Rocky Top Talk, a Tennessee Volunteers community

The Tennessee players really stepped up for their old coach: I hope you can pick up the sarcasm in that sentence. The Volunteers showed their anger and indignation at Phillip Fulmer’s press conference last week and spoke of the injustice of asking Fulmer to step down with football left to play on the schedule. But when it came time to play Saturday against a bad Wyoming team, the Volunteers did not live up to their name. Granted, everyone now has to admit that Tennessee just isn’t a very good team. But we’re talking Wyoming, who lost to BYU, Utah, and TCU by a combined score of 138-14. What the players did, unknowingly, was validate the decision of the administration. Fairburn’s Eric Berry has been a warrior on that team all season. He is a real football player. But I don’t know about the rest of those guys. The next coach at Tennessee, whoever he is, is going to have some work to do with this group of players. There may be a bunch of four-star talent up there, but I don’t see a whole lot of four-star hearts.

David Cutlciffe is not coming back to Tennessee: Should Tennessee make a change at head coach, and that is beginning to look more likely by the day, there has been speculation that David Cutcliffe, who served two terms as the Tennessee OC and is now the head coach at Duke (4-3) might return. It’s understandable that Cutcliffe’s name would come up. Here are the numbers: With Cutcliffe calling the plays, Phillip Fulmer’s teams were 85-19. With somebody else calling the plays, the record is 65-31. But it’s not going to happen. Cutcliffe and Fulmer are very close. The only way Cutcliffe comes back is if Fulmer gave his blessing and convinced him that it was for the good of the program. I know this has become a cutthroat business, but there is still a little loyalty left out there. Isn’t there?