Archive for September, 2008

Obviously, I am a fan of the Tennessee Volunteers.  First and foremost, however, I am a lover of all of the great and grand traditions of college football, of the sport that creates such passion, and of the magical memories it makes for so many regardless of the colors they may wear.

It is for that reason that today is a sad day.  Last night legendary (and there is no word that fits other than “legendary”) college football radio announcer Larry Munson announced his retirement effective immediately.  Munson, who will celebrate his 86th birthday on Sunday, has served as the radio voice of the Georgia Bulldogs for 43 wonderful years.

Due to failing health, Munson began only announcing Georgia home games in 2007.  Then in April of this year Munson was diagnosed with blood clots in his brain and underwent brain surgery.  Some wondered if he would return for football season this fall.  Undeterred, Munson announced Georgia’s the home opener versus Georgia Southern.  Last night, however, Munson decided that it was time.

Larry Munson: Voice of the Dawgs for 43 years

As I wrote in February, I remember all too well, what it felt like to hear John Ward announce his final game as the Voice of the Vols.  I was heartbroken to know that his voice would no longer announce “It’s Football Time in Tennessee!”  I still miss hearing him broadcast the fortunes of the Vols across the radio.  With no disrespect to Bob Kesling and Tim Priest—who do a fine job—it simply is not the same without Ward behind the microphone.  Still, at least the Vol-faithful had a year to honor Ward and color-man Bill Anderson, and one last chance to enjoy their wonderful brand of football announcing.  For the Georgia fans, it is already over.

I sincerely want to send out my personal best wishes to Larry Munson as he enters retirement.  Still, it simply won’t be the same.  There are so few of the grand college announcers  such as Ward and Munson left, and soon they will all fade from the airwaves and into memory.

Good luck, and Godspeed, Larry Munson!  You may be gone, but you will never be forgotten…

• To hear some of Munson’s great (and they are great) calls, visit: Larry Munson.com
• My tribute to the great radio voices of College Football:  The Voice of College Sports…
• Tom Mattingly’s wonderful look back at Tennessee Football on the Radio: For 60 Years, “This is the Vol Network”

– Go Figure …

Image Courtesy of: AJC.com / Curtis Compton

General Robert R. Neyland is perhaps the single most important person in the evolution of Tennessee Football.  His legacy is forever intertwined with the university, the teams, and the fans.  In recognition of his immeasurable contribution, I am pleased to introduce a new feature here at the Gate, “Marching Orders From the General.”  Without further adieu, here is the first installment:

Okay, I have had my day to be negative—to brood and stew over the Tennessee Volunteers‘ loss to the Florida Gators.

It’s now time to be constructive, to analyze, and to look ahead. I know that a lot of the members of the Orange Nation are ready to write this season off.  I am not.  Be that as it may, I cannot ignore what  I witnessed at Neyland Stadium this past weekend.  I have a feeling that, as MoonDog noted, General Neyland would have been sick to his stomach over the Vols performance.

The General, however, was accustomed to adversity, and understood that sometimes you have to modify your plan to make sure that you attain your goal.  Complaining accomplishes nothing—the only thing that matters is what you do going forward.

One of the grand traditions of the Tennessee football program is the constant re-commitment of the team to General Neyland’s 7 Game Maxims. These are the foundation upon which the entire ethos of the program are based. Using these fundamental concepts as a lens, let’s look at how the Vols did this weekend, and what they need to do going forward to achieve the level of excellence that the General called for both on the playing field and the battlefield.

Maxim 1: “The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.”

The inability of the Vols to honor this truth is ultimately what led to their defeat…

Ball Protection

Tennessee’s three turnovers—two of which came inside the 3-yard line—absolutely killed the Vols on offense.  One of these came in the form of an interception, the other two in the form of fumbles.

The first fumble (1st Quarter 8:55, on the Tennessee 23), this was credited as a fumble by Montario Hardesty, which is accurate.  Hardesty should have been able to hold onto the 4-yard pass from Crompton, and picked up a gain.  The fact remains, however, that Hardesty was in double-coverage with a safety collapsing quickly.  The pass—which came on 3rd and 15 and would have done little to move the ball toward the 1st Down—was floated to a clearly off-balance Hardesty and effectively left him strung-out.  This pass invited a fumble-jarring hit, which it received.  While I am not exonerating Hardesty, Crompton should have simply thrown the ball away.

