University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE HEAD COACH PHILLIP FULMER COMMENTS FROM MEDIA DAY
December 14, 2006 | Football
Dec. 14, 2006
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"I said to the guys yesterday, I am really excited to get started back to practice. We kind of knocked the rust off on Saturday and Sunday, and had a good tempo practice on Sunday. Yesterday was the kind of practice we started the season with -- high tempo, responsive, physical, tough football practice. That's exactly what I want to get back to from an attitude standpoint and from a mindset standpoint, to take our motto at the beginning of the year of 'Fired Up, Focused and Prepared' and take it into this preparation during our time here in Knoxville and in Tampa and during the ballgame.
"I think every one of our players and coaches understand the big challenge we have versus Penn State. It's one of the better teams we have played in a while. A lot of it ends up being about match-ups when you play particular teams. There are areas that we match up well and there are other areas we have some significant challenges in this ballgame. Our offensive front versus their defensive front and linebackers will be a challenge. We haven't been the kind of running football team during the course of the year that I would liked to have been, or that Coach Cutcliffe would like for us to be. That is a concern we still are working to address. Our defensive team is certainly challenged as we look at stopping the big tailback, (Tony) Hunt. At times we have been very good, but consistently we have not stopped the run nearly like we have in the past. We went to work again on that yesterday and the kids had a great attitude at getting better in those areas.
"We must play well in all areas of our football team. Erik (Ainge), particularly, has to play well to be the kind of offensive team that we need to be. He's had a good year overall, but he didn't play very well at the last ballgame. That's a challenge for him to bounce back against a good Penn State defensive team. Offensively, again, we have to continue to be a really good orange area football team. We've done a good job of that as a team. We have to continue to do a good job of limiting our penalties, to stay disciplined. Sometimes, as much as you're off in bowl practice and you've got Christmas break, sometimes that slides and we're not going to let that slide as we go through our preparation. Offensively, we need to continue to be a good third-down team, which we've done. Again, not nearly like we'd like to in the last ballgame. Being able to handle the pressure is very, very important to us. Defensively, we need to tackle better. This goes back to controlling the line of scrimmage. We have not done a good job of that consistently. We need to pressure the quarterback better. We haven't done a consistently good enough job with our guys after Justin Harrell was hurt. We need to get more takeaways. We've been a good team that has intercepted the ball -- I think we lead the conference in interceptions -- but we just haven't knocked the ball lose like we have in the past over the course of the year.
I talked to the team before practice and I thought they were really responsive to what we were trying to do. I talked to the seniors after practice about playing well and leading this football team as they have during the course of the year. I'm looking also to see other leadership grow -- who are going to be the guys of the future. Underclassmen have kind of been waiting around and letting the seniors do it or somebody else do it and I want to see those guys emerging here during this time as we get ready for Penn State.
Special teams is always a key. We are very blessed to have two of the best guys in the country in my opinion in Britton Colquitt and James Wilhoit. We surely know that will be a key during the football game and if we'll continue to give the kind of effort in practice that we have and take the attitude that we've had, we'll be all right. We got a lot better at special teams during the course of the year. One area that we haven't is the kickoff return, and we're going to address that like heck here including in the scrimmage situation on Saturday night.
We've had some guys that have gotten some individual awards and that's nice for them and that's nice for our football team to be recognized on a national basis. But as I expressed to the team, those are reflections of the type of season we have had and the efforts by their teammates allowing them to achieve those awards. I think those guys all understand that they're fortunate to have a chance to be around a good program like Tennessee.
