An army of O

Rocky Top Talk shares this insight from a recent recruiting visit to Knoxville.

When asked what [Markeith Ambles’] top highlight was from his one day spent in Knoxville, he quickly responded.

“We were in a dark theater and all of a sudden they turned on the lights and the coaches ripped off their shirts,” Ambles said with a laugh.”It was like in the army and it got crunk up in there. Some of the players that were in there did some chants. It got crunk.”

It makes you wonder if Orgeron challenged Ambles to come get a piece of him on the spot.

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UPDATE: To my commenters who are getting mired in a semantics debate, I think you’re missing the point.  Focus.  Here, let me help.

No, that's not Monte.

(h/t Kingpin @ TideSports.com message board)

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UPDATE #2: More details here.

At first, it was just coaches talking to us and our parents, sort of getting a little bit boring. Then they separated players from parents. And the second they split us up, it just got intense. We had a team meeting, coach Kiffin came up and started talking. He calls on coach Gran, and he’s really putting emphasis on how important special teams is, and the assistant special teams coach is up there with him. He starts yelling something, rips off his shirt and two other coaches come down with shirts off. It was crazy! Coaches were telling us to get up, and everybody sort of stands up and claps. They said they were going to give us another chance at this.

They walked out of the room, turned out the lights and two coaches came running in, some UT players joined in with him. They didn’t take their shirts off, but all the players and recruits ran down from their chairs onto the stage and just started getting crunk. Everybody got in a big circle and it was like before a game, everybody shouting “UT! UT!”

Crunk.  It’s not just for black kids anymore.

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UPDATE #3: The AJ-C’s Michael Carvell has more on it.  With the “wild boys” chant, it definitely sounds like a Coach O production.

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UPDATE #4: Doc Saturday notes that Junior may have borrowed the shirtless ritual from the master.  You wonder if Pete had the stones to try something like that at an NFL mini-camp.

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And a pony…

Reading this spring practice summary of the Gamecocks, it’s apparent that there are a bunch of holes to fill on the offensive side of the ball and it’ll be a stretch to figure that the OBC will fill them all.

But this strikes me as the biggest stretch of all.

… Steve Spurrier believes Garcia has all the physical tools to be successful, but wants him to commit to film study and become a team leader a la Tim Tebow.

Heh.  Good luck with that, Coach.

An episode in which your host is confused

So yesterday I’m pulling out of a parking deck and I’m behind a white pickup truck.  As I get close, I notice the license plate on the truck:  ‘GATA’.

“Cool,” I say to myself.  Then I get even closer and notice that the truck’s owner has a frame around the license which says (I kid you not):  ‘2004 Auburn Tigers – National Champions’.  And there’s some additional Auburn bling decorating the vehicle to advertise the owner’s loyalties, but no Georgia paraphernalia anywhere.

So what’s the deelio here, I wonder?  Did this guy manage to grab a specialty license plate that spites every Dawg fan in the state (and, yes, it was a state of Georgia plate)?  Does ‘GATA’ have some particular meaning to Auburn fans of which I was unaware?  Did he misspell something on his tag application?

I don’t know whether to be offended or amused.  Comments?

He probably has some unpaid parking tickets, too.

Those Vol message boards are a fun read these days.  When Tennessee fans aren’t convincing themselves that UT will have the #1 recruiting classes forevah or aren’t doing virtual chest bumps over Junior irritating every other fan base in the conference (because they’re all afeared of a guy with a lifetime 5-15 record as a head coach), they’re busy dumping on the coach that ran the program before this year.

That Phil Fulmer fellow.  You know, the one that actually accomplished something at UT.  You’d hardly know that these days, though.  His offense sucked.  His defense sucked.  Recruiting sucked.  Strength and conditioning?  You guessed it – that sucked, too.

But now they’re digging deeper and deeper, delving further into the mystery of Phil Fulmer, lousy coach and lousy human being.  And what is the latest revelation?  He’s a crappy tipper.

Phillip Fulmer (Head Football Coach, Univ. of TN):

I waited tables at a restaurant on “The Strip”. Party central if you’re a UT student. Phil came in with his wife and three kids one night and I was afforded the luxury of putting up with them. Phil is an ass, his wife is a BITCH and his kids reflect precisely the sort of people their parents are. Kids ate free at that restaurant back then so the total bill for the table (a five top) was $18.52 (this has been a few years). I received a whopping $1.50 for the tip, after kissing his ass, and hers and putting up with the brats. Y’know, Phil, you’re a Head Coach for a nationally recognized football program. Your salary is published in the damn paper (working for a state institution makes your salary public domain). It’s bad enough you’re an idiot, and your wife is a bitch and your kids are a pain in the ass…I guess coughing up a decent tip is just too much for you. Asshole.<!–

—Edward W., Knoxville, TN

This turns up in a message board thread that generated 27 responses.  Get a life, people.  Seriously.

At least according to Mr.  W, Peyton turned out to be a saint in some greasy diner.  God knows what these people would have done if he’d turned out to be a mediocre tipper.