Published August 24, 2010 - 4:56pm
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Editor’s Note: This article is in response to Jon Cooper’s claim that Tennessee will only win 5 football games this year. Jared Sawyer is a Vol and agrees with Hunter Mize that regardless of the media’s doubts, Tennessee is going to have a good year in 2010.
Folks in the SEC give Lane Kiffin too much credit for allegedly ruining Tennessee’s immediate future. Now I will admit I cried like a baby when I heard Lane would be taking Layla out of the State of Tennessee. How could he do that to us? But, a few months have passed, a few bottles of Makers have been finished off, and I am now happy with the things that have transpired the last year. During this time of reflection, it is quite apparent the problems Tennessee is facing now i.e. lack of depth, a deflated defensive line, and lack of discipline are the result of a slow moving train wreck that was the end of the Fulmer Era. It just happened to be given a high power accelerant in Lane Kiffin. However, I am quite optimistic the upcoming season will surprise a lot of people for a couple reasons:
Reason 1: Derek Dooley
Derek Dooley might just be the savior Tennessee Football needs. Many of my orange kool aid sipping brethren have not fully embraced Dooley and for understandable reasons. Lane Kiffin’s midnight escape was like your hot girlfriend cheating on you. Dooley is everything Lane Kiffin is not and that my friends is a good thing. Derek Dooley is a Nick Saban in the making. Now before I go any further, let me express my extreme hatred for everything Alabama. There are exactly two things positive associated with that University: sorority girls and Nick Saban. Dooley is a Saban protégé. He worked with Saban from 2000 to 2006 at LSU and with the Dolphins holding positions like recruiting coordinator, tight ends coach, and running backs coach. Nick Saban knows how to run a football program and coach football and that is exactly what Dooley has learned from his onetime mentor.
One of the most obvious positive changes this team has undergone is attitude. Players have been singing Dooley’s praises after going through spring ball and the start of fall camp. The popular opinion is that he is a tough and demanding SOB who will go to bat for his players in a second. Dooley has come in and immediately addressed some of Tennessee’s key issues. He has instituted a Character Education program headed by former NFL star Andre Lott to instill a sense of community, character, and discipline on the team. He has encouraged his players to know where everyone of their teammates are at all times. In a sense, he is coming in and building a family. Nick Saban has shown family wins championships.
This spring Coach Dooley said to his new players that he didn’t expect them to trust him right away. He said he had to earn their trust. He is a coach who expects players to earn their way, push each other, and finish strong. I guess Dooley would probably say the same thing about trust to Vol fans. He has to earn it this upcoming season. But from what I have seen and heard from Dooley this offseason this team will be ready to play. He is a man who leads by example and this season Vol fans will start to see that exemplified through the leadership of the players on the field. This fan base is ready and deserves leaders in the mold of Al Wilson and Peyton Manning and not reckless talking heads like Ed Orgeron and Lane Kiffin. That leadership crumbled in the late Fulmer era and was completely gone under Kiffin. That will change this year. The Vols’ close games will be won because of the leaders who step up and demand more from this team. Their coach simply will have it no other way.
Some may think this naïve and part of the excitement surrounding a new coach. But folks, I trust a man Saban made his recruiting coordinator and fellow coach for six years far more than someone who got fired by Al Davis.
Reason 2: Vols Schedule
The 2010 Tennessee football schedule is really nothing special. The likes of ESPN and Mr. Cooper who suggest Tennessee is going to win 5 games is downright insane. Now I do not make any promises, or suggest we will beat Florida, Alabama, Georgia, or even LSU. There are however, several victories on this schedule
Tennessee-Martin, September 4
Unless Ray Charles rises from the dead to take over the quarterback position, the Vols will walk all over our West Tennessee brothers.
Oregon, September 11
This will be a tough game for the Vols. The Ducks are a solid team and favorites to win the Pac-10.The loss of Jeromiah Masoli is going to keep this team from being awesome. In the end, Neyland Stadium and the Pac-10 hating Vols fans will win a close one. Face it, LaMichael James can’t win a game by himself, and will probably be suspended anyway for punching his own mascot, The Duck.
UAB, September 25
UAB students are still trying to perfect the Bama Bangs look made popular by their rich cousins at Alabama. I think they should just stick with their regular mullets. UAB will not put up much of a fight in football until they can somehow figure out a way to relocate Auburn or Alabama out of the state.
South Carolina, October 30
The Ol’ Ball Coach just can’t quite get over the hump with South Carolina. This is either because their fans scream C-O-C-K-S all game disrupting the genius (yes, I hate to admit it) of Spurrier’s brain, or the fact they still have that god awful quarterback, Stephen Garcia. Tennessee wins a close game.
Memphis, November 6
There isn’t much to say here. Memphis is awful in football and I wish they weren’t even a part of the State of Tennessee. I wish Arkansas would just steal them in the middle of the night. Stick to basketball and buying recruits Tiger fans.
Mississippi, November 13
Houston Nutt is a nut for taking Jeromiah Masoli. I am pretty sure Masoli will somehow find a way to steal a HD TV from The Grove during halftime the week before the Tennessee game. When this happens, all the hopes and dreams of the Rebel faithful will disappear. I hope they will still bring a little piece of The Grove tailgating with them up to Knoxville though and maybe some of their sorority girls.
