Vols season preview: Rocky roads ahead on Rocky Top

What will the story of the 2008-2009 Tennessee Volunteers be?  Will they be the up and down team that they were last season or will they improve and become more consistent.  These are the questions that must be answered, but currently the best answer is a shoulder shrug. 

Last season was the epitome of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in regards to Tennessee football.  Some weeks they looked almost unbeatable and others where they probably shouldn’t have shown up.  Take the game against Georgia as an example of the first.  On that sunny day in Knoxville they made an upper tier team look like they had never played football before.  The same goes when they played Arkansas.  In that game they the Vols shut down the Heisman Runner-up.  On the other occasions, at Cal, Florida and Alabama, the outcome was exactly the opposite.  In those three losses, Tennessee was outscored 145-68.  Yeah, 145-68.  Even through all this, the Vols eked by to win the SEC East.  Only to throw it away in the championship game against the eventual National Champs, LSU.

The Vols begin this season the same way they began the last, with a trip out to the west coast.  This year they will be taking on the Bruins of UCLA, on September 1 in prime time.  This is always a tough place to play, especially when it’s your opener.  But it may not be quite as tough as when it was originally scheduled.  That is because Bruins quarterback, Patrick Cowan injured his knee in the spring.  He was to be replaced by Ben Olsen, but Olsen broke his foot and is out for the game as well.  That leaves Redshirt junior (transfer from Mt. San Antonio College), Kevin Craft as the starter. 

Tennessee enters into the game in a similar fashion.  They are also starting a relatively unproven at quarterback, Jonathan Crompton.  Crompton has been the back-up for departed starter, Erik Ainge, for the last two seasons.  He has had a limited amount of plaing time, with a majority of that coming in 2006.  For his career, Crompton is 38 for 78 for 498 yards.  He has thrown five touchdowns and four interceptions.  How he performs is one of the major question marks for the season.

The opener is not the only tough test for the Vols this season.  They have several extremely tough games in conference.  The first is on September 20 when the Gators and Heisman winner Tim Tebow come to Knoxville.  They follow that up with a trip to play Auburn.  This looks to be the hardest two week stretch of the season

However, the fun doesn’t stop there, because on October 11 the Vols have to go play between the hedges.  There they will face the pre-season No. 1 ranked Georgia Bulldogs, a team that will be looking for payback after last season’s blowout loss at Neyland.  After that, it’s the Third Saturday in October.  That’s all that needs to be said about that.

Defense of their Sec East crown till be very difficult, as it is every year in the SEC.  With the way the schedule plays out, the Vols could finish anywhere between first and third in the division.  If they win all the tough games, they could contend for a top five spot in the polls.  The more likely scenario is that they will finish the season with around record as last season.  It will be either a 9-3 (last season’s finish) or  maybe a 10-2.

How will the season play out?  That is up to the football gods.  It’s hard to predict an outcome in the ever unpredictable Southeastern Conference.