Tennessee Volunteer Football: John Pennington on Everything Orange
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005John Pennington’s random thoughts for the day:
- Is there a happy medium between a Johnny Majors-esque live-in-fear-for-your-job mentality with respect to assistant coaches and the Fulmer-ish we-are-all-a-family approach?
- Ohio State fans handle disappointment better than Tennessee fans.
- An outsider’s perspective on Neyland Stadium:
- Volunteer bowl projections look disappointing.
- You know any Kentucky football coach has his work cut out for him when the local media has pre-game coverage of a basketball practice during football season.
- Calls to replace Randy Sanders with Trooper Taylor because Trooper offers a lot of excitement is like “choosing a doctor because he’s got good hair.”
- Gerald Riggs is “Cedric Houston Part 2.” Good, but not great.
- The guy who created firerandysanders.com (intentionally not a link) deserves the same treatment. Go read Pennington’s suggestions here.
- Tennessee might have been able to beat Alabama last week, but now that the Crimson Tide has had their wake-up call, it’s much more difficult to call.
OSU is a mirror of UT in almost EVERY way this season. But their fans packed the stadium and were IN the game from start to finish. Even when Michigan State was capitalizing on OSU special teams fumbles… the fans would immediately re-charge their batteries and begin screaming again with the ensuing kickoff.
That’s what Neyland Stadium USED to be. Personally, I think Vol fans grew spoiled during the Manning Era (and the immediate aftermath) and now they look at the game as they would a film or an opera. “Entertain me!” Sure that’s a fair assessment.
But Vol fans used to look at the games as THEIR chance to get involved. They seemed to believe that they were as important a part of a Vol victory as the team was. And that’s a far cry from, “Entertain me!”
“The most uncomfortable stadium in America.” The seats are too small from side-to-side and there’s very little room front-to-back, either (according to [Pennington’s friend]). If you’re not driving your knees into someone’s back, then somebody else has theirs in yours.
Pennington, as always, is full of insight. Today’s blog is lengthy, but worth the read.
