“I’m glad to be here. As I told them, any way I can help.”

For some reason, Butch Jones thought it would be a good idea for Phil Fulmer to drop in and give a little pep talk to the team.  Aside from making sure everyone in the room knew that he had nothing to do with Tennessee’s present troubles, it’s hard for me to guess what helpful suggestions he might have passed along.  Any of y’all have an idea?

He knows nothink. Nothink!

Phil Fulmer goes Sergent Schultz on the Arian Foster pay allegations.  Big shock, there.

Money? What money?

I’m surprised nobody in the media has yet to dig up which UT coach got a new Lexus while Foster was there. The list of candidates can’t be too long.

Maybe it was just something he ate.

Shorter Phillip Fulmer:  Okay, okay, the other day when I peed all over everybody surrounding the Tennessee program I may have neglected to acknowledge that I played a teeny, tiny role in the Vols sporting two losing records in my last four seasons… almost a bystander, really… hey, did I tell y’all how much some of those guys sucked?

Phil Fulmer has no hard feelings.

Which is kind of impressive when you think about, given how he thinks pretty much everyone around him and those who followed were a bunch of incompetents.

Fulmer was forced out as Tennessee’s coach during the Vols’ 5-7 campaign in 2008, one of his two losing marks in his 16 seasons as the program’s head coach. Fulmer lost 34 conference games and 52 games overall during his tenure at Tennessee. Since he left, the Vols have a 9-23 conference record and a 23-27 overall mark under Lane Kiffin (2009) and Derek Dooley (2010-12).

But don’t put all the blame for Tennessee’s slide on his successors, Fulmer said.

“I still know we’re battling from an internal standpoint to get everything aligned so we can not compete against ourselves internally but be able to compete against the outside folks,” Fulmer said. “I believe we’re making progress with that.

“Every school has down cycles. You’re not always going to be on top. Alabama just a few years ago, for example. Florida never won a championship until coach (Steve) Spurrier got there. People don’t realize that: You’re going to have your dips.

“What happened to us basically was our leadership. We had four presidents in six years. We ended up with an athletic director that wasn’t prepared for the job. Not a terrible guy or anything like that. He got twisted like a pretzel by the middle management of the university. We lost a lot of the edges that you have to have. (Current athletic director) Dave Hart’s very aware of those, and he’s working to change things. We didn’t get dumb or lazy all of a sudden. There were obviously some things that were different.

“When you have a great president and a great athletic director and you replace them with substandard people that have no idea, what do you expect is going to happen? And you do that three other times? It’s crazy.”

Mike Hamilton replaced Doug Dickey as Tennessee’s director of men’s athletics in 2003. Hamilton resigned in June 2011. Current Tennessee president Joe DiPietro is the university’s fifth in the past decade.

Of course, he may have a point about Hamilton.  After all, less than a year before Fulmer was fired, the man who wasn’t prepared for the job gave him a contract extension and a raise.

Wednesday morning buffet

Grab your plate and utensils.  (Napkins are optional.)

• California is on the verge of passing laws on student-athlete stipends that will run afoul of NCAA rules.
• In case you wanted a fashion review of Georgia’s new branding effort, here ’tis.
• Texas A&M wants Johnny Manziel to be treated just like any other student when he’s on campus.  Except for the full-time bodyguard, that is.
• Is there a Krispy Kreme in Johnson City, Tennessee?
• Good nuts and bolts interview with Vandy offensive line coach Herb Hand, if you’re interested in what that offense tries to do scheme-wise.
• And speaking of Vanderbilt’s offensive line, I didn’t realize the ‘Dores were able to redshirt their entire freshman class last year.  That’s how you build for the long haul in the SEC.  (Or anywhere, really.)
• Georgia’s players claim to have learned one lesson from the Boise State game.
• This post caused me to ask the musical question – when the day comes that gay marriage is legal in the South, will that bring more conflict with the unwritten rule about not having your wedding in the fall?  Hmm… maybe the religious right’s missing an argument here.

A match made in Hog Heaven?

This will never happen in a million years, but, damn, I’d sure love to see it purely for the extra-curricular entertainment value.

