fulmer would maintain that level of success.

Instead, Fulmer raised the bar. Between 1993 and 2001, his teams went 91-20 – a winning percentage of 82.0 – and picked up a national title.

Expectations skyrocketed, and so did Fulmer's salary. Tennessee's record, however, did not keep pace. From 2002-2007 the Vols went 52-25, a winning percentage of 67.5.

As a rule, coaches who win two-thirds of their games do not make $2.99 million per year. The fact UT just gave Fulmer a $940,000 annual raise and an extension through 2014 suggests the administration is expecting the next five years to be better than the previous five.

Now the Tennessee Volunteers are a hard team to figure out. In all honesty, the team was lucky to be playing for the SEC title last year. The race in the East is between UT, UF, and UGA every year, and that triad of teams beat each other. Florida blasted Tennessee, which in turn the Volunteers did the same to Georgia, and then Georgia beats Florida to keep Tennessee right in the race. Along with the beat down from Florida, there were also blowout losses against Cal and Alabama, and a slew of close games, that only a senior quarterback can get a team through. Fast forward to this season and say goodbye Eric Ainge and hello to Jonathan Crompton and new offensive coordinator Dave Clawson. Last year’s squad was out gained by an average of 32.7 yards per game, and a new quarterback and coordinator are supposed to fix that? Crompton and Clawson also do not have the luxury of settling in to their respective roles because of the early season schedule which include UCLA, Florida, and Auburn. This team can’t get off to the same 2-2 start as last year. The defense should be good after ending the season in great fashion, but do lose last year’s best player Jerod Mayo and talented safety Jonathan Hefney.