Looks like Lucy pulled the football out again....

[photovol]

And gullible me keeps landing flat on my back.

Thank goodness for the basketball team. But every time the network played one of those SEC football promos during the game last night, it felt like watching something from a former life -- especially because the clip ends with Peyton celebrating while John Ward narrates. Are those kinds of dreams truly gone?

I've come to loathe the term "fair weather fan." I've been a UT fanatic since the days of Bobby Scott and Condrege, Hacksaw and Kiner. Bobby Majors. Jackie Walker, etc. "Fair weather" implies that you only root for your team when times are good. Hey, if I made it through the 70s intact when Bear was putting us through a meat grinder every year with his 3 yards and a cloud of dust wishbone, 4 or 5 interchangeable tailbacks lining up to get in the game, I can survive just about anything as a fan.

But fair weather also implies something else -- that "bad times" are a kind of "foul weather" every team goes through. Which is true, of course. Unless you carry the analogy too far -- because then it implies that one has no control at all over the bad times. You just have to shut up and suffer through them. Hey, it's foul weather, right? Nobody can control the weather! But some "foul weather" is self-inflicted, and believing there is nothing you can do about self-inflicted problems is a very limiting belief with respect to running an organization (or life in general). Standing pat and simply hoping against hope that things will somehow get better without substantial change is self-defeating.

But see, Lucy, it turns out, is ME. I'm the one who keeps setting myself up this way.

Since there is obviously nothing I can do except "root" and hope we somehow get off of this embarrassing, low-energy, apathetic merry-go-round. (Though I find "hope" to be one of the weakest verbs in the language).

May be you’re best Post to date
Kudos

 

[R481967]

I've realized I've done the same. I have a bunch of guys that I hang out with on my street. Several of us cracked open a nice bottle of whiskey and at 9 pm im like "I gotta go, games on.".......they looked perplexed when I explained it was basketball, and not football as I've only really ever promoted football. I always watched basketball games, but its more of a "oh there's a game on tonight" instead of my "all week Saturday build-up and GameDay rituals."...........as they looked at me like I had 3 eyes, it hit me.....I have VOL football apathy and I truly am latching on to VOL basketball as my new drug of choice. Our mens Bible study groups are about to turn into Vol rehab for me. As such, let me just say......My name is Nathan, and I'm a Vol apathist.....

"Who cares about apathy" (Steven Wright)

 

[greenbacknative]

I got interested in the VOLS around the time of Mallon Faircloth ( who is a judge now) if he's still with us. The News Sentinel had black and white action photos of the game with arrows pointing to certain players. I think it was Tom Siler covering the team back then. I remember them installing astro turf (Doug's Rug) We've seen a LOT of change since then. A lot of ups and downs. I wish we could find the answer to this. We go thru this every 3 or 4 years. I still love the program, i have a Tennessee golf bag, hats and shirts , license plate, pullovers. you name it I got it. But for now, all of the guys next year will be Pruitts .if there truly is a locker room problem he'll have only his own kids. I say let him have next year, then if it doesn't work show him the door. If Freeze is indeed the answer, and if he really wants to be at UT, then he would probably wait.

 

[MMA81]

Yep, there are many "fans" who only wear the "team colors" while the team is willing and in the top ten or whatever.

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Like you, I have been a fan of Volunteer Football since the days of Coach Bill Battle. I have been an ardent Big Orange fan even since the days when the Braves went to Atlanta... and have been a Braves fan since then, as well... when they were winning pennants... and even when they stunk! Same with the Atlanta Falcons, I've been a fan since the days of Coach Norm Van Brocklyn. Our Vols are in a tailspin right now, and it is a terrible thing to watch... But I still wear my ORANGE with pride. I was hoping that CJP would be the right guy for the HC job, but with the things I hear about him ( IF true ) not allowing coordinators and assistant coaches to do their jobs, so many players hitting the portal, etc., perhaps it is time for ADPF to pull the plug to stop the hemorrhaging. But regardless who the AD, HC Coordinators, AC's, QB or other players are... I am and always will be a Big Orange fan and will promote UT in any way possible.

