Randy Smith: Confessions Of A True Vols Fan

  • Friday, January 6, 2017
  • Randy Smith
Randy Smith
Randy Smith

I cannot and will not deny it. When the 2016 college football season had ended I said, "I'm through with Tennessee football for a while. I'm not going to the Music City Bowl and until they get their act together in Knoxville I may not go back to a game. Heck, I may not even watch them on television." After all like many others I bought into all that pre-season hype; the pre-season rankings and the bold predictions that even claimed that the Volunteers were a playoff bound squad. I bought all of it.

Went for it hook line and sinker, only to be disappointed at what developed into another 9-4 season. It wasn't the overtime loss at Texas A&M nor was it the 49-10 loss at home to Alabama two weeks later. It was the loss at South Carolina and the season-ending loss at Vanderbilt (ugh) that did it for me.

Had the Vols not lost to the Gamecocks and the Commodores, they would have finished 10-2 and gone to the SEC Championship Game and, after being beaten by Alabama for a second time, they would have gone to the Sugar Bowl to face Oklahoma. Had that game become a reality I seriously doubt that Tennessee would have been able to beat Oklahoma, even though they were impressive in their 38-24 win over Nebraska in the Music City Bowl.

No, I was determined that I would concentrate on other things in the fall. I would go camping more and watch football less. I would avoid all the stories about Tennessee football you can find in the newspapers, online and on radio and TV. I would write about the Volunteers much less and would even try to find another team to follow. After all, I have been following Clemson closely since Dabo Swinney became the head coach nine years ago, and I could also follow the Mocs closer than I have been. I have basketball season tickets for the Mocs, I may as well buy football tickets as well. 

I was serious. I was done with Tennessee football. They made me mad when they fired Phillip Fulmer, the Lane Kiffin fiasco was too much to bear, and Derek Dooley almost killed the program completely. Butch Jones gave us all hope, and when the program started to improve steadily as Jones took over, all Tennessee faithful began to have hope that one of college football's winningest programs of all time would again return to the top of the hill. But alas the Vols, the pre-season pick for the SEC East, would finish 4-4 in the SEC and needed a bowl win over Nebraska just to equal 2015's win total.

Boy was I disappointed.....until my son called me a couple of days before the Music City Bowl and told me he had tickets to the game if I wanted to go. He was going to take both of his sons to the game and wanted me to go with them. To borrow an expression from my grandfather, I took in backwater right away and agreed to go with him. I stood and cheered for the Vols as if I had never been mad at them. I watched with pride as my grandsons also cheered for them, and when they won I was beyond happy. I had ended my personal boycott of Tennessee football after just a couple of weeks, and now I can't wait for next season, which by the way begins in 241 days in the       Chick-Fil-A kick-off in Atlanta versus Georgia Tech. It will be the first ever football game played in the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Go Big Orange!      

* * *

Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer.  His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for 30 years. He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century. In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have five grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, Mattingly, DellaMae, and CoraLee.

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