Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast – Episode 157 – Perception-y stuff and the Georgia Bulldogs

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Joel:
This is the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast, episode 157. Joel Hollingsworth and as always, I am joined by Will Shelton. The Vols are coming off a bye week this week and Saturday night. They are hosting number three, Georgia in Eli Stadium. I think that's at 7:00 on ESPN, if I remember correctly last.

Will:
This.

Joel:
Good, good. Last year, the Georgia game, if I remember right, was actually sort of the first glimpse of some degree of hope. It was the one where after the game, Jeremy Pruitt got all choked up because it was the first time he'd seen fight out of his guys. And we're kind of hoping for something similar this season. Hope has been hard to find in 20, 19 so far. So we're hoping to see sort of the first glimpse of glimpse of something that will make us believe that the whole thing isn't just going down the toilet. But here's the thing. They can have. They could have had the best bye week ever. They could actually be improved. They could actually be better. And they might still look worse just because they're playing the number three team in the country. So I know we just played number nine, Florida, but I think there is a world of difference between number nine, Florida. Number three, Georgia. So let me start there, Will. Do you agree with that statement? How much? If so, how much better do you think the Georgia Bulldogs are than the Florida Gators this year?

Will:
I do agree with that statements. So I think. Notre Dame is an interesting piece of this puzzle. How good do we think Notre Dame is? I think pretty good. I think Notre Dame was weird spot last week coming off of loss in Athens. It was really important to him. And playing a feisty Virginia bunch that hit some plays in the first half, did some good things at Notre Dame, still just took care of business in the second half and really turned him away. So I think that's the mark of a good program. Brian Kelly's had a role in there for a long time now, so I think Notre Dame's pretty, pretty solid. So I think that means Georgia is even more solid and the best information we have on the Gators. Is Miami and Tennessee teams that don't particularly look great. And a Kentucky team that looks worse each week. Some of that is a quarterback issue there, too. But so listen. By kickoff, we can answer that question much better because you're going to get Florida against the team that has the best resume of anyone in the country right now at three thirty. So Auburn will tell us quite a bit that does create a bad scenario for Tennessee if Auburn steamrolled the Gators and then Georgia steam rolls us. That's not a fun Saturday. And the other the other half of that really to go back and say, yes, I agree with all this. Tennessee could be better. Tennessee could do a lot of things and Tennessee could lose to Georgia. Tennessee could not be within 12 points of Georgia in the fourth quarter like they were last year in Athens. The real kicker here now to me is how bad Mississippi State looked last week, because now a game that I don't think any one has in the old expected win total machine that anybody said that about 50 percent since Tennessee lost at Georgia State. I mean, the assumption was Mississippi State was really good, or at least above average. And I mean, they just Auburn decimated them in the first half of that game and coasted. I thought from there. So now.

Joel:
Yeah, they scored like, what, twenty three points or something. But those were those were not real points. I don't think.

Will:
I mean, Auburn was at thirty five in a heartbeat in that game. So now the thing I said, I think a couple of weeks ago or maybe even last week on this podcast was, hey, it's important that Tennessee competes with Mississippi State. Not not so far as to say that that's a must win for anything other than like bowl hopes. But you lose this Mississippi state team by like 10 or 14 in Neil and Stadium, who looks a lot worse now than it did this time last week. So,

Joel:
Mm mm mm mm.

Will:
Yeah, lots of lots of perception, a stuff. That's Tennessee. Tennessee could be better and still look bad this week. And I think Tennessee could even beat Mississippi State at this point and still not necessarily be a whole lot better. So, yeah, I think a lot of this and I know we're going to talk about the quarterback situation. A lot of the perception on Tennessee I think is going to hinge on how much of that plan. Brian Mauer, because if you're if you're making a full switch here, there's no such thing as resetting the clock in a year when you lost the Georgia state in the season opener. But you can you can you can change the narrative a little bit here, too. Now, we can at least find out if this guy is going gonna be a live option for Tennessee going forward here in the future. So I don't I don't know how much you're going to see him or if he's going to start to play the whole time or whatever. But, you know, lots of lots of narrative stuff on the line here and a game where no matter which narrative you pick, it's likely that Georgia is going to take care of business.

