Per GoVolsXtra (hat tip to XRayVol, who posted the news first), RTT#17 Kenny O'Neal is transferring due to academics.

Remember, O'Neal first played at Florida State, then went to junior college, and finally ended up here. We had great plans for him and his 4.26 speed, but, except for one brief flash against Arkansas State, it never really panned out. O'Neal was academically ineligible for the Outback Bowl and was excused from spring practice to focus on his studies. Apparently, it wasn't enough.

Well, nice knowing ya, Kenny. Good luck.

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So, RTT#5 Lennon Creer, what'd you do for us this year? Profile out of high school:

Recall that Creer was the guy who didn't much care for Texas' ultimatum and whose trip to Tuscaloosa not only sold him on Tennessee but ended nearly 12 months of indecision. Dude rushed for almost 5,000 yards in two seasons in high school.

So how did the Texan who traveled to Tennessee to become a Volunteer (there's some historical irony there) do as a true freshman on Rocky Top? Hmm,  let's call it "not bad for a backup."

Creer played in every game except the one against Steve Spurrier, but mostly it was just spot duty as Arian Foster had the starting position locked up, and the back up spot was anchored by LaMarcus Coker (for half a season) and Montario Hardesty. Still, Creer had enough woo plays to make Vol fans anxious to see him get the ball more often, including a 109-yard game against Louisiana-Lafayette and a 50-yard kickoff return in the SEC Championship game against eventual national champion LSU. And here, now that we've done several of these in a row, let me make an observation. Young players at Tennessee, no matter how good and with only an exception or two (Eric Berry defintely and maybe Gerald Jones last year) will only get an opportunity to showcase their talent in games against clear underdogs like Southern Miss, Arkansas State, and Louisiana-Lafayette. Sigh.

Highlights? Highlights:

I'm really looking forward to seeing this guy more next season. It's like he's Arian Foster with that extra step.

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Oh, shoot. Meant to get to this much earlier. How often do you get a chance to not only help somebody who needs it but get a dig in on a rival at the same time? Donate to victims of the tornadoes in Oklahoma and Georgia or the cyclone in Burma and, if Tennessee Volunteer fans donate more than fans of any other school, EDSBS goes ORANGE:

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Before we get to the Action from Around the Hill, a Big Orange welcome to Bobby Maze who signed to play B-Ball for us last week. His services are greatly welcomed as we need all the good guard play we can get. Pull on that Orange and go to work!

Well, there's a good bit of news from Around the Hill today, most of it from the Ladies' end.

But let's start with the men, which is a good news/bad news situation. First the good news:

The #8 Men's Tennis Team (23-3) had an excellent weekend at their NCAA Regional not dropping a set during their dismantling of Furman (16-11) 4-0 and Va. Tech (16-9) 4-0. UT started both matches off by winning the doubles point, continuing UT's undefeated mark (21-0) when winning the point. Now that the boys have cruised through their Regional, it's off to Tulsa, OK to join the other 15 teams slated to play for the National Championship. The Vols will start off playing 9th seeded Baylor at 1 pm this Friday the 16th. Tennis-ee is on a roll and should fare well in Tulsa. Let's wish them the best and hope they pull it out. GO VOLS!!!

On a more somber note:

Some, if not all, of you probably heard about the woodshed whoopin' we got from Kentucky on Sunday. The 20-5 debacle ended the home series in which UT failed to win a game, falling to 25-27 (11-16 SEC) and prolonging an almost epic slide from the once promising BaseVols, who at one point in the season were only 3 games out of first in the SEC and are now in last place in the East. The boys will face Furman in Greenville, SC Tuesday and then go to Columbia to play S. Carolina this weekend. UT's home record stands at 19-13 for the season. I'm not sure what kind of chances the team has now for the CWS but judging by their play lately, it's not good. Sorry boys, maybe next year.

Again, on the Ladies' side the news is good/bad so we'll start with the good:

A small number of the #19 Lady Vol Track and Field Team went down to Georgia to compete in the GA Invitational and had a very good day Friday. The Ladies entered in 6 events and won 4 of them. The wins came in the shotput, pole vault, the 1,500 meters, and we placed 1 and 2 in the discus. A fine day for the Ladies, congratulations!

Now for the rest:

The Lady Vol Golf Team ended it's season this Saturday in the 3rd round of the NCAA East Regional when they failed to shoot their way into the top 8, finishing 16th. This is the first time in five years that the Ladies won't be playing for the National Championship. Sorry Ladies. Florida won the team title finishing one stroke ahead of 3 time and defending national champion Duke. I don't need to tell y'all how unhappy that makes me. AArrgghh!

