Dear Toxic Tennessee fans—go play in traffic and have a terrible Christmas—we are lucky in spite of you.

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

I’m a Tennessee alum. Came here in 06’ because I wanted to go to a school with a big sports program, and be proud of my Alma mater.

I was a student Fulmer’s last year. I grew up a Michigan fan and I saw how two different programs conduct themselves. Michigan is similar in that Lloyd Carr was fired, probably before he should have been. And Michigan endured a decade of incompetence to pay for their decision of getting rid of a coach that won them a NC in 1997.

Tennessee pulled the same stunt with Fulmer. And we’ve been an absolute joke in football since. Firing Fulmer was the biggest mistake any major program has ever made. We went from
Being a blue blood to being a door mat, and a joke. Anyone that was vocally anti Fulmer and put pressure on the AD to act is responsible for the decade plus of incompetence.

If Tennessee was in the same position as Michigan was with Harbaugh, say—with Peyton Manning—and say Manning lost his first 3 or 4 games against Bama—they would have tarnished Manning’s legacy and probably chased him off. Michigan did the logical thing, fought to keep their guy—and now Michigan has defeated Ohio State 3 times in a row and will probably win a national championship this year.

And now I’m seeing many of the same morons cut from the same cloth—putting that same toxicity at Coach Rick Barnes.

If you need to spew venom and criticism—why not target the right thing. Officiating.

Tennessee has endured insane officiating across every major sport, and it’s not a coincidence. I don’t know why the officials have chosen to screw our school and our athletics; but they have. And it’s not an opinion. It’s not in my head.

Look at the stats. Heres the stats from this past football season.

Check out the free throw discrepancy in Tennessee basketball games. It’s absurd. How much do we put up with before enough is enough???

If you must be toxic—aim that toxicity at the officiating and demand an inquiry or change at an institutional level.

Holding our coaches—who we are lucky to have—to absurd standards while not acknowledging the unfair level of play is insane and stupid.

To our whiny, annoying, toxic, embarrassing fan base—May you have a terrible Christmas and please go become an Alabama fan and annoy and embarrass those clowns. Christmas is the perfect time for you to get your transition completed and become the brave Alabama or Florida fan you know you really are Deep inside of you. I’m tired of you making the university I actually graduated from—look bad.

Thank you Coach Barnes, Coach Heupel, and Coach Vitello for being the best 3 coaches a school has across the major sports.

Go Vols!

 

[BigBadVol]

Well said. A lot of TN’s fan base is immature and ignorant. The numbers don’t lie. There is a bias against TN by the officials. I don’t know if there’s a way to overcome this predicament.

 

[EastTNVol423]

Here are some notable teams rankings by OPPONENT penalties:

Oregon 105
Michigan 110
Ohio St 115
Bama 120
UGA 122
Texas 131

overall the top teams are not really getting the favorable whistle. Have there been times were we have had some bad missed calls? Yes, definitely. Refs are not leaving people wide open. Refs are not dropping balls or overthrowing balls. refs are not fumbling. Refs are not the reason for our AWEFUL redzone production on offense and defense. Refs are not perfect but also have not cost us a single game this year. If that's your cope fine but get your panties in a knot because some people point out the problems within our program that our team is in control of fixing...

 

[JO VOL]

I’m a Tennessee alum. Came here in 06’ because I wanted to go to a school with a big sports program, and be proud of my Alma mater.

I was a student Fulmer’s last year. I grew up a Michigan fan and I saw how two different programs conduct themselves. Michigan is similar in that Lloyd Carr was fired, probably before he should have been. And Michigan endured a decade of incompetence to pay for their decision of getting rid of a coach that won them a NC in 1997.

Tennessee pulled the same stunt with Fulmer. And we’ve been an absolute joke in football since. Firing Fulmer was the biggest mistake any major program has ever made. We went from
Being a blue blood to being a door mat, and a joke. Anyone that was vocally anti Fulmer and put pressure on the AD to act is responsible for the decade plus of incompetence.

