#ItMightMeanTooMuch: Opening weekend-level trolling? Nah, trolling is in midseason form
As a whole, the SEC didn’t look like it was in midseason form.
Three losses to Group of 5 teams and a pair of losses from 3-score favorites to start the year suggested that SEC fans won’t be making any top-to-bottom bragging rights claims anytime soon.
But as a whole, the SEC trolling is in midseason form. That was no surprise.
Instead of just picking one individual troll job, I decided to include best 7 of the week that I saw. And believe me, there were plenty more troll jobs.
Here were the best midseason SEC-related troll jobs I saw following Week 1:
1. The HBC gets a Tennessee dig in like we’d expect
What’s that phrase about if a tree falls in the forest and nobody sees it, did it really happen? Well, if Tennessee suffers an embarrassing loss and Steve Spurrier doesn’t troll the Vols, did it really happen?
The Vols’ stunning loss to Georgia State did indeed happen, and the HBC was indeed there to troll.
Georgia State coach Shawn Ellliott knew his team could exploit Tennessee on both lines of scrimmage. The Panthers believed him, and the result was an upset that didn’t look like one. Elliott’s former boss — an expert at beating Tennessee — was impressed. https://t.co/fe0c5z8TTU pic.twitter.com/ErrTtTwGF0
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) September 2, 2019
Rocky Top is indeed Rocky Bottom. Paul Finebaum said that this was rock bottom for Tennessee, so Spurrier is hardly alone in that thinking.
To recap, we’re 2 weeks into the college football season. Week 0 gave us the GIF/meme of the year with Spurrier’s disapproving look following a Feleipe Franks interception and Week 1 gave us Spurrier trolling an SEC rival.
That’s what I call comin’ in hot.
2. The ultimate troll sale from Georgia State
If you’re Georgia State, you absolutely need to capitalize on the Tennessee win from a marketing standpoint. It could be another decade before you beat a Power 5 team again, and perhaps even longer for the program to beat a traditional power like Tennessee.
That explained why Georgia State rolled out this little Labor Day sale for a ticket promotion … complete with multiple trolls of the Vols:
The orange “U” and “T” is extremely well done. In my opinion, it would be even more subtle shade if you took the final score out. We know what happened. People would still get what they were doing.
Then again, it does explain to everyone why the ticket price was $38.30 for a family 4-pack. That’s a super good deal, by the way. If Georgia State is going to play like that every week, that’s quite the bargain.
Reality is that unless they capitalize on this, they’ve got about 3-4 more weeks until idiots like me go back to confusing Georgia State with Georgia Southern. Credit to Georgia State for recognizing that.
3. Making sure people don’t forget
It’s one thing to troll with a ticket promotion. It’s a different level of trolling to be the person who bought up space on a truck to make sure that the screens played highlights of Georgia State’s upset of Tennessee.
Behold:
A truck was driving riding around Atlanta showing the Georgia State vs Tennessee game. This level of petty I can support. 😂 @Chase_Miller5 pic.twitter.com/gLEPfU9fcf
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) September 3, 2019
A few thoughts I had on this troll truck:
- I’d love to find out who watched that game Saturday and immediately thought, “Get me the video of that game so I can drive around Atlanta reminding everybody what happened.”
- How much does that cost?
- Who specifically is the person who would shell out cash for that? Georgia State fans? Georgia fans? A random person who just really hates Tennessee?
- How often does this truck show highlights of football games throughout the season?
My SDS Podcast co-host Chris Marler said that the truck usually advertises for an adult gentlemen’s club and it’s seen around downtown Atlanta all the time. Perhaps it would make sense that Georgia State, located in downtown Atlanta, would have a fan or booster deem that investment worthy. I mean, the video is already over 325,000 views.
It actually reminded me a lot of the OG #ItMightMeanTooMuch that sparked the idea for this column. Who could forget the Georgia fan driving around Atlanta with the 2017 SEC Championship replaying on the back of his Hummer?
There is a guy driving around Atlanta with a working TV strapped to his Hummer. He is playing the SEC Championship Game over and over. #ItJustMeansMore #SECChamps pic.twitter.com/AQCe8PPKTL
— DAWGS MAN, DAWGS (@ENOUGHSENOUGH24) December 6, 2017
Moral of the story? If you lose on Saturday, expect to see a replay of it by someone via their vehicle driving around Atlanta.
4. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency can troll too?!?
You know it’s a bad loss when the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is getting in on the trolling.
Before Saturday’s season opener, a boat in the Vol Navy burned and sank into the Tennessee River. That was probably a bad omen for the day ahead in Knoxville. It also turned out to be troll fuel for the TWRA.
In a since-deleted tweet, they said, “The 42 foot cabin cruiser that sank off the Vol Navy docks on Saturday morning was recovered that afternoon by Tow Boat US. Wonder if they are in the business of football team recovery? The Tennessee #Vols sure got shipwrecked.”
Goodness. Too soon. Way too soon.
No wonder that tweet got deleted.
5. JaTarvious “Boobie” Whitlow couldn’t stomach losing to a Pac-12 school or whatever
I’d love to have Whitlow’s confidence for just a day. A few weeks ago, he declared that Auburn had America’s best running backs, offensive linemen, defensive line and nearly every position on the field. It came as no surprise to see that Whitlow was feeling pretty confident following the season opening win against the Pac-12 favorite.
“Nobody wanted to lose to Oregon. We feel like that’s a bad reputation on them. What are they, ACC? Pac-12? I didn’t even know what they were. A Pac-12 team coming in and beating an SEC team, we can’t take that,” Whitlow told reporters, per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg.
Real quick — I’d love to live in a world where Oregon was in the ACC. Can you imagine intra-conference games between Oregon and Boston College? You haven’t lived until you’ve flown from coast to coast to play a conference game.
Whitlow is quickly becoming the poster child for SEC swagger. I’d have a little bit of swagger if I just hit the 100-yard mark against a solid Oregon defense and picked up a huge Week 1 win.
And who knows? Maybe experiencing that type of rush would prompt me go say some not-so-nice things about the Pac-12, too.
6. Texas tries to be “DBU,” ends up being “Troll U”
What’s a headliner game without some trolling to start the week?
If you want to get LSU players and fans fired up, tell them that someone else is “DBU.” That’s exactly what Texas players did by rocking these “There’s only one DBU” T-shirts:
Texas taking early shots at LSU pic.twitter.com/PdSkm3M99a
— MK💜⚜️🍷 (@mknovaa) September 1, 2019
Ah, I love it when an offseason discussion spills into game week. This is an interesting move to poke fun at LSU heading into Saturday night. Then again, Tom Herman has never been shy about trolling. We all remember his trolling of Drew Lock in the Texas Bowl.
If and when Joe Burrow gets things rolling in the passing game, it wouldn’t surprise me if he shared some thoughts on Texas’ “DBU” claim. The Longhorns did just allow 340 passing yards to Louisiana Tech, so it wouldn’t be surprising if that opportunity presented itself for Burrow and Co.
7. Even a Baton Rouge restaurant wants in on the trolling
Remember 2 seconds ago when I said that LSU fans don’t like it when someone else tries to claim “DBU?”
This is what I meant by that:
— Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) September 3, 2019
That’s some serious self-awareness from the Baton Rouge restaurant to admit that they aren’t on par with a highly-regarded steakhouse. But hey, we get the point.
The midweek buildup for LSU-Texas hasn’t disappointed. Trolling on trolling is what we need.
One thing feels certain for Saturday night and really all of 2019 — the trolling won’t stop when the clock hits zero.