Gather around and witness the greatest spectacle in sports! College football season is nigh! As with the last season, I'll try to keep this beast updated weekly, with updates coming out on Fridays. I'm a one man show at the moment, and living on the wrong side of the globe for this stuff. Thankfully, that gives me approximately 12 more hours to reach my deadline (according to my very flawed math). Perhaps I should have paid more attention to Dooley's concept of time.

So, The Goose That Laid the Golden Quote continues to produce, coming out with this beaut concerning the brain development of a certain sophomore starting quarterback:

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Ah, The Offseason. It gives us time to reflect upon what was and time to hope for what will be. It also gives us time to realize how much we really miss football, but that's not important right now. What is important, at least as far as this website is concerned, is our impending move to a brand-spankin'-new website: (drum-roll) Dooleyisms.com.

I'm still working tirelessly to improve the site here and there, but there's still a few weeks until kickoff! Please feel free to contribute any Dooley gems of wisdom you come across. I'm just one man with a full time job on the other side of the globe, so I'm calling out to my fellow UT fans to help build this site.

I've also had time to pick through the countless hours of source material for the best Dooley quotes that I've missed thus far. For your enjoyment, here are those quotes:

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For as great as Coach Dooley has been at sharing his ideas in a brief, highly quotable way, even he realized there were certain things he could not explain to the fans. We would have to see it with our own eyes. This is a quote from his opening press conference:

"I'm not about to sell this program and what we're about to do in a sound bite. It's impossible. I can tell you this, that everything we're going to do is going to be with a foundation of integrity in every aspect of the program. We're going to represent this institution with class, on and off the field. And we're going to be a fun team to watch, by how we compete, by the effort that we give, by the togetherness and spirit that we play with. There's gonna be bumps along the way, there always is, but I can assure you that we're going to continue to forge ahead, we'll always be growing and developing as a program, and I'm excited about what the future holds at Tennessee."-January 15, 2010

After October, when our Vols sat at 2-6 overall, 0-5 in the SEC, it was difficult even for the most faithful among us to buy what Dooley was selling. A month later, here we are, riding a 4-game winning streak (3 in conference), and we've earned the right to play one more. This season isn't over, but I think we can reflect on where we've been as a program, and how far we've come since Dooley took the reigns.

Many fans might feel compelled to lump all of our struggles this year on That Last Guy (who will not be named here). However, UT has been continually losing ground on the rest of the SEC for the better part of a decade. We had losing seasons in both '05 and '08, our recruiting has been sub-par, and our retention (due to two coaching changes, arrests, ineligibility, etc) has been low. Dooley not only stopped the bleeding this year, but he has set a solid foundation going forward. He seems to be able to get the most out of every player on the field, and is not afraid to change his strategy to play to their strengths (or in the case of our punt return game, our glaring weaknesses). This team has been fun to watch, particularly in November, and they never gave up.

Coach Dooley isn't finished trying to sell this program, but I think it's fair to say many of us have already purchased our shares. Now, we're all excited about what the future holds at UT.

Of the many things that I am thankful for, the Rocky Top Talk community is high on that list. I wanted to formally thank everyone on here for making my life as a die-hard Vol fan a little less isolated while living abroad. Fandom is really only fun if you have someone to share your excitement/terror/misery/hatred/humor with, and this community continues to be a great place to share the highs and lows. The games (as viewed through a tiny box at the corner of my computer) would neither be as fun to watch nor as memorable were it not for the RTT commentary, and occasionally confusing helmets for balls.

I hope everyone back state-side has a wonderful Thanksgiving, see y'all this weekend for some basketball and football.

On a cold January morning, roughly 10 months ago, the rumor mill started spinning that the University of Tennessee had landed on a coach after the short-lived, mad-scramble that the last guy caused. To put it bluntly, certain life long Vol fans (including yours truly) were looking for a tall building with an easily accessible rooftop after one Derek Dooley, formally of Louisiana Tech, had been announced as our head football coach.

This was not a slight against Dooley himself, and we still have a long way to go to determine if he is capable of taking this program back into "National Powerhouse" status. This was, more or less, frustration at how far our program had fallen, and how we had to live with the following fact: the best we could do was a coach from a small school with a losing record.

However, it didn't take long for Dooley to work his way into our Orange hearts. Indeed, he had me at "Time to dust off your britches." Our first season with Dooley has had a few ups and a lot of downs, but there are four things we can now rely on: Death, Taxes, Perfect Hair, and Hilarious Quotes.

This post (and subsequent thread) is dedicated to the fourth thing on the list. I'll put a few of my favorite quotes below, but please, RTT gang,  pitch in with any glaring oversights I may have missed, or any future Dooley gems.

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We had a strong run this year, and unfortunately it came to a crashing end today. Sure, I could make some observations like "If it weren't for those early goals, we would be a contender," but the problems with the US National Team and American Soccer run deeper than that. Coaches will tell you that most games are won or lost before players ever step on the field, in international soccer nations win or lose before the players are ever born. In the Netherlands they will take the best soccer prospects at ages 6 and 7 and start training them with the best coaches to become superstars. That's just one example.

Anyway, here's my take on where things went wrong, and what needs to improve by 2014 (and beyond):

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Early? Yes. Very Early? No doubt. But I think in 10 year's time we'll still be talking about this game. Not because we went toe-to-toe with undefeated, #1 Kansas and won. We've defeated #1 teams before--now twice in a row (thank you, Tiger High). And not because we were severely over-matched on paper; mediocre teams beat great teams at home all the time in college basketball.

We'll remember this game because of the adversity this team faced just ten days ago. We'll remember this win because just days ago we were not talking about getting a high seed in the tournament (as we've been accustomed to doing under Pearl), but talking about whether we would even be included in the Big Dance come March. More than anything, we'll remember this win because for a single afternoon in early January our worst fears were alleviated, our hope was restored, and the black cloud that has been hovering over this university was momentarily lifted.

This win isn't important because of what it means for the rest of the season. This win is important for today. This win is important because of the last 10 days. Bruce Pearl was forced to take a rag-tag group of back-ups and walk-ons and somehow managed to dial up a big win and exorcise the demons that have haunted every citizen in the Big Orange Nation. On paper, it's just a tally in the win column and one less in the loss column, but to this team and the fans it means everything. Sometimes a win is more than a win, and we'll be talking about this one for years to come.

And if this win isn't on the "Top 10 Moments of the Decade" in ten years...well...I would say we will have some pretty spectacular moments to look forward to.

I just want to take a minute to be thankful for the Army-Navy game. It's the last regular season game of the year, but that's not really important. Whoever wins is irrelevant; we're all winners because we have these fine gentlemen serving our nation and protecting our rights to talk endlessly about sports. I would like to say a sincere "Thank you" to any vets reading this. That's all, enjoy the game!

Consider this a live-game thread for the final regular season game of the year.  These games are gold now, y'all.  In a month, we'll be back in the wasteland.  --Hooper