I once heard Jonathan Stewart say in an interview that ‘the 24 hour news cycle is really only built for events like 9/11’. During all other times the 24 hour news cycle is largely unnecessary. When there is no concrete news to fill all of that TV, Radio and Print space, a lot of it gets filled with speculation, discussion and ideas. The issue that arises with this format is if something gets said, its news. Whether or not anything actually happened, its news. How many times can you recall a headline being something about what some writer or TV personality has said or theorized?

In my opinion, Tennessee has become its own worst enemy in this environment in the last 5-6 years. The 24 hour news cycle exists in college sports too, and while it certainly serves its purpose during stories like Michael Vick’s scandal or the Penn State situation, the past month in Tennessee’s football universe has not been worthy of a 24 news cycle. That’s what I took the most out of Derek Dooley’s press conference today, that we all need to take a moment and relax.

Regardless of how you feel about the team’s performance this year (and I am of the school that feels the team underperformed to their talent level), I think the speculation, the rampant rumors and accusations that have flown around since the Kentucky game have been on the level of ridiculous. After that game it’s like the flood gates opened and any bad thought anyone has had about the state of the program is fair game and news worthy. Everything Dooley said today made sense. Yes, this is a make or break year for him, but for now he’s here, and wants to be here (imagine that!). What’s best for Tennessee Football in 2012 is for the team to play extremely well with Derek Dooley as the head coach. I’m not going to spend this off season worrying about what may or may not happen if and when he is asked to leave. Can we please stop looking for reasons to fire him before we have a REAL chance to see what a season looks like the year we've said all along would be the tell all?

With that said, Scattered thoughts on the press conference today…

Wilcox and Sirmon leaving: Coaching turnover is just a big part of the sand box we play in these days. Yes it sucks to lose two promising coaches in the heat of recruiting season,but let’s stop acting like this is automatically indicative of everything that is wrong with Tennessee. This is part of the risk you take when you hire people that are young and have lifetime ties in places that are far away from Tennessee. The fact that we didn’t announce Randy Shannon or some other “home run” hire in less than 24 hours does not automatically mean we won’t have a good defense next year or in years to come. Charlie Baggett leaving was a blow but everyone seems to be on board with Jay Graham as a replacement. That took some time, let’s give this some time as well.

DeAnthony Arnett: Dooley eventually arrived at the correct decision to release him. Let’s accept that fact and move on. It’s not worth it to make a big deal of how he got there as we don’t know (and nor should we really) what the situation was beyond closed doors.

DaRick Rogers: I was disappointed as any in listening to the RTT podcast with Wes Rucker several weeks back. But let’s not forget he’s 19 years old. He’s been treated as a star his whole life. He needs to grow up. I’m reminded of the bell curve of character Dooley described during his first recruiting class, hopefully DaRick moves towards the middle and benefits from being around some seemingly great kids already on this team.

I hope Derek Dooley is the man for the job. Go Vols!

• Tonight the Basketvols take on VCU at 7pm EST on ESPN2. Both teams are considering this semi final game of the NIT Season Tip-Off to be a step up from the games they've played thus far.

"After we beat Wake Forest I told our team we're taking a big step up,'' said VCU coach Shaka Smart, whose Rams upset Wake Forest, 90-69, on Nov. 16 to reach the semifinals. "We're playing in the heavyweight division now.''

Fun fact about Coach Smart: He was on Billy Donovan's Florida staff from 2008-2009, so he knows all about losing to Pearl's Vols ;). He says the one thing that always stood out about Tennessee was their confidence.

"The thing that impressed me about Coach Pearl and his team is that they played with such great confidence,'' Smart said. "You would have thought they believed they could beat the (Los Angeles) Lakers.''

• Despite their confidence, Mike Griffith writes that the Vols have a lot to improve upon if they plan on winning the NIT Season Tip-Off. I tend to agree.
• Bruce Pearl has had a great time with the New York Media answering questions about all his favorite topics.

