Not so breaking news actually. After the stinging defeat by the Gators to the tune of 59-20 Vols head coach, Philip Fulmer refuses to change the way he believes football is still played. Damn it Go Figure!

“An obviously sullen Tennessee football team took the practice field on Monday afternoon.

Players were mostly silent as coaches tried to motivate a team still shaken by a 59-20 loss to Florida on Saturday.

“I think you stay the course,” head coach Phillip Fulmer said of his team’s mindset following a 1-2 start. “We believe what we believe in. We’ve won a lot of games this way.”

Phil as I pointed out my diatribe titled, “Making a Case For the Firing of Philip Fulmer” I respect and admire you, but this is the crap I was talking about! As one observant person commented in the same post, you continually play not to lose instead of playing to win. I agree Tennessee has won a lot games with this style of play, and plenty of teams won a lot of games before the forward pass was implemented as well.

“Fulmer was obviously still stung by some of Florida coach Urban Meyer’s offensive play calls and the decision to leave starting quarterback Tim Tebow in late in the game.

“I know there’s mixed feeling about that,” Fulmer said. “I’m not going to sit here and say all I think.”

Phil as I have also said in the past you’re to passive. Man-up and rock the boat for once. You might be called a whiner but at least the Tennessee fans will think that you’ve taken notice.

Despite the lopsided score, Fulmer said his team never quit.

“I never saw a lack of effort in the ball game. I think they were pushing. We played some guys too many snaps,” said Fulmer, who said some linebackers played 60 snaps against Florida. “We’ve got to get some help there.”

Their second string offense pretty much manhandled our starters, and it wasn’t a case of being better. It was a case of the team being apathetic and quitting. Quite frankly I’m sure I’m not the only one who has noticed in the past few years, the teams have been apathetic. It showed during last years bowl game, it also showed during the bowl games against Maryland & Clemson.

“Deflating: Senior linebacker Ryan Karl has certainly seen the impact of big plays given up by UT’s defense. Florida gained 296 of its 554 yards of total offense on just 11 plays, Fulmer said during his Sunday teleconference.

“After a big play, you kind of see the air let out of the defense,” Karl said. “Football’s a game of short memories. And you’ve got to have that short memory in order to move on after getting beat. Just got to pick up the next play or the next game.”

Karl seemed to think UT was close to defending such plays.

“When they did make their long passes or long runs or whatever, it’s not like they were just wide open,” the senior said. “We were stride by stride with them, and their speed wasn’t something we hadn’t seen before. We just didn’t make the plays.”

Karl said he could see Florida’s spread option becoming the offense of the future.

“It’s a great offense,” he said. “Cal and Florida both use it pretty well. The whole spread offense in general is great. It gets defenses out of position and has the ability to make big plays.”

First of all, on one of the passes there was no one there, and that happened on the last touchdown Florida made in the first half. Talk about a short memory indeed. At least Karl recognizes that this is the offense of the future. Quite frankly when you look at the offense Tennessee was running in 98, one has to think it was a miracle they won the first BCS championship. Don’t get me wrong I’m thankful of that title, but in the end the Orange Nation should also thank Miami for beating UCLA, that’s why we rose to number two.

“Short-Range Problems: Fulmer said UT is 4-for-13 facing short-yardage downs this season.

“That’s not nearly good enough,” he said.

UT has tried almost every imaginable way to convert on third-and-short, including a five-wide receiver package, lining up receiver Lucas Taylor at quarterback and inserting backup quarterback Jonathan Crompton into the game to run off tackle.

“We’ve been really good in the past,” Fulmer said. “It’s not something like all of the sudden we don’t know what we’re doing.”

Thank you for helping me make my point. You see Phil, the past doesn’t matter, the present does.

“Long-Range Problems: Fulmer conceded the Vols are in need of more big plays offensively.

“It’d be nice to get one off those 30- or 40-yard down-the-field plays,” he said.

Does that mean UT’s young receivers could soon be in the mix?

“We have some young talent,” Fulmer said. “I’m very hopeful to get those guys to continue to develop.”

How the hell are they going to develop without playing time. Kenny O’Neal, who was one of the highest rated Juco players and happens to be a receiver, has suited up every game and yet only played in one play.

“We talk about finishing games, but we have to start them as well,” senior defensive end Xavier Mitchell said. “We haven’t done that particularly well, and we’ll definitely address some of the things.”

I hope so X-Factor Mitchell, I certainly hope so. The fact is this is the same rhetoric Phil said in the season of 2005, we all know how that turned out. I’ll continue to support Tennessee no matter what, and when Phil does good things I’ll acknowledge them. To set the record straight, because I received some disturbing e-mails about the last Fulmer post I did, I admire and respect Fulmer. I believe outside of General Neyland no one has done more for the University of Tennessee than Philip Fulmer. I my humble opinion I believe in time the field should be renamed to “Fulmer Field”, but there is a time for change. At the end of this season might be the best time.

So I profess on this day 9/20/07.

tTt