Review of a Rusty View

After watching our Dawgs put on one of their worst displays this decade, I think it would be nice to write an almost non- football related  post about my experience in Vol country.  So, without further ado...

The Drive:  Beautiful drive up and back.  I have been traveling through Tennessee for almost my entire life visiting family in Kentucky, and I have always loved this part of the country.  The leaves haven't changed their colors quite yet, but the mountainous views are no less beautiful.  The traffic was surprisingly light in Knoxville, considering the circumstance of it being a college football weekend in a college town, but I attribute that to the fact that Knoxville is considerable larger than our fair "Hamlet in the Wilderness."  Didn't run into heavy traffic until the return trip home, but Knoxville did a great job of getting us out of there.

The Town:  Ugly.  I know that Athens has a few rough patches in a few of select neighborhoods (as it often goes in college towns), but Knoxville was just plain nasty.  I know that I might have been in a rough area of town near the campus, but the places I saw were just gross.  I wanted to take a pressure to the entire river walk area.  Speaking of the river walk area...

The Food:  I heeded the advice from Skigator and Holly, and hit up the local eatery, Calhoun's.  The place was incredible.  The full rack of BBQ ribs that landed on my plate and subsequently entered my tummy would have tempted even Moses.  The slaw was good, the atmosphere (while very orange) was great, the micro-brew was incredible (a great Red Amber, with a smooth caramel taste at the end), and the Carolina vinegar-based sauce  was on par with my fiancee's own Carolina sauce (she doesn't put quite so much malaises in her sauce, which is just how I like it).  With delicious food and great service, this was by far the best part of the day.

The Tailgating:  Disappointing.  Perhaps the slightly wet conditions and early kick off frightened the majority of  the hard core tailgaters from pulling out all the stops, but I hardly saw anything that resembled anything I have seen on even the rainiest kickoffs in in Athens.  The few tailgaters we met , though, were incredibly cordial, and almost everyone of them offered us food, which brings me to...

The Fans:  Very, very, very, very nice people.  Like I said, almost everyone offered my fiancee and I food as we passed tailgates, and everyone we asked directions from was very nice and helpful.  And besides an idiot who screamed out a typical homophobic remark regarding Uga's sexual preference out his window and a drunk lady on a boat, the heckling was held to a minimum.

Campus: UGLY.  Can not emphasis that enough.  The place looks worse than any campus I have been to in the SEC and then some.  The Greek houses were ugly as sin, and some potentially beautiful, historic buildings were in complete disrepair.  There were a few nice sections (comparatively speaking), but nothing even close to what we have here in Athens.  If anyplace needed a benefactor with a pocketbook as deep as T. Boone Picken's, it's the University of Tennessee.

The Stadium:  First off, I was shocked to learn that the Speech and Hearing Impaired Therapy clinic is located within the stadium.  At first, I figured that meant that they held such programs in high esteem in Knoxville.  That was my thought, at least, until I reached Neyland Stadium.  What a mess that place is.  Its resemblance to a shoddily made Erector Set was uncanny, and I found my self shocked that no sign was posted advising attendees to have their Tetanus shots in order before they entered the stadium.  I was afraid to use the bathrooms, for any use, and was simply petrified by the height of the upper decks.  To say that the place was in need of a good scraping and paint job is an understatement.

The Game Atmosphere:  Not impressive.  Place never got full, and only got as full as it did about half-way into the second quarter.  The Vol band was fun (the Circle Drill was as good as advertised), even if "Rocky Top" was the only decent tone they could play .  It did get loud at times, but I attribute that to the acoustics of the stadium, rather than the vociferous nature of Vol fans. 

Overall Grade: C+.  Hearing that Sporting News once ranked Knoxville as one of the best gameday experiences in the country, I went to Knoxville excited about the prospect of witnessing some great pageantry located on a beautiful college campus.  To say I was disappointed was a understatement. Ugly campus, ugly stadium, bad fan support, and limited tailgating all were detrimental factors to the day.  Maybe the Fulmer years did a number on the school's spirit, but I have seen better fan support in Athens on a Tennessee Tech Weekend. Although the food and fans were nothing but good factors, the whole thing was a rather disappointing affair (the final score not withstanding).  Glad I went, just so I can say I did, but I see no return trip in the future.