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• Obviously, the lead story in today’s Talking Points has to be the twirling fingers, "crazy" celebration that seems to have swept the Vols offense. Always the conspiracy theorist, Dooley is never sure that the players are telling the truth. After all, they might all be planning a secret takeover. Dooley is prepared for everything. Sidenote: I’m writing this while watching a CNBC special on Google, they actually are taking over. Hat tip to Bloodspite for the fanshot of Dooley’s explanation and to danmarcel for the gif.
• Oh hey, there was a game last night! The Vols defeated the Belmont Bruins 85-76 and will face Missouri State tonight at 7pm EST. If you watched, and weren’t throwing your remote at the TV at the absurd number of fouls called, you’d note the Vols need to learn to take better care of the ball. The box score tells us that the Vols had 27 turnovers to Belmont’s 15… ball control theory confirmed. 
• Mark Wiedmer, (aka the OTHER Chattanooga Times Free Press writer), says Vol fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming year(s) with two standout freshman on campus, Tyler Bray and Tobias Harris.
• Earlier in the year, the local press was cranking out Matt Simms toughness articles on production lines. The Matt Simms toughness movement has lately been taken over by the Tyler Bray pocket presence movement.
• Former baseball player Brent Brewer has fully made the adjustment to playing safety in the SEC. Honestly, without his surprise emergence, where would the secondary be right now? Also in this article: Zach Fulton is likely to move back to guard, and Zach Rogers and Eric Gordon deal with concussions.

• Tyler Bray talks about avoiding pressure and working without Rommel's orders, while the Knoxville News Sentinel reminds us that Quarterbacks tend to perform better when upright.

"I have no idea," Bray said. "I just try to avoid those big linemen because they're twice the size that I am. The more I avoid them, the less I am on my back and that's better".

Any quarterback is going to be more effective when he's upright, and obviously that's true for Bray.

• We're talkin' bout special teams. One of the few consistent bright spots for the Vols this year has been their ability to cover kickoffs effectively. I guess they've had a lot of practice. They've also gotten some good contributions from some less hyped freshman, Raiques Crump, John Propst & Dontavis Sapp, as well senior Tyler Wolf.
• Speaking of freshmen, remember 5starmegarecruitsuperhero Da'Rick Rogers? He had his first touchdown this weekend.
• Speaking of incoming freshmen, remember the Basketvols lost to Indianapolis in an exhibition game the other night? The incoming recruiting class does. It doesn't bother them. Move along, nothing to see here.
• Injury News: Daniel Lincoln and Marsalis Teague to return this weekend while Mychal Rivera has performed admirably filling in for concussed Luke Stocker.

And now, a word from the Alaska Nanooks. Have a wonderful day, all!

Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro - HIGH QUALITY (via jondorfman)

This year’s team has been struggling for sure. Sites like Rocky Top Talk exist almost solely to dissect and discuss what and why the team does what it does (alliteration FTW). When we talk about the struggles this year words and phrases like, lack of depth, inexperience, newness all get thrown around. One word I haven’t heard a lot but I think everyone has thought about at one point or another is baggage.

This team through no fault of their own has a lot of baggage, specifically the Seniors. They’ve been through a major coaching overhaul every single year of their college careers (2007-2008 I consider a coaching overhaul because it was an entirely new offensive staff). That’s a lot of change and a lot of transition.  Throughout that transition they’ve experienced some of the worst losses in the programs history, had numerous embarrassing off the field incidents, and seen a lot of their coaches teammates come and go. That has had to take an enormous mental, emotional and physical toll. Baggage. Lots of it.

I started to wonder how long it would take to clear the program of all of this baggage. Do some players have more baggage then others? How would we quantify that?

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• Today, the always optimistic John Adams reminds us that the South Carolina game has usually marked the start of a strong finish for the Vols. To which I would add the word "usually" should be taken with a grain of salt this year in that South Carolina is competing for a chance to go to Atlanta. Adams also points out some encouraging statistics on how the Vols match up with the final four teams they face in November.
• Move over, Les Miles. Your title of most quotable coach in the SEC is being challenged. Turns out Dooley wasn't pleased with practice yesterday... like, at all. He also pointed out that some people in the organization called in sick on Monday and that shouldn't happen because well... it just doesn't happen. 

"Everybody in the country is sore," he said. "It's just a choice you make every day when you wake up - ‘I've got a headache.' I think there were a couple of people in our organization who didn't come to work Monday because they were sick. Are you kidding me? You shouldn't be sick on a Monday, right?

"Nobody gets sick on a Monday. Unless you aren't sick."

