Wiedmer: Vols fans finally have reason to believe

photo Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) takes off on a fourth-down play, with seconds left on the clock, to score a 36-yard touchdown during the first half of his game against South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014.
Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

When it comes to Southeastern Conference football fans, patience is right up there with "love thy arch-rival" and grits without butter.

They want victory and they want it now, if not sooner. Just ask embattled Florida coach Will Muschamp, who's probably already heard from Gator fans who are actually angry he beat Georgia on Saturday, since that might make it tougher for UF athletic director Jeremy Foley to fire him.

So it should come as no surprise to hear the comments of many folks who claim to be Tennessee football fans during their eventual 45-42 road victory over South Carolina on Saturday night. Unhappy with second-year coach Butch Jones's overall record of 8-12 entering that game, as well as his 2-10 SEC record to that point, the following two remarks made their way to VolNation.com's in-game thread as South Carolina twice jumped to 14-point leads in the final half:

10:35 p.m. --"As is all too common, Butch shows us NOTHING as a coach on the field. He's getting schooled by the Ole Ball Coach."

10:36 p.m. -- "Butch can recruit but outside of that he (stinks), kind of like (former Florida coach Ron) Zook. Just let Butch fill the cupboard for the next guy. After next year we can try again to get a halfway decent coach."

Then came this at 10:41: "We've always got women's basketball and softball, right?"

Followed by this a minute later: "I hope Michigan wants him. They can have him."

Granted, yours truly didn't watch a minute of this game. I listened to it on the drive home from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's dazzling 51-0 win at Western Carolina earlier in the day. So UT radio announcers Bob Kesling and Tim Priest were my eyes and ears and there were certainly times that they -- particularly Priest -- weren't thrilled with the Big Orange, either.

And maybe you can't blame the Vols' Legion of the Miserable, as former UT coach Johnny Majors used to refer to a certain segment of the fan base.

Four straight losing seasons will do that to folks, especially when their favorite football program boasts a stadium that holds 100,000-plus, is one of only two schools -- along with Ohio State -- to never lose more than seven games in a season and counts such all-time stars as Doug Atkins, Peyton Manning and Jason Witten among its alums.

But those comments are but half the story of Saturday night's game against the Gamecocks. For in that final hour, after South Carolina had surged in front 42-28 with less than seven minutes to go, a remarkable thing happened, a thing that should go down with the Arkansas fumble of 1998 inside Neyland Stadium that led to a national championship, and the 1982 win over Alabama, and the 2001 victory at Florida as one of the proudest moments of Tennessee's last 50 seasons.

Because despite being left for dead, the Vols refused to lose. Especially sophomore quarterback Josh "Space" Dobbs, the aerospace engineering major who was anything but lost in space inside a Williams-Brice Stadium long known for blasting the theme music to "2001 -- A Space Odyssey" to open its games.

Quick question: How many folks would have looked to this weekend three weeks ago -- just after a 34-3 loss at Ole Miss -- and predicted that of the two quarterbacks with UT ties who'd be playing this past weekend, Dobbs and Manning, Dobbs would have the far better numbers and results?

Anybody?

Didn't think so.

Yet while Manning finished with two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 43-21 loss at New England (longtime nemesis Tom Brady had four TD throws and one INT), Dobbs was turning in one of the best QB efforts in Big Orange history: two TD passes and 301 aerial yards to go with a UT quarterback record 166 rushing yards and three more touchdowns.

Still, it was his last scoring throw that mattered most. The Vols down a touchdown, the clock under 15 seconds and counting, Dobbs hit Jason Croom from nine yards out for the tying score with 11 seconds to play. Overtime followed. And an Aaron Medley field goal to wrap up one of the most improbable UT victories ever.

A minute or two before that final score in regulation, a VolNation follower wrote: "Just maybe, maybe the football gods have decided to wear orange today."

When Dobbs found Croom, another typed: "Butch and (offensive coordinator Mike) Bajakian are genius."

And when it ended, a third commented: "I'm literally sobbing. Go Vols!!!!!"

Not that Jones would get every vote for governor if he decided to give up this football stuff. With words no one could appreciate more than Muschamp, one crabby critic commented: "Still say we won in spite of Butch's crappy coaching far more than because of it."

And should the Vols drop home games to Kentucky (Nov. 15) or Missouri the following week before wrapping up the year at Vanderbilt, perhaps such criticism might be justified. But Jones and his team did more than find a winning quarterback at South Carolina. They found out all that hard work is paying off. That their coaching staff's system works. That they should win out, go to a bowl and forever more look back on Nov. 1, 2014 as the night UT football turned to the good.

Or as someone posted just after Saturday turned to Sunday: "This young team took the final step tonight. They learned how to win!! Next year will be awesome!!"

But if it's not, never forget this VolNation post when considering every true SEC football fan who ever lived: "I'm only negative when we are losing. I'm ok now."

At least until the next game.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com

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