On Expectations, Jinxes, and Pressures

As a fan base maybe we need to quit putting so much pressure on ourselves. I’m not worried about the team. They have a great coaching staff to clear their collective heads. It’s the typical VolNation junkie that concerns me (I myself have only heard of such a creature).

But I hear tell that he or she can recite copious amounts of statistics and information. They file away a plethora of insights on recruiting, projections, and comparisons to be used at a moments notice. And yet, their psyche can be fragile. Take for instance the betting line this Saturday against Ole Miss:

“Why are they favored? That’s home field advantage right? We ARE going to beat the stuffing out of them! Why did the line just move in their direction again? Hardy is out? YES! I mean, that’s a shame. Their talking like this is their Super Bowl and someone said they need this game to get bowl eligible. Is that true?”

Now what we do have are guys like Freak, Lord Vader, Sabanocchio, Vader, LexVol and some others to calm the meltdowns when say . . . we lose a four star recruit. Or someone’s rumored to be leaving or suspended or whatever the crisis might be. But these guys have day jobs.

At least last season the apathy and general malaise didn’t cause this much worry. Now I’m thinking about everything that could go wrong Saturday, might go wrong. And it all stems from the bowl talk.

We’ve gone from, “man a bowl game would be a step in the right direction” to, “it’s right there ripe for the taking, the Capital One Bowl could be ours. All that would need to happen is. . .”. Now I’m down with that, completely. But the

I’m just saying insert any number of clichés here: ‘Don’t count your chickens before the eggs hatch’. ‘A bird in hand is worth two in the bush’. ‘A closed mouth is better than an empty wallet’.

What I’ve decided to do is to take a calm, logical approach and make a list of my concerns. Just the idea makes me feel better. So here are ten reasons why I’m feeling pressure now that we aspire to a New Year’s Day Bowl:

01).  A repeat of the ’69 Jackson Massacre in Oxford of all places.
        (Jevan Who?)
02). The ’99 Arkansas game with Houston Nutt coaching.
03). What if it rains?
04). What if it doesn’t?
05). The football gods decide late Friday night that we can’t possibly
       be back this soon.
06). The replay monitor goes down and it’s left up to the refs to
        call ‘em like they see ‘em.
07). The replay monitor works.
08). The ball takes weird bounces that don’t go our way.
09). Adolf Slive calls in storm troopers to ‘detain’ the Vols, facilitating
       Tennessee’s first ever forfeit.
10). And last, but not least. . . I can’t even say it, the initial are
       J.C. . . I’m not EVEN going to Jinx it.

There are a host of things that could go wrong and it makes me nervous. I think the list is pretty solid. You may think of something I’ve overlooked. Feel free to add to or amend.

So for now I’m just going say we are a lock for the Music City bowl. Hopefully this will take some of the edge off this expectation thing.

This way when the Vols win, I can happily realize I fretted over nothing. Reminding myself that I knew all along it was going be 30-17 Tennessee.