Posts Tagged ‘Big Orange Roundtable’

Well, I am almost done with the migration of the Gate from its current location on the web to its new home with my new hosting provider: Media Temple.  So far, I have been nothing but impressed with what they have to offer and I hope that there are many great things to come in the future here as a result.   I anticipate the “flipping the switch” for the change over in the next day or so, thus, my prior warning about the possibility that the Gate might “go missing” stands for a little while longer.  Such is life.

At any rate, due to being tied up with all my hosting-reconfiguration activities, I haven’t really had a chance to finish up the post I had planned for today. Thus, at a minimum I wanted to pass on a few links and what-not that seemed worth giving a look.

• The Big Orange Roundtable Returneth: For those of you that remember the Vol-blogosphere’s little foray into collaboration from 2008, the roundtable is back.  Thus, the Big Orange Brethren (myself included) kickoff the 2009 Big Orange Roundtable this week with the first installment hosted by MoonDog.  For those of you who were not around for last year’s roundtable, it is a weekly roundtable discussion where a host poses a series of questions to the collective brain-trust of the Vol-blogosphere who, respond with their BS insightful and thought provoking answers.  At the end of the week, the host provides a round-up of the responses and the comments posted by each of the member Roundtable sites, along with a few parting thoughts.  It is a great series that was a lot of fun last season. Go ahead and check out this week’s questions.   I plan on posting my responses in the next day or so.
• Ray Nettles and the Long Road to Redemption: Ray Nettles was a linebacker for the Big Orange from 1969-1971, winning All-America and All-SEC honors in 1971.  Over the past 38 years since leaving Tennessee he has struggled with his demons and his own brand of inner-conflict.  Now, however, he talks of redemption and finding his way back home from battles with addiction, marital strife, and now cancer.  Throughout his journey he has been supported by his former teammates in ways that even he has a difficult time understanding.

  Video: Ray Nettles Seeks Redemption

  This is a really powerful story of success, collapse, failure, and recovery which I highly recommend. Via: Florida Times-Union • HT: The Vol Historian

• The 2008 Football Season in Seconds: Joel, “the Flashmaster General” offers up a re-cap of the entire 2008 football season in only seconds.   How, you ask? Through the miracles of the Adobe flash player, that’s how.  Check it out, just in case you forgot… Via: Rocky Top Talk

• At least I drive better than this: I am really not sure why this lady was having such a difficult time driving a golf cart. They are fairly simple inventions.  Two pedals.  One steering wheel.  Four tires.  Needless to say, I won’t be riding with her anytime soon.

  Video: How Not to Drive a Golf Cart

  Now I know where personal-injury lawyers get their clients… Via: Fandome

At any rate, I hope to have the Gate migrated to its new home and to finally be set for the upcoming football season soon.

Until then, this will have to do…

– So it goes …

It’s Bama Week

No Alabama-Tennessee week would be complete without a Big Orange Roundtable, and the Vols over at Third Saturday in Blogtober have been gracious enough to include us in a joint roundtable with their Bammer counterparts in a Orange/White/Crimson Roundtable.

Two side notes: first, if you haven’t been reading the loads of great stuff over at 3SIB, please do so NOW. Never has there been such a great place to see so much good-natured trash talk as there has been over there this week. Second, if you’re looking for the On Remote post, don’t worry: it’s coming tomorrow.

Anyways, to this week’s great questions, which oddly enough have a dominant Stars Wars theme. I’m proud (and comfortable enough with myself) to say that I absolutely loved Star Wars in my elementary school days when the three original movies were “remade.” I had everything – books, action figures of all sizes, models, playsets, etc. – you name it, I probably had it. Seriously, Star Wars was just plain awesome to me (keep word there being was) back in those days.

So of course I quite a laugh out of these week’s questions, and the answers so far have been pretty good. I’ll try to do what I can to keep them up. Anyways…

Death Star

1. Both teams at some point or another have been described as an Evil Empire. If your team is the Death Star, what is it’s planet-destroying weapon?

This is a no-brainer: Eric Freaking Berry. He is a human missile, whether it’s closing in on any throw by the opposing QB or the helpless ballcarrier breaking into the second level. Seriously, you see this aspect of Berry’s game pretty well when you sit at field level a couple times like I have the past two home games.

