I kind of think that old Phil might be wound a litte too tight the past two years in regard to the offense. At times the play calls are more consevative than when he was offensive coordinator under Majors, and I think the competition between the backs have them holding back some for fear of fumbling. There have been some boneheaded coaching decisions but mainly a major decline in the receiving corps, tight ends and linemen, not to mention the absence of a blocking fullback. I guess it happens after the attrition of talent to the NFL, unless you can continually reload like the Miami's, FSU's etc. where the talent pool is very deep and accessable. Tennessee has always had more trouble reloading quickly because of the way we have to recruit. Fulmer is a kickass recruiter, and I commend him for the job he has done. We have to recruit nationally due to lack of abundent talent in a typical Tennessee home grown crop. I don't know if you have noticed but we have dropped off from the top five signing classes and number of bluechip recruits lately as well. At least we have filled the holes where needed. This year we will see how the young redshirt freshman and sophomores fill the vacancies left behind. We may be pleasently surprised. Whoever the starting qb/tb etc. is, I would like to see them let it fly-not with wreckless abandon- but at least playing hard and not looking worried over their shoulder or at the sideline.
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