First, I love the site. Very cool. I was at the Rose Bowl and saw theUCLA v Tennessee game. It was a great game, one for the ages. Tennessee is a great team, with great tradition, and will bounce back from the loss. In truth, you guys were just outsmarted as a team, especially your coaching staff. Love the girls, though. Simply, beautiful. Thanks for sharing. (smile)

What I respect most is that you had the madhood to come out here twice in two years and play 3,000 miles away from home. Always difficult, just ask Alabama who came in here with a #3 ranking in 2000, and also lost to UCLA playing with a back-up quarterback (sound familiar). We have tried to get them to come back for the past 5 years but they wont take us up on the offer. Unlike many schools in the SEC, you guys actually schedule tough early. It doesnt take much to beat Tennessee-Chat. We actually laugh out here when we see teams in the SEC play teams of that calibur, score touchdowns, and then chest bump eachother like they are playing the New York Giants. WTF? We would rather lose the chance at a national title losing to a team like Tennessee, then win one beating up on little Tulane (note to LSU). That is why we schedule tough out of conference opponents out here in the Pac-10. If you dont, all of the other schools in the conference mock you, and laugh.

Also, enough of the "SEC is the best conference in college football", crap. The SEC is a great conference, with great players. The best conference changes from year to year, depending on the talent and the schedule. I dont think, nor does anyone living on the west coast believe that the Pac-10 is the best conference in college football just because since the BCS was implemented (1998), in 16 times the PAC-10 and SEC have played eachother, the Pac-10 has won 10.

Just an FYI: In the Pac-10, Stanford has the hardest academic entrance requirements. UCLA is second, and athletes at both schools are not given any special treatment.

I look forward to coming out to Neyland Stadium next year, and watching the sequal.

You just recieved a Contingency Card - GO TO FREE PARKING -  you have the week off.

Home opener against UAB.  Predictions:   Jon will pick em apart in the air Foster will have a 100+ rushing game Hardesty will have a 100+ rushing game Defense shows up in 4th quarter and no PREVENT defense the whole game.  Sorry bout the Duke comment Chavis.  Just got up set over the prevent defense in 4th quarter against UCLA.  Thought that was rather foolish to do but hey you the man.  And Claw hope you can keep Joh's mouth piece in his mouth on running plays.  And Phil pleeeeeeeeeeeze no more ORANGE PANTS!

Can you believe that an offensive cord. the calabier of the CLAW ran an offense like what was displayed Monday Night?  For starters when you have a very good QB and he's having an off game and you have 2 very good running backs that are having a good game what do you do as an offensive cord.  First thing you don't do is have your QB keep throwing passes.  Sure you need some to keep the running game going but get real, John was having an off game and Foster and Hardesty had thier game shoes on (and those ugly orange pants). And then you kick 2 fieldgoals at 50+yards and give up ground.  And Chavis I hear they looking for a defensive cord. at Duke.  The game was intertaining and it was a bad lose that should not have happened.   WAIT WAIT I see it now Claw you sneaky devil, you just didn't want the Gators and the Bulldogs to see what we really have! 

okay, we all know it comes down to execution and taking care of the ball ( and we had problems with both).but, the orange pants? c'mon, we're going to wear the effin', bleepin' orange pants? in the first game? i know those evil leggings did not cause foster to hold the ball like a dirty diaper at the six. they did not give a free pass to UCLA's special team players into our punter's face, make crompton appear to be throwing cinder blocks into the turf, or steal a safety & miss an ineligible down field(thankyou, zebras). the pants can't be held accountable for a lack of adjustments in all phases, can they? is it first game jitters? is it bugs in a new system that just need to be worked out? is it just more of the same old, sameold? hmmm...i blame those d@#n pants(for now).

This Labor Day weekend was almost awesome.  I had Friday off so I gorged on Wings and Beer Thursday night, actually giddy that a Steve Spurrier team was shutting out NC State. 

I went to Boone Lake the next day, watched a crap ton of Football, jet ski'd my heart out, got one last sunburn for the summer and looked forward to my Monday of no work and  Big Orange Football.  The first weekend of Football.  These are the types of weekends you dream about in February and March when the only thing you think is, "How long must I wait for the sweet sweet scent of Fall Saturdays?"  Its not supposed to get any better than this.

And then Rick Nueheisel pee'd in my cheerios. 

I'm not gonna go Paul Finebaum on Phillip and Co.  I'm not gonna scratch out Randy Sander's name and pencil in "Clawson" on all those letters-to-the-editor.  This was a disaster to be sure, but it's something that Vol Nation can recover from....I think (right?). 

