Clinging To Ole Teddy

"Ole Teddy" the teddy bear was a great source of comfort for kids, who feared the dark. Cuddling up with "Ole Teddy" took those fears away and helped you get through the night until you awoke to the rising sun.

The fan base of the University of Tennessee football team is about to awake to a beautiful sunrise this Sunday, as the source of darkness will be officially fired and no longer a part of the University of Tennessee football program. Its Tennessee Independence Day! The spell is broken and the chains will fall free! Football season will, once again, be be something to look forward to with anticipation and glee.

The UT football coaching search is in full gear and UTAD, Mike Hamilton is searching near and far to deliver a coach to UT, who will bring fresh ideas and a change to the UT football program. After-all, Phil Fulmer and his remora-like cronies have sucked the life-blood out of the UT football program.

The candidates range from old stogy NFL coaching types to young "gun-slinging" coaches. All have more head coaching experience than Phil Fulmer has, when he was given the head coaching job by Doug Dickey in 1992. The comparisons of the younger coaches to Bill Battle were bound to come up, but remember this is 35 plus years later. Todays' "young-guns" coaches, are smarter, have fresher ideas, relate to the young prospects and players better, and do not cling to the fear of failure. Failure, after-all, is a paralyzer.

The fans who want to continue to cling to this culture of fear, induced on them by old Tennessee football, should continue to cling tight to their teddy bears. That may give them some comfort next fall. Those of us fans, who look forward with anticipation to the changes in UT football next season and beyond, threw away our security blankets and put "Ole Teddy" away in mothballs a long time ago. Its time that University of Tennessee fans put away their fears and face the challenges of the modern football landscape with courage and foresight to trust the modern "young-gun" marvels of the coaching profession.