I've noticed a lot of "professional" sports observers who, in discussing Tennessee's victory over Western Kentucky Saturday keeping adding the caveat, "Yes, but it's only Western Kentucky."
Or something along those lines.
I can understand that there's reason for guarded optimism and that any predictions of an undefeated season, an SEC championship and playing for the national title are a bit premature. But can't we just, for a few minutes, savor the fact that the Vols went out and beat a team they were supposed to beat by a good margin and looked pretty dominant in every phase of the game from the second quarter onward.
I think the fact that it took Western Kentucky until almost the end of the third quarter to earn their first first down (they got one on penalties) is pretty darn good, especially considering how the offense got off to such a slow start and the defense had to dam the potential loss of momentum early in the game.
I don't hear people talking about Florida beating down a much lesser team Saturday with such a caveat. Or maybe they are and I just am not hearing them since I tend to block out any discussion of Florida and their sainted quarterback.
One thing I did notice Saturday was a threat on Twitter, talking about the Vols' players acting like they'd been there before and not celebrating every good play they made. I think this stopped after the first quarter and if you've read Clay Travis' book, "On Rocky Top," about last season (thoughts on it to come later), you may understand why they were in such a mood to celebrate Saturday. Reading the book, you see that as hard as last season was on the fans, it was equally or more harsh for the players. After having that cloud hang over them for the past few months, I can see why they'd want to celebrate or enjoy something positive happening.
And don't forget that these are college kids who are supposed to have fun playing football. I'm pretty sure UT was having a lot of fun Saturday. WKU, probably not so much.
One good thing--at least there wasn't trash talking so severe that it led to punches being thrown like in the Boise State vs Oregon game.
Labels: tennessee football
posted by Michael Hickerson at 9/08/2009 01:00:00 PM |
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