…then I’l be seriously disappointed. It sucks that we lost the 1st game and all, but this team wasn’t going to play for a national title anyway. We sure as hell can still play for an SEC title.

I’m also going to close the live comment thread now, so all posting should direct here and to subsequent threads.

The worst game I’ve seen

… stayed up that long to watch a football game in a while. It as exciting as the outcome was frustrating. Here are my reactions after sleeping on it:

• I’m amazed that the Tennessee O-line did not get more push on the UCLA defense. I realize UCLA’s defense is good, but I somehow thought the battle of the lines would be won by UT. Unfortunately, it wound up a draw on both sides of the ball, a real shock to my system.

• Auburn beat Florida last year with exactly the same late-game system as UCLA employed this year — quick slants and quick-hitters mixed in with a run or two. I would have expected UT’s experienced defensive backfield to have done a much better job jamming those receivers, most of those routes would not have worked if they had.

• Hot quarterback. They UCLA guy just got hot. It happens.

• Tennessee has to be disappointed with their offensive production, particularly in the air. Crompton was just plain inefficient and did not look as experienced as I would have expected. It didn’t help that the O-line was not giving him enough time to scan the field 3 out of 4 times. One wonders why UT didn’t throw more quick ins and quick outs.

• The UT line allowed eight (!) TFL’s. That is just not acceptable, ever.

• UCLA had 9 pass breakups, which tells me either receivers were running loose routes or the quarterback was throwing into coverage a lot. UCLA’s DB’s cannot be that good.

• Tennessee won all but two of the special teams battles, but those two cost them 10 points. UT gave Lincoln crap to work with most of the time on FGA’s, but that last one was a big miss, and he shouldn’t miss FGA’s like that.

• That time of possession thing that was so one-sided in the first half turned completely around in the second. The UT defense was definitely gassed late in the game.

This was a loss that never should have happened. Neuheisel deserves a lot of credit for sticking to a game plan that I though was a loser. I suppose that’s why he’s coaching and I’m watching. Tennessee failed to capitalize on all their turnovers, a definite faux pas. And why, pray tell, did UT not run more on the edges? It seems to me they had a lot of success out there.

A quick perusal of the statistics indicates that UT won almost every statistical category except one — the final score.

This game will not break UT’s season. They can come back from this and will, but it must be singularly frustrating for Vol fans to know that this was a game where UT truly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

all around. Tenn just happened to not capitalize on UCLA’s (many) early mistakes. Don’t be too hard on Crompton, he’s a good QB. Believe me, UCLA knows the pain of breaking in new coordinators. Better luck with UAB!

The only place here on campus with ESPN is the gym. That equated to 2.5 hours of “working out” in the name of UT football! The cool thing about it is that a fellow Vol was also there doing the same thing as I!

It was frustrating as all get out at the fact that we, once again, shot ourselves in our own feet. Being unable to capitalize on 3 of 4 INTs, missed FGs (albeit long ones), and red-zone turnovers will undoubtedly cost you the game. Regardless, it feels great that it’s football time in Tennessee again!

As I watched that game with my 13 year old son and ‘Bama alum friend, we all had the same opinion…this is not good football. As a born UCLA fan and transplanted Gator it was a great to get the win. However, as the season plays out you should see UT end up winning the war. UCLA was not the most talented team on the field. No comfort to Vol fan, I know, but for UCLA fan I’m not sure it can get better than last night while you still have the SEC title as a viable opportunity. The UCLA D was vastly underrated but I agree with many sentiments regarding UT running the ball. They had the outside all day long. UCLA was no where near as fast as UT and at the very least the cut back lanes could be found.

My heart goes out to your kicker and I hope he manages to get over this brief football moment. These are just kids and the goal is to pick them up for the next game. Classy board.

It’s like he thinks “This is the worst possible time for me to fumble” and that’s when he puts the ball on the ground.

If you told me we would have 4 picks, including one pick six, I would have guarenteed a win. But drives stalling around midfield, 1,2,3! missed field goals (would have been 4 but the grace of God penalty on us forced a punt) and a turnover inside the 10 (Foster, we’re looking at you), and we lose. Unreal. It was a total team loss. Credit the coaches for not making the proper ajustments, the players for not executing, and UCLA for seizing the opportunity when they had it. They stuck around long enough to put themselves in a posiion to win, they forced overtime, and their special teams was just better.