Vanderbilt, November 20
Well, the Commodores keep getting better in basketball and are starting to make progress in football. It is hard to hate on Vandy because they have just never really given me anything to hate. They have been so bad for so long. As always, they will keep this game close. In the end, Dooley will channel his pops and keep the Vols perfect in November,
Kentucky, November 27
Kentucky football fans I kind of feel bad for you. You all just are not very good. I mean you have to take our fired Offensive Coordinator and then steal the legend Tee Martin to be an assistant coach. If there was ever going to be a year to beat us in the next 50 years, THIS IS IT! I just don’t see it happening unless you can run the wildcat with John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, and then throw a trick pass to your tight end Demarcus Cousins. Wait. They graduated. Make it 26 years in a row.
Conclusion
Now I know I have taken some jabs at my fellow SEC fans. It is not meant as a sign of disrespect. However, I just want to point out to Mr. Cooper and the like that while we may be down this year, we are certainly not out. Dooley and Company have things going in the right direction. If we lose one, or even two of those games I noted above, we are still bowl eligible. We are not a team you can overlook.
Jared. John Wall didnt graduate. He dominated. Just ask Bruce Pearl.
You are correct Tyler. Neither Wall, Cousins, or Bledsoe graduated. I gave them too much credit. My mistake.
Jared. While I’m not arguing against you, in the long run Tennessee might have found their man; the savior to their program so to speak in Dooley. I will give you one thing, he is cleaning up the program and I think many SEC coaches can learn something from him in that regard. And you give very plausible remarks about Dooley and him learning under Saban. I am arguing; however, he doesn’t have the depth at his positions to win in year one. Sure, he will win some games and probably will end up surprising everyone with winning one he shouldn’t. While you call yourself an optimist, I will call myself a realist. I see what your program has been through. I see the kids that are now in the program and the ones that are committed for the 2011 class. Big East schools are recruiting as well as Tennessee right now. Think about it – Florida, Georgia, South Carolina in the East and Bama, LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss even Arkansas as of late in the West are recruiting better players than Tennessee is at this very moment.
While I’m not saying you can’t, I’m saying if Tennessee is willing to have patience and you don’t go calling for Dooley’s head when he is under .500 this year, Dooley can win at Tennessee if you give him some time. And I believe he will have time.
With that being said, I like it when Tennessee has a good football team because it makes the SEC and college football more fun to watch and more competitive.
Thanks for your comments and your article. It will be fun to see how this one turns out. I am certainly not against swallowing my pride and coming back and telling you, “You were right.”
I will leave you with this – The title of your article says Tennessee will be “Fine” in 2010. And, if your definition of “Fine” includes the fan base accepting a 5-6 win season and “Fine” includes being thought of by your own fan-base as the Big East member of the SEC, Tennessee will be “Fine” in 2010.
I’m one of those “Go Big Blue!” – “How ‘Bout Them Vols!” guys (I know there are more out there then just me). Anyway, what’s a hard-chargin’, bleedin’ Big Orange, Volunteer Navy wanna-be fan doing drinking Makers?!? Aren’t you supposed to be a Jack man?
OK, seriously, this is not the first year that you or anyone else could have said “If there was ever going to be a year to beat us in the next 50 years, THIS IS IT!” How many close calls have there been just in the last 10 years? Somehow, the Vols always manage to pull out the victory. I say this year will be different and the streak will stop at 25.
Of course, that won’t change one thing…UK will still be the team with the longest ongoing losing streak, because I don’t think the 22 straight against Florida will end this year or any time soon. Hopefully, it will not reach Navy-Notre Dame levels.
Dear Vol Fans,
I deeply regret what happened earlier this year with my son, Lane. He didn’t intentionally set out to break your season, ruin your recruiting, and treat you worse than a two dollar prostitute. He only had the best intentions in mind when he arrived at UT and to think that you may now suffer NCAA sanctions as a result of Lane’s spirited practices is also deeply upsetting to me. The money I received from USC has eased the pain a bit and certainly takes the sting out of leaving Knoxville in a hail of musket fire. I just want to convey to you what I know about Lane as a person. He’s not a bad boy. Lane was born with and still suffers from a debilitating mental syndrome, TAS (Terminal A__hole Syndrome). Lane battles this on a daily basis and unfortunately he loses most of those battles. Maybe one day he’ll be strong enough to step up for himself and be a man. Until then, it falls on me, as his “daddy”, as you country people put it, to apologize and win games for him.
Yours,
Monte
At least you didn’t try to argue that you had a shot against the Gators! In all fairness, the games you listed are all winnable for the Vols, but are by no means guaranteed victories. You could very easily lose half of the games you listed.
I should say from the beginning that I am biased- with that out of the way we can examine the bigger picture: everything written in this article is entirely possible. To some people the truth hurts. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see the Vols pull a trick a bring down (#1 haha) Bama. Am I the only person that remembers Bama’s margin of victory last year? Granted we do have some tough games, and some that shouldn’t be so tough but- THE VOL’S WILL BE FINE.
This article couldn’t be more wrong…It’s funny how optimistic we all are at the beginning of the season…I hope we can go 4-0 in November, but who knows….Kentucky is playing good and Ole Miss will be tough for us in Oxford…