A lost generation of Vols fans

#26
#26
Doberman said:
Unfortunately, I believe you to be absolutely correct, OP.

It’s taken a lot of persistence on my part to turn my 11, and 16 years old sons in to VFL’s.

Almost none of the kids they go to school with are Vol fans, which was common place when I was their age. They give my kids are hard time over their Vol gear, and common thought is “Tennessee sucks! Why do you like them. “

Fortunately, I did my part and we’ve plucked 2 fans from this generation.

Time to right the ship, and get our National respect, and relevance back.
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i have 10 and 7 year old daughters. in their lifetime we've never beaten Bama, and FL once. i've been singing Rocky Top to them at bed time since they were infants. they've been to games, they were their orange on spirit days at school.

but even they ask me sometimes..."daddy, why aren't we any good?"

and all i can say is "it wasn't always like this sweetheart".

they get a kick out of the fact that Peyton Manning and I graduated from UT on the same day. they like Rocky Top. they have not though, experienced what it's like to go thru a season that is special, and has meaning, and really hooks you as a fan.
 
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#27
#27
I grew up LISTENING to the Vols in the 70s, both football and basketball. Class of 84 here and I think I know the problem, or a big part of the problem.


Notice I mentioned listening above. That is all we had back then except going to one game with my high school football team. I grew up in a poor family and radio is about all the contact I had with UT. The paper was another source but we didnt get that.


Today we have Volnation, twitter and other access to information on a tiny computer we carry around called a smart phone. Everything is out there now.


I know some of you youngins wont understand this post, but us older Alum can see it clearly.
 
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#29
#29
WilliamDuVOL said:
I get that some of you feel that the OP is being dramatic, but there is a good point to be made here. Long term, if our fan base, donors, boosters, and just amount of money spending at games in general shrinks.... nothing good can come from that. It hurts the school, it hurts the other departments that benefit from a financially sound football team, and it hurts the football program.

This is not something that will be felt this year, next year, or maybe even five years from now, but if we are mired in perpetual mediocrity on the field, why wouldn't that status be made permanent if the fan base simply doesn't care anymore? It's obvious the administration doesn't/hasn't cared for a while. A change needs to be made before last place in the East becomes the new normal for us.
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There’s no such thing as PERMANENT. Miami almost disbanded their football program before Schnellenberger arrived and enacted the novel approach of recruiting local talent and teaching it football. Winning ensued but the local masses weren’t the die hard variety that Vols have always enjoyed...see 1986 Sugar Bowl. After Butch Davis rebuilt the thing, they went down for a stretch...bad hire after bad hire. They bring in Richt and right back on course. This “get this hire right or we’re doomed for 20 years” is fresh off a novella. Hire the right guy and win and the fans will be there.
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#30
#30
Daddy Gee said:
It started with Tennessee players leaving helmets on the field in 2005 after Vandy, and it hasn't stopped.
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I think the LSU debacle that cost Fulmer a shot at a second national title in the SEC title game was the first sign.

Fulmer letting the inmates run the asylum and do things like you alluded to in 2005 really started the down hill slide though.

I was at that UAB game that they squeaked out and him saying they would never apologize for a win was all I needed to hear to know that he was mailing it in as a head coach.

Been getting one tool after another mailing it and cashing a check since him now too.
 
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#31
#31
utvolpj said:
I don't really buy it. The 80s wasn't the easiest decade to grow up watching UT either. There were definite highlights but plenty of low ones too. Most of us grew up vol fans anyways
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I believe you and I are roughly the same age. If we can survive starting a season 0-6, this generation can survive this.

FWIW, I am in the process of raising 3 kids who are Tennessee fans in Texas. So, it’s possible.
 
#32
#32
Feelings about the program are what they are. I began my "Volhood" beginning with the 1974 win over Maryland in the freezing Liberty Bowl in Memphis. There have been lots of ups/downs during that time which included RBs named Johnny Jones, Charles Davis, William Powell, Chuck Webb, Reggie Cobb, Little Man Stewart, Aaron Heydon, to Jamal Lewis and finally John Kelly. I've seen them all play in person. (Don't get me started on other positions, b/c I can go through those as well (without the help of Google) - as can some of you I'm sure...

But without Googling it,.....when was the last time Tennessee was 0-4 in conference play?..... Exactly; I don't know either. The record supports your emotion regarding UT football.
 
