You Suck as a Volunteers Fan...

[VFL-82-JP]

...if you cry for coaching changes during the season.

I can hear the whining now. "Oh, you're saying we're not fans if we're critical of the coach, of the players, of the program, we're not allowed to be objective / honest / straight then, huh?"

No, that's not it at all. Your critical reasoning skills can remain intact. You just gotta know when to zip it. You gotta know that there are appropriate times, and inappropriate times, for your little fan-meltdowns. Put simply: you are expected to support your program when it is in the middle of the campaign. That's all.

There is PLENTY of time to talk about firing people and what players "suck" and who can't call plays worth a damn and who can't throw in the eight months of each year that football is not being played.

But when we're in the middle of the campaign, where there are only 6 days -- 144 hours -- between efforts, when every second and every spark of energy is at its greatest possible value, that is NOT the time to take a pause to rant about fahring the coach because you're smarter than him.

Look, here's how it works, or how it should work: come the first day of the season, we're all in. This is our coach, this is his staff of assistant coaches, and these are our 100 or so players. Let's play. And then we support them, through thick and thin, all the way through. Save the rancor for later, these are OUR guys (I mean the coaches, too). These guys are bleeding orange for us and our university and our state. So we're theirs in return, as long as the season lasts.

So put your belly aches on hold, or jot them down in notes to yourself to remember later, come January, come the long off-season. Come winter and spring, we can wallow in recrimination, we can insult and dissect, we can eviscerate and excoriate to our evil little hearts' content. The long, endless off-season is tailor-made for that kind of doubt and destruction.

During the season, be true fans of the Volunteers...be fanatic about them...support them through the thick AND the thin, through the ups AND the downs. Or go support some other team, if you can't do that. I hear Alabama's fan base welcomes this kind of knife-in-the-back "fandom."

There you go, there's an easy target for you 40% of VolNation who really aren't Tennessee fans, but are instead fans of yourselves and your own egos. Have at me, flame away.

But deep down inside, those of you who rant the most, you know I'm right. This note makes you uncomfortable for a reason.

Learn how to be a better fan of the Vols, or go somewhere else.

That's how I see it.

 

[McDad]

Welcome back. I was hoping to talk about the UF game with you. You still up for some level-headed discussion?

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Always, McDad. Though I confess, I haven't gone back to watch the game a second time, at all. The loss hurt too much, heh.

 

[gunner]

...if you cry for coaching changes during the season.

I can hear the whining now. "Oh, you're saying we're not fans if we're critical of the coach, of the players, of the program, we're not allowed to be objective / honest / straight then, huh?"

No, that's not it at all. Your critical reasoning skills can remain intact. You just gotta know when to zip it. You gotta know that there are appropriate times, and inappropriate times, for your little fan-meltdowns. Put simply: you are expected to support your program when it is in the middle of the campaign. That's all.

There is PLENTY of time to talk about firing people and what players "suck" and who can't call plays worth a damn and who can't throw in the eight months of each year that football is not being played.

But when we're in the middle of the campaign, where there are only 6 days -- 144 hours -- between efforts, when every second and every spark of energy is at its greatest possible value, that is NOT the time to take a pause to rant about fahring the coach because you're smarter than him.

Look, here's how it works, or how it should work: come the first day of the season, we're all in. This is our coach, this is his staff of assistant coaches, and these are our 100 or so players. Let's play. And then we support them, through thick and thin, all the way through. Save the rancor for later, these are OUR guys (I mean the coaches, too). These guys are bleeding orange for us and our university and our state. So we're theirs in return, as long as the season lasts.

So put your belly aches on hold, or jot them down in notes to yourself to remember later, come January, come the long off-season. Come winter and spring, we can wallow in recrimination, we can insult and dissect, we can eviscerate and excoriate to our evil little hearts' content. The long, endless off-season is tailor-made for that kind of doubt and destruction.

During the season, be true fans of the Volunteers...be fanatic about them...support them through the thick AND the thin, through the ups AND the downs. Or go support some other team, if you can't do that. I hear Alabama's fan base welcomes this kind of knife-in-the-back "fandom."

There you go, there's an easy target for you 40% of VolNation who really aren't Tennessee fans, but are instead fans of yourselves and your own egos. Have at me, flame away.

