Tennessee: Rocky Top reeling

First Down - The Volunteers are the Michigan of the South...a once dominant program who stuck with their former coach one or two years too long...like Lloyd Carr, Phil Fulmer should have retired a year earlier than he did...Lane Kiffin would have turned this program around if he stayed, but his bolt to USC has left Rocky Top in disarray...Derek Dooley has the bloodlines (his pappy is Vince Dooley) but it will take him at least two years to bring the recruiting to where it once was...

Second Down - Bryce Brown was the USA Today high school player of the year just two years ago...but Brown did nothing in his first year at Tennessee and he is leaving to go play at Kansas State next year...I am just a bit puzzled why Dooley will not let him out of his scholarship...seems like Dooley is being a bit of a hardass with the kid...

Third Down - The Vols schedule is Murderer's Row...they get Oregon at home followed by Florida a week later...then in October, they start a four game stretch where they play at LSU, at Georgia, home to Alabama, and at South Carolina...

Fourth Down - to make matters worse, the Vols two top receivers got hurt in summer practice...

Hail Mary - Remember the days when Jamal Lewis, Peerless Price, and others dotted the Tennessee roster...

Prediction - 6-6...after getting shafted by Kiffin, the Vols players will play hard and win just enough games to make a bowl appearance, something that will not be happening in Los Angeles...