• Despite the final score, Dooley, among others, pointed out that Saturday was actually one of the patchwork offensive lines best games this year, specifically praising the performances of Zach Fulton and JaWuan James. That's also encouraging news because they get JerQuari Schofield back this week for South Carolina.
• Linebacker Herman Lathers reminisces about being thrown into the fold in the South Carolina game last year when Savion Frazier went down.
• Everyone's favorite player Malik Jackson (who was also a Game Captain against Alabama) talks about playing the phone booth position on the defensive line. For those of you who don't follow football too closely, the phone booth position is where D-Line Coach Chuck Smith wants his best 4 defensive linemen on the field and you'll play wherever you're needed.
• Garnet and Black Attack has scouting reports of the Vols Offense and Defense. Here's a hint, they mention youth.
• On the Basketvol front, Freshman Forward Tobias Harris talks about his early morning workouts and shoot arounds. Other players also talk about a bigger commitment to the press this year.
• Thanks to Wes Rucker, there is now a Derek Dooley Call Rommel Dance Remix. Click on the right sidebar, you're welcome.

• Chris Low provides a much needed ‘hey remember when' post on the last time Alabama made the trip to Knoxville. If you're like me and had removed that night from your memory, this was the game in which Alabama invaded Neyland Stadium. It was not a fun night if you were donning orange. It was a textbook Saban Victory; slow, painful, boring, and the good guys were never really in it. What made it worse was the last quarter was essentially a party for Alabama fans. This game probably did the most to motivate the powers that be to force out Fulmer. Ugh, let's not have it be quite that depressing this time, eh?
• John Zenor says this game is actually shaping up more like last year's match up. I could deal with that, just not, you know, the ending part. If that part were a little different this time, that'd be ok with me.
• Here's a fun fact. Two of Tauren Poole's three 100 yard games this year have come against teams that are yet to lose a game. He would like a crack at being the first guy since the Law Firm of BenJarvis Green-Ellis in 2007 to run for 100 yards against the Tide.  
• Earlier this week, Will recapped the current post-nuclear winter status of the SEC East. Today, Wes Rucker provides Dooley's as well as several player's thoughts on the chaos and the Vols' chances to take the East.

Dumb and Dumber - You're telling me there's a chance (via 805Bruin)

• John Adams points out that the Tide has young players, deficiencies, injuries, pimples, embarrassing stories, and skeletons in their closet just like the rest of us.
• This Alabama-centric article provides a nice summary of the entire history of the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, through crimson colored glasses that is.

Trivia Question: Which defense has more sacks on the year, Tennessee or Alabama?

Despite the statistical advantage over Tennessee’s next opponent, the Vols have put an emphasis on technique this week. They’re even giving what the Coach says a shot:

Talking Points Late to the Party Edition

• John Pennington of MrSEC fame is telling fans to expect the unexpected this Saturday. Which is probably good advice since this will be the first time since 1906 that both Tennessee and Georgia have played while neither team was ranked. Both teams are desperate, both teams are in places they aren't used to being in, so yeah...  the unexpected is what you should expect.

The best punt returner in the conference was effectively shut down.

• Think about that sentence. Then think about how it was in reference to a Tennessee special teams unit. Last week's coverage units were fantastic. More of that this week, please, and thank you.
• 3rd and Jones. That's the clever headline for this GVX article on Gerald Jones' impact on the offense this past weekend in Baton Rouge. The article also provides injury updates on Dallas Thomas (out yesterday, day to day going forward) and Daniel Lincoln (day to day).

Simms took a huge hit in the first half at LSU on Saturday, and the defender told him he’d be in the backfield all day. The quarterback rapidly replied, "All right, so am I. I will be, too."

• Matt Simms taking sacks and talking trash... would be a great segment on The Derek Dooley Show. Get on it, Kesling.
• Marlon Brown was in Da'Rick Rogers' shoes this time last year. I'm a little surprised this angle hasn't gotten more discussion.

I started this as a simple comment on Joel's fanshot of this Knoxnews blurb, but I quickly realized that I had a lot more to vent on this subject. 

First off, I hate, hate,hate this meme. Even if its not even in full blown meme status, I hate that its a baby meme with the potential to grow into a toddler, child and so forth. 

Tennessee football should be the last program in the country right now with a wandering eye when it comes to its coaching staff. I know its no secret, but need I remind you we are bringing around 60 players to Baton Rouge this weekend. To paraphrase Josh Ward from last weeks podcast, "we're starting the Gooch at center for crying out loud!". We are literally asking Dooley to come in and build a program from next to scratch. And we need to give him a chance, a REAL chance to do that.

