I hope it is but I am as concerned about that game as any on the schedule. Gonna be a crazy atmosphere and you never know what can happen.

It's true that you never know what can happen, but I like our players better in every positional matchup. This is a game we ought to win.

With that said I'm likely to be nervous as hell for this one since the setting is so big.

No doubt he's taken the blame for a lot of things that really have nothing to do with him, but I just find him arrogant and condescending, and I don't like him. That's enough for me. His handling of the Pearl saga was more than enough for me to want to see him ridden off campus on a rail. Even if the NCAA quietly left the university no choice, you don't throw a team of student-athletes under the bus like Cheek and Hamilton did (and let's not beat around the bush...Cheek was pulling Hamilton's chain through that entire process).

I'm not sure how much of the blame for that resides with Hamilton vs. Cheek but I agree with you 100% that stronger leadership makes that whole situation 1000x better, and that was a MAJOR athletics failure under his watch.

While I don't think Cheek has been a great chancellor, I also think he's been made a scapegoat by UT sports fans in ways that don't really fit his actual actions as chancellor. He wasn't the barrier to athletics success that people have made him out to be.

So...bringing this back to the top. We seem to have anywhere from 6 - 8 that could make it that Friday, September 2nd from 4pm - ?? at the Casual Pint Hardin Valley here in Knoxville.. I checked with Casual Pint and it is $35/hour to reserve the big room. Plus, any other costs if we bring in any food to have for dinner. Everyone still interested? If so, I'd be more than happy to call Casual Pint and book that room ahead of time.

Everyone still interested?

It's starting to look like I'm not going to be in town for this. 

You and I (and again, anyone else with interest) will have to do another time before football season.

I will probably be there. There are some things hitting labor day weekend that may take me out of town that Friday but if not I'll definitely attend. 

No no! Love the marvel stuff, and it is no fad, it is here to stay!

It's very well done.

BDV why are comic books a bad source material for action movies, in your opinion? I mean that's all they are, and if they're well done I'll keep watching them.

1-3. (tie) Spiderman 1-3 with Tobey MacGuire
4. Guardians of the Galaxy (how did you guys miss this one?)
5. The second of the latest Batman trilogy (but not a fan of the first or third at all)

Honorable mention...any of the Iron Man movies, the first Thor movie and the first FF

Near the bottom...X-men movies.  Way too heavy and serious, and most of them also moved verrrrryyyyyy slllllloooowwwwwllllyyy

Disclaimer...I a huge Spidey fan.   

I disagree with most of what you wrote here, but GOTG does deserve at least honorable mention. It was great.

Mine:

 1- The Dark Knight
 2 - The Avengers
 3 - Captain America: Civil War
 4 - Blade
 5 - Batman Begins

I'd kick Blade out in favor of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and might quibble on the order, but ranking them is tough. Otherwise, good list.

I like my beer like my women; dark and bitter.

 

So CO might get a part day off.  

That's cool but I'm not giving up my parking spot.  

Expanding into Virginia and NC would finally complete the Old Confederacy.  The conference could be renamed the CFC.   

Jokes aside, I don't think UNC will leave the ACC.  They mostly care about basketball.  This is also true to a lesser extent of Virginia, though they may be more amenable.

The best bet would appear to be NC State and Virginia Tech, but again, NC State is all about basketball and their rivalry with UNC.  I don't see them coming over either.

While OU is a small state, they are a national brand and have a big time stadium that they fill up.  Those things matter.   I could see Va Tech and OU, but I actually partially agree with BDV...the SEC is strong enough as it is.  OTOH, what's wrong with a bit more competition?

But here is what I will say...VaTech seems like a great candidate.  They would bring in some of the DC market in addition to Virginia.  But I just can't see any major NC school coming to the SEC.  I would say VaTech and possibly Maryland or Louisville.

It sure would be nice to fill in with one from NC, but I don't see it happening.

I kind of agree but you could have made the same arguments about Texas A&M leaving Texas and their other state/regional rivals to come to the SEC. I wouldn't have thought that possible a few years ago.

I'd take VT and NCSU and call it a day if they were willing. If UVA and UNC are too uppity about academics or basketball to join the SEC, then they can suck it when their in-state rivals start to dominate them due to the SEC halo effect.