BUT, it’s not a conference game and there were glimpses of greatness, especially Crompton throwing the deep ball. 2 weeks to regroup for UAB, and get ready for FLA. Time to go to work Vols!

How in the world can that boy drop the ball at the most inopportune possible time, every single freaking time? Year in and year out?

How many games have the Vols lost directly because of Foster’s fumbles? I figure it to be at least three in his career.

Last year we Gators had a fumbler in Kestahn Moore. He cost us the Georgia game, and possibly LSU when he put the ball on the ground. He rode the bench from there on out.

It’s baffling, really, to see this interminable exercise go on and on at Tennessee.

I’m a Gator fan, but I’m loyal to the SEC, and I wanted the Vols to not only beat the Bruins last night, but demonstrate Southeastern Conference power. I’m really disappointed, as the rest of you are. Tennessee and Mississippi State are the only SEC teams to lose their openers (and neither should have lost, but let’s be realistic, no one cares about Mississippi State.) Tennessee should represent the upper crust of the SEC.

without arian’s fumble that is a 21-7 game or 17-7 at the least.

the taunting emails and texts are really rollin’ in for me this morning

&$*#*^#^%#%#*#*^#^%#%#*%#$^mit

i keep chanting 0-0 in the sec, 0-0 in the sec.

you can remember?

Maybe the Memphis loss.

Anything in the Fulmer era this bad?

Last year we Gators had a fumbler in Kestahn Moore. He cost us the Georgia game…
Huh. I thought it was Tebow’s sore shoulder or the young, inexperienced defense because it couldn’t have been that y’all just got beat.

Anyway I’m not here to quibble with delusional gator fans. I wanted to say thanks to UT for undoing the good that ’Bama did against Clem[p]son. Way to represent the SEC.

Use this off week wisely because you’ve got a 9 game stretch before the next one, in which you play UF, AU, UGA, UA and (the school formally known as) USC.

twitch

I only saw (while blogging w/you folk) the second half. It hasn’t been 24 hours yet, but darn near close, so I feel I can provide a somewhat objective opinion to what I witnessed last night.

• Ball possession was almost completely dead even at the end of regualtion but it felt like Tennessee’s Defense was on the field the entire second half.

• It is very difficult for a Def. Coord. to make adjustments during a half, but Chavis failed by staying w/the 4-3 and rushing 5 on almost every UCLA possession. Craft and the offensive line would let the D through, dump to a TE or someone else w/in 5 to 15 yards over the middle. How can you play zone D and have the LB’s line up so far off the line of scrimmage? Every first step the LB’s took was backward. Not laterally nor forward. Always backward. Granted, it looked as if the UT Defense owned this game at halftime (defensively) so there was no adjustment to be made AT halftime. I do not blame the players for being exhuausted. They played as hard as they could. I blame the coaching staff for this one.

• Crompton takes WAY too long to make a decision. This will come with time, so I’m a bit reticant to put too much blame on this kid. But someone in the coaching staff must have noticed how long it takes this kid to make a decision. Is Tennesse using timing routes or not? It looks to me as if they’re not or else the ball would be out of the kids hand sooner. Is UCLA’s secondary that good that they can cover us so well? I wish I were home in time to see the INSTANT classic that ESPN is showing of the game, that way I could pay attention to see what D-fense UCLA was running.

• (last one) Hardesty is much more impressive than Foster. Is Foster averse to hitting or getting hit. He seems to be waiting on K-Trans for a ride to the end zone. Foster…HIT THE DANG HOLE! Drive your body into the area you want to go to, stop looking for a way around players. The game is just too fast to wait for something to develop in front of you. Hardesty appears to have more natural speed and more of a forward momentum type of style. My vote is for Hardesty. Indirectly, why, o why does Phil feel like he needs to pass when he’s got plenty of time on the clock and he’s down by less than a touchdown?

The coaching staff has a lot to learn from this one.

His pants were around his ankles last night.

Relax man. Take the trash talking for what it is. But face it, the Vols pooped the bed against a below average Pac-10 team and made the SEC look bad. We’ve done in the past (though not to a Pac-10 team) and we’ll do it again in the future. And when we do feel free to talk trash to us on all blogs available. Don’t take it so serious. There are more important things in life than the outcome of a football game.