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Vols: Desmond Howard Disses Vols-Hogs On College Gameday

By Randy Sharber

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The Tennessee Vols need only Desmond Howard for motivation.

Vol fans all over the country have never been impressed by ESPN. For whatever reason the station has seemed to have it in for Tennessee since its’ inception. Is it us as Tennessee fans that make this up, or is it an agenda? Probably us, but here is another ridiculous comment by another ESPN analyst.

The Vol faithful will always remember the role ESPN played in the Peyton Manning-Charles Woodson Heisman Trophy fiasco. Manning was clearly the front runner to be the Vols first Heisman Trophy winner ever. He was simply the best player in the country. It was, and still is, without question.

Manning completed 60% of his passes in the best league in College Football. He threw for an amazing 3819 yards and 37 touchdowns as a Senior. Do you understand this number? 37 touchdowns?

Manning epitomized everything a College athlete was supposed to be. He was ideal. Well, except for the great mooning incident. That had been going on since College was invented. That was popular when coeds were wearing fur coats, eating goldfish, and piling in the now extinct phone booths.

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Manning, a sure first round draft pick, elected to come back to play for a University and a coach he loved. He could have taken the money as most would, but decided another year of College was best. The NFL could wait. Seems like the perfect story for a station that covered College Football.

No, they promote Charles Woodson. They must have played the one return for a touchdown the defensive back had against Ohio State at least a million times that season. Voters that had never seen Woodson were convinced that the Michigan corner had 41 returned touchdowns against Ohio State on that day. They played it from every angle possible for months.

Woodson was a great player. No doubt. He played on offense every once in a while. He made a few catches. He averaged a whopping 8.4 yards per return as a punt returner. 8.4 yards! He had 8 interceptions on the season for 1997. Heisman numbers? No. But if you show it enough on the premier Sports Network in the country, you can promote it.

It was like CNN and Obama. Is a Republican going to get a fair shot on CNN? No way. It is laughable. It was the same with Manning and ESPN that season.

Of course later it was the great Chris Fowler comment that riled Vols fans. Fowler said that the comments made after the Heisman debacle were a “trailer park frenzy”. That went over well. Tennessee fans have hated ESPN since.

ESPN’s Gameday is exceptionally well done. They go to the best game of the week no matter what conference.( Well, with the exception of today where they are at Clemson- Notre Dame instead of Georgia-Alabama, but still that is a good game at a great Clemson campus) Especially now that Chris Fowler is gone.

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    • But they have Desmond Howard. Howard is a complete bust of an analyst on the desk. He offers little analysis if any. He brings no insight, no excitement, and absolutely no knowledge of any college football outside of Notre Dame and a little Big 1o. I just don’t get it.

    This morning when reviewing the Tennessee-Arkansas game Howard started it out by saying “this is just not a sexy game”. I would agree with him. Unless you are a Tennessee or Arkansas fan why would you watch? Arkansas is 1-3. Tennessee is 2-2. Not sexy outside of respective fan bases. Agreed.

    He proceeded talking about both teams and that it was bad “the way they lost” last weekend. Again agreed. It was bad. He then said again it was not a “sexy” game, and they “don’t deserve to even be talked about”. That is piling on.

    The Vols have to earn respect. I have always been a proponent of this. You have to win in order to get respect nationally. You can’t almost win and have people say good things. You can’t have “Butch speak” persuade the entire country that you are getting better. They don’t care. All they want to see is a win. They want the proof. Who can blame them?

    But this shows how shallow Howard is as an analyst. This game does deserve to be talked about. When Tennessee wins this one today it is a springboard to beating Georgia next weekend. Wait and see. If they lose, it will be a springboard to 2-5. It is an important game.

    The same can be said for Arkansas. Arkansas has a much tougher path simply because they are in the West. Their season will tank like a hog in a mud hole when they lose in Knoxville today. It will be tough for the Hogs to recover. If they win, it will be a springboard to getting their train back on track. It is worth talking about.

    In my mind Jones needs to stop talking and do more listening. Let the players hear what Howard has to say. “They are not worth talking about” is more motivating than the Butch Jones- Al Franken I’m ok, your ok speech, or the “we just need to execute better” speech.

    This team needs to play angry today. It is going to be a physical battle. It is going to be nasty. It will be a case where the strong survive today. The team that wants it the most will be the one that wins. It is simple as that.

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