A year ago, at a media/Tennessee football coaches golf outing, a sportswriter asked coach Phillip Fulmer how good he thought his team would be in 2006.

Why not ask about 2006? Everyone had the 2005 team all figured out last July. The UT coaches, the media, the fans concurred: the Vols would be a national championship contender.

At the time, Fulmer said he expected to have another good team in 2006, unless, of course, certain players left early for the NFL. Tuesday, at another media/coaches golf gathering, Fulmer again spoke optimistically about the 2006 season.

It was as though 2005 never happened.

The coaches had little choice but to heap praise on their upcoming team last summer. Nobody would have taken them seriously if they hadn’t mentioned "championship" every few sentences.

But almost everything that was supposed to be right turned out wrong for the 2005 team, which lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 23 years and failed to qualify for a bowl game for the first time in 17 years.

After a 5-6 season that was preceded by a preponderance of hype, I expected Fulmer would go the other way in assessing his next team. He surprised me. There was no mention of national championships, but Fulmer often was effusive in his praise.

The 2006 football media guide provided a complementary visual aid for Fulmer’s appraisal. "The POWER of the T" reads the headline on the cover. Inside the giant Power T is a group shot of Fulmer and 10 UT seniors.

"Amateurish" was one sports copy editor’s critique of the media guide. Another colleague said, "plain."

I say "effective." In fact, I can’t remember a more appropriate cover for a UT media guide. It showed strength following a season of weakness. The inside pages are a testament to UT’s tradition; between the lines, you can read: "5-6 was an aberration."

Isn’t that what you want your fans to think? More importantly, isn’t that what you want your players to think?

In recent years, with the exception of last season, UT has had a history of winning close games. In 2003-04, UT was 9-2 in either overtime games or games decided by seven points or fewer. Last year, the Vols were 3-3 in overtime games or games decided by seven points or fewer.

Losing those games was bad enough. Losing your edge in close games would be even worse.

So you downplay one bad season and emphasize the tradition with the hope that your next team will embrace the fourth quarter of a close game as a long lost friend.

"In our league, there are just a few plays that will be the difference in a ballgame," Fulmer said Tuesday. "In the past, we’ve made those plays. Last year, we didn’t make those plays or we gave up one of those plays that allowed us to lose those ball games."

When you look at a 5-6 season from that perspective, it doesn’t look nearly as grim or hopeless.

Fulmer’s preseason evaluation of the offense is all about improvement. Quarterback Erik Ainge has a "different demeanor," and new offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe has worked wonders with him. The three running backs — Arian Foster, LaMarcus Coker and Montario Hardesty — "have changed their bodies." He means that in a good way.

He criticized his wide receivers and fullback Cory Anderson for underachieving and was especially hard on Anderson, who "had underachieved as much as anybody at the fullback position since I’ve been here." But he also said the receivers are "certainly physically capable of being good players" and that he’s expecting Anderson "to live up to his ability."

Fulmer even sounded optimistic about a questionable offensive line.

"I am not as concerned as some people," he said about the lack of starting experience in the line. "I think they have a toughness about them. We’ll find the right combination of guys.

"Arron Sears, Eric Young and David Ligon — that’s three darned good ones. I don’t think there’s anybody in the conference that has anybody better."

By the time he completed his rundown of the offense, I was questioning my memory. Did the Vols really rank 90th in total offense?

I checked. They did.

But that was last year, which is easily forgotten once you open up the 2006 media guide. I only saw "5-6"

twice, in small type. It might have been listed elsewhere, but I couldn’t find it amidst all of the success and tradition.

The message was clear: Forget the last record; remember the track record.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.