Joel:
Yeah, we'll get to the quarterback a little bit more here in a minute, but first I want to say that I'm really interested to see what the robo transcriber thinks of the word perception. I might actually call the podcast the perception, the podcast, because I like that word. So.

Will:
There's love. That's one of my favorite things to do each week is go back and read with the robo transcriber, thinks of all kinds of things. There was a good I've forgotten what it was and I don't have access to my tablet right at the second to look it up while we're talking here. But there is a good phrase.

Joel:
Something about a women rush or something, a five woman rush.

Will:
Well, it was a fright, Noto is a phrase a couple of weeks ago that we kept using or I think I kept using over and over and a Kivon Bennett can't translate. It is something different every time. But I don't remember. So sorry. I promise it was funny.

Joel:
All right.

Will:
Read the transcript for entertainment and not for this. That's for pleasure and not for business.

Joel:
Yeah, I used to go through and corrected all of it. You know?

Will:
Oh, it's way more fun this way.

Joel:
Yes, it is. And it takes a lot less time, sir.

Will:
It's right.

Joel:
All right. So before we got on, you had mentioned that you were monitoring Twitter because you you still you still look at Twitter. And I avoided like a plague. So I don't I don't I didn't see this. But something about former coming out and saying, no, no, no, I'm not going to. I'm not going to coach. And that comes, of course, from something we mentioned as nonsense. I think in the last episode, which was from Pete family at Yahoo! And then I think it came up again this week because there was an article by some writer at ESPN with a list of hot seat coaches and Jeremy Pruitt was first on the list, which again, is ridiculous. And the thing is, they're saying that all of this is just an opportunity for Fulmer to get back on the sideline, which is what he's really wanting to do. His whole goal, like he's this devious schemer and it's been his whole plan for 10 years and he's now just executed it. So anyway, you know, the thing is, those those articles quote these sources, you know, but I am pretty sure that the guy from ESPN as source was Pete family and and vice versa. So I think what you and I should do right now on record and the podcast is we should. I'm going to tell you that Pete family was that ESPN guy's source. So now you can go write an article quoting a source that Pete Bama was that guy's source. So that's the plan. Does.

Will:
Yeah. Say something about those hot seat rankings before we get to the former thing. I guess there may not be any more disappointed fan base. Well, disappointment is relative. I think the line between how we thought things were going to go and how things have actually gone here, I think Tennessee is at or near the top of that list. These are not the conversations we thought we were going to have about record and about quarterback, which is the position that most impacts your record. So, sure,

Joel:
Here

Will:
Tennessee is there,

Joel:
You

Will:
But just

Joel:
Can I just

Will:
Got.

Joel:
Time out just on that. So hold that thought in book market. But we always think that because we're that's what we're paying the most attention to. But Michigan fans got to feel terrible. Nebraska fans maybe, you know, there's a whole lotta heartache and misery out there on the landscape, too. Although I do think we we win that race right now.

Will:
Yeah, I think the difference in perception this he still has a chance to win the disappointments component. That's got to be Michigan, right? That because that's a team you're thinking about. Can we make the college football playoff

Joel:
Yep,

Will:
This year?

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
Urban's out. Can we beat Ohio State? And not only is the answer, no, but wow, Wisconsin emphatically no. That was my favorite line that someone had on Twitter. And I'm sorry, I said it's a lot on the podcast that I can't hear on the fly. It was on Twitter. So kudos to whoever it was on Twitter when Wisconsin, where they alternate unis the following week with the brown pants that someone in Wisconsin so thoroughly dominated Michigan that now they're allowed to wear khakis when they play their game. I feel that those tremendous whoever that was. Kudos to that person. So. Yeah, most disappointed would be a team like Michigan that had a college football playoff aspirations, national championship aspirations fairly legitimately and now has them no longer and might think about, you know, what is the future with this coach perception versus reality. Tennessee's in that conversation of how we thought this would go. But all that to say, it's ridiculous to have Pruitt number one on your hot seat rankings simply because he's only been here for 16 games. I can assure you, living in southwest Virginia that Justin Fenty has a hotter seat than Jeremy Pruitt right now simply because this is year four for one day and he's not supposed to be getting blown out by Duke at home. So, yeah, that's you can say that Tennessee's perception versus reality is worse than Virginia Tech's think Virginia Tech did and wasn't sure what they had, but they were hoping it was this. Whereas Tennessee, we thought we were making progress. And turns out not not yet. But just by the nature of him being the head coach for only 16 games, it's unrealistic to say he's on the hottest seat in America.

