Rocky Top Talking Points: bye week Tuesday edition

You could tell on their whole defensive side, because they were bickering between each other, arguing and cussing each other out because they were having breakdowns here and breakdowns there. All that did was motivate us to keep pushing and keep fighting.

14. We arrive at my law school friend Kevin Glidewell's tailgate. Glidewell distinguished himself during law school by stating before every Tennessee-Georgia game for three years, "We don't even consider y'all rivals." Then, to my eternal dismay, Georgia won all three years. Glidewell is wearing a black polo because he assures me that there is a move afoot to "black out" the stadium. Despite this move, Glidewell is the only person at his own tailgate in a black shirt. "I'm telling you," he says, "Erik Ainge is going to be over center and then he's going to look up into the stands and see me in this black shirt and just be terrified."

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38. Here is what being a fan of UT's special teams against Georgia is like: As soon as Georgia's player hits the seam, you turn from the actual play and start looking for flags. Seriously, I didn't even see the Georgia touchdown because I was too busy imploring the refs to throw a flag. Junaid says, "All day long we knew they were going to get a punt return for a touchdown on us." This is true -- we were telling every Georgia fan that they were starting plus 7 thanks to the inevitable punt return for a touchdown. And then, of course, it happened.

39. UT Special Teams Motto: Punt the ball, wave at air, hope for flags.

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58. Junaid and I make our way down to the UT cheering section along with other Vol fans arriving from all corners of the stadium. No Vols fan can get their hands wrapped around the wonderful offensive plays that have somehow conspired to put that many points on our side. It is, quite simply, unbelievable. It was a second half where UT could literally do no wrong.