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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Virginia Tech

As the 2009 Tennessee Volunteer football season unfolded, the question on Vol fans' collective minds each Saturday was, “OK, which team is going to show up today?” Would it be the clueless and shoeless bunch that stunk up the joint against UCLA or the team of indomitable fighters who took Florida and Alabama to the limit?

This question carried over to the run up to the New Year's Eve tilt with the Hokies. In a strangely fitting end to the 2009 campaign, BOTH Tennessee teams showed up. For most of the game we were treated to the “stumble, bumble, fumble, fiddle f*rt and fall” of the 2008 season and the UCLA and Tiger High games of 2009. But for a few magic moments late in the first half we got to see the fighters stand up and drive down the field and score.

Virginia Tech proved to be exactly what this writer expected. By the time Bowl Season rolls around, national rankings actually mean something and are a relatively accurate guide to the teams. The Hokies were ranked just out of the Top Ten. The Vols were unranked. Va Tech was well coached, well disciplined and had reasonably deep talent at every position. They could be counted on to be a dangerous opponent.

Tennessee is/was none of the above and we knew that going in. Maybe just getting to any bowl after last season's embarrassment was all we could hope for, it certainly was what we got.

So, another season goes into the books for the Vols. They weren't as good as they looked against Western Kentucky nor as bad as they looked against UCLA. As for their coach, the most encouraging thing I saw was the look in his eye as he crossed the field to shake hands with VT's legendary coach Frank Beamer. There was a mixture of hurt, anger, and determination such as I haven't seen from a Tennessee coach since that before that Magic Night in Tempe.

I have been careful after the first few games to place what credit or blame attached to the performance in games this season to the current staff and players. However, on balance, few of us fans realized before the season the extent and depth of the wreckage the the former staff left in their wake.

Nowhere was this more apparent than in the place it mattered most. Phillip Fulmer made his reputation early on as an offensive line coach and produced many great players who went on to careers at the next level. For that reason, the decline and ultimate fall of UT's O-line play was both puzzling and infuriating.

I've said it before many times, you can obsess over skill positions and such all you wish, but it all begins and ends on the offensive line. Last night's performance was the ultimate expression of the end of the Fulmer era. For whatever reason, since about 2003 or so, Tennessee's offensive line was treated as an afterthought by the coaching staff. That this bunch of walk-ons, castoffs, and converted freshmen did as well as they did shows me that Lane Kiffin and his staff understand the importance not only of filling positions on the line but DEVELOPING the players you have.

Next year will be a tough one to watch as the cupboard is still pretty bare. The '10 class of juniors and seniors were not top-drawer when they showed up and received virtually no development or guidance before March '09. Short of the emergence of a Chuck Webb-type back the incoming younger players are going to play like, well, the inexperienced kids they are no matter their talent level.

We Vol fans can take what comfort we may from the fact that while next year may well be a "one step forward, two steps back" season, much as this one was, at some point next year I look for that to reverse itself and we fans will think back on many of these guys with the same fondness we do many of the players who fought through the early Majors years and laid the foundations for championships to follow.

No matter how next season plays out, all true Volunteers know the keys to success.

All together now:

1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.

2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!

3.If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don’t let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!

4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.

5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.

6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.

7. Carry the fight to the opponent and keep it there for sixty minutes.

Good luck to all of you and may God grant us all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2010.

See you all in 247 days!!!