Big Orange Roundtable: UAB Week
September 9th, 2008 | 
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Big Orange Roundtable: Week 10
It was supposed to be my turn to host the continuing Roundtable over at my old site (The View From The Hill), but obviously I’m no longer there. Nevertheless, I’m sticking to my repsonsibility and I’m just running it from my not-so-new place here at Gate 21.
I’ll try not to complain about not having a bad week – with “mighty” UAB coming up after a bye week…after a loss to a middling Pac-10 team…on national TV… – and just do my job: ask some questions, answer them, and hope the rest of the Roundtable members remember (I have faith they will).
Alright, here’s my trio of questions…
(1) So we’re all still pissed off from losing to a UCLA team we would without a doubt beat at worst eight times out of 10, and now a pretty bad UAB team comes to Knoxville before the epic showdown with Florida and the rest of the SEC gauntlet – the deep breath before the plunge, if you will. What I simply want to know is what do YOU want to see from the Vols this Saturday?
First and foremost, nobody gets hurt. We’re an untimely injury at a couple of different positions away from being in some hot water before getting into the SEC. We’re gonna need to be as healthy as possible to avoid disaster.
Offensively, I just want to see better execution. For example, how about we give the ball to Arian Foster and Montario Hardesty oh, say, about 40+ times, or until we’re up comfortably? Don’t even use the G-Gun – save it for Florida. I wouldn’t care how “vanilla” the playcalling is – Tennessee should be able to just run over, through, and around UAB (For a brief look at UAB, click here and scroll down…to the very bottom)
For Jonathan Crompton, just give Tennessee fans some hope that you’re gonna be able to get it done…as in not one-hopping balls to wide-open receivers and pretending to be throwing to Yao Ming.
Defensively, some adjustments in case UAB starts moving the ball against the Vols (they shouldn’t). UAB shouldn’t score double-digits on offense and a shutout would be nice. Like Crompton, just give the fans some hope that stopping the Gates is possible.
All this said, I expect a boring game where we play around with the Blazers for a little while before finally pulling away. We hardly blow any non-Sun Belt people away anymore, and though UAB lost to a Sun Belt team last week, we’ll probably “take it easy” on them.
(2) Flashback to Saturday night in Gainesville: up 23-3, Florida gets a good punt return by Brandon James inside the Miami 20. With 1:56 left, Urban Meyer sends Tim Tebow back in, and, after a screen pass, a throw into the endzone, and a lost-yardage run, Florida kicks a sand-in-the-face field goal with :25 left, prompting a death stare from Cane coach Randy Shannon and eventually a “handshake” at midfield after the game. Thoughts?
I hope to see some interesting answers for this one (or at least better than mine). Some say he had no other choice. Other use the “BCS Beauty Pageant” argument as if beating Miami 26-3 instead of 23-3 will make that much more of a difference in determining Florida’s postseason fate. Yet others say it was for the south Florida/Miami-area recruits who were in attendance – yeah not sure that is workin’ for ya, Urban. And finally some say he did it for the betting Gators (the kick covered the spread).
Miami coach Randy Shannon clearly wanted to slug Urban Meyer for that late field goal...he should have
I’ll say two things about this: first, say what you want but Urban ran it up on Tennessee last year, though fortunately I was out of the Swamp when he was doing it. That doesn’t really sit well with me and I’m sure our coaches and players remember. I’m not a fan of running it up unnecessarily. Now if you’re scoring with your backups that’s one thing, but when you put your starters in up 20 and try to score, that’s egotistical and annoying.
Secondly, this will backfire on him soon enough – it has to. Someone really important to the Gates will get hurt and people will unleash on him a la Mike Shula with Tyrone Prothro in 2005 (though hopefully nothing that awful happens to anybody).
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(3) And finally, a question that I’m not sure has been so directly asked in the course of the Roundtable, but one that needs answering: the “woo” in Rocky Top…do you “woo” and why do/don’t you “woo”?
I pretty much never “woo” simply because I just don’t like it. Me “woo”ing is like an eclipse – it’s just not something I do. As for why, I just don’t like the addition. It takes away from the beautiful song that is Rocky Top. It seems too sorority girl-ish, though I’m all about the sorority girls…well, uh, some of them. I have no idea how or when it started, but whoever thought it was cool probably wasn’t.
I will say this about the “woo”: fans from other SEC schools hate the song, and if the “woo” was originally meant to be even more annoying, then it was good idea. But I sincerely doubt that’s the case…
As the Roundtable goes, as the other Vol blogs respond to my lousy questions, check back and I’ll have them linked:
- Third Saturday in Blogtober
- SESB
- YMSWWC
- MoonDog Sports
- NEW MEMBER!! Curveballs for Jesus
- Losers With Socks
Images Courtesy of: AP / John Raoux
About the Author: I'm from Memphis but I'm now entering my third year at the University of Tennessee here in Knoxville. I am majoring in Journalism/Electronic Media and hope to go into sports broadcasting/writing/something like that.
