All Entries in the "Tennessee" Category
Sports Fans are Candles in the Wind
Three friends sitting in a bar, late August 2009, discussing college football. Jim’s team is the Tennessee Volunteers. Mike’s team is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Dave’s team is the North Dakota State Bison They’re experts. They’re seasoned fans. They… know… The Game. Jim: We finally got ourselves a real coach, boys! Lane Kiffin is gonna [...]
For Tennessee, Progress is in the Risk
By Christopher Gabriel, CGabriel.com The Phillip Fulmer Era at the University of Tennessee has ended. The final statement in his long tenure on the Vols sideline was a 28-10 win over Kentucky. After several Gatorade showers, a brief interview on ESPN and lots of hugs, smiles and a few tears, he was carried off the field by his players while clutching [...]
Phillip Fulmer: A Man for Too Many Seasons
By Christopher Gabriel, CGabriel.com It’s deer hunting season here in Minnesota. The first shot was fired sometime around dawn on Saturday, November 8. More than 500,000 hunters go after deer annually throughout the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Similarly, the first shots already have been fired in the annual college football coach hunting season. The major heads on the [...]
When the Team Goes South, Don’t Blame the Boo-Birds
By Christopher Gabriel, CGabriel.com When I go to sporting events, I don’t boo. It doesn’t matter if my team is playing like a bunch of sheep wearing cleats and helmets, I just don’t boo. I simply turn to my wife and berate the team . . . to her. Thankfully, after 19 years she still indulges me. [...]
College Coaches: Are They Worth The Big Money?
By Christopher Gabriel Blog Harbor and CGabriel.com Last week I was talking with a Tennessee Volunteers fan about, of all people, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma. The topic was Auriemma’s new contract that will pay him more than legendary Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt. To suggest he was irate over this new development would be an understatement. But [...]
A Look Back, A Look Ahead . . . Some Things Don’t Change
By Christopher Gabriel, Blog Harbor Every December when New Year’s Eve rolls around, it’s long since been the norm for newspapers, magazines, radio stations and cable news outlets to offer up a year-end recap of all that’s gone on in the world. More often than not you’ll read, watch or listen to a well-written or highly-produced piece that is [...]
Looking for Bobby (Petrino)
The Scene: Tuesday, December 4, 2007, The Bison Club of Spoon River Junction, Georgia. Tonight is the annual, much-heralded and highly anticipated, Gathering of the Bison Holiday Bash. One night a year, the proud lineage of Georgia Bison (the nation’s largest chapter), all 4500 of them, wearing their holiday “uniform” of black pants, black shirt and [...]
Championship Saturday in College Football
The first Saturday in December, traditionally, is when college football and clarity meet head-on. Conference championships are won, the bowl picture is cleared up and, more often than not, all hell breaks loose. Today shapes up as yet another one of those days. Your biggest games: Missouri vs. Oklahoma, Big 12 Championship Tennessee vs. LSU, SEC Championship [...]
