Three days, folks. Here are your talking points for the day:
Coach Fulmer sounded sort of optimistic and quite anxious during his Media Day comments yesterday.
The Tennesseean has a nice article on Arian Foster, who played his high school football in San Diego, but was never really recruited by California. Former offensive coordinator Randy Sanders gets the credit for persuading the rest of the coaching staff that Foster was worth pursuing, and current receivers coach Trooper Taylor gets the credit for closing the deal. Foster may be well motiviated this Saturday to steal the spotlight from another running back from California, Bears' Heisman contender Marshawn Lynch, and John Pennington thinks that Lynch won't out-rush Foster.
Best quote from Foster: "My father taught me that the road to success is lonely. That's what it is." It's what motiviated him through solitary workout and therapy sessions over the summer to recover from two surgeries. One more telling quote about Foster, this one from coach Taylor:
You can scratch his pride, and he'll get it fixed.
Local media warns Vol fans not to underestimate Cal's defense. Trooper Taylor has settled on a four-receiver rotation: Robert Meachem, Bret Smith, Jayson Swain, and Lucas Taylor.
And the national media is all over this game:
College Football News has it as its SEC Game of the Week. CFN says that Cal is the better team, but that they have a less than stellar record on the road. Still, CFN predicts a close win for Cal, 27-24.
SI.com chimes in on the recent demise of the Volunteers' home field advantage.
CBSSportsLine.com's Dennis Dodd has a nice feature on Marshawn Lynch.
And ESPN says that Cal at Tennessee is a key non-conference match up.
All for now. Feel free to start up a Diary (see the link on the top of the right sidebar) on any of these topics. Thanks for reading.