LARGETONY Blog

I know some of you were surprised (and probably relieved) to see that Monday’s post was not about the Tennessee-Alabama game. But don’t think that you’re getting off that easy.

Tennessee managed to get their shit together in the last few minutes if the game to pull off a victory against Bama. Final score, 16-13. It was the second year in a row that it was a defensive battle (anybody out there planning on taking the exam required to be my husband, add this to your football primer: low scoring games means strong defense) and it was the second year in a row that the game was decided by 3 points. (Last year, Alabama won 6-3).

It was the fewest number of points Tennessee scored in a game so far this season. There were times when it looked like quarterback Eric Ainge had reverted back to his high level of suck displayed last year. The only difference was this year he was able to shake it off and not mentally beat himself.

Even though it was a close late-in-the game victory, it wasn’t one that came down to the wire. So instead of feeling that rush of excitement at the final buzzer, it was more a sigh of relief. “There, but for the grace of God,” you know.

Actually, I’m always sort of amused when athletes publicly thank God for their win or proclaim that God had a hand in their victory. It kind of implies that God doesn’t think much of the losing team. If teams really did win because they are closer to God, Christian colleges wouldn’t have such crappy teams. Or maybe it’s just that Notre Dame gets all the God points.

So, here we are at midseason (sorry folks, you’re only half way through football post gauntlet) and Tennessee has six wins and one loss. We are officially better than last year (the season that dare not speak it’s name) when we had only five wins. But we still have a tough road ahead in our next three games:

• This week, it’s South Carolina. Normally SC is a non-issue. But since Steve Spurrier has returned to coaching college football, and is now at South Carolina, it’s an issue. Not because South Carolina is all that good. Not even because Spurrier is a coaching genius (You don’t know how hard it was to type that. My fingers automatically cramped to try to stop themselves). But because all those years that Spurrier was at Florida, he owned Tennessee’s head coach Phil Fulmer. And I think the sound of Spurrier’s name still makes Fulmer’s chubby little sphincter tighten with anxiety.
• The next week is LSU. I said at the beginning of the year that we would probably lose to LSU because they were the best team on our schedule. Well, that hasn’t exactly turned out to be the case. Florida is probably the best team on our schedule. And Arkansas has come out of nowhere to strike a beat of fear in me. But, LSU is still good and is not be overlooked. They were one of the few teams we beat last year, and it was in their house, and their only loss. They’re going to come ready to avenge their embarrassment. Thankfully, we have home field advantage. Maybe Notre Dame is off that week and we can count on God to look after the Vols. (Or Maybe God wants to see BrettCajun do one of his jiggy dances to “Rocky Top,” as much as I do.)
• If those two games were not enough, the final real test will be Arkansas. Nobody the SEC (Southeastern Conference), let alone the nation, was even aware Arkansas was on the radar. But they played a great first half (even though they eventually lost) against #3 USC. Then they beat Auburn while Auburn was ranked #2. And now they are leading the conference. This is the scariest of the games we have left.

The season finishes off after that with Kentucky and Vanderbilt. And even though they are not powerhouse teams, like most teams in the SEC, you can’t just take them for granted. Vanderbilt did upset Georgia a couple of weeks ago. And did the same to us last year.
That’s the thing about the Southeastern Conference. We have so many strong teams that on any given Saturday, your predictions can get blown out of the water.

If you look at the National rankings, one-third of the Top 15 teams come out of the SEC: Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and LSU. In the AP poll, they are ranked 7, 8, 9, 13, and 14, respectively. Five teams. That’s one team shy of being half of the conference. The most number of teams any other conference has in the Top 15 is two.

So, it pisses me off to hear sports commentators suggest that the SEC is not as strong as some others this year. One announcer tried to justify that statement with the fact that there are no unbeaten teams in the SEC. It’s true that there aren’t. But think about why….It’s because we have to play each other, and the fact that no one team is dominating the conference, and by and large, our losses are to each other and not to teams outside the conference, proves it’s a tough one.

Yeah, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, etc. will trash talk each other (particularly LSU). But we can do that. We’re family. Let somebody from the outside say something and we’ll be heading down to Sam’s Club for a big ol’ family sized can of whoop-ass. And nobody’s got more fight in them than a Southern boy…well, except maybe a black girl. So, I’d keep my mouth shut about the WNBA, if I were you.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 4:16 am and is filed under football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.