SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 1-8-15
FINALLY I DON’T HAVE TO PRETEND TO BE OPTIMISTIC: I have been afraid to believe; heck I’ve been terrified to even hope that the worst stretch of football in my lifetime as a Tennessee fan is taking a positive turn. At the end of Derek Dooley’s second season I was resigned to the fact that not only was he incapable of advancing the program he was excavating an abyss for it to fall into from which we would never emerge if given more than three seasons at the helm. At the conclusion of Butch Jones’ second season I’m not convinced he is the long-term answer but if not I believe he will at the very least lay the foundation for whoever is. The Vols 45-28 total demolition of an experienced Iowa team was as cathartic a victory for the program and fanbase as has occurred here since the 2004 team’s regular season win in Athens that led to an unexpected SEC East title. The program’s first bowl victory in seven years and one day coupled with more commitments to an already impressive recruiting class -that means Jones and staff have stacked them back-to-back- is a long awaited on and off-the-field accomplishment daily-double so rare here for some time. The program’s vital signs appear stronger than at any time since Lane Kiffin chose to leave for his dream –soon to become nightmare- job at USC. The pace of ascent may be slower than some prefer but it is trending upward nonetheless. Next season should see a more meteoric rise. Not "let’s go to Atlanta" meteoric but certainly more "defend your home field and lock up bowl eligibility before you eat turkey" than we’ve seen here in years. I do not expect us to win the East in Jones Year III but I do expect the staff to work through the projected Team 119 –sorry I couldn’t help myself- weakness and figure a way to cobble together an offensive line at least capable of combining with the rest of the talented roster to make it hard on whoever does. Lane Kiffin never had a year 3 and Derek Dooley never should have. I think Butch Jones will make his one that has us looking forward to his fourth.
BASKETVOLS: What a rollercoaster ride it’s been since the end of last basketball season. Cuonzo Martin was here..then he wasn’t..then here…then gone. Michael White of Louisiana Tech was coming to replace him then he wasn’t. Donnie Tyndall was forgiven for past NCAA sins committed at Morehead State by Dave Hart and company; became the Vols head coach; threw together a competitive D-1 basketball team in record time; obtained a four star commitment for 2015; quickly lost him;apparently swam in a recruiting pool reserved for the regals and received another indictment from the NCAA. Somehow through all of that turmoil Donnie Tyndall has convinced his AAU team to play harder and smarter for longer than any we’ve seen here in five years or more. Admittedly he plays a style that I prefer with constant full court defensive pressure and an offense that rarely settles for the first available trey but I like more than that about him. He doesn’t have a point guard, an experienced interior player or a pure shooter and yet he has guided his challenged unit to a 9-4 start in spite of their obvious shortcomings. The most impressive thing he has accomplished however is somehow quickly instill a high level of camaraderie and chemistry with a group that barely knew each other this past summer even though they’re playing for a man few if any of them knew anything about and may not be their coach for more than one season. It’s too early to be so I know but I’m all in. And that alone increases my worries that the NCAA will not let a woebegone long-time Tennessee Basketball fan such as I continue along that path.
HART’S HEART? IT WON’T MATTER: I’ve heard many say that Dave Hart should stand up and fight for the coach he thought –and has been proven correct- was the right man to lead Tennessee Basketball. As stated above I don’t know that Donnie Tyndall could have done a better job of leading a program left in disarray by Cuonzo Martin’s middling recruiting and hasty departure and I’m sure Hart would like nothing better than to keep Donnie Knoxville for as long as he would like to stay. I really believe however that Tyndall’s fate is totally out of Hart’s control and in the hands of the NCAA. They will either allow him to survive to coach another day or make the penalty for retention so steep that Hart and company will have no recourse than to bid him farewell. What frightens me are his prior transgressions and the governing body’s desire to show they still have some clout. The NCAA with their reduction of Penn State’s sanctions, bungling of the Miami investigation and the Power 5 Conferences threat to break off and form their own league has been neutered from a football enforcement standpoint. That leaves only college basketball as a platform for them to publically flex their muscles and you can bet your backside they ain’t gonna do it in Chapel Hill. That leaves Donnie Tyndall, Southern Miss and Tennessee and with the Golden Eagle Athletic Department apparently singing like Sammy the Bull Gravano to save their own hiney it’s just DT and us. I’m terrified that the NCAA need’s someone to drop the hammer on and Tyndall is one of their usual suspects. I hope they prove to be merciful but that has never been their M.O... We want him to be our basketball coach and I feel confident Dave Hart does as well. The problem is if the NCAA wants to get him there’s not a dang thing that any of us can do about it.