Berry already destroyed a few things this year, like Knowshon Moreno and Mississippi State specifically. I can’t wait to see who is next (Julio Jones? Glen Coffee?  J.P. Wilson? Rolando McClain?). If Tennessee had 22 Eric Berrys, the Vols would beat the Titans (are the Tennessee Titans really the NFL’s best team?? seriously??) by 30 points – and that’s on an off day.

Get owned Knowshon

Berry is a special special player. A once-in-a-lifetime type player. And he’s just a sophomore. He still has half his career left – assuming he stays four years. And as of this week I’m one of his over 3,300 friends on Facebook…

More like fifty-meter wide for Tennessee

2. What is its two meter wide exhaust port?

Easily the toughest question this week…where do I start? At first it was the QB play. That’s changed. Then it was special teams (I bet we punt to Javier Arenas Saturday night too). Britton’s back now. Then it was the running back rotation. Lennon Creer was the leading rusher against Mississippi State. At times it’s the schemes in the secondary. The Vols had two pick-sixes and gave up 3 points last week.

I guess that leaves me with the offensive line. It doesn’t matter who you put at running back if the line can’t open up any holes. With Anthony Parker potentially out Saturday night, the line becomes really thin. For all the hype these guys got in the preseason, they have to be the biggest disappointment, right?

Here’s to hoping it stops Saturday night. Terrence Cody is now out, so that helps tremendously. This line needs to just get pissed off and blow Bama up in the trenches. It’s going to be a real challenge, but I think these guys are capable. I mean, have you seen Vlad Richard? Jacques McClendon benches over 600 pounds. It’s not like Ramon Foster and Chris Scott are little guys, either…

My weak attempt at my first fark: Darth Saban...man do we need Lawvol back or what??

3. Everyone is looking forward to Eric Berry vs. Julio Jones. What is the next matchup you’ll be keying on in this game?

In the trenches. Bammer has been really studly along the lines in both of their best games this year, the win over Clemson and the first half battering of Georgia in Athens last month. Tennessee in the trenches? Ehh…

Surprisingly, the defensive front hasn’t played that bad. They had Tyson Lee running for his life last weekend (perhaps giving them a confidence boost), knocked NIU’s QB out and were everywhere against Auburn as well. Unfortunately, Alabama is none of those. Georgia pushed the Vols around, but that had as much to do with the fact the Tennessee defense played 80 snaps than anything else, really.

Alabama has the best offensive line that Tennessee has faced to this point. If they can slow down the Tide rushing attack and get some hurries on Wilson, it greatly enhances Tennessee’s chances for the win. Obviously that’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible by any means.

I’ve already discussed the other side of the trenches coin in Question #3, so I won’t go much into that. But Tennessee will have to run the ball to have a prayer of winning Saturday night. Can they do it?

4. The Tide and Vols will scrap it out under the lights at Neyland. Do you like this arrangement and does the later kickoff time provide an advantage to either team?

I would imagine if any advantage comes from the time of the game itself, it’s Tennessee, simply because naturally night SEC games are supposedly louder than earlier games. Or so says the theory – I might just be reaching, looking for anything to increase my very slim hopes that the Vols don’t get run out of the stadium…

Seriously, though, the crowd – those that have been there (only my fellow idiot students have been lacking, leaving over 1,000 for the Bammers), at least – has been pretty into the past two night games for a MAC team and a bottom-level SEC team. If they aren’t amped up for freakin’ Alabama, then…well I don’t even think that’s possible. How long before the Tide crush any hope is the real key…

As for if I like this arrangement, that’s just silly. Of course!! Tailgating and gamedays are one of favorite aspects of being here in Knoxville and being in college. And now I get to enjoy it for probably something like 8 hours Saturday.

Advantage – me!

5. Since the Tide had a bye week and the Vols didn’t bother to play that weekend either (zing!) we’re going to say this is the Third Saturday in October just to justify the name of one of the greatest rivalries in college football. In three thousand words or less, turn over the kettles of white-hot liquid hate upon thine enemy.

I believe that (a) I already addressed this yesterday and (b) I certainly went over the 3,000 word limit. So I’ll just take the easy, slacker way out and link it. CLICK HERE!!!

Update: by Lawvol…

Hopefully, HSH won’t take it personally that I am adding to his post, but he did call me out on the fark of Saban.

Thus, here are my humble additions to the Star Wars Edition:

Can the Jedi Prevail?

