Yesterday Was Awful
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
For the first time since the end of the Alabama-Tennessee game back in 1990, I cried watching a Tennessee-related event. I was 11 in 1990. For the past 18 years I've watched Tennessee football without any tears, but yesterday I cried. And I suspect I was not alone.
I couldn't help thinking that as a fanbase we were Brutus and Fulmer was an unsuspecting Caesar.
More than anything else this struck me as a divorce where an older man goes searching for a new wife. After a long time our program decided we needed someone sexier, someone with more verve. We have the money to pay for that spark. Only, and as one who isn't divorced I'm not an expert, at some point don't you end up facing the same challenges with the new hire? One day she's not going to want to have sex because she has a headache or she's going to be blaming you for making a mess in the house or your complete collection of Saved By the Bell DVDs are going to turn up missing. Worst of all, she might just be after you for money and already be looking to go somewhere else. We've traded loyalty for a bit of passion. But as good ole Benjamin Franklin once said, passion never rules wisely. I guess what I'm saying is, things aren't going to change much. Do you think our next coach is going to win at Gainesville or Tuscaloosa next season? The season after? Yeah, I didn't think so.
But now we're on to a new day and here are several things I'm wondering about in no particular order.
1. Has the SEC become too popular for its own good? I'm not a NASCAR person but I've heard the grumbling that the television networks killed some of the enthusiasm and fun that existed in that sport. Will the same be true for the SEC? Already we're bringing in mercenaries to coach our football teams. In some corners, that's good, it means that the rest of the country has finally realized what we've known all along, that the SEC plays the paramount brand of football in the country. But does it also mean that assholes like Urban Meyer, Bobby Petrino, and Nick Saban represent the future of our conference? Guys born outside the South who make a living down here? I'm afraid so. If that's the case does part of the unique flavor that has made us all love SEC football so much begin to fade? I'm afraid it might.
2. Will there ever be another head coach at UT from inside the state? For several years I've been in the camp that said they didn't care where our next coach was from so long as he won. In particular part I've been stuck on this analogy, "If any large Tennesssee-based corporation said they were hiring a new CEO but they said that their CEO had to come from Tennessee, how would we respond? We'd think it was ludicrous." I've told this story countless times to countless numbers of people. You may have heard me say it as well. Well, now I'm wondering if I might be wrong about this. The premise of my hypothetical is based upon the idea that college football is basically a large corporation. I know this is mostly true. But does acknowledging this fact make football less fun?
I went to the Monday Night game between the Titans and Colts last week and all I could think throughout the game was: This experience is inferior to UT-Mississippi State. It's hard for me to get past how ludicrous it is to get worked up over what happens to pro athletes. I root for the Titans but I don't feel the passion in the same way. One reason is because the NFL is such a business. The timeouts and ads and everything else about the NFL is so choreographed. So clearly a production. So clearly a business. UT football has never felt like this to me. But will it in the future if the business angle of collegiate sports continues to predominate? I'm not sure. But I'm worried. So now I'm not sure if this is the right question to be asking. Maybe, after all, being provincial in our hiring list helps make us who we are as Vol fans.
3. Mike Hamilton has to have a good coach lined up in pocket to make this decision now. He's too smart to do this to Fulmer and hire some of the guys on the Volquest list. Part of that reason is because there's no real comparison in recent SEC history to UT forcing Fulmer out. No SEC school has run off a national championship winner like we just did. To do this requires a great heaping of balls. Balls that fill up a whole athletic department. So I believe that Hamilton already knows who he'll hire. To do otherwise would be tantamount to career suicide. His own career suicide. For example, can you imagine if we pushed Fulmer out and ended up with someone like Volquest top 11 "candidate" Doug Marrone? Or that black guy who coaches Buffalo? The fan base would be united again. United in hating the decision and our new coach. Nope, this is going to be a big name.
4. I love how quickly some are to discount UT's chances with a big-name coach. This is a job that hasn't had a true search since the 1960's. That's insane. Plus, money is not a real issue. So I'm not willing to dismiss anyone as out of hand. Put it this way, if you'd told anyone in September of last season that Bobby Petrino was going to leave his NFL coaching job in the middle of the season to take over as head coach of Arkansas, would you have ever believed it? Of course not. So keep your eyes peeled on this decision.
Appreciate all the emails and I'll get to them later today or tomorrow in the mailbag. Labels: phil fulmer mike hamilton claynation
Posted by Clay Travis at 9:29 AM
 
Permalink
Digg this Post
Email this Post
0 Comments:
<< Home
Previous Posts
| |
Travis has become enamored of several objects, phrases or events which he frequenly references in the column. Among the most frequent:
'Bama Bangs - a term coined by Travis to refer to southern men's hairstyles that feature prominent bangs for no apparent reason. Brodie Croyle and John Parker Wilson are oft-cited violators of 'Bama Bangs rules.
Read More...
When Clay Travis, acclaimed author of Dixieland Delight, decided to spend the 2008 season up close and personal with UT football, he—and every other college football aficionado—thought he was in for a rollicking ride with one of the leading contenders for the national title. After all, when the Vols kicked off the season on September 1, the defending SEC East champions were ranked 18th in the country. As head coach Phillip Fulmer prepared for the game, he reflected upon a coaching career that included an astounding 147 victories, two SEC championships, and a national title. With 34 years at UT under his belt as both a player and coach, the Tennessee native had just signed a contract extension that projected to keep him at the university long enough to become the winningest coach in program history.
Read More...
There is no college ball more passionate and competitive than football in the Southeastern Conference, where seven of the twelve schools boast stadiums bigger than any in the NFL and 6.5 million fans hit the road every year to hoot and holler their teams to victory.
Read More...
The newly favored man is not really a man at all, but a hairless, effeminate, germ-fearing, non-meat-eating, exfoliating, wristband-wearing woman of the worst order. We as men are told that we must embrace the sacred feminine in ourselves, even if it doesn't actually exist, and become the very quintessence of woman, plus penises. This situation is untenable. This trend must stop.
Read More...
Clay Travis is the only former student manager in the history of college athletics to marry an NFL cheerleader. He managed to pull this off despite an irrational affinity for the television shows Dawson's Creek and My Super Sweet 16. While being raised in Nashville, Tenn., Travis developed a healthy obsession with college sports and Alyssa Milano. As a teenager his greatest accomplishment was taking a doo-rag wearing Luke Duke (balling as Tom Wopat) to the hole at the Nashville YMCA.
In the midst of a stellar legal career during which he specialized in rewarding the unjust and punishing the oppressed, Travis began writing for CBS Sports's SPiN section in September 2005...
Read More...
|
