Tennessee Volunteers 14, Georgia Bulldogs 26: post-game ramblings

by Joel Hollingsworth on Oct 11, 2008 8:01 PM EDT in Tennessee Volunteer Football

Commence the 15-minute immediate post-game mostly incoherent and questionable-impression-filled ramblings.

I dared to take a peak out the back window, and let me just say, if you've never seen a mule banging his head against a 100-year-old red oak, well, you don't want to. It's like he's stuck in a scene from The Happening.

I can't make out all of his ramblings, so I'll just paraphrase:

Didn't you get the memo? Keep it simple! 1 (smack). 2 (thump!) 3 (thunck!) 4 (splat!)
No. 1. Not one single solitary play even called for former All-American tight end Brandon Warren? THUNK!

No. 2. You know, it's nice and all that you got great back Montario Hardesty more carries than good back Arian Foster, but you must have misunderstood what I meant. I see what you did there. You put yourself into position to say that Hardesty had twice as many carries as Foster. Nice, but giving Hardesty six and Foster three was not what we had in mind. GRUNT SWACK!

No. 3. Two carries for Lennon Creer? Two? Seriously? For two yards? The team rushed for one. StinkING. NET. YARD! ALL!! GAME!!! [trickle, trickle, trickle.]

No. 4. [dazed, looking at the sky] Okay, better. Four receptions for 68 yards and a TD. It was evident that you were trying to get Gerald Jones involved. That reverse was unfortunately timed to coincide with a blitz from that side, and Jones dropped a key pass, too, but at least he was involved.

I stopped listening at that point because frankly I think Jackson lapsed into obscenitites only mules know. But he's mostly right. We threw twice as often as we tried to run despite the fact that Hardesty was averaging 3.3 yards per carry. At that rate, we should have been able to accumulate more than one yard all game, right? Somebody needs to figure out how to evaluate the flipping of the o-line to see if guys are more effective on one side or the other. Make that ineffective. This line can't be that much worse than they were last year. There has to be a reason.

Funny thing, though. The game sort of had an air of optimism to it, didn't it? We played hard. We connected on deep passes. We had a QB who was, mostly, leading the team in a positive direction.

If you, like me, felt that way after the game, then do yourself a favor and stop reading here.

Bye! See you next week, and Go Vols!

Still here? See, there's the small matter of the stats. Georgia out-gained us 458 yards to 209. They had nearly three times as many first downs. They had 149 times more rushing yardage than we did. (Math is fun!) And they basically let us play for one quarter of the game.

Is today's loss the tipping point of the Fulmer Era? I don't know. Stay tuned.

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Comments

Not Advocating A Coaching Change

I’m still undecided on whether or not I think Fulmer and his staff should ride off into the sunset, but can someone rationally and accurately (as much as possible) explain to me how much the current state of football on Rocky Top falls on the coaching staff?

Arguments that include the mentioning of donuts, fatness, fried chicken, etc, will be ignored.

by rblakeh on Oct 11, 2008 8:14 PM EDT reply actions

It should be the end for the seniors on offense

They’re “services” should not be needed the rest of the year.

Deferring is for p_ssies. Make a decision!

by wvvol on Oct 11, 2008 8:23 PM EDT up reply actions

True

But to be fair to them, they poured 4 years of their lives into this and for people like Foster, Taylor, and others who stuck it out, they deserve a chance to show what they got for the NFL. But overall, yes, it’s time to get things started for a “surprise” run in ’09.

Jeez, never thought a UT season would be lost before the Alabama game, but this is what it has come to.

At least we still have Eric Berry

by Volorado on Oct 12, 2008 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Uh,

they’ve had 6 games to show the NFL what they have. I don’t know if the NFL is interested.

Deferring is for p_ssies. Make a decision!

by wvvol on Oct 12, 2008 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions

There was a positive feel to the game

that was a welcome change. The problem is that it wasnt accompanied by a sense of urgency or passion. They always seemed sluggish to me…but maybe it was the wings and beer giving me slow goggles or something.

by Muhler on Oct 11, 2008 8:29 PM EDT reply actions

I feel....serene.

I’m still trying to work out why. But I feel better about this team than I did after either of our two wins. I’m not entirely comfortable with this inner peace, but I can’t shake it, either.

________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.

by Holly Anderson on Oct 11, 2008 8:43 PM EDT reply actions

The Five Stages of Grief

1) Denial and Isolation
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Depression
5) Acceptance

by rblakeh on Oct 11, 2008 9:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Not that.

It’s too bubbly. Eff “acceptance”, I’m happy. Or I will be, until I get a good look at the box score, but whatever, I’ll take it.

________________________________
I will give my shirt for Tennessee today.

by Holly Anderson on Oct 11, 2008 9:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Our offense actually had a leader.

It’ll take some work to turn Stephens into one of the top leaders out there, but at least we can look at the field and know who is the starting QB. And that’s based on play, not on the divine right of inheritance.

That means there’s a direction to take.

by David Hooper on Oct 11, 2008 9:32 PM EDT up reply actions