-OR-

Will Darkness Take Control?

The Rest of the Roundtable is linked here. Please go read their answers, their’s are probably better than mine – though I did like my answer to #4 (and it brought some great comments). Hopefully Lawvol can get a chance to post his own as comments – this is his site after all…

- 3SIB
- Curveballs For Jesus
- Fulmer’s Belly
- YMSWWC
- SESB

Images Courtesy of: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images (Daylife)

It’s Baaaaaaaaaacckkkkkk!!

As a result of the disappointing 2-3 start for our beloved Vols, the Roundtable for a week (and longer here ate Gate 21) sort of died, much like our hopes for a great season.

While our hopes are slim none, the Roundtable treads on, thanks to CincyVol over at 3SIB, who offers up a trio of questions this week for our reading and enjoyment. Perhaps we can inspire our Vols as they travel to Athens this weekend, where I don’t care how bad we we are, I hope we beat the snot out of UGA and their crap fans. More on that later today…

Anyways, here are the questions, and my answers (hopefully lawvol can stop by and leave his answers as well)…

Much has been made of Nick Stephens and his performance Saturday. Give your opinion on the job he did and what you think is in store for his future.

Improvement? Yes, but I will wait for the Georgia game to pass judgment on the play of Nick Stephens

I’ll go ahead and go on about my entire NIU thoughts while answering this question. OK, Nick Stephens was better, and you can’t deny that fact. However, the offense still scored just 13 points, but I attribute that to the poor offensive line play, which I attribute to Vlad Richard’s absence (we run well when he plays). With no running game and an iffy pass rush, Stephens did well, and lo and behold we threw the ball down the field. Hope there’s more of that…

Before we all get too excited, it was Northern Illinois. The rest of our schedule – save Wyoming – are much stiffer competition than the pesky Huskies. Stephens has been better than Jonathan Crompton, but we’ll see, starting in Athens this Saturday and the rest of October. The jury’s still out for me.

The other issues with our offense: Montario Hardesty and Lennon Creer need more touches. I said this last week. Problem is, so did the coaches. And Creer carried the ball as many times as I did, and I was on the front row (almost caught an errant Husky pass too).

I like Arian Foster. He’s just not our best option. Against NIU, he can get it done (he has scored 6 TDs on UGA the past two years…), but SEC defense are all over him. Hardesty is physical and doesn’t tip-toe. Creer has the scary good mix of power and speed. I’ve said this before as well, why not put two of them in at once? Novel concept…

People have said our WRs aren’t good enough/can’t get separation/blah blah blah, and that’s garbage. Do we have Plaxico Burresses (the top WR on my fantasy team) running around? No. But Lucas Taylor was a 1,000-yard guy. Briscoe works well in the slot. Denarius Moore needs more looks. He’s a deep threat, pretty much the only WR Tennessee has with that ability.

Defensively, I love the effort. I know NIU lost their starting QB and were limited, but this D is playing well. Hopefully Ellix Wilson will be 100% for this weekend…

As Eric Berry continues to impress what do you think is the greatest part of his game?

Eric Berry owns. He’s everywhere. You’ve seen my avatar. How he didn’t take that pick Saturday night to the house I’ll never know. He probably can’t believe he didn’t take it. Dude’s really, really good. I do wanna see him on offense, just once. Just once.

Like Tyler Donovan, I have no clue how UCLA WR Taylor Embree survived getting smacked by #14

To specifically answer the question, I love every aspect of his game. He just makes plays. When he does get his hands on the ball, my first thought every time is that he’s going to score. And it’s going to awesome. And make SportsCenter’s Top 10. He’s an incredible talent.

Britton Colquitt returns from suspension this week, so saying that, how big of a difference will he have on the special teams part of the game?

Finally, it won’t take 5 seconds for Tennessee to get a punt off. Chad Cunningham had some great kicks, but he was terribly slow. Hence the block at UCLA (though it doesn’t matter if you don’t block any rushers) and the partial block NIU had Saturday night. Also, I hope Britton kicks every kickoff – the few we have every game – into the tenth row in the endzones. Since we’re likely gonna be punting more than kicking off with our offensive deficiencies, he’s a potential game-changer in terms of reversing field position. Obviously that didn’t work (see Auburn), but I gotta think the offense is going to improve at some point.

