Halloween is supposed to represent fear. But the 2017 Tennessee football season has been scarier for Volunteers fans than anything else.
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If Tennessee football fans found Pennywise in a sewer before the year started, he’d show them this week’s newspaper clippings surrounding the Vols. A 3-5 team that’s 0-5 in the SEC and STILL sticking with Butch Jones could not get any worse.
It’s so fitting that orange is the color of Tennessee and Halloween. The history of the holiday is a unique one. Halloween stems from a variety of cultures that would have harvest festivals and recognize the dead and spirits as crops would die. From that evolved a fear of evil spirits at times.
And if you’re a Tennessee football fan, the evil spirits are everywhere. Let’s just think about how bad it’s been in Knoxville.
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The Vols lost to all three of their rivals. Two of them were blowouts. They then lost to the Kentucky Wildcats. And they fell to 0-6 all time against Will Muschamp.
But the losses aren’t the only bad part. What’s crazy is it didn’t have to be this way.
Tennessee opened the year with a thrilling and lucky overtime victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Vols fans had plenty of reasons for optimism after that win. The SEC East looked horrible outside of the Georgia Bulldogs.
Then came the losses in the worst ways. Tennessee made a series of mistakes at the Florida Gators and gave up a Hail Mary to lose the game. The evil football spirits came back out against the Vols that day.
Two weeks later, even if a loss to Georgia was going to be acceptable, a blowout was embarrassing.
Then there was the bye week, and Butch Jones’s seat began to warm up. Coming off the bye, he made a quarterback switch. Cue more evil spirits.
They decided to show up whenever the Vols were threatening in the red zone in the form of a penalty or a bad mistake. That’s exactly what cost this team against South Carolina.
And then they brought on another blowout loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Finally, they made their mark against the Kentucky Wildcats.
Tennessee football outgained Kentucky in yards, forced four turnovers while committing none, and dominated every part of the game. But they still lost by giving up a late touchdown and, once again, untimely mistakes in the red zone.
After thinking they were back as a program last year, Tennessee football fans’ greatest fears about this year have been realized. But the greatest fear of all is that John Currie still is sticking with Butch Jones, knowing that will increase fan apathy.
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As a result, it is NOT great to be a Tennessee Vol at this point. And having to utter those words is why Rocky Top doesn’t need Halloween this year. It is living its own nightmare.