Two weeks before my son was born in 2017, we were going through a box of old photos at my parents’ house and came across a letter. I shared this story on Twitter at the time, and it was the first thing I thought of today. I was born in […]
Author: Will Shelton
More on Having a Chance to Win Every Game
Last week we looked at the last 15 years of Tennessee’s SP+ data and found that the Vols’ 2020 projection in that metric would be a season most similar to 2009, 2012, and what became of 2016. The common thread in those years: you came to kickoff almost every single […]
How Do We Frame the Conversation on the 2020 Vols?
It’s almost magazine time – more on that soon from Joel – but this week our writing staff had a conversation on this year’s cover and title. After the Kiffin/Dooley era and Butch Jones’ first season, we – as writers and fans – have spent many of the last six […]
Blue Chip Ratio & Multiple Five Stars
When Dylan Brooks committed on April 26, there was certainly excitement over landing a five-star and the number one player in Alabama. But, at the time, Brooks was by far the biggest fish in Tennessee’s pond. The Vols were low in blue chip ratio with lots of work left to […]
Stories of the Decade: All We Have to Do Is Beat Kentucky
If 2014 South Carolina is the decade’s most rewatchable game, 2011 Cincinnati remains one of its most rewatchable offensive performances. Tyler Bray went for 400+ yards, Da’Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter each had 10 catches for 100+ yards, and all three were playing just the second game of their sophomore […]
Stories of the Decade: Josh Dobbs Ignites
It’s not on our countdown, but one of the best moments for Tennessee football in a decade full of lesser options came in early 2016: Peyton Manning beat Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game, won his second Super Bowl, and rode off into the sunset. Manning had been Tennessee’s […]
Stories of the Decade: How Will We Remember Georgia State?
What kind of decade was it for Tennessee? The total unpredictability of last season is only good enough for eighth on our list of the most important football stories of the last ten years. For now. The version of 2019 where it doesn’t work out for Jeremy Pruitt and the […]
Stories of the Decade: A Smokey Gray Almost
My wife and I got married in August of 2013. When we came back from our honeymoon, the first question everyone asked was, of course, “What do you think of the new uniforms?” Unlike Lane Kiffin’s last minute switcheroo with the black uniforms, Tennessee fans got almost two months of […]
Stories of the Decade: Are You Sure the Referees Have Left the Field?
The last three weeks we’ve looked back at some of Tennessee’s most rewatchable games: the dramatic, the dominant, and the best performances. It doesn’t take long to realize anything related to most rewatchable for the Vols is going to lean heavy into the past. But even with fewer happy moments […]
Our Most Rewatchable Performances
In this series we’ve looked at most rewatchable games and most rewatchable beat downs. What about the most rewatchable individual and team performances? A few of Tennessee’s most memorable individual performances became part of Tennessee’s most rewatchable games. We’ve already covered Josh Dobbs at South Carolina in 2014, Travis Stephens […]