Posts Tagged ‘Tarheads’

I will be the first to acknowledge that both the blogosphere and the internet in general are full of vitriol directed toward various teams.  Any team that has ever enjoyed any success whatsoever has something written about it which drips of the sort of steaming hatred that accompanies sports rivalries great and small.  Most of the time these flaming rants come from fans of teams that are either rivals (or wish they were rivals) of the object of the spewing hatred.

This post is a flaming rant.  It is not, however, aimed at a traditional rival of the Tennessee Volunteers.  Furthermore, while it amounts to little more than a creative rationalization on my part, I feel that I have earned my bitching license on this one since — in addition to being a graduate of the University of Tennessee — I am also a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I despise the Tarheels Tarheads…

From 1998 until 2001, I attended “trade school” at UNC.  For the record, I got a wonderful education at the UNC School of Law, and have nothing but good things to say about the educational aspects of that institution.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, UNC School of Law is an excellent institution with a fine faculty.  Second, as is the case at most professional and graduate schools, most of the students at UNC School of Law did their undergraduate work elsewhere.

See, I said something nice about UNC…

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Check out the Full Poll Results at Garnet and Black Attack!

Week 1

Through 6 January 2009

Well, given the fact that the collective SEC Blogging brain trust simply couldn’t give up on a good thing, this week Gate 21 along with a host of real blogs (ones that actually know what they are talking about) proudly debuts the first SEC Basketball Power Poll, ranking the relative “power” (hence the name … pretty cool, huh?) of the basketball squads for each of the SEC-member schools on a weekly basis throughout conference play.  In the future, these ballots will be submitted by the various members at the first of the week with the results being posted over at Garnet and Black Attack Thursday-ish.  Since this week is the first week of the 2009 Poll, however, well … we’re running behind.

Anyway, here’s my ballot for this first week in the SEC Basketball Power Poll, along with a feeble attempt at explaining why I’m such a moron.

In all its radiant glory:

So there you have it, my pre-SEC conference Power Poll rankings which are worth almost nothing.  In a few weeks we should have a much clearer picture of who is for real and who is not.  For now, however, we are really left to little more than educated guessing.

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, where the final poll results will be posted Thursday-ish.

– Go Figure …

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

Week 13

Through 22 November 2008

Well, while my Top 10 remained fairly stable (with the notable exception of the Texas Tech Red Raiders), nearly the entire field in the backend of my ballot from last week managed to lose over the weekend (6 teams from 15-25).  It looks like things are tightening up down the stretch, and we can now begin to see where the teams will land for the bowl season.  Most of my votes should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here is my preliminary BlogPoll Top 25 for this week:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Florida	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Texas	1
5	Southern Cal	1
6	Missouri	1
7	Utah	2
8	Boise State	–
9	Ohio State	1
10	Penn State	1
11	Texas Tech	9
12	Ball State	–
13	Oklahoma State	–
14	Georgia	–
15	TCU	4
16	Cincinnati	5
17	Oregon State	5
18	Northwestern	7
19	Oregon	5
20	Boston College	6
	Michigan State	4
22	Pittsburgh	6
23	Brigham Young	8
24	Florida State	2
25	Mississippi	1

Dropped Out: North Carolina (#18), LSU (#20), Maryland (#23).

Explanations after the jump…

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

Week 11

Through 08 November 2008

Things stay interesting this week, but Penn State and Iowa may have helped keep the BCS committee from facing a repeat of last year’s debacle. Thus, here is my preliminary BlogPoll Top 25 for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	–
2	Texas Tech	–
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Florida	1
5	Texas	2
6	Southern Cal	–
7	Missouri	1
8	Boise State	4
9	Utah	–
10	Ohio State	3
11	North Carolina	6
12	Penn State	9
13	Ball State	2
14	Georgia	4
15	Brigham Young	1
16	Oklahoma State	6
17	Pittsburgh	2
18	Michigan State	4
19	TCU	8
20	LSU	6
	South Carolina	5
22	Florida State	4
23	Cincinnati	3
24	Virginia Tech	2
25	Tulsa	1

Dropped Out: California (#20), Georgia Tech (#21), Northwestern (#23), Minnesota (#24), Maryland (#25).

Explanations after the jump…

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Here’s my ballot for this week’s College Football BlogPoll which, as always, is hosted by MGOBlog, now with links to team info from CBS Sports.com.

Week 6

Through 4 October 2008

After the past weekend in the world of college football, there are a number of noteworthy changes in my BlogPoll ballot for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

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

Dropped Out: South Florida (#13), Oregon (#18), Fresno State (#22), Connecticut (#24).