I'm with BDV. Put VA and NC in our footprint and forget expanding further west. Adding 2 of UVA, VT, UNC, NCSU does that and even if you don't get either AAU school the other two have strong academics, particularly in STEM. While that isn't a determining factor it doesn't hurt. Mizzou and A&M were both good additions in that way.

Much will have to be sorted out to make this work. I'm shocked they're doing it.

But assuming I'll have to work that day and will already be on campus with a parking spot . . . I am going to go to this one for sure. Tailgate in my office!

Well, if the hussy's are to be included in this event.....late August would work best for me....my summer is crazy with grandkid stuff!  :) 

Hussys are of course invited!

GBO boss.

MIAUTiger and I discussed the possibility of having a beverage sometime later this this summer and thought we could extend the invite and make it a thing if people were interested. Obviously if any of you outside the area will be in town later this summer and are interested, let us know that too . . . that may help us zero in on a date. My inclination is to shoot for a Friday afternoon/evening happy hour but I'm somewhat flexible and he may be as well.

He's put the last week in June and the first week in August out there as potential early dates but I'm thinking later in August might end up being the target. Who's up for this? Give me some input on timing if you are.

If I lose my taste for beer please have me committed. Started drinking beer in the mid-60's....Falstaff....PBR...Old Milwaukee....Schlitz. I can't drink this fufu beer crap that's out there now. Beer shouldn't tasted like damn fruit....craft beer and IPA's should be banned and dumped in the ocean, IMO.

I've got a frig full of beer right now.....I assure you it's beer and not kool-aide tasting beer.

I stopped drinking liquor about 7 years ago because I drank it like water.....I'd go through 3-4 750Mil of Vodka every week and would barely get a buzz...had to put it down and don't miss it. Wine, cant help you....never cared for it.

Craft beer and fruity beer are not at all the same thing, and what you're drinking tastes more like water than beer-- IMO, of course. I'm beyond criticizing people for what they drink these days, so if that's what you like, good for you. We'll agree to disagree.

I don't drink fruity beers either but I drink beer that has flavor. Malt, hops-- those are what beer should taste like and you don't get either from the mass-produced American swill. This is what's in my fridge right now: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1199/7463/
 
With that said, like BDV I get tired of beer sometimes. I'm in one of those periods now, and for the last year+ I've barely had any. I'll drink wine sometimes, but more than anything I drink whisky these days.

I do not want to hear "I cannot afford vacation." because you really cannot afford not to take time off for some fun.

I realized I need to get off my butt and start enjoying life again.

Do not say I plan on traveling after I retire because odds are you will not get to

because I can

Go now because you do not know how much time you have left.

You just summed up some of the big reasons I am making significant changes in my life right now-- including (but not limited to) more traveling NOW instead of saving for later.

Immediate (<1 year) trip plans include long weekends in Chattanooga and maybe Asheville, a few days in Daytona to visit old friends, and possibly a week somewhere in Central America. I'm hoping the next five years will include 2-3 trips overseas but those plans are in early stages.

Is Tuttle going to be back and healthy?  I have not heard.

He's walking on it but I don't think he's playing football on it anytime soon. I've seen him on campus twice and haven't been terribly encouraged.

Thankfully Fall camp is still a ways off.

I am projecting the same thing.

But I thought that after the Iowa crushing too...

Well here's what I've decided. No matter how many times I've been optimistic and had my hopes dashed, none of those times were 2016. 2016 is a new year with fresh hope and plenty of reason to be optimistic, and I'm determined not to let past failures drag me down. That's my life as a fan: optimism and homerism and I'm not letting anything take that away from me.

I'm in sort of fresh-outlook-on-life-mode all around and I'm making UT sports a part of that. WWFDT. All of them.

I think we're going to be unloading years of frustration this fall.

Maybe with Slive out of the way something will finally happen.

No way in hell. The NCAA protects its elite programs these days.

Whoever's managing the Shields-Watkins turf has no idea what he's doing. He's costing the AD tons of money and making it an embarrassing and unplayable surface.

It's pathetic.

next years draft. I think Hurd is going to have a great year. Sutton will be in the mix. Next years draft should be the best one for the Vols in years. Unfortunately, it means replacing a lot of talent.

Sutton or Barnett would be my guess.

Brits are big into craft brewing as well

Everybody is now, it seems. Craft beer has a growing market in Rome now but you can't really get it at restaurants and probably not in stores-- just some bars that focus on beer, like Ma Che Siete Venuti A Fa', which is an awesome place.