Guitar Shots to the Head: You’ve Been (De)Served

I’ve been at this blog for a while now.  Usually, during the football season (in both good and bad times) the words come relatively easily; especially compared to the challenge of writing a blog during the summer months when all is still speculation.  To me this week feels a little like a May day.  Nearly everything that can be said has been said.

I do remember what I felt like while writing this blog last summer.  UT had finally hired an OC outside of the Tennessee family.  Phil Fulmer was seemingly saying and doing all of the right things.  The team had come together to quell early discipline issues, and most of us were….dare I say….hopeful. Yes, I said hopeful.  I was living under the assumption that this year Phil had something up his sleeve.   To be brutally honest, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility for me that Phil was setting this team up for a more competitive run this year. Some of you knew better.  I did not.

For Phil Fulmer, I always had a gut feeling that last season was about holding on after early losses.  When he managed to keep the team together and play in the SEC East championship game his relief in front of the camera was more than apparent.  He even gave Mike Hamilton a man hug after the South Carolina win.  The hug and other expressions led me to believe Phil was planning to put his sophomore class on display this year, and that class was going to take this program to the next level.

With the returning talent on this team and a new quarterback there was adequate reason for me to hope. Then came Crompton.

I’m not going to elaborate much on this situation.  It has been discussed ad nauseam.  I will only say that I am disappointed.  With the new weapons, this team was supposed to be an attack offense.  Gone were the days that we simply had to take what opposing defenses gave us.  We were going to take the fight to them.

If (and that is a big if) we had that offense, UT would be a 3-1 football team right now.  Unfortunately, we aren’t talking frogs with wings or my hermaphrodite aunt. Alas, it wasn’t to be.  I think most people share my disappointment.

Now we are in a position where everyone in Tennessee feels like they deserve more.

•       Jon Crompton deserves more personal respect than he is getting from the fans.

•       Nick Stephens deserves a starting role.

•       Phil deserves more time to fix the problems on this football team.

•       Fans deserve better than a 1-3 record.

•       The members on this football team deserve better coaching.

•       Recruits deserve a fan base that doesn’t boo.

•       Wall Street deserves a bailout.

•       Tennessee fans deserve a year without Fulmer to see how much they will miss him.

•       Opposing receivers deserve to have a defensive back in there face on every snap.

•       Arian Foster deserves to capture the Tennessee rushing title.

•       Nick Saban deserves to burn in Hell along with Urban Meyer.

•       Finally, to quote my Grand Pappy, “If we all got what we really deserved, none of us would be here”.

The problem with the idea of “deserving” is quite simple.  This is football.  You rarely obtain goals simply because you deserve them.  You generally get what you earn.

I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes with the Board of Trustees, the UT President, the AD, or in the minds of this coaching staff.  The only thing that I will state as undisputed fact is that this program needs leadership RIGHT NOW.

That is reason I feel so tongue tied this week.  The time for talking about what fans,coaches,players and recruits deserve has passed us by. Now, more than ever this team requires leadership. It is time for the Vols to earn their reputation as a competitive football team again.

Who will step up to lead this team? Do you think we will have any takers?  Until next time, Go Vols!