Vol Players Help Build House

Vol football players are helping build a house today. I doubt this will get much publicity outside of Knoxville. Let one of these guys break the law and it's all over SportsCenter and Twitter. It is a shame when athletes to positive things in the community, it doesn't get much attention.

Check out @UTCoachStrip's Tweet: https://twitter.com/UTCoachStrip/status/739096292635385856?s=09

My Three Favorite Vols

Today, The Big Orange Report has a guest author, my 13 year old son Nicholas Rhodes, tells us his three favorite Vols of all time.

My Three Favorite Vols

By Nicholas Rhodes

3. Jalen Hurd- Jalen Hurd is my favorite current vol. This man will soon be one of the best
running backs in the SEC and nation before long. Hurd picked up 899 yards this season and
122 yards in the Taxslayer bowl. Hurd is only a true freshman and if he this good as a freshman
just imagine how much better, stronger, and faster he might get when he has more experience
as a junior or senior. Hurd has a great future ahead of him and looking forward to watching him
next season.


2. Eric Berry- Eric Berry is currently battling cancer but before he was the star safety for the
Kansas City Chiefs. Berry has 8 career interceptions and 284 tackles as a Chief. As good as
Berry was on field he is an even better person. He has great faith and a good mind. Both will
help him in his fight against cancer and hopefully will be able to play in the NFL again soon.
#BerryStrong


1. Peyton Manning- Peyton Manning might be one of the best to play the game of football – if
not the best. On Sunday Night Football in week 6 of the regular season Manning and the
Broncos played the San Francisco 49ers. Manning was 2 touchdown passes away from tying
Brett Farve’s most touchdown passes in a career and 3 from breaking and he did. It seems like
Manning breaks a new record every other week but he also shows class about it. When he
broke his streak of at least one touchdown pass in a game he said, “I don’t need to break
another record.”

Speechless Spurrier

Tennessee's win over South Carolina was significant very a variety of reasons. It was the first road win outside the state of Kentucky since 2006. It was a statement game for the future of the program. It was a defining moment for Joshua Dobbs, and game where the quarterback of the future arrived. It was a game in which a young team can build on. But, perhaps the most significant reason was a win over coach Steve Spurrier.

Steve Spurrier, left Tennessee out of high school to attend Florida, has been a thorn in the side of the Vols for years. He beat Tennessee as the coach Duke of all places. His Florida teams kept Tennessee for winning multiple championships in the 90's. The ole ball coach, the man who would take a shot at Tennessee any chance he got, didn't have much to say after the game last night.

Surely Vol fans remember, you can't spell citrus without UT and I know why Peyton Manning came back for his senior year, so he could be a three time MVP of the Citrus Bowl. Even this past off season after losing to the Vols, he still could not help himself by saying, "Alabama and Tennessee like each other, I don't know why Tennessee would like them though."

After last nights 45-42 win over South Carolina the head ball coach had very little to say. In fact his post game press conference lasted all of 42 seconds. For as much as Spurrier likes to talk, he was pretty much left speechless. He ended that conference by saying, "So, I don't need to take any questions. You guys watched it, and I need to just get out of here." Ironic isn't it, the coach who goes out of his way to jab Tennessee, walks out of his press conference without taking questions. He left speechless.

Butch Jones is now 2-0 versus Spurrier and his teams have out played and out coached the head ball coach. Two years in row Spurrier has been left with very little to say.  Being from Tennessee, Spurrier loves to beat the Vols. He has lost two in a row in both times losing late leads.

One has to wonder how much longer Spurrier coaches. When he does decide to walk away on it might just end the same way his as last night, with him saying, "So, I don't need to take any questions. You guys watched it, and I need to just get out of here."

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It's True We Don't Like Kiffin

It's true we Tennessee fans don't like Lane Kiffin much. However, it has nothing to do with what the national media would have the rest of the nation believe. The national media would have everyone believe it is because he is a good coach. Check his record, he failed with both the Raiders and Trojans. There's nothing to suggest he is a good head coach. I do think he is a talented play caller, but not a head coach. So despite what Herbstreit or Finebaum would tell the rest of the country, we don't like Kiffin because we think he's a good coach.

The real reason Tennessee fans don't like Kiffin is how and when he left. First, they way he left was classless, literally in the middle of the night. His staff contacted Tennessee early enrollees set to start the next day the night he left instructing them not to go to class, using Tennessee paid cell phones no less. But really at least to me it was when he left. He left after only one year on the job, now based on what happened at USC, there's no doubt in my mind his tenure would have ended with him being fired. At the time, no one would have known that. Leaving a program after one year in mid January was devastating to Tennessee. It hurt recruiting and who's going to leave their job to take the Tennessee job that would be any good. That's exactly what happened Tennessee hired quite possibly the worst coach the SEC has seen in the modern era. Kiffin's decision to leave Tennessee set this program back 5 to 7 years. Only now are the Vols starting to dig out of the debacle that was Lane Kiffin.

Yes it's true we don't like Kiffin, but not for the reasons the national media would have you believe. It's not because he's a good coach, it's how and when he left that ultimately set this program back years that only now is Butch Jones starting to bring back.

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