duck dynasty
From Big Orange Blog contributor crocko brody
“It’s amazing how far this team has fallen.”--Member of the Game Day crew, talking about the Tennessee Vols before the Oregon game last Saturday
I can’t remember who said it, but whoever it was said a mouthful. And although his observation had to do withTennessee’s failure to beat a ranked opponent in 23 consecutive games, his comment is poignant for a less obvious reason: Tennessee’s fall coincides very well with Oregon’s rise.
If you charted both programs on a single sheet of paper, with prominence on one axis and the year on the other, you would find that these programs intersect during the 2001 season. It was in this year that the Vols were only three years removed from a perfect season and a national championship and Joey Harrington was the Ducks’ senior quarterback, in the midst of a Heisman run.
I’ll never forget that because I was in New York that summer, before the season began, and I remember the Oregon logo looking down on me from a billboard inTimes Square like Sauron. I remember, too, thinking who the hell were these guys—the “Ducks” for chrissakes--and weren’t the Vols poised to make another run? It was a good summer, full of hope. We won 11 games that year. So did Oregon. We lost our conference championship. Oregon did not.
Both teams have had good years and bad years since then, in terms of their overall records, but in terms of prominence the Ducks have steadily climbed. Who doesn’t know about their offense, and their incredible speed? Who doesn’t fear a trip to Eugene, or a visit from these incredible athletes dressed in superhero uniforms?
The Vols, meanwhile, have been in a freefall, one that is too painful to recite. The best we can hope for is that we’ve hit rock bottom and that this year’s rebuilding really is a rebuilding.
Saturday’s game failed to deliver an answer, and I suppose only time will tell. The only thing that is certain is that we have a hell of a season left. If our performance against Oregon is a bellwether of how the season will go then so be it.
Regardless, we have to stay fans, and gain strength in the knowledge that we are Tennessee, that we play year-in-year-out in the toughest conference in the country, that we will not settle for mediocrity or failure, that we will be back again, and that our star, while not as high in the sky as it once was, will shine again and blind Sauron and the Ducks and the SEC and the rest of the country with it.
GBO!
I can’t remember who said it, but whoever it was said a mouthful. And although his observation had to do withTennessee’s failure to beat a ranked opponent in 23 consecutive games, his comment is poignant for a less obvious reason: Tennessee’s fall coincides very well with Oregon’s rise.
If you charted both programs on a single sheet of paper, with prominence on one axis and the year on the other, you would find that these programs intersect during the 2001 season. It was in this year that the Vols were only three years removed from a perfect season and a national championship and Joey Harrington was the Ducks’ senior quarterback, in the midst of a Heisman run.
I’ll never forget that because I was in New York that summer, before the season began, and I remember the Oregon logo looking down on me from a billboard inTimes Square like Sauron. I remember, too, thinking who the hell were these guys—the “Ducks” for chrissakes--and weren’t the Vols poised to make another run? It was a good summer, full of hope. We won 11 games that year. So did Oregon. We lost our conference championship. Oregon did not.
Both teams have had good years and bad years since then, in terms of their overall records, but in terms of prominence the Ducks have steadily climbed. Who doesn’t know about their offense, and their incredible speed? Who doesn’t fear a trip to Eugene, or a visit from these incredible athletes dressed in superhero uniforms?
The Vols, meanwhile, have been in a freefall, one that is too painful to recite. The best we can hope for is that we’ve hit rock bottom and that this year’s rebuilding really is a rebuilding.
Saturday’s game failed to deliver an answer, and I suppose only time will tell. The only thing that is certain is that we have a hell of a season left. If our performance against Oregon is a bellwether of how the season will go then so be it.
Regardless, we have to stay fans, and gain strength in the knowledge that we are Tennessee, that we play year-in-year-out in the toughest conference in the country, that we will not settle for mediocrity or failure, that we will be back again, and that our star, while not as high in the sky as it once was, will shine again and blind Sauron and the Ducks and the SEC and the rest of the country with it.
GBO!
~ crocko brody
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