This game was not lost because of offensive philosophies or playcalls.  It was lost because of a lack of preparation and, most importantly, a lack of attention to the little things...the details.  Little things like new punt protections.  Little things like protections to address the two-headed monster at D Tackle.  Things like handing out new play wristbands in between series because some people may have had the wrong wrist bands.  Details like Quarterbacks dropping back directly into their backs who may or may not have been in the right position to block.  The small things killed the Vols last night.  Obviously the staff has details to iron out.  Thank god for the early bye.

And I'll leave with a post game haiku called Cold Shower, Labor Day 08.

Richard Neuheisel

Dropped Trou and Urinated

in my Cheerios.

After watching the post game Rick Neuheisel love fest on the world-wide leader, trying to find the ability to just go to bed and not see the prevent defense in my dreams, I noticed that Coach N had said that he felt that UCLA had better conditioning and that "Tennessee got tired."

How can you get tired playing 10-15 yards off every wide receiver and tight end in the 2nd half, while the opposing QB is passing 5 yards deep every time? (One thing I am certain of, Chavis is out of shape.) Is it that Chavis has gotten too predictable in the last few years? Is it defensive talent or lack thereof? I'm sure it's just conditioning right? Why would you handcuff one of the best secondaries in the nation by playing soft and not bringing heat from the safeties or corners?? Did anyone hear Eric Berry's name in the second half. One of the most dynamic players in the country made to play a soft cover 2 most of the game?

I understand this is just one loss, but did anyone else notice how the offense lacked the same creativity during the middle of the game that it had in the 1st quarter? We  saw some different things early and then all of a sudden, cute and soft. Dink and dunk in the passing game out of new formations. The running game was pretty solid when they actually got to RUN THE BALL! Throwing 40+ times a game with a first time starter with mostly solid tailbacks? UGHHHHH!!!!! Briscoe had the best catch of the night. Well, at least we don't play Florida soon. Oh, wait........

That's how Jonathan Crompton played in the UCLA game.

Continue reading this post »

In a gut wencher for UCLA , Craft pulled a 180 and brought the BRUINS an amazing last minute victory! This kid is going to be the man around campus…….At least this week. UCLA looks good but not GREAT and with their schedule they are going to need to step up to the plate.

Kevin Craft: 25 of 43 on the night with 259 total yards, no TD’s and 4 picks. His numbers aren’t great but this guy made a compelete 180 to bring his team back at the end of the 4th quarter. What a clutch performance by him and his O Line.

Tennessee Kicking
FG PCT LG XP PTS
1/4 25.0 47 3/3 6 Daniel Lincoln

1/4 25.0 0 3/3 6 Team

[edit]

This ought to get you going! Thanks to BloodSpite for the video. Let me just say one thing:

 

WOOOOoooooooooo!!!!!

-- Joel

P.S. Jackson says "woo", too.

Ok folks here is the season opener video!

Continue reading this post »

Totally stolen from Peter, because, well, motive, opportunity, and all that.

While some of the features of BON 2.0 might be considered 'take it or leave it,' depending on your preferences, one of the new site functionalities we'd really love to see everyone take advantage of is Event Tagging.

When composing a Fan Post or Fan Shot for RTT, authors will always have the option to tag the story using the various mechanisms on the right side of the posting page (shaded in blue). Note that one such mechanism is labeled "Events"; with it, an author can tag his story to a specific game/event in the site database. The beauty of the system is that all content tagged to any given event will appear on that game's event page.

For example, I've now tagged several stories to the Tennessee-UCLA game. By clicking on the "COMPLETE COVERAGE" button at the bottom of the "Upcoming Game" box in the left sidebar of RTT's main page, a reader will be taken to the contest's game page.

Of all the tagging tools available on this site (there are many, they all are wonderful), this is by far the most useful. This site is driven in no small part by community-generated content; if all of you start event tagging when posting an item relating to a specific game, we'll all be the better for it by being able to browse pre-sorted game-relevant content in one tidy page.

And now, in case you struggle with basic drop down menus, some pictures. Hooray.

The only possible confusion might arise from that top right menu, which you'll need to change to 'Upcoming' for a game not yet played. If, however, you're writing on a Monday about the past Saturday's game, you'll leave the menu in the 'Completed' slot and choose the appropriate game before clicking 'add'.

It's that simple. Thanks in advance.