The offseason for Tennessee football has stumbled out the gate so far, with a lackluster recruiting class and a near-record number of arrests.

The latest is a fifth alcohol-related incident for punter Britton Colquitt, who was cited for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. He was suspended five games and his scholarship was stripped. I think he should have been kicked off the team around the third incident.

His case in particular is baffling to me because all the serious drinking I did in college there only once led to anything resembling an arrest, and that was freshman year when we were drinking in a dorm on the supposedly-dry campus. My point is it’s hard to get arrested in that town just for drinking, and this guy has pulled it off five times. It’s kind of amazing in a way, but troubling in many others.

You probably read here where I had a bit of a religious experience after attending three games last season. After being a harsh critic of Phil Fulmer early in the year and calling for him to be fired, I changed my mind and said I would like to see him stay as long as he wants.

I’m not going back on that yet, but he is making it very hard for me to keep the enthusiasm I had at the end of last year. From the outside, this looks like the other shoe dropping on a program that was already on the verge of spiraling out of control.

I am going to be patient and try not to have knee-jerk reactions about this anymore. He will in all likelihood be the coach until at least the end of 2008 no matter what I say. But I can’t say it would make me sad or that I’d think it was undeserved if he ended up getting the axe next year.