Wiedmer: Vols right where they should want to be

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones watches his players warm up for an NCAA college football game against Bowling Green Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones watches his players warm up for an NCAA college football game against Bowling Green Saturday, Sept. 5, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
photo Mark Wiedmer

As well as any hot and steamy week in late August can go for a major college football coach, this has been a pretty good one thus far for Tennessee's Butch Jones.

First, his Vols were ranked ninth in The Associated Press' preseason poll (they were already 10th in the coaches' poll), which gives them a fair amount of respect without putting them at the top of every opponent's bulletin board, as so often happens with No. 1 Alabama.

But just in case Jones was worried about such moderate acclaim going to his players' heads, three of CBS Sports' college football "experts" then gave him his own bulletin board material when they ranked the Big Orange the Southeastern Conference's "most overrated" team.

Or as the website's Tom Fornelli wrote: "The Vols might be really good this season. They might win the SEC East. These things definitely fall within the realm of possibility. It's just, this is the same Tennessee team that hasn't beaten Florida since 2004 and hasn't won against Georgia in Athens since 2006. It's also 3-13 against ranked teams under Butch Jones, so while I see the potential, I'm still approaching with caution."

Added Jon Solomon: "Despite all of the hype, Tennessee will lose just the right number of games to fall short of the SEC East title. I'll believe in the Vols when I see it."

Even former Vols coach Phillip Fulmer, while saying he believes the Big Orange should be in the top 10, told this newspaper two weeks ago: "We were very lucky to beat South Carolina last year by knocking the ball loose at the end of the game, and we were lucky to come back from a 24-3 deficit versus Georgia. We just have to play up to our level at all times, because we didn't play up to our level early against Georgia or to our best level against South Carolina, and we certainly didn't play to our best level late in the game against Oklahoma and Florida."

Given that Fulmer leads current University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director David Blackburn by 16 points (43 percent to 27) in an online poll regarding whom the Big Orange Nation would prefer to see replace retiring athletic director Dave Hart, we must assume it prefers candor from its leaders these days.

And due to that, one must also wonder how that dynamic - Fulmer as AD, Jones as football coach - might play out. Would Fulmer give Jones the rope Mike Hamilton failed to give him in trying times? Would he be the sounding board that former coach Doug Dickey was for him? Or would Fulmer bow to the whims of the vocal minority who once successfully lobbied for his exit, fearful that to rebuff them might lead to his own ouster?

That's another column for another day.

For today, for this week and the early days of next week before the season opener against visiting Appalachian State on Thursday night, Sept. 1, everything seems to be falling into place for Jones and his 17 returning starters.

They've even created a cute storyline that's already been embraced by ESPN and figures to pick up steam as the season progresses, especially if the season progresses as planned, with the Vols at least landing in the SEC title game as beasts of the East.

Creating a Twitter account called Life In The Shadows (@OLPShadows), Vols offensive linemen have started posting photos in which they stare into the camera while quarterback Josh Dobbs unwittingly photo bombs them in the background while being surrounded by adoring fans.

For those of you with young kids, think slipping "Flat Stanley" into pictures and you have some idea of Dobbs' role in this endeavor.

"It's pretty easy," a couple of the linemen explained in an ESPN piece. "Just take (Dobbs) outside, and it happens."

Added sophomore Jack Jones with a grin: "We were at a high school game last week (Alcoa-Webb) and we're seated all around Josh, but the crowd starts chanting 'Josh Dobbs, Josh Dobbs, Josh Dobbs,' like we're not even there. I was like, 'Yeah, we're in the shadows again.'"

But none other than ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit has these Vols anywhere but in the shadows. He lists linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin among the nation's five toughest "enforcers." He has Dobbs in his "4,000 (passing yards), 1,000 (rushing yards)" club. He picks new defensive coordinator Bob Shoop among his "impact coordinator hires."

Alas, though he has Tennessee reaching the SEC title game, he expects Alabama to win it.

So Jones, who loves motivational tools, has plenty of them to keep his team's focus throughout a schedule that may include the toughest four-games-in-four-weeks stretch of any in the country: vs. Florida, at Georgia, at Texas A&M, vs. Alabama.

And if his team can somehow win all four on its way to reaching the league's title game, the program should reside outside of college football's shadows for the first time since 2001, when an SEC title-game loss to LSU denied it a spot in that year's BCS title game.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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