Will:
That's just absurd. He might next year, but not right now. So on the former stuff, he's on board calls earlier tonight. We're taking this on Wednesday night, vocals just went off the air. It's where the best Tennessee information gets passed around. Former would know that his vocals is a very former, very Tennessee way to say this. He came on and did the typical A.D. support of embattled head coach with some specific points about former saying before Pruitt got here, we didn't know how to practice and that we didn't have any 300 pound guys. And now we know how to practice. Now we have 300 pound guys, little passive aggressive shot there. Butch Jones, which I think is fine and former included saying that the coaching portion of his career, the coaching chapter of his career is closed. So I think that's I think that's fine. I think that's obvious. Sometimes we we tell ourselves stories long enough that, you know, we believe they can come true. I think for for that narrative of, well, former wants to show everyone that they were wrong. Isn't that point already made? I just I just feel like. And look, I'm I'm still young enough to have a lengthy argument with anyone that wants to have this argument for people that will say, well, we absolutely still should have fired former. We just made the wrong choices from their. A little fast and loose with the word absolutely there. I think we should not talk about things being such a sure thing or absolutely the right decision, given the length and breadth and width and height of our disaster here in the last eleven years and trying to get it fixed.

Will:
So I listen. I wrote at the time, I thought the guy should have said, you know what, 2009 will be my last season. I was a former forever back then or anything like that. I do think some of the historic advance stats, stuff like SB Plus, if you turn the page back, look a little more fondly on 2006 and 2007 than we did at the time. And I think that, you know, that inability in 2008 to stop that snowball from rolling down the hill couldn't get a win to stop the bleeding the way it did in 0 7. Over and over again. Oh, it certainly hurt. But I think the point is made. I don't think former needs to come back and win some games here for us to say, hey, things were better when you were our head coach. That's a lot of the hope now, right? Things will be better because he's the athletic director. So I think that former is doubling down on Pruitt being his guy and that and outright saying he is not ever coming back to coach again. So I think that should help close an unnecessarily open door. And again, the very best things for Tennessee would be Jeremy Pruitt figuring this out and learning on the job and going from there. And the former knows that, too. So hopefully that's that's what continues to happen.

Joel:
Yeah, it's it's kind of interesting that two, five and seven seasons in four years was enough to do him in, and we traded that for pretty much nothing. But if in seven seasons for many years in a row. Anyway, back to this year. Jarrett Guarantano. He got pulled against Florida. Then he got put back in. So for two weeks, we've had this question about who's going to play quarterback against Georgia. Most everybody just thought, well, you know, it's gonna be Garrett Johnson. Now that we we pulled him and got, you know, got his attention, which is what we needed to do and all the stuff. But apparently there is some growing chatter that it might actually be Mauer. My source on that is Will again paying attention to Twitter. When I was somewhere else. So what is where is that chatter coming from? Well, and what are your thoughts on it?

Will:
Well, that and let me say that is not Twitter. That's that's some stuff that vol quests.

