I know the bet was for a "Go Vols, Go SEC"...... but what you will get out of me even in victory is a big, fat, loud, tennessee sour mash flavored GO VOLS! I know the Bruins won, but hear me out. For all the cr@p I talk about the SEC hiding out in their own back yard, that absolutely cannot be said for you. I've seen you grace the stadiums from South Bend, to Berkley and Pasadena. You stand tall with Alabama, Miss State and LSU to have the sand to not only schedule Pac10 teams, but you will go play them in their own back yards. While I am sure this will be a rough week for you Vol fans and I am sure that some SEC fans on other boards will be giving you the business, rest assured that while others rely on lobbying pollsters, running up style points and living on reputation that depends a lot more on word of mouth than it does accomplishments on the field... you earn yours. And you do it year, after year after year. My hat is off to you! I cannot express to you the respect that I have for your program and its heart. GoVols!
Ditto what Corey said. I've liked Tennessee ever since ND has played them going back to the early 90s. It's a class program.
Ditto..... any fan of college football appreciates those that go anywhere to play anyone at anytime with no qualms and no complaints.....the Vols belong in that category. It's those schools that don't make excuses and have the stones to do it that provide the great intersectional match-ups for all to enjoy. You should take great pride....thanks.
Classy posts, guys! I, for one, greatly appreciate it. I'll state my thoughts on the game when I have more time. Thanks again though and congratulations to you, Corey. Also, congrats to all the other Ucla fans. I eagerly await the chance at revenge in Knoxville. However, you've got yourself a fine set of coaches now. I'm glad we get you next year because I fully expect Ucla to be a juggernaut in the very near future.
Yeah if you look at schedule toughness ratings over the years I'm sure you will see who plays the tough teams and who plays the patsies.
And who's willing to travel, and face the vagaries of the unknown. There's a lot of security in familiarity.
Aquila, I know you're disappointed now, but I know how much these games are anticipated by ALL college football fans.....trips to Cal, the Rose Bowl, South Bend are just the ones the Vols have made that I recall looking forward to with great anticipation....and then there is the one scheduled in Columbus for 2019(!) - it's great stuff. You have every reason to be proud of your Vols....cross country travel, playing quality programs is tough. I have great admiration for the Tenn, USC's, ND, Fresno's of the world who step up to the challenge.....anyone, anywhere! It's one of the great things in college football!
I join the others in thanking the Vols for scheduling competitive intersectinal games so we don't have to watch Coastal Carolina or Northern Iowa in every first week game.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I too enjoy the competitive games and do not care for the boring match ups typical of week 1. I could stand a little more boring match ups for us since our week one games of the past two years have sent us into a tail spin. To explain, I don't want the quality of the opponent to be lower... I want our quality of offense to be better.
I know the fact that Tennessee makes a habit of scheduling quality BCS conference opponents from all regions of the country is not lost on most of you but I still felt this merits posting. http://tennessee.scout.com/a.z?s=7&p=2&c=786999 This truly illustrates Tenn.'s commitment to playing games anywhere as the Vols have scheduled a two game series with UConn. While UConn isn't exactly USC, it's still a quality opponent. You pair that game with the fact that they will also play host to Oklahoma in the 2015 season as well and you have to respect Mike Hamilton for his aggressive scheduling. I have made the point before that Tenn. has to appeal to a national recruiting base by playing games such as these and I commend them for continuing a great tradition.
Aquila, I am almost certain that you know of this website but just in case you didn't, I wanted you to have it: Go Vols Extra It also has eleven RSS feeds that keep me on top of information on the Vols while I am living in Texas.
... that used to be a pay site that I suscribed to for several years but it dropped the pay requirement last year.