Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast – Episode 154 – More group therapy

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Joel:
This is the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast, episode 154. I am Joel Hollingsworth and I am once again joined tonight by my brother in arms. Will Shelton, Will anything interesting happen this weekend?

Will:
You know, when in doubt, go back to the thing that you are best at and the thing that we are best at is group therapy. So here. Here we are. This is a different kind of therapy, I think, than than we’ve encountered. I know people want to go back to the Wyoming game, but that was a whole other you know, the deed was really done at that point. When Tennessee lost to Wyoming in 2008. And so I was I was a sophomore in high school when Tennessee lost to Memphis in 1996. Joel, what were you doing in 1996?

Joel:
1996, I had just started Tennessee Law School.

Will:
Ok. So you were around. But.

Joel:
I was around that was just just getting the just, getting the buzz and the bug.

Will:
Yeah. Fun fact about that game, too. That was the first Tyson Holyfield fight was that night. Later that night when Tennessee lost to Memphis, not the ear biting one, but the first one, there was actually a really good fight. So anyway, that’s that’s how long you have to go back to find. I think anything like this. And yet it’s it feels familiar just because of everything else that’s happened over the last eleven years. So, you know, there’s there’s a small part in here where us and other folks should we should never, ever say again, we don’t need to talk Georgia State or, you know, let’s let’s give that the old one hundred percent in the. The expected win total machine butts. Yeah. This is a this is a different conversation than I thought we were gonna have today.

Joel:
Yeah. And so, you know, just for posterity so we can make sure we have the context for for the time that we’re going to, you know, 10 years from now, we’ll want to come back and listen to this, I’m sure.

Will:
Sure.

Joel:
Right. So, yeah, it was they kicked off their 20 19 season season of much anticipation. It’s Jeremy Pruitt’s second year at the helm. We’re hoping for and expecting that infamous year to bump or riding high from solid recruiting class. Fully. Highly talented dudes. They filled need. We’re feeling good about a couple of splash coordinator hires stealing Jim Chaney from Georgia, you know, helping us and hurting them at the same time. Woo! And luring Derek Ainsley from the NFL as Oakland Raiders. We’ve got a more manageable schedule. We can ease into it a little bit before the real challenges come. And then Saturday we lost to the Georgia state Panthers at home 38 to 30. And really, it wasn’t even that close. Was it?

Will:
Oh, no. You know, I don’t know for people that didn’t watch the game. If you just saw the score and we’re kind of like, oh yeah, it’s thirty eight twenty three until there’s literally two seconds left in the game. So. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. So, you know, it’s basically was kind of like the unexpected gut punch that killed Houdini? You remember that?

Will:
I do.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I was I was a fan and my my growing up day as I read lots of books about that. It’s a good metaphor for this.

Joel:
It was, although, you know, it

Will:
His

Joel:
Actually

Will:
Muscles, it was that.

Joel:
Is what’s a.

Will:
He didn’t tighten his muscles. I read that version of it in one story when the guy hit him, he wasn’t set like he hadn’t locked up his core yet or whatever.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah,

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. That’s what killed Houdini. Although, you know, they say there really was it was appendix, so there was something wrong, bad, wrong inside anyway. And it just got irritated by the sucker punch, which, you know, there might be some similar metaphor there as well. But anyway, you know, basically it was not a good day is what we’re saying. Right. Saturday was not not a good day. But actually, before we get too deep into that, I wanted to ask you, what is it that you do after a disappointing game like that? And how do you spend the rest of your Saturday, what you do on Sunday, to sort of cope in a healthy, mature. What are you, 38 now? Forty something.

Will:
Almost almost 38. Yeah.

Joel:
Almost 38 in a in a 38 year old way.

Will:
Well, you know, most folks this is this. No, my my real job is a United Methodist pastor. So, you know, I have to. I have to do this in theory. Some of my most important work on Sunday mornings. So that part has been helpful for me. I’m going to pastor as long as I’ve been well, 10 days longer than I’ve been a blogger. And so I’ve always had that rhythm of church starts at the same time, no matter what happens. And let’s stop the line. I’ve heard Wilkerson use, John Ward use. You know, it’s bad. Saturday is of of the past. And so that has been helpful for me since 2006 in terms of perspective and things like that. I hope this is maturity and not just age, but, you know, I have on the one hand, my son is getting ready to turn to and so that is my wife. Six years ago when we got married at the start of the Butch Jones tenure and then Covington, my son. So it’s really helpful to have them around and have family around that you love and care about and can spend time with. The flip side of that is, man. I did. I laid awake last night and thought about, you know, how in trying to think of how long is this gonna go on like this thing that is such a big part of my my life and was such a big part of my childhood in part because I grew up at a really good time in Knoxville.

