Upon seeing this, your first inclination may be that it is fake -- a joke.* No no. It's realer than real deal Holyfield, and at time of publication is still on the front page of merriam-webster.com.

*To be fair, it is hilarious like a joke.

(Hat tip to Card Chronicle -- the excellent SBN site for the University of Louisville Cardinals -- for discovery of this gem.)

Lindsey-Nelson Stadium
Schedule
2/17 - 4pm
2/18 - 1pm
2/19 - 1pm

Tickets
Game One - $4 to $7, Kids under 12 get in free, bring 2 school supplies to get in free
Game Two - $4 to $7, bring 2 school supplies to get in free
Game Three - $4 to $7, Kids under 12 get in free

Additional information after the jump

Continue reading this post »

For most of us in orange, the 2010 Tennessee-LSU game brings up painful memories of a potential upset for the ages ruined by an epic mistake by a young, inexperienced team and coaching staff. But what if the Vols' defense having too many men on the field was a tactical decision designed to maximize the chance of victory? Bill Barnwell's article The Fearless Super Bowl Recap on ESPN's Grantland yesterday contained an interesting analysis of an illegal participation penalty by the Giants late in the fourth quarter: Barnwell believes that Tom Coughlin may have intentionally placed too many men on the field, preventing the offense from completing a long pass and trading yardage for time.

Continue reading this post »

Commentator extraordinaire Bill C.'s (Far Too Early, Sure To Change A Thousand Times) 2012 F/+ Projections are up over at Football Study Hall, with Tennessee checking in at number 20, albeit behind SEC rivals Georgia (#10), Florida (#14), and South Carolina (#19).* The Vols earned their ranking courtesy of the newly signed (and 13th ranked) 2012 recruiting class and large number (20) of returning starters.

For those of us hoping that this is the year that the bamboo grows, I've taken the F/+ rankings for each team on the Vols' 2012 schedule to establish a thoroughly pseudo-scientific expectation of victory for each game: positive numbers should increasingly correlate with victory, and negative numbers should correlate with defeat.

Date	Opponent	Opp. F/+	Diff. btwn Opp. and Vols
09/01/12	NC State	-1.6%	15.5%
09/08/12	Georgia State	Not found	Let's say this is a win
09/15/12	Florida	17.9%	-4.0%
09/22/12	Akron	-26.3%	40.2%
09/29/12	at Georgia	19.6%	-5.7%
10/13/12	at Mississippi State	5.3%	8.6%
10/20/12	Alabama	32.9%	-19.0%
10/27/12	at South Carolina	14.1%	-0.2%
11/03/12	Troy	-16.6%	30.5%
11/10/12	Missouri	10.4%	3.5%
11/17/12	at Vanderbilt	10.1%	3.8%
11/24/12	Kentucky	-7.8%	21.7%

Interestingly, the numbers correspond to my general feeling about the upcoming season, with the season dividing neatly into three categories: have-to-win, need-to-win, and would-like-to-win. Headlining a truly awful non-conference schedule are lightweights Akron and Troy (both waaaaaay down in the rankings) and little sister of the poor Georgia State (unranked, probably due to their transition into D-1). Tennessee should win all three of those games handily, as well as the games against Kentucky and NC State. Next up are the need-to-wins, meaning that any Tennessee head coach needs to win these games or face the pitchforks and orange mob. Vandy, Mizzou, and Mississippi State are all firmly middle-tier teams, capable of beating teams that don't play with focus and take care of the football. The Vols should be more talented than all of them. Finally, the last tier of games are the would-like-to-wins, featuring SEC East rivals Georgia and Florida, and historic no-body South Carolina; all three teams are close enough in projected F/+ that we'll get an idea whether or not the new coaching staff can coach. (Note: traditional rival Alabama is so far off-the-charts that it's not worth thinking about right now. I'd love a win, but it would be a huge upset.)

*For those who don't follow advanced football stats, F/+ is a combination of two metrics: FEI measures drive success and S&P+ uses play-by-play data to measure expected points and success rate. Final rankings for 2011 are here.

