Florida Postgame
Submitted by Jim Wogan on September 17, 2006 - 7:31am.
It's impossible to criticize the UT football team after their 21-20 loss to Florida. Were there things they could have (should have) done better? Yep. But overall, this is an easy team to like and admire.
Start with senior defensive lineman Justin Harrell, who played with a left arm so weak it required a special brace. Harrell will have surgery next week that will end his career at UT. But he wanted to have one more game wearing orange.
He inspired his team. Just not enough to beat Florida.
The Vols need to find a running game. Special teams play is awful at times. Their quarterback made two bad decisions on the final, futile drive. The intentional grounding call effectively ended the game.
After hitting from 47 and 52 yards, James Wilhoit was primed for another game winning field goal attempt-- but never got the chance.
Tennessee players were somber in the locker room, but resolved to show this year's team still has some serious goals. A New Year's Day bowl game is still possible. The players were even talking about an SEC title.
Saturday night's outcome wasn't what the Vols wanted. But it wasn't bad. In the end, Tennessee got beat by a better team-- and there's no shame in that.
Mr Woegan I misspelled your
Mr Woegan
I misspelled your name on purpose, but I suspose you knew that. Anyway it seems that the Vols are fair game foer the critics. Everyone has to realize that these young atheletes are young and immature as Coach Fulmer constantly reminds us in a offhand way. Just as the song goes; mommie don't let you young ones grow up to be cowboys, so it should be for some of these atheletes, if you get my drift. But you are 100% right about there being nothing to be ashamed of in losing to Florida by one point, afterall Florida was admittedly the better team in the rankings. Just the expectations were extremely high, and the Vols almost.....almost.... acheived the highly goals and should have if the prevent defense wasn't used late in a game when the Vols are ahead and the motor turned off on the offense. Someday the coaches will realize this and also realize that there is nothing wrong in running the score up. This loss is blamed on the offensive line and any other portion of the team that looked questionable; however, the coaches have to ultimately accept the blame as they well should. I suggest no more crawling into the shell game and take the prevent defense out of the formation. Afterall what gets you to the fourth quarter will still work in the fourth quarter as it did in the previous three quarters. I don't expect you to print this as it is quite long but maybe you can take some excerpts from it for everyone to comment on. A true Vol fan of 53 plus years.
It's still early; it may not
It's still early; it may not be easy to determine the better team at this time, but if UT is going to lose to the better team every Saturday; this may be a very long season.
Post new comment