Quote Originally Posted by yttocs View Post
You sure know how to pick them. LOL The BEARS and UT. If it takes one for the other to get there, I wish you (US ) luck.
Tennessee has traditionally been an SEC and National power in the college ranks. It's only been in the past six or seven seasons where the Vols began struggling. Phil Fulmer won us a National Championship back in 1998 with a win over Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl (the very first BCS National Championship Game). However, by 2005, it was like the game had passed him by. The offensive coordinator couldn't get shit done with our quarterbacks, and as a result, we had one of the worst quarterback combinations in the SEC, lost to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1982, and finished 5-6. The next two seasons were pretty decent, but as usual under Fulmer since the 2001 season, we underachieved, as we were easily good enough to win the SEC in both seasons. Then 2008 came along and we finished 5-7, losing to Wyoming in a sorry-assed excuse for a game. Fulmer was fired, and in the offseason, our genius AD brought in the flavor of the moment in Lane Kiffin to coach the team. He improves the team to a 7-6 mark the following year with the same shitty quarterback who cost us the 2008 season. As soon as Pete Carroll left USC for the Seahawks job, Kiffin bolted from UT so fast that he left skid marks on streets of Knoxville. There was a fucking RIOT on campus, with people burning mattresses and blockading the exits at Thompson-Boling Arena, where he held an impromptu news conference and then left Knoxville as quickly as possible. On top of that, it comes to light that Lane Kiffin violated several NCAA recruiting laws, but we were lucky to get away with just a slap on the wrist since he no longer was on campus anymore.

If you look up UT's all-time record, you'll find that the football program has won or shared six National Championships, between the two conferences they have been in, 16 conference titles, and is in the all-time top ten winningest programs in the history of major college football. We take our football seriously here in Knoxville, and we're NOT happy with the way things are. Yet, there's nothing we can do for at least another year, as the AD has decided to give Derek Dooley another year to turn the football team into a competitive team. There are some talented players, including two WR who have the potential to get drafted early in the NFL Draft (one to watch for in the future is named Justin Hunter). Much like the Bears, the Vols have the worst offensive line in the entire SEC, and it cost us our quarterback for over half the season when Tyler Bray hit his thumb on a Georgia defender's helmet, thus breaking it. UT lost five straight games after that, and finished the season up with the program's first loss to Kentucky since 1984. That cost UT a shot in a bowl game, and it royally sucked.