LaMarcus Coker's biggest impact last week was with a late kick return against South Carolina.

With news of Coker's dismissal from the team Friday, Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer didn't seem overly concerned with where the team turns in the return game.

"We'll go with the group of guys who have been back there returning," Fulmer said. "We'll start with Dennis Rogan and Denarius Moore.

"(Arian) Foster has returned for us, so we've got a good group of guys I feel very comfortable doing that. LaMarcus has done a good job, but so has the blocking. We'll be all right back there."

As far as the depth chart at running back, not much changes there either.

Foster will start today against Louisiana-Lafayette and be backed up by Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer.

Fulmer said highly touted freshman Daryl Vereen is still likely to redshirt.

"We've got three healthy tailbacks right now," Fulmer said. "Unless there's some kind of dire emergency where he (Vereen) could help us win the championship, I don't think we would go there.

"He has dressed and been available almost every game this year and gets a lot of work in practice. He would be ready if we needed him."

Asked how the team responded to news of Coker's dismissal, Fulmer said the team took it in stride.

"Good," he said. "They came out here and went to work.

"We had good concentration today and we've had a really good week of practice with a lot of fundamental work to get ready for this game and the stretch run."

Foster Up And Running: Foster can expect a heavier workload and a few more carries with Coker's departure.

He's already on the cusp of joining some elite company in UT football record books.

Foster needs 189 yards to break into UT's all-time top 10 for career rushing yards.

The junior is at 1,901 yards and sits in 13th place.

Stanley Morgan (1973-76) is No. 12 at 1,952. Aaron Hayden (1991-94) is No. 11 at 2,061 yards. Charlie Garner (1992-93) is No. 10 at 2,089 yards.

Good Karl: After suffering a back injury during the summer and missing part of fall camp and conditioning workouts, senior Ryan Karl is finally hitting his groove at strongside linebacker.

Karl had a career-high 12 tackles against South Carolina, tied a career high with two tackles for loss and had a key fourth-quarter interception.

"It's just part of me getting back to the speed of the game," Karl said. "I think taking off the summer was a pretty big part of slowing me down a little bit.

"Week by week, I've gotten a little better and a little better. Hopefully next week I'll be better than the previous week."

Homecoming For Quinn: Louisiana-Lafayette defensive line coach Shawn Quinn didn't graduate from Tennessee, but today's game will still be a homecoming of sorts.

Quinn was a graduate assistant at UT from 1999-2001, immediately following a three-year stint at Maryville High School. Quinn also played at Carson-Newman.

While at UT, he helped recruit Julian Battle, Demetrin Veal, Gibril Wilson and Kevin Simon.

Good Old Days: Fulmer's first victory as UT coach - coming as a stand in for ailing Johnny Majors early in 1992 - came against the Ragin' Cajuns.

They were known as Southwestern Louisiana then, but now the Cajuns get another crack at Fulmer after he has racked up another 141 career victories.

Fulmer's 142 career victories ranks eighth on the all-time SEC list - one behind South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and 31 behind UT legend Gen. Robert Neyland.

Drew Edwards contributed to this report.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.