-- Joel

I just got back from the game. I'm exhausted. I have many thoughts swirling in my head that I'm just going to crap out on the page rather than trying to form into something coherent. If that doesn't interest you, you should probably check out now.

I need to get some game review out of the way before I wax philosophical.

Tennessee's defense was spectacular, holding LSU to one touchdown and two field goals. They bent some, but only broke once. LSU managed a couple of big plays, but they had too much talent not to at some point. UT's D laid some of the hardest hits I've seen all year from any team on LSU players, all through the game. They missed a few tackles, but on the whole tackled better than they had in any game except maybe the Georgia game. No complaints about any aspect of play on this side of the ball, nor about any aspect of the coaches' game plan.

It was the UT offense's quixotic play that has made me question everything I've ever thought or written about college football.

The UT offense, outside of Ainge, flat isn't very talented. Therein lies the rub.

Both of the horrible mistakes that gave the game away to LSU happened not because of coaching, but because a 22-year-old quarterback playing in his last meaningful college game tried to force plays that weren't there. He has been coached the past two years to throw the ball away when no one is open. All through the year, even when other things were going horribly wrong for the Vols, when Erik Ainge kept that in mind, he didn't get sacked and he didn't throw interceptions.

UT's offense stalled for most of the first half after scoring on the first series. I attribute this to LSU scheming pretty well, and UT not having the talent at any position other than quarterback to overcome it. At one point, one of the two people sitting with me mused that LSU's safeties must be getting bored. There was no speed for breakaway plays to be feasible, so most of what worked were quick timing routes and rollout passes. This is really all the coaches could do for a game plan, being outmatched from a talent standpoint. I won't call the offensive game plan great, but it was good enough.

And though Ainge made two horrible decisions, I understand how they happened.

Poker analogies are for losers. However, since my team was a loser tonight, I think I will be a loser as well in a show of team solidarity.

If you've ever played a long round of Texas Hold 'Em, maybe you know the point in the evening where your eyelids are getting heavy; where only a few players are left; the game has dragged on for hours; you have a middling stack that's getting sucked dry by the blinds; you draw a face card; everyone checks; the flop comes down, and you appear to have top pair; sure, you want to win, but the lack of an end in sight is becoming as agonizing as the idea of losing; there's a powerless feeling from not drawing good cards that makes you want to will something to win even though you know the odds say you should wait for a better chance; so you lay into it; maybe you walked into a trap; maybe someone had the same face card and just has a higher kicker; or maybe you get through unscathed and take a big pot.

Every time I've played from this position, it's bitten me in the ass. But it's one mistake I don't seem to learn from, because I inevitably do it again the next time a game runs long. I'd rather go out shooting than to be bled to death.

That's not an excuse for those decisions Ainge made, but maybe it's an explanation.

Anyway, what I've really been kicking around in my head is how earlier in the year I became one of those people who lost their minds after their team lost a few games. I called for the coach to be fired immediately. I made fat jokes better suited for a middle school locker room than for something a supposed grown man is writing. I wondered out loud whether they were trying their hardest.

Looking at the talent on the field which I saw was inferior to LSU's in nearly every way, and yet seeing them play their asses off and nearly will a win from it made me wonder if I was terribly, terribly wrong in how I handled losing earlier. Phil Fulmer may not be the best coach in the NCAA, the SEC, or even his division, but I know for a fact now he is better than I was giving him credit for.

Seeing the coaching carousel spin at the end of this year, it's obvious to me that if I had gotten what I'd wished for earlier, UT would be settling for a sub-par coach to replace Phil Fulmer. Too many schools are looking for new coaches right now for UT to draw the kind of candidate who could win as much as Fulmer has. My impatience would have burned me the same way Erik Ainge's impatience burned him and his team tonight, had the people in charge of making those decisions been dumb enough to listen to me.

It's a good thing they weren't. I appreciate this team right now more than I have in a long, long time. Maybe ever. Doctors measure a person's stress level not by positive or negative experience, but by change. Whether you just started a new job or whether you were just fired from one, it doesn't really matter to stress. For that reason it's comforting for something I enjoy to stay mostly the same even as so many other things in my life change.

That's ultimately what's important to me. I went to the Fiesta Bowl in 1999. I've witnessed my team win a national championship. Not very many people can say that, and I have Phil Fulmer to thank for that. Most of the expectations that are placed on UT's football program are there because of him. Long ago, people were just as passionate about UT football as they are now even when they weren't winning as much as Phil Fulmer has. I hope he is allowed to stay at the University of Tennessee for as long as he wants, regardless of whether he ever plays for or wins another championship again.