Want to know the best way to guarantee a big-time performance from Tennessee’s football team? Try completely panning this team’s ability before a big game.
While this isn’t always a fool-proof method (see Florida, this year), just ask last year’s California team or this year’s Georgia squad for evidence. Better yet, how about Arkansas?
Outside of head coach Phillip Fulmer and his staff, and his players, no one—and I mean no one—thought the Volunteers could put the clamps on Arkansas’ running game last week.
Yet there was Darren McFadden, finding no room to run until the Razorbacks were down 27-3. There was Felix Jones, running ineffectively before leaving the game with a thigh bruise. There was the UT defense, playing like the ghosts of Al Wilson and Leonard Little had shown up in their prime.
And now Fulmer, who seemed at times this year to be a 50-50 bet to be moving out of his office in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center at season’s end, is in position to not only survive a potential coup d’etat by influential boosters, but to possibly reach a BCS bowl.
If the Vols beat Vanderbilt Saturday (which they should) and Kentucky the following week (a 50-50 shot at this point), they’ll play LSU Dec. 1 in Atlanta for the SEC title.
While the Tigers are more talented and will beat UT if both teams play at the same level, they are also prone to lots of mistakes. They lead the SEC in penalties and haven’t really blown out an SEC team since September.
Point is, a UT win over LSU in an SEC championship game isn’t likely. But it seems a hell of a lot more plausible now than it did about two weeks ago.
And if that does happen and the Vols reach a BCS game, there’s no way you can justify canning Fulmer. Like him or not, the guy would deserve to keep his job.
Remember when ESPN’s Chris Berman kept referring to former Detroit Lions coach Wayne Fontes as Rasputin for his almost-mystical ability to go on a winning streak just when the critics would start asking for his job?
One can make the case Fulmer has become the SEC’s version of Rasputin. And not a minute too soon for UT’s title hopes this year.
The Weekly Picks
Florida Atlantic at Florida
If Gators coach Urban Meyer wants to do it this way, quarterback Tim Tebow can pad his Heisman Trophy candidacy shamelessly against the Sun Belt Conference’s Owls. My guess is Tebow is on the bench before the third quarter’s end. There’s nothing at stake here except the Gators’ health—especially if they get some help in other games. Florida 52, Florida Atlantic 14.
Kentucky at Georgia
It’s not too often the Lincoln Financial game matches two top 25 teams, but that’s the case here. The Bulldogs haven’t lost since their no-show appearance in Knoxville last month, while the Wildcats overcame a slew of mistakes to win at Vanderbilt last week and keep their East Division title hopes alive. It would make sense if Georgia lost, since this season has been so unpredictable, but it still remembers how it came from ahead to lose at Kentucky last year. Georgia 34, Kentucky 24.
Mississippi St. at Arkansas
How about Sylvester Croom for SEC Coach of the Year? All he’s done this year is guide a decent, but not overly-talented team to wins over Auburn, Kentucky and Alabama—games which no one thought the Bulldogs would have won back in August. This game belongs on that list as well, and you can’t count MSU out. But I just don’t think it matches up well enough against the Razorbacks’ blitz-happy scheme. Nor do I think Darren McFadden will get neutered again. Arkansas 27, Mississippi St. 20.
Vanderbilt at Tennessee
At first glance, the betting line (Tennessee by 11 1/2) seems low in light of the Vols’ 6-0 home record this year. Then again, the guys in Las Vegas wouldn’t be there if they didn’t get this stuff right. And the Commodores do enough things pretty well to make this a game. But even if UT isn’t at its sharpest this week, it isn’t going to allow Vandy to walk into Neyland Stadium and leave for a second straight trip with a win. Tennessee 30, Vanderbilt 21.
LSU at Ole Miss
The Rebels have had two weeks to prepare for this game. And senior DE Greg Hardy has been reinstated after a two-game suspension by coach Ed Orgeron, giving Mississippi a pass-rush threat to scare anyone. But with so much at stake nationally for the Tigers, it’s hard to construct a scenario under which the Rebels can make this a game past the third quarter’s middle. LSU can’t make enough mistakes to make this one close, can they? LSU 41, Mississippi 17.
Louisiana-Monroe at Alabama
For the Crimson Tide, this is just a glorified scrimmage before next week’s Iron Bowl at Auburn. The last two weeks have been a reality check for Alabama, which almost stole a BCS bowl bid in Nick Saban’s first year. Two years from now, when Saban recruits enough four and five-star athletes to fix the program’s depth on both sides of the ball, this will become the SEC’s top program. Alabama 45, Louisiana-Monroe 20.