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not bad

That is a good class.

Doesn't mean a thing. There's a lot of time for things to go wrong before these guys will have the chance to get any kind of significant playing time.

UT has to get these guys academically qualified and keep them out of jail before then. Good luck with that.

It's usually UGA and Bama in the SEC that we hear about having these incredible recruiting classes. It's not exactly resulted in any conference or national championships for them lately.

Recruiting can't make up for lousy coaching. Just look at Miami.

"When it comes to 2009, however, there is one undeniable fact: the UT football team already has surpassed this year's recruiting class in terms of overall quality. "

Considering that the Vols were in the mid-30s in the Rivals.com recruiting ranking for 2008, that isn't saying much. There were five SEC teams in the top 25, and the Vols weren't one of them.

Your excessive pessimism only makes you corme across as foolish, Trainwreck.

This news is significant simply for the fact that UT football's recruiting has been suffering in recent years, and so this 2009 class stands in stark contrast to that trend.

If this is a sign that UT's recruiting is getting back to the level it enjoyed in the 90s, then the SEC just got even *more* stacked with legitimate national title contenders, year in year out.

Bottom line is that Fulmer is a horrible coach!!!!! He has never been able to use his talent correctly.

Isn't this a good time to fire Fulmer? Get somebody good in there, get some experience, and they may be a good team in 3 years.

Fire Fulmer? Yep every other team in the SEC wants that. Another 10 win seaosn last year so yeah, the bum should go! Whatever, make fun of us, hate us, do whatever but we have a great Coach (that I don't agree with a lot) who is going to be around for a long time!

Trainwreck, Georgia won the SEC Championship in 2002 and 2005. I do not think anyone with half of a brain would call Coach Richt a "lousy coach'. You sir, are a dumba**.

A Vol in Texas:

As a fan you should think about what's best for your team. The Vols have been underachievers for years and who's to blame? Who cares how many games you won last year? No BCS appearance since the 1999 loss to Nebraska says it all.

I say lets just see how things play out this year for the Vols. Good or bad, we will know how Fulmer stacks up becuase this is the first year TN has gone out of the "in house system" and brought in a new OC from an outside program. If the new OC brings life to the program with a fresh scheme that works at UT and in the SEC, then Fulmer will come out on top for having instituted real change. Im rooting for the Vols, and Im rooting for Fulmer too.

Brandon Warren, transfer from Florida State, will soon be eligible. Demetrice Morley, former academic casualty who worked his way back, make up for a lot of recruiting deficiencies in last year's class. These Vols will suprise some folks, beginning with a big win in the Rose Bowl on Labor Day MNF.

Brandon Warren, transfer from Florida State, will soon be eligible. Demetrice Morley, former academic casualty who worked his way back, make up for a lot of recruiting deficiencies in last year's class. These Vols will suprise some folks, beginning with a big win in the Rose Bowl on Labor Day MNF.

jellicobilly | 08/01/08, 03:30 PM


Uh, I think Reggie Carter and the Bruins might have something to say about that.

The Vols won the SEC East last year, so lets chill with the fire Fulmer and constant underachievers garbage. In 2006, ESPN said they had the second best recruiting class in the nation, so lets chill with the Vols cant recruit garbage. This program is fine.

zzdawg....so what does no national championships since 1980 say about you? Vince Dooley couldn't repeat so where is he in history? The silence is deafening. As Farscape says, it will be interesting now that Fulmer finally broke the mold and called in outside help. Staffing your team with yes men continously is never good. And by the way since Richt's arrival both UT and UGA have won or shared four division titles, hardly a washed up Coach!

trainwreck...shannon has been there 1 yr at miami....he was hired late in the recruiting season too that your comment is a dumb one

Sorry folks. I'm not buying the downward spiral theories of UT's football program due to the fact Tennessee has won the SEC East and played in the SEC Championship in 2001, 2004 and 2007, losing to two teams which either went undefeated or won the national championship. Also, we won bowl games in each of those seasons smashing Michigan, Texas A&M, and beating Wisconsin in a close one. If you want to see a program on a downward spiral please look at Nebraska. I've got no biased against the program they have really fallen off and the Big 12 is getting a lot stronger. Who would have thought T Tech, Kansas and MIssouri would have better teams than Nebraska the past few years.

The SEC has gotten much better in the past 10 years and there is parity in the SEC East. I think you are going to see a lot of improvement in South Carolina in the next few years, especially if Spurrier can get some offensive recruits because his D is loaded with future NFL talent. They could overtake UT and UGA because Spurrier is much better coach than Fulmer and RIcht.

