Our little town of Knoxville let out a collective “WTF?!” as news of Kiffin and most of his staff leaving the Vols to head to Southern Cal. Some fans are happy with the decision as Kiffin’s abrasive attitude just didn’t fit in with the program.

For the rest of Vol Nation it was a monumental move that left people angry and confused.  Kiffin sold his program to the Vols and just like that, *poof*, he is gone. Kinda like Keyser Soze if Keyser Soze was a prick instead of a mobster.

5.  Named his last son Knox after Knoxville. Wanted to be able to name his next boy Richard

4.  His mentor, Bobby Petrino, recommended the move.

3.  Really heading to Los Angeles to be new host of “The Tonight Show”

2.  Wanted another challenge. Couldn’t get Vols on probation fast enough; USC much closer to that goal

1.  Wanted to prove to Al Davis that he wasn’t a punk-ass, crybaby with no loyalty and zero professional who was just looking for his next job.

Edit: came across this great picture of the Rock on UT campus which accurately depicts how Vols fans are feeling right now. Via Losers With Socks.

I Can Has Cheezeburger?

OK.  So maybe Tennessee will win the Fulmer Cup this year.VOL Nation is in a little bit of turmoil at the moment.  Turns out three highly recruited freshmen football players mistook Knoxville for the University of Miami and went on a crime spree filled with blood and helicopters and dead penguins and mayhem.

There was a long, drawn out police chase which cornered the 3 kids in an abandoned warehouse where a 4-hour shootout occurred before the entire industrial block was blown up by Jack Bauer and a helicopter armed with a nuclear warhead.

Sigh….not really…

The truth is 3 UT players pretended to be thugs and held up some broke kids on campus with airguns and escaped in a Prius.

Yep.  A Prius!

How’s that for street cred?  No Lil Wayne song is gonna make it sound cool for poppin’ a BB in someone’s ass and hoppin’ in the eco-friendly Prius.

Here’s some raw video of the arrests from WVLT.

The stupidity of the crimes doesn’t end there.  They did it on Cumberland Avenue, or the “Strip” as we local folks call it.  That’s the road next to campus.  You can’t miss it. Everyone travels down it and it’s filled with hobos and UT students at that time of night.

So, at 2 in the AM, three recognizable football players go to a gas station and try to rob a couple of UT kids.

We can safely say that on any campus college students are not known for their huge wallets of cash.  It’s not exactly a prime area for lots of cash.

The victims didn’t have money to offer but did have a cheeseburger.  The three football players decided not to mug them of their food.

The alleged incident reportedly took place at the Pilot Foodmart on the Cumberland Avenue “Strip”. According to police reports it was around 2am when two men in black hoodies entered a car occupied by three men. One assailant held a gun at the driver’s head and demanded money. The victims claimed that they had nothing to offer but a cheeseburger, and a third man then urged the other two suspects to leave the scene. Janzen Jackson is reported to be the third man who entered the scene. [source]

It also didn’t help that one of the dumbass douchebag football players was wearing a UT Adidas shirt. The only way they could of made it easier on the cops is to wear their game jerseys.

Can I get that cheeseburger now?

It’s hard to try to make the news of 3 Vols arrested for armed robbery into anything other than what it is: a complete embarrassment.

There is one bit of  great news and that is none of these douchebag boneheads hurt anyone.  The guns turned out to be airguns and all parties walked away with no physical injuries.  That’s such good news these days.

The only injury was to the careers of defensive back Janzen Jackson, 19, and wide receiver Nu’Keese Richardson, 19, and defensive back Michael Edwards, 18, who pissed all over UT tradition with their cowardly acts.

Fuck you, Janzen Jackson.

Fuck you, Nu’Keese Richardson.

Fuck you, Michael Edwards.

You are all an embarassment to the Orange and White.

Begone with you!

That rant aside, can you imagine the footage of a car chase through Knoxville with 30 police cars after a Prius.  That’s funny shit!  Those things can go forever on a full tank and they’re slow as Hell.

Besides, they probably could have gotten away faster by running.  Although we know Nu’Keese might have fumbled his Air-Soft pellet gun.

Let’s also take a nice look at this great picture from Nu’Keese’s Facebook page showing his huge stack of Benji’s. 

Oh,….wait.  Those are just $1 bills.  Well, he probably has enough to gas up the Prius with that wad. Not enough for bail, though….

Dollar Bills, y'all!

Coach Lane Kiffin has not announced the punishment for the 3 kids as he stated he is waiting for an investigation by the University into the matters.  Kiffin has pledged to help clean up the UT football program and this is his first major hurdle.  So at the moment it is a wait-and-see on the futures of these three criminals.

