SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 11-12-15
BIG ORANGE REARVIEW MIRROR:
-It’s amazing how the South Carolina series has recently become an annual expect-the-unexpected affair. The Vols had no business in the game in Columbia in 2012 against a Gamecock squad that won 11 games and certainly shouldn’t have beaten the 2013 version that did the same. Last season’s Vols’ win wasn’t a shocker but the manner in which they achieved it certainly was. In Saturday’s game the roles reversed but the contest was just as closely contested proving once again that in this series history seems to trump any roster advantage.
-I was thinking walking out of the stadium how closely this resembled the 2012 contest. Heavily favored home teams; facing a wounded opponent; with a lame duck coach; frantically holding on to three point leads and needing defensive takeaways deep in their own territory to save face.
-When Joshua Dobbs has a non-productive running game our offense is pedestrian.
-While still often wild in the strike zone Dobbs is improving from an accuracy standpoint. The question is will he –and our offensive line- ever get to the point they can make defenses pay for selling out to stop the run.
-Emmanuel Mosely shouldn’t have served a two second suspension for his alleged targeting infraction. Brian Randolph on the other hand deserves two games
-At some point the coaching staff has to evaluate and address the offensive lulls that inevitably come once we attain a (seemingly) comfortable lead.
-The horse has no pulse but every week provides more ammunition that Jauan Jennings has a defensive mentality and Evan Berry should have the ball in his hands on more than just kick returns and pregame interception drills.
-Great to see the alarm clock go off for Malik Foreman. He not only made the game-saving play but was solid when assigned to Pharoh Cooper as well. Wonder when the rest of our DB’s have their alarms set for?
-Looks as if Aaron Medley is rewarding Butch Jones for his unwavering confidence. Good for both.
BEANO-RHYTHMS Players and coaches have to -as Butch Jones says- “snap and clear”. As a fan however I’m more likely to “clearly snap”. Therefore each week I will take just a second to describe what the results of the previous game have done to my Big Orange outlook: The Vols jumped out to a 14-0 lead barely breaking a sweat in doing so and my fears of a let-down were diminished while my belief we were quickly becoming an SEC upper-tier entity was bolstered. Then it looked like the teams swapped uniforms at halftime and the schizo-Vols from September were back. Or did they ever leave? I’m a little schizophrenic myself these days.
Beano-Rhythm Status: It wasn’t pretty or encouraging but it was a win. Tennessee’s rapid start and Malik Foreman’s late-game defensive heroics kept the Vols hope for a memorable stretch drive alive and me from free-falling into a blue funk that nothing remaining in the season could have lifted. My hopes remain that a corner has been turned and that the ugliness that was Tennessee football since Lane Kiffin bolted to the West Coast is gone and isn’t coming back.
WHAT WE LEARNED IN WEEK 10:
CUTCLIFFE’S TEAM NOT AS RESILIENT AS BUTCH’S While conceding there is a difference between robbery and charity Duke and Tennessee both have experienced heartbreak after near-miss affairs that altered their seasons. Miami’s -never should have been allowed- rugby kickoff return for a TD quite obviously took more out of the Blue Devils than the Vols late game gaffes did the Big Orange. Though we could suggest that last-gasp defensive failure versus Oklahoma indirectly led to the same against Florida and a slight hangover versus Arkansas at least the Vols were mentally prepared to play each week. The Blue Devils on the other hand were never in the game against arch-rival North Carolina competitively or emotionally. I guess David Cutcliffe needs to get Butch Jones’ Cliffs Notes on “resiliency”.
IT’S MAGICAL IN GAINESVILLE AS WELL: I thought the Magic Kingdom was in Orlando not Gainesville. It appears however that there is at least a satellite Disney World at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Florida not only made a miracle escape from a seemingly sure loss versus the Vols earlier in the season they had a repeat performance Saturday against Vandy. The Gators had 59 yards of offense in the second half, turned the ball over 4 times, had a lucky contest winner future dental ceramist miss a PAT, scored only nine points and somehow punched their ticket to Atlanta for the first time since Tim Tebow was their QB or FB or Bulldozer or whatever you call what he did. Vandy boomed a 12 yard punt to set up the Gators go-ahead drive which ended with Austin Hardin hitting a 43 yard FG. Hardin was only 4-12 on FGs entering the contest and had lost his starting job not once but twice. Vol fans will remember one of his few successes from beyond 40 yards prior to Saturday was a 49 yarder that gave the Gators a win in Neyland in 2014. That script however is so common place that Disney would have no interest.
COWBOY UP: I just never saw this coming; Oklahoma State 49 TCU 29. I thought the Cowboys had run through the light part of their schedule and out of luck with TCU, Baylor and Oklahoma remaining. Instead OSU gave TCU a thrashing similar to those they issued to Kansas and Texas Tech. Now with Baylor and Oklahoma scheduled to visit the Cowboys in the last two weeks of the regular season the Big-12 Championship runs through Stillwater rather than Fort Worth, Waco or Norman.
