Linebacker is a position of need for the Volunteers, so Bynum definitely fills a need. In other linebacking news, Channing Fugate is moving from fullback to middle linebacker. Fugate played a lot of linebacker in high school, so it should be a reasonably easy transition.

Welcome to Big Orange Country Kenneth!

On the class in general:

It’s like coach’s Christmas on signing day every year. I want to start by emphasizing how important the team effort it takes to have a good signing day is, mobilizing all the resources, starting with your coaching staff. I have to give a special kudos to Jim Chaney, Terry Joseph and Darin Hinshaw who are our three remaining coaches from the prior staff and just did an incredible job of rolling up their sleeves with the four of us and trying to keep it all together when we hit a tough December. “So kudos to them and of course to the support staff and administration that it takes from the video, the training room, equipment, academic center, VFL. All the things that when a kid comes on campus we sell, and the faculty and students for the time that they spent, the energy that they had when all these recruits were on campus. We couldn’t have gotten this kind of class today without a great team, so I appreciate all of that.

We lost some coaches obviously, but we kept three good recruiters. We also kept Dooley, who obviously knows how to recruit.

Derek Dooley's version of Twitter

On Negative Recruiting:

I will say it was probably as tough a recruiting climate over the last 12 months as I’ve been through. I will always be honest with you guys. Starting with the spring, all the things that were going on departmentally and with the NCAA. I think we hit July with one commitment which is not what we want, but is what we had. And of course the season didn’t end the way we wanted it to end and every week was a change in coaching. We gave a lot of ammunition to our competitors and in this league, it is hard enough when you don’t give them ammunition and we gave them plenty. Certainly on the social media landscape, which I call the national barber shop, it was non-stop, a lot of haircuts being given.

“What was so important when all of this was happening, and this is what I told the staff, was to keep the main thing, the main thing. Keep your focus on what is real, keep your focus on the facts and not get lost in emotion, not get lost in fear and not get lost in negativity. When I say keeping the main thing the main thing, I’m talking about first the foundation that we had laid in the last 24 months. Our roster of young people that we brought in for two classes and have now are going to be more mature, they are going to be more seasoned, they have experience and we have more depth.

“Secondly, all of the support structures that we put around these guys to succeed. How we develop them as players, how we develop them as students, how we develop them as people. And then the third thing is just the state of the Tennessee brand. I don’t care what anybody says, this is a special place and still sells all over the country because of the great tradition, the fan base, the gameday experience, the atmosphere they feel when they come on campus. Those three things to me are the main things that we focus on. Our team, our support structures and Tennessee. All the guys kept their focus on that, all the recruiters kept their focus on that and that allowed us to get to where we are.

AKA: I hate you Bobby Petrino, you stole our best linebacker prospect. Also the national barbershop: What a great Analogy

On no offensive linemen:

I don’t think this will ever happen again, but what is more rare is that we brought in 11 offensive linemen over the last 24 months, which I don’t think anybody has done something like that. If you take that number and divide it by three, you have what you normally have, three or four guys a class. We felt that we were so young and deep on the offensive line, if there is ever a year where we could really focus on the skill positions to try to give us some depth so that when a guy gets hurt here and there we don’t just love everything, and that’s what we did.

Think of our freshmen offensive line class as: Mack Crowder, Alan Posey, and Kyler Kerbyson. There is already an offensive line commit for 2013 in Jackson Tennessee’s Austin Sanders.

On the coaching turnover:

It was challenging because when we were down to just a few coaches, we had to go and refocus our energy. The most important thing was getting to signing day. That’s what I kept telling everybody. We have to get to signing day. Having said that, we had to get some of the key players in, especially at defensive coordinator. I think bringing in Jay (Graham) as quick as we did was a real boost for us. We were able to mobilize him on all of the running backs. And then having a quick transition on the offensive line was a big help just for manpower. Sam (Pittman) didn’t really have any ties to our recruits, but it was just manpower. All l I asked our recruits to do was to be patient when it all hit. I’m going to tell you, it says a lot about their character and their commitment level to Tennessee, and the grit level they showed because they were getting barraged by some quality schools. They didn’t flinch, they stayed with it. We had a quick loss there at the end, but that didn’t have anything to do with coaching staff changes. I was really proud of that and I think it says a lot about the guys we got.

One thing about Dooley that I have always admired, is his ability to recruit high character guys.  We all want to win, I am included, but he has had very few off the field issues. It’s nice to see.

On potentially low character guy Deion Bonner:

When I say bringing in high character, that doesn’t mean that I am never going to bring in guys that have made mistakes because I can tell you right now, I have made as many mistakes in my life as anybody. I’ll put my past record up against a lot of guys. Deion, we did a lot of diligence on the situation. Deion was incredibly truthful, was incredibly remorseful and I don’t know of a high school player that had to pay the piper more for what they did than what he had to go through. He had an absolute public disparagement, (losing) five games of his high school career and everybody stopped recruiting him. It was tough. It was incredible the maturity that he showed and I believe that he can come in and represent Tennessee the right way, learn from his mistakes and be a great example. Certainly it is not the norm, but we felt with the diligence that we did on him and of course, he is a good football player, let’s not deny that. At a key position, we felt willing to take the risk.

What a great answer.

On the SEC’s 25 player signing rule:

The 25 signing cap is a challenge and I can tell you that I am not alone in saying that. I’ll give you a great example. In the past when you hit mid-term and you knew a guy wasn’t going to qualify academically, you signed him and you helped him go to a junior college. You helped give him the hope that he could come back to a school like Tennessee. This year, when we hit December we did a real thorough analysis of what these academic risks were on a lot of these players and we had to part ways with a few guys for academic reasons and you get criticized for it. The fact of the matter is you have to make those kinds of decisions and you can’t help them. It was also tricky down the stretch because so many of these guys wait until signing day to make a decision. Normally in the past, you can get a few more commitments, oversign some of these guys at the end and it will work out. This year you really had to think twice about stretching too many NLI’s out there because it was going to be a three-for-one penalty. I think a lot of schools find themselves a little short than where we normally would be. Is it tricky? Year, but that’s the rule. I’m against it and I will continue to be against it because I don’t think the rule we had in placed hurt the young people. I think it helped them in a lot of ways. It helped them grayshirt and keep their opportunity, it helped them place in junior colleges and we are not able to do that anymore, but that is the rule.