Will:
But, Mike, is this thing going to be here for my son? You know, is this if we have we mess this up so badly that when he comes of age here in five or six years, to really start knowing what’s going on, that it’s just not going to be saying it’s not the same as it was when I was growing up is is an understatement. You know, I’m worried about are people going to show up for these games anymore? You know, are we are we in a really bad way? So, you know, I think family helps. I quit watching. I didn’t watch a second of Auburn or Oregon. I just wasn’t interested in football anymore. Yesterday I did. I watched the Braves. Today, I did go back to watching sports today, but I haven’t said right. Right now, I’m watching Rogue One on mute on TV. Yes. And not watching Houston and and Oklahoma. So. And the game tomorrow is not very good. So I don’t I don’t know that I’ll go back to to to watching it until Thursday. So that’s just kind of get people around you who make your life better no matter what. Tennessee does is the best piece of advice I can give you. And, you know, most people work Monday through Friday. They don’t get to get up and do something that they love and are passionate about no matter what happens on Saturday. So in that sense, I’m very grateful for my job.

Joel:
So not to make you more depressed, but you mentioning is this still gonna be here for my kids? I have that window is closed for on two of my kids already. Yeah. I mean, it’s been. What do I don’t know how far you want to go back to 2008, 2005, two thousand three, whatever. But you know, I got one who’s 23 now and she doesn’t remember anything but pain on Saturdays for me. And I tried to take my now 17 year old. We went to games for a couple of years. There was a lot of fun. You know, I mean, you can always enjoy a Saturday afternoon, right? So it’s still cool. But, you know, there’s very few memories that she was she was at the Florida game with me that we won. That was cool. Georgia, I think we might have had a memory or two with Georgia at some point. South Carolina, but that’s pretty much it. You know? So, yeah, sorry to depress anymore, but it’s a very real possibility that, yes, he may not know your joy.

Will:
Well, I would say that my people who are my age, if you if you’re in your late thirties and you grew up a Tennessee fan and a Braves fan, like we are the worst, because I know that I know both schools only won the big prize only once. But you the expectation of. Excellence. Every I mean, the first year I remember was 1988 when Tennessee started the season 0 and 6 and then won five in a row. Then they won two S.E.C. championships back to back after that. So that like that really didn’t matter. And then you just go from there. The Braves, you had to wait a little longer on until nineteen ninety one. But I mean it just it has taken me and you could see reading us for a long time, you can see it in my writing like I mean it just took me a long time to get out of the how. How quickly can we get back. A lot of the stuff I feel like I wrote when Dooley was here was still holding on to the sense of, OK, we’re just a second away from being back to what it should be. And the realization that that’s not how it works. But I will say to in terms of that, I have been Alex, my wife. Her family’s a big baseball family.

Will:
But she really wasn’t into football, hadn’t been around it, that sort of stuff. And that first year, that first Butch Jones year, we were married. The thing that sold her was a game we lost. It was that smoky gray Georgia game that first won the pig Howard. And overtime just being there and being around a sense of what almost was. And the energy and the environment in that stadium that that really sold her. And, you know, we we weren’t there yesterday, thankfully, but we’re gonna be there Saturday for BYU. So, you know, it doesn’t have to be championship winning stuff to convince people who are otherwise, you know, uninitiated to really fall in love with it, man. It can’t be losing a Georgia state and it can’t be eighty five thousand people announced in the stands. I mean, that’s that’s that’s not it. And so that’s the that’s the thing I worry about. You don’t have to win championships, but it needs that sense of this will always be here. And it’s something that not just me, but lots and lots of people look forward to and I’m to and invest in it. You know, I think that’s worst case scenario thinking still. But that’s that’s definitely what I was thinking when I was lying in bed last night.

Joel:
You mentioned with with Dooley, you know, thinking, oh, you know, when it was how quickly you were going to be able to turn around, right. And actually that was you know, I started the store in 2011. So I was I was pretty convinced, you know, that we were just right around the corner. And, you know, it was weird. I knew that I was going to have some very strong and conflicting emotions this season, regardless of how things turned out. But I will admit at one point, yes, yesterday I was here Saturday. I was glad that I hadn’t again purchased another 20000 inventory to try to sell.

Will:
Yeah, I keep looking. You know, I’m like a lot of people, my Facebook feed gets filled with, you know, ads of Tennessee merchandise, whatever. And I looked at those ads a couple times today and I was like, where’s the on sale category? It should be. Don’t be trying to sell this to me at full price today. Facebook algorithm like you,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You’ve got to find some deals and send them by way. Today.

