VolNotes:I'll take my guy

[orange+white=heaven]

55-83 547 yards 5 touchdowns 66.3% completions

EA Sports. It's in the game.

The best I can hope for going into a Florida game is to have the ball in the hands of a veteran quarterback, with an offensive line that can protect him. Well, a monster defense too, but as the song says.... two out of three ain't bad.

I'm not terribly uncomfortable this week. It's not that I'm certain of victory. I'm not. I just like where things stand on offense. Florida is almost always a heavyweight fight, this you just accept going in. When the guy at the controls knows what he's doing, your chances in a close tilt go up considerably.

VolNotes today puts the emphasis on the run, and that's good too, but I'm sleeping this week because Erik Ainge decided to play for Tennessee when he was a senior in high school in Oregon....


VolNotes....

GVX:Run

In a series decided more often than not by the team that wins the ground game, Tennessee finished in the red with minus-11 yards rushing in a 21-20 loss to Florida last year in Knoxville.
Senior offensive tackle Eric Young doesn't remember the number. And he's glad.
"I don't know (the exact number)," Young said Monday morning, "and I don't want to know, either."

"It does come up," Fulmer said. "It's a very important statistic in winning a football game. Even with that, somehow or another, we were ahead 17-7 in the (third) quarter.
"You bring that up as well - that we need to finish a game. (Quarterback) Erik (Ainge) played very well and our defense for the most part held up, and we gave up a couple plays that ended up being the difference in the ballgame."

Arian Foster is healthy going into Saturday's game after carrying just twice last year because of an ankle injury.

"It's like night and day," Young said of Foster. "He really looks good. I'm enjoying it. We got to keep doing what we're doing and get this boy his carries because he's doing his thing out there."

Paving the way against USM was an offensive line that appeared more athletic and better conditioned than a year ago.
"I saw one play (Saturday) where Eric Young knocked one dude off and then went up and got the safety and knocked him down on his back," Foster said. "When you see that stuff, it's real motivating."

TNsean:Ayers/notes

Robert Ayers is known for showing flashes of brilliance on the football field. When it comes to doing it consistently, well, that's another story.

"That's closer to what we'd like to have on a consistent basis," Fulmer said about Ayers' play against Southern Miss. "It's a big plus for us if he's able to be as consistent as we need him to be."

Ayers had three tackles, a sack and two quarterback hurries(USM). In fact, he impressed the coaching staff so much that they moved him to defensive tackle in a handful of plays to pressure Southern Miss' quarterback from up the middle.

"At practice I did a pretty good job and did it a couple of times," Ayers said. "(UT defensive line coach Dan Brooks) just gave me a chance. It was third and long, and we knew they were going to pass. He really didn't put me in a tough situation where I had much responsibility. He just told me to go out and play."

LaMarcus Coker is expected to receive more playing time at Florida after playing sparingly against Southern Miss.

"I think he got some of the rust off," UT offensive lineman Eric Young said. "I think the main thing is just getting hit a little bit, then you get back to yourself."

Ben Martin might see his first action Saturday after recuperating from a bone bruise suffered late in fall camp.

"He's a tremendous athlete," Ayers said of Martin. "Since I've been here, I haven't seen a guy with his kind of ability and his size. He can help us in a lot of ways."

The Gators will be without receiver Andre Caldwell against UT and maybe longer, after he sprained his right medial collateral ligament in Florida's 59-31 win over Troy last Saturday. He could be sidelined at least two weeks.

Arian Foster said he hopes to return kickoffs this weekend and that a minor knee bruise won't keep him down.
"There's not much wear and tear at all," Foster said about returning kickoffs. "It's actually probably a little bit easier because they're coming from so much spacing. It's like getting the ball in the open field. It's not like you're going through the middle of the pile on a gap play and busting heads with 250-pound linebackers and 300-pound linemen."

The game plan this week is simple: Run the ball well, run it often, and then run it some more.

"A running team is usually the most successful team in the SEC," said Foster, who is averaging 107.0 rushing yards through two games.
"We feel like as a team, we need to establish the run early. Running the ball makes a statement of how physical you're going to play throughout the game."

One of the more impressive linemen has been left tackle Eric Young, who played right tackle in 2006. Young said it's been fun to block for Foster, Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer, but added that it needs to continue.

"We've gotta run the ball, and that's something we have to do the whole season," said Young, who is expected to line up against Florida's first-team All-SEC defensive end Derrick Harvey. "That's emphasized day to day on the practice field, and even off the practice field. You have to have that mindset of running the ball. That's how you can win in the SEC."

TFP:On Tim Terrific

.....The surprise, to many, has been Tebow's powerfully accurate arm. But the better question now seems to be why anyone questioned whether the most prolific passer in Florida high school history could successfully throw the ball downfield.

"I just try to do my role on the team, which (last year) was to run the ball, do some trick plays and maybe pass every now and then," Tebow said Monday. "This year, throwing more, I'm not really worrying about that."

Tennessee faced a mobile quarterback last week in Southern Miss's Jeremy Young, but he shares virtually nothing in common with Tebow other than height.
"There's a lot of difference in their whole style," Vols coach Phillip Fulmer said.

Tebow said coaches told him to "make smart decisions about the hit and the punishment.
"I'm a pretty competitive player," he said. "Every chance I get, I want to go out and get as many yards as I can and fight for extra yards. But you have be smart. Quarterback is about being a great decision-maker, making the wise decision or get out of bounds or slide.
"Sometimes you don't get to do what you want to do."

"I'd say on probably 70, 80 percent of my carries, I've been able to get out of bounds and not get hit," he said. "It'll be a little bit different in SEC ball, but I'm not too sore right now."

After getting just one quarterback hit against Cal's max pass protection, Tennessee defensive players lived in the Southern Miss backfield. The Vols had three sacks and seven quarterback hits against the Golden Eagles, forcing three fumbles.
"We've faced some pretty good defenses, and Troy's pretty athletic," Tebow said. "But facing Tennessee, it kind of takes it to another level."

Robert Ayers said Tebow is "most successful when he can sit in the pocket and dictate what he wants to do." The best solution, he said, is to collapse and seal the pocket and "hit him every chance we get."

"If you just get contact on him, quarterbacks think about that," Ayers said. "When they're worrying about where you're coming from and stuff like that, it's in the back of their mind every snap. That's what we want to do. We just want to hit him. It doesn't necessarily have to be sacks.
"Just keep hitting him, hitting him, and it will mess up his throw."

"Just keep hitting him, hitting him, and it will mess up his throw."

Let's get ready to rumble....


Go Vols!!!

 

[jakez4ut]

oh boy. Florida week. i love this time of year.

go vols.

 

[justingroves]

I love this week

 

[vader]

The Florida version of the notes. I'm all tingly.

 

[crazyguy]

I dig it. POUND THE DANG ROCK!!!

 

[cd12]

Clearly a battle of two overhyped qbs! Archie Manning vs. Bobby Scott this aint!

 

[hohenfelsvol]

Love to read about what they expect to do. Just a couple of days away from executing the plan. Go Vols!!

 

[allvol123]

Run...run...run...

 

[volfanbill]

thank owh

 

[VOLnFLORIDA]

Arian has never had a full game against Florida. It's his game to manage. He will be given the opportunity to handle a suspect linebackers corps in g-ville.

 

[VolTSX23]

Thanks OWH. Go Vols!