University of Tennessee Athletics
Inside The T - Turn The Page
August 03, 2015 | General
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
Today, we turn the page to a new year of Tennessee Athletics with the opening press conference of fall camp for Butch Jones and the Volunteers.
For me, I measure a year in the credentials I pick up for various events around the country. The first one of a new school year is always the one from SEC Media Days, so I turned the page from that perspective a couple of weeks ago.
But it's quite appropriate that we collectively turn the page with 33 days until kickoff, since I accumulated 33 credentials covering various events for UT last year. Not all of them made the picture above, but they all have a story. Each comes with a memory or numerous memories of a game or trip. Some were victories, some were not, but they all have a special meaning.
There is the credential from Bristol Motor Speedway, the first Cup race I ever attended, where I found Vol fans that had come all the way from Toronto, Canada to see a race and the venue where UT will face Virginia Tech next season. They became Tennessee fans when Condredge Holloway came to play for their hometown Argonauts of the CFL and broke a long Grey Cup drought.
There is the Oklahoma credential from my first road trip with Tennessee football. The pass had my last name wrong, so it required a little Sharpie alteration before it was game-ready. Between two trips to the state with softball in 13 months and the football game, I have become somewhat of an expert in Oklahoma City-area restaurants. I'm also dangerously close to being asked to pay taxes.
There are the Georgia and Ole Miss credentials that allowed me to experience game day in Athens and The Grove for the first time and the South Carolina field pass where I watched the greatest comeback I've ever seen with a USC student mocking my orange sweater. There is Vanderbilt pass from an afternoon that felt like a home game and a celebration of a bowl berth that gave me the TaxSlayer Bowl credential for my first working bowl game.
But the year was not just about football. I saw Tennessee Lady Vol games at Notre Dame and Kentucky. My first trip to see the Golden Dome was also the first time I heard 21 degrees described as "Not that cold." I was relieved for the win at Kentucky, an 0-2 road record might have kept me off of future trips.
An NCAA Tournament credential allowed me to cover Cierra Burdick and Ariel Massengale in the final Thompson-Boling Arena games of their UT careers as their injured teammate Isabelle Harrison cheered them on. For the end of that final game, I stood next to perhaps the Lady Vols' biggest fan that night. Butch Jones cheered on with the same intensity that we see on the sidelines on Saturdays.
There are softball memories as well. The pass from the first SEC series at South Carolina, where I never would have believed that a Women's College World Series credential would have been a part of the collection. But the team rebounded in spectacular fashion, including a remarkable four days at the SEC Tournament that led to the regional and super regional passes saying "Knoxville" on them.
In the middle of them all is the Tennessee credential that put me front and center to give you that same front-row perspective here on UTSports.com. Now it's time to get a new one of those and start the collection anew.
Somebody asked me in June if I was ready for football. I'm always ready for football, but my response was "Not yet." I needed a little more time to decompress. Same question at Media Days last month. Close.
Now, I am. I have a tan, my blood pressure has returned to normal levels, my house is clean, I'm caught up on Netflix and my DVR is clear. Let's do this.