Here’s the other participating members for the Roundtable this week. Enjoy!

- 3rd Saturday
- Curveballs For Jesus
- YSWWC
- Losers With Socks

Images Courtesy of: Wade Payne / AP (Daylife) • Harry How / Getty Images (Daylife)

Round-Up: It’s Football Time Again

My first week as the host of the totally awesome Big Orange Roundtable has come to a close, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Actually, the Big Orange Roundtable has just completed it’s first run-through of all the Vol bloggers and it starts back up next week over at Yo’ Mama Slept With Big Wilt. I’m sure Thomas will have some excellent questions as it’s Florida week.

GOOD WORK EVERYONE!!

Enough of me, time for me to share the Roundtable’s answers. Since we’re all family here on the Roundtable and I’m just a nice guy, I’m going to include everyone in the round-up. You’re welcome…

(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?

Most of the answers to this question involved three things: (1) running the football, (2) some reason to feel positive about Jonathan Crompton, and (3) better coaching.

The always funny Jai Eugene at LWS wants better hands from the receivers (and Arian Foster). Thomas at YMSWWC used this question as an opportunity to bash RayCom’s three Daves. MoonDog wants the coaches to show that they actually can adjust in-game. Ghost over at 3SIB wants our offensive line to find their male parts and lead the way to an unstoppable running attack.

Much like Ghost, Will at SESB wants a reason to believe…and to pound the football only as to prepare for the Florida showdown next Saturday. New Roundtable member Patrick (what a great name!) at C4J uses his days of living in the B’ham and makes it personal: he wants to kick the Blazers while they’re down with a 65-point beatdown an old-fashioned ass-whoopin’.

(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 have to be honest, I asked this question for the sole purpose of bashing Urban Meyer and watching others do it too. I hate Urban Meyer. Ghost also hates Nick Saban, but respects him. Urban? Not so much. Thomas calls Urban an asshole. Patrick does wish Randy Shannon had punched Urban’s face off. Jai? He makes the Gators/Patriots comparison.

MoonDog and Will took the higher road and didn’t express dislike for Urban Meyer or his move, with good reasoning. MoonDog points out the Gators’ recent fails against Miami and sending the message that Florida is the state’s best team as good enough reason to kick the field goal. Will went all sneaky – he says Miami should act like it’s not big deal on the outside, but use it for motivation to build up to the next meeting with the Gators and exact revenge then.

(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”?

This question sparked quite a bit of debate, as I thought. We actually had a comment on Gate 21 saying a trumpet player back in ‘92/’93 “woo”ed once. The band caught on and started doing it, then the stadium followed and the rest is history. Whether that’s true or not, the “woo” has been a part of Rocky Top as long as I can remember. But the consensus on the Roundtable? The “woo” sucks.

Thomas says “woo”ing is only for Ric Flair (see below…). MoonDog wants to shoot the aforementioned trumpet player for starting it. Patrick went with the gutsy admission of his love of the “woo,” expressing his inner Mike Gundy. Will? admits he enjoys the “woo,” but also defaulted to Ghost, whose answer was nothing short of epic…

This is going to bring into question my manhood, but I’m OK with that. I’m confident in my sexuality, but I must answer this with a story.

My wife — Mrs. Ghost — is a beautiful but immature lady. I love her, but she’s a Bama fan, No. 1, and No. 2, she absolutely loves 1980s music. Now, I’m not talking about the Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, Africa and all the tolerable stuff. No, no, no. My wife loves the New Kids on the Block. (I have another name for them … Yes, it’s the same as yours.) Well, Mrs. Ghost has been beside herself about the release of NKOTB’s new album — which since I download … er… bought, she HATES by the way — because she loved, loved, LOVED that new song about the Girls of Summer, or something like that.

So, I got the CD for her Sunday afternoon and on the way to church that night, she proceeds to pop in the CD and play the song that is on the radio right now. It is a terrible song with no vocal quality at all, but it’s got a catchy beat. Now, when I say that sentence right there, my wife says, “You know you like it.” And I hate it. The “B-A-N-A-N-A-S” song by Gwen Stefani was horrible. The “My Humps” song is my least favorite song of all-time. Going back even further, I despise “Love Shack” by the B-52’s. But it’s those songs — THOSE HORRIBLE SONGS — that get in your head. So, sure enough, when we were waiting for preaching to start standing on the front porch, I began humming the song. My wife gets a little half-smile, looks at me sideways and says, “See, you DO like that song.” I wanted to punch her.

