ROCK BOTTOM

Smokey mountains and a sea of orange; welcome to Knoxville, Tennessee. Ah, Neyland Stadium, the place where dreams come true… for the visiting teams and fans.

Going into Saturday’s game against Missouri I was confident that I would hear the student section yell “It’s-great-to-be-a-Tennessee-VOL” Instead, I heard a non-UT fan yell back to a guy selling I will give my all for Tennessee today signs “No body wants that sh*t”.

With 0:43 seconds left in regulation the score is 28-28. UT has the ball, 1^st & 10 and at UT 39 yard line- incomplete pass. 2^nd& 10 at UT 39 yard line- pass complete to Marlin Lane- no gain and Dooley let the clock run with two timeouts left. Dooley always preaches that players need to finish the game, what about the coaches? At least act like you want to win the game.

It was a nail biter that took us into four Overtimes, an exciting fake field goal, and a 51-48 loss to Missouri.  That was the seventh straight loss in SEC matchups and forcing Tennessee to look for our fourth head football coach since 2008.

Going into the Vandy game, UT is the underdog for the second straight year against the armpit of the SEC. It’s simply embarrassing. The VOLS are 4-6 this season and 0-6 against SEC teams. There’s a possibility we could be 0-8 in the SEC before this season is over and that is not acceptable.

Dooley, I know you are a nice guy and all, but nice doesn’t win SEC football games. Yes, there has been improvement; however there hasn’t been enough improvement to WIN A FREAKING GAME! Life as a UT fan has officially hit Rock Bottom!

I understand that while we wanted to hear on Monday that Dooley was DONE! It’s not smart to fire him without knowing who the next coach will be. The fear of the unknown would send the wrong message to recruits that we could lose. Nice comb over, love the pants, but you have got-to-go!

Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is for a football coach at Tennessee to beat Florida (and Georgia, and South Carolina). Is that too much to ask?

All this flirting with Gruden has to be too good to be true. It’s obvious that we want him and we are willing to pay celebrity money to make it happen. There’s just too much “speculation” on the situation and let’s be honest, only those in the Tennessee fan base actually believe that Gruden could happen. Just thinking about Gruden makes me want to sing Rocky Top! It would be a game changer for the program and a platform for Gruden to show his true colors in college coaching. His ability to recruit would be second to none and the miracle that could revitalize the brand of Tennessee Football. My fingers are still crossed, but we are prepared that it might not happen. UT fans have suffered a lot more disappointment over the years.

The Monday after the Missouri loss, I was wearing a UT hoodie in the grocery store and I hear a man 70+ years old yell “Go VOLS”! I paused and then turned and looked at him. He still had a fist in the air from fist pumping. I smiled and we began talking about Tennessee Football. He is a UT alumnus with family still in Tennessee and he is still cheering for the Big Orange. He summed up the problem in one sentence “I just want to be respected again”.