I still remember 2011

I remember it well. I had reasonable expectations on the season, but after we boat-raced a goodish Cincinnati team at home, I thought the sky was the limit. Then Justin Hunter went down with an injury early in the Florida game. Okay, time to temper expectations. That's one of our most dynamic players. Then Tyler Bray went down. Uh oh. Everything's falling apart, now. Let's just get to a bowl game...if we can.

Well, we beat an okay Vanderbilt team, a team many had picked to win in Neyland, and all that was left was a crappy Kentucky squad that couldn't tell their arse from a hole in the ground. "This is good," I thought, "we can get a win and go to a bowl and at least salvage some momentum for next year. The extra month of practice will be a big help, too."

Do you know what happened? DO YOU?! Of course you do. We lost.

As I walked out of Commonwealth Stadium that day, having watched my beloved Volunteers lose to Kentucky for the first time in my entire existence on planet Earth, it was plain to see that Derek Dooley was not going to be a long-term solution. Dooley was, in fact, clearly way in over his head.

And now here we are, poised to salvage a season that, like 2011, showed some glimmers that maybe our expectations ought to increase and that maybe the dark days were finally behind us. But just like in 2011, there were games serving as a grim reminder of how bad Tennessee still is and that the gut-punches are not done yet. But no matter, we have the opportunity to get a road win over a weak opponent and get to a bowl game.

All of this to say that I remember 2011 and that awful feeling, losing a game against a terrible team that we had no business losing to, that the rebuild was still a long way from being over and that our current head coach was not going to get us there. I'm hoping this weekend does not tell a similar tale.



TL;DR if this team loses to Vanderbilt I'm liable to fling my shite around like an ornery chimpanzee on copious amounts of meth.