Dooley can’t or won’t say it, but I’ll say it for him. If he had known he was going to lose Dalton Santos and Otha Peters, he would’ve kept Austell, GA linebacker Khalid Henderson. Instead, Henderson is Kentucky’s highest rated recruit.

On last year’s Kentucky game:

The game wasn’t ever talked about, but what’s written on the national barber shop creates a fear and paranoia that other schools love to highlight. What I try to do, of course, is anticipate what other schools are going to say, but it’s still out there. The social media has really changed so much in our game and so much in the recruiting process, it just presents a lot of challenges because you find yourself having to defend the absurdity. The best example was the national fact that I hired Randy Shannon as defensive coordinator. It was a fact. Some great, respected media outlets reported it, all from one tweet. I never talked to Randy, still haven’t. You end up having to defend things that are not only baseless, but there is absolutely nothing to it. You find yourself in a defensive posture a lot. Now we created a lot of it, so I’m not complaining about it. If we do our shop a little better, at the end of the year we don’t have a lot of that. It is just the nature of the beast. Here is what I do believe and this is what I have seen. The players who are diligent in their process, have a nice support structure with a mom, a dad, a coach, whoever it is, and they go through the process intelligently, that negative stuff doesn’t impact them. It doesn’t impact them and the guys that it does impact, maybe it’s best that they don’t come. I didn’t lose any sleep over it. It was just important to me to stay on the phone a lot and answer a lot of questions and that was fair. It’s part of it.

AKA: I hate you Bobby Petrino

On JUCO players:

I said this last year, we are not going to build this program on junior college players, and that is not a knock on junior college players. What we will do is every year try to sign a few to try to address a need. You hit it. We had a need on the defensive line. We are going to have it every year on the defensive line. What Darrington (Sentimore) brings is he has played in 12 games in the Southeastern Conference at a high level. He is unlike most junior college players. We actually watched his film at Alabama, so we know we are getting. I hope that is going to help him and him being here mid-year I hope will help him.

“Dan McCullers, of course, brings something that most people don’t have which is gargantuan size. He is really big. When you see him, he looks like two people. It’s like a circus act. What’s going on here? He is a big guy and those guys are hard to block. Now we don’t want him to get so big that he can’t move. That is going to be the challenge, but he brings size that we didn’t have.

“CP (Cordarrelle Patterson), you watch the film and whether you need him or not you are a fool not to recruit him because he has tremendous playmaking ability, size, speed and also brings return ability on kickoffs. We signed a lot of wideouts because we were lacking depth there and, of course, the other guys are getting up in years.

If these three players provide the impact that many people (including Dooley) think, UT is going to be in good shape for 2012. Patterson is 6’3″ 220, and very fast. I don’t think it’s an overstatement, that we have the best receiving corps in the country with them. Again on McCullers, when you watch the tape, he just collapses the middle of the O-line. Sentimore is a special player. Like Dooley said, they watched tape of him at ALABAMA. That’s a lot more reliable than high school footage.

UT fans, this is the middle of your new defensive line....Daniel McCullers

On losing Santos and Peters:

Neither of them surprised us. The drama helps the viewership, I get it. We need that drama so we can drive the readers and turn it into a TV show. From the very beginning, even back in September, we knew those two guys, it was going to be tough to close them out because they were far away and never shut it down. They were always going to listen to other schools and go on trips. When that is happening experience tells you there is a good chance you aren’t going to get them at the end. What made it challenging for us was, because of that 25 rule, you couldn’t stockpile more at that position knowing you were going to lose them, because there was a chance you wouldn’t. It happening so late, that’s what makes it challenging. Had the 25 rule not been in place, we might have been able to hedge that bet a little bit better. But there still will be some possibilities to help us on that end

AKA: I hate you Bobby Petrino. On another note, Cincinnati linebacker commit Kenneth Bynum is visiting UT within the week. Dooley is hopeful he sticks.

On LaTroy Lewis:

LaTroy probably wasn’t a good a fit in our old scheme and he knew it. LaTroy was getting a little shaky in December and I told him I’m going to fix it. Be patient because you are going to fit in perfectly with what we are about to do. He was patient and he was great. It was good.

Lewis is from my area, and he missed much of this season with a broken foot. Another guy on his team is going to Nebraska and had more stars, but many people who watched them both think Lewis has the most up-side.

On Hot Sauce:

Take a guy like Danny O’Brien up there in Michigan. I don’t know if anybody got assaulted like he did every week. He is a far away guy, but I’m going to tell you, incredible character. I also believe that it is how you recruit these guys because we don’t sell a recruiting coach. It’s not about a recruiting coach. It’s not just about me. We sell Tennessee, we sell the program, we sell the team, we sell the university, we sell our structures and when you recruit it that way I believe you don’t have a lot of fall out. Now, when you recruit on hot sauce and emotion and chest bumping and I’m a great position coach, when things get disruptive, naturally it is going to go because it is built on sand. Our recruiting efforts, in my opinion, are built on rock. It is built on relationships and selling the right things that are going to impact their lives. When you do that you have very few (de-commitments). Last year we had zero. Now, what is the converse to that? Why doesn’t everybody do that? Well, you’re not going to get some guys because a lot of people like the chest bumping and the hot sauce in recruiting.

When I think of Hot Sauce and recruiting, I think of this guy:

OOOOOOOOHHH WE ARE GONNNNNNAAA BE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

On Anchorage Alaska, and having fun there:

That was number one with our team because nothing is more important than the guys they’re going to be playing with. I tell them, `You can be in Anchorage, Alaska and if you like the guys you’re around, you’re going to love it. You can be in the nicest house, the nicest stadium and if you don’t like the guys you’re around, you’re going to be miserable.

