Vol Fan Makes Good

by memphispete on Sep 12, 2009 5:00 PM PDT

Congratulations. It was a bloody, hard fought & ugly game but you pulled it out.

Here are the kudos to your defensive line, which won the game for you, and to your kicker, who has a long career in the NFL ahead of him. The defense held TN to 208 yards and the kicker scored 13 pts.

I honestly thought just an average performance from Crompton and a modicum of consistency running the ball (sort of like the 4th qtr) would let us earn a 10 pt victory. But, since we failed to make a TD from 3 yards out with 3 tries at it with the game on the line, you deserved to win.

Mea culpa - I did not count on the return of Crap-ton. Pardon the language but that's our old name for him from last year. I have to borrow for today's performance. There's a lot of blame to go around - and the line deserves it's share for being completely unable to handle UCLA's front 7. But, just 93 yards passing and 3 INT's (really 4, except for the offsides call at the end of the game) just doesn't even come close to average. I'd love to give credit to UCLA's secondary (and it's not that they were bad, so no offense) but Crap-ton was so bad we just can't tell. He repeatedly overthrew receivers, tried to beat double coverage late, stared down receivers and looked completely lost in the last series after the safety. And, he couldn't handle the basics of a center exchange. Yikes!

He got away with the bad decisions last week which results in 2 INT's and batted balls against WKU. That had us concerned, but the otherwise excellent execution of last week was no where to be found this week. We all repeatedly said UCLA isn't WKU, and you guys proved it this week.

Price was tough and just barely good enough to get it done (11-23 1TD, 0INT's). The two best plays - no INT's and hitting the rolling TE or FB on the blitz for a 13 yd TD. He survived a bloody lip, and I think he's going to be one sore kid on Sunday morning. Quite frankly - your offense was almost as unproductive as ours (182 total yards and only 19 points, despite the gift of 4 TO's and great field position). But, he was better than our QB and that's all you needed today.

I really wish TN had picked up one more of the 4 fumbles or so that our defense caused but I am not sure the offense could have done anything with it. If only the review on the final UCLA series (before the kneel downs had been fumble and a UT recovery, maybe...) Hope springs eternal.

Take your defensive line and LB's out to dinner, place the kicker at the head of the table and enjoy the win.

Congratulations!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Comments

agree with just about all of this

and you guys sure do show class. Here’s hoping you beat the Gators next week

Has there ever been a player better than Detlef Schrempf?

by bucknellbruin on Sep 12, 2009 5:05 PM PDT reply actions

Classy

UT fans are classy. Period. Thanks for this and best of luck the rest of the season.

by Barnes2JJ on Sep 12, 2009 5:11 PM PDT reply actions

Great post game post memphis

We have had a fantastic time going back and forth RTT this week … again. Good luck to you rest of the season (but I will be frank … I don’t like Lane is the guy for Tennessee).

by Nestor on Sep 12, 2009 5:11 PM PDT reply actions

They do deserve better

Than the SLP. Very pleased that we beat him.

by Free the 16 on Sep 12, 2009 9:36 PM PDT up reply actions

You are an honorable bunch of opponents.

You really know your football out there.

Hope you bounce back from today and keep growing and improving… even though you do have former a $C asst. as your HC.

Best of luck the rest of the year.

"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008

by Meriones on Sep 12, 2009 5:14 PM PDT reply actions

Price or Prince?

I think you meant to say Prince…. but Price was pretty darn tough today as well.

by UCLA4Life on Sep 12, 2009 5:14 PM PDT reply actions

Very classy

I just wish you had a football coach who is as classy.

And fellow Bruins, let’s not forget that Nikki Caldwell, our women’s basketball coach, is a Tennessee alumna, a student under one of the best college basketball coaches.

by bruinbabe2000 on Sep 12, 2009 5:30 PM PDT reply actions

Yep

BTW BNers … going out to RTT … for the love of God … represent UCLA with class.

by Nestor on Sep 12, 2009 5:33 PM PDT up reply actions

It's all cool.

We understand passion, and the emotional energy is a compliment in its own way, as is tells us that this game meant a lot.

This has been one of the best online exchanges between fanbases I’ve ever seen.

by David Hooper on Sep 12, 2009 9:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Thanks for all the gracious comments

And, please forgive the typos. Had a real problem with the Preview not matching up with the write-up and I’m not enough of a blog expert to understand why. Perhaps my grief and misery adversely affected my ability to think/type clearly.

And, I’ll take the positive wishes for the rest of the season, although there’s not enough Big Orange Kool-Aid in the state of Tennessee to make us feel good about Florida right now.

But, check back on Friday… because hope springs eternal in the South :)

by memphispete on Sep 12, 2009 6:31 PM PDT reply actions

We feel your pain, 'pete

Remember, we suffered through a five year reign of error under an alleged coach whose name is simply no longer mentioned here. (He is invariably known as Coach Toledo’s successor, or CTS.) We wandered aimlessly. You sound like you’re starting down that road.

I live in Florida, but like all Bruins, I can’t stand the Gators. I would be rooting for the Vols but for two things – Lame and Ogre. They, to me, are irretrievably tainted, being fruit of the poisonous tree (and that’’s from the Wong Sun case, for all you Supreme Court fans.) I probably just won’t watch the game. I don’t have to tell you that Florida might just be a teensy bit better than we are.

Anyway, good luck. I hope that you classy Vols get back on top soon, but I think you might have to replace your coach to do so.

by Fox 71 on Sep 12, 2009 7:38 PM PDT reply actions

Appreciate the basis for your opinion of our coach (being from a hated rival)

But, I really think our main problems were the lack of a quality California HS QB playing for us right now (hey recruits for 2010 and 2011 – did you read that?!) and a line that was physically whipped by your front 7. It’s amazing to me that this was still a winnable game – despite all the “horribleness” – if we could just make 3+ yards on 3 tries in our goal line offense in the final 3 minutes of the game.

I applaud the coaches you hate for (Coach O) coaching up the D-Line, which was a weakness for us last year and for Coach K for having the stones to go for it repeatedly on 4th down.

The biggest question we have in the Vol Nation this morning is – why didn’t we see the back-up QB, who is a better passer, when Crompton failed so miserably? If he sticks with Crompton beyond the Florida game, we may ease off the Lane Train. But, quite frankly, he’s got a lot of slack because the program was pretty depleted when he got here on the offensive side of the ball.

Appreciate the great interchange all week and best of luck to you guys the rest of the season.

by memphispete on Sep 13, 2009 7:52 AM PDT up reply actions

You should be afraid of Kiffin.

So far his antics are just what we would expect from SC. If he runs the team like it’s SC, you’re probably in trouble.

SC is the powerhouse team in the second largest media market in the U.S. The NCAA loves the TV ratings, clothing sales and other money that SC brings in for them. The local media loves them as well. SC is a private school. The end result is that SC can get away with murder and I’m not just talking about OJ.

If Kiffin trys to pay players and cover up criminal behavior by his players off the field (mostly due to recruiting thugs), your public school might not be able to sweep it under the rug as well as SC can and the NCAA might not turn a blind eye toward you.

I hope Kiffin can run a clean program for you because it’s not nice to see bad things happen to good people.

On the field, who knows, he might be great after being a disaster for the Raiders but I wouldn’t hold my breath.