Guitar Shots to the Head 9/16

I have always wanted to be a meteorologist, and now I am considering making it a second career. Imagine how much UT fans would pay for a forecast of the next “Perfect Storm”. After the Florida game the realization began to creep in rather quickly. Tropical Storm Cal was nothing like Hurricane Florida. If you thought the winds were blowing during that opening game, Florida blew away everything that wasn’t secured.

Now it is time for our shameless Volnation sponsor plug. Vol fans would be well served to go to Lowes and get some plywood and ducktape to board up the windows in Neyland. Afterwards, you may visit Carmax for a 4-wheel drive vehicle of your choice that can drive through the flooding, or simply go to TicketCity and get the heck out of dodge. Another perfect storm is brewing, and our reaction time is critical in the matter.

For me, I noticed the winds picking up a little late. I remember how I felt leaving Neyland Stadium in 2003 after a 41-14 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. Though it wasn’t the first time I had been frustrated with this coaching staff, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. A talented UT team showed up to Shields/Watkins completely unprepared for their opponent, and I was demanding answers. How could a team simply lie down like that on their home field? The truth was that the horses were slowly disappearing.

Now many Vol fans rightfully point to the LSU loss in 2001 as the beginning of the real storm, but as much as that hurt, that loss did not hurt me nearly as much as the beating at the hands of the Dawgs. Something like that should never happen in Neyland Stadium.
Fast forward to 2006, the year after “Perfect Storm 2005”, and many thought that the addition of David Cutcliff had calmed the seas. The loss to Florida in the Swamp yesterday proves that they were dead wrong. Had UT played Florida or LSU in the opposing venues last year, the end result would have looked much like the game yesterday.

UT is not supposed to lose this badly with a senior quarterback and a seasoned coaching staff, but alas they continue to make the same mistakes. Massive failures and fatigue on the kick off units, and costly turnovers have been pretty bad lately, but not nearly has bad as the disparity in talent between UT and the upper echelon of the SEC. For those who say we still have the athletes, please tell me where they are. Sure, UT has a few game breakers, but for every Eric Berry or Jarrod Mayo that UT has on their squad right now, Florida and LSU have 20 players just like them.

While the winds are blowing, and the walls are shaking UT fans are left to think about what might be. “What if” the coaching staff actually prepared O’Neal, Vinson, Moore, Creer and Jones for a game like this? Or is last year’s recruiting class simply an illusion? If there are athletes on the sideline who can contribute, but have not been allowed to do so, I certainly feel sorry for them. Surely our coaching staff has sold them a bill of goods when they recruited them to play for the Big Orange.

The real question now is between last years recruiting class, and the ballyhooed group of 2004 is there untapped potential moving forward. Will a season like this make them jump ship, as the waves crash around them? Most importantly, do we have anyone on the squad that is able to take the reigns and captain this ship through all of the storms that lie ahead?

While watching Tebow play yesterday the one thing that stood out the most to me is that he was the undisputed leader of his football team. That translates into making everyone on the offensive side of the football better. Incidentally, this is something that UT has been missing for quite a while now. When the Vols are down one score in the third quarter, they need a player or two that are willing to take control of the game. Until that happens I am afraid that watching film and working like heck to get better are the only options left for UT fans.

It is a sad day in East Tennessee to see that things have actually gotten as bad as they seem. Being a pretty darned good amateur meteorologist let me hand out a departing shot to the head. UT needs some players, but until we replace the captain of this ship, the waves are just going to get higher. As a fan, I have demanded the answer to the questions, and the answers have been lacking. We have been watching film and working like heck for four long years now only to experience the same special teams breakdowns and lackluster offensive game planning. The icing on the cake is the fact that UT is now running out of defensive ends and lineman, and they are currently without a deep threat at receiver.

I don’t want to hear anymore excuses. I will not listen to anyone that tells me that CPF is the absolute best coach that Tennessee could ever hope to have. Unlike the Florida Gators, UT fans actually knew that football existed before the year 1990. UT has a glorious tradition, good facilities, and one of the best traveling fan bases in the country. Simply put, we deserve better, and should demand better. Until we do, we are going to need a weather forecast. For now, go out and buy a few gallons of milk, and plywood your windows. I know most of us are going to ride this storm out, but we will do so at our own risk. Go Vols.

9 responses to “Guitar Shots to the Head 9/16”

  1. Fulmer was quick to dump Randy Sanders…
    When does he drop Chavis??????????

    That has been the problem since 2001….

    When you have players like Henderson & Haynesworth on defense and you can’t stop a backup QB (SEC Championship Vs LSU)or any other team that wants to run their QB…it completely baffles Chavis. Did he really think Tebow was just gonna pass and handoff
    like Ainge, and not be a threat to his great defense? Great defensive coach??
    Who has offered this defensive genius a job??? Can’t wait now to see Randy Sanders offense against Chavis…Fulmer will realize then who should have gone…..
    And by the way…what is Fulmers record against ranked teams????? It’s not in the
    .850 range the faithful want to brag about..

  2. Well spoken, lex.

    If only those who really need to read it, would.

    And then act accordingly.

