Strange: New David has Goliath of a job

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UT football head coach, Phillip Fulmer, goes over the defensive line with the media Tuesday morning prior to the first spring practice. Watch »

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UT football head coach, Phillip Fulmer, discusses the offensive line with the media Tuesday prior to the Vols' first spring practice. Watch »

Video

UT football head coach, Phillip Fulmer, goes over the kicking game with the media Tuesday, prior to the Vols' first spring practice. Watch »

Football coaches love spring practice. It's the purest time to teach. You don't have Florida and Auburn coming up the next two Saturdays.

So even if nothing new were in the air, Phillip Fulmer and his staff would have been juiced to get on the practice field Tuesday.

But there is something new in the air at Tennessee this spring and it has moved out of the conference room and onto the field.

In 1964, the Vols switched from the venerable single-wing to the T-formation. What's going on this spring isn't that drastic, but it is a turning point.

For the first time in his tenure at UT, coach Phillip Fulmer is handing over the offensive reins to someone from outside the Tennessee system that dates to the early 1980s.

When offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe left to become head coach at Duke, Fulmer was presented the opportunity to strike out in a new direction - with a new David, it turned out, Dave Clawson.

Like their names, there are familiar elements as well as new ones married into what will become UT's system in 2008.

"I'm as anxious as anybody to see it on the field,'' Fulmer said Tuesday, "I do expect some growing pains as we go from one system to another.''

Uh, exactly what system is that they're going to? Fulmer used the "West Coast" moniker Tuesday.

Geographically, Clawson is all East Coast. But he said his passing-game philosophy indeed leads back to places like BYU and Sid Gillman's AFL San Diego Chargers, the early roots of what came to be called the "West Coast" offense.

"There is some West Coast passing concepts we've installed,'' Clawson said.

"Whether it's West Coast or Gulf Coast or the Smoky Mountain Offense, call it what you want, but that's how we're going to teach the passing game and how the quarterbacks are going to be trained.''

Clawson comes from Richmond, where he was head coach. He brought several staff members with him. It was up to Fulmer and line coach Greg Adkins to get on board the new train, not the other way around.

"It's been fun, it really has,'' said Adkins.

"I wouldn't call it night and day, compared to what we've been doing. ... I would say we'll try to utilize our personnel just like we've done in the past, try to get the ball to guys who are going to make plays.''

Will the offense be no-huddle? It has that ability, Fulmer said, but will start off more traditional.

Will the quarterback be a weapon running the ball? On occasion.

"If I have to get a first down I'll do what I have to do,'' said junior Jonathan Crompton, "but that's not my favorite thing to do. I'm a pocket quarterback.''

Will UT jump on the "spread" bandwagon? Depends on how many receivers prove they should be playing, Clawson said.

What about the plethora of running backs? There will be both two-back looks and one-back sets.

What about the offensive line? Overall, the run game and pass protections will be similar. Cadences and snap counts are new.

The truth is that Clawson has leaned different ways at different points in his career as a play-caller. To a degree, he plays to the strengths of his personnel.

Since he was hired Jan. 12, studying what UT and its personnel had been doing has been an integral part of Clawson's brainstorming.

"If there were 10 things we did similar,'' he said, "probably in five cases I preferred the way we had done it at Richmond and in five cases, I thought they did it better here.''

Give and take. Old and new. But make no mistake, the over-riding theme is new.

"We made that conscious decision in the hiring process,'' Fulmer said. "We're ready to go in another direction.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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