please leave your rocks at home, vol fans.....

The article below was posted on the Big Orange Zone yesterday. I had forgotten all about the rocks. All I remember is one of the greatest comebacks in UT history from a very underachieving football team. (Dad and I were both at the same conference in San Francisco. We both got so frustrated that we quit watching in the first half and ended up going out for dinner. we did, however, see the end of the game.) Winning has a tendancy to make you forget boneheaded things done by a few of the other team's redneck fans.....

The one the thing LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman hopes Vol fans have forgotten from last season is the rock throwing that targeted the UT Cheerleaders and UT school officials.

Before the game last year in Baton Rouge LSU fans greeted the Vols Cheerleaders and UT school officials with rocks. In all, four buses were accosted by LSU fans as it neared Tiger Stadium carrying the prideful UT contingency. The windows on the buses were broken out and the sides were seriously damaged. The girls and school officials barely escaped serious injury from the incident.

Bertman began the week with a media release that the Vols wanted to forfeit the match up when the game had to be moved. The Vols AD Mike Hamilton said the kids' (players') safety comes before the game -- period. Indeed it was deemed unsafe, national reports told the nation it was unsafe to be there. Rescue workers were attacked as they tried to give aide.

Mike Hamilton voiced the caution from national media reports that the area was deemed unsafe for travel. Puzzling fans are that while having the knowledge of unsafe conditions in the area, Bertman nor school officials offered no alternate protection into the stadium.

LSU athletic director Skip Bertman sent a letter of apology on Wednesday to Mike Hamilton after the story made headlines. The apology was vague at best, and seemed more in tune with pumping the university rather than being apologetic.

The rock throwing incident was the most serious, but was not the only major issue faced by the Big Orange fan base. Since the game had to be moved from the printed date on the tickets, LSU officials refused refunds to Vol fans who had to work on Monday before the game.

Yet it actually got worse for UT, The Pride Of The Southland Band was escorted to the top of Tiger Stadium upon arrival. Fans can hope Mike Hamilton remembers this and places the Tiger band at the top of mammoth Neyland Stadium. The view should be nice this time of year from up there for them.

Philip Fulmer was unable to find accommodations for the team and had to make the trip down by bus and return after the game. There were rooms available it was later stated, but when the coach called, the answer was "no room for you."

No one proposes the UT fan base to take up rocks, and all do hope that fans show more class than our most southern SEC opponent this week. They may possibly deserve never ending crowd noise by the Big Orange at most, and all UT fans need to act respectable. Actually LSU got what they deserved in all truth with the Vols big win. Remember we are a prideful state and football program, we don't need to sink to levels that were predicated upon us.

If a dump truck accidentally drops say 20 tons of loose 3-inch gravel on Neyland Drive in the wee hours of the night before the game - just walk on by. Please.