Notebook: Kick coverage; Fulmer fires back

Phillip Fulmer has every right to be upset by the Pearl Harbor job Pennington did on him with the column. I have a newspaper background and nobody has to tell me about a column often being an opinion piece, but in most cases someone is stating their opinion or opinions of named sources. It's one thing to cite an unnamed source when you are dealing with organized crime, but it's another thing to do so when talking about one's former coach. By Pennington not naming these players he hurts his own credibility. Were the players starters or backups? If they were starters, what level of success did they enjoy with the Vols? Were any of the players those that were dismissed from the program? No names equals no news or opinions, just unfounded statements.

I hate that it takes away from a great win. It's hard to imagine a punter/kicker could control the game like Britton Colquitt did today, but the special teams proof was in the pudding. Go VOLS!!!

Pennington generally does do a good job of being objective. That said... I deplore the negativity that I hear on the radio and read in the paper. Recruits hear all of it. Most of them even probably read the comments on this site. Do you honestly believe that the criticism is going to help land any recruits?
At the end of the season we can step back and analyze the program and make a decision about Phil. Until then just try to support your team while making specific criticisms where appropriate. Not just fire Fulmer or the Vols suck.

GO VOLS!!!

Pennington needs to focus on the positives at UT with the victory and effort given verses Georgia. It's very easy to get caught up in all the negativity being vocalized and written by the amatures who propose to be true Vol fans. Hopefully the community and the press can embrace this team for the remainder of 2007 and help them attain the best record possible. There has been too much negative post and prints already.

Pennington accomplished exactly what he meant to. He didn't write that article to fire up the team...he wrote it to fire up his ratings. Now that Coach Fulmer has responded, there should be a little more interest in his Sunday show. Personally, I think the column/editorial/rumormill was not worthy of a spot in today's paper, but I guess there wasn't another Ron Higgins article they could borrow.

If it takes a column by Pennington every week to get this team fired up (focused and prepared!) then I'll take a Pennington column questioning the Vols coaching staff every week!

Pennington's article was absolutley correct. On all counts. I am delighted that it got a response out of Fulmer, about damn time.Hope Fulmer and the team stay in a "bad humor" for the remainder of the season and the bowl game.Things are looking up.bonzaivol

To the person who said we will win by 21 points was right on the money. I am proud of the vols for a well played game. Go Vol's

To Coach Roper - way to go! Good thinking - we need more of that kind of innovative thought.

To Pennington - don't let up! The truth may sting but the warm bath Fulmer's been in needs stirring. He needs to wake up and realize he is NOT surrounded by yes-men and change is in order - now.

BTW - great job yesterday to Fulmer and the other coaches. Can you develop a winning habit?

All the articles that have been written lately about the state of the program...and he picks Penningtons' to call out?

Here is what I wrote on Oct. 4th in response to the article about the performance of Phillip Fulmer and all of talk about Phillip's replacement.

"Phillip is a class act and has run a very solid program with 05 being the exception rather than the rule. Everyone wants to see UT win championships and be a winner and with Phillip we have person who has the experience,leadership and integrity to get us there.

A win over Georgia and a smack down by LSU over Florida and all of a sudden we are in the driver's sear in East, admittedly with a lot of work left to be done. For all of Phillip's critics, take a breath and let's see how our young team performs the rest of the season. I'll expect to have you all having a big plate of crow at Thanksgiving as we head to beat Kentucky in November and on to the SEC Championship Game. Even more crow for New Year's if we are 12-2 and Sugar Bowl champs!"

We are in the driver's seat in the east as predicted and this is going to be a great year for the Vols!

Pennington's columns are chicken feed compared to the pithy VolExtra posts. I am not too crazy about those cutsie song lyrics either. Normally, coach Philbio would not even have given lip service to anyone's column. The pressure must be getting to him. If he really wants a "cheap shot" and his "dang nerves" rattled, he should read these VolExtra posts. Keep on posting!!

Knowing how to spell the word OBJECTIVITY is the sum total of Pennington's understanding of the term.
He writes as if he has the wisdom of the ages as his sources. He thinks because 15 people call in and bash Fulmer that that constitutes a majority opinion. None of the local talk shows get enough calls on a daily basis to form that kind of conclusion. There are probably no more than 100 different callers to The Sports Animal's daily programs and not all of them are bashing Fulmer. The truth is that out of those 100 most of them call every day to each program , so how many different callers are there? He doesn't give fans credit for any knowledge at all.
Personally I don't need a writer or a talk show caller to tell me if I can enjoy a football game or whether I should support a Coach or a team.
They are all so invested in Fulmer getting fired that they don't know how to be fans. They have been losers them selves for so long they want the team to lose so they can continue to write, print and verbalize their garbage.
Crawl back in the hole you live in guys and stop trying to pull the rest of us in with you.

Enjoyed the win. Best performance since the Cal game last year. But I have a question. What does it say when it takes a newspaper article to get a team and coaches this fired up? Or comments on ESPN by all their pundits about the direction of the program? If that's what it takes for the coaches and players to get excited, maybe JP should write one every week.

