The Sports Renassaince Man Vol. 1 Issue 1: Tennessee Spreads, Boy Meets World Season 2, Episode 8, More!
It's Monday, August 16, 2021, so I wrote about Boy Meets World, Tennessee game-by-game spreads, and much more.
Hello and welcome to my daily newsletter written by “The Sports Renaissance Man” Chase Thomas a newsletter that masquerades as a miniature newspaper of sorts. It’s Monday, so that means I’m writing about Boy Meets World, Tennessee football and much moe. Hope you enjoy it and add your email below so you never miss an issue.
Gamblers think the Tennessee Volunteers are going bowling in 2021, even if just barely.
VSIN released their game-by-game spreads for the 2021 and the Volunteers project to be betting favorites in six games, which, after running my numbers, means the Vols are going to not be favored in six games.
I understand if you’re a diehard Tennessee fan who scoffs at a .500 record. When you’ve seen your university win a national title in your lifetime it makes anything less than competing for more championships rather frustrating. The 1998 Fiesta Bowl happened. Peerless Price broke the Seminoles’ back. Philip Fulmer won a national championship the year after Peyton Manning left. You remember it all.
Legendary NBA coach Pat Riley has talked at length about the concept of the “disease of more” after achieving success. This concept seems to apply to so many VFLs, as the glory years inhibit them from enjoying the here-and-now aspect of Tennessee football. It makes them antsy. Anything less than competing for more national titles is unacceptable. But those ‘90s Fulmer teams were finishing with top-10 recruiting classes as consistently as Cory Matthews was embarrassing himself at John Adams High School. There was even a No. 1 class in 1997 there, per ESPN, for good measure. It was a different time, a different era, and almost impossible to get back to. Just ask Nebraska and Georgia Tech and Colorado and Miami.
Another national title is not on the horizon for the Vols, if that 6-6 prediction didn’t make that abundantly clear. The Vols aren’t even certain if it’s going to be Joe Milton or Harrison Bailey or Hendon Hooker under center to kick off the season against Bowling Green in 17 days.
It’s a transition year of sorts, and, thankfully, the schedule figures to allow the Vols to find their way to a bowl game in December.
The Vols are favored against Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, Tennessee Tech, South Carolina, South Alabama and Vanderbilt. You win these games and you likely have a date with somebody like Northwestern in Orlando or Jacksonville in a few months. You drop one of these, though, and Heupel’s team is in trouble because these spreads are decisive in how much of a chance the Vols have to overachieve this season.
The Vols are giving 16 to the Gators, 8 to Missouri, 2.5 to Ole Miss, 28.5 to Alabama, 7 to Kentucky, and 14 to Georgia.
This all looks about right, outside of Missouri, perhaps, considering the Vols beat Eli Drinkwitz’s team pretty handily last fall in Knoxville. You can lock in the Gators, the Tide, and the Dawgs as losses. You cannot lock in that the Vols won’t cover with this Air Raid, though.
What jumps out to me most is the Lane Kiffin Reunion game. It’s the game of the season for folks here in Knoxville. Kiffin returns for the first time as a head coach since his departure to USC those years ago. Things have changed since then. More for Kiffin than the folks here in Knoxville, though. The Rebels are going to be good and could boast the best quarterback in the conference with Matt Corrall.
So many points will be scored in this one. The Rebels will score. The Vols will score. It’s going to be a track meet, and if you were to predict this game is what we remember most this fall, I would tend to agree. The disdain for so many Tennessee fans is still there, healthy or not, and the Vols’ offense will challenging the Rebs’ defense deep early and often.
I really can’t wait.
But that’s where we are right now in Knoxville. We have a likable head coach who is going to install an offense that puts up obscene numbers, enough that fans stop thinking about Jarrett Guaran-He Who Must Not Be Named for a while. It’s just not going to translate to big-time success, at least not anytime soon. The sanctions are still looming, the roster doesn’t have enough blue-chippers, but there is no reason 6-6 can’t be fun. It’s all about how you look at it.
Boy Meets World, Season 2, Episode 8: Band On The Run
Another week at John Adams High, another week where our main character Cory Matthews predictably stumbles while trying to be something he is not.
Cory Matthews is not a musician.
However, when two pretty girls mistake Cory and his best friend Shawn Hunter for musicians by bizarre circumstance, the latter run with the hand they’re dealt.
You can understand why, at least from Cory’s perspective. Cory is antsy. He is a normal kid who likes cartoons and the Phillies. The Corys of the world will always be far more appealing post-college than they will be in their formative years. The guys who find themselves on the radar of popular girls are the athletes, the musicians, the rulebreakers, and, quite simply, the tall ones.
Cory is not on their radar, which is frustrating for Cory when it shouldn’t be. This is part of being youthful and foolish. Topanga is the human for him, she even consults with him about the upcoming school dance after another classmate asks her to go with him. Cory is fine with this because his mind is elsewhere. Cory is tantalized by this Sonia character, who, if asked on the spot, would not be able to tell you what his last name was.
Isn’t it strange how foolish we were in our teenage years? Cory would hate spending time with somebody as superficial as Sonia, but he is unbothered. He is a teenager who wants to be noticed, even if it’s for being a band when he can’t play a single note. Craving attention is an issue for Cory, but it’s attention from people that could not care any less for him.
Why do we sometimes fall into these traps as humans? If Cory were to take a breath and take one step back and analyze the situation, he would see that all he needs is his family, his best friend Shawn, and his girl Topanga who likes him for him.
The latter is hard to come by and when you stumble onto it you hold onto it. You do not let it go. Finding a person who likes you for you even when you bomb in front of the whole school because you lied about being in a band is a big deal. Topanga wouldn’t feel that way for anyone else.
I believe I have that with my girlfriend, but I did not know this sort of feeling existed before I met her. She likes me without or without the podcast. Without or without the degrees. Like Amy Matthews, she just thinks I’m cute when I record and is here for the whole package. Who I am inside and out. I feel the same for her.
Cory will figure it out later that he wasted so much time trying to impress people who do not matter in the slightest, but it is part of growing up. Attention, however it comes, is a rush. Later, you’ll realize it’s meaningless. It’s about being comfortable with who you are and content with who you are with.
I’m writing about each episode of Boy Meets World in this newsletter, so please follow along with Disney Plus where every episode is readily available.
Today on The Chase Thomas Podcast
Blue Wire's Chase Thomas is joined by Blue Jays writer Andrew Stoeten and Locked On Yankees' Stacey Gotsulias to banter about the Blue Jays and Yankees battling it out in the AL East, the fall of the Red Sox, who to believe in more down the stretch, Tyler Gilbert's no-hitter for Arizona, Brandon Crawford's extension for the Giants, Lewis Brinson getting hot in July for Miami and much more.
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