Sing It Sinatra, For Music City

The referees can take a lot away from the Vols. They can take away downs, yards, and, in the end, victories. But there are so many things they can never take away.

They can't take away our entirely freshman o-line stout enough to defend our true freshman, passing quarterback. They can't take away the cherished bend but never break UT defense that's one of the youngest in the league. They can't take away the invaluable experience of surviving one of the most adversity-laden season in Vol history. As Stocker said after the game, "We'll be stronger because of this..."

They can't take away our resilience. We could have given up in October, after a 2-6 start. We didn't. We could have given up with a minute and a half left in UNC's hands. We didn't. We could have given up in overtime. We didn't. We played with all our hearts, young and underdeveloped they may be.

They can't take away our passion. In Bray's celebration of the game winning touchdown to the tears that brought him to his knees when the refs called the game,for real this time, he mirrored the reaction of all Vol fans. The stadium rocked all night with our unwavering support and enthusiasm for our team. Like Dooley said when asked if, because twice in one season a victory has been recalled after the coach's handshake, he said, "No. I'm lucky to be at Tennessee." Indeed, Vol fans know how fortunate we are to support one of the best programs in the country.

And that is what no one can ever, ever take away from us. The base, visceral thrill of watching the Orange stream through the Power T, singing "Rocky Top" all game long, whooting it up for our beloved Pride of the Southland Marching Band and their Circle Drill, letting our powerhouse past lead us into our powerhouse future, cheering and chanting along with 103,000+ in the best stadium in the country, and living by the Game Maxims. Rocky Top won't be on bottom much longer, but even if they were, I'd proudly wear my orange. Football supports our tradition, not the other way around.

I will never believe we didn't win this game. Mistakes were made, we should have played better. But with no time left on the clock, we did exactly what we needed to in order to win the game by the official NCAA rulebook: we had more points than the other team when the head official declared, "The game is over." I have a thousand words regarding the ensuing shenanigans, but none of them are positive, and you know what? I may have spent the past eighteen hours crying bitter tears of disappointment and frustration, but I have nothing but positive feelings about our future. Go Vols!