The field gets narrower…

Explanations after the jump.

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I realize that is probably a bit early in the season to be starting a pissing-match between conferences which is not my goal here, but as with most things I do, I am sure it will be taken in precisely the opposite manner than I intended.

Anyway, I think Ohio State has made a strong statement for the Big Ten — “Fail!“  That statement is based upon the criticisms and interpretations of those outside the “Big Ten Circle of Love.“

The ACC, however, is more than happy to eat its own…

Digital Headbutt has posted a wonderfully understated assessment of football in the ACC.  The sum total of the description:

Hiding in the wilds of college football, hunted down one by one.

That paired with the strikingly appropriate (and funny) video — featuring one of my favorites, the gents of Monty Python — drives the point home even more poignantly.  The boys in blue at DH have also asked whether anyone really wants to win the ACC?

Others, however, have joined in the conversation, pointing out that the ACC is rapidly sinking toward irrelevance when it comes to football — at least for this season.  Here are a few of the voices, both from within and without:

• Is the ACC reduced to beating Miss. State for “some respect”? — Dr. Saturday
• “ESPN Radio” — Sporting Gnomes
• ACC Auditing: No Offense — SMQ
• ECU to join ACC? — ACC Headlines
• Tech looks to get ‘some respect for ACC’ vs. SEC — AJC

The thing I find peculiar is how quickly the ACC-faithful have already started questioning the quality of thier own conference.  After all, looking at this past weekend, the ACC did reasonably well against other conferences.  I suppose it is an SEC thing to be haughty and arrogant, even when outmatched.

While I agree that the ACC has yet to show why it should be a BCS conference this season (and, in the interest of full disclosure — for the record — I despise the ACC, since I live amidst its “regal” legions as a “simple-minded SEC fan”), it has won a few key games.  Either way, the self-doubt is running rampant, even now.

I suppose they just need someone to tell them that they are pretty…

– Go Figure …

Week Three!

It’s that time again – Thursday morning, meaning the weekend is just around the corner. And of course weekends in the fall are all about college football Saturdays and hoping I’ll win my weekly fantasy matchup on Sundays.

This week is different from the first two in two ways: first, Tennessee finally FINALLY plays a freakin’ home game. This good because (a) I’m pretty sure every Tennessee fan is ready to play another game, if for no other reason than to get the remaining bitterness from UCLA out of the mouth and look ahead to the Florida-Auburn-Georgia death-road and (b) home games weekends are what make my fall semesters (don’t forget about the facelift renovations to Neyland Stadium as well).

While Tennessee plays a cupcake in UAB, there’s plenty of other games around the country to look forward to this week. It’s the week before conference play becomes the norm and there are some great matchups.

You know the deal by now – I’ll talk about the SEC games and then the national games of note. However from this point on I’ll change my approach with this section: I’ll be more decisive and selective with which games, and they’ll get attention the same way the SEC games do. Why am I switching things up a little? Because I want to. And I can. Anyways, the games…

SEC Games

UAB at Tennessee: Oh, to be back in the student section at Neyland Stadium. I already said what I was looking for this weekend here, so I won’t go into that. What I’m probably most excited about the actual game? Finally getting to sit in D, thanks to the death of Orange’s Nation illegal block seating.

Arkansas at Texas (ABC, 3:30): Hurricane Ike striketh (not literally…yet) – Arkansas won’t go down to Austin and get hammered until September 27. They host Alabama next weekend, an intriguing game and the first SEC game in under Bobby Petrino. My guess is the Hogs will need the work after escaping total embarrassment by slipping past Western Illinois and UL Monroe.

Georgia at South Carolina (CBS, 3:30): So now Georgia begins the utter brutality (yes, more brutal than a cop at an East Carolina game) that is their schedule. The desperate Chickens seem to be reeling – or wait, that’s just reality setting in…

I’m interested to see how UGA handles their first big test of the year. South Carolina’s defense should keep it close, but are the Gamecocks gonna score? I know they always play UGA tough at home, this game is generally a pretty hard fought, low-scoring game, and Spurrier is good for one win a year over the East’s Big Three, but I just don’t see them winning this game.

Middle Tennessee State at Kentucky/Rice at Vanderbilt: These would be snooze games, except for the small fact that BOTH UK and Vandy – whom I was not expecting much from – have a chance to be 3-0. These were the penciled-in Ws for both teams coming in, and losing would really put a damper on any bowl hopes, especially for the Commodores.

