Talked to Gene Stallings Wednesday night.

There was a time, from 1995 to 1997, that I talked to Stallings five nights a week. That was back when I covered Alabama for The Mobile Register.

Stallings was and is a classy guy; he knows how to treat people, and in return, those who have dealt with him hold him in high regard.

Honest, tough and gruff — that's Stallings.

So I asked the old Cowboy how special the Tennessee game was to him when he was patrolling the 'Bama sidelines in his sportcoat and tie.

"The reason I wanted to beat Tennessee is they were the next team on my schedule,'' said Stallings, who was 4-2-1 against the Vols. "I promise you I wanted to beat Vanderbilt as badly as I wanted to beat Tennessee. It was the same way with Auburn.''

Stallings used to like to say that "they're all big games, and if you don't think so, just lose one.''

Stallings did concede, however, that the Tennessee rivalry was special to most all others in the Alabama community.

"Tennessee meant more to coach (Paul "Bear") Bryant, for some reason,'' said Stallings, who played for Bryant at Texas A&M and served as an assistant on his staff at Bama before coaching under Tom Landry with the Dallas Cowboys. "I think it started with Gen. (Robert) Neyland. Coach Bryant really, really wanted to beat Tennessee.''

Just as UT coach Phillip Fulmer really, really wants to beat Alabama.

Fulmer has done his best to direct the focus of this game on his players and how they perform. It's the right thing to do.

But the reality is that Fulmer will be judged by this game.

It hardly seems fair that after winning nine of 10 against the Crimson Tide that Fulmer could fall from favor with a loss Saturday.

But that's the way it is.

Tennessee fans want more than a consistent winner. They want an offense that's more exciting and unpredictable. They grow tired of Fulmer's coachspeak and undying loyalty to his assistants.

You want to know the irony here?

Alabama fans were saying the same thing about Stallings in 1996, four years after he delivered a national championship to Alabama.

It got to the point where the Tide's athletic director then, Bob Bockrath, was saying some of the same things.

That was enough for Stallings to ride off into the sunset, back to his ranch in Texas.

It's only just now that Alabama is recovering from Stallings leaving nine years ago.

The message: Tennessee fans might want to be careful what they wish for, even if the Vols lose to the Tide.

Stallings Pick: "The reason Alabama is going to win this game is because I think they have the best football team. I think Alabama would win if they were in Knoxville, and I think they'll win in Tuscaloosa.''

Griff's Pick: Got to go with Stallings here: The Tide has found a system that's working, Tennessee hasn't.

Not saying the Vols can't win — not gonna do that, especially after last year's unlikely win at Georgia and the upset over Miami in the Orange Bowl in 2003.

But from what we've seen from UT this season, it's hard to imagine the Vols' finding themselves on offense against this talented Alabama defense.

Make it Alabama 20, Tennessee 16.

SEC Rankings

The great part about ranking the SEC teams each week is you can change the order.

This week's ranking:

1. Georgia

2. Alabama

3. Auburn

4. LSU

5. Florida

6. Tennessee

7. South Carolina

8. Vanderbilt

9. Ole Miss

10. Arkansas

11. Mississippi St.

12. Kentucky

Now, your questions

Q: What's your take on Chris Leak; was he overrated, or is he just not suited for the Meyer offense?

From seeing it do you think it will ever work in the SEC? I am still amazed that the national media truly believed Meyer would come in and compete for a national championship his first year at Florida. There sure are a lot of good defenses in the SEC this year.

CurtisHope@ohdnld.com

GRIFF: I think Leak was overrated and he's also not suited for the Urban Meyer offense. I'm not ready to say if Meyer's offense can work in the SEC because I haven't seen how a quarterback he recruits to play in it will fare.

I don't think the national media expected Meyer would compete for the national title this year, but I think they expected Florida to be in the top 10, as they're expected to be every year, anyway.

There are a lot of good defenses in the SEC this season, and that's probably one reason why you don't see any SEC players being mentioned for the Heisman. I'd say Brodie Croyle and D.J. Shockley should both get a look, but they just don't put up gaudy numbers like teams in the Pac 10 or Big 12, which benefit from having week bottom feeders.

