well, in the state of tennessee, there are four season. spring, summer, football and winter. we are in football right now and the state of the beloved vols is less that what people want. football in tennessee has been played since 1891 and have 6 national titles. the last of these came in 1998...keep that in mind. 12 years ago was the last national championship that was won by the vols. however, to listen to people that are fans (of which i am) you would think that they should be playing for one every year. i do not adhere to this philosophy. i am an avid fan, but am realistic to the point that i know that the team is not good this year (2-5 as of this write).
one thing to point out, however, about these fans is that they have had their fair share of great players come through knoxville (peyton manning, reggie white, al wilson, robert neyland, phil fulmer, chad clifton, peerless price...i could go on and on. and this year they have some great players, nick reviez, chris walker, luke stocker, but the depth of the team is lacking and thus this season is not going the way that you as a fan would want. this, in my opinion, is due to several factors. one, take into consideration the fact that the team has had 3 coaches in 3 years. phil fulmer was a long standing coach that was forced out of his job due to 2 poor seasons in a 5 year span. plus in his last years he lost to all the big rivals (alabama, georgia, and florida) and one year the team lost to vanderbilt (i'm serious). second in comes the man on a semi-white horse lane kiffin. he led the vols to a 7-5 season and a horrible bowl loss only to leave out the back door to usc. good riddence. (there may be more on this at a later date). all of this led to numerous guys coming in and going out. plus recruiting suffered in the last of the fulmer era and hasn't gained ground yet.
now, here is derek dooley. new head coach of the vols. he walked right into a perfect storm. he has a team that is young and inexperienced. he has a fan base that expects to win championships every season (i'm serious, listen to the sports animal sometime and you'll hear 'em). in fact, the callers on the shows will refer to "we didn't play x, or we have to do y" and probably didn't even play football ever. now, some callers have played and like to tell this every call they have. not sure what they are thinking because they just sound like morons, but i listen anyway. sunny thinks i am a dork for it!
i have to say i like derek dooley and think he will bring talent to knoxville and the vols will someday get back to that "winning way". anyway, i've said all this to get to my point. i follow josh ward, a local radio host, on facebook and today he posted a video link of part of derek dooley's press conference...i don't know that i have laughed so hard or enjoyed a press conference so much. here is the link.
it just goes to show that even though it has been and will continue to be a long season, a little laughter can go a long way. thanks coach!!
No comments:
Post a Comment