I could not agree more on this. I would meet my best friends in a wheat field in North Dakota, and enjoy myself. I’ve been stuck in New York by myself, and it wasn’t fun.  Hot sauce gets people confused.

On recruiting great players:

CP is not afraid of competition

I think nobody thought we would get CP (Cordarrelle Patterson) because of what we have coming back. You know what I’ve found? Great players don’t care who you have because they have confidence in their abilities. I tell our guys `We’re going to have great players every year. If you’re scared to come in and compete, you don’t need to be here. You need to go to some other school.’ I also say, `To be a great team, you need a lot of great players.’ I sell that to our team and they do a great job of recruiting because of that.

Do you think Justin Hunter and Da’Rick Rogers are worried about Patterson? Me neither.

Neither are they

On the wide receivers:

They all bring different skill sets. Wideouts come in all shapes and sizes. Some can do things others can’t. I’m not going to speculate what they’re going to look like next fall. You guys know how I am. I don’t try to build these guys up because I don’t know what they’re going to look like in the fall. I have to get them in here, develop them, coach them and see what they can do. We’ll see how they play when the lights come on, but we feel like we have a pretty quality class at that position.

Tanslation: Man, I think they’re good, but if I say it, and I’m wrong you guys will skewer me.

On LeDarrell McNeil

I was extremely nervous. You look at indicators because he took a visit to Oklahoma State. Are you nervous? Are you kidding me? I mean, yes. He comes back and he’s going to take another visit, but then he cancels it. When that happens, you get a little peace. But are you nervous? Yeah. You’re calling them 28 times before signing day. `Are you there? Is everything OK?’ `Yeah, coach. What?’ You don’t hear from them in two hours and you’re in a panic. He’s just at a movie. That’s the challenge of recruiting far away because the worst time of the recruiting period is when it goes dead – Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. You don’t know what’s going on, on the street…We liked everything about him. He has great character too. Do I think he has all the skill sets back there? Yeah, I do. He’s physical. He’s fast. He’s rangy. He’s big. We’ll see.

Translation: I think he’s gonna be great too, and I didn’t want to lose him to Mike Gundy. He’s a man, he’s over 40.

On the running backs:

I feel like we signed guys we think will be (dynamic). You watch the film. There are not many more out there that are more dynamic than what a couple of these guys are. Alden (Hill) was our first running back commitment. He brought size that I felt like we didn’t have coming back. We signed Q (Quenshaun Watson), who has some explosive qualities that not many guys have. He’s incredibly fast. He’s a 10.5 100-meter guy, state champion almost in track. He also brings return ability. We only had one returner last year and you all forget that. He (Devrin Young) went through a little period where he was getting hit around. You have to have a lot of guys at a lot of positions. He can do some things in the backfield when you get him the ball in space. Davante (Bourque), to me, is that all-purpose every-down (back). He’s big. He’s fast. He has great instincts. How all those three guys will help us, only time will tell. They’re all going to get a great opportunity to help us, as will the guys on our roster who are going to be more mature and more seasoned. We’ll see how it plays out.

All three of these guys won’t pan out, but hopefully one of them will. They definitely have varied styles. Best case scenario for Hill is Montee Ball. Best case for Watson is Darren Sproles, best case for Bourque is Montario Hardesty. I’d take any of them.

If Davante Bourque gets to this point, I think Big Orange country will be happy.

On the multi-year scholarship:

I don’t really have an opinion on that other than I’m against those. I think that will be more discussions in our head coaches meetings. I don’t know. We forget this is a contract, a two-way street. I think it’s humorous that the academic institution can give an academic scholarship and take it away when a student doesn’t perform at a certain GPA-level, but it’s absolutely the worst thing you can do as a coach – it’s so wrong what you do to these young people – when he doesn’t do what he’s supposed to do. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m missing. You have these contracts. It’s called quid quo pro. We give you this. You give us that. But if they don’t give us that and we decide not to give them this, then it’s the worst thing you can do. I’m still struggling to understand that issue. I’m not smart enough to figure it out. I have to spend more time on it before I give an opinion

I’ve never heard this point made. It’s not politically correct, but it is rational and logical. Will Muschamp offered four year deals. It’s an interesting situation. Nick Saban won’t be for sure.

On the 25-man rule part 2:

It’s hard because you want to be honest with them. You don’t want to misrepresent. You have to tell them, `Look, I can’t send you an NLI right now, but if another guy doesn’t come, I’ll send you one.’ `Boy, you really want me, don’t you coach?’ And these other schools are saying, `We want you. You’re our guy.’ So it’s hard…He doesn’t have to, but what would you tell your son to do? This is what makes it hard. You could sign guys and when you oversign them, you still give them the opportunity to come to Tennessee. I think that’s where a lot of the confusion happens. People think when you oversign, you just kick guys on the street and they can’t go to college. That’s not what’s happening. That’s not what’s real. What we’ve done is we’ve taken one or two rare exceptions, rare circumstances where it wasn’t managed properly and we’ve turned it into a national crisis. It’s what happens, you overreact. We had a good rule in place that was in place for one year.

"I stole your top linebacker prospect"

AKA: I hate you Bobby Petrino. But I have to say, if it was my kid, I’d encourage him to the sure thing. But that’s just me.

Cody Blanc- Knoxville. Projects as a safety for UT. Chose UT over Vanderbilt Already enrolled

Deion Bonner- Columbus, GA. Corner. We discussed Bonner in detail last week, but he has the ability to be a real game-changer in Knoxville. Will he? Well that’s one of the intriguing story-lines of this class.

Devante Bourque- Crowley, LA Big fast running back who chose UT over LSU, Texas A&M and Miami. It should be noted that those other schools wanted to Bourque to play somewhere other than running back.