Q: There's still a lot of football to be played, however, it's very possible that there could be another undefeated SEC team being left out of the possibility of winning a national championship.

One year of this was considered an anomaly. Two years in a row begins to suggest that it has become impossible for an SEC team, no matter how great it is, to win a championship. I don't think that there is any objective analyst in the country who thinks that the SEC is weaker than either the Big 12 or Pac 10, and yet the undefeated champion of the SEC may again find itself left behind the champs of these weaker conferences.

If this happens, the SEC should seriously consider pulling out of the BCS. What is the point of being in the BCS if it is no longer possible to win a championship? Surely the leaders of the SEC are smart enough to see this. They have to see that it may be that the only way for an SEC team to win a future championship will be with a playoff. If the SEC pulled out of the BCS and demanded a playoff, it would happen. If the leaders of the SEC are too stupid to see this, then maybe they don't deserve to win another national title.

Ascdds

GRIFF: One problem with the BCS is its heavy reliance on the human polls. Relying on those polls places a priority on the humans projecting things correctly at the start of the season.

For example, if Tennessee were the undefeated team in the SEC right now, it's a good bet the Vols would be No. 2 in the BCS, or at least No. 3. This is because UT was ranked No. 3 in the preseason.

Georgia, like Auburn last year, started the season ranked lower and therefore is at a disadvantage when it comes to their ranking in the human polls. Many pollsters are reluctant to drop a team in the rankings if it hasn't lost.

I don't think anyone is picking on the SEC, I just think as one of the most balanced conferences it's harder to project which team will come out of the heap.

As far as dropping out of the BCS, don't count on it. There's a lot of cash to be had, and more times than not money talks and principles walk.

Q: I like your idea of ranking the SEC teams. Maybe that's something we could do every week.

Here is my list:

Alabama

Georgia

3. Auburn

4. Tennessee & LSU

6. Florida

7. South Carolina

8.Vanderbilt

9. Mississippi

10.Arkansas

11.Mississippi State

12. Kentucky

As far as Tennessee, Florida and LSU, we really have a three-way tie between them as far as on the field play. But I have to put Tennessee and LSU ahead of Florida after Florida's last few games.

Florida looks like wounded animal limping along through the season. Sure they beat Tennessee, but they couldn't beat LSU when LSU turned the ball over five times. A good team would have won that game. Also, Florida is supposed to be the best passing team in the SEC but they couldn't do anything against a pass defense that made Rick Clausen and Arizona State look great. Florida will improve under Meyer in the next couple years, however, this Florida team isn't any better than teams of previous years under Zook.

luke_hampton@hotmail.com

GRIFF: Wow, you're really unloading on Florida. I'd agree the Gators have struggled offensively against good competition, but so have the Vols. Difference is, Florida hasn't cost itself a game (maybe two?) with poor special teams play, like Tennessee has. As for bragging rights, it's going to be 16-7, Florida, all year long.

I'm not ready to count out the Gators, even with Leak's injury. Remember, Florida still controls its own destiny in the SEC East and need only beat Georgia, Vanderbilt and South Carolina to play for the SEC Championship. I'm not saying that will happen, but it could.

Q: It seems that everyone wants to blame coach (Randy) Sanders for the offensive woes. I would tell you that the actual reason for our offensive woes is the inability of our offensive line to move people out of the way so that our running backs have some room to run. This had been a problem for the last five or six years. Our offense is predicated on our ability to run the ball. The passing game is not set up to work very well when our running game isn't working.

I would take you back several years ago when coach John Stuckey was our strength and conditioning coach. At that time we had good success with our running game. He became ill and the job of strength and conditioning coach was handed down to the two top assistants under coach Stuckey. Their names were Chris Carlisle and Johnny Long. During the next few years coach Carlisle was employed at another school as their top strength and conditioning coach and UT retained Johnny Long as its head strength and conditioning coach.

It might be noted that coach Carlisle was a former football lineman turned strength coach and coach Long was a former power lifter turned strength coach. coach Carlisle is now the head strength and conditioning coach at Southern Cal (this is the school that hired him) and we now have coach Long as our strength and conditioning coach.

