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Tennessee: Fulmer pleased with special-teams work

By: Wes Rucker
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Phillip Fulmer

KNOXVILLE — Take more than 100 football players, put them through all imaginable special-teams scenarios for more than two hours on a late-summer Saturday morning, and you come up with the University of Tennessee’s annual kicking scrimmage.

That was the scene at Haslam Field as the Volunteers ran the special-teams gamut before wrapping up the day’s work with several 100-yard sprints.

As usual for this scrimmage, coach Phillip Fulmer had an extra hitch in his giddy-up while dissecting a day of organized chaos.

“This day, for us, is one of the best and more important of the year,” Fulmer said. “There’s opportunities to win games on how well you understand and play different situations that happen in the kicking game.

“Oftentimes, there’s young players involved in the kicking game, so you can’t really review this sort of thing too much. We will take this tape and study it, and we’ll find times over the course of the week to plug in different aspects of it.”

The Vols started poorly on special teams last season, allowing punt-return touchdowns in losses at California and Florida and struggling with every aspect of kickoff coverage. Both areas dramatically improved later in the season, and then-freshman Dennis Rogan sparked the return game, but national championship hopes had already been destroyed.

“Last year, we didn’t get things done like we’d like to,” Fulmer said. “The two punt returns made a big difference in those two ballgames. I think we’re headed in a good direction now.”

Fulmer said sophomore punter Chad Cunningham — the team’s only viable option during senior Britton Colquitt’s five-game suspension — has done “an exceptional job” of getting the ball out faster. The coach has consistently praised All-America kicker Daniel Lincoln, too.

“We’ve got confidence in our snapper and holder and our personnel groups,” Fulmer said. “We’ll continue to tweak them as we go along ... but for the most part, they’re settled.”

Vinson bouncing back

Sophomore cornerback Brent Vinson finally seems to be emerging from the health and academic issues that plagued him early in preseason camp. However, it seems highly unlikely that he’ll take a starting position from senior DeAngelo Willingham or sophomore Rogan by the Sept. 1 season opener at UCLA.

“He’s on the first nickel and first dime package, or some of that, but he’s not getting first-team snaps,” Fulmer said. “We’re fortunate to have good competition there right now.”

Vinson battled through a consistently separating shoulder last season, and he missed spring practice following January’s surgery.

MIAs

Several starters were held from Saturday’s scrimmage, but Fulmer said he expected “everybody that’s going to play in the game back on Monday.”

That doesn’t include junior college linebacker transfer Gerald Williams, whose four-year saga with the NCAA hasn’t finished its final clearance.

“I don’t know any more,” Fulmer said about Williams’ status. “It’s a process, and we’re all used to that now. I don’t have any more manners.”

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