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Abandonment
By Gabe Correa - Smokey' TrailFeb. 5, 2010
Abandonment: To give up completely, forsake or desert
Most fans in Tennessee like me thought we were in dire straits and rightly so. To my recall, I don’t think anybody has done what Lane Kiffin has done to a major university at the worst time [abandonment]. What seemed impossible to save a crumbling staff and defecting players on and after Jan. 12th seemed hopeless! It felt like somebody stabbed you in the gut, and your heart felt like you have been deceived by somebody you thought you knew.
Then I realized this guy wasn’t Tennessee, because the way he presented himself in the SEC. We are not the mouth of the south, and that big bad boy attitude with secondary violations left and right. We are the folklore in football with great traditions, pride, decently, integrity, discipline, courage, heart, hardnosed, hardworking, and gut playing UT football, “This is Tennessee” in all its glory. Like the days of Neyland who lead his troops to battle on and off the field. We show it on the field of play, not with your mouth.
So the sun came up the next day and we went to church to worship the Lord like so many others and asked why these things were happening to us at the worst time, and it seemed like the Lord was saying to us, you wanted a wild cat, you got it. We were wounded and had scratches from head to toe. We prayed no more Lord, just somebody with class, integrity and toughness to bring us back to the promise land.
So we waited and the walls seemed like they were coming down on us and on the third day we hear news of an unknown name on Jan. 15th “Derek Dooley”. Tennessee flies him and his family on a private jet that night in a whirlwind of news he’s been hired. Tennessee fans were frantic, and they went crazy trying to find all the information about this guy.
At the press conference we hear the words that we wanted to hear from this guy: “We are going to run this great program with class and integrity”, thank you Lord for answered prayer, for bringing us back where we need to be.
This guy rolled up his sleeves and started to work like never before with a two week span for recruiting. Not only did he get recruits, but saved the program from falling apart, and put Tennessee 9th overall in the national ranking in recruiting, according to Rivals.com. I know it’s early, but I like what I see in this young man, lawyer, coach, husband, leader and confidence in his values. Thank you Vince Dooley for teaching the values to your son, can’t say much about the other guy that was here.
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