I was very fortunate to attend the Letterman/VIP signing day celebration in the West Club at Neyland Stadium last night. This particular banquet/party occurred after Dooley's media tour and conference but before the longer, more accessible gathering downstairs with Bob Kesling. I had a great time and the access to the coaches and administrators was unparallelled by any event I have been to yet as well as a far more candid setting. I learned quite a bit about what has been going on, what is going on now and where we are going in a media-less setting where things were slightly more unfiltered.

For those that may be interested, here is what I gathered:

Continue reading this post »

Mainly to get this all straight in my own head and for the benefit of others that follow recruiting, I thought I would run down who we have, who we might lose, and who we might gain when the faxes start rolling in on Wednesday. More to the point and to make you all jealous, who I might be hearing Dooley telling me about when I'm eating dinner at the signing day banquet in Knoxville. Ha!

So, without further adieu, here is the breakdown along with the ESPN.com link for each player. Also check out Brad's stuff for more info. The star ratings are from 247's system as they are most easily found. I don't have memberships to the recruiting sites, but I know how to troll around for info so away we go:

Continue reading this post »

01/24/12	at Vanderbilt *	Nashville, Tenn.	7:00 p.m. ET
01/28/12	vs. Auburn *	Knoxville, Tenn.	6:00 p.m. ET
01/31/12	at Kentucky *	Lexington, Ky.	7:00 p.m. ET
02/04/12	vs. Georgia *	Knoxville, Tenn.	8:00 p.m. ET
02/08/12	vs. South Carolina *	Knoxville, Tenn.	8:00 p.m. ET
02/11/12	at Florida *	Gainesville, Fla.	4:00 p.m. ET
02/15/12	vs. Arkansas *	Knoxville, Tenn.	8:00 p.m. ET
02/18/12	at Alabama *	Tuscaloosa, Ala.	1:30 p.m. ET
02/22/12	vs. Ole Miss *	Knoxville, Tenn.	7:00 p.m. ET
02/25/12	at South Carolina *	Columbia, S.C.	8:00 p.m. ET
02/29/12	at LSU *	Baton Rouge, La.	9:00 p.m. ET
03/03/12	vs. Vanderbilt *	Knoxville, Tenn.	4:00 p.m. ET

So how do we do from here on out 10 and 2 losing @KY and @ Bama?
or 8 and 4 losing @ Fla and @ Vandy?
Can we beat LSU and SC on the road? or Arkansas at home?

Continue reading this post »

Joe Paterno off Respirator near Death

Report Paterno in grave condition

Breaking News The announcement came at the end of the Tennessee win over UCONN on CBS

So sorry to hear for my BSD friends - Sad day in Happy Valley

But there may be some hope

Joe Paterno, battling cancer, in serious condition after complications AP report

If anyone on Rocky Top wants an in depth view of the Sandusky situation at PSU Read the Second Mile Sandusky Sex Scandal blog or this post on Black Shoe Diaries what you read may surprise you

Continue reading this post »

I learned a valuable lesson.

One that I should have already known.

I went to the Lady Vols vs the Razorbacks a few weeks ago, and the guy in front of me was decked out in USC gear.

Lets not quibble about why this guy felt he needed to wear USC gear to a game that did not feature that team in anyway, on a campus of a school USC does not play, in a conference that USC's coach lit out of.

All of those items must be set aside for now. Because with my mother, wife and daughter in tow, and all bedecked in orange he began baiting me.

"Thanks for the Coach!" says he grinning. I don't know this man from Adam. Why he should smile at me I do not know. "We'll be chanting his name when we win the championship next year! Hope the SEC enjoyed its run!"

Before my wife could stop me, I uttered: "So why in bloody hell are you even here?"

Continue reading this post »

If we can close with 2 out of these 3. I think our class can move into the top 10. With the addition of Mccullers and Bourque in the last few days our class has moved back up to #14 in the nation. Ibelieve this class is pivitol for Dooley and I think the addition of an elite recruiter (Sal Sunseri) Ut is on the right track. With a favorable schedule for the Vols in 2012 I look for this to be a unexpectedly good year for the Vols.