Josh Heupel is one of the best coaches in College Football. His staff is great also. Heupel is an offensive wizard like Steve Spurrier minus the smart mouth. Heupel knows how to relate to players. Him and his staff develop talent. My favorite thing about Heupel is he is a cool customer. Never gets rattled. Any offensive studs playing High School Football should be wanting to play in Heupel's system. Especially kids in Tennessee.

I am amazed at the job Heupel has done at Tennessee. After the 2020 season I thought UT Football would never be back. Jeremy Pruitt was the 3rd of terrible hires for Football coach at UT. Derek Dooley and Butch Jones were terrible. After Pruitt was fired about 40 players went into the transfer portal. Lot of them were starters coming off a 3-7 season. Rather than make excuses Josh Heupel went to work. He never said anything about wait till I get my players. He started coaching up the players he had. In less than 2 years UT is ranked 3rd in the nation with huge wins over Florida,LSU and Alabama. If someone had told me when Heupel was hired that UT would be ranked #3 in the country with the #1 offense in the country I would have asked them what they were smoking. Haven't been this pumped up about UT Football since 1998.

Bama been doing it for years.

What is bad is Jay Wright was recommended for the UT Basketball job from Ernie Grunfield. Instead Doug Dickey listened to Roy Williams and Dean Smith and hired Buzz Peterson. Jay Wright was at Sienna then. He went to Villanova and the rest is history.

ZZ Top is bad to the bone. Dusty was a legend and will be missed.

Powell will be hard to beat. They should win the 5A State Championship. Their Skill players are 2nd to none. Stopping the run had been their weakness. Walter Nolan will take care of that.

A legend gone too soon. A great player at UT and the Detroit Lions. He was a legend at Rule High School. First time I saw Mike Cofer was in the fall of 1978. Rule was playing at Maryville. I was playing for Maryville Junior High then. All Maryville Junior High Football players got into the Maryville High School games for free. We always went in the gate next to the visitors locker room. I saw Mike Cofer outside the locker room. He looked like a grown man. He was a beast. I remember thinking Rule would kill Maryville. Maryville won 30 0. David Reed returns opening kickoff for touchdown. Reed was really fast but Mike Cofer nearly caught him. Reed was 180lbs Running Back. Cofer was a 6,6 250lbs Defensive End.

As a Maryville Rebel supporter it wasn't easy watching Bearden beat Maryville by 23 points the other night. There is a silver lining though. I watched Drew Pember the other night. Drew Pember is 6'10 with a real good shooting touch and handles the ball well. He needs to get stronger. He is skinny. He needs to redshirt. In a few years I could see Drew Pember helping the Vols. What impressed me the most about Drew Pember is his defense. He moves really well for a 6'10 guy. He guarded Maryville point guard Joe Anderson and smothered Joe all game long. Joe isn't a run of the mill high school point guard. Joe is a junior that has been offered by ETSU. Heard Belmont is interested in Joe also. Joe lit Bearden for 30 points in earlier meeting. Pember didn't play in the 1st game because of injury. Bearden is a way better team with Drew Pember in the lineup. I was impressed with Drew Pember.

For the 1st time since I followed Tennessee Volunteer Men's Basketball. I feel like Tennessee has a real shot of winning a National Title. First of all Tennessee has a great coach in Rick Barnes. Barnes has a great staff. The players play great team Basketball. No one cares who gets the credit. All the players have high basketball IQ. The players are very coachable. They players have great chemistry. The players are physically and mentally tough. The players are very talented. Grant Williams is one of the best post players in college basketball. Admiral Schoefield is one of the most versitle players in college basketball. Kyle Alexander is one of the most athletic centers in college basketball. Jordan Bone is one of the fastest players in college basketball. Yves Pons is one of the freakiest athletes in college basketball. Lamonte Turner is one of the best bench players in college basketball. Jordan Bowden has elevated his game. Derek Walker and John Fulkerson have improved. Jalen Johnson has shown flashes. It has been so much fun watching this Tennessee Basketball team.

I don't see how UT could win 8 games. Last years team had the worst Oline in history. Defense was terrible. No SEC QB on the roster. I think RB and Receivers are good. It will take Jeremy Pruitt a few years to clean this mess up. Changing Strength and Conditioning coaches so much hurt the program. I believe Pruitt and his staff is very good.  UT had 3 bad coaches in a row. Kiffin,Dooley and Butch were awful.

A few John Ward memories. http://www.bengarrett.net/2018/06/25/john-ward-1930-2018/

Awesome article.

I'll always remember the bammer game from 98 or 2000 (not sure of the year, but it was a home game). Leonard Scott returned a kickoff 100+ yards, but there was a flag on the play and everyone in the stadium thought it was coming back.

There was an endless wait for the ref's signal, and then:

JW: "The penalty is against.........AL!...A!...BAMA!"

You could almost hear the entire state going nuts.
 

It was Peerless Price vs Alabama in 1998.

Football

40,35,30,25,20,15,10,5,4,3,2,1 Give Him 6 Touchdown Tennessee

The National Championship is Clad in Big Orange

NO SIR REE  NO SIR REE Final Score Tennessee 20 Florida 17 Pandemonium Reigns

William Gault is running to the state capital.

Manning to Kent All he did was score on play number 1.

He was tackled by a host of Volunteers

Saacked

He is hit at the 10 He fights,scratches,twists and churns all the way to the 5 yd stripe.

From Memphis to Mountain City From Union City to Copper Hill. It's Football time in Tennessee.

Basketball

Guns Bangs

Pops Drops

Tickles the Twine

King of the Volunteers with an assist from Ernie G.