Anyway, all that brings me to this: I’m completely and whole-heartedly against the WOO! in Rocky Top. I hate it. I think it’s stupid. If we wanted a stupid cheer, we’d have adopted Two Bits from the Gators or not let Ole Miss steal “Hotty Toddy” from us. I hate stupidity. And the “WOO” is our stupidity.

But, but, but in the heat of the moment after we score a touchdown and we’re dancing in the aisles and high-fiving complete strangers and clapping, I’ve caught myself WOOING before. I’m completely and abashedly ashamed. My fandom should be revoked.

That said, I hope there are thousands of WOOs! come Saturday.

Ghost, that took guts. Jai, not to be outdone, gives us his own history of the “woo,” and discusses how 14 year-old girls view the “woo.” I’m still laughing at his answer.

As I commented on 3SIB, I think everybody – even the toughest of the “tough” guys – deep, deep, down, knows they have “woo”ed before – they’re just in denial. And as my last act as Roundtable host, I’m going to plain straight overload on the “woo”…

Guys, it’s been fun. Maybe lawvol – who also answered my questions here – will let me answer next week…

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).

(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

This Week’s Roundtable is hosted by: Fulmer’s Belly

The Off-Season is a Conspiracy

This week’s Big Orange Roundtable is hosted by Fulmer’s Belly who has offered questions of real substance — questions which seek insight and analysis.  That pretty much means I’ll be bringing up the rear.  Thus, it would probably be best if you just skipped my responses and clicked on the links to the other roundtablers below.

If you are nonetheless determined to waste your time reading my prattling — losing moments of your life, your lunch, and perhaps your will to live — here are my thoughts for the week

Week 7

(Questions in Sort-o-Teal-like color)

1)  Knock on wood before answering this question, but let’s assume that Jonathan Crompton goes out with a season ending injury in the 1st half of the first game of the season. Should we just pack it up and wait until next season, or is there a glimmer of hope in any of the young backups?

First of all, I don’t want to hear any more of this Communist “injury” talk.  I’m having questions about your loyalty …

That said, assuming the awful were to happen, I agree with the collective brain trust, that losing a single player does not mean that it is time to give up on the 2008 season.  Even the loss of a quarterback doesn’t necessarily spell disaster.

If you remember, back in 1994 the Vols lost starting senior quarterback Jerry Colquitt on the seventh play of the season versus UCLA.  The only other quarterbacks on the squad that year were two true freshmen — Branndon Stewart and some guy named Manning.

Of course, despite his stellar career at Tennessee, even Peyton only managed a 8-4 (SEC 5-3) season.  Still, there was a lot of fight left in the 1994 Vols after the loss of Colquitt.

Similarly, we wouldn’t currently have any idea what Jonathan Crompton is capable of had it not been for him standing in for Erik Ainge during the 2006 season.

I feel certain that the Vols would manage to finish strong and do everyone proud without Crompton, after all — on paper — neither B.J. Coleman nor Nick Stephens are exactly slouches.  Furthermore, unlike Manning in 1994, both have had some time to actually learn the offense.

Bearing all of that in mind, I think the loss of Crompton early in the season would likely result in losses at both Florida and Auburn simply due to the need for the new quarterback to get up to speed.

So, I guess my answer is that the Vols would be “okay” but would probably not put up numbers for the record book.

2)  Does Erik Ainge have a future in the NFL?

With no disrespect to Ainge, I have never really seen him as a successful NFL quarterback.  I simply don’t think that Ainge has the flexibility that a quarterback is required to demonstrate to combat the defenses of the NFL.  He is a reasonably solid pocket passer, but has limited mobility — which is not necessarily a killer with most teams in the NFL.  He does, however, have the good sense to get rid of the ball when there is no one to throw to — a fact borne out by the NCAA record of only 4 sacks over the course of the season.

In the end, after getting injured versus Notre Dame, Ainge never really seemed to have the spark that made him seem so great during his freshman year.  After that point, Ainge seemed to be a basically an average above-average quarterback.  He was efficient, he was capable, he was reliable — he was not exceptional.  Unfortunately, that exceptional ability is usually required to compete in NFL.

3)  Why in the hell did you decide to blog about Tennessee football?  Aren’t there already enough Tennessee blogs?