Joel:
Yeah. So how I generally spend my stuff is I kind of pretend that it’s circa 2001 and there’s no Internet. That’s the first thing I do is I don’t go on the Internet. After a game like that, I just I’ve found that it’s not helpful to me. But then, you know, I just you whatever your hobby is or your other other passions are, you know, I just I spend some time with that. I spend a lot of time on Saturdays just monitoring my little SPM machine to see how it’s doing against the spread on other games and stuff. You know, just because I’d like to do that. It’s like my gardening or my woodworking or whatever. You know, I like to automate stuff and play with stats and fiddle around with mysql and php and stuff. Kind of a geek that way. So but once my mind’s right to, I may watch a few other games, you know, although there is some risk to that, you know, because watching the Auburn Oregon game is like everything was twice as fast as the one I just watched, you know, against Tennessee. I don’t know if we just look slow in anyway, but then, you know, church on Sunday and then I console myself with naps and food on Sunday afternoon. Basically, the Vols are the reason I’m fat, so.

Will:
Yeah, lots lots of us are feeling that way. My wife gave me a cupcake out of her inventory

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Today and that feeling feeling bad for me. But

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
That’s something we’ve said for a long time. It’s not about getting off the Internet. Like you you you don’t have to follow those people on Twitter, you know, like you can work a mute and curate a reasonable list. It is just you don’t have to follow people who it’s in good business interests for them to make you mad

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
At and phantoms like you. That has been helpful for me. Just something that I learned slowly over the course of doing this, as long as we’ve all been suffering with it for 10 or 11 years of, you know, run after game is not the best time to try to convince people that things are gonna be OK. I’m not

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
Saying things are going to be OK.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You know, sitting here talking to you. So I don’t know. But, you know, don’t. Make your Twitter feed as healthy as you desire it to be. Is is one piece of advice I can give.

Joel:
Yes. And mine is to turn it off. That that’s my healthy Twitter feed right there. So anyway, let’s talk about the game now that I’ve had my nap and my cookies. So you’re your post right after the game was OK. Did we just see the worst loss ever? And if I read it right. Because, you know, to be honest, I read it, you know, kind of quickly because I just want to get it over with.

Will:
Sure.

Joel:
But so I think you said that in your opinion, the Memphis from. When was that ninety six or something. What

Will:
Yes,

Joel:
Was

Will:
A

Joel:
Worse?

Will:
Six.

Joel:
So remind me what happened in that and no. Why was that worse than yesterday?

Will:
So let me say, I think everybody understands we’re making this conversation like worst is relative to all this. Everyone still agrees. 2001 LSU is actually the worst. Full stop. Like that’s that’s the worst. It’s because of what you lost and what was on the line. But when we’re talking about worst upset allowed those those three games, Georgia State on Saturday, Memphis in 1996 and Wyoming in 2008. Those are all games that Tennessee was favored between twenty four and a half and twenty seven points. So they’re all that’s the right category for those games. Some are talking about North Texas from the 70s. That’s before my time. And I covers dot com is where I get that. That’s those historical line data points from. So that only goes back to 1985, Wyoming and 2008. Like I say, the deed is already done. Former stepped down the first part of that week, Tennessee, the clock since it struggled all year that, you know, still a strange game and a strange loss. But the deed was done at that point. So I think that one to me, even though that by Vegas standards is the winner at minus 27 for Tennessee. I just I just have a hard time believing that one could be perceived as worse. The Memphis loss in 96, Tennessee had lost to the Gators at the start of that year. Tennessee was ranked second, got down thirty five in nothing to Florida, then weirdly scored the next twenty nine points and only lost thirty five, 29 nine.

Will:
But they hadn’t lost again. They beat Alabama and Knoxville for the first time in 12 years. Twenty to thirteen on Jay Graham’s long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. And at that point, Tennessee was ranked somewhere between like five and eight. And the Gators. That’s the year Florida won the national championship. So there wasn’t really an opportunity to get in there behind Florida and make it to Atlanta. But you were still talking about the opportunity to play and in what back then was the Bowl Alliance, the pre BCSE So Tennessee could have gone to, say, the Orange Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl or something like that. And it was Memphis man. It’s still the only time Tennessee’s ever lost a Memphis Memphis state back in the back in the day. And so if you have both my parents are from Memphis. If you if you have personal connections there that made it so much worse. Memphis ran a kickoff back for a touchdown that had instant replay existed, would have been called back. Guy got flipped upside down and landed on his elbow and kept running. You know, he was down, but they didn’t call him down. And they went on it did that just an off game. Payton had a couple of interceptions. I think he couldn’t run the ball on them. And just one of those you like yesterday, the whole time, you thought this isn’t really going to happen.

