Here We Go Again

First of all I want to say thanks for coming by. Who knows how long I will keep this up. I certainly don't plan on it, but who knows. It has been a long time since I have written anything, but given the recent events in Knoxville I have been sparked to write again for two reasons 1- my buddy drew has a blog going mondaymorningfog.wordpress.com (who talked about the vols) and maybe this will be a guest post, maybe not. 2- yesterday my facebook post sparked a lot of comments- which is good.

Second- an update. Life has been crazy. Nicki and I have been married 2 years- she is the love of my life and I wouldn't be able to make it without her. We live in Athens, and work in Hixson. I am coaching football and baseball and BB is currently a captain on the soccer team as a 7th grader. I love my girls very much and spending time with them is the best part of my day. Our lives are super busy. But everything is good. I heard Casting Crowns new song and while I don't remember all the lyrics I do remember the part that was something like this "While I am swimming in the mystery, my future is your history, because you are already there." So I am thankful to be saved by the all-knowing God. We trust that His timing is perfect, His will is perfect and everything that He does is good and right and He does not make mistakes. We do not know what the future holds, but He does and we are learning to trust Him more.

Finally on to the Vols...

I will start in Nov 2008. After losing to South Carolina our former AD Mike Hamilton panicked and fired the greatest coach we have ever had. Everything that happened after that doesn't matter. He was fearful that we would win the rest of our games (Wyoming, Vandy, and Kensucky) and he would have a fan base split on a coach that in his career averaged 9 wins and an SEC championship game appearance every 3. Given the fact that Big Phil had a top 5 recruiting class coming in headlined by Tajh Boyd (who now leads Clemson, with better stats than any of the QB's on our roster and the QB that our former coach has at USC) but as Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist" so we will never know what might have been. Enter Lane Kiffin. Lane said some things and did some things that made people nervous and he even admitted he had to do what he had to do. However, his time at USC has been rather uneventful- including an already 4 loss season this year facing #1 ND on Saturday. The future was possibly bright on the LaneTrain, but he left for his dream job and I don't blame him. That did mean that we were on our third coach in three years and that is never good- especially in the SEC. So Derek Dooley became that coach.Year One of Dooley was acceptable- for that year. He walked into a bad place at a bad time. He managed to get 8 wins, but was only credited for 6 of them. (I did read something about Dooley since he was fired, and if i could find the source I would link it. It said that the LSU and UNC games of his first year are a pretty good summary of his time. It wasn't entirely his fault, but eventually it kind of was.) But like Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist." So we move on to year two. Obviously we had better talent, but not depth. We still managed to lose for the first time IN MY LIFE to kensucky with a WR playing QB that day that completed 4-6 passes for a grand total of 15 yds. I am pretty confident that I do that. Today in jeans. Left handed. But whatever. We did have some injuries to Justin Hunter and Tyler Bray that crippled us offensively and we wound up with a losing record yet again. At this time I called for the firing of Dooley because to me back to back losing seasons is unacceptable at UT ( a top ten program all time). The powers that be decided to keep him and my support grew as the season went along. I feel that he said the right things, did the right things, but he ultimately needed to win ball games. When you look at our season- a top ten offense, and a bottom ten defense, that is never a good combo. Add to that several crucial late game turnovers and we were toast. I think that switching to a 3-4 had a little do with our D, but not everything.Ask your friends at Georgia how their transition worked out. Our line was good enough to compete and our linebackers were too. Where we hurt was the secondary. Teams didn't run at will on us, they threw on us. Granted we never got much pressure and that is on the DL and LBs but we continually busted coverages/lined up wrong. Oh by the way, do you think an All-American saftey and 2 All-SEC DBs would have made a difference? Yeah me too. Janzen Jackson-drugs, Isaiah Lanier- grades, and Brian Randolph- injury did not play at all this year. Jackson didn't play last year either, but the fact remains he would have been an all world safety as a senior this year. But as Shaq says, "Ifs don't exist" We have talent this time. Our OL was good, our RBs serviceable (which with a pass first offense that is really all we need), QB- talented but suspect, especially in the clutch, WRs other worldly. On special teams we have improved, but that isn't saying much- there is a lot of room for improvement still. I feel like I covered the D above- no need to rehash.