Joel:
Oh,

Will:
Just something

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
To good point on Vault Quest earlier today to say and Vault Quest is great. I'm a subscriber. You should be a subscriber to all that good stuff. But at one point he was making is to say, look, we don't want to the media doesn't get to see much of practice. So you want to take any practice observations with a grain of salt, but observing practice today. So things seem to be trending a little more in Bowers direction in terms of division of repetitions. And some of that may just be a package. Are they going to put in a package for him? That is a little more athletic oriented than what Garen Tanto has. So I don't know. I think, again, from from the narrative of the season and all that stuff, you can't hit the reset button at this point if you're Pruitt on this year, but you can't at least just reignite some interest and some curiosity. Even if he looks bad against Georgia, anybody might look bad. Quarterbacking this team against Georgia right now. So really, if we're talking about now are the questions for me is how do you look next week? How would you look against South Carolina? Tennessee needs wins. I just don't think you can say if you're still trying to get the six wins. If you're trying to make this season matter, if you're trying to spark something that could carry forward into the future, you need to beat Mississippi State.

Will:
So, you know, I think it's it's there's it's an even more lost cause if you subscribe to that school of thought of let's hold him out until South Carolina so he doesn't have to play Alabama. And I just don't know. I don't think anybody knows what to think of Garen Snow at this point. I mean, there's sort of some of this, too, is message boards stuff. But just the growing kind of assumption here that. It just doesn't seem like him coming back to Tennessee next year is in anybody's best interests at this point. This sense that he could graduate and transfer and go somewhere else. It's shocking to me that we're talking about that here in the first week of October. But, you know, the idea that guaranteed it would be the starting quarterback at Tennessee next year, which he technically has the eligibility to do. That seems far away from anybody's radar right now. So we've talked to plenty on his podcast about Crompton and about other turnarounds in the past. And I would love to see that from him. But we don't see a lot of signs pointing in that direction right now.

Joel:
I'm still holding hope that that's what's going to happen. By might be the only one, but that's kind of what I want to see. Did did you see it? There was a paywall thing at 2 4 7 with West Rucker interviewing the Georgia 2 4 7 guy, I guess. Did you see that piece?

Will:
I'd say that.

Joel:
Ok. So it was really interesting. Kind of funny, too, by the way. If you have access to sugary that one. But one of the things that really jumped out at me was he asked a question, you know, what do you do to try to try to beat Georgia? I know every team has some vulnerabilities. What's the thing? And he goes, well, I don't know, you know. It seems like when we struggle, it's against mobile quarterbacks. No team ever says, I'm really glad to play a team whose quarterback can run. Right. And I don't know really know whether that's true or not. But the Georgia beat guy 4 2 4 7 thinks that. So that might be one reason why they might want to go with Mauer, Maurer, Mauer, Mauer,

Will:
Mauer is what I

Joel:
Mauer.

Will:
Keep saying that does that just get right? But I think that's Brian Mauer.

Joel:
He'll tell us three years from now if we're mispronouncing

Will:
That's right.

Joel:
It.

Will:
That was not worth more wins, as it

Joel:
It

Will:
Turns out.

Joel:
Was not so in the other thing I think about this. You know, it's like Josh Ward's podcast, which as long as we're plugging it, that last week we plugged the athletic. You really need to subscribe to that. Will says you need to subscribe to vol quest. I'm telling you right now, you need to listen to Josh Palmer podcast every day. It's great stuff. Although he did say something this week that he was kind of rough on on Pruitt basically refusing to name quarterbacks, saying we're not going to give Georgia scouting report. And his point was, well, that's going to help. Right. But the thing is, Prue is trying to win. You know what? Even if you aren't going to win, you still want the guy to try to win. Right. And I get this theory about Pruitt that he doesn't know how to play, not to win. He doesn't know how to play like an underdog. He just doesn't have that that mindset. And I think that's why maybe you see these huge score disparities like like we haven't seen part of that is because we're bad. OK, I'll concede that. All right. But I think part of it is also is that he doesn't, you know, say, OK, well, how can I keep this close into the fourth quarter so we can maybe sneak out a win? I don't think he thinks like that. And so, you know, if he thinks a mobile quarterback is where Georgia might be weak and, you know, he's got Georgia Intel, right? He knows Georgia.

Will:
Oh. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. So if he thinks that that might be a way to score an extra touchdown or something and maybe actually make a game of it, that might be what he's trying to do. So that's my theory. I'm a stick to it and I'm going to delete the podcast if it turns out to be wrong.

Will:
I

Joel:
So.