I have to chuckle at some of the Pennington bashers. His columns said nothing that many of the posters to this site have not also said. It doesn't take a program insider to see that our record against the elite programs has steadily worsened in recent years. Anyone who has ever seen a football game can see that our blocking and tackling has been subpar for the same period. Vol supporters spend untold amounts of money to build the finest facilities anywhere and pay the coaches salaries well above average for this market. It is not unreasonable to expect to BE among the nation's elite programs. When one sees the same type of sluggish, predictable under-performance game after game, one is entitled to ask what is wrong. I have met Phillip and several of the other coaches; they seem to be nice guys. In the past, they demonstrated that they know what they are doing. So the simple question is, why aren't they getting results at the level that they themselves established? I was thrilled by the Vol team effort I saw Saturday. If CPF was mad enough to coach the team up to such a level after a few bad reviews by columnists, talk-show callers, and web-site posters, then, for my money, we need MORE of that! Hey, whatever works that is within the rules of the game and common morality! There is, or certainly should be, a difference among those who hate CPF, perhaps because of resentment at what they think was his role in ousting Johnny Majors, those who love CPF because they are fishing buddies or whatever, and those who love UT and want to see the maximum possible success for the program, whoever is in charge. I am in that last group. If we see more of the team we saw against Georgia, week after week, CPF can stay here until he chooses to retire. If we revert back to the level we had fallen to against Cal and Fla, and indeed the average performance of the last six or seven years, then CPF needs to retire, with our thanks, and we need to get someone else who can do the job. Simple as that.

Amen johnlg00. If this is one of your first posts, I look forward to more because it is right on target. Some will never give Phil credit because of the Majors thing and our lackluster performance for several years now. Some will proudly proclaim that we are great again simply because of one win. And some of us will watch the season play out before deciding if things are turning or not. (Didn't we say the same thing last year after the Georgia game?)

Just to put things in perspective, I heard a stat Friday and I haven't had time to look into it. (Maybe one of our more computer literate folks can check it out and tell me if it's true or not.) Coming through Nashville Friday, a radio caller said that our record in the last 18 games against SEC teams with winning records (at the time of the game) was 4 and 14. If that statistic is true, this one makes it 5 and 14. And if that's true, that is still unacceptable and I don't care which side you fall in on.

The Pennington article was exactly what most of us have been thinking for years.
Nice article, too bad it takes a reporter with no access to the program to fire up the coaching staff and players.

Doesn't everyone see that yesterday's game proves Pennington's point?
Question: Why haven't we been playing like that all year?
Answer: It's not the players, the same kids are dressing out for each game. So what happened differently? The coaches finally did their job for a change!
IT'S THE COACHING, STUPID!

Right on Georgiavol91. It's sad that the VOL nation had to be at odds with each other to get Fulmer moving and do his job. Now, after yesterday's game, I AM READY to STAY THAT course. I just hope this wasn't a game just to get everyone off Fulmer's back and where things go south again. But Congrats to our VOLS! It was great to see the coaches and players show enthusiasm again. Also, it was nice to see the fans cheer loudly. I am still at a loss as to why this hasn't always been the case.

What are Pennington's credentials? He just shows up and get a salvage company to sponsor him and a newspaper that will pay him for a hatchet job and then KNS says he's not on our staff but a contract writer. You printed it KNS. Yesterday on the pre-game show Pennington said "I don't normally use anonymous sources" but you were willing to make an exception in this case. How do these nine know so much about practice, etc? Obviously you have never been there and don't know! How many of these players had been kicked off the team? If the players want to say it they should be PROUD to let their name be known instead of being afraid of being "blackballed" as you said on the show yesterday. I agree with Coach Fulmer that it was an incredible cheap shop and I'm glad he responded to your hatchet job!!

CRnonVOL, jwraymond, NCcolt, Stay the freakin course!!!! 21 points over GA can't be done huh.? Dang,,, tell that to our boys in Orange now.

why36knot exactly! Pennington knows the sum total of "0", nothing, Nada, zilch, about the game of football. The guy is a joke and has no creditability.

Running the football is key. It pulls the defence up and allows you to throw. The line on both sides of the ball must win the battle for the whole machine to operate. I was proud yesterday. And would like to be proud next week. Play it like it should be played fellows.

Pennington's "job is to give an opinion"...UNFORTUNATELY, opinions are like a****les...Everybody's got one, and they usually stink. If that's your job, John, then I'd be curious to know who your boss is if you aren't a staff member of the News-Sentinel. I'm not a staff member of the News-Sentinel, yet if I want to have an opinion, it dang sure won't show up in the Sports section, but in the OPINION section with all the other letters to the editor. And Fulmer is absolutely right...You picked a bad time to air your "opinion."

Listen we are still 3-2 with 2 of the 3 against minor league foes, so 1 win against Ga. still doesnt put out the fire under Phil's butt. It's funny how the threat to job security motivates even a lazy, uninspired staff like we been putting up with the last few YEARS!!. I did think the "D" looked like the old Tenn. teams and to quote a t.v. announcer, up until yesterday, "this was not your father's Tennessee defense". Keep up the fire boy's and continue to carry your coaching staff until someone steps up and get's you a REAL coach. This turnaround just proves that the staff has been sitting on thier paychecks--come on, were 6 wks into the sched. What were you coaches doing all spring and pre-season. A win now and then is not what Tenn. football has EVER been about. Keep the chin straps buckled boys, you may not have to wait on a leader very much longer!!Stevie still waits as does Nickie Satan.

The most significant thing about Pennington's article was he managed to get 9 players to talk to him out of twenty years worth. Hmmm....you do the math. I feel sure he also emphasized the single negative out of a dozen positives in any opinion voiced, or he wouldn't have had a story now would he? Totally irrelevant, but if it fired up the group, it must have been a good thing. We need the FIRE we saw last Saturday. That is all that is missing.