Volunteers' value soaring since discovering Pearl

By any standard, that's a formidable lineup.

Perhaps even better than the lineup that won 31 games last season.

"The ultimate goal is to win it all, to win a national championship," Maze said. "And we're putting the work in because we have guys who love the game. There's a difference between liking it and loving it, and we have guys who are coming in on their own and getting shots up with managers. When you have guys like that you have a chance to be great."

Which brings me back to Football Time in Tennessee and a column I wrote Saturday questioning whether the Vols could ever really expect to be great again under Phil Fulmer. My basic logic was that college coaches who reach the pinnacle of their sport (Fulmer won a national title in 1998) and then dip for more than two years (he's lost at least four games the past three seasons) rarely, if ever, approach the pinnacle again. For whatever reason it just doesn't happen. And though 95 percent of the readers who responded agreed with the premise, I did get a few hostile e-mails from people insisting I tell them the name of the man Tennessee should try to hire if I was so damn smart!

Mike Leach?

John Gruden?

Chris Peterson?

Folks kept throwing names at me.

My response to them: I'm not exactly sure.

But if the Bruce Pearl of football is out there, Tennessee would be wise to try to get him.