Drae Bowles – Jackson, TN. Big receiver who should have a bright future in orange. He was the highest ranked in state player grabbed by Dooley this year.  Unlike last year when Dooley grabbed Tiny Richardson, and the year before when UT grabbed Jacques Smith. Dooley was not able to grab the top-ranked player in the state. Bowles stayed solidly committed through the entire process.

George Bullock- Knoxville. Kicker, many think he will supplant Mike Palardy as the kick-off guy right away.

Jason Croom- Atlanta. He is a huge receiver, and may be a tight end before it’s all said and done. Assuming he can run routes, his measureables will make him tough to cover. He ought to be too big for corners, and too fast for linebackers.

Daniel Gray – Fort Lauderdale, FL. A very fast corner, he was named the fastest high school player in South Florida by the Miami Herald. If you’re the fastest guy there, you’re fast. He is small, so he may need some time to bulk up. Alden Hill- Alliance, OH. He is already enrolled, and is a big bruising type of tailback. The kind of guy Wisconsin always seems to get. Hopefully he brings some of that here.

Alton “Pig” Howard- Orlando, FL. Smallish receiver, could see some time at tailback as well.  ESPN 150 guy, chose UT over Central Florida (Where his brother plays) Florida, Ohio State, and others.

Justin King- Atlanta. He was a high school quarterback, who UT is going to use at linebacker. Probable red-shirt, and one of UT’s most loyal commits.

LaTroy Lewis- Akron, OH DE/LB. He is one of those guys who is a smallish D-end in the 4-3, or a huge outside linebacker in the 3-4. Sal Sunseri supposedly has told him he is a prototypical Jack linebacker. Much like Courtney Upshaw. I hope he’s Courtney Upshaw..

Daniel McCullers- Raleigh, NC. A massive human being. 6’6″ 400lbs. (You read that right). 25% body fat. Negative Ned says that means he has 100 lbs of fat on him. Positive Pete says he has 300 lbs of bone and muscle. He is a JUCO nose-tackle, and all of his tapes show him collapsing offensive line. Maybe he’ll be our Terrence Cody.

LeDarell McNeill- Dallas. According to Rivals he is the highest ranked player on our board. He is a bruising safety, and has quite the hit collection on youtube.

Justin Meredith – Anderson, SC Another early enrollee. He is a tight end who played in the Under Armour All-American game. Because of Mike Rivera, Brendan Downs, and Cameron Clear, I think Meredith red-shirts. That’s more of a sign of our tight end quality, than a knock on him.

Dan O’Brien – Flint, MI. #2 ranked player in Michigan, another massive body, that Sal Sunseri can plug in the middle of our d-line.

Cordarrelle Patterson- Rock Hill, SC. Wide receiver, considered the #1 JUCO player in the country. He was a high school teammate of Justin Worley. This was the best news on signing day for UT. He chose UT over George, Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss.

Nate Peterman – Fruit Cove, FL. The only quarterback in this year’s class. Like Justin Worley he wanted to learn under Jim Cheney. Already enrolled in school like Justin Worley, but hopefully unlike Worley he does red-shirt.

Darrington Sentimore- Destrehan, LA. Defensive lineman.He already played his freshmen year at Alabama, and then had some grade issues. I expect him to make an immediate impact. He is already enrolled.

Trent Taylor- Lakeland, FL. Another early enrollee. Taylor was committed to Miami for a long time until the Nevin Shapiro stuff broke. He is expected to compete for playing time on the d-line this year.

Tino Thomas- Memphis, a grey-shirt. He is a corner, and we covered him earlier.

Quenshaun Watson- Athens, GA. Running back. He is a Devrin Young type running back, very fast and shifty. Not terribly big. He didn’t have a lot of BCS level offers.

However, as many people have noted, Bonner comes with skeletons in his closet. While on his official visit to UGA in the summer, Bonner and two others, were caught stealing ipods and iphones. The three were charged byAthens-Clarke county with misdemeanor theft.  The subsequent fall out cost Bonner stars, and several college offers.

Bonner has by all accounts shown admirable contrition, and served his high-school penalty without complaint. So the question clearly is: Is this a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or a criminal? Derek Dooley is about to find out.

Reportedly before Dooley offered Bonner he had at least three sit-downs with the young man. Dooley apparently feels that the Vol-For-Life program, and the quality of people who surround Bonner will be good for him, and the University.

There are two ways of looking at this:. On the one hand Dooley believes in this kid, and it’s a reclamation project worth gambling. On the other hand, Dooley needs to win now, and figures this kid is worth the gamble.  I am leaning towards the first, one freshman corner isn’t likely to make or break Dooley’s career.

Welcome to Big Orange Country Deion!

On Sunseri and Pittman:

Obviously, a lot has happened since we last talked not long ago. We hired Sam Pittman as you know. Sam has done a great job the last five years at North Carolina. Some of these hires happen quickly. I know it looked odd. Some of them take forever. There’s no real rhyme or reason why. Every coach has different interests. They’re in a different situation. They have to go through diligence differently and we have to do the same thing. It just so happened the Sam thing fell on us quickly and I’m glad he’s a part of us. He’s going to do a great job…Of course we hired Sal (Sunseri) as our defensive coordinator. I first saw Sal in I think it was the 1983 (1982) Sugar Bowl. I was down there just a coach’s kid on the sideline and he was an All-American linebacker. I worked with Sal in 2000 at LSU andd eveloped a relationship with him and just watched his body of work over the last 10 years. I’m so excited he wanted to be a part of Tennessee. He’s an outstanding football coach. He’s an outstanding recruiter. He has great energy. He is an awesome human being. I think he’ll be a really good fit for us.