If Tennessee was in the same position as Michigan was with Harbaugh, say—with Peyton Manning—and say Manning lost his first 3 or 4 games against Bama—they would have tarnished Manning’s legacy and probably chased him off. Michigan did the logical thing, fought to keep their guy—and now Michigan has defeated Ohio State 3 times in a row and will probably win a national championship this year.

And now I’m seeing many of the same morons cut from the same cloth—putting that same toxicity at Coach Rick Barnes.

If you need to spew venom and criticism—why not target the right thing. Officiating.

Tennessee has endured insane officiating across every major sport, and it’s not a coincidence. I don’t know why the officials have chosen to screw our school and our athletics; but they have. And it’s not an opinion. It’s not in my head.

Look at the stats. Heres the stats from this past football season.View attachment 598859

Check out the free throw discrepancy in Tennessee basketball games. It’s absurd. How much do we put up with before enough is enough???

If you must be toxic—aim that toxicity at the officiating and demand an inquiry or change at an institutional level.

Holding our coaches—who we are lucky to have—to absurd standards while not acknowledging the unfair level of play is insane and stupid.

To our whiny, annoying, toxic, embarrassing fan base—May you have a terrible Christmas and please go become an Alabama fan and annoy and embarrass those clowns. Christmas is the perfect time for you to get your transition completed and become the brave Alabama or Florida fan you know you really are Deep inside of you. I’m tired of you making the university I actually graduated from—look bad.

Thank you Coach Barnes, Coach Heupel, and Coach Vitello for being the best 3 coaches a school has across the major sports.

Go Vols!

 

[The Tall Gguy]

Thank you for taking the initiative to become the new head of the True Fan Police and do everything you can to ensure everyone be required to feel, think, and post only as you do. We would not want VolNation to allow differing opinions.

 

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

Thank you for taking the initiative to become the new head of the True Fan Police and do everything you can to ensure everyone be required to feel, think, and post only as you do. We would not want VolNation to allow differing opinions.

Your opinion is probably awful. There is objective truth. And if you want Rick Barnes gone—you’re objectively an idiot and deserving of people like me hating on you for being dumb.

 

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

Here are some notable teams rankings by OPPONENT penalties:

Oregon 105
Michigan 110
Ohio St 115
Bama 120
UGA 122
Texas 131

overall the top teams are not really getting the favorable whistle. Have there been times were we have had some bad missed calls? Yes, definitely. Refs are not leaving people wide open. Refs are not dropping balls or overthrowing balls. refs are not fumbling. Refs are not the reason for our AWEFUL redzone production on offense and defense. Refs are not perfect but also have not cost us a single game this year. If that's your cope fine but get your panties in a knot because some people point out the problems within our program that our team is in control of fixing...

I think poor officiating allows teams to get momentum. See the Purdue game this year. That technical changed the dynamic of the game and you could see the smugness of Purdue immediately as if they deserved to win, and our players got that thousand yard stare of wtf is going on.

Our fanbase needs to come together to acknowledge there’s a problem and come up with a solution. Because it’s there. The stats don’t lie and if you watch our games you can see when we need objective officiating the most—it goes against us. Needs an official inquiry. But first needs Tennessee fans to start demanding accountability.

 

[EastTNVol423]

Sorry but you aren't going to do anything to change the officiating. I think officials should have to answer questions in a post game press conference. I don't think that will happen. We aren't the only team in the country that feels like they get screwed every time we step out on the field/court. Again, I think we have enough problem to fix ourselves before we go blaming everybody else for every loss.

 

[Memphisvol87]

Your opinion is probably awful. There is objective truth. And if you want Rick Barnes gone—you’re objectively an idiot and deserving of people like me hating on you for being dumb.

Rick Barnes is great. But the truth is he has never or will ever win a title. That’s fine because we’ve had some great SEC seasons. But he is putting out the same product over and over no matter what. We look great then boom, we have stretches of WTF is wrong. So let’s all share our opinions. You are welcome to come make long winded posts on how dumb we are. We’re welcome to come say I told you so once we choke again in March.

