John Pennington

Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin has done a lot of talking since he arrived in Knoxville. His comments - some boastful, some accusatory - have drawn national attention. Whether by design or not, Kiffin's talking points have made headlines from ...

Here are 20 thoughts, views and even some possible conspiracy theories tied to Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl's flirtation with Memphis on Thursday.

In just a few hours you'll have your NCAA tournament bracket in front of you. Like the fans of 64 other schools, you, the Tennessee fan, will have convinced yourself that a Sweet 16 run is inevitable.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been hearing a few grumbles from Phillip Fulmer supporters regarding UT's basketball season. Yes, Fulmer and basketball.

Very few college programs can have a Top 10 team every season. In fact, in only two teams in the AP men's basketball top 10 have also been there the previous three season: North Carolina and Memphis. So, it's best ...

Cocky. Brash. Arrogant. Pick up a newspaper anywhere in the SEC and those are just some the words you'll see used in connection with the name Lane Kiffin. In just two months on the job, Kiffin has made it clear ...

The best word to describe the first half of Tennessee’s basketball season is disappointing. And that disappointment has led a lot of questions (and worries) about the program. “Bruce Pearl can’t coach.” “He won with Buzz’s players.” “This system stinks.” ...

I wasn't trying to write a sports column on Wednesday morning. I was trying to sleep. But unfortunately, a loud, metallic banging sound kept me from doing so.

Whether it was all the Christmas shopping or the national media trying to ramp up the economic scare, I've had costs on my brain the past couple of weeks. It's seems everyone is talking about the cost of this or ...

If you think hiring a football coach is just about finding someone who can recruit and knows his Xs and Os, you haven't been paying attention to recent SEC news. Coaching hires are about politics. Every move made by a ...

So you’ve just been named the coach of a major college football team. You know that you’ve had success doing things a certain way. And you know you want to bring that “certain way” to your new job. You have ...

New Tennessee football coach Lane Kiffin, second from right, poses for a picture with his wife, Layla, athletic director Mike Hamilton, left, and UT president John Peterson at the press conference Monday announcing Kiffin’s hire. From the moment Tennessee football ...

In the late 1990s, General Motors gained market share and huge profits thanks to the increased sales of light trucks and sports utility vehicles. n 2004, GM took money away from the design of other makes and models to further ...

The heat is ratcheting up in East Tennessee and I'm not talking about the seat in Phillip Fulmer's office. I'm talking about the tempers of the pro-coach and pro-change crowds.

Last week, after writing that Tennessee was in the midst of a downward trend, I was asked by a couple of Vol fans (who happened to believe that this year's team will turn things around) just when I thought UT's ...

"Told ya so."That's what many economic experts can say. Since the home market first started to dry up, some economists have been pointing to the numbers and predicting that things would get worse before they got better.

In business, the saying is “change or die.” In the animal world the name of the game is evolution and adaptation. Survival of the fittest. In the SEC, I call it the circle of life. It’s natural. It’s always gone ...

There’s a line that Bill Parcells used to use when he coached the New York Giants. He passed it on to his assistant, Bill Belichick, who keeps it alive to this day. It’s a tight-lipped response for any question that ...

Luck. Fortune smiling. Good Karma. Call it what you like, Tennessee's football program has had it this preseason. Around the conference, other schools have been dealing with issues left and right.

There are two questions that I’ve heard again and again since Tennessee’s Sweet 16 loss to Louisville on Thursday night: “How can a team without a pure point guard win 31 games,” and “What happened to this team after the ...

Earlier this month, Bruce Pearl was featured on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” Andrea Kramer revealed, in the close to her report, that Pearl had told her he expects to hear from Indiana when the season ends. (With Indiana ...

No. 2? How did Tennessee wind up with a No. 2 seed? I predicted in my Sunday column that Tennessee would get a number one seed in the Midwest … or, if they fell to a number two, a slot ...

Here are some facts, figures, notions and guesses to get you ready for Selection Sunday.

Do you find yourself suffering from feelings of inadequacy? Do you have an excessive reliance upon others for approval? Do you fear rejection?

Thursday afternoon, more students were shot dead in an American classroom. Turning to ESPN for a respite from the tragic coverage, I was appalled to find what looked more like C-span than sports coverage.

Hope is what makes sports fun. It’s why Cubs fans never stop believing. It’s why fans of every team in America always say, “don’t know why, but I’ve just got a feeling that our boys can do it!” That’s hope. ...

As 2007 is left behind and the wraps are taken off of 2008, there’s a very simple formula that Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer can follow in order to ensure that next season is a smile-filled joy fest. Just win.

Fans talk a lot about X’s and O’s. Media mouths talk about strategies and game plans. But one thing that often gets overlooked is simple, old-fashioned emotion.

“I’m sitting here consuming your post Bama show today and marveling at all you guys ducking the obvious question about Fulmer’s job status. You have seven or so personalities on your show but not a single one of you guys ...

Last week I wrote that Tennessee had an opportunity to recreate history. They could defy the statistics. They could toss their defensive rankings out the window.

A couple of nights ago I went digging through my sports memorabilia collection. “Sports memorabilia collection” is a fancy way of saying, “my room full of all the stuff that I’ve ever bought that had anything to do with sports, ...

<I>"Some guys are Romeos. Others simply do the best they can. I'm just your average, ordinary Joe."</I> - Travis Tritt

“He said, ‘don’t look surprised old man I’m older than you think.’ ” — Montgomery Gentry

As a boy, I remember my relatives talking about a Tennessee-Kentucky game from the early 1950s. I’m sure every family has a story like this one, but in the Pennington household it’s credited to my grandfather.

Is it time to change the way we judge a football season?

It was suggested before the season started that the SEC would be shockingly balanced in 2007. Shockingly, pre-season predictions now appear to have been correct.

I thought it’d be fun to sit down with an anonymous questioner today … to answer some of the questions raised by my column on Saturday. Take it away, Anonymous Questioner (er, I’ll admit it … this is ME asking ...

Tennessee fans aren’t used to the kind of beating that Florida put on their Vols back in September. The Big Orange Nation is frustrated after a 2-2 start. For the past few weeks they’ve been asking questions as to why ...

Everyone is talking about coaching changes. It’s the lunchroom, watercooler topic of conversation in football-crazy East Tennessee.

People in this world are always telling us what they believe. Well, I’m going to take a different approach today.

There’s a saying that fans have been yelling in stadiums since the days of the gladiators.

“And I should have started running a long, long time ago.” — Chris Daughtry

The words "doom and gloom" sure have been thrown around a lot this week. You'd think that some folks are already scheduling a funeral for the Vols of 2007.

“The good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” – Billy Joel.

Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer is all smiles as he talks to his wife before announcing a $1 million gift to the UT by the Fulmer family.

Should I punt? Should I go for it? Should I start this player? Should I kick the extra point or go for two?

Column topics aren’t always the easiest things to come up with. You’ve probably noticed that I often refer to my columns being based on conversations that I’ve had.

What do you think of this year’s football team?” I’m asked that about 10 times a day. And much to the chagrin of the folks behind the queries, I don’t think there’s a simple answer to the question.

They say that the numbers never lie (though they can certainly be skewed).

This past week, while having lunch, I was seated next to a couple of Tennessee fans. They were in their mid-40s, by the looks of things. And they were discussing the fact that one of them wouldn’t be attending Tennessee ...