I could not let my 1,000 post be a petty jab at the Titans. Not after all these years of lurking and gradually posting from time to time.
So, here we go.
I joined this forum when Kiffin was on the verge of leaving. I jumped in head first on the Gruden train. What a ride that was.
So, here we are. Still on the climb back to the top.
My take on this forum, this fanbase, this program and the direction we are heading.
I grew up in southern IN, not a fan of football. I was all about baseball and basketball; although too short and stocky to really go far in basketball, I devoted myself to baseball.
In the fall of my junior year of high school, 1997, my new youth minister took a couple buddies and myself on a road trip to Tellico Plains. He made it a point to stop in Knoxville at Neyland. We got as close as we could to the field and were able to see the checkerboards. He was from Farragut, bled orange, and it was obvious how special it was to him just to be near Neyland Stadium. At that moment, I became a diehard fan.
Three years later, a student at Carson Newman, I attended my first game. It was the home opener vs Southern Miss. I had the good fortune of meeting a nice young lady whose family had season tickets and she invited me to the game. What an experience. Little did I know, life would never be the same.
I have attended games off and on, over the last 15 years. Life has bounced me around from Indiana, Louisiana and now East Tennessee, for which, I am grateful.
Although I am not a Tennessee native, I feel just as much loyalty to this state as Indiana, where I was born and raised. It is a wonderful state, with an amazing history and has been proven so as recently with the Gatlinburg fires, people love this state and are, to their core, proud and genuinely amazing. I feel honored and privileged to live in this great state. It is a very special place.
I know Team 120 didn't meet the expectations many of us had. But at the end of the day, Butch has this program in a place where we are fortunate enough to even have those kinds of expecations after a decade of mediocrity. I was a fan during the "spoiled age" of 1995-2005. I have friends who became fans in that same era and they do not understand, nor accept, 8-4 seasons.
I think we need to be somewhat patient with CBJ. I honestly believe if we had been as healthy is 2016 as we were in 2015, we would have finished the season 10-2, at a minimum. There are issues, no doubt. But we really need to recognize and put aside the mentality of win now, be like Saban/Meyer/Harbaugh. Results like that are merely a pipe dream without hiring one of those three. We have a coach who has given his life to the rebuilding of this program and he deserves our respect. He deserves at the minimum, 6 years.
I am honored to be a part of this forum, with so many great people. This is an amazing place. Let's keep fighting the good fight here in the RF and continue to show the CFB world what the greatest fans in the country look like. GBO.
