Ah, yes, my second week on the Roundtable. This week it’s the Great & Powerful Moondog hosting the questions, and let’s just say I’m glad this isn’t my first week because these questions are tough, yet brilliantly excellent at the same time.

Of course the deal is the ten Vol blogs all answer these five questions, and I’ll of course have them linked at the bottom for your viewing pleasure. Nevertheless, here’s my go at this week’s questions…

1. Let’s assume the worst for a moment and say the Vols finish the season 6-6. Does Fulmer survive? If not, whom do you believe would be the best person to fill the head coaching vacancy? Even if you believe Fulmer survives, feel free to offer your thoughts on the Vols next coach.

Yes, Fulmer survives and I’m beginning to believe he’s going to end up leaving on his own terms. Granted, 6-6 will cause an uproar and the legions will be restless and calling for his head (as if they weren’t/aren’t already). The only unlikely scenario in which 6-6 get Fulmer fired is if those six losses are all like/worse than the Florida loss last year.

For me, I’m not sure I would have anyone else other than Phil as Tennessee’s coach, probably mostly because I have not really known Tennessee football under anyone else’s leadership other than Fulmer in my 20+ years of existence. So seeing someone else running of the program would and will be honestly slightly odd for me.

Phil still wants at least one more SEC Title and then he’ll ride off into the big orange sunset. He’s been a great representative for this university, and while General Neyland built Tennessee football, Fulmer has had everything to do with the recent success. Whether you want him gone or not, it’s tough to argue with his track record. Sure, you can try and twist numbers – especially in recent years – to use against him, but he wins, and does so without coming across as a tool like some other SEC coaches (our rivals would obviously say otherwise).

The only beef I have with Coach is the drought. I don’t care if we backed into the SECCG at 8-4 this year, if we won it I would be ecstatic. Like last year, if we had only finished LSU off, the painful effects of watching us get killed by Florida and Alabama would have been completely erased with a ’ship.

As for replacements, I had my candidates after the Gainesville trip last year. Ultimately I think Tennessee’s next head coach will be Dave Clawson, unless his offense is a complete and total bust (my bet is that it won’t be). My choice at that time was probably USF’s Jim Leavitt with what’s he done building that program and his connections to Florida.

I’m also going to steal a choice from the host’s repsonse and say former Auburn/current Texas DC Will Muschamp. Except I’m going to use YouTube to point out why…his obvious fire and passion for strong, fast, hit-you-in-the-mouth defense, not to mention he stopped Tebow last year (language warning!)…

2. With the off-field troubles many college football programs have encountered over the past five years, including Tennessee, what actions would you take to prevent players from getting into undesirable situations?

This is tricky, but I think the first thing you have to try to do is recruit players that will stay out of trouble. That said, we are talking about college kids and naturally they/we tend to somehow someway find trouble. So as much as you may try for that, it’s pretty much a wash.

Obviously, there’s varying degrees – from underage drinking, to DUIs, to beating dudes up, to smoking Mary J, to selling cocaine – so you just gotta hope you end up on the lower end of the “trouble severity scale.”

The best way I think to go about this is you just have to find player leaders that you know will stay out of trouble with the law that can effect the way other players conduct themselves. Will at SESB brings the trust issue into it, which is certainly smart. Another way is a no-tolerance type policy where you get rid of one player (preferably a third-string holder) to show that you’re not messing around.

3. The Vols have rolled through UCLA, UAB, Florida, Auburn, Northern Illinois and Georgia. We’re No. 3 in the polls and up next is Alabama. With 3:16 left in the 4th quarter the Vols are down 20-17 and it’s 4th and one from the Bama 29-yard line. Do you kick the field goal or go for it?

Easy, you go for it. You bring in Vlad Richard, line him up between Jacques McClendon and Ramon Foster with Warren at the tight end on the right side, put Jeff Cottam in the backfield with whoever the fullback’s going to be and you give the rock to Arian Foster and cram it down the Bammer’s throats. Boom, First-and-10 Big Orange. Money!

And then you run it the next however many plays it takes until you hit those checkerboards for the W. If you have to, give it to G-Jones and let him run over some unsuspecting Tide backer/safety (see Outback Bowl). Heck, if you’re really feeling crazy and adventurous, actually give the rock to McClendon or Richard and let them use that I-can-bench-like-700-pounds strength. I sure as hell wouldn’t wanna tackle them if they had a head of steam coming right at me…

4. What impact, if any, do you believe Stan Drayton will have as the Vols prepare to play Florida?

Here’s an idea: Drayton paints Coach Meyer’s phone number on the rock over by Stokely and frat row and the students go all LSU on Urban, calling him at all hours disrupting his game-planning and Tebow-loving time the two weeks of prep time for the Vols (UF has a bye before they play us).

Let’s hope Stan Drayton knows the entire Florida offense so we can have a prayer of stopping it

In all seriousness, I think Drayton will bring a slight advantage. He knows things about the Gator offense that we obviously probably don’t and that alone should help. If he’s as good at coaching as he is at recruiting, any help with the defense and Tennessee’s RB stable should be in great shape.

But it may be more than that, by re-reading a GVX article after his hiring. He seems to take some shots at Urban, especially about the manner of his leaving Gainesville. Perhaps Coach Drayton is still pissed off at Urban and the Gates that week, and he fires up the whole team. Hey, it’s possible he might even be the one player/coach/fanwho wants to beat Florida the most, and that’s saying something after the last three years.

5. We’ve discussed the Vols offense and defense, but what about special teams? Give us your thoughts on Tennessee’s kicking game and special teams in general.

I’m not worried about the return game. Mark it down, Dennis Rogan will take both a kickoff and punt back for six this year. He should have last year, and this year supposedly he’s going to have Eric Berry and Dee Morley blocking for him on punts. Lennon Creer also had some nice kickoff returns nearly breaking one against LSU, so I expect an impact there. Denarius Moore has also gotten some looks in recent practices at returning kicks.

After the “punt coverage” of the first three games of last year, Tennessee broke out a new formation and it worked very well, so I expect to see that this year. Kick coverage is a little dicier, but there’s some NFL special teams experience with Jason Michael and his time with the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. I have some worries as to whether we’ll be able to kick the ball inside the 15 until Britton returns as well.

FGs should be fine. I went to high school/worked on my high school’s newspaper staff with snapper Morgan Cox, and I don’t know I’ve ever seen him not have a perfect snap (knock on wood) any time I’ve seen him play, and Daniel Lincoln I thought did pretty well for a redshirt-freshman last year. He hit some big kicks but did did struggle later in the year, but he should be more consistent this year.

Chad Cunningham worries me a little bit. From what I’ve read he has a good leg, but every now and then shanks one and those can kill you. I would also expect Cunningham to handle those kickoff duties in Colquitt’s absence as well. That said, I do believe he will step up.

Here’s a thought in Britton Colquitt’s suspended absence…if you never have to punt (a la the Colts with Hunter Smith), you don’t have to worry about your punter being suspended…

Still special teams should be better than last year, and I thought the latter half of last year they were much better than at the beginning of the year.

Here’s my fellow Vol bloggers and their responses:

- MoonDog Sports
- Third Saturday in Blogtober
- Southeastern Sports Blog
- The Power T
- Rocky Top Talk
- Gate 21
- Fulmer’s Belly
- Losers With Socks
- Your Mother Slept With Wilt Chamberlain