Like I said earlier, the UNC and LSU games sum up the Dooley tenure pretty well. Not entirely his fault, but eventually kind of is. Everything rises and falls on leadership, everything. Dooley was hired to win ballgames. He didn't. I thought that he had a really tough situation and has improved the character and the talent at UT and the next coach will be grateful for it. Ask Nick Saban what he thinks about the players that Mike Shula left him with that he led to a National Championship with. Now I don't think that we will win it all again in two years, but we should be in the top 25.

My fear is that UT fans will not be happy unless we get Gruden. I hope that we get Gruden and there are plenty of other schools that would take him too. Keep in mind, we play at Alabama, at Florida, at Oregon and have home dates with Georgia and South Carolina. Currently all five schools are in the top ten. That is going to be tough sledding no matter who the coach is. IF we lose all of those games (very likely) we simply CAN NOT lose any others and we need to win our bowl game. If we do that and finish 8-5 that would be OK for year 1. It will not be OK for year 2. Or year 3. Or ever. With a 12 game schedule UT should win at least 9 games and year and beat one of the following every year- Georgia, Florida, Alabama. No excuses. That is what we had, that is where we need to get back to. If you are consistently winning 9-10 games a year, you will get a few chances to play for the SEC. Obviously you can't do it with 9 or 10 wins, but if you win that much eventually you will win 11 and play for it all. Everybody knows that if you play for the SEC and win- you get to play for it all.

With that being said. We need to be realistic about who we get. We are not going to convince Pete Carroll or Lovie Smith to leave as a head coach in the NFL to come to UT. We will not get Tony Dungy or Bill Cowher out of the booth. We will not get Bob Stoops, Jimbo Fisher, Dan Mullen, Hugh Freeze, Kevin Sumlin or any other coach in the SEC or at a powerhouse (with one exception-see below). We should not even entertain Bobby Petrino. Peyton Manning will never coach at UT- quit fooling yourself if you think that he is. Why would he come back and ruin his reputation? Ask people older than my father- they will tell you about Johnny Majors the (robbed of a Heisman) player and a national champion coach. Ask people under 30 and to them Majors was the good but not great coach who was at UT before Big Phil. Same principal would apply to Peyton minus the NC as a coach. We will be able to get somebody like Kirby Smart, Charlie Strong, or Josh McDaniels (no thanks to all minus Strong). As much as I would love to reunite the Holy Trinity of UT coaches (Fulmer, Chavis, and Cutcliffe) that is not going to happen. It should but it won't. Our fanbase, as moronic as they are, would never be able to get over that. I would take one of the following: John Gruden- no explanation needed. Bo Pelini- head coach with success and a history with the SEC. Last but not least- my boy Randy Edsall. Dude knows what it takes to build a program and to win. Sound like anything the Vols need right now? Either way, we HAVE to get this hire right. Next year will make it six years since we have played for the SEC title, and 14 since we have won it. Neither are acceptable.

-that's what I think-

PUDGE

Orange Colored Glass 2.0- Jawja (plus other random thoughts)

"We cant stop anybody right now" direct coach from hbc Derek Dooley following the loss on saturday. Fumbled punt, fumbled kick, int, and fumbled snap all led to points for uga. throw in a couple of aaron murry scores and we got whooped. maybe we can get healthy and start playing better down the stretch. could potentially finish the season with only 4 wins (memphis, vandy being the other two) bama, ole miss, kensucky, and socar could all be losses. however kensucky, socar, and ole miss could all be wins too. nick reveiz is terrible. much like ryan karl and dane bradshaw before him. as a coach yes please give me the kid that will play hard and do anything to help his team win- but as a fan- H-E- Double Hockey sticks no- give me a player with talent. talent wins in college. But we will see. we knew that this was going to be a tough year but we have a lot of problems for football- is it basketball season yet??

bama is still the best team. auburn and lsu are crazy.

