Stop blaming the Vols; this mess is on Fulmer
Commentary by DAVID CLIMER
Senior Writer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. All week, amid the sound and the fury, Phillip Fulmer had insisted this was not about him and his history with Alabama, but about his team and its true measure.
Fair enough, coach. Now we have a reading on Tennessee.
This is a team that is long on potential and short on performance. It is a maddening combination of superb talent and supreme underachievement. Seldom before at Tennessee has so much ability produced such mediocre results.
And that's a direct reflection on the head coach.
So while Alabama fans can take solace in beating a coach who has become Public Enemy No. 1 in this crimson state, it is now time for UT fans to start asking if Fulmer has the right stuff to turn around this Big Orange Enigma.
There's little reason to suspect that things will get dramatically better anytime soon. Yes, the schedule eases up, but recent history tells us that the Vols will keep struggling, especially on offense.
Asked to identify the personality of this team, defensive tackle Jesse Mahelona paused for a moment and offered this telling assessment:
"It revolves around the defense. We need somebody on offense to step up big."
Any Volunteers?
Six games in, UT can't even seem to figure out who its quarterback should be. When Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice performed the coin toss prior to the game, you wondered if it was Heads Clausen, Tails Ainge.
That's how dysfunctional the Vols are. Rick Clausen took all but four offensive snaps yesterday, but Fulmer dropped a couple of veiled hints after the loss that Erik Ainge might be back in the mix.
Even with Fulmer falling back on his football roots by playing it close to his bullet-proof vest with a commitment to the running game, the Vols kept tripping themselves.
Certainly, Alabama should be credited with taking advantage of UT's mistakes and making the Vols pay. Defensively, the Crimson Tide is terrific. Too, Mike Shula and his players were smart enough to stand their ground, keep it close and simply wait for UT to live down to its reputation and self-destruct.
Mission accomplished.
"If a team is better than you and they beat you, you can live with that," UT wide receiver Jayson Swain mused. "Knowing that you beat yourselves, that hurts."
Indeed, what happened yesterday at Bryant-Denny Stadium is yet another example of a team that does not learn from its mistakes and has trouble handling both prosperity and adversity.
"We do some good things, then we find a way to screw it up," Fulmer said.
Halfway through the season, UT is committing the same goofs and gags of the season-opener untimely false-start penalties, dropped passes, key fumbles and special teams gaffes.
And leave it to Alabama, UT's most-storied rival, to expose the Vols for what they are a team that is less than the sum of its parts.
Even when the Vols appeared headed for the go-ahead points with barely five minutes remaining in a 3-3 tie, there was a sense of impending doom. Would it be a succession of penalties that would take the Vols out of field goal range? What about a fumbled snap? An interception, perhaps?
Right on schedule, on third-and-goal from the Tide 15, fullback Cory Anderson caught a screen pass, plowed inside the 5 and promptly fumbled through the end zone, handing the ball back to Alabama at the 20.
You could see the life draining out of the Vols. As well as UT had played on defense all day, there comes a time when you lose your edge.
"They made one big play on offense, and we didn't have one," shrugged Vols linebacker Kevin Simon. "That's what the game came down to."
Indeed, the 43-yard Brodie Croyle-to-D.J. Hall heave got the Tide out of a hole and helped position Jamie Christensen for the winning field goal with 13 seconds remaining.
"That's all it takes in one of these games one big play," UT defensive end Parys Haralson said.
And after one big loss that leaves UT 3-3, Phillip Fulmer faces one big reclamation project.
