set your tivos!

tonight at 7.00pm on the SEC network, a special on our glorious saturday at neyland.

12 days!

today, we are blessed with a 2014 season preview from ESPN.

Breakout player: Most of the preseason drama at Tennessee revolved around the quarterback race, but Jones ended that last week when he named Worley the starter. Had he not injured his thumb and missed the remainder of the season a year ago, the Vols probably would have gone to a bowl game. He's been put in some tough positions during his career, including being thrown to the wolves as a true freshman before he was ready. But he's persevered. His arm has gotten stronger. He's healthy now, and he also has more playmakers around him this season. Nobody's pushing him for the Heisman Trophy or even All-SEC honors, but here's betting Worley has a very solid senior season after throwing more interceptions (13) than touchdown passes (11) in his previous three seasons.

Most important game: We'll cheat and go 1A (Florida on Oct. 4) and 1B (Missouri on Nov. 22). Both games are at home, and both will go a long way toward determining whether or not the Vols can make it to the postseason. They've lost nine in a row to Florida, so ending that drought would be a big step in the right direction for Jones and the program. The Missouri game is sandwiched between a home game with Kentucky and the regular-season finale at Vanderbilt. It could be that the Vols have to win all three to go bowling.

also important to know, the SEC network is dedicating much of it's airtime tonight and tomorrow to the vols. here is the schedule:

Tuesday, Aug. 19
8 p.m. - 2014 Tennessee Football Preview
9 p.m. - SEC Storied: The Color Orange, The Condredge Holloway Story
11 p.m. - 2014 Tennessee Football Preview

Wednesday, Aug. 20
12 a.m. - Nine For IX: Pat XO
1 a.m. - 2004 Football: Tennessee vs. Florida
3 a.m. - 2005 Football: Tennessee at LSU
5:30 a.m. - 2013 Football Tennessee vs. South Carolina
12 p.m. - 2007 Football: Tennessee at Kentucky
2 p.m. - 2014 Tennessee Football Preview

now, if one of the hundreds of you that are using my netflix / hbogo / hulu logins has access to the SEC network on your cable, kindly email me with your username / password so that i might enjoy this on my roku. plz and thx.

 

mark richt is a terrible artist

in other SEC football news, did you know that terrible georgia coach mark richt sends these nasty hand drawn portraits to recruits? gross mark richt.

Mark Richt has been sending UGA prospects hand drawn portraits of themselves wearing the Bulldogs uniform. #CoolIdea pic.twitter.com/pquZYuL30f

— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) April 2, 2014

doin' it right

readers of this blog aren't morons, but you probably have to talk to people that say stupid things like "sec teams don't play any hard non-conference games."  while this is true for some teams (lookin' at you, auburn) teams that ain't skerred (the vols, oc) have been playing tough teams every year.  but now, your retar oops, can't say that, your big ten friends can't say a gahdurn thing.

...the SEC will begin mandating that each program incorporate an annual nonconference game against a power conference starting in 2016. espn

here's to another 1000 years of sec dominance.

march madness fun factz : SEC dominance edition

In many ways, Tennessee's emergence has run parallel to the Wildcats'. Like Kentucky, the Volunteers were always obviously talented. Like Kentucky, Tennessee's advanced analytics revealed a team far better than its record suggested. Like Kentucky, which beat Louisville on its own floor in December, the Vols' 35-point win over Virginia gave fans a result to point to and say, see? Like Kentucky, UT spent most of the SEC season underwhelming -- being swept by Texas A&M, losing to Vanderbilt, getting overrun on defense at Missouri -- before flipping some kind of switch in the final weeks.

The result for the SEC, combined with Florida's wins, is a 7-0 SEC record in the NCAA tournament. It's the first conference to go 7-0 or better in the NCAA tournament entering the Sweet 16 since the Big East went 8-0 in 2003, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The last time the SEC went 7-0 or better in the NCAA tournament entering the Sweet 16 was 1996, when Kentucky won the national title.

That was the dominant discussion late in the day Sunday -- how the lowly SEC had redeemed itself in the NCAA tournament. Some even went so far as to claim the SEC had been unfairly maligned, that the tournament revealed a league far stronger than anyone previously realized. (via)

turns out, we can haz basketball too.

adorable SEC football player might be the first openly gay man in the NFL

Michael Sam, the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year from Missouri is getting ready for the annual NFL scouting combine. Oh yeah, he is openly gay, and cute. via

follow him on twitter to keep in touch @MikeSamFootball

ole miss plays auburn tonight.