Defending my Reds...
Look they didnt become the #1 offense in the NL by just beating the bad teams- its an average for the year. they were also the #2 defense in all of baseball. when you dont score in two games including only the 2nd no hitter in baseball postseason history it makes it tough to win and your defense commits four errors including one each by our gold glove winning second baseman and thrid baseman (only the 3rd time a team has made that many errors in the postseason) makes it tough. But lets not get too carried away- my reds are good and could be really really good next year. We have an ace in edinson volquez 4-0 in sept with under a 2 era (people forget he came back from tommy john) plus a really good #2 in big game bronson. 17 wins on the year and eats a ton of innings. close out our rotation with johnny cueto- who is on the cusp of being a top flight pitcher himself who has had several flashes of briliance. then homer (young power pitcher bailey) and one of two rookies Lefty travis wood and right mike leake. hopefully next year old man aaron harang will be gone. in the pen sir arther, bill bray from the left. chops (jarred burton) logan ondrusek and nick masset from the right. coco cordero will probably be back and he kind of sucks but is a "big time closer" and oh yeah we have the cuban missile with chapman.
1st base- mvp joey votto, 2nd base- gold glove brandon phillips, ss- orlando cabrera veteran guy. hopefully we will finally let bphil play ss and get rid of cabrera and let either chris valakia or paul janish play 2nd. 3rd- thank you walt jockety- scott rolen. played like a man all year and will get another gold glove. of- gomes (clutch) drew stubbs (better than braves superstar jason heyward, and jay bruce who finally figured out how to hit. watch out. the big red machine is back!

wedding on saturday so this could be my last post for a while.
Joshua 24:15

-thats what i think-
PUDGE

Orange Colored Glasses 2.0- UAB/LSU

How about this for irony- the game we won-felt like a loss, and the game we lost-felt like a win. Before things get any further, let me remind you that before the season i said that we would lose to Oregon, Florida, LSU, SoCar, and Bama- so far im right. But also- lets be honest and ask yourself this question- how many teams with 3 coaches in 3 years and play 3 top ten teams win any games? not many. there are few programs in the nation that would be able to beat 3 top ten teams all year Bama and Oregon. period. Ducks and a clear number two team in the nation IMO. Im glad that we did beat UAB because 1-4 just sucks- ask your buddies at jawja. What irks me about that game is we allowed 544 yds from the blazers- are you kidding me? ducks, gators, dawgs, tide, tigers- teams like that i would understand- but the blazers! i think that they play in conf USA- maybe. I also think that people need to give Matt Simms some credit he takes more hits than any UT qb that i can remember. plus he has a very inexperienced offensive line and without gerald jones or luke stocker most of the year (jones to injury stocker to...??where has he been?)

I do give derek dooley credit. i was not a fan of his- i didnt hate him, but after kiffin- who i was never really sold on ( ok with his tactics, but just not sure that that is what UT needs) i didnt want to give my fandom away so quickly. but he came in a got a solid recruiting class and is working on another pretty good one as well. And i know that we have gotten some big time play out of 2 star prospects (dennis rogan and montori hughes come to mind) but look at the teams that win titles- they also win in recruiting. Florida, Alabama, Texas, USC, Ohio St (ok maybe not the suckeyes, but the rest of them). However ive taken some heat from facebook people about my stance on defensive coordinator justin wilcox- he needs to go- and i stand by that. the inability to stop read option, allowing 544 yds to uab, crossing routes, 3rd/4th and long teams converting more than not, and all out poor tackling by our defense. and people can say "well look at what he has to play with" and "he had better players at boise" not true. boise has never had a top 25 class, and only one top FIFTY class in the history of the program. go look it up right now they arent even in the top 50. he didnt have better players, he might have had better schemes, or asst coaches or luck, but not better players. ps speaking of better players...let me give you a list of starting qbs in the sec better than heisman hopeful kellen moore at boise. 1- ryan mallet 2- greg mcelroy 3- randall cobb 4- steven garcia 5- matt simms 6- aaron murry 7- jeremiah masoli 8- brantley/burton 9- chris relf 10- jefferson/lee 11- cam newton. yeah a weak armed lefty qb doesnt make it in the sec...

ok here it is. bama made florida look like little boys and is the best team in the nation. lsu doesnt know what to do (oh btw give me thier athletes- because they win inspite of coaching 5-0...) auburn could be scary next year and are pretty good this year. i have no idea what is going on at georgia. shoelace robinson is pretty good at michigan- but they suck on defense and he doesnt deserve the heisman.

