jakez4ut
Patience... It's what's for dinner
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It was a good weekend. Wait, let me rephrase, it was the best weekend thus far in this 6 week old football season. and it couldn't have come at a better time for us, the ever so fragile Tennessee fanbase.
I'll get to the GA game in a minute, but it was a good weekend for a lot of reasons....here are a few observations from what i got to see.......
Is there a coach in the country in a better spot than........Ron Zook? i watched the majority of that game, and Illinois actually looked "good". Wisconsin was severly overrated, and there were several on this board that thought so before the season started. But none the less, Ron Zook in year three at Big 10 doormat Illinois has knocked off a top 5 team. they're a contender in the big 10.
who's not a contender in the big 10....Purdue. pathetic, and if there was ever a case study for strength of schedule not helping a team Purdue would be it. which brings me to this question......how good is Ohio St? i really have no idea, except to say they shut down a team, in their stadium, that was scoring more than 50 pts a game thru it's first 4-5 games....that has count for something. my guess is they're pretty good.
The big 12.....i didn't see the OU/TX game, save the highlights, but i'm not surprised OU won, i am surprised at the margin. i guess rivalries do sometimes mean throw the records etc...out the window. good effort from TX....but OU is just better. And OU is still in the NT hunt thanks to USC, er, Stanford that is.
I did get to watch the KU/KSU game.....and it was very entertaining. the 1st half, i almost gave up on it because KU's offense was awful. but they never gave up and the big man got his team ready to play in the 2nd half. Now is KU for real? i'll just say they're better than i thought they were, but i don't see anybody beating.........
Missouri in the North. I'm pretty sure i picked Nebraska in the Pick 'em, and it just goes to show, i suck at picking. Missouri throttled the big red and it just goes to show that the reconstruction project going on in Licnoln is still a couple of years away from being done. while the offense may be better, the defense is not very good, definitely not up to the "black shirt" level expectations anyway. That said, Missouri handled them and are now the frontrunner for the big 12 north.
and i'm a little ticked off that A&M won this weekend.
The ACC...now, i said many moons ago, that Butch Davis's first UNC team would win a game or two they probalby shouldn't. many of you laughed at me. Well, Butch Davis proved Saturday why he was worth the money. UNC had no business competing with Miami. and proceeded to dominate 3/4 of the game. big win for BD and the heels.
Prior to this weekend, i would have said that Clemson and Tennessee were mirror images of each other, in their respective conferences. expectations, check. facililties, check. tradition, check. rabid fan base, check. talent, check. seemingly yearly let down, check. well, we all know how our weekend turned out, and you could argue that Clemson and Tommy Bowden had a similar situation as well. and Clemson failed miserably. Clemson fans feel today what we would have felt had we lost to GA. and we know how bad that would have been. and i'm glad it's them and not us.
Pac 10....Congrats to Cal. good off week. should be #2 in the nation. USC........tsk, tsk, tsk. I don't even know what to say....Stanford? 39 point underdog? i know you're still good. i know you'd probably beat us by 3 TD's. which is why there simply is NO excuse for dropping a game like that at home. Look ahead, sleep walking, whatever you want to make of that loss, that was a B A D loss.
Cal, you're in the cat bird's seat.....you think SC's going to lose 2 games this season?........no pressure.
Equally bad loss in So Cal.....UCLA. tag you're it. you're the team that the worst ND team in history beat, in your back yard no less. way to go.
so on to the SEC. Where for us TN fans, it lined up like a buffet of all your favorites.......First, KY gets beat on Thursday night. i don't know how much that really helps us in the long run, cause i think we would all agree with games left against LSU, FL, GA and TN, KY was going to wind up with some L's, but a little insurance can't hurt i guess. For SC, good win, but the offesne was not real impressive against a bad defense. the qb in the 1st half didn't exactly look to have command of the offense...some of those throws just screamed "WTF?". good win none the less. they have an upstart UNC team to deal with in Chapel Hill next week and Vandy, then it's a trip to Knoxville, which should be a HUGE game.
then TN/GA.....i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because it's probably been discussed a ton already, i'll just give you my thoughts....
who let the Patriots suit up in O/W? i did not see that coming, i gotta be honest. I thought we could/should win, but by that margin.....didn't see it. Who deserves credit? a few people......but as most would agree, it starts with the coaches. I haven't seen a team that prepared to play a football game in a long time....Cal 06 and the cotton bowl against A&M were the last two that immediately came to mind. That's how significant the coaches were yesterday.
THey called the game to win it. the plan was followed and executed. CDC called a great game, probably the best one since he's been back. Arian Foster, well, let's just say, that's the kind of game we've all been wondering if you could have. He was dominant. the O line......don't even know what to say...just kudos, outstanding. WR's.....no drops, yards after catch......just an all around great performance from the offense. Erik Ainge looked as good as i've seen him......