PERFECT GUY; PERFECT TIME It isn’t often in college football when the perfect answer is both obvious and attainable. For Michigan that once every 50 year scenario became a reality when Jim Harbaugh –one of their own- rode in on his white horse to rescue the historic program from oblivion. Urban Meyer was well on his way to taking hated rival Ohio State to a plateau many –myself included- thought was no longer within the reach of a Big-10 member
before the Buckeye's stunning upset of Alabama and threatening to leave their long-time upper-tier conference mate in a hole that it would take decades to dig out of. It took more than the UM’s sense of urgency. It required a Jerry Jones-Jimmy Johnson-esque jealousy between the 49er front office and Harbaugh; no opening at an attractive enough position in the NFL for him to consider and a throng of wealthy boosters all with pen in hand. It was an absolute must that Michigan make this happen and –like Alabama with Saban- they refused to let history be written any other way. Harbaugh will quickly retool the roster, restore faith in the program, re-energize the Go Blue Nation, and revive one of the great rivalries in all of college football. Even the foremost Big-10 antagonist –of which I am at the very least honorable mention- has to admit that Jim Harbaugh will be good for college football. That is something all of us outside Columbus, Ohio and East Lansing, Michigan can celebrate regardless of conference affiliation.
DEFLATED OR OVERRATED? Up until the last days of 2014 I was convinced that the SEC West was the toughest division in the history of college football. Then in the span of three days LSU lost to a Notre Dame team on a four game losing streak, Ole Miss was annihilated by TCU, Mississippi State was overwhelmed by Georgia Tech, Auburn slept-walked through a loss to a Wisconsin team that lost their previous game 59-0 and Alabama allowed Ohio State to get their first (non vacated) win over an SEC team in a game of true consequence. That left only upstart Arkansas and defenseless Texas A&M as postseason winners from the once mighty West. The burning -and highly unanswerable- question is was the division burned out after a season of brutal competition? Or was the preeminent side of the widely thought of strongest conference in the country simply overrated? One of the great things about college football is that it can’t be answered but can be debated nonstop.
STILL WINNING…BUT NOT BIG: The SEC is taking a long-awaited giddy beating everywhere outside this region after two consecutive non-championship seasons and a really bad three days of football as 2014 turned to 2015. This seems absurd after the league finished 7-5 in bowl games tying its own record for the most single season postseason wins in CFB history until you look deeper into which games they’re losing. Former local TV personality Eric Waddell provided the following numbers that show how the league has fallen off in its biggest of games the last two seasons. In the last two postseasons the SEC is the only Power 5 conference that has failed to win a BCS/Group of Six/CFP Bowl Game going 0-5. To add insult to injury the American Athletic and Mountain West Conferences have one win each in the same period (C Fla and Boise in last two Fiesta Bowls).
OHIO ST-OREGON BY THE NUMBERS With the finals of the inaugural CFB Playoff straight ahead the intrigue is every bit as strong as most imagined. Both Oregon and Ohio State survived early season bumps in the road and will continue to play while the eyes of every other team in the land will gaze longingly at the contest with hopes and dreams of someday being a participant. Though comparative numbers are deceiving and the only ones that truly matter are the ones the Ducks and Buckeyes will put on each other next Monday night. Here is the statistical comparison
CATEGORY OHIO ST OREGON
SCORING 45.0; 47.2
RUSHING 262.2; 241.9
PASSING 247.5; 311
TO MARGIN +10; +20
3RD DOWN CONV 51.91; 51.61
RED ZONE CONV 84% (48TD 10FG); 86.84 (51TD 15FG)
SACKS ALLOWED 1.93; 2.07
SCORING D 22.1; 22.3
RUSHING D 142; 156.07
PASSING D 191.6; 265.9
SACKS 3.07; 2.57
IN A PERFECT WORLD: The Right Reverend Al Green can say it much better than I.
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