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SEC Preview: Tennessee Volunteers
By Chris Pendley | July 10, 2008
Going into an expected “leave the team for dead and come back next year” 2007 season, there wasn’t a whole lot of hope for the Tennessee Volunteers. Except no one told the guys who took the field. Erik Ainge, Arian Foster and (let’s be honest) the offensive line helped lead this team to a SEC East Title, ending only one (well, two) Jonathan Zenon interceptions away from a BCS berth. This year, the Vols lose their leaders on both sides of the ball. What’s in store this time around?
Phil Fulmer enters his 17th year at Tennessee, although for some reason the last few years have seen him on the hot seat. DC John Chavis returns for his 14th year of work, but the big news is previous OC David Cutcliffe left for Duke (and RB/WR coach Trooper Taylor left for Oklahoma State). He will be replaced by Dave Clawsen, former Richmond HC. While it’s a little premature to try and figure out how Clawsen will adjust to the FBS level, it’s probably a safe bet that losing Cutcliffe and Taylor isn’t a good thing for the Volunteer offense.
With Ainge’s departure, the reins are turned over to Jonathan Crompton (right, Icon SMI), who was pretty highly regarded when he came on but has a couple of things working against him:
1. He hasn’t seen much action over the past couple of years. Granted, it’s not his fault Ainge was healthy most of the last two years, but he’s as raw as they come for a junior.
2. After spending two years as the understudy to Ainge in Cutcliffe’s offense, he’s now going to be the starter in Clawsen’s offense. If you like adjustment times, this isn’t going to be your favorite thing.
Bottom line: avoid putting Crompton in a starting role if possible for a few weeks until there’s some evidence as to how he’s adjusting to the role. He’s worth stashing in deeper leagues, though.
The sad saga of LaMarcus Coker is finally over after he got himself kicked off the team, leaving Arian Foster as the main back. Given his erratic use over the last three years (and lukewarm reception by the staff as the “oh, yeah, that guy” of the Volunteer offense), it’s a shock that Foster could leave Tennessee as its all-time leading rusher. Foster’s backups include Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer. Of those, Creer has the bigger upside and is worth the gamble in keeper leagues. Foster is worth owning in almost all formats, as he should top 1,000 yards barring injury. Bonus: given the possibly erratic passing game, all of the running backs could see a spike in TDs, too.
After a couple of years spent mostly on special teams, Lucas Taylor finally stepped up to the big-time in 2007. He tallied a cool 1,000 yards last year to go with 5 TDs. He’s the most viable fantasy receiver on this team, although Austin Rogers and Josh Briscoe could make decent spot start guys (look for any pattern to when they’ll get their numbers). Last year the TDs were distributed pretty evenly between those three guys, but it’s not a guarantee that will continue. Sleeper alert: Gerald Jones forced PT at both WR and RB and could turn into a poor man’s Percy Harvin / Darren McFadden combination. The big thing to watch for is to see if Clawsen deploys Jones in the same formats that Cutcliffe did.
At TE, Jeff Cottam makes a great blocker, but keep an eye out on FSU transfer Brandon Warren. It’s worth following to see how Clawsen uses the TEs, too.
After losing Jerod Mayo and Jonathan Hefney off the defense going into the year, this D/ST should be worthless, right? Not quite, as Eric Berry returns in the secondary to terrorize everyone in sight and he should team well with Demetrius Morley. Rico McCoy slots in as the most experienced guy in the front seven. All told, this isn’t a spectacular fantasy unit, but they should be marginally effective, and it wouldn’t be remiss to expect a couple of random TDs from the unit.
That being said, K Daniel Lincoln is worth owning in most formats. Not only is he accurate, he’s only a sophomore and will be a major source of points if the offense has issues getting into the endzone.
Summary
It’s kind of a copout saying “wait and see” with most of the Tennessee offense, but ….yeah, wait and see. Foster is a definite, Lincoln should be owned and Taylor’s a likely in most leagues. There’s enough out there that it’s probably safe to either use late-round picks on most of the other talents in the offense. Tennessee’s first game is at UCLA, which is nice because not only should it be a challenge, it’ll also be on national TV - there’s no excuse not to pay attention.
Topics: Chris Pendley, College Football, Preview, SEC |
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