  4. “UT has a glorious tradition”..

    uhh.. what tradition? 2 NC’s–the same as UF does. Your problem is that UT is too big for it’s britches–how much tradition since anyone that reads this site or goes to games remember? ay the 70’s.

    Also UT have no natural recruiting base like UF does. They have to rely on out-of-state/national recruiting to keep them viable. Just because you can cram 105,000 fans into a crusty stadium–doesn’t your team’s gonna win (see uMich). Look @ Bristol nascar, a quarter million hicks w/ nothing better to do really–of course you can fill the place..get a grip

  5. Shred, it doesn’t surprise me that a Florida fan would not understand the meaning of tradition. Any team with an SEC championship prior to the 90’s has more tradition than the Gators.

  6. yes, im 48 years pld and have been watching vol football all my life and it makes me sick to see the shape our program has gotten into. all we hear is how our freshman and sophmore game breakers are not ready to play yet. whats the problen? seems like florida dosent have that problem playing 41 freshman and sophmores against us on that beat down yesterday. im sick of Fulmers play calling, same o same o stale football for 5 years now. the play calling is so predictable, we never go downfield with the ball. is it Ainges finger? give me a break please. do we not have a back up capable of playing? maybe someone will wake up and get Fulmer out of there, the game has certainly passed him by. i mean were not even considered an upper echallant team in the S E C anymore. sure Fulmer can beat the Vanderbilts and Ole Misses of the world but for a tradition like we have at Tennessee its an embarresment right now. PLEASE get FULMER OUT!

  7. Shred, go back to the swamp and enjoy what you have now. Don’t involve yourself in a discussion that you will come out of looking like a complete idiot. Florida whipped our butts, plain and simple. I admit it, won’t argue that fact. Here are some facts you can’t argue either.
    UT has 5 NCs, not 2. How many do you have?
    Since the modern era of college football began, (1926), Tennessee is the winningest program, period.
    Tennessee has been a national force for a hundred years, Florida only since the 90s.
    I could go on and on about UT tradition, so this “hick” says go f yourself.

  8. Yeh right, FIVE NC’s–what, on the Bama NC counting scale? On the ‘Billy Bob thinks so’ scale? Please—completely unsubstantiated–not only does UT have only 2 NC’s–the 1st one was before African-Americans were even allowed to play FB in the SEC..and before the 90’s there was no TRUE SEC Championship because there was not an SEC championship game. ..and if you won a mythical SEC Championship in 1923 that has exactly WHAT bearing on the fans that ARE ALIVE NOW–y’know in the MODERN era?

    But that’s the problem isn’t it, UT thinks that they’re BAMA or something, but your not even close..What’s UT’s all-time record vs UF, 19-18? Sounds pretty even. Nice tradishunn there.

    BTW–I’m not gator fan–i could care less about those jort wearing FL dorks.

  9. This is one Gator who agrees that the Vols do indeed have a great traditon. And incidentally, neither of the previous posts is correct about the NCs; in fact, Tennessee has four: 1938, 1950, 1951 and 1998. And I absolutely did root for the Vols in the 1998 national championship game.

    Your facilities are as good as anywhere in the country and better than most. And you can’t blame play calling or coaching preparation. Even though I pray for Fullmer to stick with his archaic ball control thinking, that isn’t the real problem.

    You’re simply on the wrong end of current recruiting momentum, and the situation probably isn’t going to improve anytime soon.

    Because you don’t have (as someone earlier pointed out) your own natural recruiting base, you have to go into other areas. Like the state of Florida. The problem is, you’re getting killed by four things:

    1. NCAA scholarship limits, which makes each individual recruit a more high stakes hit or miss proposition.

    2. A surplus of great new head coaches around the SEC and in the Southeast in general. Let’s face it, who wants to play for PF when the other choices include Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Les Miles (pre-Michigan departure), Mark Richt or Steve Spurrier? PF can obviously coach or he wouldn’t have lasted this long. The coaching competition–vis-a-vis recruiting–has probably just reached critical mass.

    3. Maybe the biggest problem: four additional well funded and reasonably well coached Division 1 programs in Florida that have reached a critical mass of their own (UCF, USF, FAU FIU), which really sucks the life out of a traditionally rich UT recruiting ground. Since UF is the current top dog, this is really hurting FSU and Miami right now too.

    4. 1 through 3 above combined with the very best recruits wanting to play at Florida or LSU during this decade makes the situation darn near impossible.

    And then there’s the Urban Meyer effect. I admit I’m not objective on this one, but Florida has so many incredibly talented players right now it almost seems unfair. It was clear last year, to any Gator fan who really knows football, that Florida was going to kill Ohio State. The Gators aren’t just fast. They’re also big. And physical. And superbly well coached. And three deep at every position and just sickly talented at the skill positions. It’s an embarrassment of riches. And as we all now, with recruiting AND on-the-field success to match, the rich get richer. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way; I mean it in an economics way.

    It isn’t just you guys: Look at Auburn. Tommy Tuberville didn’t just wake up this past July and forget how to coach or recruit. His program is getting hurt by the same dynamics.

    Too many programs. Too many really good young coaches in the same neighborhood. Too few scholarships for the big, uh, traditional progams to control the game.

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