Tennessee Vols coaches still looking for proper mix

KNOXVILLE — When offensive coaches talk about putting their best 11 players on the football field, what they usually mean is their best quarterback, best five offensive linemen and best five skill position players.

University of Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer and first-year offensive coordinator Dave Clawson adamantly stated this week that their best five offensive linemen start every week, and their best options are always on the field.

“I don’t think you change just to change and think that’s going to give you a spark,” Clawson said. “We are playing the best players that we have.

“The reason that guys start is that they’re playing the best. If we had a freshman on the team that was going to be a future All-Pro and an All-SEC player, and we thought he could play better this week than the starter, he’d be playing.”

The Vols have primarily rotated six offensive linemen since sophomore reserve tackle Ramone Johnson was suspended three weeks ago. Johnson returned to practice last week, but coaches didn’t feel comfortable putting him back in the lineup against Alabama.

Senior guard Anthony Parker started against the Crimson Tide seven days after suffering a high ankle sprain against Mississippi State.

Parker hobbled around in the first half and didn’t return after the break, but Fulmer expects him to be “a week better” physically at South Carolina.

Fulmer said he would still prefer to keep promising freshman tackle Preston Bailey redshirt-eligible.

“I think we’re playing our best five,” Fulmer said. “Ramone Johnson’s a guy we’re trying to get in the mix, but he missed a couple of weeks of practice.

“Not a lot (of options) right now. I think that (junior walk-on guard) Cody Sullins is closer to playing.”

Silent Spurrier

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier has taken several playful jabs at Fulmer and UT over the years, but he reportedly refused to take the bait from local media this week.

“Well, I got my own problems right here trying to score a touchdown or two,” Spurrier told The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. “But, nah, he got a new contract last year, so I thought, certainly, that coach Fulmer would be safe for several years to come.

“But I don’t know anything more than that. Just what you read in the paper.”

Spurrier said on Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference that it’s hard to stay at one school for longer than a decade — something he did at Florida before moving on the NFL.

“I think it’s certainly difficult, although not impossible,” Spurrier said. “I’ve heard some administrative people, some coaches say that after 10, 12 years or whatever, a lot of times someone else should come in. I just felt after 12 years at Florida, I wanted to coach somewhere else, and that was really the only reason — go try to do it somewhere else.

“Some people feel differently, that it is their school completely.”

Not that ‘USA’

The University of South Alabama won’t start playing NCAA football until next season, but the Jaguars will travel to UT for a 2013 game, officials from both schools said Wednesday.

USA will debut its program next season, play a full schedul e in 2010, start a two-year transition to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision in 2011 and began Sun Belt Conference play in 2013.

Rotating kickers

Fulmer said senior punter Britton Colquitt will handle field goal attempts from beyond 47 yards on Saturday. Struggling sophomore Daniel Lincoln is 0-for-3 from beyond that distance this season, and 8-for-15 overall.

Fulmer said he planned to have Colquitt kick from that range at Alabama, but Lincoln — an ESPN.com All-American last season — hit several from that distance in pregame warm-ups.

Lincoln, who is 8-for-18 in the past 10 games, has never connected from beyond 50 yards in his career despite routinely showing plenty of leg in practice. He said he has recovered from a groin injury that bothered him earlier this season.