Western Kentucky at Alabama/Samford at Ole Miss: Snooze games of the week, though I’m interested to see if the Tide play any better than they did last week against Tulane.

North Texas at LSU: After some uncertainty due to the aforementioned Ike, this game will be played in Tiger Stadium. It’s gotta be tough on the Tigers, especially since if they don’t play this one (they probably will) it will be a two week bye before they go to Auburn. I just gotta wonder what being an LSU student is like amidst multiple hurricanes…

Auburn at Mississippi State (7:00, ESPN2): Ah yes, more SEC football. I’m still not sold on Auburn’s offense, they looked better against Southern Miss, but definitely still sluggish. We’ll have to see how they handle a road game against a team that beat them last year with defense.

Yes, Chris Todd, I know it is just Starkville, but your first SEC road game is your first SEC road game...

Auburn should win because I don’t think Mississippi State can score on the Auburn defense, but State could easily catch War Eagle looking ahead to home games against LSU and the Vols coming up. Can Sly Croom make it four-in-a-row against the state of Alabama?

FIVE MORE TO WATCH

Ohio State at USC (ABC 8:00): First, I’m glad these two teams are playing this game. Second, anything I could say in terms of analysis about this game would just be more of what you all have already heard/will hear. ESPN’s Pat Forde wrote a good piece about this game here. I’ll take the easy route and borrow a video from Thomas the Terrible over at YMSWWC…that you can watch by clicking HERE!!

Kansas at USF (Friday ESPN2, 8:00): Kansas is playing someone with a pulse! Kansas is playing someone with a pulse! USF could the JV League’s best (oh, I’m referring to the Big East as a JV league from here on), though they almost blew a lead to Kevin Smith-less UCF last week before winning in OT. I like the Bulls because KU is a joke. Yeah, I said it. A joke.

UCLA at BYU (ABC, 3:30): Both of these teams had their last games given to them: UCLA by Tennessee’s coaches and BYU by moronic Pac-10 refs. It’s BYU’s second and last Pac-10 opponent in their BCS-busting quest. They need this to get out of East Carolina’s shadow.

I just hope UCLA doesn’t get blown out, though it would absolutely confirm the last 0.5% of doubt I have that their win over Tennessee was a complete and total fluke (it was, there’s no denying it).

Oregon at Purdue (ABC, 3:30): The undercard to the epic Big Ten-Pac-showdown later in L.A. Purdue has consistently been beaten by every team they play that has a pulse recently, and Oregon is under-the-radar out West after losing the Dixon/Stewart combo.

Oh the color clash when the Vols and Oregon play a home-and-home...

If I had to pick a favorite Pac-10 team, it would be Oregon. Honestly, it’s the jerseys. Give them credit for being fashionably bold. In all seriousness, the Pac-10 needs somebody to at least come close to USC, and Oregon may be the only hope. So I hope they cream Purdue. Plus I just don’t like the Big Ten.

Wisconsin at Fresno State (ESPN2, 10:30): A big “respect” weekend for the Big Ten, though I see them losing all three of these games. Fresno, like the aforementioned Pirates, has a chance for a second “name” win early in the year, though this would be bigger than either of the Pirates’ wins – not to take anything away from them.

HONORABLE MENTION: ESPN has a high school game tonight between lawvol’s Tar Heels and Rutgers. Cal is off to a fast start, having beaten Michigan State and Washington State on the road 66-3 last week. They now go cross-country to Maryland (ESPN, 12:00). Much in the same realm as Oregon, I hope Cal wins, because the Pac-10 needs some challengers to USC and the Bears and Ducks are the best bets.

And finally, if you want to watch an overhyped game featuring two offensively offensive teams (one of whom lost to Utah and the other who was all but beat by San Diego State), you can watch Michigan at Notre Dame. Neither of these teams win 8 games this year, why the overhyping this meaningless game?

Oh, to be in Section D Saturday afternoon…

Images Courtesy of: Todd Vanemst / AP (Daylife) • Kevin Briody / seattleduck.com

You hardly have to be a genius to realize that I am a college sports fan.

Whether I qualify as “die hard” is open to interpretation, I suppose. Still, as a VASF donor for more than a decade, season ticket holder for Tennessee Volunteers football, and as an individual who travels over six hours one-way to see each football game in Knoxville, I probably fall into the “dyed-in-the-wool” category placing me in the top tier of college fans when it comes to dedication (or lunacy depending on your perspective).

Either way, at various times in my life, I have contemplated becoming a more avid fan of professional sports. At times I have even been a “real” fan of certain teams by most standards. That being said, no matter what I do, I always seem to lose my interest in professional sports and return to my roots as a college football fan…

… or perhaps professional sports loses interest in me.

