Shots Across The Bow

Tennessee's Fickle Football Fans

Last week they were Superman without the aversion to Kryptonite; this week they're Jimmy Olsen without the camera.

At least, that's the case if you listen to many Vol fans dissappointed by UT's tough win (Remember that? It was a WIN) last night over Air Force.

"We should have killed Air Force! They only won 4 games last season!"

Ahem. We only won 5. And lost to Vanderbilt, which should negate one of the wins.

"We're ranked number 11, and they were unranked!"

Yeah, and last week, we were ranked #23, and were lucky to be that high.

For those with "irrational exuberance induced amnesia," let me remind you of a few things.

• We scored every time we touched the ball, 4 touchdowns and a field goal. Can any other team make that claim?
• We executed a flawless hurry up offense at the end of the first half that arguably won the game for us in the second half.
• Eric Ainge proved that the Cal game was no fluke, throwing for three touchdowns vs one interception.
• Monterrio Hardesty showed that the running back position is well handled, even if Foster misses a game or two.
• The defense handled a very tricky offense fairly well, giving up only a few big plays and making enough key stops to overcome the special teams abysmal performance on the onsides kicks.

Yeah, there were some ugly aspects to the game (the aforementioned special teams play chief among them) but overall, the Vols played about as well as I expected them to. They are a young team, and young teams have a history of a letdown after an emotional win. The good news is that they still notched a win, in spite of the letdown.

As for the Florida game, with Harrel and Inky Johnson lost for the season, a lot will depend on how well the defense adjusts. But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict a UT victory come Saturday.

We're not as good as some thought we were a week ago, and we're nowhere near as bad as some think we are right now, but we're good enough to take down the Gators on th 17th. Fla doesn't run the flexbone, they run an offense very similar to Cal's, and we know how to handle that. We'll give up a few more points with the loss of two defensive starters, but our offense is powerful enough to take care of business.
Tennessee 38 Fla 28

Posted by Rich at September 10, 2006 12:04 AM | TrackBack