HOOVER, Ala. -- When a high school blue-chip football recruit signs with a college, most of his reasons, besides getting a free education, are simple.
He wants to play on teams that can challenge, at the very least, for conference championships. He wants to play in bowl games, collecting the gifts and the memories.
That's what running back Tauren Poole thought he was getting into when he graduated early from Stephens County (Ga.) High and enrolled at Tennessee in January 2008. Vols' coach Phillip Fulmer had just completed his 15th season in Knoxville with a 7-point loss to eventual national champion LSU in the SEC championship game and a 21-17 win over Wisconsin in the Outback.
Photo by Mark Weber, Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal
Poole, who rushed for 1,034 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, will have to be successful this year if the Vols have hope of finding more success than in the last two years.
Running back Tauren Poole didn't come to Tennessee expecting to have the sorts of chaos that has attended the program since he was recruited by Phillip Fulmer. Dusty ComptonAssociated Press
Alabama: Coach Nick Saban, RB Trent Richardson, S Mark Barron, LB Dont'a Hightower.
Vanderbilt: Coach James Franklin, QB Larry Smith, LB Chris Marve of White Station, CB Casey Heyward.
Ole Miss: Coach Houston Nutt, RB Brandon Bolden, DE Kentrell Lockett, OT Bradley Sowell of Hernando.
LSU: Coach Les Miles, QB Jordan Jefferson, WR Russell Shepard, LB Ryan Baker.
Poole never thought he'd be heading into his senior season this year, having played for three different head coaches, on two losing teams and in danger of becoming just the second Vols senior class since the NCAA passed the freshman eligibility rule to never win a bowl game.
"You come to Tennessee and you think you're going to win a bunch of games, get some championships, get some rings," said Poole, one of the Vols' representatives at SEC preseason media days here Thursday at the Wynfrey Hotel. "You can't imagine it not happening, especially at Tennessee."
Since the NCAA approved legislation in 1972 allowing true freshmen to play on the varsity, only Tennessee's 1980 senior class failed to win a bowl game. They lost as juniors to Purdue, 27-22, in the Bluebonnet Bowl to finish 7-5.
Poole understands that pain, but it runs deeper. He's had a revolving circus of head head coaches (Phillip Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley) and strength coaches the last three seasons, resulting in a combined record of 18-20, including back-to-back bowl losses the last two years.
Last December's 30-27 double-overtime loss to North Carolina in the Music City Bowl resulted in a 6-7 season, yet the Vols rallied down the stretch for four consecutive wins just to earn a bowl bid.
Poole was a big part of the late-season push. He ran for 1,034 yards and 11 touchdowns after barely playing the previous two seasons. He had consecutive 100-yard rushing games in the first two weeks of the season (110 vs. Tennessee-Martin, 152 vs. Oregon) and later in the year (101 at Memphis, 107 vs. Ole Miss).
There were also weeks where he was nonexistent, like back-to-back 23-yard efforts against Florida and UAB. And that drove Dooley crazy.
"Tauren is everything that you want in a player from his drive to be his best, and I wish we had 100 Tauren Pooles," Dooley said. "He was productive as a whole last year, but he was inconsistent last year. He had some remarkable games, and he had other games where it was hard on him.
"I think we've got to do a better job of blocking for him, and we need another back to help carry the load. But we're not going to be a good football team if Tauren is not consistent and productive."
Poole said he's committed and driven. When SEC coaches have talked about the league's top running backs this week, they've mentioned South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore, Alabama's Trent Richardson, Arkansas' Knile Davis, Auburn's Michael Dyer, Ole Miss' Brandon Bolden and Florida's Jeff Demps.
Poole's name hasn't been in the conversation, yet he understands.
"It was that way coming out of high school," he said. "I was like the 50th-rated back in the nation. When I got to Tennessee, I was No. 5 on the depth chart. I don't mind having to prove myself."
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