GBO

I’m not ashamed to wear the colors of the Big Orange. 59 years and hopefully a lot longer, win or loose

 

[photovol]

I've realized I've done the same. I have a bunch of guys that I hang out with on my street. Several of us cracked open a nice bottle of whiskey and at 9 pm im like "I gotta go, games on.".......they looked perplexed when I explained it was basketball, and not football as I've only really ever promoted football. I always watched basketball games, but its more of a "oh there's a game on tonight" instead of my "all week Saturday build-up and GameDay rituals."...........as they looked at me like I had 3 eyes, it hit me.....I have VOL football apathy and I truly am latching on to VOL basketball as my new drug of choice. Our mens Bible study groups are about to turn into Vol rehab for me. As such, let me just say......My name is Nathan, and I'm a Vol apathist.....

Thanks for your courage to step up and admit , that’s it’s hopeless

 

[ArdentVol]

I got interested in the VOLS around the time of Mallon Faircloth ( who is a judge now) if he's still with us. The News Sentinel had black and white action photos of the game with arrows pointing to certain players. I think it was Tom Siler covering the team back then. I remember them installing astro turf (Doug's Rug) We've seen a LOT of change since then. A lot of ups and downs. I wish we could find the answer to this. We go thru this every 3 or 4 years. I still love the program, i have a Tennessee golf bag, hats and shirts , license plate, pullovers. you name it I got it. But for now, all of the guys next year will be Pruitts .if there truly is a locker room problem he'll have only his own kids. I say let him have next year, then if it doesn't work show him the door. If Freeze is indeed the answer, and if he really wants to be at UT, then he would probably wait.

tom was a very good man and well-respected nationally.

a hs or junior hi teacher required us to do career books somewhere in the mid-60s, and tom was very kind to invite me to visit him at the kns and later conduct an interview with him in his home, He remained in touch with my parents after i went away to school == and our paths crossed several times in the neyland press box. It hurt to see how he struggled with the vision problems that i assume led to his retirement. remember he once said that folks of my age might find they would be better off financially to pursue writing for business publications.

believe that i still have some of his columns and articles in street & smith football and other national publications


. two other greats from his generation from knoxville were escar thompson (the AP) and KNS cartoonist Bill Dyer

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

I never became a UT fan. I was born into a UT household in Winchester, TN. I never thought about who I would root for, UT was the only option. I first remember Condredge. My childhood room was orange and white striped. I am definitely not a fair weather fan and I suffer from BVS. All in all I still believe in gnome!

I bet you've been around The Grill and up to the Bowling Alley a few times.

 

[tennesseeduke]

Our defense practiced social distancing this year

 

[cobbwebb0710]

And gullible me keeps landing flat on my back.

Thank goodness for the basketball team. But every time the network played one of those SEC football promos during the game last night, it felt like watching something from a former life -- especially because the clip ends with Peyton celebrating while John Ward narrates. Are those kinds of dreams truly gone?

I've come to loathe the term "fair weather fan." I've been a UT fanatic since the days of Bobby Scott and Condrege, Hacksaw and Kiner. Bobby Majors. Jackie Walker, etc. "Fair weather" implies that you only root for your team when times are good. Hey, if I made it through the 70s intact when Bear was putting us through a meat grinder every year with his 3 yards and a cloud of dust wishbone, 4 or 5 interchangeable tailbacks lining up to get in the game, I can survive just about anything as a fan.

But fair weather also implies something else -- that "bad times" are a kind of "foul weather" every team goes through. Which is true, of course. Unless you carry the analogy too far -- because then it implies that one has no control at all over the bad times. You just have to shut up and suffer through them. Hey, it's foul weather, right? Nobody can control the weather! But some "foul weather" is self-inflicted, and believing there is nothing you can do about self-inflicted problems is a very limiting belief with respect to running an organization (or life in general). Standing pat and simply hoping against hope that things will somehow get better without substantial change is self-defeating.