I’ve been reading a lot about both these hires and it’s hard to find a negative word. From a recruiting point, both hires are fantastic. As far as on the field performance, Pittman’s lines at North Carolina great improved under his watch. (I am looking at you Juwuan James, Zach Fulton, Alex Bullard, Marcus Jackson and Dallas Thomas anchors of our 107th ranked rushing attack.)  Sal Sunseri has already made a recruiting impact. 6’6″ 380 lb nose tackle Daniel McCullers committed yesterday afternoon. Sunseri has also developed, Courtney Upshaw, Donta’ Hightower, and Nico Johnson for Alabama. I am legitimately excited to see what Sunseri can do with AJ Johnson and Curt Maggitt. All around great hires by coach Dooley.

If Coach Sunseri can get AJ Johnson and Curt Maggitt to this level, we will all be happy.

On Roster departures:

Now, let me go to the roster. As every program has, we have a little attrition at the mid-year; DeAnthony Arnett, Martaze Jackson, Art Jeffery, Matt Milton, Nash Nance and Robert Nelson are no longer a part of the team, all for different reasons. Some of it is family, some of it academic pursuits, some of it opportunity to play at other places and we wish them well. We support them. We never like anybody to leave our program, but sometimes it’s in their best interest and it’s a good mutual parting of ways. We move on. JerQuari Schofield is here, but not a part of the team right now because he has a lot of work to do academically and I want him to focus on that.

Nance is going to Harvard, I love UT more than most everything on the earth outside of my family, but even I would admit that if you have a chance to go to Harvard, you go. He might play there as well. We’ve covered Arnett. Matt Milton has been an enormous disappointment since he arrived in Knoxville, this year having a grand total of 1 catch for 7 yards. Art Jeffrey seemed to have trouble staying eligible grade-wise.  Martaze Jackson probably won’t ever see the field if he stays, and I don’t remember who Robert Nelson even is.

On injuries:

Let me update you on everybody. Ok, I’m just going down the list. Brent Brewer is eight weeks out, he is off his crutches and he is doing great. He’ll be out for the spring on his ACL. Alex Bullard, he had a little meniscus tear and he is fine. He is going to be full go. Alan Carson, he got scoped as well. He is on crutches probably for another week but he is going to be fine and full go for spring. Justin Hunter is doing really well. He is how many months out? He is running right now. He is right on track and doing great. Greg King had a meniscus tear and is doing, I think, better than he has been. He is going to be full go. Marlin Lane, same deal. He is full go. All of these postseason surgeries helped. You know about Da’Rick (Rogers). He will get his pins out in four weeks so he can’t really catch for another couple of months, but he should be full go for spring. He will be fine for spring. It’s going to limit him a little bit here. Marlon Walls was another scope guy on his knee. He will be full go for spring. He’s ready to go. Our shoulder guys, Daniel Hood, Curt Maggitt and Prentiss (Waggner), all had successful shoulder repairs. They are in slings and will be in slings for a little while. They are going to be non-contact in the spring, which obviously for Dan Hood, there is not much more you can do. For a guy like Prentiss, you can probably do a lot because of the position. Herman (Lathers) is doing good. He is full go. We’ll see how that goes.

All in all good news.

On Mid-Year enrollees:

You know we have seven mid-year guys. They look good. We are excited about Cody Blanc, Alden Hill, Justin Meredith, Nathan Peterman, Darrington Sentimore, Trent Taylor and Tino Thomas. No real issues with any of them right now. They are ready to go, they are in school and good.

Hopefully, Alden Hill can be good for the tough 5 yards when we need them.

Coaches love mid-term guys they get all spring to get bigger, faster, stronger, and better. It’s tremendous advantage, and the bonus is, if the kid is coming now, his grades are great. Blanc, is from Knoxville, he is listed right now as an athlete, but most think he’ll be a safety in the SEC. Hill from Alliance, OH, is a big bruising back cut from the Ron Dayne, Montee Ball, mold. (Am I saying he’ll be that good, no but, that’s his style.) Hill is from my neck of the woods, and he played against some pretty stiff high school competition. Meredith, is highly ranked by the recruiting services, but with Mike Rivera, Cam Clear, and Brendan Downs ahead of him, nobody will be surprised if he red-shirts.   Peterman, like Justin Worley, wanted to play in a pro-style offense. Clearly he’ll be #3 on the depth chart at the start of spring. Sentimore is an interesting case, he played as a true freshman at Alabama, and played there last spring. For some reason, (attitude, grades?) he didn’t go back to Bama this summer, he went to Gulf Coast Community college. It’s safe to assume that he’ll be a viable contributor for the Vols in the fall. Of this group, Trent Taylor is my favorite. He comes from a great high school program in Lakeland, FL. He was solid to Miami, until all that crap hit the fan down there this summer. I think he is going to be Malik Jackson or better. Finally Tino Thomas signed last year, got hurt in the summer, grey-shirted, and now is back in Knoxville. He is a big corner from Memphis.

Trent Taylor has a high ceiling in Knoxville

On Sal Sunseri’s defensive schemes:

He has called plays. He’s had four years of it before. Sal’s body of work is more than the three years with Nick (Saban). He had seven years with John Fox who, right now, is probably playing better defense than anybody in the NFL. He has a tremendous knowledge of football and, not only that, but everywhere he goes, his players perform. It was pretty simple for me…We talked a lot about it (schemes) and one of the reasons I went after Sal was because I felt like we needed to be a little more multiple and I felt like we needed to be a little more aggressive in situations of a game. Sal brings that. I think our personnel allows us to do a lot more because of the body types that we have and guys that we have recruited. That is going to be something that is important.

With the addition of McCullers, and linebackers like Johnson, and Maggitt, we certainly are built to be a special 3-4 team.

On where Sunseri and Pittman will recruit:

The Carolinas have always been a focus area. We haven’t done as good of a job as we probably could have. We’ve done a good job in some areas and haven’t done as good a job in others, but certainly given how close it is and the history of the great players from those states, yeah, we need to do a little better job in there.

Fulmer was a recruiting champ from DC to Savannah. There are a ton of good players in that area, if Pittman, Sunseri and Jay Graham, can help us there, wonderful.

