'The Nightly Daily' falls one win short on 2011 UT football prediction

Back in August, The Nightly Daily predicted the University of Tennessee football team would finish with a 6-6 record this year (click here to read). Of course, with Saturday's loss to Kentucky, the Volunteers finished with a 5-7 record. There will be no bowl this year, and the team has posted back-to-back losing seasons for the first time in my lifetime (and that's a long time). After the 3-1 start, the team looked promising, but injuries and an awful offense did them in.

This team has a long way to go.

Volunteers showing progress compared to last year

With last Saturday's win against Buffalo, the Tennessee Volunteers have now completed one-third of the 2011 schedule. How does the team shape up compared to where it was last season? Pretty well.

This year's Vols are 3-1 compared to 2-2 at this point last year. Though the Vols played poorly in losing to Florida, the team has also showed progress. A solid win over a pretty good Cincinnati team and thrashings of Montana and Buffalo are much better than last year.

In the first four games last year, the team was convincingly beaten by Florida and Oregon. The Vols were fortunate to beat Alabama-Birmingham in overtime. In that game, the Blazers missed five field goals and dominated the statistics. Truthfully, Tennessee should have been 1-3 after four games last year.

This year, the next four games will make or break Tennessee's year. The next four are: vs. Georgia, vs. LSU, at Alabama and vs. South Carolina. The saving grace of this stretch is that three of the games are at home. However, it is still a daunting stretch.

Last year, Tennessee was soundly beaten by three of those four teams (Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina) while losing a heartbreaking game to LSU on the last play. Unless the running game greatly improves, the Vols may meet the same fate again this year.

These teams are good.

Tennessee Volunteers 2011 football schedule

Despite its problems, college football remains the greatest sport in our country. And despite the problems of the Tennessee Volunteers in recent years, the team remains one of the most storied in college football history. Here is this year's schedule for the team:

Sept. 3 -- vs. Montana
Sept. 10 -- vs. Cincinnati
Sept. 17 -- at Florida
Oct. 1 -- vs. Buffalo
Oct. 8 -- vs. Georgia
Oct. 15 -- vs. LSU
Oct. 22 -- at Alabama
Oct. 29 -- vs. South Carolina
Nov. 5 -- vs. Middle Tennessee
Nov. 12 -- at Arkansas
Nov. 19 -- vs. Vanderbilt
Nov. 26 -- at Kentucky

Though the Volunteers will be better this year, it will still be a rebuilding year. The is no question coach Derek Dooley has improved the team's talent, but the team remains very inexperienced. There are only eight scholarship players on the roster who are seniors.

The non-conference schedule is easier than in recent years because the team will not be playing a national program from a power conference. Games against Montana, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Middle Tennessee should allow the Volunteers to go 4-0 outside the conference.

However, the conference schedule gets tougher this year. From the Western Division, the team plays Alabama, LSU, and Arkansas. All three of those teams have been ranked in the Top 15 nationally in various preseason publications. The Southeastern Conference remains the toughest conference in the nation so we should expect more struggles as the program rebuilds.

I see the Vols finishing 6-6 this year and going to a lower-tier bowl again. The team is heading in the right direction, but we need one more excellent recruiting class to put us back toward the top. Our wins should come against the four non-conference opponents, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. I hesitate to pick the Vols over Kentucky because we play them on the road, and they have come close to beating us in recent years. However, if they couldn't beat us last year, I don't know when they will.

Tennessee Volunteers open 2011 season in exactly two months against Montana

Right now, it is blazing hot in July, but relief is just around the corner. The Tennessee Volunteers open their 2011 football season on Sept. 3 against the Montana Grizzlies in Knoxville. The Grizzlies are from the Big Sky Conference and play in the FCS subdivision. If Tennessee is going to play an FCS team, I wonder why they chose to play a team of Montana's caliber.

Last year, the Grizzlies went 7-4. It was not a good enough record to make the playoffs, but the program has a tremendous tradition. Before last year, the team had made the playoffs 17 seasons in a row and won the national championship in 1995 and 2001. If we are playing a team from the FCS, shouldn't we be playing a weaker team than this?

Last year, we opened against a weak Tennessee-Martin team and won 50-0. I don't see this happening against Montana. We should win, but this game will be tougher than most expect.

Cuonzo Martin looks like good fit as new coach for Tennessee men's basketball

Cuonzo Martin was officially announced as new men's basketball coach at Tennessee today, and I like what I see. I know there has been some hand-wringing by some of the Big Orange faithful, but we need to give him a chance.

His resume looks good to me. He was 61-41 at Missouri State, including a 26-9 record this year. His team won the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) regular season title. The team would have gone to the NCAA tourney but was upset in the finals of the conference tournament by Indiana State. He was also named MVC Coach of the Year this season.