twins upset yanks, rays beat rangers, giants beat braves and my reds play the phils...we will see. votto for mvp

thats what i think

-PUDGE-

Orange Colored Glasses 2.0- Florida

Well big orange fans this was a pretty good chance at taking down the urban legend. im now not sure that we will ever be able to beat him at florida. this was the worst team that he has coached and still managed to beat us by two touchdowns. feel free to hate him more than any other coach in the sec. seriously- our defense when montori hughes is in the game is pretty good. that dude is a monster. we better enjoy him right now because he is gone after next year. matt sims is not the worst qb ever at UT. that doubious honor is still held by rick clausen and in a close second is nick stephens. keep in mind that this kid is playing with a really really young (read freshman and sophomores) offensive line and without his best wideout gjones. that however does not excuse his ability to stare down wideouts like crazy or the lofty throws that he sometimes makes. but im not ready to bash the kid forever yet. lots of qbs would lose to both florida and oregon this year. one of my biggest complaints is of course our special teams. we used to complain under big phil and they talked about getting better, last year with lane, monte, ed and the boys we were going to be committed to it, and this year we have a freaking special teams coach for crying out loud. all i ever see us doing is getting worse on special teams. one of the maxims says "press the kicking game- here is where the breaks are made" however we refuse to do it. but we will see what happens. might i remind you that during big phils last few years on rocky top it was terrible for us to only win 8-10 games a year, but now we are just hoping to get a bowl bid. welcome to mediocre football.

reds countdown is 4 games! votto for mvp. phils yanks in the series again.
afc winners- jets, ravens, colts, chiefs
nfc winners- eagles, 49ers, packers and saints

cfb thoughts- bama by 2 touchdowns over arkansas. socar beats auburn. michigan will ruin ohio states season setting up boise getting killed by bama for the title. haha.

season predictions for the vols 7-5 (oregon, florida, lsu, alabama, south carolina are the losses)

and 24 days ill be a married man!

thats what i think
-PUDGE-

Orange Colored Glasses-2.0- UT Martin/Oregon

Ok minions(from dispicable me...)football season has finally started, and while i havent put out my top 25 i will at least do my best to give you some thoughts and advice about games. however i am getting married very soon- and ill be honest thats more important than this blog. But saturday i was able to take my bride to be and her daughter to knoxville to watch the big orange- and it was great. got to tailgate- and the vols won in near perfect fall weather! It is pretty tough to be critical in a game that you win 50-0 against a team that you were supposed to beat 50-0. We ran the ball well, we played great defense, and we ran the ball well. The thing that was the most discouraging to me is the fact that in our two longest drives against UTM we had to settle for field goals...youve got to be able to finish drives. But never the less Here is my prediction for the season- Wins over UTM, Memphis, Vandy, Kentucky, UAB, Ole Miss. Losses by Oregon, Florida, Alabama, LSU. Toss up against UGA and SOCAR (probably win, loss).

Well its easy to predict losing to oregon, after the fact, but if you talked to me before the season you knew that it was probably going to be a loss. And vol fans need to brace yourself for another subpar season- however with a good running game i think that we might be able to keep it close in some games this year. our problem as exposed by oregon is our depth at defensive tackle. you cant run sideways, or due to the fact that we are playing four defensive ends on the dline just drop back and pass on us either. but you can run right up the middle. and im not sold all the way on matt sims yet. i wish that he put more oompth on the ball when he throws it down the field instead of so dang high. i wish that he threw it to luke stocker on seam routes. and i wish that he didnt throw deep outs across the field. but i will say this- the ducks are good. maybe the second best team we will play all year (behind bama). anyways- is it basketball season yet? ive been telling people for years that we are a basketball school now- and finally our coach got in trouble validating my statement. we are going to be really good in roundball again this year. and the reds magic number is 10 right now. i cant believe it- they really might make the playoffs. im getting married in less than a month. that will be awesome. check out our site theknot.com/ourwedding/davidhaynes&nickidemonbren her little girl is playing soccer this fall and will be running cross country. its fun to be able to go to games and just be a dad in the stands and watching my little girl play instead of having to worry about coaching.