Will:
And and then it did. Unlike 2008, Wyoming, where you had seen lots of bad things happen already that year, bad things, it only happened in Tennessee in 1996 against the Gators and and really not against anybody the last two years. You know, at that point, Tennessee ran through nineteen ninety five at eleven and won and then ran through 96 with only losing to Florida again and so sudden to lose to Memphis just just bad. The worst part about yesterday is that it was at home, that Memphis game was at Memphis. You know this this one was in style and again, I was not there Saturday. So if you were in the stadium and you stayed the whole time, which is not. Not many folks, you know. Like I said, you’re I think whatever answer you want on this, you’re allowed to have, because all three of those are in the same category, the Memphis one, because of rivalry and because of who Tennessee was at that point in time to lose a game when you’re favored by 26, that when that went to me. So at worst but also, I’m experiencing that one as a 15 year old and I’m experiencing this one as someone theoretically a little more mature. So I would still take Memphis, if you really want to have the argument. But if you want Saturday and if you are a little younger than me. Saturday, is it for you, man? Saturday is is the bottom.

Joel:
See, I think the thing that was worse about yesterday was not so much that it was home, but that it was the season opener. Right. I mean, and you wrote about this post that you put up Sunday that, you know, you spend so much time and effort over the summer just anticipating what is going to happen. And you build up all these hopes and dreams and then all of a sudden it’s just all gone. You know, I go back to this. If people then follow for a while, I wrote this thing back in. It was September 2nd, 2008. We had just hired Dave Clawson and his magical flip, you know, a lineman offense. You know, this was a super shiny thing. It was like a Christmas present, you know, where we were looking at it all summer, picking it up and shaking it. It made magical noises. And then and then we opened it up on September 2nd. And it was just pants. It was just another pair of pants. The same thing that we’d always gotten before. And and to be honest, this was this was 2008, right? And it’s two thousand nineteen. And we’ve gotten pants and socks every year. You know, I mean, every once in a while we get a nice three pack of underwear, you know. So it’s the worst part is just, man. You just build it up. And we were looking forward to all this stuff. And, you know, Cheney and Annesley in year two and in the in the in the recruiting, the five stars on the offensive line. And we knew that, OK, those guys were freshmen. You know, this is a new scheme. We get to learn some new stuff. But still, man, there’s nothing like anticipating something magical and getting a rock. You know, it’s just it’s it’s terrible yet. I think a Forest Gump mom was wrong. Life is not like a box of chocolates because you never really just bite into a piece of crap, you know? So

Will:
It’s

Joel:
Wish that’s what

Will:
Not

Joel:
Happened.

Will:
On a.

Joel:
All right. So anyway, what what exactly do you think went wrong? Saturday.

Will:
I think and this is the biggest. This is a big problem. I think Tennessee’s bad on defense and I think that because they were bad on defense last year. If you if you look at advanced numbers from last year, the S&P plus those kinds of things, the defense grades at worst offense. We spent a lot of time talking about Tyson Helton and some. So that deserved. Just unwillingness to run or to pass on first down for a lot of the year being conservative, those kinds of things. But the truth is, Tennessee got behind so quickly in it’s just some of its strength of schedule. But there were so many games where Tennessee just got behind early and we didn’t have time to note that this defense is just bad regularly. You don’t necessarily want to jump to that conclusion when you’re playing Georgia and Alabama. And good grief. West Virginia, I mean, a dynamite offense that Tennessee went up against the very first game of the year and against the Gators, which was really kind of the only other big talking point. Tennessee turned it over a billion times and you couldn’t really make any judgment fairly about the defense then. Then they go to Auburn and they force a bunch of turnovers and they got a big fourth down sack in the drives and they win. And that, I think, kind of let us feel like, OK. Like, you know, this defense is not really an issue. But, man, if you look at the end of this, South Carolina in particular, Tennessee just couldn’t stop those guys in the second half. I mean, just could not get off the field. And then Missouri and Vanderbilt at the end really exacerbated it. The teams you don’t have to be spectacular to beat this defense.

Will:
You don’t have to take that. It is very concerning that you don’t have to take big risks to beat this defense, that you can just line up and get four yards and then have second and six and get four more yards and then have third and two and get a first down. Georgia State, the best thing they did for Tennessee’s defense in the second half was take chances. You know, when they were throw an on on first down, that was great for Tennessee because then you get him in second eight and you have a chance to to be ahead of schedule. But, man, they just lined up and got whatever they want. And so some of what’s making the rounds today is a different conversation about just a stunning lack of alignment and all that stuff. But I have a concern that if Georgia State can do that to you, that even if you’re lined up better, even if you have Daniel Bertucci back and he’s trying to help set the defense from the inside linebacker spots, I have a concern that Tennessee is just they just don’t have the guys on the defensive line. I just don’t have them, especially without Emmitt Gooden. And if that’s the case, he’s going to try to score a lot of points on offense to win this year. And I’m worried that they have a head coach that doesn’t want to do that. It’s not in his nature. And that is is I think that’s what happened yesterday. And I’m worried because it happened against Georgia State. It’s just not going to be favored by 28 again, against an FBI team. So, you know, that’s a concern that this might just be a problem that we talk about all year.

