By Walt Barron: A close, personal friend to Rocky Top Insider, Barron is a lifelong Vol fan who will travel when he can but mostly cheers for the Big Orange from his home in Durham, NC.
Like a lot of Vol fans, I watched the final College Football Playoff rankings show on ESPN this past Sunday in hopes of a Christmas miracle: a first round home game in Neyland Stadium.
Then Rece Davis announced the inevitable: Tennessee would have to travel to Columbus, OH, to face mighty Ohio State, a storied program that had already beaten two top-5 teams and was P.O.’d after losing a fourth straight game to their hated rival. I prepared for the crew’s analysis of what a tough matchup this would be for my Vols.
Instead, Kirk Herbstreit talked about how vulnerable Ohio State is in this game.
Not because of coaching, or a lack of talent, or experience, or scheme.
Because of the fans. Their own fans.
“After the way Ohio State’s season ended against Michigan, I don’t know if it wouldn’t have been better for Ohio State to go on the road to get away from their home crowd that will be booing after their third down not converting and their punter comes out, booing Ryan Day,” Herbstreit said. “They’ll have to rally and have a good start to that game, or it could turn sideways with the home crowd, in my opinion.”
I immediately assumed Herbstreit was being a bit dramatic, feeling a bit of PTSD from when he must have heard his share of boos on that field as OSU quarterback in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But the more I read about this matchup from reporters, analysts and fans, I realized he might be right.
Take this story The Athletic just posted about the “pressure gauge” on all 12 coaches in the CFP. The premise of the article itself is counterintuitive – that the most successful coaches in the game must win to keep their jobs. Day’s gauge is listed as a 5 out of 5. But somehow, some of the comments about him are even more baffling…
“God help Ryan Day if Tennessee gets an early lead. The booing will be merciless.”
“I’m surprised diamonds aren’t spontaneously forming around him because the pressure is so great.”
“If (Day) and (Offensive Coordinator) Chip Kelly repeat their woeful performance from the Michigan game, win or lose he should be gone before next season.”
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Win or lose, he should be fired? Wow. Message board fans are amongst the most irrational people alive, but this sentiment runs deeper and wider than Ohio State fans. Paul Finebaum said firing Day would be justified, and he’s not alone.
Keep in mind they’re talking about a coach with an 87% winning percentage, second-highest amongst all OSU coaches in the last 80 years. Someone who has a 47-1 record against all Big 10 teams not named Michigan. Someone who has navigated the new world of NIL/transfer portal as well as anyone, whose team this season has beaten 2 playoff teams (both of whom were ranked in the top 5), and lost two games by a combined 4 points.
Despite all this, apparently it’s not a guarantee that the 97% of fans in the Horseshoe on December 21 will be on his side, even if they’re wearing scarlet and grey. It may sound like an oxymoron, but I guess that’s how a 102,780 seat stadium becomes a Home Field DISadvantage.
If you’re like me, you’re thinking that Ohio State fans are delusional. What do they expect? Can’t they appreciate how good they have it?
We Vol fans would never boo one of our coaches, especially one who’s won so much and has his team in the championship hunt. No, we’re wiser than that. We’ve learned from our recent 20-year walk through the wilderness. We still feel the shame of being more familiar with outrageous coaching searches than bowl game appearances.
So no way would we ever boo Coach Josh Heupel, after all he’s done to resurrect this program.
Well…
There was that one time in 2023 at home against South Carolina, when we booed Heupel for kicking a field goal instead of going for it on 4th-and-3. Never mind that the field goal put us up by 17 en route to a 41-20 win – we were justified to boo, because South Carolina ruined our chances of making the playoffs the previous year, and we were just being passionate, and…
Yeah, I guess there also was that other time, this season at home against Florida when we booed after failing to score in the first half for the second straight game. I know we came back to win that game in overtime against a hated rival who’s had our number most of the past 2 decades, but we were heavily favored to win, and Florida was really struggling at the time, and it was the checkerboard game, and our prized quarterback kept missing open receivers, and dang it, that’s on the coach.
Two months later, I’m still ashamed to admit I was one of the fans booing. And it took a 13-year-old kid to make me realize how immature and petty I was at that moment.
If you were at that Florida game, you know exactly who I’m talking about. His name is Cayson Cagle, aka “Vol Dance Kid.” He’s from Lexington, TN, and was wearing a #6 Dylan Sampson jersey when he appeared on the Neyland Jumbotron as part of a fan “dance-off” segment during a timeout. Though he was performing for 101,915+ people, he followed a popular mantra and danced like no one was watching.
In fact, he danced like we’d already won the game.
It was pure. It was joyful. It was so good, in fact, that it turned our “boos” into a force for good. Yep, every time the camera panned away from Cayson, the fans booed until he reappeared, to uproarious applause.
With all due respect to his dancing abilities (Usher-eque, I’d say), I think Cayson’s positive energy was the real reason fans wanted more of him, needed more of him. He tapped into something each of us knows and feels, but too easily forgets: college sports should be FUN! Even when our team is struggling. Especially when our team is struggling.
Every time Cayson appeared, it injected a heaping dose of positivity into our veins, which no doubt helped the Vols beat a scrappy and very underrated Gators team, as it turns out.
I recently saw a company describe its culture as “Delusionally Optimistic.” I know it’s easy to criticize players and coaches when things don’t go right, especially given the financial commitment fans are asked to make in today’s world of college sports. But isn’t that the one and only job of a fan, to be delusionally optimistic, all the time? We don’t recruit, or coach, or call the plays, or make the plays on the field or court. But we do set the tone before, during and after each game. The coaches and players hear it, and we know it can make a big difference in the outcome of the game.
I have no idea what Ohio State’s fans will do on December 21. That’s up to them.
But it’s my wish that all Tennessee fans – whether on social media, in the comments section, at church or school or their favorite watering hole or in Columbus – ignore the 7-point underdog spread, channel their inner Cayson and bring a different flavor of delusion this entire postseason – optimism.
That’s how we’ll give our all for Tennessee.
