It’s Baaaaaaaaaacckkkkkk!!

As a result of the disappointing 2-3 start for our beloved Vols, the Roundtable for a week (and longer here ate Gate 21) sort of died, much like our hopes for a great season.

While our hopes are slim none, the Roundtable treads on, thanks to CincyVol over at 3SIB, who offers up a trio of questions this week for our reading and enjoyment. Perhaps we can inspire our Vols as they travel to Athens this weekend, where I don’t care how bad we we are, I hope we beat the snot out of UGA and their crap fans. More on that later today…

Anyways, here are the questions, and my answers (hopefully lawvol can stop by and leave his answers as well)…

Much has been made of Nick Stephens and his performance Saturday. Give your opinion on the job he did and what you think is in store for his future.

Improvement? Yes, but I will wait for the Georgia game to pass judgment on the play of Nick Stephens

I’ll go ahead and go on about my entire NIU thoughts while answering this question. OK, Nick Stephens was better, and you can’t deny that fact. However, the offense still scored just 13 points, but I attribute that to the poor offensive line play, which I attribute to Vlad Richard’s absence (we run well when he plays). With no running game and an iffy pass rush, Stephens did well, and lo and behold we threw the ball down the field. Hope there’s more of that…

Before we all get too excited, it was Northern Illinois. The rest of our schedule – save Wyoming – are much stiffer competition than the pesky Huskies. Stephens has been better than Jonathan Crompton, but we’ll see, starting in Athens this Saturday and the rest of October. The jury’s still out for me.

The other issues with our offense: Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer need more touches. I said this last week. Problem is, so did the coaches. And Creer carried the ball as many times as I did, and I was on the front row (almost caught an errant Husky pass too).

I like Arian Foster. He’s just not our best option. Against NIU, he can get it done (he has scored 6 TDs on UGA the past two years…), but SEC defense are all over him. Hardesty is physical and doesn’t tip-toe. Creer has the scary good mix of power and speed. I’ve said this before as well, why not put two of them in at once? Novel concept…

People have said our WRs aren’t good enough/can’t get separation/blah blah blah, and that’s garbage. Do we have Plaxico Burresses (the top WR on my fantasy team) running around? No. But Lucas Taylor was a 1,000-yard guy. Briscoe works well in the slot. Denarius Moore needs more looks. He’s a deep threat, pretty much the only WR Tennessee has with that ability.

Defensively, I love the effort. I know NIU lost their starting QB and were limited, but this D is playing well. Hopefully Ellix Wilson will be 100% for this weekend…

As Eric Berry continues to impress what do you think is the greatest part of his game?

Eric Berry owns. He’s everywhere. You’ve seen my avatar. How he didn’t take that pick Saturday night to the house I’ll never know. He probably can’t believe he didn’t take it. Dude’s really, really good. I do wanna see him on offense, just once. Just once.

Like Tyler Donovan, I have no clue how UCLA WR Taylor Embree survived getting smacked by #14

To specifically answer the question, I love every aspect of his game. He just makes plays. When he does get his hands on the ball, my first thought every time is that he’s going to score. And it’s going to awesome. And make SportsCenter’s Top 10. He’s an incredible talent.

Britton Colquitt returns from suspension this week, so saying that, how big of a difference will he have on the special teams part of the game?

Finally, it won’t take 5 seconds for Tennessee to get a punt off. Chad Cunningham had some great kicks, but he was terribly slow. Hence the block at UCLA (though it doesn’t matter if you don’t block any rushers) and the partial block NIU had Saturday night. Also, I hope Britton kicks every kickoff – the few we have every game – into the tenth row in the endzones. Since we’re likely gonna be punting more than kicking off with our offensive deficiencies, he’s a potential game-changer in terms of reversing field position. Obviously that didn’t work (see Auburn), but I gotta think the offense is going to improve at some point.

Here’s the other participating members for the Roundtable this week. Enjoy!

- 3rd Saturday
- Curveballs For Jesus
- YSWWC
- Losers With Socks

Images Courtesy of: Wade Payne / AP (Daylife) • Harry How / Getty Images (Daylife)

About the Author:  I'm from Memphis but I'm now entering my third year at the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville. I am majoring in Journalism/Electronic Media and hope to go into sports broadcasting/writing/something like that. I'm a huge Vol fan and have been going to games for as long as I can remember. I started my on blog called "The View From The Hill" but moved here to Gate 21 for bigger and better things. In addition to my passion for Tennessee football and basketball, I enjoy watching the NFL and the NBA as well. Basically, sports are a big part of my life. >> Read more from this author

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