According to former Tennessee assistant Doug Matthews on Nashville radio yesterday, Arkansas officials have spoken to his former boss Phillip Fulmer about the vacant head coaching job. He doesn’t know how serious they got, but there have been discussions between them:

“I know Phillip has had conversations with them,” Matthews told the radio show. “And when I say with them, all that is going to take place behind the scenes.

“But everything I’m hearing from Arkansas is the spring game, I think, is this Saturday. ‘Let’s get through spring. Let’s see where we are.’ But I think they’ll either go with a guy that they’ve got on the staff or they’ll bring in someone to be — caretaker’s the wrong word — but bring someone in who has been through it all before.

“If there is a place for Phillip, that will be the place.”

Doughnuts, subpoenas and Spurrier’s catty comments… I’ve missed ‘em all.  Throw in a fan base that knows its way around a FOIA request, and you’ve got a heady brew for blogging.  Unfortunately, it sounds way too good to be true.

Friday morning buffet

Is there such a thing as overbuffeting?

• Michigan, you have one of the most iconic uniforms in the business.  Is this really necessary?
• Brophy Hemlock at Brophy’s place gives you six reasons why you need to be able to throw quick.
• Groo looks at why Title IX makes paying student-athletes problematic.
• Fulmer for AD:  feel the momentum!
• Dawg fans, if you’re looking for straws to grasp in 2011, Georgia hasn’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 1963.
• Chris Brown takes you through the basics on dropback pass protection.
• On playoffs and the BCS, the Mountain West tries to keep its options open.
• Meanwhile, the WAC just hopes to survive after being gutted by the MWC.
• It’s probably not a good sign that upon being told his story and Ohio State’s story don’t match, Jim Delany’s response is that his was an “un-refreshed recollection.”

Of course he would.

That’s mighty big of him:  Fulmer tells ESPN that he’s “open to discussing” the Tennessee AD job.

I’m sure that clears up a lot of uncertainty people in Knoxville had about whether he was interested in the position.

Christmas day buffet

Hey, my people are eating Chinese today, but here are a few things we can all taste:

• Marc Weiszer gives us a status report on Georgia’s 2010 class.
• I have a feeling that Philip Fulmer’s idea of his market value and the market’s idea of his market value are vastly different.
• Lane Kiffin is still causing trouble in Tennessee.
• Nice catch on Terrelle Pryor and who needs the money in his family.
• And Stewart Mandel tells Dawg fans that we have every right to be miffed about the NCAA’s ruling in Tatgate.
• But don’t worry, baby.  The NCAA promises to get it right next time.
• A.J.’s one-handed catch against Colorado makes Doc Saturday’s ten-best-plays-of-the-year list.

Thursday morning buffet

Lots of little niblets for you to sample:

• The power of the blogosphere:  hiring Phil Fulmer as Tennessee’s AD is a bad idea because Spencer Hall created the Fulmer Cup rankings.
• Greg McGarity is ditching the Damon Evans approach to scheduling in favor of Jeremy Foley’s.  (h/t Leather Helmet Blog)
• Maybe I should have thought of this before last Saturday’s game. (h/t The Wiz of Odds)
• PlayoffPAC is at it again.  The best part is the punch line:  “As to whether the complaint, even if successful, will help the PAC’s goal of a playoff system, Sanderson argued that “when we raise awareness about these types of irregularities, the need for change becomes more apparent.”” Yes, because if there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that the next set of people in charge of the postseason won’t be consumed by greed.
• I’m not sure if Georgia’s any worse than most schools about this, but Nick Williams is getting frustrated about being Tripped.
• Gary Williams thinks paying players a $200 a month stipend will fix something.  He’s just not very clear about what that might be.
• The Pac-10 looks to reinvent itself as a post-modern conference:  “Another concept to be raised is splitting the northern and southern schools but using three scheduling “pods” of four teams to provide a rotating schedule that would allow northern teams to play in California regularly. Under that scenario, each team would not be guaranteed to face each divisional opponent each season.” Why even bother with divisions, then?
• USA Today takes a look at student athletic fees.
• It looks like Georgia’s not the only team playing in Starkville Saturday night with an experienced offensive line that’s been struggling.