Vols in cuffs a sure sign fall is here

Arrests. Suspensions. Dismissals. Statements about ?conduct detrimental to the team,? and coaches ?laying down the law.?

Yep. It?s definitely football time in Tennessee.

Two Tennessee Vol football players have kept the Big Orange?s preseason tradition going this week, by having separate brushes with the law.

Redshirt freshman Marsalous Johnson was arrested by Putnam County lawmen on Sunday, after waving a toy gun at an off-duty sheriff?s deputy while driving down I-40.

I know what you?re thinking. With brains like Marsalous displayed with that particular stunt, I?m surprised he didn?t go Ivy League, too.

Listen up, kids. The police do not take it lightly when you monkey around with guns ? even toy guns ? in their presence. Marsalous was lucky he was only arrested. And he should be grateful, I guess, that he didn?t have a toy gun and a dog in the car with him. We know how trigger-happy some of those men in blue up on the Plateau are when it comes to our canine friends.

As a result of his stupidity, Johnson is being required to move back into a dormitory on the UT campus, is not allowed to have a car, and must perform 50 hours of community service. He?ll also miss the first four games of the Vols? season, and work with the scout team.

But I guess since Johnson was off campus, and even out of Knox County, he?ll have a chance to remain with the program. The same can?t be said for Lee Smith.

Smith, a freshman tight end from Powell High School, was arrested earlier this week, and subsequently dismissed from the team, after being spotted by a campus police officer driving his car on campus.

The problem? Smith was driving on the sidewalk.

The son of former Vol Daryle Smith, Lee maintained he was just turning his car around, and was up on the sidewalk only momentarily. But he failed four field sobriety tests after being stopped, then refused to take a breath test, resulting in a trip to the Knox County jail.

Again, kids, listen up. Don?t drink. If you drink, don?t drive. If you drink and drive, don?t drive on the sidewalk on state property, which is patrolled 24 hours a day by its own police force.

Of course, last year was the breakthrough year for arrests at UT. Between January and July of 2005, Phil Fulmer?s squad had eight different players who were arrested.

This week?s incidents with Smith and Johnson pushes the total of Vols arrested up to four in the last three months, as they join linebacker Marvin Mitchell (disorderly conduct in May) and Jim Bob Cooter (drunken driving in June), both of whom were suspended from the team. Additionally, freshman Raymond Henderson was not arrested, but was kicked off the roster, in May after making inappropriate comments to a woman and her daughter at a restaurant.

So when it comes to arrests, this year the Vols are off to a bit of a slow start, with just half as many players being booked as they had a year ago.

But stay loyal, fans, because it looks like they?re making their run right at crunch time.