Tennessee vs. Georgia brings out passion
Rick and Bobbi Davis packed up their RV last week, each grabbing a toy dog before leaving Niceville, Florida for a vacation in Georgia and Tennessee Northwest ends with the game of football, Tennessee and Georgia Knoxville.
Rick, a native Signal Mountain, like the University of Georgia, Bobbi, a native of Kingsport, Tennessee, is a graduate of the University of Tennessee. He graduated from UGA in 1978, the year his wife graduated from UT.
So this week, he packed the RV with Georgia flags, T-shirts and a plush red Uga, the mascot of Georgia Bulldog.Bobbi packed the RV with flags of Tennessee orange T-shirts and a plush Smokey, the Coonhound Tennessee.
Even their clothes reflect their allegiance. "Hers are mostly orange," says Rick, "and mine are mostly red."
They, like the other 102,000 fans who will attend UT first sellout football season at Neyland Stadium, are runaway for the 40th time in school playing the other. Tennessee leads the series with a 21-17-2 record, but every game is another chance for victory.
Top 10 topics in college football . . .
1. Oh happy day!
It's time for the part of college football that you all love - the release of the first Bowl Championship Series standings of the season on Sunday. The number of unbeaten teams is at a robust 13 entering Saturday's action, but unless there are any shockers during the day, the top three in some order will be Oklahoma, LSU and Alabama. The first standings are a lousy predictor; in the 13 years of the BCS, only once - Texas and Southern California in 2005 - have the top two teams in the first week reached the national championship game.
2.The No-Sunshine State
Of 472 weeks in a row dating back to December 6, 1982, at least one of three major college football in Florida - Florida State, Florida and Miami - were ranked in the Top 25. But it is a period of low right now for the trio, and the series ended this week. State of Florida, has taken in this space pre-season to play for the national championship, is 2-3 and has not been in a BCS bowl since 2005. The Gators, who won two of the last five national titles, are 8-7 in their last 15 games.And Miami, under the former Temple coach Al Golden, trying to get a program established by pushing the threat of sanctions NCAA.
In Tennessee, a minister accused of ordering an assault on his gay son and the son's boyfriend has now been charged with stealing copper, according to Advocate.com. Jerry Pittman, pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland, was arrested Sept.
The two sides have created T-shirts and bought space on billboards to express their disgust with each other; not shockingly, some messages exceed the bounds of good taste. Just when you thought Illinois coach Ron Zook was on the hot seat and needing to