Will:
Think, you know, if we're a year from now having this conversation about Jeremy Pruitt or having a conversation about who's Tennessee needs a new coach, who's that coach going to be, and we do the thing that we always do, which is we pendulum swing to the other side. That Pendleton swing next time will be. We need someone that knows how to grow a program, knows how to take a losing thing and make it a winning thing. If that happens, you could talk a lot about Will Healy. That's at Charlotte right now. That was it. S&P, which, by the way, that Tennessee's opening opponent next season. Woods It's not one you want to lose if you're Jeremy Pruitt because folks will be talking about that guy for a while. But anyway, something like that somewhere we're talking about. We need someone that's been in the SCC and understands the expectations the way Butch Jones didn't knows what it's like to develop five star talent. All that stuff. Yeah. I think the Florida game last year is proof of that proof. And he said outright that the reason they lost by 26 and not 19 is because he played a goal on defense there to try to create a stop that Florida just went to the outside and scored a late touchdown. So, yeah, I mean, I think I think there's some truth in that, that he doesn't know how to win as an underdog. Yeah. And I'm trying to think of games. I think he's conservative. Defensive nature can play into that a little bit in terms of getting a lead and then milking the clock and hanging onto it and that sort of stuff. It's a big fan of the onside kick last year. Also, if it doesn't work, is is a very risk reward situation. So, yeah, you could be onto something there. I will say two were terrific quarterbacks and I've been thinking about do you know what I think the phrase in the podcast I was trying to think of that the translator has so much fun with. You know what I think it is?

Joel:
What's it?

Will:
I think it's Jarrett Guarantano SEC.

Joel:
Ok.

Will:
So it just goes to show like how much we're just kind of writing off. Or at least I am just kind of writing off this guy who has just been the quarterback here at a not fun time to be at Tennessee. And, you know, if he doesn't have transferring or going somewhere else. Man, I hope he does awesome and does great because this is this is not going the way anybody thought it would.

Joel:
No. So in search of maybe just a little bit of hope. I was hoping that maybe you could help us remember 2009. So my feeble old memory is that. Even as late as the Georgia game, we were still sort of reeling from some disappointment and the fact that we thought we had a quarterback who couldn't throw a couldn't complete the screen pass, right. And we were heading into the Georgia game, basically not hoping for anything positive to happen. And we got something totally unexpected. So I was wondering, can you and your vault of a mind sort of remind us of that story? Did I get part of it wrong or how did it all go down?

Will:
No. We touched on this a little bit the last time that Crompton. I think similar to what we're seeing with Garen, no now folks who are out on Crompton going into 2009 because he had struggled along with Nick Stevens and B.J. Coleman struggled so much with the claw offense in 2008. There was just the assumption that he could not get it done. And then when Tennessee couldn't beat UCLA in a game, everyone said was important. On the way in. You know, I knew it from miles away how important it was to win that game. And your defense played lights out. But Cincy could not just couldn't do it and turned the ball over and all that stuff. I think everybody we were waiting for Nick Stevens. He lost to Florida. You were ugly. Kind of in a win over Ohio. You lost to Auburn by 4. But Kiffin was steadfast. Never. Never. Nick Stevens never sniffed an opportunity. And then that Georgia game. Yeah. I mean, this sort of story on that now is that they just took half the field away from crops and and said, all right, you're going to do with this. We're simplifying everything you're gonna do with this half of the field. And Tennessee also had an excellent defense and they had Montreal Hardesty, but the first half in particular of that game. I just remember saying it and writing it at at Rocky Top.

Will:
Talk that at halftime his stat line was like the Ark of the Covenant. That's like, just don't look at it because it was so unbelievable that it would just melt your face off. And, you know, he stayed hot the rest of the game. Tennessee wins that game. Forty five to 19. And then he simultaneously had the ability the next time at Alabama to not get them beat. That's that's a game where you could tell right away. Even though Alabama's rank number one or two or whatever they were, the Tennessee's defense was going to keep them around. And it did. And Crompton, they wanted him to do the mistake free stuff. And he did. And then he hit the one big throw, I think, to Luke Stocker. Right. Right before that infamous field goal that was blocked hit one big throw to put him into a field goal range. That didn't work out, obviously. And then, you know, bounced right around and beat South Carolina right after that heat. And after that, you know, they give up a ton of points to Ole Miss. It's not really Compton's fault. They play a good overtime game against Kentucky where they get the win and that game, and then they run into an extremely underrated Virginia Tech team. The chick's label and they lose. And then twelve hours later is when we get four Tennessee basketball players arrested for guns and drugs in a car.

