“Opportunistic” is the word Tennessee coach Butch Jones used to describe one of the wackiest sequences in recent UT football history.
Time after time on Saturday the ball found its way from the arms of a Western Kentucky player to the arms of a Tennessee player, almost as if it was preordained.
And it very well may have been.
“It was just something that I guess you could say the football gods offered,” junior cornerback Justin Coleman said of his interception return for a touchdown which was the first of five straight turnovers by WKU in the first quarter.
In Tennessee’s 52-20 win over the Hilltoppers, bad karma, bad luck or angry football gods were nowhere to be found. Those things were busy terrorizing Florida in a 21-16 loss to Miami. The Gators committed five turnovers in that game.
They also plagued Lane Kiffin as USC lost at home 10-7 to an unranked Washington State.
Meanwhile, at Neyland Stadium – where Florida abruptly ended UT’s momentum in 2012 and where Kiffin left the Vols high and dry after one season – “opportunistic” was back in style as if it were the Phillip Fulmer era.
In 2004 when James Wilhoit recovered from a missed PAT to drill a 51-yard field goal with 13 seconds left to beat the Gators, that was opportunistic.
Another example: In 1998 when Clint Stoerner stumbled and fumbled, giving UT the chance it needed to score and keep its National Championship hopes afloat.
Even in 2005 when the Vols struggled to a 5-7 record, they were on the “opportunistic” end with a come from behind win led by reserve quarterback Rick Clausen on an emotional night in LSU’s Tiger Stadium.
Those are just a few glimpses of the heroics UT has missed out on in recent years that could make a return if opportunistic decides to hang around.
Not to say there haven’t been moments of glory for UT since Fulmer’s tenure, but they have generally been followed by debacles like a fluke loss to North Carolina in the 2010 Music City Bowl or a horrendous defeat at the hands of Kentucky in 2011.
The problem now is sustaining the opportunistic. An average UT offense could turn the ball over as many times at No. 2 Oregon as Western Kentucky did against the Vols.
Does UT revert to its recent ways and subject itself to the mercy of those football gods at that point?
Or does it play with the short-memory, “snap and clear” mentality that Butch Jones preaches?
Realistically, UT’s chances against Oregon are slim. Trust me. I’m writing a “Why UT will win” piece for Oregon’s student paper this week and have thought about it from every possible angle.
In a desperate attempt for ideas, I tweeted for help yesterday. Though it was a satirical response, one fan offered the divine intervention bit like Coleman did.
“We live in the Bible Belt and Oregon is the most secular region in country,” he tweeted. “God is on our side.”
It won’t help against Oregon, but whatever it was that caused Western Kentucky to commit seven turnovers against UT should be enough to – for lack of a better term – put the fear of the football gods into Florida.
David Cobb is junior in journalism & electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected], in the office at (865) 974-0646 or on Twitter at @DavidWCobb
