Fulmer's media day comments

Tennessee hosted its annual Media Day activities at Neyland Stadium on saturday. More than 65 newspaper, radio, television, magazine and Internet outlets were on hand to capture preseason comments from the entire squad.

UT coach Phillip Fulmer had the following to say.

“I’m excited to get started, to get our football team back together. We had a couple of guys who through spring practice weren’t able to be there for injury reasons; a couple who weren’t able to be there all the time because of academic issues. There were positive academic issues where they’re working towards graduation and had an upper level lab or some conflict we were glad to work with. A couple of guys had fallen behind and they weren’t available on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We’ll have those guys out there full time, so they should make our football team better.

“Everybody reported last night. We have two young men, Marlon Walls and Montori Hughes, where we’re still working through some clearinghouse issues. We’re very hopeful that within the next couple of weeks that will all be cleared up and they’ll be able to join us.

“During the course of the summer, and in our efforts in spring practice, I do think we made some strides on both sides of the ball. I think our football team has grown. Leadership is an area that I think is extremely important for this team as we identify who those guys are. I said at SEC Media Days that we have eight or 10 guys on both sides of the field that are very capable in their own way of being good leaders for us. It’s extremely important that we continue to grow in that area.

“One of the things that I was proud of during the course of the spring is that after we had a couple of off-the-field things that can be distractions for a team, our seniors came to me and said ‘we want to do this, this and this. This is not the way we want to represent our school and our program.’”

“Our off the field work has been as good as we expected it to be. We look to be in pretty good condition. They have made their 110s, all their testing that needs to be done. I think they’re a stronger team now than they were when we started in January.

“There is a normal maturity process that goes on with young guys, not just a physical maturity but a mental maturity. The more experience they have, the more likely they’re going to be able to play at the level in the Southeastern Conference that we want to compete at. During the course of the summer, as I have observed and visited with the players, there are some guys that have made strides from a maturity standpoint. Some of that’s normal and some of it you have to push forward and accelerate.

“A key for us is picking up where we left off in spring practice and how much we can improve in the next 29 days as we prepare to start the season with UCLA. Mentally, physically, fundamentally, technically—how much carryover will we have? We’ll know very shortly as we start practice in shorts.

“We—and I expressed this to the team last night — can't waste no opportunity to improve as a team, whether it be in the meeting rooms, mentally getting ourselves ready or in our individual work early in practice. We get to test it a little bit when we get to group work in practice and obviously the big test is when we go to team work or scrimmages. I stressed to the team that we have to make progress individually so that collectively we can be the kind of team we want to be.

“I want a physically tough football team. I challenged our guys to stay out of the training room. We have to have guys out on the field practicing and being a part of a physically and mentally tough team.

“Having planned practice, you always look at the number of guys returning. We do have guys on both sides of the ball because we try to play a lot of people during the course of the season. If we don’t have starters that have returned, we’ve got guys that have played. We’re going to really work at having a physical camp. As I said, it’s extremely important that we pick up where we left off in spring practice, and I thought spring practice was certainly a physical camp. If you go and watch good teams practice, they’re able to go against each other—as we will do—and you see a lot of good play. I want us to be a great practice team that way.

“Our discipline, our alignment, assignment, technique and fundamentals, ball security, our efforts to learn to take the ball away more often, that shows up in practice. As I go back and look at Arian Foster as a freshman and some as a sophomore, he was carrying the ball too lose and that led to some turnovers that hurt our football team. Now I see a mature guy that has got the ball high and tight and is being an example for our younger guys and also improving his play. That kind of emphasis is really important.

“It always goes without saying that the kicking game will be extremely important for us. We made so much progress the last two-thirds of last season. We will not have the luxury this year of waiting that long. We’ve got to be extremely good in the kicking game from the very beginning. I spent a lot of time personally looking at the personnel and possibilities that could happen. I assure you we will have good players playing in the kicking game.

“We will start in shorts, but I do expect us to have great tempo and effort in shorts. We will insert fast. We’ve always kind of gone with the whole thing and then as we get closer to the game we will obviously start narrowing down to our personality on offense and defense.

“A few guys will be limited early. William Brimfield from the surgery he had on his ankle, we’re expecting him to be out there working, but he’s probably at least two, maybe three weeks away from being full speed. Jeff Cottam hasn’t responded as well as we would have liked. That’s a concern for us. We expect him in two or three weeks to back at full speed. Josh Hawkins is a little bit limited with his foot.

“There are guys that have done a really good job and are ready. Chris Walker looks to be 100 percent from the surgery he had in the spring from an offseason injury. Aaron Douglas is well ahead of his high school injury and surgery that he had. We’re hopeful to get him in the mix as fast as we can early. Marsalous Johnson is 100 percent; (Brent) Vinson is 100 percent; Antonio Gaines is 100 percent. Thank goodness Montario Hardesty looks to be well and ready go. Lucas Taylor has done a great job with his shoulder and he is 100 percent. Anthony Parker and Josh McNeil, two offensive linemen, are 100 percent.

“(Darris) Sawtelle had two shoulder surgeries during the offseason. He will not be in the 105. Britton Colquitt is still out with his knee injury. Donald Langley’s mother has a medical issue and he will be with us tomorrow. We’re still waiting for a response from the SEC on Brandon Warren. He will practice, but we hope to get some kind of resolution to that shortly.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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