Well, that’s a tough question to answer considering that I more or less started the Gate on a whim.  I had previously tried a little blogging on other more “serious” topics, but none of those ever amounted to anything because they required intelligent thought and at least a limited amount of skill.  Thus, I started this little project mainly because I figured it would be a good way to waste time, besides it was cheaper than drugs.

As for why I blog about Tennessee?  Well, the reality is that Tennessee is the only team I really follow in any meaningful way.  I also live in the bowels of ACC country, which is … well … sickening, and blogging about Tennessee and the SEC helps control the nausea.

I suppose I could start a blog on animal husbandry, navel lint, or really stupid things I’ve done in life.  I suppose I could even write one of those “life blogs” where I tell the entire world about my daily life, but I am really a boring person and who the hell really cares how many times I went to the bathroom today and all of the people I’d like to kill.

I have no intention of ever trying to be a “stats” guy because I can barely add — that is why I am a lawyer.  I also have no desire to try and be a “traditional” sports writer.  First of all, I live nearly seven hours from the home of the team I write about, which makes it a little difficult for me to actually report on a game I didn’t even attend.  Besides that’s what all the mainstream media types already have a near monopoly on.  Thus, all I can really do is offer my own peculiar observations on the world of sports from an orange-tinted perspective and make fun of the more humorous side of the sports world.

Oh, and when I can’t think of anything worth writing, I’ve found that posting juvenile, semi-offensive, poorly doctored, photos will often suffice.

On a personal note, if I had a chance to breathe lately, at least I would have been able to post a little something of substance every now and then.  I really hate it when my job interferes with my asinine hobbies.  That part is frustrating — almost as frustrating as Tennessee’s 2005 football season … but not quite.  I suppose in the perfect world I’d be able to spend all my days writing for this rag so everyone could ignore it.

In the end, I suppose the main reason I write is because I am a lawyer and, by default, a blowhard who likes to hear himself talk (or write as the case may be).  I guess I write about sports because I really lack any real ability to write about anything of real substance.  It’s funny, I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’m still not sure what I am doing.

I’m sure both of my readers would agree …

4)  If you could be one player in one game in Tennessee history, which player and which game would you pick?  Why?

This is a tough one.  There are so many great choices which would be on my short-list.  Here are a few (in no particular order)

George "Bad News" Cafego

• Dale Jones vs. Miami — 1985
• Condredge Holloway vs. Clemson — 1974
• Peyton Manning vs. Alabama — 1995
• Al Wilson vs. Florida — 1998
• Peerless Price vs. Florida State — 1998
• Heath Shuler vs. Florida — 1992
• George Cafego vs. Anybody — 1938/39

These are but a few — this one is just too tough to call.

5)  Which is your favorite rivalry and why? (Not necessarily limited to Tennessee teams)?

Well, I pretty much said it all about this one a few weeks back when it comes to Tennessee rivalries.

I hate to lose to Alabama, I absolutely loathe Florida.

For me, the key to a true rivalry is respect.  I have no respect for Florida, so — predictably — it’s Bama for me.

In terms of other rivalries … umm … I would probably list the following:

• The Memphis Tigers vs. “The Crazy UAB Fan“

• The Chicago Cubs vs. Cold Hard Reality;
• The Philadelphia Eagles vs. The Eagles Hoodlums Fans;
• The People of the State of Florida vs. All Current and Former Members of the University of Miami Football Team, and John Doe, co-conspirator, et. al, Criminal Docket No. 07 CVS…;
• Ron Artest vs. the Crowd.

Yeah, I know, not much in terms of effort on my part…

Bonus)  Who will win the national title this year? And by how many points will Tennessee win?

Two answers — my hope, and my head:

• Hope:  Tennessee 28 – USC 14
• Head:  Florida 21 – Clemson (Yeah that’s right, Clemson) 10

The Rest of the Roundtable:

Having wasted your time on my largely meaningless and insignificant thoughts for this week, go check out what the other roundtablers (who actually know what they are talking about) have to say (in no particular order):

• 3rd Saturday in Blogtober
• YMSWWC
• MoonDog Sports
• Fulmer’s Belly
• Loser With Socks
• Rocky Top Talk
• SouthEastern Sports Blog
• The View From the Hill

Well, now wasn’t that fun…

– Go Figure …

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