University of Tennessee Recruiting Advantages

[Purple & Gold Standard]

All my list WAS original. I wrote it the night before I posted it. (The possible exception might be the thick-calved UT coeds, caused by having to climb the hills

to campus.

 

I think some of you Volleys don't take jokes very well, and don't understand my

position. It is recent UT football that I dislike.

 

Peyton Manning is my all-time favorite college/pro player. He may well be the most complete QB ever.

 

Pat Summitt is the best women's basketball coach of all time, and I really enjoy watching the Lady Vols play. I am impressed by the character and grades of her players. I was disappointed to see that many posters here dislike Geno Auriemma for no other reason than that he has success against the Lady Vols. No one has been more complimentary of Pat Summitt than he has--first to call her after the win, said on national TV that she was the best coach in women's basketball and had done more to bring the sport to where it is than any other person.

 

David Cutcliffe is as good as any other offensive coordinator in college, in my opinion. John Chavis does a fine job year-after-year.

 

What I have a problem with is the new breed of Tennessee fan, the ones who jumped on board when Manning arrived. I think this new breed became obsessed with the football, has unrealistic expectations, and has the Vols up there with Ohio State, Texas, Miami, Florida, USC as a perennial football power, choosing to ignore the obvious fact that high school football in those states is far better than Tennessee high school football, requiring UT to recruit better than most schools nationally. I liken it to riding on the back of a tiger. Tennessee coaches felt new pressures and I think they recruited without proper regard to character and/or academics, many of them shipped off to jucos to try to get eligible. The tiger stopped last year and ate its riders. This year, Tennessee is attempting to reform, although the news that 3 or 4 of the last recruiting class are already ineligible because of failure to meet basic academic requirements.

The well-meaning delusion that goes with inability to look at the Tennessee program objectively is shown constantly on this board. I think of the things I have seen posted since this season started--Arian Foster will be a serious Heisman candidate, the Tennessee front 7 will be better than it was last year (in spite of the fact that all of the starters from the year before graduated), Tennessee has a recruiting advantage because they have a chance at a national championship every year (and when was the last time Tennessee was really a contender for a national championship?)--an on and on.

 

The other delusion that I see constantly is "pronoun confusion"--the old "we" and "they" problem. Some posters confuse attachment to the state of Tennessee with attachment to the University of Tennessee, as if they are synonymous. Many posters believe they are a part of the Tennessee Vols football team. "We play LSU next," or "We really took it to California." Listen carefully (and this applies to practically every Tennessee fan on these boards: You are not a member of the University of Tennessee football team. Not now, very likely not then, very likely not ever. Face it. Much as you would like for it to be so, it just isn't so. If you wish to pretend, go ahead, but all the pretending won't make it so. The team bus will not wait for you. You don't have a locker. You're not in the game plan. Tough.

 

But it really isn't tough--because you don't have anything on the line. The players, they have to practice and face the possibility of failing in front of thousands, the coaches, they have to put their work on display for you every week, to be second-guessed and even to lose their jobs. The managers and behind--the-scenes people have hours of work invested.

 

The fan needs only to change pronouns--"we" becomes "they," so that "We beat Georgia," but "They threw their helmets on the field" against Vanderbilt. Success is "we," failure is "they." In truth, most Tennessee fans played just as great a role in players throwing their helmets as they did in beating Georgia--0% in each case.

 

David Cutcliffe is very "we" right now, while Randy Sanders is the poster boy of "they." (The day when our current high school head coach took over in Dyersburg--and he's the best I've ever known--I shook his hand and told him, "We're with you--win or tie. I was being facetious but there tends to be a grain of truth in that.)

