Are Vols as ready as their fans for a big season?
KNOXVILLE — Over the past 18 years, Jimmy Hyams has heard every emotion imaginable from Tennessee Volunteers fans during the four hours each weekday that he and co-host John Wilkerson field phone calls on their “Sports Talk” radio show on Knoxville’s WNML.
“I’d say it’s been at least 10 years since I’ve heard as much excitement over a football season as I’ve heard this summer,” Hyams said Saturday afternoon, just after the Vols completed their first weekly media event of the 2016 season.
“A lot of people were excited before the 2006 season after David Cutcliffe agreed to come back as offensive coordinator. There was a lot of excitement before the 2005 season, when UT got a No. 3 preseason ranking, though that didn’t turn out so well (a 5-6 finish, which was the Vols’ first losing season since 1988). And there was a lot of talk before the 2004 season, when they were going to play two freshman quarterbacks (Erik Ainge and Brent Schaeffer).
“But this year we’re already hearing predictions for 12-0, SEC champions, national champions.”
With apologies to those CBS Sports folks who believe the Vols are overrated, it’s tough not to really like the potential of Team 120. Especially since coach Butch Jones
announced that the Vols will wear commemorative helmet stickers highlighting Pat Summitt’s cursive “P” to honor the Lady Vols basketball coaching great, who lost her five-year battle with Alzheimer’s in late June.
“We all know everything that she stands for,” Jones said during his portion of the media event. “I think it is very fitting that Tennessee football and Team 120 recognize her and everything that she means to the University of Tennessee and the great state of Tennessee and for sports in general.”
But for Team 120 ultimately to mean something memorable to the Big Orange Nation, something worth discussing in a positive light far beyond this season, it seems it will need to at least reach the SEC title game as the beast of the East, which probably would require no worse than a 10-2 regular-season record.
After all, as Hyams added regarding his listeners, there’s an unmistakable feeling that “if we don’t win it this year, when will we ever win it?”
And that belief may be tough to argue against. With seven senior starters on UT’s most recent depth chart, along with no fewer than four juniors or redshirt juniors who might turn pro — including potential allstar defensive lineman Derek Barnett and running backs Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara — this is unquestionably the year for big things.
It’s not just all that experience among the Vols’ 17 returning starters that has people excited, however.
Referring to the decision of such in-state stars as Barnett, Hurd and linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin to sign with a program that was about to string together four straight losing seasons, Jones said, “They all wanted to get Tennessee football back to relevance.”
That’s great, of course. Tennessee Pride should never be overlooked, whether you’re talking breakfast sausage or grinding out SEC football wins. But pride without substance takes you only so far, which is why the entire Big Orange Nation should feast on this quote from offensive lineman Jashon Robertson for breakfast, lunch and dinner regarding new defensive coordinator Bob Shoop’s multiple schemes and fronts:
“That’s the most important thing for us (as offensive linemen), competing against those guys (on the defensive front) and Coach Shoop’s defensive schemes. I missed a blitz pickup a few days ago, and it had been awhile since I’d done that. But it was just so exotic.”
If Shoop’s blitzes are exotic to Robertson, imagine how they’ll look to the opposition, which will be attempting to block them live for the first time. Especially when you consider they’ll be facing the manchild Jonathan Kongbo, Barnett, Darrin Kirkland Jr., Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Corey Vereen, Todd Kelly Jr. and the rest.
Said Vereen, when asked about the Vols’ outrageous depth on D: “Honestly, this is the most depth we’ve ever had since I’ve been here. I’m not used to this, and it’s very nice to have. It’s good to know that everybody is going to be contributing. We have a lot of weapons out there, and now people won’t be out there playing too many snaps or more than they need to.”
For years, if not decades, this has been a key ingredient to Alabama’s recipe for success. Strength in numbers, especially when those numbers are quite talented.
Nor is Jones content to take the team that rolled over Northwestern in the Outback Bowl, toss in a handful of talented new players (such as Kongbo, freshman defensive back Nigel Warrior and freshman wideout Marquez Callaway) and feel secure.
Of starting senior quarterback Josh Dobbs and his sometimes erratic passing, he said, “We’ve worked exceptionally hard on the downfield passing game and accuracy.”
Still, because the oblong ball sometimes bounces funny in decidedly unfunny ways, an interested bystander couldn’t help but ask Hyams what might happen if UT fell short of 12-0, 11-1 or, worst of all, a spot in the SEC title game.
“They’ll be ready to jump off the Henley Street Bridge,” he said before swiftly adding, “and find a new coach.”
In that way, Tennessee supporters are no more special than those fans with great gridiron expectations in the other 10 states that call the SEC their home.