Archive for November, 2009

It pretty much goes without saying that Jonathan Crompton’s journey as the Tennessee Volunteers’ quarterback  been a long and arduous one.  This Saturday, that journey moves one step closer to ending.

This weekend’s contest against Vanderbilt will be Crompton’s final home game for the orange and white and will be his one last chance to show the denizens of Neyland Stadium just how committed he has been to the fortunes of Tennessee football, how dedicated he has been to success as both a player and a leader, how much he has worked to become someone the Vols and their fans could be proud of.

It also represents the last time—perhaps the only time—for Tennessee fans of every stripe to show him just how much they appreciate him for what he has done.

Image via Wikipedia

Thus, I hope that all of you who make the trek to the game on Saturday will consider doing a little something special to show Crompton that we as the Vol Nation do appreciate his hard work, his effort, and his loyalty to the University of Tennessee.

I think it is the least that we as a fanbase can do.

In recognition of this, a special group has been formed on Facebook to celebrate Crompton’s contribution to Tennessee Football and to hopefully do a little something special for him on the Vol Walk this weekend.

For those of you out there who don’t recall, Crompton received death threats last season due to the Vols’ implosion.  Then, early this season, there were many who, again, questioned his abilities (including yours truly, I’m sad to say) and openly called for Lane Kiffin to bench the Vol senior in favor of reserve quarterback Nick Stephens.  This ignores the furor on the various chat boards.  This young man had to endure all of this while still trying to work toward winning games.  To Lane Kiffin’s credit, he stuck to his guns and was proven to have made a smart decision when Crompton had his coming out party against the Georgia Bulldogs.

Jonathan Crompton has played under four different offensive systems, and has had to re-learn everything throughout his entire time at Tennessee.  Yet, rather than complain or just give up, Crompton stuck it out despite his doubters.  He kept working, kept trying, kept pushing to be better.  Even though it probably took him a bit longer than he wished it had, he finally found that success that had so eluded him.  What’s more, in the process of attaining his goal, he gave the new era of Tennessee Football a fighting chance for respectability in its first year.

Despite his successes this season, it is doubtful that Jonathan Crompton will ever be remembered as one of the greatest quarterbacks to wear the orange.  With names like Peyton Manning, Andy Kelly, and Heath Shuler in the lineage, that is understandable.  Still, in many ways, Crompton has shown more determination, more perseverance, and more heart than any Tennessee quarterback in the modern era.

I think that means something.

Thus, I encourage all of you to not only join the Facebook group honoring Crompton’s contribution to Tennessee Football, but to also maybe do a little something on your own this Saturday as he makes his final Vol Walk toward Neyland Stadium—maybe a sign, maybe a salute, maybe a kind word.

In light of the events of the past week and the misdeeds of some of the Volunteers, I think Crompton’s type of dedication and sacrifice stands out all the more.

All I can do is to say that I am proud that Crompton wore the orange…

– So it goes…

Well, the first step has been taken…

Mike Edwards and Nu’Keese Richardson have been dismissed from the Volunteers football team.

HT / via: Rocky Top Talk

I hate it for those young men, but I applaud Coach Kiffin for doing the right thing.  You cannot embarrass the program, its fans, or the university that way and expect to continue on like nothing happened.

