The Vols 2017 season begins on Sept 4th at 7PM against Georgia Tech on ESPN. I am super excited for the 2017 season, but there are a few things about Tennessee fans that could improve.
1) The Fans
The Vols have one of the biggest fanbases in college football. However, we have our fair share of idiots and people who take it way too seriously. Seriously, why do grown adults think it’s acceptable to tell a recruit “I hope your family burns to death” over Twitter?
Recruits were polled by 247Sports during the Army All-American bowl in January on the most annoying fanbases. The Vols were voted number 1. Maybe if we were nice to these recruits, we could land a few more five stars and get a few more wins.
I’ll never forget hearing chants of “Fuck You” to Wil Mushchamp in 2014 after he kicked our ass at home. It’s like getting beat up by your big brother, then telling him “fuck you” will give you points or something. Yelling curse words after a loss isn’t acceptable, but it isn’t acceptable after a win either. We should win and lose with class instead of showing our ass (no rhyme intended).
2) The Worship of Peyton Manning
I love Peyton as a person, and enjoyed witnessing his pro career. He is a great human being and athlete. However, we worship him at UT like his pro career somehow carries back to us. Like when Peyton won a super bowl, UT gets a ring or something. That’s not how it works though.
Peyton Manning never beat Florida while he was at UT. He didn’t win us a National Championship. He didn’t even win a Heisman (I do know the controversy behind this, but facts are facts). However, we worship him like he is Jesus.
Let me be clear, Peyton was an excellent pro and one of the greatest of all time. Even though he was a great college quarterback, I’m not sure we can call him one of the G.O.A.T.s of college football. Yet, we still worship him like he walked on water. He played 20 years ago. That’s a long time people. Almost every person on Tennessee’s current roster wasn’t even alive when Peyton was there. I think we should hold him in high regard, but let’s stop looking in the past.
3) Haven’t been to an SEC championship since 2007, haven’t won one since 1998
When I came to this realization, I started to miss Phil a lot. We haven’t been to an SEC championship in 10 years and we haven’t won one in almost 20! We have had a rough 10 years. Four years of Butch, three years of Dooley, one year of Kiffin and the tail end of Coach Fulmer’s career have not been good to us. We need to realize that we have fallen way off the map. Don’t you miss the glory days of the late 90s and early 2000s that Tennessee had? Boy those were good times. Well, they are long gone, and I hate it.
4) We act like we’re going to win a national championship over night
I have to be honest here. If we fire Butch Jones this season, aside from an absolute 4-8 dumpster fire, we are out of our damn minds. It’s going to take time and stability to build this program up to where we are legit College Football Playoff contenders.
We’ve had three different coaches in eight years. Since Butch has been there, we have had massive staff churn in four years. Only one of Butch’s original staff remains, Tommy Thigpen. That’s insane for the amount of people there. It’s going to take time and the best thing we can do is to have patience.
So what if we’re only going 9-4? It’s a hell of a lot better than 5-7. With the right quarterback, luck, and defense, that same 9-4 team can win the whole thing. We just have to hold out until we have the perfect storm. Until then, let’s not gamble on another unproven coach.
5) We always think this year is going to be the one
There’s always some reason why we think this will be our year. Last year, it was all the returning talent we had. This year, it’s because it reminds us of 1998 when Peyton left. Next year there will be another reason. It’s always something.
I have an idea, let’s not think any year will be the one and we won’t be disappointed or made fun of. Unless one of our quarterbacks is the next Tim Tebow, I don’t think a natty should even be on our minds right now. We don’t have the talent, we have almost all new coaches, and almost every team in the SEC East will be better than last year.
Let’s just keep our focus on one game at a time instead of thinking we can win a National Championship. We haven’t even seen the team play a real down.
Check out five things I love about being a Vols fan here.
Smokey covers the Tennessee Volunteers for the SoBros Network. He loves a good backpacking trip, but hates taking a shit in the woods. Follow on Twitter: @SoBroSmokey
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