Big Orange Roundtable - Week 7

Week 7 finds us just two weeks away and in the friendly confines of Fulmer's Belly, who hosts the questions this week. You know the drill by now, so let's get right to it:

1. Knock on wood before answering this question, but let’s assume that Jonathan Crompton goes out with a season ending injury in the 1st half of the first game of the season. Should we just pack it up and wait until next season, or is there a glimmer of hope in any of the young backups?

I think Thursday's scrimmage will go a long way in determining whether BJ Coleman or Nick Stephens can become a clear-cut #2 under center. Coleman outperformed Stephens in Saturday's second scrimmage, but I don't think anything's fully settled yet.

Nor do I think either of those two guys give us what we need to win in 2008.

The Vols have worked with limited options before - AJ Suggs, CJ Leak and Rick Clausen come to mind - but I'm not sure Coleman and Stephens are as good as any of those choices (though granted, we haven't seen them in action). If something catastrophic happens to Crompton, I'd wager the Clawfense gets a massive overhaul and the Vols start running less spread and more option behind Gerald Jones and our talented tailbacks and offensive line. But it seems like all of those options lean towards 2009 as our glimmer of hope.

2. Does Erik Ainge have a future in the NFL?

I thought he was in one of the best possible situations in New York before Favre showed up, but since he hasn't gotten a snap in a preseason game yet and Eric Mangini has made fun of his throws, clearly I was wrong.

Ainge performed well under David Cutcliffe's system, and so the question for me was always how well that would translate in a faster NFL game without Cutcliffe there beside him. But if Ainge isn't even getting a chance to compete, then I too see clipboards and pristine green and white jerseys in his immediate future.

3. Why in the hell did you decide to blog about Tennessee football? Aren’t there already enough Tennessee blogs?

Quality over quantity, my friend.

A little more than two years ago I moved from Knoxville, where I'd lived all 24 years of my life at that point, to Middle of Nowhere, Virginia in my first pastoral appointment. Being 3.5 hours from home, and being single, pet-free and living in a place with zero to do when I'm not playing Pastor Will, I started blogging as a way to keep having the conversations I missed by not being with friends and family in Knoxville, and there are few things I love to talk about more than the Vols. SESB has been and continues to really be just my own random thoughts, but a few months ago someone recommended I post some of these articles at Bleacher Report, where I ran into some other members of the Roundtable...and the rest...is history.

4. If you could be one player in one game in Tennessee history, which player and which game would you pick? Why?

Ooh, good question. Fulmer's Belly goes with Peyton Manning in Birmingham '95, which is an excellent choice. I'd have to be Peerless Price in the National Championship Game - not only do you take home MVP honors with 199 yards receiving, not only do you score what ends up being the game-winning touchdown on a long bomb for arguably the biggest play in Tennessee football history, but you make the nation take notice and land the cover of Sports Illustrated with your first name plastered there for everyone to see, while the guy everyone else was talking about at your position on the other team finishes with one catch for seven yards.

5. Which is your favorite rivalry and why? (Not necessarily limited to Tennessee teams)

So, we're going to assume that plenty of others on the Roundtable are going to write about Tennessee and Alabama (which is the only right answer if you're talking about Vol rivalries). So for a different perspective, let's talk about the most interesting rivalry I've seen personally, all things considered: Virginia and Virginia Tech.

I'm not sure there are two pure rivals with a greater dichotomy than UVA and VT. If you've ever been to Charlottesville, whether it was on a school field trip en route to Monticello or on a passionate quest to chase the roots of Dave Matthews Band, it's a very nice place around the campus of UVA: great hospital, beautiful campus, and Thomas Jefferson is freaking everywhere. It's very stately, very rich, very upper class. And their fans are likewise.

You've probably never been to Blacksburg.

Granted, the Christiansburg/Blacksburg area has come up in the world in the last decade or so the way that "Let's build a Wal-Mart and see what happens" tends to work in lots of little places in the south. But the surrounding area of southwest Virginia, where the Hokies draw their passionate fan base? Well, there's a reason I call it Middle of Nowhere.

It makes a difference in their fans. In Charlottesville, you're not that far from DC and there are plenty of other things to distract you. If you're a sports fan and you live in southwest Virginia, the Hokies are all you have. Their coach is one of your own. They are your pride and joy.

The rivalry is called "Culture vs. Agriculture", and that's dead on. It creates a class war between the two schools that really runs even deeper - Blacksburg is clearly in dixie, but Charlottesville? Is that the north or the south?

It's interesting for me personally, coming from Knoxville and now living in Hokie Nation, while my oldest friend moved from Knoxville a few years earlier and has now landed just outside Charlottesville. In 2006 we went to games at both stadiums, watching UVA blow a huge lead against Maryland during one of Tennessee's off weeks, then heading to Blacksburg for one of the Thursday night throwdowns against top ten Clemson. And all the stereotypes play out: Virginia fans are arrogant even when they shouldn't be, have a nice looking stadium for its size but fans who generally sit on their hands, and have an underachieving football team. Virginia Tech gets the most out of their smaller house, has rabid fans that create an intimidating venue despite its size, and has always had an overachieving football team that plays homegrown BeamerBall and emphasizes lunchpail defense, special teams, and dogfighting (low blow!)

And capping it all off...Agriculture has had the upper hand in the rivalry for quite some time now.

Since the shootings at VT, the rivalry has softened...a little. But over time, it'll find its way back to the class war status, which for me continues to make it a fascinating case study in not just on-field theatrics, but the complexity of a truly all-encompassing rivalry.

...but it's no Third Saturday in October.

Bonus: Who will win the national title this year? And by how many points will Tennessee win? (See what we did there?)

Oh, I like what you did there. Continuing in the not-picking-against-Tennessee tradition, I'll take the Vols over Oklahoma, 30-28 on a last second TD pass to Brandon Warren. There are layers of wishful thinking here. Layers.


Check out the other responses here throughout the day/week...
- YMSWWC
- Third Saturday
- Gate 21
- Moondog Sports
- The View from The Hill
- Rocky Top Talk
- Losers With Socks