Clausen in a pickle

At the beginning of the 2001 college football season, Tennessee had the look of a heavyweight. The Vols' defense has lived up to its billing, but the Big Orange element that made Tennessee a likely choice to return to the sport's elite was the presence of a quarterback who seemed to have found himself in the cauldron known as the SEC.

After battling with A.J. Suggs for control of the team during the first part of last year's 8-4 season (the kind of season Florida State could potentially face this year if the Noles don't buckle down), Casey Clausen began to settle into the role of successor to a pair of guys named Manning and Martin.

Clausen made solid decisions, distributed the ball effectively, and carried the team through pressure situations, particularly in Columbia against a quality South Carolina defense. Behind Clausen (and the running of Travis Henry, to be sure), the Vols mounted a last-drive touchdown to give the Gamecocks their only loss last year at Williams-Bryce Stadium. That moment, more than any other, seemed to convey to coach Phil Fulmer and the rest of the gang on Rocky Top that 2001 would mark -- to borrow Colorado coach Gary Barnett's motivational phrase -- "a return to dominance" in Knoxville.

Entering this season, Clausen -- still complemented with a solid running game from fifth-year senior Travis Stephens -- was expected to give the Vols the steady leadership and superior performance that defined the careers of his two venerated predecessors. Combined with an awesome defense, which has done its share and then some, Clausen made Tennessee look particularly strong by giving them the one piece that was missing from last year's puzzle.

But a funny thing happened on the way to rediscovering superiority. Clausen and the rest of the Volunteers' offensive unit fumbled, bumbled and stumbled through an opener against Syracuse that was sloppy even by opening-game standards. Clausen called an incorrect snap count at one point; his throws sailed wide and high; a miscommunicationion with his receivers occurred on just about every series of downs -- usually just one set of three per possession.

After a first-play touchdown pass to his favorite target, Dante Stallworth, Clausen went 13-of-26 for 99 yards and a pick the rest of the way. Not the mark of a quarterback who has found himself... to be sure, Clausen was most certainly lost in Neyland Stadium way back on Sept. 1.

The following week, Clausen and the rest of the Vols played at Arkansas in a driving rainstorm. While Clausen did complete 13 of 17 passes in horrific conditions, the bottom-line reality was that the Vols scored six points in the first 59 minutes of play, needing a last-minute touchdown from Stephens to seal the win. The Vols didn't have to play at Florida on Sept. 15. From a pure football standpoint, the off-week represented a benefit for Clausen and the rest of his offense, which would have been swallowed up by a defensive unit that has been every bit as dominant as Big John Henderson and company.

What was a blessing against Florida, however, is now a curse with LSU on the horizon. The specific problem facing Clausen and his mates is a three-week layoff against the SEC West favorites from Baton Rouge, who -- with early-season losses by everyone in their division, including a conference loss from main competitor Mississippi State -- look like an even better bet to win their division. Beyond that, the Vols will be at a disadvantage in this game at the quarterback position because LSU's Rohan Davey, unlike Clausen, can make plays with his legs.

With Clausen, success has, does, and will have to come from shrewd game management and poised pocket passing. Without performances to build on in the first few games of the year, plus the lack of any subsequent snaps and repetitions to work off the rust, Clausen and his offense will face a decided uphill climb in Rocky Top Country this Saturday night.

Can the cool California kid flip the on switch and regain the moxie that entered his ice-veins bloodstream last October? Or will the homeboys -- who looked to be a top 10 force in college football this year -- get Rocky Toppled at home by a hungry LSU team with SEC championship aspirations? Casey Clausen's in a pickle -- no doubt about it.