tennessee football

Tennessee Fans vs Georgia Fans

In the midst of Tennessee’s five year losing streak to Georgia, I’d forgotten how miserable fans of the Bulldogs can be.  They’re disgruntled and rude if they win, they’re even more disgruntled and rude if they lose.   Part of me would love to chalk this up to that minority of every fan base that doesn’t reflect well on the overall fan-base.   But in the case of Georgia fans, I’m afraid that polite fans are in the minority (I’ve actually met two who are quite nice and good natured).

This feeling has only been enhanced in the past twenty-four hours following Tennessee’s come-from-behind victory over Georgia yesterday.  Observing the things being thrown the way of Volunteer fans on Twitter and other social media outlets has led me to make the following list of the differences between UGA fans and just about every other fan base in college football.  For the sake of this post and because I’m a Volunteer fan, I’ll put this out there as the differences between UT fans and Georgia fans.  (You can laugh, because I’m trying to be funny here!)

  • Tennessee fans wear their orange and white at home and on the road.   Georgia fans are offended that orange and white is allowed in Neyland Stadium.
  • Tennessee fans try to make Georgia fans feel welcome at Neyland. Georgia fans threaten to physically assault Tennessee fans before, during and after a game at Neyland Stadium.
  • Tennessee fans applaud players from both teams if they’re forced to be helped off the field due to injury. When a UGA player is injured, Tennesee fans show concern and offer prayers and good wishes via social media.   Georgia fans believe there are elaborate conspiracies to injure their star players.
  • Tennessee fans don’t like seeing highlights of negative plays our team commits, but understands they have to be shown on ESPN. Georgia fans think ESPN should stop showing highlights that show Georgia surrendering a lead or losing a game.
  • Tennessee fans support their team and coaching staff in thick and thin.  Georgia fans want to fire Mark Richt because they didn’t win by a large enough margin.
  • Tennessee fans love our legends and history.  Georgia fans think that stats should have stopped counting when Herschel Walker won the Heisman.
  • Tennessee fans got to listen to games called by one a broadcast legend, John Ward.  Georgia fans got to listen to Larry Munsen, arguably the worst play by play broadcaster in any medium ever.

Just remember this is supposed to be in the spirit of fun and good natured rivalry.

Yeah, we’ll see how that goes.

>The Music City Bowl Screw!

>So, let me see if I understand this correctly.

If you’re on defense in college football and have too many men on the field, you get penalized and that team gets an extra play. And if you’re offense, it’s five yards, no time run off inside of the final two minutes and you get rewarded for a penalty.

Yeah, that seems to be what happened tonight in the waning moments of the Vols vs North Carolina game tonight. The refs fucked the Vols over and gave the game to NC. First we declare it over, then we say it’s not over…and that penalty for having 17 men on the field….oh well, that’s OK. Don’t worry, North Carolina. The rules don’t apply to your shitty ACC program.

Fuck you, refs! Just fuck you!

I am so mad right now I can’t see straight. The refs gave the game away tonight to North Carolina.

Of course, having to listen to the ass-hat of Bob “I failed at every job I’ve had” Davies made it worse. Esp. when he could barely keep the glee out of his voice as the refs rewarded North Carolina time and again in the final thirty seconds and the two overtimes.

Again, I say, “Fuck you refs! Fuck you!”

I hope your bet paid off and that you made a ton of cash on the game. Cause you certainly managed to kick the Vols in the teeth.

Oh, gee, could ESPN have bothered to point out how the NC players were acting like classless jackasses as the game headed into OT? Oh no….we can’t do that.

Bastards!

>Vols 24, Vandy 10

>After two weeks of looking good on both sides of the ball, the Vols took a step or two backward last night. It’s just good that the team they took those steps backward against was Vanderbilt and not Kentucky next week. Vandy’s issues are numerous due to injuries, but they were able to keep the game far too close for comfort into the fourth quarter. The Vols had chances time and again to do some things and put them away, only to squander them.

Of course, it’s harder to win when you are playing against the other team and the officials. Worst officiating crew I’ve seen in a long, long time. Too many huddles to discuss penalties (either you know why you threw the flag or you don’t throw it). Also, a lot of home cooking for Vandy. Not that it did them much good, but it did help them hang around far too long for my liking and comfort.

For as brilliant as he looked against Memphis and Ole Miss, Tyler Bray looked a lot like a freshman last night after the first two touchdown drives. I hope he rebounds to the guy we saw last week when we take on the Wildcats next weekend.

Interestingly, seeing how Ole Miss hung with LSU made our dismantling of them the week before all the more impressive. Of course, I can’t see an LSU game without staring to cry and curse for the final call and the one extra play. That said, fire up the hot seat for Houston Nutt.

But, back to the UT game. Visiting Neyland Stadium West was nice in that it’s good to see a stadium that full of orange and to get to watch the Vols play. I did love how their jumbo-tron (which would be a large screen TV in some houses) would only show certain plays again. At least Neyland Stadium shows a greater majority of the plays on the replay–good and bad.

We played a less than stellar game and we won. If we win next week, we can extend our season with a bowl. I want to go to a bowl for the extra practice time this young team will get from it. It should be an interesting game next Saturday in God’s House.

>Vols 52, Ole Miss 14

>Visiting Neyland Stadium earlier this year, I discovered that the Vol Network was selling a DVD set of every game played this year. Until the past two Saturdays, there weren’t a lot of this year’s games I necessarily wanted to have preserved on DVD, unless there’s a bonus feature on the LSU DVD where they digitally edit out the two extra players and allow me to believe we really won that game. (No, I’m not still bitter…why do you ask?)

And while the last two games haven’t been against the stiffest competition in the world, it’s still been nice to see the Vols go out and just dominate a couple of teams–one they should have dominated and one that has checked out on the season. Watching Saturday’s contest as we just took it to Ole Miss was a nice change of pace and a lot of fun. The only problem was that the CBS broadcast was terrible. (OK, not quite as bad as the CBS College Sports cable station where they pulled out the announcer’s three favorite Elvis songs in the third quarter…complete with a graphic! Seriously, they took time to make a graphic of this! Come on!)

I know, I know, I complain about announcers a lot, but these two guys really took the cake. For one thing, they were very pro-Ole Miss, for some odd reason. I understand that part of your job is to make the game interesting to the national audience tuning in…and if you tuned in late, it was pretty much over. But could you at least pretend to not be biased or upset that you’re on this job?!? And if you’re going to be one of the national outlets for the SEC, shouldn’t you at least get the name of the coaches right? I’m not talking Tennessee or Ole Miss…at one point, the color guy on the CBS broadcast talked about Georgia coach MIKE Richt. It’s at that point, I found myself wishing for Gus Johnson to roll in, because even though he yells as if every play was the Immaculate Reception, at least he gets the names right.

OK, so enough griping about the announcers (I could go on all day). The game itself was a nice one for the Vols. Loved the energy, loved the enthusiasm. Loved that we put the hammer down early and never let up. Loved that the defense shut out Ole Miss in the second half. Loved that our passing game has made some strides.

Didn’t love the inconsistency in the run game (take out a couple of long runs late and the numbers ain’t so good). Didn’t love how Ole Miss left in their starters on defense late in the game when it was clear there was no chance they could win and they started going after our guys. Seriously guys, show some class. I’m guessing Houston Nutt is fighting for his job, so maybe by having his guys injure other teams by going for the knees will somehow impress boosters and the AD at Ole Miss. Try not losing to Vandy and Jacksonville State and becoming bowl eligible instead.

Anyway, it was a great game and a great win. That’s two week in a row. Let’s make it three this week as we travel to Neyland Stadium West.