This happened last time the two met. unfortunately, everyone's [least]favorite rebel is on the bench.


there's so much good in this gif, but i think the old guy is my favorite.

you heard it here second...

Coach James Franklin has forsaken Vanderbilt for a

new job at Penn State. espn says so

in incredible nickname news:

This is Patriots RB
BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

His nickname is:

The Law Firm!




Look at him leaving that NY Football Shrimp in the dussssst.

good news for the vols

after the alabama crimson periods won the SEC national championship, we stole their linebackers coach Sal Sunseri to be our new defensive coordinator. even better news, sports illustrated named him the 2011 recruiter of the year.

  "The chance to work with Derek Dooley, who has been around championships and knows what it takes to build an elite program, combined with the rich tradition of the University of Tennessee, makes this opportunity so exciting to me," Sunseri said of the Volunteers' head coach and program, in a statement. "I am fired up to work with all of the young talent on the defensive side of the ball, and I can't wait to get up to Knoxville and coach them."

 now lets go get some Ws in a couple months.

somebody's jelly beans are showing

[redacted]:  SEC...I'm so over it

remember this

ivon padilla-rodriguez speaks the truth, "dr pepper is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me."

well said.

"well, that's not genteel at all! the SEC's about gentility. we prefer a genteel man, fine haberdashery."

thx heather!

best twitterers to follow for the Vols

add some in the comments if you have some good ideas.

@ESPN_SEC : Follow Edward Aschoff and Chris Low for all things SEC.

@AschoffESPN_SEC : Edward Aschoff covers SEC football for ESPN.com. He loves the Gym. He's already Tan. And Laundry is a key to survival.

@Vol_Football : The official Twitter account of University of Tennessee football

@BR_Volunteers : Entertaining content and breaking news from all of the top Tennessee sources on the Web.

@NayaRivera : #81 @MychalRivera's famous sister Santana

@WhoisTPoole : My dream is to inspire. If you expect me to say everything you want to hear don't follow. Sr RB AT UT. TOCCOA, GA native to Knoxville (UT)...Proud To Be A Vol

@Swiperboy : Official twitter for hip-hop's rookie of the year and Swiperboy Entertainment (SBYZ) CEO, Swiperboy aka SB. MUSIC PAGE. Bball fans follow @RWoolridge3.

@GeneralRNeyland : Soldier, athlete, and Hall of Fame head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers for 21 years, incl. '51 national champions. Single wing pioneer. Ball, oskie, cover...

i don't understand it...

The member presidents of the Southeastern Conference unanimously voted to accept Texas A&M Tuesday night as the league's 13th member, but the Aggies' official acceptance has been delayed by the potential threat of legal action.

The SEC's presidents want assurances that no individual Big 12 school will sue for contractual interference over Texas A&M's departure. Baylor has not given that assurance to this point, according to sources.

"We were notified yesterday afternoon that at least one Big 12 institution had withdrawn its previous consent and was considering legal action," University of Florida president and SEC chairman Dr. Bernie Machen said in a statement released Wednesday. "The SEC has stated that to consider an institution for membership, there must be no contractual hindrances to its departure.

" The SEC received written assurance from the Big 12 on Sept. 2 that it was free to accept Texas A&M as a member, Machen said.

The Big 12 scheduled a conference call of officials at all 10 member schools for Wednesday afternoon, sources said.

Texas A&M had planned a celebration and news conference at the College Station campus for Wednesday but that is now on hold. (via) 

...and i won't respond to it. i will inform you, however, that that lovely lady pictured above is texas a&m's mascot, as it turns out. i had no idea!

 thx deej.

7 days y'all!

I was perusing utsports.com when I came across Dwight's Insights, a blog that has potential to be really entertaining or boring as hell for the next couple of years. Dwight is an international student athlete from the Bahamas (not terribly exotic). His first post happen to go up the day Pat Summitt announced her diagnosis. To quote a quote of a twitter (because it was my favorite line from the post, "Knowing what we all know about Coach Summitt, I almost feel sorry for the Dementia." (from @drvenner)

I really just wanted to say Go Vols, and that Georgia sucks. I hope they lose. But I also hope they win big next Saturday so that Boise State will have to shut the hell up all season long.

suckeyes!

ohio state university 1 0 - 9 SEC

the struggles continue for the ohio state university as they vacate all of their wins from 2010, including their only victory ever against an SEC team in a bowl game.

tressel dies

'bout damn time
who didn't see this coming?