Relax. Deep breaths, Johnny Bulldogs Fan and Tommy Mocs Supporter. Deep breaths.
The biggest adjustments for almost every football team on almost every level come between the first and second games of a season. Those second games are today. Those adjustments? Well, they need to be markedly noticeable.
For the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and for Georgia, that is the hope. For University of Tennessee fans, who watched as the Volunteers manhandled an undermanned foe last week with a level of efficiency that offered the promise and potential of brighter days, any improvement from the near flawless opener will be welcomed with the hopeful gaze of a 6-year-old on his birthday.
We all know UTC’s performance last week was bad on almost every level. We also believe it was an isolated incident that will be solved today. We also believe that UT-Martin was better than we expected.
The No. 1 factor in the Thursday night debacle for UTC was an offseason of the Mocs hearing how good they are. That is a drastic and clear problem for college football teams. In fact, other than his acumen as a recruiter, Alabama coach Nick Saban’s best attribute is that he can keep a highly successful program hungry and focused despite being highly successful.