Beware of the Orange Despair

Last year, I distinctively remember driving to Knoxville for the game and being amazed at what I heard on the radio. All of the talking heads on East Tennessee radio stations were picking Tennessee to get beat. This never happens. It does not matter who UT plays, their homers ALWAYS pick the Vols. Always.

I should know. I’m originally from Knoxville. My entire family is from East Tennessee. My Dad and other family members went to UT, and I myself grew up a Vol. The areas surrounding the Smoky Mountains are mine and my family's home, even though I spent most of my life as an army brat (by the powers of HOPE Scholarship, I saw the light, went to Georgia and received a blood transfusion to red and black).

Here’s a typical sample of what you would hear on a radio station in Tennessee: “Well Jimmy, I know we’re on our second string quarterback and we’ve got injuries all over the place, but we gonna beat these sum bitches tonight. I just know it. The Vols are just damn better, I don't care what the records are. Vols 38, Dawgs 21. Go Big Orange!”

Last year was vastly different. They were in such despair at their situation (and many wanted UGA to win in order to have an excuse to fire Fulmer), that almost all of these radio hosts were picking us to win. One guy even picked Tennessee and said he was doing so just to do it because he actually thought the Dawgs were going to win.

Even though I was shocked at this strange happening, I was suckered and bought into it. I already thought we would win. Now I was confident that their despair meant we’d crush whatever confidence they had left.

WRONG. Wrong, wrong, wrong. They caught us off guard and sucker punched us.

So, when you hear Tennessee fans talk about how they’re going to lose, they’re going to fire their coach and that humanity is about to end with a giant orange nuclear implosion, don’t listen to that garbage.

If you hear or see this orange despair, it is a reverse psychological trick they are using to try and beat us. Just ignore it if you come across it.

I’m sure this tactic was created by Cutcliffe (a.k.a. Dawg Kyrptonite). Hopefully, it is just one more thing they cannot pull off without him.