 

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

Sorry but you aren't going to do anything to change the officiating. I think officials should have to answer questions in a post game press conference. I don't think that will happen. We aren't the only team in the country that feels like they get screwed every time we step out on the field/court. Again, I think we have enough problem to fix ourselves before we go blaming everybody else for every loss.

I get what you think—but in reality, the numbers don’t lie. There’s empirical data that is statistically significant when you look at it from just examining the data.

How many times have we gotten absolutely scammed in key moment? It wasn’t just this year or last year.

When we played Purdue in the NCAA tourney a couple years ago and Lamonte Turner got an absolutely ridiculous foul call on him to send the game to OT.

How about the TD by Jaylen Wright last year against Purdue?

How about the bowl game against North Carolina where they literally changed the rules in football after we got screwed?

How about the absolute sham of the game last year against FAU?

If you can’t see how officiating undermines our athletes, and you’re unwilling to do anything about it—you’re either a fool or a coward.

 

[EastTNVol423]

I get what you think—but in reality, the numbers don’t lie. There’s empirical data that is statistically significant when you look at it from just examining the data.

How many times have we gotten absolutely scammed in key moment? It wasn’t just this year or last year.

When we played Purdue in the NCAA tourney a couple years ago and Lamonte Turner got an absolutely ridiculous foul call on him to send the game to OT.

How about the TD by Jaylen Wright last year against Purdue?

How about the bowl game against North Carolina where they literally changed the rules in football after we got screwed?

How about the absolute sham of the game last year against FAU?

If you can’t see how officiating undermines our athletes, and you’re unwilling to do anything about it—you’re either a fool or a coward.

hahaha holding everybody accountable but our own teams. If the team executes and handles their business the way they should then you probably don't get in most of those situations for the refs to decide the game. be better

 

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

Rick Barnes is great. But the truth is he has never or will ever win a title. That’s fine because we’ve had some great SEC seasons. But he is putting out the same product over and over no matter what. We look great then boom, we have stretches of WTF is wrong. So let’s all share our opinions. You are welcome to come make long winded posts on how dumb we are. We’re welcome to come say I told you so once we choke again in March.

And then when we’re not even in NCAA tournaments and you don’t even care because you’re probably not an alum and you’re off supporting some other school, and I’m stuck with an alma mater that’s not competitive at sports Because you had an opinion that was stupid and wrong—well then what?

And I get it— no one likes someone that tells you your opinion is stupid and wrong, but you ever watch a horror movie and you watch the person make stupid decisions that lead to their demise? And you want to rip your hair out yelling at the screen for how obviously dumb that person is? Yeah. That’s me with you.

Rick Barnes might win the title thisbyear and then I don’t want to see you gloat or celebrate at all.

 

[WhenUrVolUrVFL]

hahaha holding everybody accountable but our own teams. If the team executes and handles their business the way they should then you probably don't get in most of those situations for the refs to decide the game. be better

Oh execute like when we had an 8 point lead on Purdue until the weird technical call?

Yes our teams should overcome officiating. And since our players have ****ing super powers according to you, perhaps we should airlift them to the Middle East and they can broker a peace deal. They can then travel to China and tell China to stop being better at business than us and stop manufacturing things that we must buy since our people decided to outsource all of our manufacturing in a stroke of genius. Maybe they also are capable of time travel and could stop the assassination of Franz Ferdinand? Clearly they should be able to overcome the space time continuum according to you.

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

Rick Barnes is great. But the truth is he has never or will ever win a title. That’s fine because we’ve had some great SEC seasons. But he is putting out the same product over and over no matter what. We look great then boom, we have stretches of WTF is wrong. So let’s all share our opinions. You are welcome to come make long winded posts on how dumb we are. We’re welcome to come say I told you so once we choke again in March.

Barnes will leave the program in better condition than how he found it.

 

[EastTNVol423]

hahahahaha oh boy. Maybe they just need to not be mentally weak. They let one technical foul lose an 8 point lead and the game? We have bigger problem than I thought. We have too many guys that have played a TON of ball here to let something like that happen.