Defensively, i think most would agree, this was the surprise. I don't know what they did over the past two weeks, but bottle it and sell it. Pursuit to the ball. Pressure on the qb. gang tackling. tackling period......the D line made great run stops and got to the qb. the LB's filled gaps, and the db's were in position. obviously the best defensive performance of the year, and again, Chavis and co. had them ready.
Special teams. you know how i knew the s/t were good? i didn't even think about them until Sunday morning, and it dawned on me that there were no big returns. the coverage team was dare i say, good? they made some serious adjustments on the punt coverage unit and it paid off. thank you to the coaches for that, it is about time.
another positive for the coaches......TN is the least penalized team in the conference. discipline anyone? hopefully this is the start of something good the rest of the way....
what a game. We beat the crap out of GA......again.
and it made watching............
the LSU/FL game much more fun.....and while i'm on this, that was a GREAT game, period. it's been a while since i've seen two teams go at it like that...maybe the Aub/LSU game two years ago was just as good. I think it's obvious that FL was ready to play. they handed it to LSU for 2 quarters. to the point where i was definitely worried. this was one game in the pick 'em i didn't want to win. And as it turned out, i didn't have to.
was anyone else as impressed with Les Miles as i was? he's taken a beating on this board, and i'm guilty as charged, for being an "average to bad" coach with a ton of talent. that LSU's NT shot would get thwarted simply because of Les. And had a couple of the plays they had Saturday night gone the wrong way, that would have turned out to be true.
but they didn't. pardon the language, but he really put is nut$ on the table in that game didn't he? 5 for 5 on 4th down, with 3 of those on that last drive. Wow. the fake punt. the 4th downs at midfeild down by three, the 4th downs inside the red zone, still only down by 3. You talk about a guy that was calling a game to win it......that was it. and there was no hesitation.......each time it came up, he's just on the sideline saying "go for it" as if it didn't matter. maybe i'm giving him too much credit, but les miles earned some respect from me Saturday night, and it didn't hurt that it caused Tebow to cry afterward. and speaking of the crying by him and some fellow gators......i guess what the say is true, teams do take on the personality of their coaches.
so, now that is all said and done.......SC and TN are the only two teams in the EAst that control their own destiny. and if we can hold up our end of the bargain the next two weeks:crossfingers: it will once again be Phil Fulmer vs. Steve Spurrier for the trip to Atlanta.....whoda thunk that 3 weeks ago?:crazy:
What a weekend......i haven't been in this good a mood since we beat GA last year.
Go Vols.
I'll get to the GA game in a minute, but it was a good weekend for a lot of reasons....here are a few observations from what i got to see.......
Is there a coach in the country in a better spot than........Ron Zook? i watched the majority of that game, and Illinois actually looked "good". Wisconsin was severly overrated, and there were several on this board that thought so before the season started. But none the less, Ron Zook in year three at Big 10 doormat Illinois has knocked off a top 5 team. they're a contender in the big 10.
who's not a contender in the big 10....Purdue. pathetic, and if there was ever a case study for strength of schedule not helping a team Purdue would be it. which brings me to this question......how good is Ohio St? i really have no idea, except to say they shut down a team, in their stadium, that was scoring more than 50 pts a game thru it's first 4-5 games....that has count for something. my guess is they're pretty good.
The big 12.....i didn't see the OU/TX game, save the highlights, but i'm not surprised OU won, i am surprised at the margin. i guess rivalries do sometimes mean throw the records etc...out the window. good effort from TX....but OU is just better. And OU is still in the NT hunt thanks to USC, er, Stanford that is.
I did get to watch the KU/KSU game.....and it was very entertaining. the 1st half, i almost gave up on it because KU's offense was awful. but they never gave up and the big man got his team ready to play in the 2nd half. Now is KU for real? i'll just say they're better than i thought they were, but i don't see anybody beating.........
Missouri in the North. I'm pretty sure i picked Nebraska in the Pick 'em, and it just goes to show, i suck at picking. Missouri throttled the big red and it just goes to show that the reconstruction project going on in Licnoln is still a couple of years away from being done. while the offense may be better, the defense is not very good, definitely not up to the "black shirt" level expectations anyway. That said, Missouri handled them and are now the frontrunner for the big 12 north.
and i'm a little ticked off that A&M won this weekend.
The ACC...now, i said many moons ago, that Butch Davis's first UNC team would win a game or two they probalby shouldn't. many of you laughed at me
. Well, Butch Davis proved Saturday why he was worth the money. UNC had no business competing with Miami. and proceeded to dominate 3/4 of the game. big win for BD and the heels.Prior to this weekend, i would have said that Clemson and Tennessee were mirror images of each other, in their respective conferences. expectations, check. facililties, check. tradition, check. rabid fan base, check. talent, check. seemingly yearly let down, check. well, we all know how our weekend turned out, and you could argue that Clemson and Tommy Bowden had a similar situation as well. and Clemson failed miserably. Clemson fans feel today what we would have felt had we lost to GA. and we know how bad that would have been. and i'm glad it's them and not us.