• UT football players arrested for attempted armed robbery
• Trouble in Tennessee
• So what’s Lane Kiffin going to talk about now?
• Kiffin’s streak ends at “11 months and 11 days”: Three UT football players …

It has been a soap opera in Knoxville since Phillip Fulmer and his staff were cut from the program late last year. Everyone, of course, has their opinion on the situation ranging for immediate approval to the worst decision ever made in SEC history.

The truth of the matter was UT was struggling to compete in the SEC and the recent success of rival schools like Vandy, Kentucky and South Carolina left the Vols losing recruiting battles and SEC games. Tack on the pressure of the SEC signing huge network TV deals to capitalize on the popularity of the Conference and the choice became a necessity. The SEC was moving ahead and Tennessee was going backwards and something had to be done.

A tough decision was made to let Fulmer and his staff go.  Then a younger coaching staff was brought in to revamp the aging program and kick start the lagging recruiting of the Vols.

Enter Lane Kiffin.

A man shrouded in perpetual questions marks.

The son of the legendary defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin [who would later join his son's coaching staff] was destined to be a coach of legend like his father. Lane rose up through the ranks fast with a notable stint for the USC Trojans.  However, his last job with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders ended ugly as owner Al Davis claimed Kiffin was in insubordinate fool and he fired Lane and refused to pay out his contract.

We commend Al Davis for those actions.

The decision of one crazed, old man in the jumpsuit and Depends left Kiffin open for a job at the same time the Vols needed a coach looking to prove himself. Timing is everything is sports.

Lane Kiffin during First Vol Walk

Flashforward to Saturday which marked the first time Lane Kiffin coached the Vols in a game as the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers came to Knoxville to open the season. The success of the Vols rested on the fantastic recruitment class Kiffin had this year and his stellar coaching staff, the highest paid in the SEC.  Question marks surrounded the program as people questioned the hire and the future of the Vols.

In the end today, three rookies found their way to the end zone and 10 members total of Kiffin’s first recruiting class played in the game as Tennessee shook off many of those question marks and pounded the Hilltoppers 63-7 to notch their first win as a team.

Bryce Brown, the #1 running back recruit last year according to Rivals.com, demonstrated his power and hype by rushing for 107 yards including bowling over 3 Hilltoppers on the goal line for his first TD. Add in a monster performance by Montario Hardesty [over 100+ yards] and 2 TD’s for David Oku and the Vols RB’s looked solid.

For the first time in years the Vols receivers played like they actually attended practice at some point during the year.  More passes were caught than dropped, an unfamiliar sight at Neyland Stadium in recent years. It’s such a relief to see the receiving corp become a reliable part of the offense again. QB Crompton found 5 receivers open for TD’s including 2 to TE Stocker. Now if we can just have that faith at the QB position we’ll be happy.

Fifth-year senior Jonathan Crompton, arguably one of our least favorite QB’s we have seen at Tennessee, was easily the weakest link on the offense.  The first quarter for Crompton was pretty much how he left off last year.  Crompton’s 2 interceptions and a fumble near the goal line in the 1st half did not invoke much confidence in us and making these mistakes against a team like WKU is far more acceptable than doing them against Florida or Bama. Do that in Florida and you could easily be down 14+ points.

Thankfully, he did settle down midway through the 2nd quarter and had a strong finish. For a guy prone to bonehead mistakes like fumbles, forced passes and interceptions, Crompton will have to shake off last year and step up to take this team deep in the rankings.

Thankfully, the Vols defense played an outstanding game and stopped the Hilltoppers from capitalizing on crompton’s mistakes.

With many of the initial question marks now gone with their first win as a team but some key ones remain. The Vols performed exactly how a Top 20 team should play against a team of WKU’s talent. The Vols dominated both sides of the ball and came away with an outstanding victory.

But what about the constancy factor?  How will the team play against higher-caliber teams like UCLA next week or one on the road and more importantly how will Lane Kiffin do against the rivals of ‘Bama, Flordia and Georgia?  It’s a long season ahead but even with those critical questions left unanswered we are excited about how the program has come together.

Go Vols!

NOTES:

• Many former Vols were in attendance for the game including Peyton Manning, Albert Haynesworth, Terry Fair and Joey Kent.
• Very sad news. Friday night before the game former Vol Jesse Mahelona died in a car accident in Hawaii.
• Overall, of the 7 TD’s scored by the Vols 3 were by freshmen.
• Tennessee amassed 657 yards of offense, of which 380 came on the ground.
• ERIC BERRY HEISMAN Watch: Berry almost intercepted the first pass of the Hilltoppers but in the end was held to 3 tackles and 1 pass defensed.
• Rivals: Florida wins, ‘Bama wins against VTech, Georgia loses against OK St.

[Vol Walk photo source]