LSU...in the title game for the second time in five years...yet we just can't seem to get it done..... always close...always a "play away"...always "one recruiting class"..."one less injury"...etc.....
And few seem to care.... Hamilton promises raises and extensions in the year of two of the most humiliating losses in the history of the TN program (by ANY objective standard).... saying objectives have been met when the standards he personally set and published have not been. The data regarding the state of TN football simply does not lie, even if the interpretations swing from the sublime to the ridiculous.
In the meantime, the Kool-Aid seems to never have been stronger and it is drunk deeply resulting in the "sheep" casting aspersions on the so-called "NegaVols"--the ones calling for accountability on a multimillion dollar enterprise that constantly over-promises and under-delivers.
While there is never a bad day to being a TN Vol, one has to wonder if the magic of that one special season was a once in a lifetime event. One has to wonder if the promise of a legacy and a step onto the national stage as a feared perennial national power was nothing more than a dream from those of us who too drank that Kool-Aid on that wonderful afternoon when that crystal football was held high.
A dream that was once ours, but has now been realized by our neighbors in the Southwest.
So we go to the big box or the vol store and buy the sweatshirt that we'll wear proudly on Jan. 1 hoping for the best effort and a victory, but the warm bile of a 2-7 past hovers just below our throats as we collectively hold our breath and wait for the senior to deliver....but expecting excuses regarding "the freshman", "the injuries", and "the youth" that we have heard 7 of the last 9 years.....yet we hope and cheer with all we have.
To be followed by the cries of next year, next team, just wait and see......
And we will. Because we are TN. And we will forever be the Vols supporting our team.
But in the more quiet and thoughtful corners of the insanity that has become major college football, we'll be staring at someone else's legacy, and wondering, just wondering, if that legacy could have been ours.
And wondering why it is not.
And few seem to care.... Hamilton promises raises and extensions in the year of two of the most humiliating losses in the history of the TN program (by ANY objective standard).... saying objectives have been met when the standards he personally set and published have not been. The data regarding the state of TN football simply does not lie, even if the interpretations swing from the sublime to the ridiculous.
In the meantime, the Kool-Aid seems to never have been stronger and it is drunk deeply resulting in the "sheep" casting aspersions on the so-called "NegaVols"--the ones calling for accountability on a multimillion dollar enterprise that constantly over-promises and under-delivers.
While there is never a bad day to being a TN Vol, one has to wonder if the magic of that one special season was a once in a lifetime event. One has to wonder if the promise of a legacy and a step onto the national stage as a feared perennial national power was nothing more than a dream from those of us who too drank that Kool-Aid on that wonderful afternoon when that crystal football was held high.
A dream that was once ours, but has now been realized by our neighbors in the Southwest.
So we go to the big box or the vol store and buy the sweatshirt that we'll wear proudly on Jan. 1 hoping for the best effort and a victory, but the warm bile of a 2-7 past hovers just below our throats as we collectively hold our breath and wait for the senior to deliver....but expecting excuses regarding "the freshman", "the injuries", and "the youth" that we have heard 7 of the last 9 years.....yet we hope and cheer with all we have.
To be followed by the cries of next year, next team, just wait and see......
And we will. Because we are TN. And we will forever be the Vols supporting our team.
But in the more quiet and thoughtful corners of the insanity that has become major college football, we'll be staring at someone else's legacy, and wondering, just wondering, if that legacy could have been ours.
And wondering why it is not.
