Yon Derek hath a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
Watching Saturday’s performance against the South Carolina Gamecocks one thing became readily evident; the conspiracy to keep Tennessee down is widespread and well-planned.
Keep calm, utilize your timeouts and never trust an SEC ref again.
They were the lessons Vols Coach Derek Dooley took from his side’s 38-35 moral victory to the Gamecocks after a shambolic finish on Saturday afternoon.
Seemingly unaware that the Cocks QB stepped out of bounds with three minutes remaining in the game, Dooley instructed the refs to burn his last time out of the game. Then the ref abruptly signaled to stop the clock, affirming that the offending Cock was out of bounds.
After reflecting on the called timeout, and soothing his wounds at a locker room whirlpool recovery session, Dooley said he should have approached referee to ask the “correct” call before using his last time out of the game but the din inside the concrete stadium, combined with the urgency to score points, and his unwieldy crutches had blurred his judgment.
“Because it was so frantic and he just signaled time to keep going on, there was not really time to actually go and see him. In hindsight it might have been nice to know exactly what the call was. But he said ‘play on’. We thought we had to get there and get going quickly before I called the time out.”
The Gamecocks were also baffled with Dooley’s called timeout, believing that their QB had stepped out of bounds as the ref signaled for the clock to stop. Some Tennessee players later said they knew the clock was stopped but did not tell their Dooley.
Tennessee players had not seen a timeout called in such a bizarre manner, discovered the importance of keeping a clear head in extraordinary circumstances.
A Vol commented on the timeout call, “It is just about composure. We have have the coaches to finish games and we probably didn’t need to listen to them. If we had been switched on we might have got away with a few extra points. You have to move on from it but also take those lessons with you.”
Suggestions Dooley should have paid more attention to game and how much longer was left have merit. But Dooley said he never thought he would be in such an unusual scenario.
“It is hard to prepare for. He may have said something when [Shaw] initially stepped out but I didn’t hear what it was. Most of the players still thought the clock was running which was why we probably rushed a few things.
“To be brutally honest we shouldn’t have put ourselves in that position. Maybe we didn’t quite deserve to win.”
Related articles
- Dooley isn’t going anywhere (loserswithsocks.com)
- How Tennessee Plans to Neutralize Jadeveon Clowney (loserswithsocks.com)
- Dooley Repairs Relationship with QB (loserswithsocks.com)
- Vols QB Tyler Bray needs a break from football (loserswithsocks.com)
- The Cocks simply don’t measure up to Tennessee (loserswithsocks.com)
- Technically, nobody really maintains records for moral victories. (loserswithsocks.com)
Jai Eugene
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