But deep down inside, those of you who rant the most, you know I'm right. This note makes you uncomfortable for a reason.

Learn how to be a better fan of the Vols, or go somewhere else.

That's how I see it.

Spot on JP!!! Good to see you back on here educating the masses!! Lol. I always enjoy reading your opinion. Thanks and GBO!!

 

[bigdaddy]

Calling for a change right now is just blowing smoke. Being critical of the coaching is more than OK. I think you can look at the UF loss and see that coaching lost that game. Being critical of the coaches doesn't mean you are not on board or not a fan.

 

[Cartervol]

Well honestly Bob you came to the wrong place. This is Volnation, a message board. Message boards have loud fans, fanatic fans, out of touch with reality fans, and I want it now fans. It's what makes it a great board.

When we all start accepting mediocrity then i'll find something else to do with my time.

CBJ is working on it, hope he figures it out. Not many here want him fired. We just want him to stop the Derek Dooley impersonation on Saturdays.

 

[Special Ed]

I may be mental, but at least I'm not judgmental.

 

[BeardedVol]

Yeah, that's nice and all. Other than some criticism of the coaches for having jumper in as MLB, I hae seen very little direct criticism directed towards the players.

You seem to be incapable of separating your love of Tennessee and your love of Butch Jones, which is unfortunate.

At the end of the day the product on the field is what Jones is judged on as a coach. It's the cumulative score of his recruiting, his hiring of assistants, and his game day coaching ability. Currently he is failing, and no matter how you spin try to spin these 4th quarter meltdowns into moral victories, the w/l columns don't lie.

 

[governmentmule]

CBJ is making the change Cartervol,we fans tend to forget he is on a learning curve from where he was at to the SEC

and a great post JP :clapping:

 

[northknoxvol]

This fan base has been thru Kiffin and Dooley so forgive us if we are skeptical.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Calling for a change right now is just blowing smoke. Being critical of the coaching is more than OK. I think you can look at the UF loss and see that coaching lost that game. Being critical of the coaches doesn't mean you are not on board or not a fan.

Yeah, Daddy, that's it exactly. There's a huge difference between saying, "Butch and Jancek blew that call," and saying "Fahr Butch, or at least fire Jancek!" There's a huge difference between saying, "Dobbs is having trouble hitting deep targets, he's only 2 of 12 beyond 15 yards" (that's a made-up stat, not real afaik) and saying, "Dobbs sucks, put in Dormady!"

In each of those examples, the first case is objective critique while retaining support for the coach or player; the second is a (quite useless, at this point of the year) rant based on the writer's own ego.

The former should be welcome in VN; the latter should be shunned.

 

[musolfmj]

You said what many of us think. Nicely done.

I doubt they constitute 40 percent of the VolNation, but their self-absorbed clamor, their need for instant gratification, constant hijacking of threads and their love affair with their own uninformed brilliance does make it seem that way.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

This fan base has been thru Kiffin and Dooley so forgive us if we are skeptical.

As one of those fans who lived through it, I know. I know. I feel it in my bones, too. But that's not an excuse for bad fandom.

 

[McDad]

Always, McDad. Though I confess, I haven't gone back to watch the game a second time, at all. The loss hurt too much, heh.

It does hurt. Watching our team be dominated is tough. Watching us dominate for 45-55 minutes only to lose is tougher.

I don't know if you heard the CBS commentator before kickoff. He spoke with CBJ off camera. Coach said we were 12 plays away from a victory against OU; if any 1 of those 12 fall in our favor, we win. I immediately thought of your "14 plays" thread. Kudos to you. I wondered how many of your 14 were on CBJ's 12.

 

[Deputy Fife]

The long, endless off-season is tailor-made for that kind of doubt and destruction.

Yeah except there aren't any of the football games during the non-football game period, thus making it harder to talk about any of the games because they aren't part of reality during that time of non-existence.

 

[Boca Vol]

Butch isn't going anywhere. Anyone that thinks he is needs to come to that reality.

The ones going off the deep-end are the ones that called anyone with a "wait and see" attitude a nega-vol, or told them to go cheer for _____________.