UT had top 5 recruiting classes in '04 and '06 and this class seems like it will be a top 10 class, so UT's recruiting is defintely not sliding. They had major staff changes and 2005 and 2007, so their recruiting was drastically affected. Basically, UT needs to have solid back to back recruiting classes. WIth the staff they have assembled this is going to happen. In regards to this year's class. UT is holding out for the their biggest commitments at the end of the class because they only have up to 10 scholarships left, so I expect this class to get much better. They are going to sign some really impressive prospects to finish the class. There are a lot of three star players that have committed thus far, so I am not overly impressed. I believe UT waited to long last year on a lot of prospects and got behind, so they are not doing the same thing this year. On the other hand, three of the prospects that have committed are 4 star JC DT's (Edwin Herbert, Rae Sykes (2007) and Cory Hall (2007), and they are not counted yet. Hence, if those guys are counted this class is much stronger right now.

Academic issues are a real problem but the good news is this class has really stuck out to me by the recruits high gpa's and standardized test scores. Literally every player UT has signed thus far is going to qualify in '09. For instance, the two players that committed yesterday were recruited by Stanford, Duke and Vanderbilt. I've heard Fulmer is really concerned about new qualitifcation procedures and penalities that happen if your players don't do well in college. Hence, I believe they could lose scholarships.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Sorry folks. I'm not buying the downward spiral theories of UT's football program due to the fact Tennessee has won the SEC East and played in the SEC Championship in 2001, 2004 and 2007, losing to two teams which either went undefeated or won the national championship. Also, we won bowl games in each of those seasons smashing Michigan, Texas A&M, and beating Wisconsin in a close one. If you want to see a program on a downward spiral please look at Nebraska. I've got no biased against the program they have really fallen off and the Big 12 is getting a lot stronger. Who would have thought T Tech, Kansas and MIssouri would have better teams than Nebraska the past few years.

The SEC has gotten much better in the past 10 years and there is parity in the SEC East. I think you are going to see a lot of improvement in South Carolina in the next few years, especially if Spurrier can get some offensive recruits because his D is loaded with future NFL talent. They could overtake UT and UGA because Spurrier is much better coach than Fulmer and RIcht.

UT had top 5 recruiting classes in '04 and '06 and this class seems like it will be a top 10 class, so UT's recruiting is defintely not sliding. They had major staff changes and 2005 and 2007, so their recruiting was drastically affected. Basically, UT needs to have solid back to back recruiting classes. WIth the staff they have assembled this is going to happen. In regards to this year's class. UT is holding out for the their biggest commitments at the end of the class because they only have up to 10 scholarships left, so I expect this class to get much better. They are going to sign some really impressive prospects to finish the class. There are a lot of three star players that have committed thus far, so I am not overly impressed. I believe UT waited to long last year on a lot of prospects and got behind, so they are not doing the same thing this year. On the other hand, three of the prospects that have committed are 4 star JC DT's (Edwin Herbert, Rae Sykes (2007) and Cory Hall (2007), and they are not counted yet. Hence, if those guys are counted this class is much stronger right now.

Academic issues are a real problem but the good news is this class has really stuck out to me by the recruits high gpa's and standardized test scores. Literally every player UT has signed thus far is going to qualify in '09. For instance, the two players that committed yesterday were recruited by Stanford, Duke and Vanderbilt. I've heard Fulmer is really concerned about new qualitifcation procedures and penalities that happen if your players don't do well in college. Hence, I believe they could lose scholarships.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

I get it. You are all happy with a couple of SEC EAST titles (not SEC titles). And you call yourself UT fans.

The point is whether UT has been a national title contender under Fulmer in the 2000s. It has nothing to do with how good or bad Georgia is. On a side note, we fired Jim Donnan after two consecutive 8-win seasons. If Richt can't bring home the big one in a couple more years, see what happens.

Georgia has one offensive and one defensive player picked in the pre-season all SEC team, yet the team is pick to finish high. Wherever we are in the end, at least we can say we ain't wasting any talent.

Nobody said UT recruiting is in trouble - it's what you do with the talent. When you said "losing to two teams which either went undefeated or won the national championship", did you ask yourself why UT didn't go undefeated or win the national championship? Top 5 recruiting classes - where is a top 5 finish?

All I'm saying is you should think about what's good for a team, not an indivisual. With the tradition, the talent pool and SEC salary, it won't be hard to attract a better coach. Don't be so defensive.