Joel:
So we talked a lot during the Butch Jones era, which I don’t know why that phrase just makes me so tired.

Will:
It’s five years.

Joel:
But yeah. Well, we talked about him being a tweaker. Remember it? Remember all the conversations about tweaking, you know?

Will:
His dad’s a police officer. He doesn’t do big change.

Joel:
He

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Doesn’t do a big change

Will:
Oh, yeah.

Joel:
In that actually resonated with me. That’s kind of the way I am because I think one of the, you know, a big problem sometimes is is over correcting, you know, because I thought Bush could change. He could fix stuff when something was wrong. He is sometimes fixed it, but too often he would also break something in the process. And that was just because there’s there’s just too much going on. Anyway, so anyway. The reason I’m bringing this up is that. Pruitt only has one year as a head coach under his belt, and he made some major changes just after his first year. And it was widely heralded as as a wise move. And I think that largely it was I mean, basically it came down to this. He was he he looked himself in the mirror. OK. That’s good. He figured out that, you know what? I can’t I’m not a defensive coordinator anymore. I’m a head coach. And if I’m trying to actually coach the defense, then I have to ignore the offense or I have to do everything poorly. Because when you’re coaching the defense, you know, it’s not just calling the plays, making sure the guys are lined up, talking to the guys, you know, while they’re on the field. It’s also when they come off the field, you have a debriefing and instructions for the next set, for the next drive. Right. And so that means that you can’t spend any time on the on the offense. And of course, he probably thought, well, I can’t do that. So we spent some time on the offense and then he’s just doing poorly at defense. And so trying to do all that. He he came to the conclusion that he needed to delegate.

Joel:
And one of the things he did was he delegated the entire offense to Jim Chaney, which I think is a brilliant move. Cheney is a proven commodity, is really good. And I think that was just a there was a great move. But the other thing he did that I was I was kind of wondering about even over the summer, although I never mentioned it, was that he also gave up the defense and gave it to Ansley. Now, word is that Ansley is awesome. And maybe he is, but we don’t know, you know, and what we do know is that Pruitt is awesome at defense. And I think that his delegation of the defense to somebody who is maybe a younger version of him was possibly an overcorrection and that he probably or maybe should not have turned loose of the defense. Now, this is just a theory. At this point, it’s just one game is just Georgia state. But that’s the thing I’m going to be keeping my eye on, is whether or not that move turns out to be a real mistake. Not not because Ansley’s terrible, but because Pruitt can do it, should have done it already relieved himself of the offensive responsibilities. And now we got two new coordinators and there’s always a learning curve. Even if you’d you know it, even if it’s easy, you still have to get used to new personalities, some stuff. And there was a whole lot of change on that coaching roster. So anyway, that that’s one of the things that I’m going to be looking for. You have any thoughts on that? Am I crazy?

Will:
No. Well, listen, I don’t think anything is crazy right now. Truly, I mean, it is we need more data. We need a whole lot of these conversations. It’s not fair to ask anyone to push pause on anything they’re feeling right now because Tennessee just lost to Jordan State. But. Some of this. We need more data. And in that sense, it’s good. Tennessee is playing a real life team Saturday. Aside from the team that just beat them on

Joel:
Yes.

Will:
Yesterday.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
But yeah. So, I mean, we’ll get some more of these answers. I think a couple of things about that. I think we spent a lot of time talking last week and I spent a lot of time talking this summer about why did Tennessee run to your place in the country than any team last year? I think Pruitt has a bent to protect defense and to value defense. And one reason you don’t go fast on purpose is because you’re trying to slow the game down to keep your defense safe, to give the other team fewer opportunities, less time of possession, fewer snaps, that sort of stuff. When things were sunshiny and happy in the first half, I was celebrating the fact that Tennessee had a 16 play drives. That’s kind of awesome. But what’s not awesome? It’s not awesome if you’re trying to have a 16 play drives because of folks tell you man stuff goes wrong all the time,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Fumbles happen, penalties happen, that sort of stuff. You can’t bank on a 16 play drive. So it’s cool if it happens every once in a while because it’s unique and fun. And, you know, you flexed on these guys for basically the same way. Georgia State, Tennessee, a little later in the game with their own 16 play drives. But that that initial thing was disconcerting to me. Now, maybe they go hyper conservative early because they threw a fumble slash interception on the second play of the game. Maybe I can buy that. And they think it’s Georgia State. We can just do our thing and be fine. And it worked for those 16 plays. But now looking back at it, there’s a part of me that thinks again, are we. Is Tennessee trying to just take the air out of the ball to protect the defense that Pruitt knows and would know better than anybody isn’t very good? And wasn’t very good last year. And that’s not going to work. I mean, it’s just not going to work and it’s going to work. It’s not going to work in ways that are less fun than trying to score as many points as you possibly can because your defense is bad. And some of that gets back to the offensive line question of, you know, you want to take shots down field.