The second fumble (3rd Quarter 13:00, on the Florida 2) was simply a bad exchange, but not in the traditional sense.  This was not the tailback failing to get a handle on the ball when receiving the handoff.  This was the ball hitting the fullback in the hip as the quarterback rolled to his right—in other words, the quarterback didn’t have a handle on the ball after the snap, and thus had the ball in an unprotected position, resulting in a fumble.  Those things happen from time to time, but you cannot let them happen at critical turning-point moments in the game.  It is a question of focus, and you must be focused when you are trying to push in a score.

The interception (2nd Quarter 00:02, on the Florida 2) in the endzone  immediately before halftime was simply a bad throw into coverage, there really isn’t anything else to be said.  Jonathan Crompton’s willingness to heave the ball into 2 or 3-man press coverage has become as worrying as it has routine.  Jonathan Compton must start making better decisions, and start looking to other receivers, tuck and run, or throw the ball away.  Crompton cannot continue to to simply throw the ball into the crowd and hope that the receiver makes a play.  I will be the first to admit that there are times when this sort of approach can work—as it did for Crompton versus LSU in 2006, or as it did for Tee Martin versus pretty much anyone when Peerless Price was the receiver—but those are the exception, not the rule.  Crompton must begin to look for other outlets and if none exists, throw the ball away.

Crompton's ill-fated pass into the endzone as seen from Sec. Y7

That said, Tennessee should have scored on one of the preceding three plays (all of which occurred inside the Florida 5-yard line), which would have prevented the pass ever being thrown.

Clock Management

Tennessee’s final three offensive plays of the first half were one of the worst examples of clock management that Tennessee has shown in a very long time.  With 1:13 to go in the half, Tennessee had the ball on the Florida 5-yard line—it was Tennessee’s chance to potentially get itself back in the ballgame.  At that point, the score was 20-0.  20-7 would have given the Vols a chance to enter the locker room with momentum and a chance to comeback in the second half.  What ensued was a play calling disaster. With 30 seconds remaining in the half, Tennessee had the ball on the 2-yard line, and still had one timeout.  Rather than immediately stop the clock, however, the Vols let 14 seconds tick off of the clock before signaling the timeout.  I was sitting approximately 50 feet from this display in Section Y7.  With 29 ticks remaining, I clearly saw Crompton make a time out signal toward the referee, but the referee was screened and could not see Crompton.  No whistle blew, and the clock continued to run.  For the next 14 seconds neither Crompton, one of his teammates, nor the coaching staff called a timeout.  In then end the Vols finally stopped the clock with 16 seconds remaining.  This is unbelievable.

The old adage is that “you play until the whistle is blown.”  That is just as true in timeout-calling as it is in downfield blocking.  Someone, whether player or coach, should have had their wits about them enough to reach out grab the ref and make the timeout signal.  No one did.  With those seconds gone, Tennessee had almost no time left with which to try and punch the ball into the endzone.  When they did get it in the endzone, it was an interception.

With that interception, the game was over…

The mental game is just as important as the physical side of the game.   Tennessee simply did not have their heads in the game on offense.

Maxim 2: “Play for and make the breaks and when one comes your way—SCORE.”

Well, to a large degree, there were few breaks to be had in the game.  The bulk of those breaks came in the form of Florida capitalizing on Tennessee’s errors.  That said, there were several times when key players made big plays which—for the briefest of moments—gave the Orange and White a chance to gain the upper hand.  One good example was Dennis Rogan’s 43 yard runback on the opening kickoff of the second half.  Another was the first quarter defensive stop on the Tennessee 22-yard line which led to a Florida field goal, but prevented a touchdown.  These two breaks—along with numerous other small swings in the game–led to nothing for the Vols.

Though the opportunities were real, the Vols simply never took advantage of them…

Maxim 3: “If at first the game—or the breaks—go against you, don’t let up… put on more steam.”

