UT names six permanent captains for rest of season

Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer decided it was time to look for the right kind of leadership on a permanent basis.

Fulmer announced at Friday afternoon’s walkthrough at Neyland Stadium permanent 2008 team captains had been elected by players earlier in the day to represent the Vols.

UT had been naming captains on a game-by-game basis, but senior offensive tackle Ramón Foster, senior defensive end Robert Ayers, junior running back Montario Hardesty, sophomore safety Eric Berry, senior linebacker Ellix Wilson and senior receiver Lucas Taylor will fill the role the remainder of the 2008 season.

“It was obvious who was emerging on our football team,” Fulmer said. “I felt like this was a great time to do this.

“I was interested in how the team would vote because you don’t want it to ever be a popularity contest. It’s about who they respect and choose to follow.”

Fulmer made it clear he was happy with the selections and told the players what it meant to him to be elected a Vols captain in 1971.

“I’m really honored to have the guys who are going to lead this team and go down in history as captains,” Fulmer said. “I told them in my time as a coach and player, of all the honors, all the games and all the things we’ve been able to accomplish, still the greatest thing was being a co-captain here at the University of Tennessee.

“That’s something that’s really special and they’ll carry with them the rest of their lives.”

It also says a lot about Berry, just a sophomore.

“It’s quite unusual,” Fulmer said. “I don’t know if that has ever happened in our history. I didn’t ask anybody to research it because we just did it a little while ago, but he is one of those guys who — on and off the field — has tremendous respect of his teammates.”

Friendly Matchup: Mississippi State offensive coordinator Woody McCorvey, a former running backs coach at UT, knows a little something about the Vols.

But McCorvey’s knowledge could just as easily come from film study, UT defensive coordinator John Chavis said.

“He and I have shared a lot of information over the years,” Chavis said. “We know each other pretty well. I think everybody has that opportunity to see that on film.”

Chavis said UT has changed plenty on defense since McCorvey left Knoxville following the 2003 season.

“We haven’t remained the same in the 15 years I’ve been the coordinator here,” Chavis said. “We’ve tweaked our system. We’ve done some things that we feel made us better. We’re using personnel different. There’s been changes.”

Predictable?: After Saturday’s loss at Georgia, several Bulldogs said UT’s running plays were predictable. That’s at least partially true, offensive coordinator Dave Clawson said.

“We run the ball to the tight end a little bit more than we do to the open side,” he said. “That’s normal for tight-end teams.”

Still, Clawson said the Vols scout themselves and try to run plays that go against their tendencies.

“The same formation that we had predictable runs out of, we had two play-action (passes) that were 30 yards and 60 yards,” he said. “We study ourselves. We know what tendencies we have.”

Flipping Not a Flop: With UT’s offensive line struggling at times this season, Clawson’s “strong” and “quick” line scheme has had plenty of scrutiny.

But the practice of flipping players to the right and left side of the line on certain plays hasn’t been a major problem, Clawson said.

“If guys were busting assignments on the right side but not the left side, I would say, ‘You know what, the flipping’s confusing them,’ ” he said. “But we’re not busting assignments.”

Fulmer agrees.

“I think we’re past the point where it’s a concern,” he said. “I think in spring practice, it was a little bit different for them, completely different in some ways. But during the course of the summer and two-a-days, I think we passed that point.”

Confident Stephens: Making just his third career start Saturday against Mississippi State and playing in only his fourth career game, quarterback Nick Stephens might lack experience.

What he doesn’t lack is confidence, Clawson says, and that stems from some success he’s had throwing long passes.

“After he hits (receiver Denarius) Moore, he wants to go back out there and throw 50 more 50-yard balls,” Clawson said. “Something good has happened to him with that.”

Despite Stephens’ lack of game time, Clawson is confident in his quarterback as well.

“I have confidence in Nick,” he said. “Whoever your starting quarterback is, you have to call the game as if they’re an All-American and ask them to perform at that level. At the same time as his coach, I can’t ask him to do things he hasn’t done well in practice and he’s not comfortable doing.”

Drew Edwards contributed to this report.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
Want to use this article? Click here for options!