As Jonathan said, my name is John Moorehouse and I’m a sports writer for the Kingsport Times-News, located in the Tri-Cities area in Northeast Tennessee, about 100 miles east of Knoxville. I’m on my fourth year covering UT football and I will do my best to answer all your questions…

RHemenez, I think the Vols respect Cal as an opponent. If they don’t, they certainly should. There’s been a few incidents of what you’d call bulletin board material in some Tennessee players’ comments, but I think they know they’re going to have to come to play.

GoBears82, I think Cal would be more damaged by a loss. The Golden Bears return more starters than Tennessee, and it’s being played at their place. UT is young in a lot of spots, and can use the “valuable experience” party line if Cal wins.

Brandon, a broken pinky finger does not hinder a QB as much as one might think. It’s the first finger to come off the ball when you throw and it affects grip more than anything. As for the other two backs, the Vols think Arian Foster’s poised for a big season and Montario Hardesty is healthy for the first time since his first game as a true freshman in 2005.

Big D, from top to bottom, in my opinion the SEC is the toughest league in the country. It’s not just because of the talent or the coaching (4 current coaches have national titles) but because of the culture and fans’ expectations. Let’s just say I’d be surprised if some overzealous Oregon fan filed a FOI request for Mike Bellotti’s cell phone records. As for the scheduling, most SEC teams play at least one decent nonconference game per year. Tennessee’s got UCLA, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon lined up in future seasons.

MoreNCs, this is a very diferent Vol team. Lots of question marks at WR, D-tackle and the secondary, and no one on the offensive line is starting at the same spot he did last year except C Josh McNeil. UT is really counting on a lot of young guys–both true freshmen and rarely-used returning players–and expecting them to jell right off the bat in a game played across the country is a lot to ask.

Dave, the only returning starter in the secondary is Jonathan Hefney. but he’s a good one–maybe the best DB in the SEC. Freshman Eric Berry is as talented as advertised and will play a lot, but he’s still a freshman in his first game. Fans either love Fulmer or want to see him gone. A lot of the fans who are most active on the message boards and what not seem to fall in the latter category. It’s my opinion that the stability of the coaching staff at UT is what has helped them recruit so well year in and year out. I think Fulmer is safe this year barring a disaster–six losses or more–and even then he might have one more chance.

I hope I’ve provided some insight on Tennessee heading into tomorrow.

Enjoy the game, everyone!

Big D and Milo – In terms of the conference comparisons, those have been going on forever, and likely will never stop.. If I had to offer a rebuttal, I would say that your argument is a bit flawed in that by discounting 2 teams out of your conference (Stanford and Wash) leaves you with 8 teams, whereas the 3 schools that were cited (Mississippi, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt) leaves 9 teams in the SEC most of which made it to bowls last year.

Brad – Tennessee generally travels extremely well. The 7,500 ticket allotment was sold out in short order, and there are some estimates that close to 9,000-10,000 Vol fans will show up for the game in Berkeley. For most SEC road games, there are generally 10k fans from Tennessee minimum. I’ll be one of the hopefully many UT fans in Berkeley on Saturday. This is already very long and thunder stealing, so I’ll stop.

Go Vols!

Don’t be surprised when you don’t see any questions under his entry for the blog exchange. Most of his readers are e-mailing them. He’s already sent me a handful of them.

and since i’m posting (moreNCsarecoming — I guess the trojans will loose to OSU and UCLA again this year? right?)

As a side note, I was greatly impressed with the people in Knoxville for last year’s game. The Vols fans and Knoxville residents were so genuinely gracious as to render moot any temptations I had of acting like a sore loser.

Last year the Vols completely humiliated Berkley with a 35-0 thrashing at halftime. The final score could have been up in the 70s if PF hadn’t called off the 1st string. They were too physical, too talented, too athletic, too strong and too fast.

What has changed so much in one year that a different outcome can be expected? What has changed so much in one year that would lead someone to believe that you will lose? I don’t get it.