 

[EastTNVol423]

Barnes will leave the program in better condition than how he found it.

This is true but it is also true that Barnes has just copy and pasted teams from year to year since he has been here and can't get over the hump. He was brought in to steady the ship and he has definitely done that. It feels like this team can't take the next step with him. I hope he proves me wrong this year. It feels like we are going to be another defensive team with stretches of not scoring at times.

 

[volbound1700]

Dude, stop with the toxic argument, I posted this in just the other thread:

LSU fired Les Miles and Ed Odgeron (both have as many National Titles as Fulmer)

Auburn fired Tubberville, Gene Chizik, and Gus Malzahn

Florida fired Dan Mullen

Georgia fired Mark Richt

Alabama fired Mike Shula 2 years after a 10-2 season to hire Saban

We are not the only program that FIRES successful coaches.

Frankly, any team that matters in College Sports can be qualified as Toxic. The ones that are not toxic are teams like Iowa State that no one gives a flip about and these teams get left behind in Conference Realignment.

Take the great powers:

Alabama, Georgia, Michigan (as you pointed out), Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Auburn, Texas A&M, etc. You can call all of their fanbases toxic using your argument.

 

[volbound1700]

Rick Barnes is great. But the truth is he has never or will ever win a title. That’s fine because we’ve had some great SEC seasons. But he is putting out the same product over and over no matter what. We look great then boom, we have stretches of WTF is wrong. So let’s all share our opinions. You are welcome to come make long winded posts on how dumb we are. We’re welcome to come say I told you so once we choke again in March.

Rick Barnes has 2 SEC Titles. Are you talking about a National Title, if so, list anyone that is going to take Tennessee to a National Title? I don't even see that as a job requirement right now lol.

 

[CAVPUT]

Dude, stop with the toxic argument, I posted this in just the other thread:

LSU fired Les Miles and Ed Odgeron (both have as many National Titles as Fulmer)

Auburn fired Tubberville, Gene Chizik, and Gus Malzahn

Florida fired Dan Mullen

Georgia fired Mark Richt

Alabama fired Mike Shula 2 years after a 10-2 season to hire Saban

We are not the only program that FIRES successful coaches.

Frankly, any team that matters in College Sports can be qualified as Toxic. The ones that are not toxic are teams like Iowa State that no one gives a flip about and these teams get left behind in Conference Realignment.

Take the great powers:

Alabama, Georgia, Michigan (as you pointed out), Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Auburn, Texas A&M, etc. You can call all of their fanbases toxic using your argument.

I think, at some point, every coach gets too comfortable and a degree of complacency sneaks in. Not everyone can be bama. Eventually a change comes. With Fulmer, his staff was what made things special. When he lost Cut, I think that was the moment things began to change. Subsequent departures and hires weren't so great. I won't go stirring up the Majors vs Fulmer debate, but I do think he sometimes hired out of concern for his own job security. In the end, I don't think it was so much a mistake to fire Fulmer because his day had, indeed come, IMO. The program went off the rails because of the people tasked with making subsequent hires were awful and/or idiots.

 

[volbound1700]

I think, at some point, every coach gets too comfortable and a degree of complacency sneaks in. Not everyone can be bama. Eventually a change comes. With Fulmer, his staff was what made things special. When he lost Cut, I think that was the moment things began to change. Subsequent departures and hires weren't so great. I won't go stirring up the Majors vs Fulmer debate, but I do think he sometimes hired out of concern for his own job security. In the end, I don't think it was so much a mistake to fire Fulmer because his day had, indeed come, IMO. The program went off the rails because of the people tasked with making subsequent hires were awful and/or idiots.

Honestly, losing to a 3-9 UCLA team did it end for Fulmer. He had no business losing to that team. I think it was coming off having those two ugly loses to open 2007 against Cal and Florida. Yeah we made it to Atlanta in 2007 but people forget how bleak it looked after a 1-2 start.