But see, Lucy, it turns out, is ME. I'm the one who keeps setting myself up this way.

Since there is obviously nothing I can do except "root" and hope we somehow get off of this embarrassing, low-energy, apathetic merry-go-round. (Though I find "hope" to be one of the weakest verbs in the language).

What sucks for me is, my first real memories of Tennessee football start with the sugar Vols. ‘85 was when I fell in love with the game of football, thanks to the Sugar Vols and the Super bowl shuffle! Sure, there were some not so great seasons sprinkled in, but for the most part, I cut my teeth on winning football. Basically all I know (or knew) was winning! So the last decade + has been a huge kick in the groin to my age group(42) and what really hurts is I am now apathetic toward the thing I grew up loving. The only thing keeping me going this season is the run my Dolphins have made this year. The power struggle going on within the university makes me want to puke and the ho hum attitude that losing has kinda just become the norm amazes me! Man I miss the days of Dale Jones, Charles McRae and Al Wilson. Guys that would leave everything on the field! I hope some within the program watched the JJ Watt interview earlier this week and then I hope they watch it again and again, because the fans are hurting and if wanting a winner is a fault of the fans ,then consider me at fault, because I’m sick of watching a losing program, pretend to compete in the conference I love!
GBO!!

 

[Pickinhick]

I bet you've been around The Grill and up to the Bowling Alley a few times.

Absolutely

 

[iluvsmesumdooley]

I became a fan during the B. Battle yrs. He was only a good coach until all of Dickey's players graduated he was left with. I always thought Majors had teams that could beat AL but he seemed to pucker up against them and played to lose rather than win and he lost most of the time. He would open up the offense on everyone else but go conservative against AL, Never understood that and it totally frustrated me.

Remember the 9-6 loss in 1990 (and we actually won the SEC), when Majors/Fulmer decided the best thing to do was to run Tony Thompson over 30 times for a 0.8 average instead of throwing to Pickens and Harper? I thought Pick was going to talk his way off the team after that game. He was pissed. The most poorly coached single game on offense I ever witnessed at UT.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Yes I unfortunately remember that game. Even the announcers said the TN coaching staff owed the players an apology. That was typical Majors vs AL game. He was scared to death of them for some reason and had better teams???

 

[OEF VOL]

View attachment 335266

A little Jack helps too!

 

[12 Monkeys]

And gullible me keeps landing flat on my back.

Thank goodness for the basketball team. But every time the network played one of those SEC football promos during the game last night, it felt like watching something from a former life -- especially because the clip ends with Peyton celebrating while John Ward narrates. Are those kinds of dreams truly gone?

I've come to loathe the term "fair weather fan." I've been a UT fanatic since the days of Bobby Scott and Condrege, Hacksaw and Kiner. Bobby Majors. Jackie Walker, etc. "Fair weather" implies that you only root for your team when times are good. Hey, if I made it through the 70s intact when Bear was putting us through a meat grinder every year with his 3 yards and a cloud of dust wishbone, 4 or 5 interchangeable tailbacks lining up to get in the game, I can survive just about anything as a fan.

But fair weather also implies something else -- that "bad times" are a kind of "foul weather" every team goes through. Which is true, of course. Unless you carry the analogy too far -- because then it implies that one has no control at all over the bad times. You just have to shut up and suffer through them. Hey, it's foul weather, right? Nobody can control the weather! But some "foul weather" is self-inflicted, and believing there is nothing you can do about self-inflicted problems is a very limiting belief with respect to running an organization (or life in general). Standing pat and simply hoping against hope that things will somehow get better without substantial change is self-defeating.

But see, Lucy, it turns out, is ME. I'm the one who keeps setting myself up this way.

Since there is obviously nothing I can do except "root" and hope we somehow get off of this embarrassing, low-energy, apathetic merry-go-round. (Though I find "hope" to be one of the weakest verbs in the language).

<---- come to the light.... (see avatar)