National media love a shiny new toy. Saturday in Athens, orange-clad Vol fans descended on the Classic City, eager to witness their senior-laden team demolish the Bulldogs. After all, many (if not most) pundits foresaw Coach Heupel’s innovative offense wreaking havoc on Coach Smart’s old-school philosophies. Kirby Smart remains unimpressed with pundits.
It is always fun to revel in a victory, especially after many predictions of Georgia’s demise. I even saw a couple of stories that implied UGA’s championship in 2021 resulted from a once-in-a-lifetime roster filled with stars on defense. How many games like this will it take for the talking heads to have the Georgia epiphany? Defense wins games and championships, and a bruising running game still exhausts and demoralizes opponents. There is no shortcut to titles.
The one element that impacted Saturday’s game more than usual was the fan factor. Sanford Stadium was rocking on the day Coach Dooley and Charley Trippi were honored along the sideline. There may be isolated games that produced similar decibel levels from time to time, but in my experience, Saturday was absolutely the loudest from start to finish. The 12th man, indeed.
Tennesse fans will be clamoring for a rematch in the playoff. As I write this on Sunday morning after the game, I’m sure that the hills of East Tennessee are echoing with excuses. “If it hadn’t rained,” “If it had rained harder,” “If we’d played in Knoxville,” the fact remains that in 2022 “Rocky Top will always be,” second place in the SEC East.
UTK fans are still sure their offense is unparalleled. Rain killed their mojo, according to them. Wait until next has been replaced by “wait until the playoff.” A word of warning for the orange-soaked minions, If their team makes the playoff, they will likely get their wish for a dry field of play. Atlanta (certainly), Phoenix, or LA will provide that fast track for the Vols to show whatever Athens’ weather allegedly denied them. They should remember, however, that a dry field is more likely to result in a full-game performance that resembles Saturday’s first half.