Re: Vol in tears
Wow...
I stood there on the very top row of the upper deck in Section II, my
arms behind me, draped over the iron bar and my hands clinching the
criss-crossed gates that separate frustrated fans from free-falling into
the shadow of the Tennessee hills.
I'm not suggesting the morbid thought ever crossed my mind during
Tennessee's 37-20 how-did-this-happen-so-quickly meltdown against the
Marsalis Teague
missed tackle, the Gators' three-play, 70-yard postmark and a Frankie
Hammond long catch-and-run just to rub it in, I felt like the only thing
holding me up was the iron namesake of General Robert Neyland.
The way the excitement had died and the wind was knocked out of a
rowdy crowd of 102,000-plus, maybe I was the only thing holding the
stadium up, too.
There was the usual pain of a loss ... especially a loss to Florida,
which, more often than not, is the season's first. But there was more.
There was that feeling that we'd squandered so much -- the opportunity
to remain firmly in the national spotlight with the college football
world watching, the chance to impress the most impressive group of
recruits to watch a UT game in person in a decade, the potential to beat
a Gators team that was beatable and perhaps most importantly, the
ability to take away any of the questions [at least for a while]
surrounding Derek Dooley and his staff.
Instead, we're left with more questions. Will Dooley ever win a big
game? Can we re-learn how as a program? How does this much talent blow
it so epically? How did it slip away so quickly? When will we ever be
able to play with our two biggest rivals again?
There are no answers today. We lost the game, we lost one of our top defensive players in free safety
Brian Randolph, we lost our national ranking and any buzz that we'd gained, and we lost confidence in our coaching staff once again.
What else is there to say? I guess it's a good thing that I'm not
numb to it yet, but that may not be so far away. Just so many
disappointing losses that you can take before you say, "I just don't let
it get to me anymore." It still eats away at my soul.
There was the flicker of hope just before we started walking back to
the car. Mississippi State had only beaten Troy 30-24, Missouri isn't
dominant, Vanderbilt looks bad, South Carolina has chinks in its armor,
Georgia allowed Florida Atlantic to score 20 points. We are an imperfect
team, but we've got nine games left and we cannot give up on this
coaching staff, these players or this season. Not just yet.
As we were walking dejectedly out of Neyland, a half-hearted chant of
"It's great to be a Tennessee Vol" echoed through the tunneled ramp
with my voice joined. A gentleman behind me said quietly to his wife,
"Well, it used to be." In a comforting tone, she whispered back, "It
will be again, honey. Someday."
Still, we wait...
http://www.rockytoptalk.com/section/tennessee_volunteer_football