Will:
You have to trust the quarterback and the offensive line enough to pull that off. And I don’t know that anybody’s feeling super hot about Jerry Garen Santo or that offensive line after that performance on Saturday. So, yeah, I mean, you’ve still got the dudes at receiver. I think that’s nobody played better. No position group was better than those guys. But I don’t know that you have the rest of the pieces of that puzzle that you feel great about to say, hey, let’s just drop him back in shotgun or do seven step drops every time and take our chances going down seal. But they’re just not a if we’re right about this and the defense is just bad. There’s not a great solution to that. If you’re going to struggle to stop teams getting four yards on first down every single time, the best solution that I know of is you better outscore them. And again, there are some reasons that I think Tennessee might be hesitant to try to go that route. The Annesley thing is, is one, it’s a lesson for me and everybody else to never, ever say, oh, a new coordinator. But that’ll be fine. It’s just

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
It’s a big adjustment. Every time.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Every time. And so whether you’re bringing in, you know, Bob Shoop, who was a great defensive coordinator before and was coordinator of the year at Mississippi State last year, or you bring in Larry Scott, who’s never really done it before. But he was the interim coach in Miami. So that’ll probably be fine. Like, that’s one lesson I feel like I’m still learning is. Oh, yeah. Like this guy hasn’t really done this before. And that’s a big deal. I mean, that’s that’s the idea we’re going to do later. Like, what are the things you’re most afraid of? There there’s a part of me that’s like angelic maybe sucks. Like maybe he’s just airboat this. And anyways, having the personnel issues and the substitution interactions and that sort of stuff. I know it’s week one, but that was terrible and alarming and speaks to a lack of institutional control issue. So like Sanjay, all is Ainsley is terrible. On the one hand, it’s good news because you’ve got a head coach who is one of the best people in the free world, that being a defensive coordinator before he was Tennessee’s coach. But on the other hand, it just makes for a bad that micromanaging stuff. Even if it’s on the defensive, even if it’s on the side of the ball, he knows best. That’s just not ideal and not a great, great look there for Ainsley and in game one of his tenure.

Joel:
This is off topic, but I wanted to mention it just real quick that that corner blitz on the the sack and fumble, that was just an awesome call, I thought, because, you know, maybe Guarantano should have seen it, but it was an empty backfield. He had no back there to help protect him. It came from his blind side on the clear other side of the field. There’s no way that he could have seen him unless he actually, you know, purposely looked over there. So I just thought that was just a really good call. Bye bye, Georgia State. It’s just the right time, too, because we we’d been without any we’d been empty backfield for several plays in a row. So I thought that’s what they were thinking. But anyway. Yeah. This this. This is us thing that you mentioned. This is a great idea. I. I think I remember seeing this. I kind of quit watching that show. I don’t maybe I haven’t seen it in like a year or anything. But I do remember them saying at least one time, let’s say aloud the worst thing we’re thinking. And

Will:
Yes.

Joel:
That’s that terribly frightening. But let’s do it. So what what is the the worst thing that that you’re thinking right now? Well.

Will:
Here, here’s the sequence of worst things that I’m thinking. 1 And Ainsley is in way over his head and we have to deal with those issues of micromanaging and that sort of stuff. And I’m not sure where the resolution to that is coming. And if he’s in way over his head, you’re gonna have somebody else you have to buy out or reassign or something like that. The lack of. Man, I hate reading. Maybe David. David, Evan in the athletic or somebody else about Trey Smith begging people to show some pride and that sort of stuff. I am afraid of the prickly personality parts of Jeremy Pruitt that we kind of knew about before or we hired him are true and or worse than we thought. And people are not. Players are so beaten down from what they have been through the last X number of years. We’ve already seen them lay down once. They didn’t show up to fight in the week 1 opener. Are they going to bounce back from this? What if they don’t? Fans just stop coming after, you know. Tennessee loses to Florida and Georgia in embarrassing fashion. And this thing gets real bad. Then recruits have to figure out why they’ve committed to come to Tennessee when Tennessee goes, say, three and 9, which is a realistic possibility at this point in time. And then we’re left figuring out, do we bail on this? Do. After two years, we went three and nine or is all of this just going to happen again because you tried to start it over again? Do you give him a chance to. To do all that. Yeah. That’s that’s and. And my son grows up and never cares about football. That’s the word. That’s that’s the worst thing I’m thinking.

