Clawtharsis: Healing the Wounds of an Offense-less Season

by Hooper on Jun 29, 2009 8:00 AM EDT in College Basketball Comment 9 comments

In the middle of this week (most likely July 1st), I'll have a post up on Dave Clawson. I don't want to give anything away on it, but I do think you'll enjoy it (especially the Vols fans). Until then, let me ask you this question:

Poll

What will be your most lasting memory of the Vols' Clawfense?

vs. Vanderbilt: COMPLETELY abandoning the pass

9 votes

All Season: Playing "Where's WaldoIMeanBrandonWarren?"

25 votes

vs. Auburn: The Crompton/Foster fumble

15 votes

vs. Florida: the Foster fumble near the goal line

9 votes

vs. Wyoming: the two first-half INTs

16 votes

vs. Auburn: the entire freakin' second half

71 votes

145 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I would like a

UCLA: Side-by-side shots of Chow and Clawson

When they showed those two guys on screen during the game… wow, the difference.

by rblakeh on Jun 29, 2009 11:11 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good point.

To be honest, I had a hard time separating out offense-specific images from more general ones. Things like the second-half walkout against Florida, the ~80,000 maybe-ish attendance at homecoming, and the refusal to punt away from Brandon James are stronger in my mind than most of these, but they’re more iconic of larger program issues.

But the Chow/Clawson image is good. I hadn’t even considered that one because I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. (After all, we were still expecting the Clawfense to mean something, in which case his booth presence wouldn’t have mattered.) I’m sure, though, if I saw it now, I’d see the same thing you’re talking about.

by Hooper on Jun 29, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

By the way, if that's your iconic image of the 2008 offense,

you’re going to love Wednesday’s article…

by Hooper on Jun 29, 2009 3:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Auburn game...

might have been more an indictment on Crompton than Clawson, but that pitiful display of offense – going up against another anemic bunch – has to be it for me. The Vandy game was more or less, “OK, our QBs are bad because the system is bad, let’s just pound the rock and play defense.”

The Florida game has to be the one to stick out most, because that was the last straw for alotta people – myself included.

by Home Sweet Home on Jun 29, 2009 5:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There was a lot to that Florida game.

The problem was finding something that was only indicative of the offense. I think the Florida game was as much a show of Fulmer fatigue in the fanbase as anything else. After all, we hadn’t learned to completely hate the Clawfense after only UCLA and UAB.

But yeah, Florida was one heck of a last straw.

by Hooper on Jun 29, 2009 7:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hands down the UCLA game

him throwing over 40 times when were are averaging over 5 yds a carry. ALso having us take like 4 long field goals and basically killing our kicker’s confidence.

Living in Alabama is like living 50 years in the past, they are still just as racist, just as educated, the state constitution forbids any kind of public transportation, and all they can talk about is Bear Bryant

by goldballs on Jun 30, 2009 1:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Oh, right.

Another suppressed memory.

by Hooper on Jun 30, 2009 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The 3 September Fumbles That Killed the Season

Okay, so I’m picking three, but to me they are all really one. 1 – The Foster fumble against UCLA early in the 2nd half when we are about to go up 21-7 and take over the game. 2 – The Crompton / Foster fumble at the goal line against Florida when we are about to cut the lead to 10 and at least kinda show we still have a pair….. 3 – The Foster fumble against Auburn which was a complete joke.

The saddest part to me about all of last season had to be Arian Foster. After the fumble against Penn State in the 06 Bowl game, the kid dedicated himself to getting better and he really was one of the key reasons we won the SEC East in ‘07. I’ll never forget the feeling in the pit of my stomach after he fumbled against UCLA… It was like “Oh -- we are screwed.”

by Jan221973 on Jun 30, 2009 10:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs