Adams: Some fans continue to blame Sanders

Media and fans have come up with all sorts of reasons for Tennessee’s 2-2 start in football. Its disappointing season has been blamed on poor tackling, poor leadership, a lack of speed, overrated recruiting, an outdated offensive system, unimaginative coaches, negative fans and Smokey.

Oh, I almost forgot one. An astute caller to the News Sentinel’s radio show, The Sports Page, blamed former offensive coordinator Randy Sanders, who has been gone for almost two years and now plays a key role in Kentucky’s football resurgence.

But it’s possible the critics have overlooked something. Maybe the Vols aren’t thinking small enough.

Take Florida, for example. As good as quarterback Tim Tebow and wide receiver Percy Harvin have been, the Gators wouldn’t be nearly as dynamic offensively without Brandon James, who is 5-foot-6, 181 pounds. Check out his stats: 10 kickoff returns for a 32.2-yard average, five punt returns for a 24.6-yard average, five rushes for an 8.8-yard average and one pass reception for 13 yards.

Florida isn’t the only SEC team to capitalize on the talent of smaller players. Georgia’s Mikey Henderson (5-10, 150) is averaging 14.8 yards on punt returns and is the team’s second-leading pass receiver. NCAA sprint champion Trindon Holliday (5-5, 159) is averaging 6.7 yards on 19 carries and leads LSU in kickoff returns.

The shortest player on UT’s offensive depth chart is 5-11. The lightest is 180.

That might have been small enough 10 years ago, but not in today’s game. So maybe the Vols need to find some 150-pounder on campus, offer him a scholarship, give him the football and hope he runs as fast as Holliday.

If that doesn’t work, blame Sanders.

Florida 37, Auburn 23: You could make a case for an upset since the Tigers have won two of the last three games in the series, and Florida looked so vulnerable last week against Ole Miss, the SEC’s worst team.

But the Tigers don’t have the passing game to take advantage of Florida’s inexperienced secondary or its inadequate pass rush. They also start three true freshmen in their offensive line.

Three true freshmen starting in the offensive line? In The Swamp?

I’ll set the over-and-under on false starts at six.

Sabama 30, Florida State 27: Put a hold on those Saban-walking-on-water posters. After the Tide was on the verge of last-minute comeback victories in back-to-back games, it lost to Georgia in overtime.

LSU fans probably weren’t surprised at the ending, which had Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass to Henderson. Although the secondary is supposed to be Saban’s position of expertise, his defensive backs at LSU had a bad habit of getting beat deep with the game on the line.

It happened against Auburn, Arkansas, and — most notably — Iowa in Saban’s last game at LSU.

South Carolina 24, Mississippi State 10: The Gamecocks’ defense suffered a huge blow last week when All-SEC middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley was lost for the season with a knee injury. But you won’t be able to tell it against Mississippi State’s offense.

In fact, twin-brother Casper should look just as good as Jasper. So will the rest of the South Carolina linebackers.

Despite playing Tulane and Gardner-Webb in the first four games, Mississippi State still ranks last in the SEC in scoring per game, yards per game and in passing.

Georgia 30, Ole Miss 14: Not only is Mississippi the home of the SEC’s worst offense. It also has the worst defense.

And no, I haven’t forgotten about UT.

So what if the Rebels held Florida to 25 fewer points than UT did. And maybe the Vols are allowing seven points more per game. But if you analyze the stats, you can’t help but conclude that Ole Miss’ is less competent.

The Rebels are giving up 476.2 yards per game, 37 more yards per game than the Vols. They also rank last in the conference in total yardage, passing yardage and first downs allowed.

Ole Miss leads the SEC in red-zone defense, but that’s probably because opponents usually score before they get inside the 20-yard line.

LSU 62, Tulane 0: Lucidity obviously isn’t a requirement for coaching a nationally ranked football team. LSU coach Les Miles is thinking about as clearly as O.J.

Last week, Miles told reporters at a press luncheon they better take his and nobody else’s word for player injuries because that will help "your team."

Your team? What decade is he living in? The 1950s?

Other coaches occasionally confuse cheerleading with journalism, but they don’t admit it at a press luncheon. They also probably don’t refer to their injury policy as "deceptively honest."

But Miles isn’t as confused as he sounds. He was clear-headed enough to hire Bo Pelini to coach his offense and Gary Crowton to run his offense.

Arkansas 59, North Texas 17: From The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Department: North Texas ranks 34th nationally in total offense and 97th in scoring. In a loss to Florida Atlantic, the Mean Green passed for 601 yards and still scored only 20 points.

Arkansas can relate to the offensive waste. It rushed for more than 200 yards in one quarter alone last week but lost to Kentucky.

Even if the Mean Green had points comparable to its yardage, it still might be 0-3. It’s giving up 51.3 points per game. That’s not the only good news for Heisman Trophy candidate Darren McFadden.

In Arkansas’ next five games, it will play Division I-AA Chattanooga and three teams ranked 104th or worse in total defense.

Kentucky 54, Florida Atlantic 27: The Wildcats have scored 188 points in four games. As impressive as that looks, it’s even more impressive if you remember the Bill Curry era.

In Curry’s seven years at Kentucky (1990-96), the Wildcats never scored more than 228 points in a season (not even when he had Tim Couch running the option). Two of his teams scored under 150 points.

When the Wildcats hit 41 points today, they will have outscored all of Curry’s teams in less than half a season.

Looking ahead: Kentucky hasn’t scored more than 35 points on UT since 1893.

Vanderbilt 37, Eastern Michigan 17: For those of you wondering whatever happened to Vanderbilt wide receiver Derrick Gragg, I can help. Gragg, who played for the Commodores from 1988 through 1991, is the athletic director at Eastern Michigan University.

Hopefully, his career goal isn’t to become the athletic director at his alma mater, which determined a few years ago that the position was ornamental.

Gragg might be surprised to see how his position has evolved since he gave his all for the Commodores. Vanderbilt wide receiver Earl Bennett has 189 career catches just three games into his junior season.

Top 25: Southern Cal 42, Washington 17; Oklahoma 45, Colorado 17; Oregon 44, Cal 41; Texas 34, Kansas State 20; Ohio State 41, Minnesota 17; Wisconsin 30, Michigan State 24; Rutgers 34, Maryland 24; Boston College 43, Massachusetts 10; Georgia Tech 27, Clemson 24; Virginia Tech 30, North Carolina 14; Hawaii 48, Idaho 27; Penn State 34, Illinois 27; Nebraska 37, Iowa State 17; Arizona State 45, Stanford 20; Purdue 27, Notre Dame 13.

Record: 75-16 (.824) overall, 36-37 (.493) against the spread.

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