Shades of Grey We’ve all heard it a million times: “Football is a game of inches.” Tennessee fans got a painful reminder of that cliché last Saturday in Knoxville. After battling back from a 17-3 halftime deficit, the Vols suffered a soulcrushing 34-31 overtime loss to (then-)sixth-ranked Georgia. And it all came down to a matter of inches. When Tennessee’s “Pig” Howard dove for the goal line after taking an endaround handoff from quarterback Justin Worley, it looked like the Vols had scored on their first OT possession. When the replay showed Howard had lost the ball and fumbled it mere inches from the end zone, the resulting touchback gave the Bulldogs the ball… and
the ball game. Georgia kicker Marshall Morgan kicked the 42-yard field goal that provided the final points margin… …I didn’t really expect Tennessee to give Georgia much of a game last Saturday. UGA quarterback Aaron Murray was en route to becoming the Southeastern Conference’s all-time passing leader. Worley was having an up-and-down season at best. And the Vols were set to debut their “smokey grey” alternate uniforms in an effort to end their get their first win over a top 25 team since 2009. Tennessee traditionalists were unenthused…
the end of Saturday’s game. Tennessee fell short (by the aforementioned inches), but coach Butch Jones and his staff had to be pleased by their team’s fortitude. And Jones showed a lot of guts in his play calling. The Vols had three fourth-down conversions in the fourth quarter on Saturday… and two of those were truly ballsy plays. Raijon Neal took a pitch for a 43-yard gain and Worley tossed a clutch play-action pass to tight end A.J. Branisel for 28. There were, as usual, times when the Tennessee offense looked entirely too predictable. But in those critical fourth quarter situations, Jones showed a willingness to roll the dice…
…A lot of Vols fans warmed up to the grey uniforms by …Things have been rough at
Tennessee for so long that no one should expect a quick fix. The Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley years left the Big Orange faithful dazed and depressed. On paper, Jones has already lined up the kind of high-caliber recruits it will take for the Vols to escape the middle of the SEC pack. For now, though, Tennessee has a week off. Jones and his inherited players will catch their breath and try to prepare for back-to-back games against South Carolina and Alabama. The first-year coach will have to take some chances in both of those games, for sure. But I doubt he’ll roll the dice on those grey uniforms again for a while…
- Mark Bedford P.O. Box 825 Chattanooga, TN 37401 (423) 267-6072 (423) 991-1657 info@enigmaonline.com twitter.com/EnigmaMag
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OCTOBER 10 2013
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