Talking points: Eric Berry fails, makes mistake, earth moves

by Joel Hollingsworth on Apr 16, 2009 7:37 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Tennessee Football

Double Huh? RB Tauren Poole held on to a ball that was punched so hard by Eric Berry it sounded like someone punted the ball? How does that happen? And then! Berry jumped an out route but dropped the potential interception? Beware of locusts this afternoon. Or maybe not, because he atoned by pushing the world down over and over again. It was reported that he was doing pushups, but I'm relatively certain that it was the world and not Berry doing the moving.
CBS fawning over Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators: not just for games anymore!
Back where he belongs. Rico McCoy's coming home to weakside linebacker because, according to Lane Kiffin, "[t]hat's . . . where the best playmaker goes." McCoy had been practicing at strongside for most of the spring. LaMarcus Thompson will now move to strongside.
Thinking we weren't thinking. First team pass protection is a bit better this week than it was during last Friday's scrimmage. The problem was mental, says Vladimir Richard. If so, the first team has apparently bequeathed it to the second team, as Nick Stephens didn't really get much protection during his time under center this week. Plus, he fumbled two snaps with Cody Sullins, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Nick Reveiz. Reveiz, by the way, is drawing inspiration from Colossians 3:23.
The Quiet Destroyer. Vladimir Richard would rather be yelled at than subject to offensive coordinator Jim Chaney's quiet and controlled dress downs.
This week's evidence of an energetic coaching staff brought to you by receivers coach Frank Wilson, who sprinted to the scene of a WR's fumble and jumped on the pile of bodies.
Cody Pope: living proof you can weigh 300 pounds without eating meat.
Get well soon. Wes Brown had surgery on both knees yesterday. He'll be fully recovered by June.
Plea to mainstream media folk doing "blogs." A "blog" is a "weblog," which is a collection of "posts." The post is not a "blog." Thank you.
Dave Hooker has a blog -- ;-) -- from yesterday about the greatest chokes in the history of Tennessee sports, including those two nasty football games from 2001.
Is B.J. Coleman this year's Bo Hardegree? Probably not, but a few years ago, as QB Bo Hardegree kept putting up great numbers against the defensive backups, David Cutcliffe put him in against the first-team. He completed 8 of 17 passes for 46 yards and threw four interceptions.
Pleasepleasepleaseohplease be nice. Phillip Fulmer will indeed be honored at the Orange and White game for receiving the Neyland Award.

Tennessee basketball

Tennessee bucked a national trend last season and actually drew more fans to basketball games than the prior year.

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Two reasons on basketball attendance:

One, they may have counted tickets sold and not turnstile count.

Two, even if it’s an honest count, the difference was in the early non-conference. In 2008, the Vols drew an average of only 19,242 for seven “minor” non-conference contests, then drew 21,064 for eight SEC home games plus Ohio State.

With the new blood coming in early this year, plus ’08’s great success, the Vols drew an average of 20,838 for five “minor” non-conference games, then drew only 20,304 for eight SEC games plus Gonzaga and Memphis. That means there was a greater average attendance to watch the Vols play UTC, UTMartin, UNCAsheville, Belmont, and LA-Lafayette – the five least important but earliest home games of the season – than every SEC contest plus Gonzaga and Memphis.

Furthermore, in ’08 the Vols drew at least 20,000 for every SEC home game. In ’09, the Vols drew 18,526 against (eventual SEC champion) LSU, 18,623 against Georgia, and 19,137 against (eventual tournament team) Mississippi State.

Be not deceived by the numbers (though credit Pearl, again, for spinning it perfectly) – the overall number may be up, but when it mattered most attendance was down.

by Will Shelton on Apr 16, 2009 9:24 AM EDT reply actions

Ooh... nice work, there.

Depending on your POV, that’s called either “blocking” or “clustering” data in statistics. (Blocking is probably more accurate, but hey.)

Slap a variance in there somewhere, and you’ll be a member of the “intimidation by number” club! ;-)

But a great point at that. And the counter-spin is that the latter half of the season is when the economy really went in the tank, so the dropoff is not necessarily anything to do with the fans or the team.

by David Hooper on Apr 16, 2009 9:30 AM EDT up reply actions

Oh, one other thing.

Even if they counted tickets, it doesn’t completely mask things. The students don’t get actual tickets, so they’d have to be counted by card swipes at the door. I’m willing to bet a significant part of the decline is found specifically in student numbers.

by David Hooper on Apr 16, 2009 9:43 AM EDT up reply actions

We need more data breakdown.

Besides, N=15, so we need another 20+ seasons’ worth of data to get anything approximating a fair sample size of people who want to attend Tennessee games.

by Chris Pendley on Apr 17, 2009 1:00 PM EDT up reply actions

I thought I felt the earth shake a little bit the other day.

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it."

by Getoffmyvols on Apr 16, 2009 9:47 AM EDT reply actions

Cody Pope: living proof that vegetarians are not smarter than normal people

It is my firm belief that “fish tacos” have fish in them. Vegetarians don’t eat fish. Is that a late April Fool’s prank?

by wvvol on Apr 16, 2009 1:41 PM EDT reply actions

It's one of those definition things.

There are a lot of different ways that “vegetarian” is used. He probably means no land-based meat, but fish are ok. The other extreme won’t eat honey because it’s a product of bee labor.

I agree that eating fish precludes “vegetarian”, but meh.

by David Hooper on Apr 16, 2009 2:05 PM EDT up reply actions