Vols: "Don't be Cruel Ducks!"

Iconic stamps of Tennessee's favorite son.

Remember these stamps some 15 cents ago? Two iconic Elvis images were released for the enjoyment of stamp collectors and fans of The King.

One was young, slender, jacket-and-tie Elvis. The other? Fat, old, make-up and sequined white jumpsuit Elvis.

The first was him at his best. Beautiful, fresh, healthy. The second was still enjoyable, but very different.  Watching him as a dated Vegas act might give you the opportunity to remember the early years when he was at his prime. But when you weren't thinking of the good times, you were watching him in the present. And that was kind of sad.

The Tennessee Volunteers of today are like fat old Elvis. Oh sure, they got a great new coach in Butch Jones, formerly from the Cincinnati Bearcats; and he's the man to raise them back to a great level again. But for now, he's little more than a brand new rayon-silk blend sequined suit. This season's fat and sad Tennessee Volunteer team looks better than last season. But it's nothing like the kings of college football back in the 90's and particularly '98 when they won the National Championship.

The Vols are off to a great start having thoroughly dispatched of Western Kentucky and Austin Peay. (It's too bad the BCS computers don't score you very high for defeating a team with a word like "pee" in it's name.) But they and everybody else all know the same thing. They're going to lose at Autzen.



Coach Butch Jones:
"I'm eager to see how my boys
react to this loss .... uh, I mean
trip to Oregon."

Yes, they're all talking the brave talk. They believe in themselves and are looking forward to the trip. But Coach Butch is realistically looking at this as more of a learning experience. He's already wondering about his team's resiliency.
This article from The Chattanooga Times Free Press pokes the usual fun at Oregon and it's uniforms and Nike connection. Then it faces facts, then Coach Butch throws in some tough talk and strategy (They're going to work the clock.)

And then comes this final paragraph.
Whether it begins Saturday or somewhere down the road, you get the feeling that Oregon’s shiny helmets aside, when it comes to coaching, Tennessee could well have the brighter future of the two schools.
I'm going to give the writer the benefit of the doubt that what he meant was that Tennessee's future will appear brighter because they have so much farther to go. With the exception of winning the National Championship -- Oregon's primary goal -- the Ducks have nowhere to go but down. Tennessee, on the other hand, has hundreds of goals ahead of them. So he meant the Vols have more opportunities for bright spots . . . . either that or he's just an idiot.

YA, ABOUT THAT BRIGHT FUTURE . . . . .
This just in: Tennessee Defensive End Maurice Couch is one of five current and former SEC football players who were identified as taking cash payments while in college. Coach Butch Jones has ruled him ineligible for the Oregon game pending further investigation.
 
The story here from Fox Sports says that along with Couch was a former Tennessee QB, two players from Mississippi State, and D.J. Fluker -- a former Alabama offensive tackle who started in both National Championship games. Furthermore, former Bama defensive end Luther Davis was the key link between NFL agents, players and their "financial advisers".

Alabama . . . . Alabama? . . . . .That rings a bell.  I seem to remember Alabama coming into the conversation the last time there was a "huge" scandal.

Back in the summer of 2011 a writer for the blog "Roll Bama Roll" characterized Oregon as a school "in trouble" when they overpaid back alley scout Willie Lyles for connecting them to hot recruit Lache Seastrunk. Here's a paragraph.
For Oregon, though, this is just plain damn ugly, and it's easy to see why they recently secured the services of a high-end boutique law firm that specializes in NCAA enforcement issues. It's almost impossible to read any of this and legitimately believe Oregon AD Rob Mullen's contentions that they are doing everything the right way. If it looks like thinly-veiled pay-for-play and smells like thinly-veiled pay-for-play, well... you know how this ends. How can you legitimately defend handwritten letters and e-mails from key institutional figures? It's possible, to be sure, but exceedingly difficult.

Pay-for-play? He was in error. Oregon didn't pay anyone to play. But it remains that if you want to see "pay-to-play" defined and explained, you'll apparently still want to ask someone from Bama.

Bama coach Nick Saban, the greatest football coach he's ever known, said yesterday that he was confident the university will "handle the situation appropriately". He went on to offer this vote of full confidence of his players.
''For as many high-profile players as we've had around here, I'm fairly pleased with the way most of them, for the most part, have managed their circumstances and their situation and focused on what they need to do for the University of Alabama,'' he said

"Fairly pleased ... with most of them, for the most part".

With that fairly mostly assured statement for the most part, you can understand how shocked and disappointed Coach Saban was when reporters only wanted to talk about Alabama's paid players and not about the Tide's upcoming game against Texas A & M and their star paid player. See the short video of his interview in that same "story here" link from Fox Sports above.

All eyes are now on the NCAA to see how they kid glove these latest violations in the SEC (Stash Extra Cash?).

Tennessee at Oregon game time: 12:30 Pacific on ABC or ESPN2