Joel:
Okay, so this sounded like a good idea. But I don’t like it.

Will:
Yeah, it’s usually hard to.

Joel:
So, yeah, I mean, yours yours are kind of. They’re like this season or maybe the next couple of seasons. Mine is more like Armageddon ish. You know, it’s like my biggest fear is that is never going to actually be any better. It’s been a long time. And and the reason for that is the thing that I’m scared about is that the reason for that might be that having the right perspective and the right priorities and the right values, all these things that I really desire to see in the guys, in the team and the program that those things are and will always be at odds with sort of achieving all of your wildest dreams of success. You know, honestly, if I had to make that trade, I’d make it and I’d be mostly glad about it. But man, do I hope that it’s possible to do both. You know.

Will:
Well, on that point, maybe it’s a little different cause it’s a different sport. But on that

Joel:
It’s

Will:
Point,

Joel:
Basketball.

Will:
I would say

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Barnes. Yeah, that’s good. And we’ve seen it’s you know, we’ve seen that go to different ways. I think I mean, I’ve thought about a lot of the highs and lows the last 10 years today. I will say for folks who were like, that’s it. Screw it. I’m out, man. That’s a number one takeaway from from the last console, Martin here is don’t don’t bail before there’s like nothing left. You know, you can bail. I just wouldn’t bail on Week 1. You know, there were times 2017. Plenty of reasonable points to get off that ship before, you know, Brady Hoke was on the sideline like that. You know, it’s OK. And there’s some self-preservation in there, honestly, of bailing in the middle of October of that year, I’m sure. But don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the kinds of Martin story from that last season that ended up a bad marriage call away from the Elite Eight is don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy something. So you need more data. We need and we’re going to get it soon. And then we’re really going to get it when they go to the gators. So, you know, I feel like nothing. And there is nothing off the table. Well, I think Tennessee blowing out BYU is probably off the table, but BYU blowing out Tennessee. I mean, I can see that. I can see it. Tennessee, who, by the way, still two and a half point favorite against the Cougars on Saturday. Tennessee winning up, actually had two. So we need more data. You may have good reason to bail on this thing, but I would say let’s let’s let’s see week two and see how it goes. But yeah, the again, man, especially if you’re in my demographic, that whole or this is never going to be what it was when I was a kid. Oh. I

Joel:
You

Will:
Do not like that,

Joel:
Know, as.

Will:
And that’s that’s why that’s why we follow sports is not just for the it’s bandwagon stuff to follow for the wins and losses. But I worry about this thing. It sells, you know, like a hundred thousand people showing up at the game. People being excited, people being invested in the outcome. It’s the apathy perspective of of Knoxville is a different town win. Tennessee is winning. And I like that about Knoxville. And so those are the those are the kind of vulnerabilities that I worry about. And we did all this in the offseason to say that Tennessee, of the 15 winningest programs in college football history, the only program that has been through a stretch like the last eleven years of Tennessee in terms of length of time, not any final top 20, the only program that’s been through a stretch like this before is us in the late 1970s and early

Joel:
This

Will:
1980s.

Joel:
Is us.

Will:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Just like I planned it. So. So, you know, it’s in our nature to say, let’s step back and realize that we’re not Tennessee. The University of Tennessee football team is not always the 1990s. The 90s are what we are capable of. The 50s are what we are capable of. The late 60s and early 1970. That’s what we’re capable of. That’s what we aspire to. But, you know, you’re gonna have you’re gonna have some nine and three in there that you’re gonna have to say. Ninety three was OK. And that was awfully hard for people in the second half of former’s tenure. But you know that you’re going to have some of that. That’s OK. But that’s my worry now is that when are we getting back to nine and 3 10 again? Tennessee hasn’t finished a season with less than four losses since 2004. At this point, they would have an 0 7 if they didn’t lose any SCC championship game. So that’s you know, it’s still the last eleven years what we’re really talking about, but. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all of that is all that’s concerning. You have to come back to this thing for more than the wins and the losses. But I’m worried about the very essence of it being being a little bit vulnerable here.

Joel:
Yeah. So how much does this game actually impact your expectations for the four for the season? I think this is a really interesting question because if you only go on the data we have. Then what you’re looking at is, OK. We just lost the game I felt most comfortable about. Right. And

Will:
Right.

