Who are We?

I, like many other UT Vol Football fans, have been on a roller coaster the past year and a half. It started when it became evident that our beloved coach, Phil Fulmer, was losing his touch in putting together a competitive team in the SEC. What ensued was an ugly firing of a great human being who didn't deserve the way in which he was let go. Out of that situation came the hiring of an unknown to our part of the country, Lane Kiffin. Kiffin brought energy and a great track record as a recruiter and up and coming name in the coaching ranks, not to mention his famous father as our D coordinator. He brought a swagger that we hadn't seen ever at UT in the football program and for the most part we liked it. Our team came close to beating both Alabama and Florida and showed improvement over the course of the season, bowl game excluded. Things seemed to be looking up for the Vols. But Pete Carrol decided to jump ship to the NFL and the carousel began. I remember thinking, 'man, if this happened a few years from now I bet Kiffin would go there.' Little did we know that he'd go now.

Now I don't want to dead horse that is Kiffin in these parts, but I do want to say that he left at the worst possible time for our program. It would be near impossible for us to poach a head coach from another program because of the timing. Who would want to be branded as that kind of guy? But for four days we all held our collective breath as candidate after candidate turned down the opportunity to be head coach at UT.

As you can imagine, talk radio was a buzz at the news of each candidate turning down the job and who we may or may now have been going after. But I was amused at the number of people who called in and exclaimed, "We are the University of Tennessee, coaches should be salivating at coming here." I am a huge UT fan, but even I had to laugh at that one. I will be blindly loyal to UT football until I breathe no more, but my glasses aren't orange colored enough to not be a realist. Yes we have a good program and a lot to offer, but we have our fair share of warts and a few open sores that were caused by the timing of the whole situation. It has been 12 years since we won the National Championship, which is two-thirds of the lifespan of the kids we are recruiting. So let's be realistic about our situation.

So I hope that we will continue to be the great program that we have been throughout our history. Maybe we won't have the arrogance of the USC's, Alabama's, Florida's, etc and that is fine with me. I am not willing to sell my soul for a quick score but instead want to see our program restored to what it once was. So coach Dooley, you have your work cut out for you. I know nothing about you, but am cautiously optimistic about that job you can. That has no reflection on you, it's a result of the actions of your predecessor. Just please don't write checks with your mouth that you can't cash just yet. I hate being accountable for the stupid things that coaches say. So start playing Rocky Top in your office, because you are going to hear it a bunch and Go Big Orange.