Guitar Shots to the Head: Bring Back The Goosebumps

The verdict is in.  2008 was not so great for the Volunteer football team.  They were pushed around, outcoached and outplayed on a consistent basis.  So, I will ask you.  As a fan, when is the last time you were at a sporting event and something happened to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up?

It is interesting to think, that when your football team is getting beaten badly even the traditions that used to get the juices flowing lose a little luster.  At one point listening to Rocky Top as the boys in Orange ran through the T elicited some sort of emotional response for me.  At times this year I must admit….the thrill was gone.  Luckily, in 2008, I experienced one of the most thrilling live sporting events that I have ever been a part of.

I was standing about twenty five yards from the 17th green on Sunday during the last round of the Ryder Cup in Louisville, Kentucky.   All at once I heard a loud roar from about 800 yards away.  I liken it to being outside of Neyland and hearing the crowd going bananas.  My heart began to beat a little faster.  Then it started.  USA! USA! USA! USA!……

Yes, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.  As I type, the chill bumps are actually returning.  Watching JB Holmes stick an approach shot within 6 feet in front of his hometown crowd is something I will never forget.  Then Jim Furyk, playing the group behind him brought the Ryder Cup back to the United States.  It was euphoric, and I was part of it.

I’ve been to a Super Bowl, a Final Four, and I have been to most of the SEC stadiums at one time or another during my life time.  There aren’t many sporting events that rival what I saw that Sunday afternoon.

People ask what was different about this year’s Ryder Cup team.  It wasn’t the home town crowd, even though you could tell the Europeans didn’t quite know how to take the large, boisterous Kentucky contingent.

When US captain Paul Azinger chose his players he skipped the flashy names and the prima donnas.  Instead, he opted for the grinders.  By choosing the guy with the pornstar name and the long driver, and the Happy Gilmore riding, orangutan fighter, Zinger told the Europeans that you aren’t coming into our back yard and beating us this year.  He selected men who don’t like to lose.  These were athletes willing to get into the trenches and simply out-will there opponents.  Even without Tiger Woods, that is exactly what the USA did.  They “out-Europed” the gritty Europeans.

For the record, I had Ryder Cup tickets for the entire week.  I didn’t attend that Saturday.  Why?  You might ask.  Despite the early season loss to UCLA, it was my duty as a UT fan to lock myself in the house and watch UT play Florida.  Boy…that was a great decision huh?

In the end, the loss to Florida wasn’t the last humiliating defeat the Vols would suffer in 2008.  In many ways it was the beginning of the end for another prominent captain on a national stage.  A captain named Phil Fulmer, who, at some point along the way had forgotten to impart the importance of finishing, and grinding it out to his football team.  It isn’t that far fetched.  Since 2005 Fulmer acted like a scared, defensive coach looking for something to prop his reputation.  His new tentative nature translated to the football field, and eventually did him in.

For my part, barring prominent news, or an act of God this will be the last time you will read Fulmer’s name in a Guitar Shots installments.  What is done is done.

When the ball is kicked off next fall, like most of you, I hope to see a football team that is ready to grind it out.  I hope to see athletes that are prepared to do the required work in the trenches.  More than anything else, I hope that when the Volunteers run through the T for the first time that the hair on the back of my neck stands at attention.  Maybe, just maybe the Bruins will even feel the chill.

I would say that it is long overdue.  Go Vols!