I Hate You, John Crist: Responding to reader comments from Week 7

There’s never a dull moment in the comments section. SEC football mixed with internet anonymity makes for a potent cocktail.

Responses have been especially strong surrounding Tennessee lately. The Volunteers were the most interesting team in the conference coming into this season, and they probably still are halfway through the schedule.

On the one hand, the Vols could probably have three or four losses already considering the fact that Appalachian State took them to overtime. Virginia Tech, Florida and Georgia all built double-digit leads on them, too. With players dropping like flies against Texas A&M, UT was still the story — even in defeat.

Tennessee fans deserve to love their team, warts and all. The Vols have certainly left their hearts on the field this year, but it’s fair to wonder if this program has anything left in the tank emotionally for Alabama on Saturday.

Here are some of the my favorite comments from this past week. I apologize in advance for my final reply erroring on the side of snarky:

If the same Tennessee team that turned it over seven times against Texas A&M shows up against Alabama, I have no doubt what the result will be.

Turnovers can sometimes be fluky, no question about it. Seven in one game? I’m fine with fans of the Volunteers chalking that up to a once-in-a-decade anomaly. For unexplained reasons, sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way.

It was nothing short of a miracle that UT managed to take the lead in overtime over the Aggies at one point. Credit coach Butch Jones and Co. for once again exhibiting as much never-say-die attitude as any team in the country. And after those comeback wins over Florida and Georgia, there was reason to believe.

That being said, A&M didn’t capitalize on many of the gifts the Vols dropped in its collective lap time after time — at home, no less. I came away from last weekend’s game less impressed with the Aggies despite the victory.

The Crimson Tide, on the other hand, aren’t so forgiving. Their defense has scored seven touchdowns off turnovers in six games.

It’s become a “can you top this?” contest by now for ‘Bama defenders. All four members of the starting secondary have a defensive TD. The scoop-and-score monster in Tuscaloosa keeps growing with each taste of blood.

Getting back to Tennessee, perhaps that 7-giveaway gaffe wasn’t such an aberration after all. The Volunteers had 15 fumbles in their first five games and somehow only lost three. Those things tend to even out over time. Also, quarterback Joshua Dobbs leads the SEC in interceptions by a wide margin.

As for Alabama giving up yards, most of them were late in games protecting big leads with soft coverage. Yes, Austin Allen of Arkansas threw for 400, but it was an empty number. He was behind 28-7 midway through the second quarter.

Perhaps most damning for the Vols, not once this season has an opponent taken the lead on the Tide after trailing.

I think this is a pretty fair argument to make, and I’m honestly surprised that I haven’t made it more myself.

Repeating what I wrote in the column to some degree, Florida lost five draft picks off last year’s defense. Even for a premier program like the Gators, the plug-and-play approach has its limits. That’s a lot of talent.

Yet according to the statistics, UF is better defensively this season by every measure that matters. The orange and blue allow the fewest yards and points per game in the SEC. The D is once again carrying a mediocre O.

However, a closer examination of the competition suggests that Florida has padded its stats against ordinary offenses.

While the Gators are 4-1 in 2016, their four victories have come over Massachusetts, Kentucky, North Texas and Vanderbilt. Those teams rank 125th, 111th, 108th and 126th, respectively, in total yards per game.

In terms of scoring offense, the rankings are almost as dreadful. UMass is 122nd. Kentucky is tied for 97th. North Texas is 89th. Vandy is 120th. UF surrendered an average of 163.5 and 5 points in those victories. Impressive? Sure. Those other kids are on scholarship, too. The North Texas contest in particular was complete suffocation.

Tennessee is hardly a juggernaut offensively. The Volunteers are 51st in total offense and 48th in scoring. Still, they racked up 498 yards and scored 38 points against the Gators, including a 35-7 run in the second half.

Their opponent Saturday, Missouri, is 15th nationally in total offense. This Florida squad is winless in shootouts so far.

I wrote a column previewing Alabama-Tennessee that focused on UT’s turnover problem and UA’s ability to turn takeaways into points.

As the story went live, I mistakenly included that the final score of the Volunteers’ loss this past Saturday to Texas A&M in double overtime was 44-38 — in reality, it was 45-38. It was a mistaken keystroke, nothing else.

It happens. Even the New York Times features a corrections section.

Still, you mean to tell me that the entire column is now worthless due to a single transposed digit in 1,000 words of copy? Do you dismiss a chef if the after-dinner mint that comes with your check isn’t refreshing enough?

Also, it’s difficult to take a comment asking me to “proof read” seriously because “proofread” is one word, not two. Irony can be so ironic sometimes.

John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.