As the darkest decade in UT football nears it's end, let's talk about the handful of bright spots that's kept us poor bastards coming back for more. Best game? Best player? Best single moment? Anything else worth remembering from this train wreck of a decade?
Cordarrelle Patterson, Justin Hunter, Da'Rick and Tyler Bray were the only watchable parts under Dooley. Shout out to Chaney for getting Tauren Poole a thousand yards, too. Dobbs would be a Heisman winner if he hadn't played under Butch. Hurd motioning for the corner to come on a blitz pre snap, then laying him out was fun. Hurd killing a UGA player on a screen was fun. Kamara and Kelly were completely wasted here, it aggravates me watching their highlights. Barnett was exciting. Sutton and JRM were fun to watch. Jennings is a Tennessee legend. The coaching searches were, for better or worse, entertaining. I think Tennessee is on fairly stable ground to be a consistent 8 or 9 win team moving forward, but the hardest thing to do is go from 9 wins to 12 wins.
Marquez Callaway should be a redshirt junior here, too. Butch should be flogged daily for that. He played in one game, against Tennessee Tech, his freshman year, had one catch and two punt returns. He did house one of them, though.
I'd like to preface this by saying I've honestly blocked out so much of the last decade, I'd have to go back and watch games to go "oh yeah, I remember that". So off the top of my head... Best game(s) Last year's win at Auburn and the Hail Mary against uga. And beating Florida, always good to beat those m'fers Best Player and moments - Groves pretty much got all of them that I would mention. I'll just add Jauan Jennings calling out butch on twitter was awesome. Rashaan Gaulden at bama (check out utvol27's avi). Trey Smith just being able to play. Jim Chaney taking over for dooley and winning against kentucky and leaving uga to come back to Tennessee. I don't know if he would be considered to be the best, but I've always liked Chaney. Other than that, take the rest of the shit pile and burn it. Happy New Year mother[uck fay]ers!
My memories - Kiffin leaving the night before my son was born Hyams announcing on radio Dooley was new coach as I was putting him in car to come home Britches 13 men on field Wife not speaking to me for hours part 1 UNC bowl game Wife not speaking to me for hours part 2 Everyone calling me a fair-weather fan when I said Dooley wouldn't make it to 2013 when he lost to UGA in 2011 Orange pants Orange dog Losing to Kentucky with a WR at QB Johnny's jersey (finally and rightfully) being retired Telling everyone I told you so when Dooley was fired Gruden part 1 Telling everyone Butch would never win more than 9 games here when he was hired Everyone calling me a fair weather fan again Wanting to kill everyone when we lost to Vandy in 2013 10-9 Beecher' burger before for the 2014 Vandy game 31-24 and ready to beat the hell out of a guy daring him to lay a finger on me again Wife not speaking to me for hours part 3 Wife finally speaking and yelling at me for 15 straight minutes 2 point charts Preseason #8 Realizing we were never going to hold this ranking in game #1 Jennings Florida TD Jennings Hail Mary Catch Realizing Kamara was a half-decent back Dobbs have a rough week in school Officially ready to fire Jones on the spot after Vandy 2016 Thinking maybe I was wrong Currie wasn't going to be as bad as I was told he would be Florida Hail Mary Emptiness Hugging and celebrating when Butch was fired Telling everyone I told you so about Butch Sitting in a monsoon for LSU Gruden part 2 Realizing Currie was as bad if not worse than what I was told he would be Gathering all my UT gear to stuff in a garbage bags to take and dump in front of athletic complex Billing a lot of time to clients that next week that was scrolling Twitter, emailing, and texting about coaching search Celebrating Fulmer's return (which is odd if you knew me in the 2000s) Realizing we had a loooooooooooooong ways to go [uck fay] AUBURN! Being really thankful my son begged me to leave after 3rd quarter BYU Going into pre-coaching search mode Being slightly optimistic about the future of UT football
What a list. I'll add a few to your list. Our coach in that goofy leather helmet "We always beat the shit out of Vandy." Rommel Dool's stool Our next coach in that goofy helmet The TaxSlayer trophy clutch Champions of Life Transfers Five star hearts Tripping on a helmet Our former [uck fay]ing coach posing with a clinched cigar in bammer's [uck fay]ing locker room Somewhere along there, my wife and kids quit watching games with me until recently. Best thing to happen: Butch's firing Favorite players to watch: Dobbs and Barnett Best win: '19 vs SC. There's no way that knucke-dragging numbskull should have the record against Tennessee that he has, and it felt like a good win rather than so many of the Butch era wins that seemed to be wins by the players in spite of the coaching.
Bray slinging it all over gave me hope that maybe he could throw Tennessee to 9 wins. He couldn't. I never expected Butch to do much and after the 2014 Florida game I was ready for a new coach. 2015 was one long kick in the balls. 2016 started to be fun, then Butch blamed losing on mid terms and I was immediately reminded he was a stupid [uck fay].
Dooley had the talent and assistants in place at the start to have made a decent run as head coach using the Dabo template. Not necessarily as successful, but it could have worked. Unfortunately for us and him, he's a monumental asshole that no one could stand and torpedoed the program.
