DanJSum

Nate picked Vandy over Auburn...

"This attempt to make fun of Alabama was brought to you by Renasant Bank..." LOL - Herbie's got jokes!

This is an SEC site, and UT is already taken. Please use "Texas" when referring to that burnt-orange school in the future. kthxbai

I had not one problem with it. TCU had been a strong 2nd half team, and keeping the first string in through the 3rd quarter was completely understandable. TCU failing to stop Georgia's 2nd string is also not Georgia's problem. I thought Kirby handled it with class.

Interesting - different seedings, but an expanded CFP this year, using the BCS formula, would include the same 12 teams.

Not being from there - is Jacksonville as pro-Gator as Birmingham is pro-Tide? I think that was the main motivation in moving the Iron Bowl back to home-and-home vs. having it in "neutral" Birmingham every year. (Yes, Legion Field put more and more of its good years behind it each year as well, but I don't think that was the primary motivation.) Anyway, if that's true, then I get it. Tebow's description above has it more of a near-true-neutral site (50/50), and the vibe from that game, at least on TV, was an incredibly fun atmosphere punctuated by a (usually) really good football game. In other words - if going to either Georgia or Florida means that you get to play in that environment every year, I would think that would be a positive recruiting opportunity for both teams every year. Change it to home-and-home, and you get one additional home opportunity every other year - and you don't have the "come to my school, and you get to play in this awesome party/game every year!" chip to play, because you don't do that anymore. Like I said - if Jacksonville is "The Swamp, but North," I'd get that. I've never been to the game, and that's not the vibe I get from it watching it - but TV doesn't always tell the whole story. (To answer your hypothetical - heck, no, I wouldn't like a Birmingham match-up every year... LOL)

I think his recruiting comments are interesting. The push to take it back to home-and-homes has cited recruiting as a major issue, and I've never quite understood what, from a recruiting standpoint, isn't good about a neutral-site party in an NFL stadium.

Pro tip: don't try to make it from Lexington to Knoxville in 2 hours on I-75, unless you like funding the counties along the way. Besides, I don't think the traffic flow - or lack thereof - would allow it. But, if you're coming, bring me some Skyline or Gold Star!

Fourthed...

Fine - as long as we don't become 2021 LSU in 2024...

How we show up for UT-Martin will help calm this uneasy feeling I have about Mizzou being a trap game. Their defense gets better every week.

I LOL'd. :)

I thought "Dixieland Delight" was Alabama (the team)'s 3Q-into-4Q song, not a song with which they trolled Tennessee after beating them.

I liked them as well.

Not understanding the hate on this article. They'd been running at will, and the QB had been a TO machine in the first half. A draw play or RB reverse likely would have gotten the first down as well. Yet, he showed that he trusted his QB to put it in the air to boost his confidence. We can debate "offensive genius" (he's definitely good!), but the play call, in the context of the game, supports Hayes's point.

Am I the only one who remembers seeing that pass looking like it got tipped? It was sailing really weirdly toward the sideline, and if it was deflected, the WR is a fair target. If it wasn't tipped - well, that still wasn't very much contact; I'm not sure we want that to be the standard by which they judge PI calls for the rest of the season.

I agree - PERFECT ending! LOL

I believe he's a grad transfer, which doesn't have the one-year sit-out.

Good rivalries, true - but 2-5 in your list aren't non-conference matchups for those teams.

Yep - it's called "madness" for a reason.

You'd think he'd have to be expecting it annually. (He probably does, which is why he usually has an overqualified replacement in place relatively quickly.) As much talk as a "pro-style offense" gets, it's almost like he's figured out "pro-style coaching." In the pros, if you stink, the coordinators and coaches are going to be changed involuntarily; if you do well on a recurring basis, though, upgrade jobs are going to present themselves. I think this is part of "The Process" that he's developed. I do wonder how much continuity they have between coordinators - i.e., how much is "this is how we do it" and how much is "how do you do it?"?

Yup

Good point on the defense - I think I saw that on another article as Tennessee's suggested New Year's resolution. "Get the defense off the field" Purdue is a strong team, and I felt like it would be closer than a touchdown. I really felt like the "Vols by fiddy" folks were way off. (We really gotta get that Florida win next season; this streak is getting ridiculous.)

I liked the call down there, and if Wright doesn't reach the ball out, the refs existing call was correct. (I'd be bummed, but not angry.) I think Coach H thought we could get the TD, then hold them on defense; the last few drives of the game, the D had settled down a bit. I just see folks piling on the play call, and if the officiating had been sound, the play call part would have been viewed much more differently. The ones at the end of regulation might have still been questionable, but I got what he was trying to do; he didn't want to get McGrath a 50-yard attempt, he wanted it from 25 - and, if one of those passes goes for a TD, even better. It's a shame neither of those connected; overtime wouldn't have even happened.

The "going for it on 4th down" calls are genius if the refs didn't hose us. No guarantee Purdue's ensuing possession would have gone the same, but it really sucks to end this way. Looking forward to the future, where games like this won't be so close we need to depend on a blind zebra in overtime...

re: the headline - Yes.

Thanks for covering these SEC-adjacent teams. I picked up CSU as my #2 team when their fans were very cool to us military folks in Albuquerque when they made the New Mexico Bowl one year. McElwain did pretty well there; Bobo, not so much. I like that they've brought CSU into the SEC out-of-conference rotation.

It's a shame we can't share memes here. Butterfly: "GA is in, win or lose" Herbie, the boy looking at it "Is this rat poison?" Coaching up kids in the face of that is tough. Saban got mocked for saying it, but he was absolutely right.

Pretty sure MJ was Michael Jackson before it was Michael Jordan - but go off, Skip. (Does seem a bit hasty for a rookie, but whatevs. Getting upset about this is so far down on my list, I'll probably never get around to it.)

Looking forward to it. I'm a lifelong TN fan, born < mile from campus, lived in Knoxville and Chattanooga until 23 years away in the military. My son, a USA graduate next month, is taking me to my first in-person game.