At seven wins and one loss, the University of Tennessee Volunteers are three points away from first place and an undefeated season at the moment, having lost by 2 in the University of Florida Swamp. Had it not been for that one lose, UT would probably be ranked number one today. Instead, they are ranked third in both the Associated Press sportswriters poll and the USAToday/ESPN coaches poll.
(The Florida Gators could say much the same thing, having lost to Alabama by one point a few weeks ago.)
(If you're a real fan, you can click here to play the music.)
The Volunteers are only one of several Appalachian teams having a relatively good year in college football.
Virginia Tech Hokies are off to their best start ever in college football and may well be on their way to a national title. The Hokies humiliated the Syracuse Orangemen a few weeks ago, but they must still face Miami, Fla. (Nov. 13) in what could be the deciding game of the Big East Conference championship.
The Hokies biggest problem is their schedule: they get a lot of criticism for the weak schedule they play, which started off this year with James Madison University (a step up from high school football) and included such tough Big East teams as Temple and Rutgers. (To be fair, everyone has a few weak teams on their schedule: we had cornish game hen for dinner last week in celebration of the Tennessee-South Carolina game; the South Carolina Gamecocks have yet to win a game this year.)
Virginia Tech struggled this week against an Appalachia regional rival - the West Virginia University Mountaineers. WVU took the game away from the Hokies with about 2 minutes to play. The Hokies managed to get the victory back with a field goal on the last play of the game. Hokie hopes for a national title remain alive...
(In my little corner of Virginia, the Hokies and the Volunteers compete for local loyalities. Hokie fans often have bumper stickers which spell out the name of the school phonetically, as it is pronounced in most of the state: Vajinyatek.)
The WVU Mountaineers are not having a good year. They opened the season with a loss at East Carolina - a game they expected to be a "gimme". They are currently headed for a losing season. The good news is that they do not have to worry this year about losing 9 straight bowl games.
Go To Page: 1 2