 

I taught school for 40 years, coached high school football for 10, and I know something about football--enough, I think, to know you can't tell true fans by how many bumper stickers they have, how many flags on their cars and houses, and how often they use "we" to refer to their team. I have been a Notre Dame fan since 1954, through good times and bad, through the Holtz era when they followed some of the same recruiting practices that Tennessee has used--and paid for it. I have cried with the Irish (not "my" Irish --and, yes, my students (most of them Vol fans) did present me with an autographed (by "Smoky") copy of "Miracle at South Bend" a few years ago. We watched it together in class.) I have no ND flags, no leprechauns in the yard (though we do hear strange noises occasionally), no bumperstickers. I know in my mind how I feel about Notre Dame football and that's good enough for me. I could care less whether others feel that way or not.

 

I am sure that a lot of you are true UT fans who feel the same way as I feel about Notre Dame. I am equally as sure that there are the "bandwagoneers" who didn't know they had a team in Knoxville until Manning came on the scene.

 

So, please learn to take jokes about your team. Our self-esteem is not tied up in whether Tennessee or Notre Dame wins on Saturdays--at least, I sure hope it isn't.

 

OMG Augielio!!!!!..Don't get that "we" stuff started again ...I took your position on that a year or so ago on here and got hammered for it.....Even though I have been a VOL fan for as long as I can remember,which is 40 years,I try not to use we when referring to the Vols...I never played a down for UT or even went to school there..I don't feel I have been given the right to say we,but that's just me...I do let it slip every once in awhile though.....

 

I do "love" all the recent Ohio State,USC and Texas fans showing up around these parts the last two or three years .........

Edited October 18, 2006 by backinthaoc

[Augielio]

 

OMG Augielio!!!!!..Don't get that "we" stuff started again ...I took your position on that a year or so ago on here and got hammered for it.....Even though I have been a VOL fan for as long as I can remember,which is 40 years,I try not to use we when referring to the Vols...I never played a down for UT or even went to school there..I don't feel I have been given the right to say we,but that's just me...I do let it slip every once in awhile though.....

 

I do "love" all the recent Ohio State,USC and Texas fans showing up around these parts the last two or three years .........

 

 

 

You've noticed that, too, eh? It's not coincidental. As ESPN goes, so goes the sports world. I've noticed Ohio State, USC and Texas "stuff" in the sports goods stores and places like Foot Locker, Hibbetts, etc. The fare one sees in there, typically, is: Tennessee, Memphis, Titans, LA Lakers, Miami Heat, St. Louis Cardinals, Cubs, Braves--teams you would predict. I never see "my" teams--Pirates, Notre Dame, Carolina Panthers, which is O.K., since I wouldn't wear them anyway. Apparently, kids of this generation see this in a whole different light than my generation did/does. I was at a Diamond Jaxx game four or five years ago and a skinny, shaggy-haired 20-year old went by in a Cardinals jersey with "McGwire" across the back. I couldn't resist. I shook his hand and told him, "I pictured you as being much larger." He didn't get it. It seems to me that the purpose of a name across a jersey or uniform is to identify the guy wearing it. Don't understand why a guy would wear a jersey/uniform with someone else's name on it.

 

I promise never, ever, ever to post anything else on Coach T about "my" and "we."

 

Scouts honor.

[VolunteerGeneral]

Augielio....did you say USC was a perinnial power?

[TheSolidOne]

My eyes could be tricking me but I thought there were post saying UT has the best fans and that UT has a chance to play for the national title every year! Please tell me I was just seeing things!

[Guest dare_2_dream]

Well said Volunteer!!!!! When people are jealous, they have to create something negative. Also, you might want to add a NO. 16

 

16. A chance to play for the national title in football every year.

Also, want to play on a perennial loser? Try Vandy

 

[Purple & Gold Standard]

L L @ accepting donations for a plus membership..Funny stuff...

[Guest dare_2_dream]

L L @ accepting donations for a plus membership..Funny stuff...

 

Well I have a plus once again, so no more donations are needed .. unless you feel the need. It all goes back to my motto, "for less than 4 pennies a day, you can give me another year of a plus membership."