#33
#33
I don't see why people are insinuating that I'm being overly dramatic. I am simply stating facts. The UT administration has damn near ruined a generation of Vols fans. We need a home run hire to get us back on track or we run the risk of not recovering for the foreseeable future.

I don't see how those statements can be interpreted as "dramatic".
 
#35
#35
vader said:
I believe you and I are roughly the same age. If we can survive starting a season 0-6, this generation can survive this.

FWIW, I am in the process of raising 3 kids who are Tennessee fans in Texas. So, it’s possible.
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88, yep remember it well. i remember the 80's for the middle part, we had a really good couple three years there in the middle part of the decade, capped with the 85 champonship/sugar bowl...had tony robinson and beating #1 Auburn and bo jackson. ended the streak against Bama in 82. of course i was a kid, and my perspective was a lot different...honestly, i miss that perspective.:)

i think the 80's were up and down, but we avoided the nearly a decade long dip we've experienced these days. i'd say this decade has been harder than the 80's. this decade is probably more like the 70's from what i understand.
 
#36
#36
When I was being raised, you rooted from the Vols because you're from here unless your parents had a strong allegiance to another school or you were Catholic and rooted for ND. Not so anymore. 2 nieces and 2 nephews all in Williamson Co. I've taken some to games and tried to sell the state pride angle. The oldest 3 are Bammers. The youngest is too young to care at this point but doesn't exhibit the personality traits of someone who will choose to root for a team that is annually owned by the team that all her older siblings root for. The Vols were not world beaters when I got on board, and I guess I could've chosen to be a Bama fan because back in the 1970s they were certainly much better and on TV more often. It just never occurred to me as an option and I probably would've got my ass beat showing up at school in a Bama jersey. Things have changed. I don't know how to fix it other that making a rock star hire at head coach and winning a ****load of games.
 
#38
#38
butchna said:
There’s no such thing as PERMANENT. Miami almost disbanded their football program before Schnellenberger arrived and enacted the novel approach of recruiting local talent and teaching it football. Winning ensued but the local masses weren’t the die hard variety that Vols have always enjoyed...see 1986 Sugar Bowl. After Butch Davis rebuilt the thing, they went down for a stretch...bad hire after bad hire. They bring in Richt and right back on course. This “get this hire right or we’re doomed for 20 years” is fresh off a novella. Hire the right guy and win and the fans will be there.
o2pu2.jpg
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Lol. Okay. Well how about this then. Once every ten years, we have a season or two where we win 8 or 9 games. Other than that, we manage to eke out 5-7 wins a year with a bowl win. If you're cool with that, fine, because that has been the last ten years of UT football. You're the crazy one if you think that what has happened the last ten years, what is happening now, and what, for the foreseeable future, will continue to happen will not have long lasting effects on UT. Fine. Permanent? No. Extremely negative and long lasting? Yes.
 
#39
#39
LargeOrange1 said:
My daughter is 29 years old and was born in Atlanta. I took her to her first Vols game in Neyland when she was 9. Pretty much we have attended a game together every year since then with the most recent being Georgia Tech. She has always been a die-hard Vols fan. The other night she stopped by the house wearing a UGA sweatshirt. In the past, that would have kinda hurt my feelings....but this time I just shrugged my shoulders and went on. It did not bother me at all. WOW. Just WOW! Thanks Botch! :no:
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Never watched an entire baseball game in my life, but with Butch at the helm, I have become a baseball fan....It did help a bit that Houston is in the series.:)
 
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#40
#40
I say give them one last chance to right the ship. If they(top down) don’t commit to excellence then you stop putting butts in seats as hard as that becomes for true fans, you must resist with your dollars and physical attendance. All you become otherwise is 102,000 dissappointed repeat offenders.
 
#41
#41
Hopefully Peyton and Phil can "right" the ship and being fully incorporated in selecting our next coach. I know publically the endorsed Butch, but I am pretty sure privately Peyton could diagnose this mickey mouse offense right away. I have a 6 yr old and another on the way next month. Living down here GA, I don't want them to grow up to GA, Auburn, or FL fans. I'll even say, given our recent troubles, while I don't expected to start beating Saban on annual basis, I'll take an avg of 8-9 wins per year and every 3 yrs or so a trip to the SECCG. I don't think given our history and our resources that is too much to ask.
 
