Guitar Shots To the Head: One Foot at a Time

Tomorrow will be a very interesting day in the Tennessee blogosphere. Jesse Scroggins, the anointed savior of the college quarterback position is slated to choose the program he intends to lead to a Sears Trophy. Most consider him to be a USC lock, while few of the Vol faithful continue to hope that Knoxville is his destination.

Personally, I think signing a good quarterback in the 2010 class is important, but I don’t think the sun rises and sets based on Scroggins’ decision.

In an attempt to take the collective mind of the Volnation off of the situation, I would like for all of you to participate in a little exercise with me. If you would, please place your hands a little more that shoulder width apart. Now turn your wrists so that your hands are facing each other. For all of you that aren’t perverts it should look like you are lying about the last fish that you caught. Now…take a look at the space between your hands. The distance from one palm to the other is probably about twelve inches. With apologies to all of our international members of the Volnation, college football doesn’t use the metric system.

That one foot between your hands has represented more frustration over the last few years than anything else about this Volunteer football program. When our offense has needed a foot, it has been an absolute struggle to get it. One the other hand (think Tebow up the middle) better teams have lined up and taken that real estate from the Vols all too often.

Blowing people off of the football was once a trademark for this Tennessee team. There was a time when a UT running back could take the handoff and simply lean forward for three yards (9 feet).

Your weekly shot to the head is short and simple. The Vols are fighting for their identity in a league of literal inches. Clawing back to relevance is going to happen one foot at a time. There is not one single QB, running back, offensive lineman or tight end that can shoulder the burden of that one foot. The change is going to require the acquisition of talented players, a fundamental change in the attitude of our offensive line, and the clear expectation from coaches that our players are going to beat the man across from them on every play. Anything less than that will be completely unacceptable.

This version of the Tennessee Volunteers does need a decent quarterback, but more than that it needs a barrel full of nastiness. Once Tennessee finds a way to recapture that identity everything else (from quarterback searches to winning championships) will come in due time. In the meantime be patient, and understand that with or without Jesse Scroggins, the Vols will have to crawl out of this hole one foot at a time.

Until next time, Go Vols!