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FOX SPORTS

1. USC

2. Tennessee

SPORTS

ILLUSTRATED

1. USC

2. Texas

3. Tennessee

There are multitude of reasons to believe the Vols will be back at top in 2005.  The Big Orange returns 15 of 21 starters from the team that finished the 2004 campaign 10-3 despite being plagued buy an onslaught of injuries.  The Vols concluded the season by showing their might in the 38-7 New Years Day Cotton Bowl slaughter of Texas A&M.  The Voles return two stellar quarterbacks in Erik Ainge and Rick Clausen, all of whom started games in 2004, and are good enough to get the nod in 2005. Ainge, a  true freshmen, carried himself  like an upperclassmen, and Clausen was sharp in relief.  The receiving corps is being called the best every at UT (not a small thing...UT has been called Receiver U).

In addition to wealth of experienced returning talent , the incoming recruiting class has been has been called the best in the land by Scout.com.

 As all VOL faithful know, high expectations and optimism should be tempered with caution.  The schedule

 is tough with road visits to Florida, LSU (back to back), Alabama and Notre Dame, all of which are risky business.  However, the VOLS showed last year at Georgia and at Miami the year before, they can rise to the occasion on the road.

The caveat, so to speak, is that can PitiFulmer rise to being the coach ?  The past has show total collapses in preparedness and discipline.  Talent gone awry.  The past year has been ugly as umpteen players have been involved in off field incidents, one of which has prompted the departure of quarterback Brent Schaeffer.  It is a reason for concern.  Can he pull the National Championship talent together to do it?  It could happen.

"Phil Fulmer has his best shot at a national title since 1998, and a setup behind center that's tailor-made for success. Ainge is the franchise in the mold of a young Peyton Manning and Clausen is the kind of steady veteran backup that every head coach wishes he had as an insurance policy." - ESPN

FOX SPORTS Ranks vols #2 Preseason

The Vols will be back among the elite of the elite as long as the defense can take a little overall step up in production. The offense will be a juggernaut with what many consider to be Tennessee's most talented receiving corps ever (which is obviously saying a ton for this program). RB Gerald Riggs Jr. and QBs Erik Ainge are ready to be big-time college football household names. The defense will lose star linebacker Kevin Burnett, but there's more than enough talent to come up with a killer D helped by the return of CB Jason Allen.

The Vols will be loaded in 2005 and Riggs will be the centerpiece of the attack. There's talk of the receiving corps being UT's best ever, so it'll be hard for Riggs to be a marked man.

Spring attitude ... There's no reason to shoot for anything less than the Rose Bowl. Tennessee returns almost all the key starters from last year and has some of the best offensive skill players in the Phil Fulmer era. Sometimes teams need the pressure turned up a couple of notches and UT could be one of them; this should be a group that relishes the role of favorite.

Sports illustrated ranks vols #3 Preseason

The Vols' offense should be running like Clockwork Orange come fall with the return of quarterback Erik Ainge, who threw for a Tennessee-freshman record 17 touchdowns and led the team to a 7-1 record before injuring his right shoulder. With Ainge throwing up Peyton Manning-like numbers and tailback Gerald Riggs Jr. on the verge of a monster season, coach Phil Fulmer might be holding up his second national title with an offense that would be second to none during his time in Knoxville.