So, the Vols went down to the Swamp over the weekend and weren't embarrassed on national television.
When you're the underdog by 29 and a half points and you only lose by ten, I guess you take the moral victories where you can.
Watching the game unfold Saturday, there were times I felt like the Vols had a chance to win. For example, if we had an offense that could have punched in in our first, sustained drive after our defense held the vaunted Tim Tebow to just three points, who knows. Maybe the Gators start to sweat a bit and the pressure of being number one causes them to stumble. It happened in 2001...
But the Vols didn't win the game, but ended up giving every other team in the SEC the way to beat Tim Tebow.
Interestingly, as the game ended, CBS sought out Lane Kiffin first for comment and not Urban Meyer. That had to rankle Meyer a bit, especially when Kiffin said he was proud of the effort but not satisfied because we didn't win. I'm still deciding how much I like Kiffin, but I do respect the fact that he has the desire to win the game and has a deeply competitive streak in him.
And I guess we all figured the war of words between Kiffin and Meyer would die down a bit. Apparently not so much.
Meyer's jealousy at not being the darling of the media in the SEC is starting to show. Really it was no win for Tim Tebow and Meyer last weekend. If they win by a ton, they're supposed to. If it's close, the Vols get a lot of credit. And you can tell that is rankling him based on his comments about how we weren't trying to win the game and that some of his players had the flu, so he called off the dogs. Which I suppose I could almost believe if it weren't for Meyer's track record of running up the score on people who have ticked him off or tried to make him look like a fool. (See last year's Tim Tebow vs. Georgia game).
And while at some point Kiffin will start having to back up his big words with results on the field, right now he's the darling of the SEC. How that translates into recruiting victories for the program, esp. in the state of Florida remains to be seen. And it will be especially interesting next year when Meyer and company have to come to Knoxville to play.
However, I do wish they'd quite sniping at each other. Last time I looked, both teams had games still on the horizon for the rest of this season and a lot of work left to do.
(And if you're wondering why I keep saying Tim Tebow instead of Florida, I am only emulating how the announcers called the game Saturday. Apaprently Tebow was playing every position on the field and is the only player that the Gators have. At least that's what you'd believe by listening to the broadcast. Of course, if we had to see any more shots of him having a tantrum or his lame choice of outfit for the Gator walk, I was going to hurl something at my TV.)
Labels: tennessee football
posted by Michael Hickerson at 9/23/2009 01:00:00 PM |
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