Having that said, it really tweaks me when I read probes like that in the Knoxnews link. Also, even if this comes from a rival blog, it really bugs me to read this type of commentary as well.

We all knew things were bad in Knoxville, but not that bad. And, frankly, Dooley has done nothing to convince me that he was a particularly good hire.

This type of discussion is viral in nature and if you hear it enough, it starts to affect your thinking. Our program is in a state where we simply can't afford it. 

We need to give Dooley and company a chance to build the program into something we can consider a finished product before we do any type of evaluation of his job status. In the mean time, he needs our full support. He needs fans in the stands cheering. What he doesn't need is the media and fan base discussing his job security 4 games into his only season after he had only 2 weeks to secure his only recruiting class. 

There is a saying that gets thrown around in my office from time to time. 

"Short cuts lead to long delays" 

What ultimately sealed Phillip Fulmer's fate was a lack of excitement. We took a shortcut to more excitement by hiring Lane Kiffin and that ultimately lead to what has become a long delay in our quest to build a nationally competitive, championship caliber program. 

The road to the top is long and steep and we simply can't afford any shortcuts this time. 

• Gerald Jones came into the year excited about feeling 100% healthy for the first time in his college career. When he got his post game X-Ray and found out he had broken his hand against UT Martin, he was understandably upset. Also, count Gerald in with the group of people not happy with how the team has played, and he is speaking out about it in practice.

"I’m pushing this team right now so hard, they probably don’t like me," Jones said. "But I don’t like it. I don’t like the way we’re playing. Not one bit. I’m on everybody’s tail.

• Walk-through?  We don’t need no stinkin’ walk-through! Derek Dooley is no stranger to Tiger stadium. He’s coached in both locker rooms and been on both extremes of the betting line. This Saturday, he’s opting not to take his team on the usually scripted walk-through before the game. Basically it’s the dip your toe in the water vs. jump right in approach. As you may remember, we’re playing 3 freshman, 2 sophomores and maybe a few middle school kids on the offensive line. It’s already a season of baptism by fire, so I guess there is no need to sugarcoat the road experience with a walk-through.
• Did you hear? John Chavis, Chief himself, live and in person this Saturday in Baton Rouge. Chief seems to have endeared his LSU players the same way he did when he was in Knoxville.
• As a part of Dooley's ‘Vol for Life’ program, and in an effort to "bridge the gap" between the team and the Police force, players are being required to participate in ride-alongs with local law enforcement. In the past, Tennessee and other programs have used this as a punishment after a player gets in trouble. Dooley sees that everyone can benefit from the experience regardless of them being arrested or not. He is probably right.

But wait there's more!

• Obligatory Practice and Injury Report, (no new news, Cody Pope and JerQuari Schofield out, Tauren Poole and Art Evans day to day).
• Obligatory Matt Simms toughness article.
• Obligatory OMGPATRICKPETERSONRETURNINGKICKSFETALPOSITION article.

Derek Dooley was making his rounds with the Media yesterday. Most of the quotes you’ll find in any of yesterdays stories can be found in their proper context here in the transcript from Dooley’s weekly Media Luncheon.

Having that said, yesterday’s hot topics included lots of playing time for freshman on the offensive line. Quite honestly, this situation is getting a little scary as we have games against teams with big, deep, defensive interiors right around the corner.

What's left on the line is sophomore tackle Dallas Thomas, true freshman left guard James Stone — who's been backing up both Thomas and Schofield — sophomore center Darrin Gooch, senior right guard Jarrod Shaw and true freshman right tackle Ja'Wuan James.

…

"We don't really have a backup left guard or left tackle," Dooley said. "Nobody else has really ever snapped. I brought that up — who's our third center — and the coaches laughed at me. I'm like, 'It's not funny.'"

It’s getting to the point where we may want to consider running some A-11 packages.

Tauren Poole looks to bounce back from his tough day against Florida during which he injured his thigh during the 4^th quarter. For the record Poole says he’s anywhere from 90 – 91%... which thanks to the minus system instituted Fall 2008, would actually not qualify Tauren for an ‘A’ on the 4 point scale.