Pac 10....Congrats to Cal. good off week. should be #2 in the nation. USC........tsk, tsk, tsk. I don't even know what to say....Stanford? 39 point underdog? i know you're still good. i know you'd probably beat us by 3 TD's. which is why there simply is NO excuse for dropping a game like that at home. Look ahead, sleep walking, whatever you want to make of that loss, that was a B A D loss.
Cal, you're in the cat bird's seat.....you think SC's going to lose 2 games this season?........no pressure.
Equally bad loss in So Cal.....UCLA. tag you're it. you're the team that the worst ND team in history beat, in your back yard no less. way to go.
so on to the SEC. Where for us TN fans, it lined up like a buffet of all your favorites.......First, KY gets beat on Thursday night. i don't know how much that really helps us in the long run, cause i think we would all agree with games left against LSU, FL, GA and TN, KY was going to wind up with some L's, but a little insurance can't hurt i guess. For SC, good win, but the offesne was not real impressive against a bad defense. the qb in the 1st half didn't exactly look to have command of the offense...some of those throws just screamed "WTF?". good win none the less. they have an upstart UNC team to deal with in Chapel Hill next week and Vandy, then it's a trip to Knoxville, which should be a HUGE game.
then TN/GA.....i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because it's probably been discussed a ton already, i'll just give you my thoughts....
who let the Patriots suit up in O/W? i did not see that coming, i gotta be honest. I thought we could/should win, but by that margin.....didn't see it. Who deserves credit? a few people......but as most would agree, it starts with the coaches. I haven't seen a team that prepared to play a football game in a long time....Cal 06 and the cotton bowl against A&M were the last two that immediately came to mind. That's how significant the coaches were yesterday.
THey called the game to win it. the plan was followed and executed. CDC called a great game, probably the best one since he's been back. Arian Foster, well, let's just say, that's the kind of game we've all been wondering if you could have. He was dominant. the O line......don't even know what to say...just kudos, outstanding. WR's.....no drops, yards after catch......just an all around great performance from the offense. Erik Ainge looked as good as i've seen him......
Defensively, i think most would agree, this was the surprise. I don't know what they did over the past two weeks, but bottle it and sell it. Pursuit to the ball. Pressure on the qb. gang tackling. tackling period......the D line made great run stops and got to the qb. the LB's filled gaps, and the db's were in position. obviously the best defensive performance of the year, and again, Chavis and co. had them ready.
Special teams. you know how i knew the s/t were good? i didn't even think about them until Sunday morning, and it dawned on me that there were no big returns. the coverage team was dare i say, good? they made some serious adjustments on the punt coverage unit and it paid off. thank you to the coaches for that, it is about time.
another positive for the coaches......TN is the least penalized team in the conference. discipline anyone? hopefully this is the start of something good the rest of the way....
what a game. We beat the crap out of GA......again.
and it made watching............
the LSU/FL game much more fun.....and while i'm on this, that was a GREAT game, period. it's been a while since i've seen two teams go at it like that...maybe the Aub/LSU game two years ago was just as good. I think it's obvious that FL was ready to play. they handed it to LSU for 2 quarters. to the point where i was definitely worried. this was one game in the pick 'em i didn't want to win. And as it turned out, i didn't have to.
was anyone else as impressed with Les Miles as i was? he's taken a beating on this board, and i'm guilty as charged, for being an "average to bad" coach with a ton of talent. that LSU's NT shot would get thwarted simply because of Les. And had a couple of the plays they had Saturday night gone the wrong way, that would have turned out to be true.
but they didn't. pardon the language, but he really put is nut$ on the table in that game didn't he? 5 for 5 on 4th down, with 3 of those on that last drive. Wow. the fake punt. the 4th downs at midfeild down by three, the 4th downs inside the red zone, still only down by 3. You talk about a guy that was calling a game to win it......that was it. and there was no hesitation.......each time it came up, he's just on the sideline saying "go for it" as if it didn't matter. maybe i'm giving him too much credit, but les miles earned some respect from me Saturday night, and it didn't hurt that it caused Tebow to cry afterward. and speaking of the crying by him and some fellow gators......i guess what the say is true, teams do take on the personality of their coaches.
so, now that is all said and done.......SC and TN are the only two teams in the EAst that control their own destiny. and if we can hold up our end of the bargain the next two weeks:crossfingers: it will once again be Phil Fulmer vs. Steve Spurrier for the trip to Atlanta.....whoda thunk that 3 weeks ago?:crazy:
What a weekend......i haven't been in this good a mood since we beat GA last year.
Go Vols.
