After the past week's tumult, this warmed my heart

Well, my beloved Vols finally got their coach.  Very good press conference, but more importantly, new Coach Derek Dooley seems bent on restoring the traditions that made my alma mater a wonderful place to visit on Saturdays during football season.  Helps that I grew up (as a coach's son) admiring what Dooley's dad, legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley, accomplished at UGA.  And I just love this picture of Coach Dooley's youngest son, John Taylor, trying on the UT helmet.  Certainly washes away some of the stench that arose last Tuesday.

Who knows if the team will do well this upcoming season or for the next few, but at least it'll be easier cheering for a team and a coach that apparently will have tons more class than the previous head coach.

Very sad day to be a University of Tennessee alum

So Lane Kiffin has left my alma mater after only a single year to return to USC as head football coach.  Half of the staff leaves with him.  Signing Day is three weeks away and now virtually all of the Top 10 recruiting class has decommitted.  Former recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron called several commitments and tried to get them to follow him to USC, apparently.  Chances are high that this will devastate an already-shorthanded (scholarship wise) football program for years to come.

Oh, and the students had a near riot, including the burning of a mattress and I believe a few effigies of those involved.  Doubtless there will be more videos to appear in the coming hours and weeks in regards to this.  Just another in a series of disturbing events at my alma mater.

I suppose in a way this could be viewed as retribution of sorts.  I grew up the son of a HS football coach in Tennessee.  For the past 25 years or so, there would be occasional trips across the state to Knoxville to watch the games in person.  I was a freshman at UT when Johnny Majors got canned (or stabbed in the back, perhaps) by the AD.  I was uneasy about it at first, but then the wins kept on coming for a decade longer under Philip Fulmer, including the only football national championship in my lifetime. Then after subpar performances his last five years or so, he was forced to resign in similar circumstances to Majors (ironic, considering Majors believes Fulmer was the one who instigated his removal).  And now this. It's as if roles were reserved, with the coach screwing over the administration, but in this case, I fear the consequences will be devastating to my alma mater.

Damn, this just fucking sucks now.  Not that I'd want this now-departed crew to return, but that the loyal football players got screwed over in the worst possible way, considering the timing of events all around.  Guess this is the new face of college football.  Might come to hate it almost as much as what I see from the NFL.  At least there's the Lady Vols to make my school look decent, respectable, and in so many more ways than just wins or losses.