When it comes to effort, there are actually a few bright spots…

Rico McCoy and Eric Berry both gave a supreme effort.  There is nothing more that this tandem could have done to try and push the Vols to victory.  Even late in the fourth quarter, they were both running at full speed and giving 100% effort on every single play.  I never once saw them let up or slow down.  They had a combined 18 tackles (including a sack for Berry).  In all honesty, I’d have to say that the defensive unit as a whole left everything on the field.  After stumbling on the opening drive by Florida, and allowing a touchdown, I felt that the defense came to play.  They were hardly perfect—especially when it came to penalties—but they tried their hardest and game their all for Tennessee.  There was no quit in this unit.

The offense, while not as marked as the defense, also gave great effort.  In particular, Jonathan Crompton exhibited more drive and grit than I have seen from him this year.  He refused to give up, despite all of the miscues, bobbles, and mistakes.  This was best exemplified by Crompton’s unwillingness to slide late in the game when fronted by a Florida defender.  Rather than make the safe play, Crompton lowered his head and ran straight at him.  It was probably not the smartest decision on his part, given the fact he was completely flat-backed, but his heart was obviously still in it.

The coaching staff obviously wanted this game—for reasons which I will go into in greater detail in a follow-up post to this one.  Their effort during the game was admirable.  I saw more fire on the sidelines from the coaches than I have seen in years past.  That said, coaching is one area where your best effort can sometimes be demonstrated by not needing to be animated or excited.

The fans are also a part of this analysis.  I will give the fans a split-analysis in this area.  At the start of the game, regardless of what they may have thought the likely outcome of the game might be, the fans were ready to go.  When the “T” opened and the players came out on the field it was white-noise and hysteria.  That held true throughout the first quarter.  After Tennessee’s repeated self-destruction on offense, however, the fans went cold; many went home.  I am not going to criticize the fans for their decisions in this regard, though I want to on some level.  I travel a long way to the games, and it costs a great deal of money to do so.  I stayed until the last second and watched the Vols play to the end.  Does that make me a better fan?  Probably not.  Does it give me the right to criticize those who left early?  Probably so.  As a personal matter, I strongly believe that if you don’t have the guts and composure to stay to the end and take the cheers of your opponent, then you don’t have the right to bask in the glory when your team wins.  The fact of the matter is, however, I understand their frustrations.

If, as the scoreboard says, "This is Tennessee Football," then the empty seats in the stands speak of serious problems.

On a more basic level, however, as both HSH and I have said in the last few days, if you are going to boo your own players, then just stay home.  The players on the team do not need your validation to prove that they work hard and make sacrifices to be the best that they can be.  They also don’t need your booing when they fall short of the goal they strive for.  Booing the coaching staff, or the decision to punt rather than go for it on fourth down is one thing, booing the players is another.  I understand your frustrations, but just like the team on the field, if you cannot retain your composure and lose with some integrity and class then do not come to the game.  If you cannot act like a good sport, then there is no place for you in the stadium—no matter what team you follow.  Period.

If you booed the team this past weekend, you should be ashamed of yourself…

Maxim 4: “Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead, and our ball game.”

Well, in this regard the Vols were decent, not outstanding, but decent.  The offensive live really never created much in terms of a push off the line for the running backs, and the penalties for false starts and holding were particularly costly.  Still, the line did a pretty good job of protecting Crompton.  The same would be true for the kick protection.  They were average, but if the teams gels and makes the scores, then it is probably enough to win.

As for protecting the ball game, well there really is not much that can be said there…

Maxim 5: “Ball, oskie, cover, block, cut and slice, pursue, and gang tackle… for this is the WINNING EDGE.”

As I said above under the Third Maxim, I was happy with the defense.  Could they have done some things better?  Absolutely.  Is there room to improve?  You better believe it.

Did the defense do enough to win?  You’re damn right they did, just as they did versus UCLA.

Until the offense finds itself, I am not going to be overly critical of a defense that has fought as hard as any I’ve seen in a while.

Maxim 6: “Press the kicking game.  Here is where the breaks are made.”