Will:
And so that story kind of goes away. And then Kiffin leaves, you know, nine days after that. So there was there was a tumultuous, tumultuous time at Tennessee. But, yeah, again, I think we're talking about I mean, truly one of the most surprising things that I have ever seen. But the other one to me that I think is more than just that Crompton game is probably the most surprising individual performance that I've ever seen. So I don't know that we want to hold that up and say maybe that will happen again. But I would go back to Dobbs. If you think about Dobbs in 2014 against Alabama and Knoxville, where Worley has been knocked out for the year again. You've got Peterman who starts that game, plays a couple of series, doesn't do anything. Alabama scores touchdowns with Kiffin as the offensive coordinator. Bama scores touchdowns in our first four possessions. We're down twenty seven and nothing at the end of the first quarter. And you're thinking I was at that game and I'm thinking, you know, these guys could score 100 if they want to. And that's that's just the reality of the situation. And then Dobbs just all of the sudden was a revelation. And Tennessee ends up only losing against the Jeremy Pruitt defense only loses thirty four to twenty.

Joel:
Running quarterback.

Will:
Yeah. And and, you know, just very, very solid all the way through. I mean, just just really surprising the way that Tennessee handled that that entire thing. And one thing you remember, too. DOBBS Other than Peterman, no one has ever looked worse than Dobbs when he played against Vanderbilt the last game of his freshman year when Tennessee had to have it to get bowl eligible. Dobbs is awful. I mean, it made me think this guy will never be the answer at at Tennessee and the last game of that 2013 season. Turns out that was wrong, too. He was a freshman. So you don't know. It's just with guaranteed snow in this, I guess, is where it was more similar to Crompton. We just have so much data already and there hasn't been it's been regression instead of progression. So, you know, I don't know if that shows up Saturday. I'd be wonderful, but I'm I just don't. I don't have warm fuzzy is about it showing up against Georgia and I don't have a lot of warm fuzzy about it showing up against Mississippi State either.

Joel:
Olmert added that last part out because that isn't where I was going. Yeah. So 2014, Alabama, that that was in the midst of, you know, Saban's Alabama writes or really good team. They didn't win the national championship that year. I don't think at least if I got this right in the magazine.

Will:
That's

Joel:
Oh,

Will:
Ohio State.

Joel:
I'll state.

Will:
I think.

Joel:
Yes. Good job. But how good was was Georgia in 2009? I mean, they're there number three this year. Well, what? You know, because you said it was a huge surprise. We weren't very good. I'm assuming we weren't ranked at the time. But how good was Georgia in 2009? Why was it such a surprise?

Will:
So Georgia, let's see, Georgia would have been. Georgia was never one of the country pre-season in 0 8. They were the black jerseys and got killed by Alabama that year and then in nine. I'm going to say I have my tablet in front of it to look this up and be sure. I think in nine they lost to South Carolina early and that's caused some snow and that sort of stuff. So, no, I wasn't. It was not a top 10 Georgia team or anything like that. In fact, I think the South Carolina Tee Martin beat was ranked higher than them. I think that's the highest ranked team that Kiffin beat was Spurs team. But still, you even then a Georgia team. That's OK. We've lost games. Is Rick still the guy that sort of experience? I think one thing about Tennessee then two is Tennessee smoked Georgia in 2007, the year that Georgia finished number two and Tennessee smoked him in the second half in 2006. So I didn't lie. There's a story on the athletic, I think this week about Georgia. You know, the time this rivalry turned in 2010 when both teams were bad and then Georgia rolled Dooley's team the week after we lost at LSU for putting a thousand men on the field at the end of the game. But this was a one possession game from 2011 through 2016. So the last two duly years, it was a one possession game. And the first Bush year, it was the smoking grey pig Howard fumble game. It was a one possession game in Athens the next year, then Tennessee, one in 15 and 16. So I get under Kirby Smart. Tennessee needed a Hail Mary to win it all and then got waxed in 17 and and pulled away from in the fourth quarter last year. I get that. But I don't buy the notion that, well, this rivalry really turned in 2010. This was just a really competitive rivalry for seven years there. Six years there in the middle.

