UTVols News and Opinions

Jumping out of a deep sleep this morning, I quickly became curious as to what had awoken me. The sound led me outside, and towards the mountains just outside of Knoxville. Picking up a wide swath of blood, I continued along, recalling the events of the Cal game, and occasionally wondering what I would find looming at the end of this trail.

After eight months of regret and what-if's and coulda' -beens, the monkey is not just off Tennessee's collective proverbial back, I think it may have been yesterday morning’s breakfast. The brains are good chilled, like Dr. Jones eats 'em. What utensils are proper suited for such a culinary catarrhine delight? Never-mind that. More importantly, who was the chef?

Poster/whipping-boy extraordinaire deserves a pat on the back for this one. To bounce back from a season like last year, work though adversity and criticism, and then answer back with an 11 of 17 for 291 yards and four-touchdown performance, Erik Ainge deserves, in my opinion, just as much support as the Vol Nation can give him (nay-sayers enter snide remark about the interception here). A four to one touchdown to interception ratio is excellent. Any coach worth his salt will take that every weekday, twice on Sunday, and any day following his birthday. Everybody wish Phil a happy birthday with me here.
Go Phil.. It’s yo Birfday.

So, Ainge is back. A couple throws could have been better, but the difference this year already seems to be that the slightly errant throws will be offset... more often than not... by our receivers' eagerness to catch the ball and make a play. Ainge completed passes to at least five different targets. One to Brown arguably should have been caught, but it was a close-range fastball, in his defense. There were a few other mistakes, but all in all, he managed the game very well, protected the ball, and capitalized on mismatches.

Robert Meachem absolutely would not be denied. Ending up the day with two touchdowns, the longest for 80 yards, he took full advantage of the island he was placed on by the Cal defense. Swain got into the action, as well as TE Chris Brown, each scoring six points. With his passing performance, Ainge nearly matched last season's touchdown total of five. His QB rating was around 200 -- more than double last year's. Cut has brought the air attack back to town. "Wide-Receiver U" may be here again. Frankly, I’m surprised nobody called the cops to my place citing sounds of lunacy, over-aggressive acts of jubilation, and general disregard to city decibel ordinances.

Those shocking big play scores were no accident; they were set up by an unsung hero... actually by three of them. Foster, Hardesty and Coker combined for 178 yards rushing, which forced the Cal defense to stack the box, creating those man-to-man match-ups on the corner. Foster was the first out of the gate. He never broke the big one, but he slugged away at the Cal front seven, making them earn their stripes, and still robbing others of theirs. Foster helped set up the Swain touchdown by going into motion, lining up at receiver and confusing the corner and free safety (Tim Mixon's replacements at corner were picked on all day. Somebody buy those poor guys a Slurpee). Hardesty had the most explosive run of the game by overpowering a linebacker and refusing to quit, then rumbling a total of 43 yards for the fifth, and final touchdown of the day. Coker made some nice runs himself with a 22-yard dash of note.

While I had hoped to see Foster get his sixth straight 100 yard game, I was much more satisfied with the three backs splitting the spoils. The coaches have talked the talk of rotating the backs to keep them fresh. Now they have walked the walk. The great thing about it is, I think all three backs are satisfied with how it worked out. The pendulum has apparently swung back into our favor where depth is concerned at tailback.

Trudging up the hill, feet slipping on the dark saturated earth beneath them, I wondered what had brought me back to conscious thought. There was a change in the air. The stench of victory and pummeling waxed olfactory, reminiscent of some majestic epic novel set in a barbaric age of plundering and pilfering and vigorous Slurpee humor.

Then it hit me. I knew what the smell had stirred in my memory banks. The defense pulled the innards out of the Cal Bears with their bare hands, and then stomped on its furry, limp carcass like it was a dirt catch at the average cabin rental in the Smokies.

UT played on the island that Cal tried to. But see, Cal didn’t bring a shovel. UT brought two. Inky and Wade both had brilliant performances to shut down the pass. Wade showed closing speed like no other, breaking-up two would- be touchdown passes that most corners wouldn’t have a chance at. Stewart, Hefney, and Morley held down the safety spots. The secondary had their hands on the ball all day. Inky and Stewart both had picks. Wade just barely missed one. I’m not complaining. Passes were swatted down. Morley popped Lynch in the mouth one good time, and he also made a stellar tackle on punt coverage.

The D-line got a good push against the young Cal big uglies up front, confusing and overpowering them. They didn’t rack up on sacks with only three total, but the constant pressure on both Cal QBs (Ayoob and Longshore) kept them off balance and on the run. Watching them play surely eased some Big Orange minds. We could use more depth, but the guys out there now are flat out gettin' it done.

What did the “inexperienced” linebackers do? They ate Lynch’s lunch. They didn’t eat Forsett’s though. They just took it from him and threw it away. It was sad (make that three Slurpees). Mitchell, Mayo, and Karl became the collective monster they need to be, helping to keep the entire Cal team below 100 yards rushing. This, mind you, coming against a Heisman (*cough former Heisman cough*) contending running back, which was slated to conquer the Vols with his trusty sidekick, all set to the soundtrack of The Beach Girls and the Monster. Instead, they took the red-eye back to Cali; Humble pie was served for on-flight refreshments. Tedford contemplated eating his own face.

Special teams delivered big time. Wilhoit boomed almost every kick-off into the checkerboard, and Colquitt showed off with a 59 -yard bomb, pinning Cal back deep in their own territory. Austin Rogers showed sure hands and sure decision making at PR. Kick-off coverage has a little more ways to go than the punt coverage as far as getting to the play quickly. That being said, Cal never did break the long one on the Vols in punts or kick-offs. Punt coverage was much improved over last year. Cal got 16 yards on three returns there. The coverage guys swarmed like so many flabby-elbowed pancake junkies on an early morning Shoney’s binge. "Put the syrup on your eggs", I mumbled. "It’s primo".

Warding off thoughts of buffets, cracking helmets, and delicious frozen treats, I again regained focus on my whereabouts, and found myself surrounded by a pack of, what must have been 100 or so hounds, shadowed by a loafing, ominous mass of broken bones and whimpering flesh. Hair blew in the wind. Slurping and snarling was everywhere. An ear flew past me. Then I noticed the older, heavy one sleeping like he had been on the trail for months.“How’s the meal?”, I inquired.

He suddenly jumped from his slumber, gathered himself and focused. “Meal?”, he barked, kindly grinning back at me with blood-stained teeth and a malnourished look in his eye. “That was no meal. That was just an appetizer.”