Tennessee Vols Football: Still Suffering From PHILosophy

Excuses, excuses: you hear them every day.

This is really beginning to get old. For the past 10 months or so that I have been writing on this website, I've fed myself and others with excuse after excuse for Tennessee football's latest swoon.

I hate it. I hate to make excuses. I hate to make apologies and say things just to save face. Unfortunately the Volnation has had to look everywhere in three of the past five seasons for a reason why the program we love has fallen from grace so rapidly.

The radio talk shows feature nothing but, "Crompton is a piece of trash," and "Why can't Kiffin play Stephens," and my personal favorite, "It's time to jump off the Lane Train now!"

I couldn't help but laugh as I heard the local talking heads today saying things like, "Memphis is the only winnable game left on that schedule," and the always useful, "There's no way Nick Stephens is worse than Crompton."

I've even muttered or texted a few of those very same comments about Crompton myself. I've wondered where all the blame lies.

There is an overwhelming theme coming out of Knoxville after losses this season. After the UCLA loss we heard about finger-pointing. We heard about a lack of chemistry between the quarterback and star receiver.

From the time Kiffin was hired there were players jumping ship. The third-string quarterback left in a huff because he "wasn't getting a fair shake."

Anyone care to remember the disaster season that was 2005? Do you remember after the loss to Vanderbilt when players were left their helmets out on the field in a blatant show of disrespect for the orange and white? How about all the infighting that the controversy between Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen caused?

Last season it was Nick Stephens turn to throw a hissy fit when things didn't go his way. Phil Fulmer lost that '08 team shortly after the Auburn loss too.

Fulmer never could get a handle on his players when things went badly.

The culture of this team had been festering and fuming ever since that disastrous '05 season. That's when the finger-pointing started. That's when players like JuCo transfer Albert Toeinia showed his anger and frustration by throwing helmets and acting like a two-year old.

Today we hear the news that Brandon Warren, a former-Fulmer-doghouse-tenant, has been dismissed from the team for conduct detrimental to the program. Some reports have surfaced indicating that Warren threw "helmets" coming off the field Saturday night after getting into a shouting match earlier in the game with the Vols WR coach, Frank Wilson.

The prevailing mentality on this team is that same that it was during the end of the Fulmer days. Fulmer was always great with his players until the 2000's. There was the occasional problem but never to this magnitude. Showing it in private is one thing--doing it on the field in front of 100,000 people and a few million more at home watching on TV is completely different.

This sort of thing was disciplined by Fulmer but it was still an undercurrent in the locker room from what I hear.

When Lane Kiffin was hired he talked constantly about "changing the culture" of the program.

Getting rid of the old mentality proved to be a rough job at Michigan last year. Even at the start of this season former and current players alike turned on their coach of just one-plus season saying he was breaking NCAA rules.

When you've been used to one way of doing things for your entire college football career and some hotshot comes in with a totally different mindset there's bound to be problems. The difference between success and failure for a new coach is how those difficulties are handled.

One simply cannot expect things to be hunky dory barely a year removed from all the bitterness and hard feelings brought about by a terrible season and a very successful head coach's firing.

Kiffin's first order of business was getting these kids in shape and sending them through a "boot camp" type of process to see who was going to break. Many Vols did break.

Some left for the greener pastures of Carson Newman, UT-Chattanooga, and other FCS division schools. They were Fulmer disciples. They were used to being loose and pretty much doing what they wanted to do.

Some of the players that stuck around are beginning to show their true colors since a little bit of adversity has come their way.

The bottom line is that Kiffin needs time. You knew this coming in. I knew this coming in. I didn't want to accept the fact that Tennessee no longer had top-notch offensive talent, but I've had to look that square in the face every Saturday for the past two seasons!

Lane Kiffin is establishing something at the University of Tennessee. Maybe not all of it has been something to brag about, but change is happening.

Remember the buzz words of the Obama campaign? Change, change and more change. What the American people didn't realize was that things were so screwed up when he took charge that it might be his second term before we actually start seeing things change!

In college football it shouldn't take four or five years--more like two or three, maybe four. But rest assured, what you see now in Knoxville will change. The PHILosophy of the past will soon be just that, in the past. There will be growing pains, there will be painful losses. After all the players aren't the only one's suffering from PHILosophy, many fans are as well.

Just pull for your team. Stop the message boarding calling for Kiffin's firing. Stop booing Crompton. Stop whining because the program isn't what it used to be. Be upset with losses. Question playcalling if you must.

Keep it in perspective and maybe, just maybe, your attitude will change too.