On Sunseri coaching against his son Vinnie still at Alabama:

Well, I played against my dad. The only thing you learn from that experience is that the mom always pulls for the son. Roxanne (Sunseri’s) first comment was, `I can’t pull for you. I have to pull for Vinnie.’ That is the only thing I can tell you on that one

I am sure Roxanne Sunseri is not looking forward to October 20th. 2012.

On Herschel Walker, Sal Sunseri and Vince Dooley at the 1983 Sugar Bowl:

“Yeah, Herschel ran over Sal. That is a good memory. It was one of the great highlights. Sal came in a little high in his tackling technique and hadn’t hit a guy like that probably, but I wouldn’t bring that up to him. He wants that one back. (Pitt) won the game. There were two fourth and fives that game on the last drive. Georgia scored and (Dan) Marino comes back. On the first fourth-and-five, they run a quarterback draw which I think was the first time in his career that Marino ran one of those. Then the second, it might have been fourth-and-seven. Georgia ran a total blitz, a little out-and up for a touchdown. They asked dad, `If you had to do it all over again, would you run the blitz?’ He says, `Hell no, I already know the outcome to that.’ So, that is my memory of that game. And I cried

Don’t worry Sal, you aren’t the only guy to get steamrolled by Herschel Walker, he looks like he could still steamroll people now, and he’s nearly 50.

This was within the last year. I've never had abs like that.

On the 25 Scholarship limit

That number is always a moving target. You can’t go past 25. You can, but I guess there will be consequences. You can do whatever you want.

Houston Nutt was always way over, it hasn’t worked out well for him. The NCAA is considering dropping scholarships from 85-80. That means 600 young men wouldn’t be getting football scholarships anymore. I have no idea they’re motive, other than that the NCAA is moronic.

On why Sunseri accepted this job. 

I think Sal wants to coach at this level and probably would rather have an impact at this level than be in a different part of the country or a different league. I think the SEC and the NFL is appealing to Sal Sunseri as an assistant and I am sure there will be a time when he will want to be a head coach one day. Of course, you start getting different opinions when you are in charge. I just think the appeal of the NFL kept him there and then going back with Nick knowing he could go compete for a national championship and an SEC championship at a program like Alabama and I think he has the same sort of thinking about coming to Tennessee.

The SEC isn’t for everybody.

The SEC, not for wimps.

On coaching in the SEC:

I think it’s a big adjustment for some and I don’t think it’s a big adjustment for others. I think it’s a personality and a fit. Some people love coaching in this league and some people, you couldn’t pay them enough money to come coach in this league. That’s just the way it is. It’s ridiculously competitive every day, in recruiting and on the field. The scrutiny that you get every day is not like any other program and a lot of coaches don’t like that

Again, the SEC isn’t for everybody.

On whether he would’ve fired someone if people didn’t leave on their own:

I sit down every year, John, with all of our coaches. It’s important to have a professional dialogue. It has to be a two-way dialogue on how I think we did or how the coach did, good or bad, and his thoughts on where he is, our program and everything. Sometimes when you have those discussions, you get a lot better from them, both of you. Sometimes when you have those discussions, it causes you to think about maybe, `Is this the right fit?’ Sometimes when you have those discussions, you part ways. I do that with coaches every year. I think that’s important and I think it’s healthy. I ask them to give me the kind of feedback that I need as a head coach, honest opinions. I don’t think there’s any other way that you can grow as a program and as a coach if you don’t do that.

Translation: Heck yes, heads would’ve rolled. This is Dooley’s year to succeed or fail. He isn’t gonna fail without a fight.

Ultimately, I decided to resume because it has to happen at some point, and this championship more than any other was personal.  My day started at 3:30 AM when my wife and I got up, poked our heads into the kids’ room one last time to whisper goodbye and then headed to the hospital.  My third child, a son, was born at 7:45 AM.

Rationally, of course the two events are unrelated.  Alabama didn’t win it’s 14th title because my son was born.  But sharing Alabama football with my kids is one of the things I enjoy about being a dad, and it certainly strengthens that connection when I can tell him about how he was only a few hours old when his dad held him and put him to sleep softly singing ‘Yea Alabama’ to him while the Tide left no doubt who the best team on the field was.

So with that said, a few observations:

It wasn’t perfect.  Like the first time they met, the Tide had success moving between the twenties and then completely stalled out time after time. And as was repeated ad nauseum during the broadcast, the Tide all but refused to put the ball in Trent Richardson‘s hands in the red zone.  But if that was a curious decision, Les Miles‘ adamant insistence on continuing to play Jordan Jefferson was an absolute mystery.  His explanation after the game was satisfactory on its face, but it hinges on the idea that Jefferson was still trying to win.  I’m not convinced he was.  I don’t know Jefferson.  Maybe he really was giving it his all and was just in an all-timer of a funk.  But when I looked at the expression on his face in the fourth quarter, it looked to me like he was saying, “let’s just get out of here.”  The LSU defense never quit, but it sure looked like Jefferson did.

Two games of evidence.  For all the talk of how LSU already beat Alabama once, here’s an interesting bit of trivia:  In the two games combined, Alabama led LSU for 69 minutes and 50 seconds of game clock.  LSU led for exactly zero seconds.

“Touch that thang, folk.”  Allegedly the t-shirt of this exists and if anyone can point me in the direction of one, I’ve got cash.  Courtney Upshaw was unstoppable, and that’s nearly literal. Despite it being obvious on Jefferson’s checks that he was looking for Upshaw every down, LSU seemed powerless to do anything about him.

“Game Manager.”  AJ McCarron had a great game.  From just one view, I only recall one truly bad throw on his part, but it was a doozy.   Brad Smelley could have turned cartwheels into the end zone he was so open and McCarron just led him too far.

Tyrann Matthieu.  You heard his nickname from Brent Musberger enough so I won’t repeat it here, but not only was he a non-factor, but McCarron repeatedly captialized out what those who have been paying attention this season already know– Matthieu’s gift is in capitalizing on other’s mistakes, not playing great defense.  He’s talented, but undeserving of all the accolades he’s received.  To his credit, he handled the loss with more class than some of his teammates (looking at you, Will Blackwell).