I know some fans are disappointed that the Vols did not land a coach with a bigger name or more experience. I can see their point. However, Tennessee's options are hampered by the impending penalties from the NCAA. Even though the Tennessee job is a good one, not many coaches want to walk into a program going on probation. Give Martin credit for that.

The bottom line is we got a good coach. Not many Tennessee people had heard of Bruce Pearl before he came here. Like I wrote in the first paragraph, let's give Martin a chance. He is our coach and deserves our support.

Tennessee men's basketball program awaits NCAA hammer

The relationship between big-time college athletics and the educational mission of universities has always been a curious one.

When looking from a purely logical point of view, they do not appear to have much in common. While most would agree that sports should play some role on campuses, the news regarding athletics often dwarfs achievements in education.

Of course, we do not live in a purely logical world. Our emotions work in tandem with our logical side to determine what is important. For this reason, sports are very important to many when looking at the overall picture of college life.

For those doubting this, the hoopla regarding the NCAA's notice of allegations against the University of Tennessee's athletic program should have driven this point home. It was big news that dominated statewide media, and that is saying something when considering all that has been going on in the world lately.

As a graduate of the school and supporter of the athletic program, the allegations are embarrassing. The most severe relate to the men's basketball program and Head Coach Bruce Pearl.

The NCAA alleges that Pearl and his staff broke rules, and that Pearl lied to an NCAA investigator about this. The program is also accused of other violations, including issues involving the football team. Breaking rules is bad enough, but lying to the NCAA in an attempt to cover up misdeeds is a remarkable lack of judgment.

As in most cases in life, the cover up is often worse than the original mistake. Because of this, do not expect the NCAA to go easy on the program when penalties are announced later this year.

Penalties could range from a loss of scholarships to a ban on participating in the NCAA tournament for the next year or two. Pearl's mistakes could literally cost the program millions of dollars if the team cannot play in the NCAA tourney next year.

Because of the severity of these issues, many wonder why Pearl still has his job. Most coaches would have been fired if linked to this type of activity. But, so far, Pearl has survived.

Still, Pearl's situation is not as clear cut as it seems. It is important to remember that he did a lot of good for the university in recent years.

When he came here, he took over one of the most underachieving programs in the nation. Almost overnight, he turned the team into a winner. This resulted in good publicity for the school and brought in lots of money. Thompson-Boling Arena went from being a half-empty barn to a packed house for most games.

Do not underestimate the importance of this. There is often a direct connection between a school's athletic success and the amount of donations it receives from alumni.

For example, when Northwestern University's long suffering football team underwent a resurgence in 1995, financial giving to the school went through the roof. For that school, a Big 10 championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl resulted in big bucks.

Up until this scandal, Pearl was wildly popular among University of Tennessee supporters and was considered a goodwill ambassador for the school. Now, this is all in tatters.

The bottom line is Coach Pearl is hanging on by a thread, and one more mistake will send him out the door. To paraphrase an old cliché, his tenure at Tennessee has one foot in the grave and the other foot is on a banana peel.

In many ways, the party is over. However, the possibility of redemption remains. We have all failed at some point, but we have had the luxury of not doing it in a public forum.

Times like these define a person's life. For Pearl, he can either fall into the abyss or commit to getting his career back on track.

Let's hope he chooses well.

Looking forward: Tennessee's football schedule in 2011

The sting of the Music City Bowl still remains, which means we should probably start looking forward to the Tennessee Volunteer's 2011 football schedule. Despite the bowl loss, the team appears to be on the upswing. Here is the schedule:

Sept. 3 vs. Montana
Sept. 10 vs. Cincinnati
Sept. 17 at Florida
Oct. 1 vs. Buffalo
Oct. 8 vs. Georgia
Oct. 15 vs. LSU
Oct. 22 at Alabama
Oct. 29 vs. South Carolina
Nov. 5 vs. Middle Tennessee
Nov. 12 at Arkansas
Nov. 19 vs. Vanderbilt
Nov. 26 at Kentucky

The Volunteers play eight of its 12 games at Neyland Stadium, including five of the first six. The non-conference schedule is weaker than most years with the most challenging game coming against either Cincinnati or Middle Tennessee. Once again, October is the make or break month for the team as it faces several tough opponents, such as Alabama and LSU.

Of course, between now and then, several important questions must be answered. Will the team be able to develop a consistent running game? Who will fill the shoes of Nick Reveiz at middle linebacker? Will a consistent kicker emerge?

There will be time to debate all this and more in the coming months. The schedule practically guarantees a return to a bowl game. But Tennessee fans will be hungry for more this year.