No, that last statement is not intended to be a wildly arrogant and self-centered declaration of my importance in the sports world. On the contrary, it is meant to show my complete insignificance — along with the millions of other sports fans out there.

In case you missed it, after forty-one years in the “City Which is Never Dry,” the Seattle Supersonics are pulling up stakes and heading to Oklahoma City to be known as the Oklahoma Clod-kickers, or something along those lines.

The era of the Supersonics is over…

Owing to the fact that I live on the Right-Coast and parted ways with the NBA in the mid-1990s, I was really not tuned into this story until after the final announcement was made. I make no claims to be a Supersonics fan, and can really only think of 2 Supersonics players ever: Shawn Kemp and Xavier McDaniel (mainly because he choked Wes Mathews in the middle of a game which is the sort of thing I tend not to forget). Still, I feel for the Supersonics’ fans, and I assume that there are a fair number of them, whether they be “die hard” or not. While I know that Seattle may potentially get another team some day, as a practical matter they now understand how SMU fans felt when their team got the death penalty for football. The only difference is that, unlike SMU who was finally able to resume play, Seattle’s program is gone for good — gonzo, outta here, dead, kaput, snuffed it …

If I am a Seattle Supersonics fan, that just plain sucks…

That got me to thinking (which is so rarely a good thing). The fact that the Supersonics could up and vanish like a fart in the wind, is the reason why I personally will never be anything more than an occasional fan of professional sports. At so many levels, that disturbs me. It also brings back a few memories.

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Just the other day I realized I was getting older…

The reason for this shocking moment of enlightenment was the fact that this past weekend was the 10th anniversary of my graduation from the University of Tennessee (Hmmm, I suppose it’s time for me to start considering my options for Medicare insurance supplements…).

Anyway, bearing this in mind, I thought I’d start a wandering trip down memory lane re-visiting some of my all-time favorite games played by the Big Orange over the next few days. I welcome any comments from the peanut gallery on my choices, and ones I forgot…

16 November 1991

vs.

Ole Miss 25 • Tennessee 36

Neyland Stadium

You might wonder why this game made my all-time favorites list, however, in my life as a Tennessee fan, this is where it all began.

I have been a Tennessee fan, to some degree, my entire life. My Mom grew up in East Tennessee, and went to school at UT. Thus, I had been aware of that “orange school” over the mountains from my childhood home in Western North Carolina since I was old enough to be aware of much of anything. That said, in those pre-Heath Shuler days, Western North Carolina was still largely dominated by fans of the Tarheads and other members of the ACC. Thus, my exposure to all that is Tennessee was somewhat limited.

Then, in 1991, my Father had been given three tickets to the game between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Tennessee Volunteers by a friend who worked the sideline chain-gang and who — in normal life — worked for a vendor supplying the hospital where my Father worked. It just so happened that we were already planning to visit my Grandmother in Norris, Tennessee that same weekend. Thus, my Dad convinced my Mother that the three of us should go catch the game. Whether this arose because he wanted to see the game, because he wanted to broaden my viewpoint on sports, or just because he didn’t feel like listening to my Mother and Grandmother argue all weekend is open to discussion. Either way, this was to be an auspicious day in the history of my life.

I had been on campus before, but surprisingly, I really had little recollection of the stadium, and amazingly forgot where it was even located. That changed…

Neyland Stadium circa. 1991

We arrived early, and my Dad’s chain-gang friend managed to get us on the field for pre-game warm-ups. This was the first time I’d ever been on the field at any major college sporting event. Standing down on the field the only thing that went through my mind was “This stadium is friggin’ huge!” Now, mind you, this was almost a generation ago, and the stadium looked different than it does now. There was only one pressbox, the field was Tartan Turf as opposed to grass, the North endzone didn’t have an upperdeck, The Vols bench was on the west sidelines, and the scoreboards were … well … less than impressive. Still, the sheer scope and size of the space, wrapped around “the greensward of Shields Watkins Field” (as John Ward would always say) was formidable.

The Kickin’ Scoreboards of 1991

Thus, despite being well into my teenage angst years, I was pretty impressed. I was even more impressed when two Tennessee defenders (whose names I never actually caught) began doing a little hitting practice right in front of me. The “crack” from the impact was much louder at a distance of six feet than it was on television.