I think most of the frustration comes from the fact that both OU & UF were won. We just had to wait for the clock to hit 0:00. It wasn't like losses in the past where we were blown out (Bama, OU, Ole Miss, Oregon) or just came up short in a comeback effort (UGA).

There are many positive things going on with the program. UT just needs to complete the circle and win the games. The good news is in the SEC there are plenty of chances left (Ark, UGA, Bama, USC, Mizzou) to get some quality wins.

 

[SobeVol]

It does hurt. Watching our team be dominated is tough. Watching us dominate for 45-55 minutes only to lose is tougher.

I don't know if you heard the CBS commentator before kickoff. He spoke with CBJ off camera. Coach said we were 12 plays away from a victory against OU; if any 1 of those 12 fall in our favor, we win. I immediately thought of your "14 plays" thread. Kudos to you. I wondered how many of your 14 were on CBJ's 12.

Isn't this bs true of nearly every decent lost football game?
We are developing a pattern of being " just a few plays short" especially when we take a two touchdown lead in the forth.

 

[bigdaddy]

Yeah, Daddy, that's it exactly. There's a huge difference between saying, "Butch and Jancek blew that call," and saying "Fahr Butch, or at least fire Jancek!" There's a huge difference between saying, "Dobbs is having trouble hitting deep targets, he's only 2 of 12 beyond 15 yards" (that's a made-up stat, not real afaik) and saying, "Dobbs sucks, put in Dormady!"

In each of those examples, the first case is objective critique while retaining support for the coach or player; the second is a (quite useless, at this point of the year) rant based on the writer's own ego.

The former should be welcome in VN; the latter should be shunned.

I was listening to Swain this am and he said that people are tweeting the players telling them they suck and so forth. That's just crazy. If you want to tell the player he sucks go to the game or volwalk, call him over and be a man and say it to his face.

 

[GAVol]

This fan base has been thru Kiffin and Dooley so forgive us if we are skeptical.

if you're still a fan after all we've been through, I give everybody a pass to do whatever they want at this point

 

[McDad]

Isn't this bs true of nearly every decent lost football game?
We are developing a pattern of being " just a few plays short" especially when we take a two touchdown lead in the forth.

We've been losing in close, inexplicable, gut-wrenching ways for a decade now. This year isn't any different. So far.

 

[Boca Vol]

I was listening to Swain this am and he said that people are tweeting the players telling them they suck and so forth. That's just crazy. If you want to tell the player he sucks go to the game or volwalk, call him over and be a man and say it to his face.

That's just sad.

Social media really is a race to the bottom.

 

[SobeVol]

Butch isn't going anywhere. Anyone that thinks he is needs to come to that reality.

The ones going off the deep-end are the ones that called anyone with a "wait and see" attitude a nega-vol, or told them to go cheer for _____________.

I think most of the frustration comes from the fact that both OU & UF were won. We just had to wait for the clock to hit 0:00. It wasn't like losses in the past where we were blown out (Bama, OU, Ole Miss, Oregon) or just came up short in a comeback effort (UGA).

There are many positive things going on with the program. UT just needs to complete the circle and win the games. The good news is in the SEC there are plenty of chances left (Ark, UGA, Bama, USC, Mizzou) to get some quality wins.

Best summary I've read.
Even those of us who are not on the butch train right now and are waiting for results are not calling for his head yet.
My only fear is I think we lose 4 more this year. Right now we are concerned then we will have reason to fear.
Hope in wrong

 

[GAVol]

I was listening to Swain this am and he said that people are tweeting the players telling them they suck and so forth. That's just crazy. If you want to tell the player he sucks go to the game or volwalk, call him over and be a man and say it to his face.

Just awful.

They should publicly out all those Twitter handles so everybody knows who they are.

 

[McDad]

I was listening to Swain this am and he said that people are tweeting the players telling them they suck and so forth. That's just crazy. If you want to tell the player he sucks go to the game or volwalk, call him over and be a man and say it to his face.

Trailer-park fans. Every program has them. Unfortunately.

 

[SobeVol]

I was listening to Swain this am and he said that people are tweeting the players telling them they suck and so forth. That's just crazy. If you want to tell the player he sucks go to the game or volwalk, call him over and be a man and say it to his face.

Inexcusable!!!
The boys are playing their tails off!