Once again, the General’s insight is telling.  Florida’s Brandon James returned the opening kickoff 52 yards.  Last year he ran a kick back for a touchdown only to have it negated by a penalty.  Ignoring this experience, and James’ ability to be a gamebreaker, the Vols kick it back to him on the very next series setting up a 78 yard run back for a touchdown.  You don’t have to be a genius to realize that you can kick it away from him, as Florida did by kicking it to Brandon Warren in the third quarter.

Still, the kick coverage team showed a lack of cohesiveness in over-pursuing, blocking one another, and failing to contain the run backs.

While Dennis Rogan did his best to make things happen on Tennessee’s kick returns, costly penalties killed the momentum he earned with his speed and field awareness.

Maxim 7: “Carry the fight to our opponent and keep it there for 60 minutes.”

As I said under the Third Maxim, both the offense and the defense did everything they could in terms of effort.  The fact of the matter was, however, there was never any real “fight” put to Florida.  In the end, the Vols put on one of the worst displays I have seen in Neyland Stadium in a very long time.  I would put this game in the same class as the 1996 loss to Memphis at the Liberty Bowl and the 1994 loss to the Gators in Knoxville.  The difference is that in 1994, the Vols had a true-freshman quarterback who never expected to be playing that early in the season, whie the ‘94 Gators were absolute terrors.  In 1996, the Vols simply had a bad game versus a motivated opponent—though inexcusable–that team was otherwise solid across the board.

This game was one the Vols were “supposed” to lose.  It was not one where they were supposed to get blown-out.  I realize that there is a new quarterback calling the signals this year, but he is a fourth-year junior who had considerable experience in 2006.  This is not an inexperienced team which lacks a fundamental understanding of what it is supposed to do in game situations.

I will be going into some other thoughts on this game and the big picture for Tennessee in the next day or so, but until then, I will sum up my thoughts with this:

There was no commander to be found on the field this weekend, and the troops had no leader…

My, how we could have used a little help from the General.

– Go Figure …

Images by: lawvol

Here’s my ballot for this week’s College Football BlogPoll which, as always, is hosted by MGOBlog.

Week 4

I know, I know, I’m a moron…

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	Oklahoma	–
3	Georgia	–
4	LSU	–
5	Missouri	–
6	Florida	–
7	Wisconsin	–
8	Penn State	1
9	Alabama	1
10	Texas	1
11	Texas Tech	1
12	Wake Forest	3
13	Auburn	5
14	Ohio State	–
15	Utah	1
16	Brigham Young	2
17	South Florida	–
18	Colorado	2
19	Vanderbilt	6
20	Oregon	7
21	Kansas	–
22	Illinois	–
23	Boise State	3
24	Fresno State	2
25	Clemson	1

Dropped Out: East Carolina (#19), Florida State (#23), Arizona State (#24).

Comments,  Explanations, and Excuses

Most of this week is self-explanatory, but here are a few of the high-points of the weeks changes:

Colorado (18):

I am glad to see that the Colorado Buffaloes stood up for me and my persistent belief that they are a quality football team by beating the amazingly over-rated West Virginia Mountaineers.  See, I get one right every now and then…

Ohio State (14):

I know that the Buckeyes won, but it was anything but pretty versus Troy.  I realize that the Bucks were feeling cold and flat after the loss to Southern Cal, but they have to pick it up a bit.  If they don’t get it going quickly, they will have several losses in the Big Ten this season.  On the bright side, at least they aren’t playing like Tennessee.

The Rest of the BlogPoll

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all comments.

As for the rest of the BlogPoll, well, you can check out how other bloggers voted, how your team fared across the blogosphere, and view the weekly results each Wednesday over at MGOBlog.

– Go Figure …

Check out the Full Poll Results at Garnet and Black Attack or SEC Power Poll.com

Week 4

After week 4’s “statement” games,  here’s my ballot for this week in the SEC Power Poll.

In all its radiant glory:

As always, feel free to tell me I’m wrong…

The Rest of the Power Poll

Now that you have wasted your time looking at my ballot, go check out what everybody else is saying over at Garnet and Black Attack or SEC Power Poll.com. I’ll try to remember to post the final poll results once it is released later in the week.

– Go Figure …

I’m not going to complain, however.  I just really thought a new header was in order (you may have to hit refresh a time or two for it to appear).

