LINKS: Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Darrin Kirkland Jr. Out for Tennessee vs Texas A&M

Morning folks! The lush pageantry and rich tradition of college football will unfurl in heady splendor Saturday as Tennessee renews its storied two-game rivalry with the Texas A&M Aggies. Tensions are simmering:

Go Vols and... prevent the gigging, we guess? STOP THEM FROM GIGGING.

Coaches Saying Nice Things About The Team They’re About To Play, Part 347
Wednesday Mike DeBord discussed playcalling during the Georgia game at length, noting the Dawg’s 3-coverage shells largely prevented the vertical ball, while also saying Texas A&M “will be by far the best defense we’ve played,” which, hey, sure why not?

Meanwhile in College Station, Kevin Sumlin had some words:

“This is a team that on paper if you don't watch it you'll say they've gotten lucky," Sumlin said of the Vols. "They haven't gotten lucky. They have a veteran quarterback that is No. 1 in this league in points responsible for, whether he's throwing it, whether he's running it, whatever he's doing, he's the No. 1 guy creating those points in this league... So we have a huge challenge this weekend."

Later Sumlin said, “If we lose this week, it's not indicative of anything.” HMMMMMM

Injuries for everybody!
Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Darrin Kirkland Jr. are both out for the game Saturday, per Butch Jones. Jalen Hurd is “day-to-day”; read into that what you will. For the Aggies, DE Myles Garrett, WRs Speedy Noil and Ricky Seals-Jones, RB Keith Jones, and OL Jermaine Eluemunor are all theoretically injured to some extent, but as of this writing Kevin Sumlin has declined to comment on which (if any) will miss playtime.

Yup

Well, that was fun while it lasted
Shut it down, folks: Stewart Mandel led off his column this week with a long conversation will Bill C. about Tennessee and fumble luck. Why can’t we ever have nice memes?

NATTERING NORTHERNER NEGS NARCICISSTS
The NY Post writes about football, apparently:

Tennessee followed that with a 21-point comeback against Florida and a 17-point comeback at Georgia, the latter game ending on a Hail Mary.

In unison, too many idiotic, ignorant, narcissists began wondering — and writing — whether Tennessee is a “team of destiny.” Just three years ago, Auburn received the same branding after reaching the national championship game via two late-season miracles.

Unfortunately, fairy tales are fiction and luck always runs out.

SPEAKING OF:
How the sausage gets made, folks. Here’s an article titled “Tennessee offensive lineman takes a dig at Myles Garrett,” from Gigem247’s:

... Tennessee left tackle Brett Kendrick was asked about blocking Garrett this coming weekend.

"I've blocked Derek Barnett all training camp," Kendrick said, according to GoVols247, "so I know what it's like to go against the best."

.... okay? Some real trash talk there, no doubt. Elsewhere WRCB in Chattanooga wrote an entire post about somebody making a Mexican-American war joke on Twitter.

Etcetera
Butch Jones and Tobias Harris are friends now. Man, that dude gets around.

Bob Shoop talked a bit about the defensive breakdown leading the Georgia’s final touchdown last week.

Still not even close to getting old:

Happy Thursday!