Sad, but necessary…

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 12

Through 15 November 2009

While it didn’t seem that way at the time, this weekend was apparently a bit of a whirlwind in in the world of college football, as the entire mid-section of my poll ballot from last week emptied itself out.  As a result, there is a lot of movement in my ballot for this week with the middle and the bottom tiers of my week 11 ballot trading places.   On another note, I am — yet again — in the midst of preparing for trial and, thus, it will have to be short and sweet this week.   I know, I know, it was pretty short and sweet last week, and the week before that, and so on.   All I can say is that I do have thoughts on many topics related to the world of college football, however, due to the frenetic pace that attends an active litigation practice, I simply will have to wait before delving into the details of my random obserations.  That said, here it is for this week, without further comment. I’d actually be a bit surprised if the reasoning behind the changes in my ballot for the week weren’t fairly apparent, but I’ve been surprised (and wrong) many times before.  Either way, here is is:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Texas	–
3	Florida	–
4	TCU	–
5	Cincinnati	–
6	Ohio State	–
7	Georgia Tech	–
8	Pittsburgh	–
9	Boise State	1
10	LSU	4
11	Penn State	5
12	Oregon	5
13	Oklahoma State	5
14	Wisconsin	6
15	Brigham Young	6
16	Virginia Tech	7
17	Stanford	NR
18	Southern Cal	9
19	Utah	7
20	Clemson	NR
21	Miami (Florida)	10
22	Houston	9
23	Navy	1
24	Rutgers	NR
25	Iowa	10
Last week’s ballot

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 insults comments.

You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at CBS Sports later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.

– So it goes…

A little video goodness from the one and only, often imitated but never replicated, the man, the myth, the legend: LSUFreek. This time, it’s all about the Bowdens.

Video: Bobby Bowden’s Swan Song

HT / via: LSUFreek

I’m just glad it’s not Tennessee this time around…

Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports BlogPoll Top 25 hosted by — as you might imagine — CBS Sports.

Week 11

Through 8 November 2009

This past weekend’s slate of college football games were—for the most part—supposed to be dull and boring.  There were very few “key” matchups on the schedule and most thought it might be a snoozer.  Well, that simply did not turn out to be the case.   Thus, there are a number of shake-ups in my BlogPoll Top 25 ballot for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here is is:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Texas	–
3	Florida	–
4	TCU	–
5	Cincinnati	3
6	Ohio State	6
7	Georgia Tech	4
8	Pittsburgh	6
9	Southern Cal	4
10	Boise State	–
11	Miami (Florida)	6
12	Utah	6
13	Houston	2
14	LSU	8
15	Iowa	6
16	Penn State	11
17	Oregon	10
18	Oklahoma State	2
19	Arizona	2
20	Wisconsin	3
21	Brigham Young	3
22	South Florida	3
23	Virginia Tech	NR
24	Navy	NR
25	Auburn	NR
Last week’s ballot

Explanations after the jump…

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Some of Slive's Henchmen at Work

Well, it looks like there are a few teeth to Mike Slive’s new edict that coaches refrain from criticizing the SEC’s finest.  What’s more, and somewhat to my surprise, it appears that the new policy even applies to Urban Meyer.  The basis for these conclusions?  Mike Slive’s decision to fine Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer $30,000 for criticizing the officiating during the Gators’ game against the Georgia Bulldogs, which was announced via an official release earlier today.

I am sure that Jeremy Foley will be lodging a strongly worded protest shortly, demanding that Lane Kiffin apologize for not being fined before Meyer…

So this raises a question: can you get fined for criticizing the fine you got tacked with for criticizing the officials?  I wonder if we will find out?  That could be highly entertaining.

At any rate, I guess we now know that Mike Slive actually meant what he said when he declared himself the High Inquisitor of the SEC.  Of course, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition…

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Lawvol, attempting to overcome obstacles to writing

In case you haven’t noticed, I have been pretty sparse with my posts lately.  Part of that is my fault—solid time management has never been one of my strong suits.  That said, I have been so busy of late, that I have hardly had a chance to breathe, let alone finish the 20+ odd posts that I have started and had to abandon due to the other requirements of life.  I suppose I have tried a little too hard to keep the bar high.

Thus, while I am somewhat reluctant to do this (but ignoring it would be the most foolish sort of ignorance and an out-an-out lie), it is time for me to admit that I simply cannot manage a daily posting schedule.   Therefore, I would like to publicly invite anyone that think they might be interested in writing for the Gate to drop me a line.  I am looking for at least one, but potentially more writers to join on.  I’m looking for someone who is passionate about the Vols and likes to talk about that passion.  Beyond that, I am flexible.

If you think you might be interested, contact me and I’ll be glad to fill you in on all the lurid details…

– So it goes …

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