The #25 Lady Vol Tennis Team (15-9) took out #36 Illinois (12-11) 4-0 on Friday, dropping only 3 sets in #1, #2, and #5 singles (all three matches going unfinished as they weren't needed for the win). Unfortunately, they turned around and got drummed 4-0 by #3, defending national champ, Ga. Tech (21-5) Saturday afternoon. The loss ends the season for the Ladies at 15-10, a respectable record which ties for the most wins by them in the last 5 years. On the bright side, the future for Lady Tennis-ee looks very good with a lot of returning young talent who should make next season very interesting. Also, two Ladies, Caitlin Whoriskey and Zsofia Zubor will travel to Tulsa May 21-26 to compete in the NCAA Individual Championships. They will play doubles together and Ms. Whoriskey will also play singles. Best of luck to both these Ladies and let's hope they do well.

And lastly, the Lady Vol Softballers did just what I wanted and whooped GA 5-2 on Thursday, completing the season sweep of the Dirty Dawgs. Gotta love beating GA at anything! However, unfortunately, the Ladies turned around and got beat by the only other more un-holy school in the East. Yup, the doggone Gaytors. #14 UT (47-14) lost 6-1 to #1 FLA (61-2) Friday evening in the semi's of the SEC Tourney, ending their season. The good news, however, is that the Ladies have been given a national #13 seed in the NCAA's and have been granted a Regional to host! This will be the 4th consecutive year the Ladies have hosted a Regional in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately though, it's no cake walk. The Vols' Regional will include Big South Champion Winthrop (36-17), Louisville (30-21), and ACC Champion Va. Tech (44-15). UT will start off the weekend with Winthrop at 5 pm on Friday the 16th. If the Lady Vols get through the weekend, they will face 4th seeded Michigan (48-6) in a best of three series at a Super Regional for the right to go to Oklahoma City. This is UT's sixth NCAA Regional and their 5th consecutively. UT has made three straight trips to the Women's CWS finishing 3rd in 2005 and 2006 and 2nd last year. Let's wish them luck and hope they make it a fourth straight trip. GO VOLS!!!

That's all the Action. Like I said, some good, some not so good, but we still have a few irons in the fire so to speak. It's not summer just yet.

GO VOLS!!!!

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Photo by Jan Tik.

• Tennessee center Josh McNeil, despite missing spring practice due to recovering from a knee surgery, has been named to the preseason watch list for the 2008 Rimington Trophy, awarded to the nation's best center.
• Jonathan Crompton, rehabbing his right throwing elbow after surgery, has been released to "begin throwing light objects."
• Message board rumor alert: Brandon Warren has apparently made his grades at Pellissippi and is hoping to enroll in classes at Tennessee on June 2. I believe there are still some hoops to jump through after that to gain eligibility to play, at least if he wants to play this year.
• Florida coach Urban Meyer has kicked Jamar Hornsby off the team after he'd been caught using the credit card of a Florida student that had died in a motorcycle accident with Florida walk-on Michael Guilford back in October. Orson, in awarding Fulmer Cup points to his own team, absolutely nails the despicability of Hornsby's actions:
  
  
  Ah, thanks life. You never force us to make things up, instead just giving us real and improbably terrible things. Hornsby is charged with credit card theft and fraudulent use of a credit card, which we imagine are both felonies. That’s three points times two for each felony charge plus the bonus point for using a dead girl’s credit card the day after she died and with one bonus point for it being a Florida Gator and therefore homer-shameful to us personally, and we take that to eight points for Florida, putting them on the big board in a fashion so tacky no amount of exponents can cover it.

  Oh, and you there, we’ll say it for you “WAAAAAAHHHH you’re giving Florida points because you want to win.” Mr. Astoundinglystupidworth, if using a dead girl’s credit card the day after she died only gets two bonus points we should consider ourselves lucky for only getting eight points. Redux: you don’t want to win this thing. It’s not good. Perhaps that’s a point worth repeating from time to time: it’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. It’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. By the way, it’s not good to win the Fulmer Cup. For further reference, see: “Fulmer Cup: not good,” or the Wikipedia entry “Fulmer Cup: Bad.”

  
  Read the whole thing. The girl's parents are trying to mourn the loss of their daughter and are getting monthly reminders, with interest and fees, from CitiBank.