Joel:
That sounds like it was not up in.

Will:
No, it was the Georgia. Georgia

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Ryder.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
But.

Joel:
All right. So.

Will:
Yeah, I mean, it would have been typical, again, Tennessee fans of a certain age. If you were like me and you grew up when Tennessee was putting it on Georgia every year in the 90s, there's still a part of us that's like we should beat those guys. But, you know, that is obviously not dealing in reality right now.

Joel:
Yeah, so I don't think this game is going to go well. I know, but the thing is, I'm trying to brace against drawing too many conclusions from it. That's my it's my whole sort of frame of mind going into this game is that even if you total that, you look the worst, you've looked all season long, which is saying something. I don't I don't know that you can really say that it's anything other than having to play Georgia. I mean, things are just not not positioned well for the Vols on Saturday. I don't know if you saw this actually put the head to head stat rankings up this morning. The first time I've done this. And Tennessee is one hundred and 13th on first downs offense and Georgia is seventh in first down defense for on fourth down. We're one hundred and sixteenth in their twenty first and it's only slightly better on third down where was 70 first and their 18th. So we don't have stats for second down, but I'm guessing they're not very good either. So.

Will:
Well, yes, this may take on the flavor of. A significant percentage of the Alabama gains of this decade, where even in in years when Tennessee was interesting and the season was interesting overall and Tennessee was able to get bowl eligibility and things like that. The like two thousand ten two thousand two thousand thirteen Bush's first year, like the times we used to get killed by Alabama, you just we've just kind of looked at the like. All right. Next. Like, I'm not looking at this to pull a lot of detail about it or anything like that. So, yeah, I mean, it may turn into some of this. Some of that this Saturday is to just say, OK, you know, Georgia won by a thirty one. OK. Next, I will say the event's numbers like Tennessee a little better. The spread was games in Knoxville. So it's twenty four and a half, something like that. Now, I know S&P is like 20.

Joel:
Mm hmm.

Will:
So, again, how how do we get there? Is it like last year where Tennessee is within two possessions in the fourth quarter and Georgia attacks on one late and then Tennessee stumbles and Georgia takes on another one? I mean, that's what happened last year. But, you know, some of it depends on how we get there. But, yeah, I can buy the idea that if Tennessee just gets smoked and not in a self-destructive way, but just in and obviously this team is a lot better than us way. Then again, I think we then I think this time next week we're talking about let's see if we can learn anything different against Mississippi State and just carry it forward from there.

Joel:
All right, freestyle time. Anything you want to bring up?

Will:
Now go to the Braves on Friday night, as beforehand, you. Tennessee has taught me you should never use the phrase I'll just go next time because you the note near next times are not guaranteed. So if I die this weekend is because my Cardinals superfan in laws have murdered me at SunTrust Park when the Braves something good and I try to celebrate it. So celebrate your sports teams. We've been saying for years going back to the console, Martin Day, you don't don't miss opportunities to celebrate. So for the percentage of fans listening to this who are also Braves fans, much to celebrate this year so far and hopefully much beyond this weekend and again for Tennessee, unless two quarterbacks get hurt or, you know, something really unusual happens, which, hey, I mean, we're no stranger to really unusual. Next, we gonna be a gonna be an important week. I mean, it's a big week next week for four narratives and all that stuff where I think we can't actually say something about the outcome as opposed to this week. So I feel like you can't. No one's playing with house money when you're 1 3. But in terms of Pruitt and quarterbacks and all that stuff, we're going to get a good data point against Mississippi State. It looks like. So we'll we'll see what happens.

