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Saturday Night Ramblings

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Fans disgust me most times.  I’m as big of a sports enthusiast as you will find, but the way fans turn on players and coaches during adversity illuminates the worst of humanity.  Today, Tennessee had a terrible game.  The offense looked pathetic; the defense played okay but let a WR run a spread option offense for too many yards; and the special teams was anything but special.  The two most disappointing aspects of this loss were that it was against Kentucky and a win would have made the Vols bowl eligible.  Losing was pretty disappointing and put an ellipse on an overall bad year.

But–and this is a big but–the way so many so-called fans turned on Derek Dooley after the game is ridiculous.  First and foremost, Dooley inherited a mess, one of the biggest messes in college football history.  Coach Fulmer had already let the program’s quality slip below elite SEC standards, and then, Lane Kiffin, who doesn’t deserve the title coach, betrayed the university in the most despicable manner possible, bolting for USC with less than a month left for recruiting.  By the time Dooley was hired, he literally had less than two weeks to salvage the recruiting class.

Since taking over as head coach, Dooley has worked to return pride to the program and has implemented policies that hold players accountable for their actions on and off the field.  At the beginning of this season, he stood behind his principles and kicked his best player off the team for misconduct.  At the time, most of these same fans now calling for his head lauded him for his scruples, praised him for putting the program ahead of the individual.

During this year, the Vols lost their best offensive weapon early in the season and then their highly talented quarterback for nearly half  of it.  Their offensive line is extremely young , with only one junior in the lineup, and the starting tailback, the lone senior starting on the offense, would probably be the third-string runner for Alabama, LSU, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arkansas.  The team lacks depth, experience, and explosiveness on the offensive side.  Today, the starting quarterback, his throwing hand obviously bothering him, was ineffective.  However, despite these facts, I repeatedly heard fans lambasting Dooley for the play-calling during the game.  Well, when you have no running game and your passer is struggling because of injury, what plays do you call?  Do you pull the starter for a true freshman?

My Alma Mater, the University of Memphis, has been on the coaching carousel for decades.  A few years back, they hired Tommy West, and he got the school into back-to-back bowl games for the first time in school history.  Then, he had a couple of mediocre seasons, so the “fans” turned on him and got him fired.  Now, the team is back to the old losing ways.  How many coaches have Vandy and Kentucky tried in the last 30 years?

If Tennessee fires Dooley now under these circumstances, it will be a worse mistake than keeping Fulmer around after his fire had dimmed and much worse than hiring Kiffin.  Tennessee will be on the same mouse wheel as all of the other mediocre teams chasing a return to glory.  The high profile coaches will shy away because the AD bows to pressure from the fans, and every young coach who jumps in will be chased away in 2-3 years.  I’ve witnessed it firsthand with Memphis.  And it’s not fun.

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Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

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I must be getting old because I find myself thinking a lot about just how lost this current generation seems to be.  Last night, I went to homecoming to support my niece, who was the junior representative for the court, and while watching the game, I found myself wondering how my coaches would’ve dealt with the egos and self-centered attitudes of the players.  The stadium has a fairly impressive video screen, and for pre-game, the kids get to record their own introductions.  It’s a pretty cool concept, but after watching the clips, I was simply disgusted.

First, all the boys acted in their videos like they were mugging for Monday Night Football.  The cockiness and arrogance of their posturing was ridiculous.  It might not put me off as badly if they had the skill to back it up, but their effort on the field was pretty disappointing.  I can’t imagine what Buddy Sausbury or Brumley Greene would’ve said to us if we had arm-tackled like that.   The defensive line to a player had weak technique, their first step typically being to stand up and look in the backfield.  On the line, low man wins, and the side that gets the better push with leverage controls the game.

Second, there was an attitude of entitlement in the videos that is pretty symbolic of all that’s wrong with this generation.  They’ve done nothing on the field to earn that swagger, yet they acted like they’re the defending state champs.  How about you accomplish something before you tell me how good you are?  I see that same mentality in the classroom and around campus.  Kids park in the faculty and staff lot and, when confronted, act as if they deserve to park there because somehow they are above the rules and beyond reproach.  At 38, I’ve paid my dues, kid.  Accomplish something before you take my parking spot.

I also took great umbrage with their uniforms.  I don’t know if it was a one game deal or what, and I don’t know who made the decision, but the team came out in all black.  Those aren’t the Trojan colors.  We wear crimson and silver.  Have a little respect for tradition, please.  A lot of people came before you to create that program, and we bled and sweated and toiled for those colors.  It meant something to me to put on that jersey, and I think it meant something to most of us.  Get rid of the black and wear the school colors, please.

I’m well aware that I sound like a cantankerous old man, and I know my opinion won’t hold much sway with anybody in the school system, student, teacher, or administrator.  But I was disappointed with what I saw last night and had to express my feelings.

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Thursday Morning Ramblings

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The NFL lockout is a pretty good metaphor for where we are as a nation.  While billionaires and millionaires squabble over how to divvy up a $9-10 billion pie, the majority of us are struggling to keep gas in our cars.  It’s shameful to think that we are so far out of balance and so disconnected as a society that we’ve ended up in this situation.  Without us to buy their product, their revenue will dry up, but instead of looking at the bigger picture, both sides are focused on protecting their short-term interests without seeing the long-term ramifications.

To take it a step further, however, the owners seem to have disdain for the players.  In this case, the players are the labor, and currently, Corporate America views labor as a nuisance and an expense, rather than a valuable asset.  Without the players, the owners have nothing to sell, but instead of protecting their product and ensuring quality, ownership seeks to cut benefits, weaken the union, and maximize their profits.  To me, that’s backwards thinking.  The owners should recognize the value these workers add to their companies and maximize profits through the product they sell.  Labor is not disposable, and customers are not guaranteed.

To a degree, I can understand the players’ position.  They put their bodies on the line every day in practice and every game.  They are the ones who fill the seats and generate the revenue, so they want fair compensation for the profits they generate.  However, the fans are the ones buying the tickets, purchasing the merchandise, and watching the games on TV.  Most of us earn a fraction of their salaries despite working jobs that are much more important to the nation as a whole.  While we make hard choices about healthcare and retirement and food, they live lives of luxury and excess.  It’s hard to sympathize with their desire for more when at the end of the month I’m rolling change for lunch money.

This us vs. them mentality between management and labor is truly at the heart of all of our problems as a country.  The divisiveness of this issue permeates every aspect of our society.  Until we heal this rift, our problems will continue to grow.  Until both sides learn that they are really on the same side and are dependent on each other for sustenance, nothing will improve.  Without labor generating their profits, billionaires can’t exist.  Without management making wise, long-term decisions, labor has nothing to do.  And without customers who have both the desire for and the ability to purchase their products, neither side has anything.