Coach McElwain.  I’ve always been critical of his play-calling, and as someone who loves coach turnover season, I openly wished he would get a head coaching job so I could enjoy a good coordinator search in Tuscaloosa.  But I have to tip my hat to him.  His game plan for this LSU team was flawless, other than the aforementioned absence of Richardson in the red zone.  More than that, the game plan was implemented to perfection.  No penalties, no miscommunication.  Everyone executed.  Well done, Coach.  I hope our next offensive coordinator can give as much.

The polls. I was glad to see the protest vote never truly materialized in a way to really take away from what the Tide accomplished.  The basis for it was stupid on it’s face anyway — largely built on the narrative from the first game that somehow transformed from “Alabama missed several opportunities to win the game” to “LSU dominated the first game and shouldn’t have to do it again.”  The blogpoll  had the most disagreement at the top, with Oklahoma State actually beating out LSU narrowly for the second spot.  The problem I have with this is that there are two possible reasons for voting OSU over LSU and neither one is valid.  The first is the protest ballot — voting up Ok State as a way to continue to harp on the suggestion that they were more worthy than Alabama — which ceased to have merit after the game was played.  The second is based on schedule.  Alabama had a perceived easier path than both teams.  I can agree that it was less than LSU and for the sake of discussion, I’ll agree with the suggestion that it was less than OSU’s as well.  But there’s no way to say that OSU’s resume was stronger than LSU’s.  So if you’re voting based on resume, fine, but that vote goes to the Tigers, not the Cowboys.  If losing to Alabama meant that LSU was overrated, then you don’t get to ignore what losing to Iowa State means.

Number nine.  It’s official.  No matter whose measure you use to count championships, Alabama now stands alone atop history with nine championships that are universally recognized (and of course 14 that the fanbase claims and 18 that the NCAA recognizes).

Roll Tide, ladies and gentlemen.  Congratulations to the players and coaches who earned this championship. These are great times we are enjoying as fans.

On DeAnthony Arnett

Over the holidays, I got a message and a phone call from his brother. Of course, it was a little bit of a surprise. I had never met the father. Our typical response in these, as you guys know, is that we don’t release guys especially in their first year out of the NLI (National Letter of Intent) and certainly not to competitors. But we felt like at least the initial emotion of it, we should at least start the conversation by carving some exceptions to allow him to get home.

“I want you guys to know that the most important concern for me is the welfare of our student-athletes. That’s number one. I also have a responsibility to Tennessee, and so I needed some one-on-one dialogue with DeAnthony. These are big issues. They’re complex. They’re emotional. Like every issue that we deal with our players, it’s no different than a parent and a son trying to talk through and sort through the heart of the problem and help him make a good decision that’s the right decision for his future. Over the last five weeks or two weeks I guess, I’ve had some real good one-on-one conversation since all that hit out there on the social media.

“I’m very comfortable carving out an exception for him when he makes his request, which is not until today because our offices have been closed. That’s another reason there’s been a delay in releasing him where he wants to go close to home to get back to his father. There was a lot of confusion on what had happened there and that’s why I just wanted to clear that up. I’m really supportive of DeAnthony. He has a great future as a person and as a player. He’s been very mature through this thing during a tough time and an emotional time. Once we started the one-on-one dialogue, it’s been very comforting for both of us. I’m wishing him well there when that time comes.

This was getting pretty ugly. Twitter is a great source of info, but also a great source of consternation. I think overall releasing Arnett is the best thing to do. They are releasing him to Michigan or Michigan State, maybe we’ll see him in a bowl. (After this past year, that would be a good thing.)

On Coaching Changes

I was counting today, seven schools in the SEC alone are going through coordinator changes. That’s kind of the nature of our industry. I’ve said all along that when people are wanting your coaches, despite what a lot of people think, we’re obviously doing something right. All three of those guys (Eric Russell, Peter Sirmon and Justin Wilcox) came from the Pacific Northwest, so it was a chanced for them to get back home. I understand it and I really appreciate the work they gave us the last two years. They put their heart and soul in this program and the program is significantly better today than it was when we all came here 22 months ago. Those guys played a big part of it..There are a lot of different time periods when coaches leave. It happens right after the season when there’s movement. It happens around that New Year time when the bowls are over. With the NFL season ending, there’s another spike and then there’s another spike after signing day. The whole coaching movement, the profession is from December 1 until the end of February.

Translation: Man, it sucks that they left. Many people are nervous that Wilcox’s departure is indicative of a systemic problem in the program. (You could could put me half in that group last night). But like Dooley will say later, those aren’t simple decisions.

On Recruiting

As you guys know, I really can’t talk specifically on recruiting, but I do want to address some of the challenges that all of our schools are facing in the SEC right now. As we all know, the months leading up to signing day, it’s really a journey for families. It’s a journey for schools to try to find the right fit where the school, the player and the families, this is going to stick. This is going to be a great fit. The most important thing for me in recruiting has always been honest and frequent communication with the recruit and the family. Nothing is more important than that…Number one is academic risk. In the past, when you get your mid-term grades here – which is a great indicator of whether a recruit can qualify or not – it was OK if he was a big risk because you could sign him and if he didn’t qualify, you could help him. You could help him go to a junior college. You could help him go maybe to another school and get him back to reach his dreams. You can’t do that anymore. When there’s a high academic risk at the mid-term, the communication has to be that the limits that have been placed on us prevent us from continuing to help. That’s unfortunate. It’s one of the reasons, of course, our coaches were so opposed to it…The second thing is trying to have continued dialogue on having the right fit. Again, if you find yourself in a position where you’re overloaded at a position because you’ve extended some offers, you could delay enrollment in the past. When you have 25 and you can’t go over, the delayed enrollment thing is kind of out of the picture there.

