“Sometimes the ball goes your way,” Ja’Wuan James said, “and sometimes it doesn’t.”
For James and UT football’s 27 other seniors, the ball bounced their way arguably just once during their time as Tennessee football players (see: Michael Palardy’s game-winning field goal against South Carolina on Oct. 19).
Toss in a win over North Carolina State to open the 2012 season, and it equals two games of glory to go along with innumerable moments of pain in a forgettable four years of a storied program.
Yes, a game at Kentucky on Saturday is yet to be played. But from a realistic standpoint, the meaningful portion of their UT careers ended Saturday when a close game predictably fell Vanderbilt’s way at Neyland Stadium, ensuring the Vols (4-7, 1-6 SEC) will not qualify for a bowl game.
The predictability of UT’s gut-wrenching 14-10 Senior Night loss did not stem from a lack of heart, effort or even a lack of talent.
Though the Vols may lack in talent compared to much of the SEC, they matched up similarly in that regard with the Commodores (7-4, 4-4 SEC)
Rather, UT’s second straight loss to Vanderbilt stemmed from that invisible, nobody-knows-what-it-is thing that stings the Vols all too often – even after Palardy seemed to conquer it against the Gamecocks.
Sure, this new coaching staff can – and probably will – point to certain plays, blown calls, inexperience and a gamut of other factors that played into the outcome.
But, when time after time winnable games are lost at the expense of the sanity of all involved, other explanations must be explored.
After the Vols lost to Missouri this season, I published a theory suggesting that LSU quarterback Matt Mauck placed UT under a spell in the 2001 SEC Championship Game when he knocked the Vols out of the national title picture by quarterbacking LSU to a 31-20 win over Phillip Fulmer’s Vols.
The publication of that diagnosis stemmed primarily from the eerily similar name of Missouri quarterback Maty Mauk and how he did exactly what Mauck did against the Vols 12 years before.
After all, it’s easy to point at that game in 2001 as the beginning of the program’s demise following its peak in 1998.
But on Saturday, minutes after experiencing apparent victory only to have it all too familiarly stripped away, UT senior defensive tackle Daniel Hood offered another explanation for why the Vols can never catch a break.
“That’s kind of been the burden of our senior class,” Hood said before rattling off a painful list of games and events that have made bleeding orange an exsanguination over the past four seasons.
By the way, exsanguination is the process of blood loss to a degree sufficient to cause death.
Essentially, Hood offered the senior class as a martyr for the current state of Tennessee football.
Forget Matt Mauck, Dave Clawson, Mike Hamilton, Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley.
They are not around anymore to be blamed. The only possible culprits remaining from the creation of the ashes that everybody in orange so desperately wants to be emerging from are those 28 seniors, whose time at Tennessee transcended the tenures of most of the people who are actually to blame for their dismal careers.
Fair? No, absolutely not.
But what about having the coach they committed to play for leave and go to USC was fair? What about having a program-altering win against LSU stripped away in 2010 was fair? How was a similar Music City Bowl loss to North Carolina just weeks later fair?
How was being the first Tennessee team in 27 years lose to Kentucky fair?
Throw in a forgettable 2012 season that included another coaching change and unthinkably painful losses to Georgia and Vanderbilt this year, and it’s been anything but a smooth ride.
“I hurt for them just because of all they’ve been through,” said Butch Jones, who admitted Saturday’s contest was the first time he ever had an apparent victory stripped away by a reversed call.
But instead of claiming injustice or unfairness, Hood simply took it on the chin like he and the 27 others have done for the last four years.
“We’ll carry that burden, so that in the future, we can win championships,” Hood said, “and I believe 100 percent that we’ll be able to do it in the future.”
Yes, the Butch Jones honeymoon should be over.
But whether it’s fair or not for this senior class, maybe the curse is too.
David Cobb is a junior in journalism & electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @DavidWCobb.
