Tots and Dominos
I said I would reduce my talk about football in the blog, and I think I have been pretty good about it. But I just had to talk about Tennessee’s game against Notre Dame this past weekend. Now, Tennessee playing Notre Dame is a big deal for several reasons. One is becuase almost every time they have played each other, there has been some defining moment that changed the momentum of the game toward the team that wins. There is always some big story in a Tennessee-Notre Dame game. Also both teams have a really widespread fan base. So it makes for good television ratings.
Anyway, like any sport, football requires that choices be made sometimes. You’d think it would be just one constant “hash browns or tots?” delimma. But actually, like any sport, is more a collection of strategies. You have ways of typically doing things in certain situations. You’ve got a game plan. Basically you’re almost always going for the hash browns. Cause going for the tots can come back to bite you in the ass..
Late in the second quarter of the game, with about seven seconds of so left Tennessee was in a situation where normally you would just run the clock out and head for the locker rooms for halftime. But the coaching staff decided to bypass the hash browns and go for the tots. Rather than down the ball and run out the clock, a play was set on motion that resulted in Tennessee’s quarterback Eric Ainge suffering an injury to his collar bone that will keep him off the field for about 4 weeks (the remainder of the season.) Now, Eric was one of the two very talented freshman quarterbacks we had playing this year. So you say, “oh, tough break, put the other one in.” But there’s a problem. The “other” one Brent Shaeffer was injured the week before and is ALSO out for the remainder of the season.
That put us at halftime down to the third string quarterback. Ironically the third string QB is Rick Clausen, the much less talented younger brother of former highly mediocre Tennessee QB Casey Clausen who graduated last year and was drafted into oblivion.
Younger Clausen hits the feild in the second half and the dominoes (built by the choice of tots) begin to tumble. Tumble…rhymes with FUMBLE.
First, Clausen doesn’t play for shit and Tennessee loses by 4 points. Domino #1.
The loss to Notre Dame knocked us out of the top ten, nationally (we were #8) and therefore drastically lessens our chances for a BCS bowl game. Domino #2.
The third domino has yet to fall…but its’s starting to rock and sway. We will go to the Southeastern Conference championship game provided we win our two remaining games. Being against Kentucky and Vanderbilt, this would normally not pose a problem…but when we’re down to our 3rd string QB, it’s all up in the air.
Had they stuck with the hash browns things might be okay right now. Maybe somebody ought to just take tots off the menu.
November 14th, 2004 at 5:24 pm
As a diehard ND fan, I’ve been waiting to read your comments about the big game in Knoxville. It was a huge upset for ND, but the game was decided by Phil Fulmer and not the players on the field. In all honesty, if Ainge takes a knee, the Vols would have pummeled the Irish in the second half, as the ND offense went into the tank.
BTW, some of us like the football stories on the blog, so keep ‘em coming. (Looking forward to the rematch in South Bend next year)