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Big Orange Roundtable Vol(ume) 5

By MoonDog | August 5, 2008

This week’s Big Orange Roundtable is being hosted by the one and only Your Mother Slept with Wilt Chamberlain. Thomas has compiled a good list of questions for us this week and it should provide all of us an opportunity to enlighten you, the lucky reader, with evidence that none of us knows what the hell we’re talking about.

At the end of this post is a list of the other participating blogs so please check back over the next few days to see their answers. At the end of the week, Thomas will post the Big Orange Roundup so please take a few minutes to check that out as well.

On to this week’s questions.

1. One former VOL made the brave choice to testify against some Bammers and has to enter witness protection with a whole new identity, but that also gives him 4 more years of eligibility. Which VOL would you pick and why?

Al Wilson. In my mind, he’s the reason Tennessee won the national championship in 1998. Hailing from Brownsville, TN just outside of Memphis, Wilson wasn’t the most highly regarded player nationally. He certainly didn’t fit the mold of prototypical linebackers, listed as 6-0 and 225 but closer to 5-10.

Wilson embodied everything a football player should be - tough, passionate, aggressive - and he had heart, perhaps more heart than anyone that has ever donned a Tennessee uniform.

Without Al Wilson in the middle of the Volunteer defense that season, I honestly don’t know if Tennessee wins the national championship. He was a leader on the field and off, providing a constant example for his team mates.

If the Vols ever find a player like Al Wilson again, that’s the day we can look forward to another national title.

2. Alabama has been given the death penalty and is forced to leave the SEC, at the same time South Carolina decides it can win a lot more in the Sunbelt conference and bolts the SEC. Two teams have to take their place who would you like to see take their place?

Logistically, there are a lot of teams that would fit nicely into the SEC. Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, Missouri and West Virginia come to mind. But the two teams I’d like to see in the SEC are Virginia Tech and Miami.

The Hokies have proven to be one of the most consistently good football programs in the nation, with a rabid fan base and a hard-nosed style of play that would be an interesting contrast to the more speed-oriented style currently being played in the SEC.

Blacksburg obviously isn’t much of a television market but neither are most of the other candidates. Besides, if you play in the SEC and you’re the only conference in America with a guaranteed national game every week, a school’s location doesn’t matter.

The Hurricanes are going to return to prominence in the next year or two, with Randy Shannon doing a great job of recruiting top-level prep players.

Miami is one of the premier football programs in the nation and the natural rivalry they have with Florida would make for great games every year with a lot more at stake being within the same conference.

Miami has a large TV market and it would be another team potentially representing the SEC on their home turf during the bowl season, playing the annual Orange Bowl game in Miami and every fourth year hosting the BCS national championship game.

Obviously, that gives the SEC a huge advantage in earning even more BCS titles the conference can hang its hat on.

3. What will be the toughest road game to win and why?

Auburn. Coming off an emotional game against the Gators and having to visit the Plains the following week is going to be the most difficult game of the season for the Vols.

Even with a victory against Florida, its next to impossible to recapture that same level of emotion. Not to mention, if the Vols enter the game undefeated, Auburn is going to have extra incentive to hand the Vols their first loss.

This is a game I honestly don’t think the Vols can win. Auburn is going to be very tough, especially at home and factoring in the previous week’s game against Florida, Auburn defeats the Vols in a fairly close game.

4. Could have the great Coach Fulmer handled himself better at the SEC media event when he was asked about the subpoena instead of asking what subpoena?

Certainly, especially the initial comments where he stated someone threw something at him and he put the papers in his suitcase without looking at it.

Come on, who does that? If someone anonymously hands you a piece of paper, are you seriously going to stow it away for later reading?

He was clearly upset, as all of us would be, knowing he got ambushed by a pseudo-processor ambulance chasing Bammer with an obvious agenda.

Of course, Fulmer has never been a glossy public speaker and frankly I’m surprised he didn’t say something to the effect of “We’re going to work like heck to resolve these legal issues.”

All things considered, sure, he could have handled it a little better. But I try to put myself in his shoes and think what I might say or do.

Chances are, I would have strangled the shit out the guy who served me the papers and then I would have taken center stage at the media gathering and said, “I’m going to work like heck to resolve my anger issues.”

Check out the answers from the other participating Volunteer blogs.

Fulmer’s Belly

Third Saturday in Blogtober

Southeastern Sports Blog

The Power T

Rocky Top Talk

Gate 21

Loser’s with Socks

The View From The Hill