Recruiting is a funny animal isn’t it? He can’t say who he’s talking about, but we all know who he’s talking about. He has withdrawn offers from Imani Cross, Khalid Henderson, and Keithon Redding. They are all 3-star guys. Logic says you only do that if you have someone better coming in. He let Henderson and Redding go after he knew about Wilcox. This is a strange convoluted way to say that this quote actually made me feel a little better.

On when he’ll hire the new coaches

I wish that I could put a timeframe on it. It’s really complex, given you have to invest time in recruiting and some teams are still playing in the NFL. It’s really hard to say. Certainly, the quicker, the better. What we’re not going to do is try and compromise who we get to try and hurry it up…You start gathering information. Of course, it’s Tennessee. It’s unbelievable the amount of interest that coaches have wanting to come here. I think they understand that it’s a great time to come to Tennessee. It’s certainly a much better time than it was two years ago when we came to Tennessee, and all the coaches our there know that, especially on defense. We finished 28th in the country on defense, we have nine starters returning and we have a great mid-year signee to boot. That’s pretty appealing.

He knows his job depends on that hire. He’s going to try and get it right.

On Team Chemistry

I don’t think losing coaches really impacts team chemistry. I think the most important thing is how can we help them build team chemistry? Team chemistry, first of all, is them learning to play for each other, learning to play for Tennessee and learning to have a great trust with each other, with the coaching staff and with everybody in the organization. That takes work. I think anybody who is a part of any team, whether it’s in business, the military or sport, it’s always a challenge. We have a lot of things that we’re doing in the off-season to help that. We tinker with some things, but I think more than anything, it’s growth and maturity. That’s what it is. The more you invest in something, the more important it is to you. That’s just a fact. That’s why seniors are so much more passionate about the success of a team than freshmen. It’s just human nature, because they’ve invested four or five years in the program. The more you invest in something, the more it hurts you and the more important it is. It’s human nature. I think time is going to fix that more than anything.

It’s the secret of sports getting guys to buy in, it’s more important than X’s and O’s.

On what criteria he looks for in a defensive coordinator.

I’d hate to sit here and box myself in because when you start this dialogue, sometimes you think you know what you want but suddenly someone appears and you go, `Gosh, this is a pretty good hire right here.’ I have some ideas, but the most important one is what can help us win the most next year. That is going to be my focus from the beginning…You feel pressure every year in this league. It’s not just this league, guys. Akron who we play next year, Kansas and Memphis all parted ways with their coach after two seasons. If that doesn’t say, `Hey buddy, every year you are on the line.’ That is the way it is and that is part of the profession. What you can’t do is get so drawn in to that, that you lose your focus of what’s important. What’s important is what we are doing every day to help us go out there and play better next season. That is all we are focused on.

Translation: My butt is on the line if we don’t win soon.

On Jay Graham:

Jay has every quality you would want in a coach. He is certainly a great person, he cares about the student-athletes, he has done a remarkable job in his short career of coaching players, motivating them and getting them to play well, and then add to it what he has done at this place. It was pretty much a no-brainer for me. We are glad Jay is back to his family and he is going to have a big role for us moving forward.

Welcome back to Big Orange Country Jay- Coach Dooley

On THE Factor

I think that the important thing is that number one Tennessee has not changed. All of the things that they really fell in love with when they got here and saw it, the program, how we are running the program, what we have done in the last 22 months, the new facility, the support, the game day excitement. None of that has changed. We have the resources and the attraction that is going to get some high-quality coaches. There is a tremendous amount of interest. Just stay patient. When we hire who we hire, you will have an opportunity to meet them because that is a factor, but it is certainly not `the’ factor. I’ve told recruits that all the time. That shouldn’t be `the’ factor. What I also tell them is that this is an early part of the bad part of our profession that you are going to have to deal with as a player for the rest of your career. If you go to the NFL and play eight years in the NFL, you might have eight position coaches and four head coaches, so the important thing is liking the program, liking the direction, liking the team because ultimately that is what is going to define their experience in college.

This is so important to remember for us as fans, and for college kids. It’s a cyclical sport, and the jobs are cyclical. You just have to control what you can.

On Disillusioned Fans:

Twenty-two months ago we walked into a tough situation and we have rolled up our sleeves and gone to work every day. Despite some of the hard bumps that you hit along the way, it doesn’t minimize the progress that has been made at the foundation-level, it doesn’t minimize what the roster looks like heading into next season and it doesn’t minimize the excitement that we have outside of this area in recruiting and elsewhere. Listen, I am excited and I am fired up. I don’t know what else to say. When you get drawn in to the drama, it is toxic. It really is. It is bad for the soul. When you love something, when you are talking publicly about it, you support it. Whether it is your family, your wife, your school, your program. When you love something, you support it. That doesn’t mean that you don’t have concerns about it, it doesn’t mean you don’t air out some things privately if things aren’t going the way you want it, you support it. We have one of the best fan bases in the country with a passion that is unmatched. I wouldn’t trade them for anybody. When you have some bumps along the way, there is going to be some passion the other way and that is great. It is healthy, but the most important thing is how you move forward and how you fix it. That is all I am focused on.

And right now, that’s what we should be focused on too.

Jarnell Stokes is coming to Rocky Top

Jarnell Stokes from Southwind high in Memphis, the #11 overall recruit in the country committed to Tennessee last night. Stokes is a 6’8″ 255 lb power forward. Bruce Pearl started Stokes’ recruitment over a year ago, and Cuonzo Martin closed it yesterday. Stokes chose the Vols over, Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, UConn, and his hometown Tigers. What a great early get for Coach Martin. Now for the best news. Stokes is graduating early, and will play in January for the Vols. This will give him at least a year and a half in orange.

Welcome to Big Orange Country Jarnell!

As mentioned, Jacobs is very fast and he has good size for a corner. The downside is that he only has 2 years of eligibility left. The good news is that many people think you can pencil him in as a starter immediately.

Welcome to Big Orange Country Otis!