Joel:
So therefore, I probably am going to think that we should lose every other game to just logically speaking. Right. But you don’t really feel that way because you kind of feel at the same time that something will get better. Maybe. Maybe. But so that I can say if you only go on Saturday, you can’t feel good about the rest of the season. But somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re also thinking that, well, we’re gonna we’re gonna be able to get a fix that. That that was a fluke. Can’t happen again or won’t happen as much is as we think. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to lose every single game. That’s what I’m saying. So how does that all impact and follow fallout for you?

Will:
Well, here I think the our friend the the win expectancy machine there it it’s that thing is your friend right now. If you’re worried about Tennessee going one in eleven, it’s not your friend if you did it before this week, because I did it yesterday and I went from I was seven, almost seven on the money before kickoff. So saying I think they’re going to go 7 and 5 and I think 8 and 4 is just as likely as 6 and 6 2. Now I’m in a shade over four and a half. We’re just saying. So, yeah, that’s that’s a drop in part. It’s because I put Georgia State at a hundred percent. Don’t ever put anyone at a hundred. Don’t put Chattanooga 100 percent in that thing. So you know part of me. Yes, it’s a drop from seven. It’s also a reminder that even as pessimistic as I am about things right now, I don’t think they’re actually going to go one and eleven. I think that they are still a football team with a pulse and some good athletes and some coaches that didn’t get stupid all of a sudden. And we’ll find a way that I think five and seven barely is the most likely outcome at this point. But I’m open to four and eight or three and nine and that sort of thing. You know, we’ve talked a lot on the blog and you mentioned earlier with the past those UCLA games in 0 8 and 0 9 really stand out to be the one in 0 8 4.

Will:
How how much more serious I was when Tennessee lost that game than I am now. And I don’t know if that’s perspective or apathy, but the one in 0 9 has some similarity to OFS dynamite coaching staff. You know, a Kiffin played one double a team back when they were one day in week one, and then he got UCLA in week two a game. A lot of us spent the whole offseason talking about Tennessee. He’s got to win. And not only did they lose it, they were out coached, just poorly played bad, looked bad, looked bad in a way that made you feel like, are we going to win any games? And what is this coaching staff that we paid all this money for and why didn’t they do anything good? And obviously, Kiffin and those guys, it took him till mid-October and a close loss to Auburn in there, too. But they got it together. They only lost to the Gators by 10 and everyone was convinced they’re going to lose by one hundred and maybe, you know, there was gonna be actual murder on the field with that. So, you know, we need more data. But but that particular point of, hey, man, I thought these coaches were really good. We’ve we’ve seen them bungle that right away. That happened to Kiffin and those guys against UCLA. So those those two in particular I have thought about a lot today.

Joel:
Well, with that, that’s going to do it for this edition of the Game Day Rockstar podcast. We’ll be back later this week with a preview of the BYU game. Make sure you keep along with the blog this week. Will will open up the expected win total machine again tomorrow. We’ll have all the regular weekly stuff. And if you’re having conversations about the game this week with folks who might appreciate a little different perspective, put in a little plug for us and tell them that game day, our archetype is a community of reasonable fanatics. We’re not sunshine and rainbows and unicorns this week, but we also haven’t seen our pitchforks in years. So. So until next time for Will Shelton. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the game day Rocky Top podcast.

Will:
I will. I will say that I had my pitchfork at Florida loss in 15. I had I had my pitchfork there it was when we were talking about malpractice last week. That’s when that came to mind that the end of that game was called malpractice.

Joel:
Which one was that? That was the.

Will:
That isn’t that great. Like we shouldn’t

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Get the name of this podcast, which lost was that that was that was the up twenty seven fourteen and didn’t go for to do and then gave

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Up

Joel:
Fourth,

Will:
Then thirteen

Joel:
And.

Will:
And whatever it was and then went down the field with the worst and most excruciating clog management of all time. And we’re left with a fifty five yard field goal that almost went in that would to be again like we’re just in the throws of historic losses. That one to me is still worse than the hob nail boot. I put that. That’s the third. I’ve put a 1 LSU right there at the top 90 Alabama, which you have to be a certain age for. But that one of being ranked in the top five and Bama being unranked and lining up to kick the game winning field goal and having them block it and it bounces thirty five yards the other way and then they kick the game winning field goal instead to be united six. That one is special. That went that was my first real taste of we’re gonna beat Alabama. Oh, no, we’re not gonna beat Alabama here.

Joel:
What year was that?

Will:
Nineteen ninety is.

Joel:
Yes. I don’t. I wasn’t.