CRIMSON CREAM: As in The Tide rising to the top of the SEC West standings. Much like after a 2014 loss in Oxford rumors of the Tide’s demise were once again premature. Alabama defeated LSU for the fourth straight season and administered a second straight thrashing in Tuscaloosa (2013 38-17; 2015 30-16). Thoughts that Leonard Fournette (19-31; 1 TD) would run through Alabama as he had the rest of the Tigers’ opponents or that Brandon Harris (6-19; 128 yds 1 TD; 1 INT) could make up the difference throwing if he couldn’t were also misguided. LSU looked like the same challenged offense without their customary salty defense while Alabama looked like a unit poised to be the SEC’s lone playoff representative again.
OLE “MISS” ATLANTA AGAIN: The only team yet to represent the West in the SECCG’s streak is intact. Ole Miss lost control of their own destiny on the strangest play of the strangest football season on record. Hunter Henry threw a no look pass that would have made Magic Johnson jealous had it not been thrown so far and so blindly that the Lakers would have been charged a backcourt violation. Hunter’s prayer was answered when Alex Collins scooped it up after several deflections and flashed back to Knoxville on a 31 yard jaunt for a first down that kept the Hogs’ hopes alive. Arkansas capitalized with a TD and a “let’s get the hell out of here” two-point conversion for the victory. Hugh Freeze has brought the Rebel program a looong way but apparently not far enough to traverse the stratosphere that separates Oxford from Atlanta.
WHAT WE WILL LEARN IN WEEK 11:
ACC: ATLANTIC COAST CONSOLATION: When the season started most pundits thought tonight’s clash between Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech would go a long way in determining the ACC Coastal Division championship. Instead the Hokies and Yellow Jackets are a combined 3-8 in the ACC and 7-11 overall with only hopes of bowl eligibility, and a shot at their state rivals to look forward to. The good news for Georgia Tech is they defeated the Hokies last season 27-24 on the way to an 11 win season. The bad news is that was last year and Virginia Tech has never dropped two straight in the series.
TIME-HONORED TIEBREAKER: The stakes obviously aren’t as high as usual with Auburn mired in last place in the West and Georgia mathematically eliminated from Atlanta for the third straight season but the historical significance remains monumental. The series is astonishingly tied after 118 games at 55-55-8. Auburn may be able to take some solace in the fact that the home team has won five of the last six but it certainly wasn’t easy for the Tigers the last time they hosted as it took a miraculous tipped pass 73 yard last second TD to ensure the victory.
TIGER TURNAROUND? It looked for all the world like Memphis would run the table of opponents sandwiched between when Houston dealt them their last loss of the 2014 season until the rematch this weekend. Instead the Middies sailed into the Liberty Bowl and emphatically declared war on the rest of the AAC Western Division. Now instead of a winner-take-all contest this Saturday the Tigers must not only beat the Cougars but get some help with Navy going forward. Memphis will also be dealing with bouncing back from a loss for the first time in more than a year at the hands of Saturday’s opponent who has won the last 5 games in the series by an average of 19 points. Throw on top of that the game-within-the-game of Justin Fuente and Tom Herman positioning themselves for a slew of top job openings and you get intrigue far above your everyday American Athletic Conference level.
CARDINAL CLINCH? In what seems like only moments Stanford has gone from stumbling out of the blocks at Northwestern to one win away from clinching the North Division and the PAC-12 CG berth in Santa Clara that goes with it. With a 2 game Division lead and only two PAC-12 contests remaining on the schedule Stanford could rap it up this Saturday versus old time rival Oregon. Though the Ducks have won 10 of the last 13 two of the three losses have come in the last three seasons and this does not appear to be a vintage Oregon squad.
BIG-12 BREAKING POINT: Until last week it appeared that the Big-12 trifecta playoff contention round-robin would finally get under way with Oklahoma traveling to Waco to face Baylor this Saturday. Instead Oklahoma State made it abundantly clear that the league had 10% more playoff contenders than originally thought by clubbing TCU in Stillwater. And before you (correctly) charge me with sucking at math I would remind you that I’m better at it than league leaders who somehow have managed to have 10 teams in the Big-Dozen. Regardless this weekend’s matchup between the Sooners and Baylor will continue what will be a month-long drama that Big-12 enthusiasts hope will result in the league’s first CFB Playoff appearance after last season’s snub. Baylor not only has one of the two unblemished conference records (along with Okla St) and home field advantage but astonishingly also feels good about recent history of the series with Oklahoma. After losing 20 straight contests the Bears have won three of the last four scoring 41, 41 and 48 versus the Sooners in those victories.
WHAT WE MUST SEE FROM VOLS IN WEEK 11:
STAY HEALTHY: The Mean Green couldn’t beat me and 10 guys named Joe randomly selected from the hundreds that will be in attendance so there are only two real goals to be attained. Win and don’t suffer any injuries.
PLAY EVERYONE: With the exception of freshmen designated for a redshirt season and those questionable with injuries EVERYONE else in uniform should see the field this Saturday. Unless of course you wanted to sit both Josh Dobbs and Jalen Hurd to assure they are healed and ready for games ahead versus Missouri and Vandy. This game was scheduled as a second open date; use it accordingly.
WHAT VOL FANS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT N TEXAS ST
1-THEY SUCK
2-THEY SHOULD NEVER APPEAR ON TENNESSEE’S SCHEDULE AFTER SEPTEMBER
3-I GAVE MY TICKET AWAY
IN A PERFECT WORLD: November translated would mean No-Gimmees.