• The Papa takes another baby step into the future by getting himself one of those fancy new Saban-Loophole video conferencing thingamajigs.
• The Blue Workhorse, not a fan of Bruce Pearl, nevertheless applauds Pearl for his recent decisions to keep Chris Lofton's secret and to kick Duke Crews and Ramar Smith off the team.
• Speaking of Chris Lofton, the recent news of how he handled his cancer this year is gaining him fans from all over the place.
• Tennessee basketball = Ferrari. Everybody else = Range Rover.
• From around the blogosphere: Gate 21 has a really interesting piece on a battle between sports blogs and the teams they cover. . . . God, Google, and a bottle of aspirin (among other things) recently saved the life of Fanblogs' Kevin Donahue. Go read that. Kevin, glad to hear you're all right, and thanks for posting that.(Hat tip: Orson.). . . Brian, in debunking some anti-playoff arguments, had this gem:
  
  I watch college football because in the stands 80 to 100 thousand people live and die on every play, because I hate Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, USC, and most of the SEC, because it is a brief three-month burst of bands and silly songs and real, honest-to-God traditions and stadiums named after states or dead men and punch-you-in-the-eye rivalries in a sea of sports chintz. You can add a playoff and Ohio State-Michigan happens once a year and so too Texas-Oklahoma and Oregon-Oregon State and Georgia-Florida and Army-Navy.
  
  The reason so many of us watch so much college football is that, as mentioned, there is hardly any of it and it is all great.

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Now we're talking. RTT#7 Gerald Jones' initial profile:

We really should have known. Quote from last year's Getting to Know Gerald Jones post:

Gerald Jones had a hamstring injury early in 2007 and missed five of the first six games, including losses to Cal and Florida. He didn't really start playing until the Alabama game, and he was strictly a receiver for that game and the game against Steve Spurrier the following week. It was only against Louisiana-Lafayette that the coaching staff put Gerald under center and thereby really began to appreciate the talent they had at their disposal.

Jones got himself into a bit of trouble along with Ahmad Paige back in mid-January. He wanted to transfer after that, but he instead matured into a man before our very eyes, issued an apology letter, and decided to stay.

And yes, for this guy, we have highlights:

For those of you wondering why the Austin Rogers and Quintin Hancock touchdowns against Kentucky are in the Gerald Jones highlight video, you have either forgotten or never read the importance of playmakers post.

In the spring game, Jones caught three passes for 47 yards, rushed once for 12 yards, and, yes, even threw the ball once for a 17-yard touchdown.

Which just goes to show you that sometimes, what appears to be hyperbole is just the plain truth.

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Ooh, special Saturday morning edition!

Two of the most-hyped players in the 2007 class were in-state linebackers Chris Walker and Chris Donald. Donald didn't play at all last season, however, and while Walker played in every game, he had only three tackles the entire season, and all three of them came against Louisiana-Lafayette.

There was quite a bit of talk last season about moving both of these guys to defensive end, and Walker actually did play some at end (I think) and was listed second on the depth chart at left end behind Wes Brown for the spring game. Donald was listed as third on the depth chart at middle 'backer, though, so it appears he's staying at the position at which he was recruited.

Anyway, here's a recap of both players' profiles from last year because it appears to still be the best information we have on them:

If you recall, Walker is the consummate snot-knocker and Donald was the No. 1 linebacker in the nation (in 2007, remember) who told the world he was all Vol and upon discovering the world wasn't really listening decided to have some fun with said world by sending it mixed signals about his college choice.

My gut is that these guys are, in fact, as good as we'd hoped, but that they're just biding their time in John Chavis' system.

Monday, we'll get to Gerald Jones, Lennon Creer, Brent Vinson, Ben Martin (although we don't have much info on him), and Eric Berry.

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Feedback time. Does anybody care about these, or are they a waste of time? We could just jump to Eric Berry, say yeehaw, and be done.

For today anyway, here's RTT#14 Denarius Moore's initial profile. Despite what the stories said last year, his name is in fact either spelled "Denarius" or he simply tired of having to clarify otherwise. Anyway:

The notebook on Denarius just out of high school, bullet style:

• Intrigue regarding the spelling of his last name.
• Very, very good, but often overshadowed by teammate Lennon Creer.
• As quiet and unflamboyant as Tennessee basketball fan favorite Chris Lofton, so expect zero bulletin board material.

So how'd he do? Not bad for a true freshman who,  like any receiver not named Lucas Taylor, Austin Rogers, or Josh Briscoe, barely got into the rotation:

The kickoff return experiment was short-lived, occurring only during the Cal and Southern Miss games. He did fine, averaging almost 22 yards per return, but apparently the coaches were looking for something more dynamic, which it took them awhile longer to find. Moore's best games came against Louisiana-Lafayette in November during which he had four catches for 36 yards and against Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl where he caught four passes for 86 yards. Again, pretty good considering he wasn't in the rotation very often.

So there you have it. Denarius Moore. Clawson plans to enlarge the receiver rotation this year, so it will be interesting to see if Moore is one of the guys who will make the new cut.

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Up next, RTT#15 Nevin McKenzie. As always, the recruiting profile first:

McKenzie made the best of the wide open opportunity presented him by the decimated secondary. He played in all 14 games, had 35 tackles, three sacks, two forced fumbles, two quarterback hurries, and one blocked kick. He was especially impressive in the SEC Championship Game, one drive in particular where the Tigers finally punted on 4th down and 36.