#42
#42
I went to UT from 2013-2017 (just graduated in May). I completely agree with OP. I wish I knew what it was like to be a top 10 program year after year. But at the same time, I feel bad for those that have those memories because it would make the current situation suck even more. I was too young to really enjoy the success during the early 2000s and I pretty much only remember it through other people’s stories.

I hope Tennessee redeems itself, but if not now, I don’t have faith it will ever happen.

Go Vols.
 
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#43
#43
WilliamDuVOL said:
Lol. Okay. Well how about this then. Once every ten years, we have a season or two where we win 8 or 9 games. Other than that, we manage to eke out 5-7 wins a year with a bowl win. If you're cool with that, fine, because that has been the last ten years of UT football. You're the crazy one if you think that what has happened the last ten years, what is happening now, and what, for the foreseeable future, will continue to happen will not have long lasting effects on UT. Fine. Permanent? No. Extremely negative and long lasting? Yes.
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Quit narrating what I’m “fine” with. Started fanship in the Bill Battle era. The end of that and the beginning of the Majors era was worse than our current stretch...by far! We always have apathetic segments of our fanbase. They wander off and return when they notice no one’s following them. That or they hear the noise of us winning and jump back on. :boredom:
 
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#44
#44
My kids have watched every UT game since they were born.

The oldeset is finally old enough to recognize a win/loss, and ask me all too often why the "good guys" keep losing.

Good life lesson I suppose but I'm just not sure I want to subject them to losing efforts and minimal investment into something. I honestly wonder if I should even left them watch this crap show anymore.
 
#45
#45
utvols74 said:
Feelings about the program are what they are. I began my "Volhood" beginning with the 1974 win over Maryland in the freezing Liberty Bowl in Memphis. There have been lots of ups/downs during that time which included RBs named Johnny Jones, Charles Davis, William Powell, Chuck Webb, Reggie Cobb, Little Man Stewart, Aaron Heydon, to Jamal Lewis and finally John Kelly. I've seen them all play in person. (Don't get me started on other positions, b/c I can go through those as well (without the help of Google) - as can some of you I'm sure...

But without Googling it,.....when was the last time Tennessee was 0-4 in conference play?..... Exactly; I don't know either. The record supports your emotion regarding UT football.
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2014, the Vols started 0-4 in SEC play.

It ain’t that long ago.

They also did it in 2010, 2011, 2012

Since Fulmer left, the Vols have started 0-4 in SEC play more often than not starting 0-4 in SEC play.

And yes, some of those years they started 0-5
 
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#46
#46
99gator said:
2014, the Vols started 0-4 in SEC play.

It ain’t that long ago.

They also did it in 2010, 2011, 2012

Since Fulmer left, the Vols have started 0-4 in SEC play more often than not starting 0-4 in SEC play.

And yes, some of those years they started 0-5
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you can go now.:wavey:
 
#48
#48
99gator said:
2014, the Vols started 0-4 in SEC play.

It ain’t that long ago.

They also did it in 2010, 2011, 2012

Since Fulmer left, the Vols have started 0-4 in SEC play more often than not starting 0-4 in SEC play.

And yes, some of those years they started 0-5
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:eek:lol:

and the worst part is your AD may fire your coach before we fire ours.
 
#49
#49
GreveHaller said:
I hate it when a f-in Florida fan is correct and I have to agree with them
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I disagree with the premise of the thread. I don’t believe Tennessee is losing future fans, at least not permanently.

I was just correcting the implied thought that it had been forever since the Vols started 0-4 in SEC play. So long ago, no one can remember.

It has neither been a long time ago or infrequent.

But, I don’t think that is causing Tennessee to lose people who would otherwise be fans. It’s what makes the college game different than the professional game.
 
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#50
#50
butchna said:
Quit narrating what I’m “fine” with. Started fanship in the Bill Battle era. The end of that and the beginning of the Majors era was worse than our current stretch...by far! We always have apathetic segments of our fanbase. They wander off and return when they notice no one’s following them. That or they hear the noise of us winning and jump back on. :boredom:
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Well quit implying that I'm crazy for thinking what's happening could have a potentially long lasting negative effect on the program. I don't see why you seem to think that's incorrect or "crazy" as you said.

But yes, there will always be fair weather fans. I fear our true fans becoming apathetic due to inaction. It's become embarrassing and tiring to be a UT fan lately. But, we must carry on right? lol
 
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