The article above also discusses how freshman defensive ends Corey Miller and Jacques Smith are going to have "more specified roles" going forward. Which I guess means so far they’ve been… unspecified?

Derek Dooley also discussed how not being able to fully practice in fall camp caused sophomore safety Janzen Jackson to struggle against Oregon’s tempo. He did however bounce back to have 9 tackles against Florida. There is still room for improvement in that we could have really used a few of these plays on 3^rd down. sigh…

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• Yesterday, the big story from practice was starting Center, Cody Pope being taken to the hospital. With our razor thin o-line depth, this was a huge concern on the field, but more importantly Cody Pope is by all known accounts a good guy and we hate to see these things happen. This from his twitter can allow us to rest easy, for now.

"Thanks for the prayers, I'm going to be just fine." 

Did you hear? He’s a pescetarian.

• With Gerald Jones out, Dooley has been looking for somebody to take over on punt returns. David Oku is listed as the primary backup, but DBs Janzen Jackson and Eric Gordon have also gotten some work. Oku’s fellow tailback Tauren Poole got a look back there yesterday as well.

Well they say if you have two quarterbacks, you really have none. In that case, if we have four punt returners, how many do we really have? Punt returner controversy!!!! Oh the horror!!!!

• Backup tight end, Mychal Rivera signed with Oregon in 2008, so he knows all their secrets.

"Since I had my (scholarship) offer from Tennessee," Rivera said, "I looked the schedule up, I (saw) Oregon, I said, 'I have to come here.'

Chalk one up in the pro column for aggressive scheduling.

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• It's game week and honestly the biggest news story is Justin Hunter being cleared to play. But there are still some other talking points.
• Gerald Jones talks about coming into the season healthy for the first time in his career. He attributes it to eating right and training hard. He also praises the new staff's approach to special teams. "We totally mean it this year guys!"

“I think this is the best special teams unit we’ve had, coaching-wise,” he said. “That’s the first thing they do every day — special teams, special teams, special teams. It’s proven. If you watch film on (Louisiana) Tech or Texas Tech, they have so many punt returns for touchdowns and so many kick returns for touchdowns.

• Its not too often a long snapper gets his own feature. But here's a nice article on Nick Guess. Hopefully, this will be the last time we hear his name all year.
• Derek Dooley describes how he learned the importance of taking each opponent seriously from his dad. Which we all know means he will have zero success because Mike Shula! Mike Shula! and you know Lan... wait... too close to home.

Part III of the Inmates Running the Asylum here on RTT

Footvols

• It would appear that Coach Dooley is having the team go through a game day dress rehearsal today. It would also appear that Coach has taken the time to learn up on Tennessee Football traditions, so he can teach the young'ns with some authority.

“Traditions are only good if you truly embrace them,” said Dooley. “If you say we are doing this, but you don’t really invest in it and do it the right way then you shouldn’t even do it.

“The ones that we are going to hone in on we are going to do it right. I believe in that. Otherwise we wouldn’t do it.”

This may very well be the closest Coach Dooley has come to an actual criticism of the previous regime.

• Speaking of the previous regime, it appears that Chris Walker has been very impressed with freshman defensive ends Corey Miller and Jacques Smith, two of the guys they helped lure to Tennessee.

"They're miles ahead of any freshman I've ever seen come in," Walker said. "They're ready to play right now, and they will play right now."

The article goes on to say that Walker, Gerald Williams & Malik Jackson will likely be the main factors in that rotation but it is encouraging to hear about some actual quality depth at a position. Also nice to note that we should have Ben Martin back in the fold next year.

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When I reluctantly read this article today, it bothered me. At first I thought the reason it bugged me was simply because I dislike Lane Kiffin. Any one of his quotes at this point have the ability to really get under my skin and I was sure that was the case here. That was until I remembered something Joel had written a while back. 

It's time to look to the future, and obsessing about Kiffin merely gives him power over us he does not deserve. I for one intend to deny him that.

This made me feel better for a minute, remembering that Kiffin is going to be Kiffin, and getting upset over something he says is pretty useless. However, even after I reminded myself of this fact, the article still bothered me. What I hated was the fact that the whole story of his departure and the ensuing "riots" showing the ugliest side of our fandom kept getting retold. Then it hit me. 

If theres one thing I learned about Lane Kiffin's coaching philosophy its this: Everything traces back to recruiting. Everything.

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