vols record to date 1-1

vols predicted record from pudge 7-5

nfl stuff- i cant believe the worst back ever gashed the colts for 230. mike vick is the man in philly. i like the jets brashness. the niners laid a freakin egg agains the seahawks.

cfb stuff- bama will repeat. boise is overrated. terrelle pryor will win the heisman because thats who espn wants to win. speaking of that reggie bush is the best player from 2005. not vy. however he had maybe the single greatest performance on the biggest stage. but the heisman still doesnt matter. and wont ever matter.

mlb stuff- the jeter theater was great. i applaud it- and encourage it. votto for mvp. and i wet my pants when chapman pitches.

-thats what i think-

PUDGE

what a year

Well, we will see how long i keep this up, but i wanted to give everybody an idea of what has been going on in my life since my last post back in feb. after feb started baseball season and as the middle school and high school coach it took a ton of my time. i felt like we made some really good strides both on the field and off of it. we got parents to believe in what we were doing and raised the most money ever at our school for one season and we got the players to finally start to work hard and care about the product that we put on the field. middle school finished 3rd overall and the high school finished 4th out of 8. i am proud to say that we played 7 teams that advance to the region tournament this year. that is a strong schedule for a single a team. but nevertheless it didnt work out for me to return and so my head coaching tenure ended just as quickly as it began. i still think that i could be a good coach someday, but im not sure if that will happen.
also- my dad ran for school board and we spent a ton of time working towards that. it was an adventure for sure and i look forward to helping out again/maybe running myself?? it was tough to stomach the results since i feel like we outworked everybody and had the best candidate.
but how about this! im getting married! oh yeah in about two months i am getting married to the love of my life. we have been together for over a year now and come this oct 16 we will be together forever. she is wonderful and makes my life better everyday. i really cant wait to spend the rest of my life with her. please pray for us as we are taking a big leap of faith and the we will be faithful to the ministry of gospel. we are excited about opportunities that god has given us and hope that we can make a difference in the watching world.

ps- football season is coming soon.
pps- playoff baseball is coming soon- i hope the reds are there.

-thats what i think-
PUDGE

"Super Bowl"

alright i know that this cant be too long, because today is a very busy day, but i wanted to go ahead and make public my thoughts on why the colts are going to win tonight. first of all i want to say that new orleans is no slouch, they have a great offense that scored over 500pts this year and a defense that led the league in touchdowns created by turnovers. i think that they have several really good players with brees being the best. meachem, shockey, henderson, colston, bush several other good skill guys- not to mention the second best corner in the nfl- jabarri greer- who btw played at UT....and speaking of guys who played at UT ahem- peyton manning- yeah he plays for the other team. and thats one of the main reasons why the colts will win. that and the fact that they dont turn it over like the vikes(who shouldve beaten the saints) and btw peyton owns the D coordinator greg williams. hes like 10-2 with 71%complete, over 300yds a game and a 20-4 td-int ratio- oh and he got two weeks to prepare for him. give me a break. that and the fact that he has thrown for almost 400 yards againts D's that were ranked 20th or worse. for what its worth the saints are ranked 26th against the pass. oh and lets not forger that the colts D is easily the most underrated D in the league. they are yet to allow a second half point in the playoffs....
BUT the reason why i think the colts are going to win is this. winning the super bowl is their goal. not that the saints dont want to win, and i think that they will put up a good fight, but you can just tell in the time since the championship weekend- the saints are just happy to be there- the colts however are here to win. yeah they each won their conference, but the saints and their city have celebrated like they won the whole thing- the colts were hum ho about it and went to work to prep for the big game. Colts 34- Saints-26


oh and it bugs me that there are so many people that i know cheering for the saints. i mean call me a bandwagon fan for only pulling for the colts because they have peyton- but so what. why are you pulling for the saints? cause of the debauchery of new orleans? katrina? give me a break. it might be harsh, but thats the way that i feel. if you want to talk about underdog- why not the colts? check out their lineup- several players who went undrafted and signed later as free agents, or even had to walkon in college. several went to nontraditional power schools and worked hard to prove the old brett butler saying true. "dont let other people decide if youre gonna be a ball player or not." go colts.

-thats what i think-
PUDGE