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

Dude, stop with the toxic argument, I posted this in just the other thread:

LSU fired Les Miles and Ed Odgeron (both have as many National Titles as Fulmer)

Auburn fired Tubberville, Gene Chizik, and Gus Malzahn

Florida fired Dan Mullen

Georgia fired Mark Richt

Alabama fired Mike Shula 2 years after a 10-2 season to hire Saban

We are not the only program that FIRES successful coaches.

Frankly, any team that matters in College Sports can be qualified as Toxic. The ones that are not toxic are teams like Iowa State that no one gives a flip about and these teams get left behind in Conference Realignment.

Take the great powers:

Alabama, Georgia, Michigan (as you pointed out), Ohio State, Penn State, LSU, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, Auburn, Texas A&M, etc. You can call all of their fanbases toxic using your argument.

I wouldn’t put Tamu as a great power. They have money but not an elite sports program.

 

[volbound1700]

I wouldn’t put Tamu as a great power. They have money but not an elite sports program.

It is arguable. They should be one but they underachieve. I mean you could also argue that others are no longer great powers including Tennessee. I was a little liberal and was just picking schools that tend to be top recruiting programs with high expectations.

The only two great powers that arguably are not toxic with regard to firing coaches are Nebraska and Notre Dame and both seem to no longer compete at a top level.

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

It is arguable. They should be one but they underachieve. I mean you could also argue that others are no longer great powers including Tennessee. I was a little liberal and was just picking schools that tend to be top recruiting programs with high expectations.

The only two great powers that arguably are not toxic with regard to firing coaches are Nebraska and Notre Dame and both seem to no longer compete at a top level.

I wouldn’t put Tennessee as elite since there’s no national championships recently. I think Danny White has multiple programs competing for conference titles but not yet national titles.

 

[DooleyOrangePants]

And then when we’re not even in NCAA tournaments and you don’t even care because you’re probably not an alum and you’re off supporting some other school, and I’m stuck with an alma mater that’s not competitive at sports Because you had an opinion that was stupid and wrong—well then what?

And I get it— no one likes someone that tells you your opinion is stupid and wrong, but you ever watch a horror movie and you watch the person make stupid decisions that lead to their demise? And you want to rip your hair out yelling at the screen for how obviously dumb that person is? Yeah. That’s me with you.

Rick Barnes might win the title thisbyear and then I don’t want to see you gloat or celebrate at all.

Alum here. So I guess if I said that I'm less than pleased with Barnes coaching (not wanting him fired, however) and blaming officiating is a cop-out in a game like last night, does that pass your litmus test since I'm an alum? Or because I have a contrary opinion to you it's a disqualifier? Officiating IS terrible - but it doesn't tell the full story or paint the picture of how our system works - we are going to (most times) have less chances at the stripe because we DONT attack the basket and we fade away on most of our midrange and distance jumpers.

Why come in here acting like you are the arbiter of being a Vol because you are an alum? Who cares? There are Vol fans from all walks of life, pulling the alum card is just silly.

Dialogue is healthy, but this constant bickering and walling off different opinions (on all sides of this argument, to be clear) is just another symptom of a societal issue. We can't debate, exchange ideas, or otherwise share knowledge and ideas without it turning into an US versus THEM, zero-sum affair. And telling people to "go play in traffic" and "have a terrible Christmas" doesn't speak well to your position or your humanity.

 

[volbound1700]

I wouldn’t put Tennessee as elite since there’s no national championships recently. I think Danny White has multiple programs competing for conference titles but not yet national titles.

Only 5 programs have National Titles recently: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, LSU. I guess if you go all the way back to 2012 you can add FSU and 2010 with Auburn. Still that is only 7 since 2010.

So using this criteria, I would also have to remove Michigan, Texas, USC, Oregon (who has never had one), etc.

I think that is a very strict criteria you have set because a lot of those programs are very much elite even though they don't have a National Title.

Only two teams from the B1G (as it stands in 2024) have won a National Title since the last time Tennessee won in 1998 (Ohio State and USC).