From there we exited the Northeast portal of Neyland Stadium and made our way back around to the front. Ticket in hand, I entered the real Gate 21 for the very first time in my life. We took our seats and the rest is history. The only thing I actually remember about the game itself was that Tennessee recorded a safety in the first half and that they beat Ole Miss far more soundly than the score reflected.

My memories about that first game in Neyland Stadium are not so much about the game as they are about the “experience” of the game. That game still resonates with me to this day. I remember being taken aback by all of the orange, I remember watching pre-game and the opening of the “T“, I remember just being overwhelmed with the size of this event called “gameday.“

I was hooked…

If she were honest, however, my Mother would probably have to say that was her least favorite game, because she wanted me to go to Emory University, and on that Fall afternoon in 1991 I pretty much made up my mind about where I would be going to college. The die was cast, and I was bound to be a Volunteer.

In the 17 years since that Ole Miss vs. Tennessee game in 1991, I have attended 107 more Tennessee football games in person and I am sure there are many more to come…

…be that as it may, that first one is still special in my book.

– Go Figure …

Scoreboard Image Courtesy of: The VIB

Well, the Tarheads of North Carolina were soundly defeated by the Kansas Jayhawks last night … so much for all the talking heads that were prepared to crown the “Fightin’ Smurfs” the national champions so prematurely.

Thus, we are left with the aforementioned Kansas Jayhawks, and the Memphis Tigers. This one should actually be quite interesting.

First, there is the run-and-gun style of Memphis. Obviously, Tennessee saw what Memphis brings to the Court back in February, and proved that the Tigers are beatable …

… but not easily.

The Tarheads made it clear on Saturday night that Kansas, in fact, is as good as everyone says when it comes to defense … or that the Tarheads were sorely overrated. I’m going with the first choice.

Thus, we have a potential collision of two great teams for a national championship — one which most people didn’t necessarily anticipate.

Once again, all of this goes to show what the talking heads actually know.

So who is going to win? Well, I know that statisticians believe that you can truly break a game like this down to a bunch of numbers, and those mythical tea leaves will tell you with a fair amount of certainty who is likely to win, in a given situation. I will be the first to admit that I most certainly do not have a mind for statistics. One of the primary reasons that I am a shyster (lawyer) is because I cannot reliably complete the most basic mathematical computations.

I am an utter moron when it comes to numbers…

That said, I do respect “the numbers” and their ability to help shape our predictions and perceptions of various teams. Though I am often at a loss to explain the methodology by which they are computed, I am sincerely in awe of the analyses that great statistics gurus can produce. A great example of that is pretty much anything you find over at the BruceBall Blog. With the game coming up between the Jayhawks and the Tigers, however, I am a little less convinced that any statistical analysis can truly predict what we will see when the teams actually meet. This is not because I doubt the statisticians, au contraire, I believe that this game will be as methodically and precisely broken down as probably any other game this season. All of the brains of the sports world will calculate and quantify every facet of the game that they possibly can.

The only problem with statistical analysis is that you cannot quantify heart …

By the time a team reaches the finals of the NCAA Tournament, there really can be little question that they are really good. It is true that a team can be lucky, but you cannot be that lucky for that long — at least I don’t believe you can. I am sure there are ways of calculating how likely every shot might fall, but the fact remains that both of these teams are fine basketball teams, and have successfully proven that they deserve to be in the championship game. They have proven that they both possess the ability to win in difficult situations, they have the ability to rise to the occasion under pressure, that they are focused enough to fight to the end…

Thus, in my non-statistical mind, the ultimate determining factor in a game such as this is which team has the most heart. Everyone know that Memphis is a lousy free-throw shooting team — no question about it. In the game versus the UCLA Bruins, however, Memphis hardly seemed to miss a free-throw, especially in the second-half. In the end, the Tigers simply played harder, and wanted it more badly than UCLA. They had more heart when it came down to the end.

The same is true of Kansas. When the Tarheads came roaring back in the second-half and cut the lead to 5, it looked like Kansas was going to flame-out. Instead, the Jayhawks looked inside themselves, dug deep, and managed to find a way to stretch it back out.

I think that sort of thing is precisely what will be the final deciding factor in the game between these two teams in San Antonio on Monday.

All season long, I wrote of the heart that the BasketVols showed. I wrote about that not just because I lack the ability to make any other cogent statements on the fortunes of my favorite team, but because I felt it was the most important asset that the Vols had as a team. I think that same is true for the teams that will battle for the championship on Monday night.

So, Memphis, Kansas, which one of you wants it more?

I have no idea what the answer to that question might actually be. Either way, it is guaranteed to be a great game, and whichever team wins, there is no question that they have earned it.

– Go Figure …