Guitar Shots to the Head: Now…. It's Time


Before we discuss the upcoming football season, I feel compelled to give a mention to the Pat Summitt situation. Frankly, I’m not much of a women’s college basketball fan. Every once in a while, I will watch the Lady Vols play in the NCAA tourney, but that is about it. I’ve never seen a game start to finish. That being said, since 1974, the University of Tennessee has been represented by a woman that embodies the best of what it has to offer. She has been a teacher, a mentor, a competitor, a coach and a public representative that all of us can be proud of.

Pat Summitt has spent her entire life preparing herself and her players for battles like the one that she now faces. Ms. Summitt, our thoughts and prayers are with you. If ever a Vol for Life ever walked this earth…you are her.

Now on to the men’s football team….

Remember those t-shirts that UT fans turned into a humanitarian effort? They said “It’s Time”. Starting in the spring of 2009 you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting something that said “It’s time”. It was fun to say, but in retrospect it was probably a little premature. It was like UT fans were admitting, “we know we’ve hit rock bottom, but things are going to change”.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t rock bottom. It wasn’t even close.

In walks Derek Dooley.

One cannot overstate the comedy of errors that Dooley walked into last year. He probably put it best when he said that 2010 was year 0 for himself and his staff.

In the last year, Dooley has proven himself to understand the tradition he inherited when he took the job. Now he has an opportunity to become a coaching legend. I don’t throw that word around lightly. If he takes the mess he was handed and manages to win a championship he will have built a reputation overnight.

Personally, I have enjoyed Dooley. He is bright, articulate, and he has produced a product off the field that we can all hang our hats on. Now it is time for his staff to show the VolNation that the recruiting and X’s and O’s are on par with the rest of the package.

This young team is going to take a few lumps this season. This is the SEC after all. We all hope that Dooley is the man to step up and fill the shoes. It is time.

19 responses to “Guitar Shots to the Head: Now…. It's Time”

  6. 2 more years before it’s really time. 2013 should be in SEC championship discussion.

  10. Dooley has coaching in his blood, the mental acuity to conquer the X’s and O’s, and last but not least, the heart of a champion. Will he become a UT legend? My guess is yes.

  11. I have a great deal of enthusiasm for this coaching staff and their methods. Plenty of fans are skeptical of their abilities but I am not one of them. I liked the development that I saw last year as the season progressed. It is going to take an upset or two this year to win the detractors and I think that will happen. Our young defense will need to be successful to attain this.

    GO VOLS!!

  12. You are right vf 28 that is actually what I consider to be an egregious error. I’ve said it several times….as quickly as I try to throw these things together, I need an editor.

  13. Sir orangealot:
    2 more years before it’s really time. 2013 should be in SEC championship discussion.

    I had this same discussion with someone very close to the program this summer. I tend to agree that 2013 is the year that things should reach real championship form. I contend however, with the erasure of the NCAA cloud that recruiting should pick up, and that improvement should be notable beginning this year.

  14. He is going to work hard all the time. He will not get lazy and satisfied. He will not act like a jerk. Dooley gets it. Coaching is a privilege. That said, I am looking forward to progress this year and few wins that people say we won’t win.

  19. Before everyone anoints Dooley the next UT football coaching legend, remember that he has Georgia ties. Who’s to say he won’t jump ship, just like Kiffin did (thankfully), if he becomes successful with the Vols and the GA job opens? I think Peyton would make a great coach when he finally calls it quits with the Colts. There’s a man who bleeds ORANGE!

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