No, the new graphic has no correlation with Tennessee’s performance in the game today.

None whatsoever. I wouldn’t lie…

– Go Figure …

» Updated: 20 September 2008 — 10:25 pm

I changed the header back to my standard look, but for those of you who would like to see what it looked like, you can view it by clicking here.

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Posted From: Section Y7 – Neyland Stadium and Somewhere on I-40
Well, that was fun (note scarcasm)…

The Tennessee Volunteers lose to the Florida Gators for the fourth year in a row. More accurately, the Tennessee offense lost to Florida for the fourth year in a row. The defense, though hardly perfect (especially on the first Florida offensive series) did, in my opinion play well enough to win (allowing only 248 yds). It should have been a 20-14 Florida lead at halftime, but the Tennessee offense, looked abysmal in the orange zone throughout the day. In the end, I stick to my prior belief that our defense is really quite impressive (especially Eric Berry who refused to quit) — the offense looks like Vanderbilt under Gerry DiNardo.

Tennessee managed 84 yards rushing, and actually showed the ability to pass — the source of most of Tennessee’s yardage. That passing ability was, however, horribly erratic and unreliable. Despite gaining more total yards (256 yds to Florida’s 248 yds), the Vols gave up 3 turnovers (2 of which were inside the 3-yard line) that squelched all hopes of coming from behind. Florida’s press coverage wreaked havoc on the Orange & White and, again, showed Jonathan Crompton’s lack of experience, field awareness, and a bunch of other important attributes which currently elude me.

Tennessee is not a very good team — a good defense, perhaps — but not a good team.
Oh yeah, it doesn’t appear that the UCLA game was a fluke…
Bullet points to come shortly, after the Great Punkin gives his post-game interview (which he doesn’t appear to want to do)…

- I particularly enjoyed the attempted 2-point conversion where Crompton managed to complete a pass to Center Josh McNeil who was sitting on the ground 3 feet in front of him.

- Brandon Warren, again had limited playing time at tight end, despite making a decent pick up in the 1st half. For the life of me, I don’t know why. Credit Luke Stocker, however, who played well today and thus sheds the “Skillet Hands Award.”

- Penalties were a killer for the Vols, but apparently the officials didn’t want it to be too big. The officials called offsetting personal fouls on more than one occasion — the last coming with 1 minute to go in the 3rd Quarter. Tennessee still gave Florida multiple 1st downs on penalties.

This Tennessee team needs a leader — someone needs to step up. Seeing Al Wilson, who was honored prior to kickoff made that all the more apparent. The defense appears to have a leader in the form of Eric Berry, but there needs to be someone on offense as well. There needs to be an upperclassman to get this team focused and to get the troops rallied. This team also needs to be better coached — there is no way around it. The defense did not quit this year, that was a positive. The offense, however, never really even showed up.

On a personal note, I am now 3-8 in games against Florida which I personally attended. More importantly, with this win Florida has now evened the series between the schools at 19 wins each. It’s going to be a long week getting ready for Auburn.

More to come in the next 24 hours…
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Posted From: Section Y7 – Neyland Stadium
- 7:35 – 1st: Huge Stop on 3rd down by the defense. 10-0 Florida, but at least we’re still in it.
- 1:00 – 1st: Are we still alive after that runback? Lord, do we need Touchdown.
- End of 1st: If our offense can just figure out how to continue to move the ball we have a chance. In case you didn’t know – Brandon Warren is a stud.

-10:10 – 2nd: Our offense is just mind boggling. Advance 97 yards only to fumble on the freakin’ 3-yard line. What do we have to do? Should have paid the refs more.

-HALFTIME: Well, so far the best thing about the game has been watching Smokey dance to “Thriller” with the Band. The Vols have made it to the 2 and the 3 and have zero points. The inability of the offense to finish the deal in the Orange zone is absolutely unbelieveable.
I’m not giving up, but the reality is that it appears that this game is over.
At the half Florida: 20 Tennessee: Nada, Nichts, Zilch.
At least they brought out Bruce and the Barbarians and Pat and the Lady Vols to keep people from leaving.
The call-in shows are sure going to be interesting…
Phone battery is low — may only have a few updates left until the fat lady sings…
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