What is rock bottom? At what point do you get kicked in the balls enough that you simply can't feel it anymore? I'm certainly close to that point. I found myself fairly mute today watching the game when normally I would've been going ballistic at what I saw. The Vols teams have been so utterly inept and mismanaged that they've even managed to take away hope. I'm so [uck fay]ing tired of watching these teams and thinking, "They don't [uck fay]ing care".
Well, to determine rock bottom, one would need a glimpse of the Hamilton School of [uck fay]ing Up Good Things agenda. The cliff notes of said agenda: Destroy the football program: check Fire the best basketball coach UT has ever had: check Allow the baseball team to be managed by a super idiot until the program is worst in the SEC: check Kiss the ass of someone who cares more about academics than athletics(Cheek): check Get asked to leave and rape the University out of almost 1.3 million: check Laugh all the way to the bank: check Hamilton may have done some good in bringing in donations, but he also has screwed over the common fans. That's one of the main reasons besides being awful the last few years, that Neyland hasn't been packed. People won't pay face value, sometimes as much as $70, to watch garbage. In addition, season ticket holders reduced the amount of seats that they were buying because of the stupid price increases with a shoddy product.
Do you want some statistical evidence, so one can actually say: "This is the worst it has been in my lifetime"? Here goes: Not since the 1977-1978 school year have the football and basketball teams both finished with losing records, making them ineligible for post-season play. There. Think on that.
This is pretty much the bottom of the canyon. The next few years are going to be long and frustrating for the fans.
Any lower and I might feel obligated to head down to a public bathroom and start sucking [Richards] for cash......Wait, I think this is the wrong rock bottom. OK, nevermind.
The first bolded statement, well, Hamilton had no choice. Pearl had to be fired. As for the second one, if Tennessee ever hires a chancellor or president that puts athletics over academics, I want said chancellor or president shot immediately. No questions asked, not fired, not asked to leave, just shot.
Rock bottom is when you start telling yourself that your coach, who has never won anything, who was a last minute desparation hire out of a miserable program with a losing record, has a secret intangible quality that makes him good that nobody can see but us. Rock bottom is thinking that making minimum standards for postseason play is some sort of accomplishment, and then blaming the fact that you missed those standards the following year on the players and not the coach. Rock bottom is celebrating a win over Vandy. Rock bottom is finishing behind Vandy and Kentucky. Oddly, I'm more concerned about football than basketball. I think Cuonzo has shown some indication that he can coach. I think he will get a couple of years to get the program turned back in the right direction, and if he can't, there won't be any problem pulling the trigger and going out to find somebody else. It is the football program that disturbs and disgusts me; particularly because football is more important to the university, we are much more likely to stay with a bad decision longer. JMO.