The CheckerBoard

Why the constant negative posts? We're moving forward, you should too...

I'm not one of those Gruden-truthers who thinks he was signed and delivered. But I do think we had a chance to make a statement to the rest of the college football world and we didn't even try.

Really hard to see what there is to be so optimistic about. The next coach we hire could be good or bad, just like every other college coach hired this offseason. The chance for it to be anything other than another lottery ticket is already out the window.

The next coach will be better than Dooley, but this university has made it clear we are not interested in playing on the same level as schools we thought were our contemporaries.

Maybe you should move on if someone who isn't afraid to be a little bit critical bothers you. I'm not bashing my school, I'm just pissed off by a decision they made. I'll get over it probably, but I haven't yet.

This casts a pall on the whole program. If they had gone all out and it hadn't worked people would move on, but now you're going to hear about this for the entire tenure of the next coach if he isn't Knute Rockne. That's just reality. So much for finally uniting the fan base.

Twenty years from now we'll have drunk idiots calling into the postgame show talking about Gruden and how UT blew it. It's sad.

I posted a funny thread about Mike Gundy throwing out an Oklahoma fan and dancing. I've made numerous positive posts about different candidates. I'm not raining negativity, I just think we made a major mistake. You want me to pretend I am super-duper pumped about it or something?

Your OP is "Everywhere you look Vol-fail is there" is much more than " I'm not raining negativity, I just think we made a major mistake." You really think that is not raining negativity??????????

Oh look, Bryce Brown just fumbled the game away!

Everyone do yourself a favor and ignore this poster, just like I am, now. Grow up, kid.........and go to bed.

You guys are hilarious. I'm not negative on everything, just things that deserve it. I was one of the people willing to call a spade a spade with Dooley while most of you were probably still pretending the guy wasn't terrible at his job. And now look at the situation, all this stuff that we "negavols" were saying has turned out to be 100% true. Our recruiting is better without a head coach than it was with Dooley. All the people who were just telling people around them what a jerk the guy was are now speaking publicly. And as we saw with the rest of the season the guy was a terrible coach, just like a few of us had been saying. Meanwhile most of you thought the man was a saint who had bad luck and were hoping he could go 6-6 so we'd get to deal with him for another year, if only those mean ole college kids would play hard and save his job.

So complain about me, ignore me, neg me, I literally do not care. The reason I am unhappy with this football program is because it's in the worst shape it's ever been in. I pay for sites like this(and yes, I have a VQ membership too) because I love my university, love my football program, and if I'm going to be emotionally and financially invested in both of those things then I want to have the best information about them. I don't just go to games and wave pom poms and get drunk and enjoy the social experience.

So yeah, when I see a kid like Bryce Brown on my TV ripping up the NFL I think "Gee, he would have been good here if he'd stayed." And when I watch our most hated rival go to their third national title game in four years it makes me think less than pleasant thoughts about my own 5-7 team. I must be human. To sit here and pretend I'm thrilled with everything about the Vols would be vapid and insincere, not to mention insulting to my own intelligence.

I'll try not to be such a downer when it's not necessary, but if you want a sunshine pumper just go ahead and ignore me because I call it like I see it.