Joel:
So I think there are a lot of people listening that actually do keep up with the Braves. But for those of us who don't, what is the nutshell? What are they doing?

Will:
The Braves. They're they're awesome. So this is the first round of the playoffs. The Braves and the Cardinals. Game 1 is tomorrow night. Game 2 is Friday night in Atlanta. Unlike last year when the Braves play the Dodgers in the first round and the game spirit like eight thirty five. And people with children are asleep by the third inning. This is this is actually the Braves play at five o'clock tomorrow and 430 on Friday. It's good for adults, but they're just fun. You know, anybody that's watched this team all year, they have some bullpen adventures, but they're running Laconia Junior and Ozzie Albee's. And a lot of these guys are fun and young. And Atlanta has not won a postseason series since 2001. So high time to get that turned back around. So, yeah, I just just, you know, enjoy celebrate that. It's worth celebrating and don't miss opportunities to do so. And I hope that happens for one of my sports teams this weekend.

Joel:
And basketball is coming into the month,

Will:
Yes,

Joel:
So.

Will:
It's coming as fast as it can. It

Joel:
Hold

Will:
Will get here.

Joel:
On, I'm coming. Yeah.

Will:
Yeah, it's. It's going to get here. The will w had a poll on Twitter earlier tonight about. Tennessee plays an exhibition basketball game on October 30th. Who will win next? The football team or the basketball team on October 30th? So if you're taking it, you're taking basketball. That means you think Tennessee is going to lose to both Mississippi State and South Carolina, which could happen. So we could we could have a basketball victory before we have a football victory, in which case we can talk about basketball a lot on this podcast and risk the rest of this season. But yeah, there's there's not much that basketball schedule is loaded. And so some of those basketball conversations may be about, oh, my gosh, where four and 2 is Rick Barnes, should he be fired or whatever, because not having granted ADM and those guys did not keep Barnes from scheduling. We play Washington in Toronto. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard is Tennessee and Washington getting together. Like, what is the farthest point from both of those schools in it, not just in the United States, but in North America? Is it Toronto? Let's play there. All right. So that's that's all coming up. You could get a shot at Purdue in it over Thanksgiving for a little revenge. Penny Hardaway and Memphis Penny Hardaway had an interview today with the athletic. Ray said Memphis is going to win the national championship this year. He was put out of that and I'd in the second round last year. They're going to win it all this year like basketball. Gonna be fun. Gonna be awesome. Coming as fast as it can.

Joel:
You know, I've heard that Phillip Fulmer is actually working behind the scenes to submarine Rick Barnes so he can get on the sidelines of the basketball court.

Will:
Right. I don't think if I don't know if he specified football coaching career is

Joel:
He

Will:
Not

Joel:
Left

Will:
At all.

Joel:
That door open.

Will:
Tune in next week at Calhoun's on the river and we'll see what happens.

Joel:
All right. That will put a wrap on this episode of the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure you subscribe, give us a rating, give us a review, bonus points and you get a single face for the bonus paint bonus bonus points.

Will:
Jarrett Guarantano.

Joel:
Jerry.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
So you just want to see the see

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
The robot transcriber. Mess it

Will:
The.

Joel:
Up again. All right. Jerry again. Garen Tanto Jarrett Guarantano. Jerry Garen Tanto. See if it gets it wrong. Three similar ways all in a row. So for Will Shelton, I'm Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast. Yee ha.

Will:
I legitimately feel bad about that, saying I can't think of what the phrase is. I was the starting quarterback at.

Joel:
Well.

Will:
There are some good ones in there.

Joel:
Jeff, good trip.

Will:
Yeah. I ran through the airport, which I've never done before. So

Joel:
Nice. Yeah.

Will:
I ran I ran past those rocking chairs and Charlotte and thought there's a rocking chairs joke told me

Joel:
Yeah,

Will:
About.

Joel:
Yeah. I didn't get a chance to use them.

Will:
They I'd looked to the people eating chicks, lay in them with disdain and scorn.

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