Certain Florida Gators seniors have parlayed their painful memories of watching Tennessee Volunteers celebrate victory on their turf into a campaign to Take Back the Swamp.

Todd McCullough recalls watching UT quarterback Casey Clausen climb the drum major’s ladder after a UT win in 2003 to direct the UT band in yet another rendition of Rocky Top. McCullough says:

“Tears were almost rolling down my cheeks,” said McCullough, a senior linebacker. “I hated it so bad. It ate me up. It wrenched at me. It was just like a knot in your stomach watching that. I won’t ever forget it.”And he doesn’t want to see it happen again.

My question: Will the UT band bring two ladders, one each for quarterbacks Rick Clausen and Erik Ainge?

John Pennington examines the strength of the Tennessee Volunteers’ schedule in light of what we’ve learned from the first two weeks of the season.

John Pennington has a great post self-promulgating his Quarterback Maxims:

1. The team that plays the fewest quarterbacks shall win.

2. Unless you have quarterbacks who play two diffferent styles of football, pick one and stick with him. (This is known as the Shockley/Greene exception.)

3. If you’re going to use the Shockley/Greene exception, you MUST give one quarterback the majority of snaps… using the back-up as a change of pace only.

4. If you’re going to use the Shockley/Greene exception, by all means go with the HOT HAND.

Pennington applies these maxims retroactively to the Texas-Ohio State game to prove their merit, and then applies them prospectively to Coach Fulmer’s stated intentions for this weekend’s Tennessee-Florida game.

Check out Pennington’s post for the result.

John Adams of GoVolsXtra.com (subscription required) suggests that Florida Gators’ quarterback Chris Leak and new head coach Urban Meyer are just making the best of a match not necessarily made in heaven. An excerpt:

New Florida coach Urban Meyer might be an offensive guru. Leak might be one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC. But Meyer’s offense doesn’t fit his quarterback.

That seems to be the prevailing view, but I think it’s a bit premature. We’ll find out Saturday night.

Okay, the Tennessee Volunteers didn’t play, but there sure were some good football games this weekend. The Big Ten got spanked, with Ohio State getting torched by Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns, Michigan fumbling its way to a loss to Notre Dame, and Iowa on the other end of a route, losing big to Iowa State.
Here’s the top ten of the Coaches’ Poll:So Southern Cal and Texas stay ahead of the pack, and LSU overtakes the Volunteers and Michigan, who, having dropped the football at the goal line, drops out of the top ten. Iowa also drops out of the top ten. Georgia and Florida move ahead together, while Ohio State drops to the back after losing a close one to the Longhorns. Newcomers FSU and Louisville enter the race at numbers 8 and 10, respectively.

Just look at the Vols’ schedule: they play number 7 Florida next week and number 3 the following week. A few short weeks later, they play number 6, but at least that one’s at Neyland Stadium. Oh, and by the way, UT plays Notre Dame, which is now ranked number 10 in the AP poll, a bit later on as well, at South Bend. And even Vanderbilt (VANDERBILT!) is 2-0.

The Rocky Road is shaping up to be even bumpier than anticipated.

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• Week One