Wish that I was on ole rocky top

Warning: a ferociously, obnoxiously long post is about to ensue.  I gotta get it all out, and then we can move on.  Subsequent posts on this topic will be briefer.

I'm finally taking action on an idea that has been percolating in my head for a long time.  Some readers have heard me mumbling about this plan and asking advice; others will be taken by surprise completely. Some of you will have no interest in this project whatsoever; others will hopefully enjoy (or at least be bemused by) my learning curve over the next 14 months or so.

It started several years ago when I read Alexandra Robbins's book Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, where Robbins spends a year undercover in a sorority house at a big (and I think Southern) university.  For context: I attended a small liberal arts college in Minnesota and believe deeply in both my alma mater and the broader values of a liberal arts education and attending a small school.  But that book piqued my curiosity: what is it like to go to a school on the complete opposite end of the spectrum? 

And one of the most obvious "opposite" qualities is a place where college football dominates the weekend.  What's it like to be part of a campus culture where the whole community starts looking forward to Saturday football games on Monday, in a state where no one plans weddings on Saturdays in the fall, in a place where 90,000 people pack a stadium every weekend to watch their beloved team?

At big southern schools, these traditions play out every weekend in a way that seems very different even from the University of Minnesota--my best comparison--where it seems like not every student would necessarily know when, where, or who the Gophers are playing on a given Saturday.  The Southeastern Conference (SEC for short) links southern universities that all have long, storied college football histories. That spills over into the campus culture in a way that draws together history and tradition and fight songs and mascots to create a culture I can't begin to understand.

Unless I experience it, right?

I don't like to commit to projects half-heartedly.  So here it goes: this year, I will follow and study one SEC football team.  I will get to know the program: players, coaches, highs, lows and traditions.  I will watch games on TV, read articles from the campus newspaper, and learn the stories behind the players.  I also should clarify that I don't even know the game of football particularly intricately, so that will be another hurdle. 

All of this research will be done so that by the time I reach the project's next stage, I'll get it.  I'll understand the fervent passion fans feel for this team, for its glorious wins and devastating, nail-biting losses. 

And then I'll see it in person!

In fall 2012, with all of the knowledge collected, Josh and I will go to the campus for game weekend to see the experience unfold in person, and I'll be all in: I'll know the fight song and cheers, know the team and its traditions.  I'll be one of the 90,000 people, part of the mayhem.  I will tailgate and wear team colors.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though: that's a long time from now.  I've done a preliminary study of my SEC options, talking to football fans and people who went to SEC schools.  (I really confused one such person when I told her about this "project" and she thought it was a work assignment.)  My finalists included Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU.

But I've reached a decision: the University of Tennessee (also known as Rocky Top, the Volunteers, and Big Orange) is going to be my team.  It fits my criteria:

• I didn't want to jump on a bandwagon and pick simply the best team. UT is in the middle of the conference but has a lot of young players and is on its way up!  It's sort of a wild card, and I love wild cards.
 



Credit


• Obviously, I want a team with a good fight song and a good mascot ("Rocky Top" is simply the best and the mascot is Smokey the Dog--enough said).
• I want a good coach.  This man Derek Dooley is in his second year, and he seems like a straight-up dude.  He emphasizes accountability and has a likeable blend of optimism and realism.  He is also getting some good recruits!
• Above all, I want the campus-wide passion for the team I've outlined above. 

I'm in the research phase, and beginning it was scary.  I wasn't sure how much real information I'd be able to get from Minnesota.  Luckily, we are in an exciting era of information exchange, and I think this stage is progressing much differently than it would have five years ago.  Here are my resources so far:

• I signed up for a recap of Tennessee football and SEC football articles via the Bleacher Report, so I get daily emails collecting relevant news stories from around the web.  This is a huge help.
• I follow the UT local beat reporters and UT bloggers on Twitter, so I get their insights immediately about how the latest practice or scrimmage went, in addition to player profiles and more in-depth stories.  This was timely and handy this week when Derek Dooley dismissed one of his top players from the program.  Rats.
• I bookmarked the campus newspaper's website, which so far has been a goldmine of player profiles telling the stories of athletes like Nash Nance and Da'Rick Rogers, who went to high school together, committed to other schools, and then decommitted late in the recruiting process because they both wanted to play together at Tennessee. 
• I "liked" Tennessee Athletics on Facebook, so video links and news tidbits show up daily in my Facebook newsfeed.  Reading the comments, largely from die-hard Rocky Top fans, is wonderful because they are busting at the seams to get this season underway.

It's going to be a lot easier than I expected to get informed--and because of the immediacy of online content, get excited--about Rocky Top football. 

It's just over a week until the first game of the 2011-12 season, and it's a little secret I've been hiding: I can't wait.