In 2002 I started working out at a fitness facility here in Memphis. The owner of the facility was a former college strength and conditioning coach named Dean Lotz. Dean and I became friends as he worked me out and he learned about my passion for UT. He told me that UT had kept the wrong strength and conditioning coach and let the better coach go to Southern Cal. At the time I really didn't give much thought to Dean's statement because Southern Cal had just come back on the national scene. Dean told me that UT was spending too much time working on the upper body strength of their offensive linemen and not enough time working on their lower body strength. He stated that while it is an advantage to be stronger in the upper body, offensive linemen moved people out of the way by being more powerful in the lower body.

Dean said that UT was going to have trouble running the football until the strength training regimen was changed. Today it seems that Dean might have been correct.

As I said, this might seem like an obscure reason for our offensive woes, but it is one that makes more sense that blaming coach Sanders when the inability of our offensive line to move people is the real reason that our offense is sluggish.

FHJM1234

GRIFF: I certainly can't and won't take anything away from John Stucky or Chris Carlisle. I knew both coaches well and had great respect for them.

However, I'm not sure I would point to Johnny Long as the problem. I don't think the offensive line has performed that poorly. I look at the type of run plays called — many out of the spread with Rick Clausen at quarterback — and I believe it limits what the offensive linemen can do. They are operating in more space.

The offensive line's pass protection has been solid, only allowing nine sacks in five games with a relatively immobile quarterback and receivers that have failed to get open consistently.

I respect your opinion, however, and that's why you were granted to space to share it. At this point, I'm sure coach Phillip Fulmer is evaluating everything.

Q: Several years back, Fulmer and some (if not most) of his (offensive) staff visited (Tampa Bay Bucs coach) Jon Gruden to grab some insights into, among other things, more ways to enhance what they do on offense.

I think some of it centered on the use of the tight end. With all the back-and-forth talk about what's wrong, what doesn't work, does anything work, other teams knowing what play the Vols will call on every down, move Sanders upstairs, move Sanders to a different state, etc., why not travel several hundred miles west after the season and have a cup of coffee with a guy that knows a little about offense: Norm Chow.

Since it's a reasonable assumption this coaching staff is staying in place, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to get some fresh ideas from someone who has a lengthy and impressive track record.

Just as major companies with proven formulas for success continue to tweak some aspects of their products, or often do major overhauls in particular divisions, to keep their edge and stay ahead of the competition, so too should this coaching staff. Is there a downside to doing something like this? It's not an admission what they currently run doesn't have the potential for working; obviously, different faces have made this system work in the past. But perhaps ... perhaps ... it's simply time for new ideas.

astorknox@comcast.net

GRIFF: You present a very sound theory, though I'd point out that Norm Chow is now the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, thus a trip out West wouldn't be necessary.

After last season the Vols visited Texas to study their offense — the Longhorns aren't having any problems this year, so obviously there's more to it than taking ideas from a successful scheme.

There's no magic formula or game plan out there. The key is to find the system that best fits your best personnel and execute.

I'd suggest to you that Tennessee hasn't necessarily used its best personnel, found the proper scheme nor executed well enough.

That puts the 3-2 record on the shoulders of the coaches, though it's not for their lack of effort.

Seems to me the offensive staff merely missed the mark. You could point to the decision at quarterback — which has a direct correlation to the type of formations and plays called — or you could look at how each skill position player is utilized.

It's crazy to me that Gerald Riggs doesn't have a run longer than 22 yards in more than 100 carries, and yet LeMarcus Coker, clearly the most explosive back in scrimmages, is being redshirted.

It's odd that H-back Chris Brown and fullback Cory Anderson, two players that present difficult matchups, haven't had more touched.

It will be interesting to see what Tennessee's offensive plan is against Alabama. This game should bring out the best in the Vols. If the best isn't good enough, it's time to start taking next year into consideration when making personnel decisions concerning this year.

The Vols are only human — sooner or later, you've got to have a rebuilding year. We thought it would be last season, but UT overachieved and won 10 games (six conference wins, it should be noted, were by six points or less, a first for an SEC team).

So maybe the offensive rebuilding comes this year. Sadly enough, it comes in a year when Tennessee has one of its best defenses.