I'm a huge Vol fan and have been going to games for as long as I can remember. I started my on blog called "The View From The Hill" but moved here to Gate 21 for bigger and better things.
In addition to my passion for Tennessee football and basketball, I enjoy watching the NFL and the NBA as well. Basically, sports are a big part of my life. >> Read more from this author
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Posted in Big Orange Roundtable, Bulletin Board Material, College Football, College Sports, SEC Fans, SEC Football, The View From the Hill | 
Tags: Arian Foster, Big Orange Roundtable, Dave Clawson, Florida Gators, Jonathan Crompton, Miami Hurricanes, Montario Hardesty, Randy Shannon, Rocky Top, Tennessee Football, UAB Blazers, UCLA Bruins
12 Responses to “Big Orange Roundtable: UAB Week”
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Big Orange Roundtable Vol(ume) 10…
This is a Fumble Free Zone
This week Gate 21 hosts the Big Orange Roundtable and we delve into some issues surrounding the Vols program that have become troubling. Tennessee’s loss to an undermanned UCLA team was unquestionably very difficult for… -
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- @allthingsvols Yes, I know about that all too well. It was fun, but the show must go on. Besides, I am super excited about going to VN.
- Gate 21 Post: A Changing of the Guard… - As I mentioned the other day, any of you that have regularly read Gate 21 ... http://ow.ly/16vnT0
- lawvol A Changing of the Guard%26hellip; http://bit.ly/bHW8gW - The Gate is officially closed
- Gate 21 Post: Changes Afoot - For those of you who are regular readers around here, you have doubtless noticed that... http://ow.ly/16tvjB
- Gate 21 Post: HLL: Lane Kiffin Leaves USC For Dream Job At GameStop http://ow.ly/16ppcv
- lawvol HLL: Lane Kiffin Leaves USC For Dream Job At GameStop http://bit.ly/5rSc79
- Gate 21 Post: HLL: “Leave You Like Kiffin” - Video: Leave You Like Kiffin The Newest from SwiperBoy: HT / via... http://ow.ly/16mOL2
- Gate 21 Post: HLL: Tennessee to Hire Derek Dooley - GVX: Tennessee hiring Derek Dooley “Multiple media sources are ... http://ow.ly/16lFJg
- Gate 21 Post: HLL: Cutcliffe to Stay at Duke - David Cutcliffe will be staying at Duke HT / via: Scout.com Not ... http://ow.ly/16lFJf
- I am thrilled to welcome Coach... http://is.gd/6lCGO
- I am thrilled to welcome Coach #Dooley to the #Tennessee family. We're all behind you. Go #Vols !
- @wshelton2 BTW thanks for having me on last night. Enjoyed it.
- RT @wshelton2: "Be mad at Kiffin. Disagree with Hamilton if you want. But support Dooley." +1
- RT@wesrucker:"I'll say this much for Derek Dooley. He wanted the job and is very excited about it. #Vols fans should appreciate that." AGREE
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Urban Meyer has been doing this every chance he gets-I hated it at Utah but it made more sense there than it does at Miami. You shouldn’t let an opponent run up the score, so you have no grounds for complaining, but it is stupid to risk upsetting your coaching colleagues for three points. The relationship between this field goal and the line also marginally concerns me.
Well, for what it’s worth…
1) I wanna see the Vols come out and look like they understand what they are supposed to do on offense — they don’t have to be perfect, just competent. On defense, I just want more of the same.
2) In my opinion, Urban Meyer just loves rubbing it in the faces of other coaches. To me, it is poor sportsmanship, but then again, I’m an idiot.
3) Depends on my mood. Sometimes I’m all about some “woo” — especially after a big score or something like that. During pre-game I’m less likely to “woo.” I guess it is better than “Yee-Haw” or any number of expletives that fit rhythmically, which were probably considered in the mix at some point.
Ponderous, really ponderous…
Nice questions.
I was very surprised to see your question about the “woo”. The “woo” was started by a trumpet player in the Pride of the Southland in ‘92 or ‘93. He started doing it, the band started doing it, and pretty soon the whole stadium was doing it.
The band geek inside of me says that I probably still do it without thinking…
BV,
I didn’t know that’s how it got started. I mean it could be worse, I just usually don’t woo. I wonder where that trumpet player is today…
I wonder if he’s watching/coming to games and telling people that hes started the whole deal…
as for Urban, Saturday night was much more blatant than the Tennessee game last year, and I do believe to a degree that our team stopped playing (I would use “quit” but we managed to bounce back…)
Hey BandVol — you and I were in a bowling league together at one point in time. I was known then by a variety of names including “Beavis” and “Dom.”
Ring any bells?
OAS AAS LLS
(Yep, that’s evil communist secret society code for all of you out there who don’t know what it means)
Keep the woo.
Think about it: as much as some Vol fans may hate it, every opposing fans hates it all that much more. That alone makes it worth the effort.
that’s kinda what I was getting at with that last part. every non-Vol hates Rocky Top, and the “woo” just adds to it.