Wood Good

Nix Clicks

Bottom

Awesome

Ahh, 1979.  The year Alcoa had Maryville beat and then our QB pitches the ball to a ghost at the goal line...

It took 1985 (my Senior year) for Alcoa to finally beat Maryville.

As a Sophomore, you probably had to play against Todd Upton from Alcoa?  He was a beast.

I think you are thinking 1978. 1979 was 24-0 Maryville. 1980 was a year Maryville won 3-0. Todd Upton was a beast. Kid for Alcoa dropped a sure TD in 1980. My senior Year we stuffed Alcoa at the goal line to win 14-11.

I still remember my sophomore year at Maryville during the 1979 football season. Humboldt beat Maryville 13-10 in the AA Title game. Maryville was a small school in those days. Denso changed that. I know the coach that Tnphil is talking about.  Danny Nowell is his name. His son and my nephew played travel baseball together in Franklin. 1st time I met him he told me he was Franklin Head Coach. I told him I lived in Maryville. He then told me he was on the Humboldt staff when they beat Maryville in 1979. He also told me the same kid scored all 13 points. 2 field goals and a fumble return for a TD. That game winning field goal barely made it.  Crazy that my graduating class in 1982 had about 170 kids. My nephew that just graduated from Maryville was one of 425 kids who graduated. I remember Humboldt playing Marion County in 1995 state title game. Humboldt had a stud RB. Former UT OL was on that Humboldt team. Sad that Humboldt is that bad. They used to be feared. As a Rebel supporter I see how important coaching is.

Cant wait to hear the reception Thad Matta gets in TBA next year.

Thank you for firing Rick Barnes. Barnes coached Texas to 16 NCAA tourneys in 17 years. Now look at Texas. They have a losing record now.

Rick Barnes inherited a mess at UT. With the way Cuonzo Martin quit after the 2014 season and the hiring of Donnie Tyndall hurt UT Basketball. It killed recruiting.

Rick Barnes can flat out coach. The improvement of Robert Hubbs,Admiral Schoefield and Kyle Alexander is because of coaching and player development. I believe he has an eye for talent. Jordan Bone,Lemonte Turner,Jordan Bowden,John Fulkerson and Grant Williams are darn good players. They may not be lottery picks but will help UT win lots of games in the future. I am curious how much Kwe Parker will improve. Can't wait to see Jalen Johnson play next season. I also believe when recruits see the product Barnes is putting out the big time players will show more interest. Saw some video on Zach Kent. I think he has potential. I think the future is bright at UT.

George Quarles left the program in great shape. I expect Derek Hunt or Mike White to be the head coach. George was a great coach but had a lot of help. I will miss George Quarles the coach. I will miss him the person just as much if not more. My nephew was starting QB on the first Maryville team George was head coach of. Since my nephew was playing at Maryville George has been good to my family. A lot of people don't know this about George is he loves to joke and kid around. You can joke and kid around with him. Every time he saw me at the games he would say 'Didn't think Cheryl(Wife) let you go to games no more"  After he said that he had that cat swallowed the canary grin on his face. After the Bearden game this past season I started giving Quarles a good ribbin. I was teasing him about all those times Maryville was on Rivalry Thursday game that Mark Packer broadcasted. When Maryville was on TV in those games Mark Packer would send sideline reporters Austin Price and Jesse Smithey to interview George during the game. George wasn't crazy about those interviews and they didn't last long.  Now this past season the Rivalry Thursdays games had this pretty young blond sideline reporter named Sara Mitchell. During the Maryville/Fulton game Sara Mitchell interviewed George Quarles during the game. I bet that interview lasted 15-20 minutes.  I asked George how come when Jesse Smithey or Austin Price interviewed you that you would barely talk to them but when Sara Mitchell interviewed you the conversation lasted 20 minutes.  He had that goofy grin on his face and said " I'm not no dummy Ron"

Maryville lost the state title to Ravenwood last year. Maryville looks great. It looks like Maryville and Oakland are on a collision course to meet each other in the semifinal game in 3 weeks. Game will be at Oakland.

From 2007-2015:

9 years
121 games
8114 offensive snaps

55 holding penalties
37 holding penalties against OL or 1 every 3.3 games.

OL is flagged for holding every 219 snaps.

Alabama had zero holding penalties during 65% of their games.

Only 2 times during 121 games was Alabama flagged for holding while trailing on the scoreboard.

During 78 conference games, their OL was flagged for holding 19 times (1 every 4.1 gms).
During their remaining 43 games, 18 times (1 every 2.4 gms).

Interesting Breakdown:

9 games vs. Auburn ................. 2 holding penalties against OL.
6 games vs. Florida .................. 1
4 games vs. Georgia ................ 0
10 games vs. LSU .................... 3
9 games vs. Tennessee ............ 1
9 games vs. Ole Miss ............... 2

9 games vs. Arkansas .............. 6

Awesome.

Watched this kid vs Maryville last night. Very explosive. Can flat out fly.  I watched Maryville play against Jacoby Stevens and Zack Dobson. Dobson scared me to death every time he touched the ball. Dobson is way faster than Stevens.

Jacoby Stevens is way overated. I saw a Maryville receiver that went to Mercer College in Georgia burn Jacoby all night long in the Maryville vs Oakland semifinal game last year. I bet Kelby Brock wouldn't burn Eric Berry.

2 backs in Tennessee could fit UT's needs. Very impressed with Ty Chandler and Cordarian Richardson. Also Chase Hayden could grow into a RB.

Come on Ron, what do you have against Punks and clowns????  Either of the two categories would be an upgrade
for  that little biatch!