The Tennessee Dream Is Dead

I'm only mad at myself. For the umpteenth time, Tennessee fans thought this was the time things were actually going to be different.

Clearly, they weren't.

I'm a combination of devastated and resigned. I think somewhere in the inaccessible recesses of my brain, I always knew this was going to happen. There was no way Tennessee was actually going to be the feel-good, come-out-of-nowhere team in college football and have a chance to win a national championship.

It happened in the most Tennessee way possible, too: going to South Carolina as a three-touchdown favorite and having Spencer Rattler play the best game of his life while the Vols' defense simultaneously looked like it didn't even know the objectives of football. Everything combined perfectly for a clusterfuck.

The haters and losers are happy tonight. And that's fine. Tennessee has made me want to die plenty of times before and I'm sure I've got plenty left to go.

I thought I would come up with something good after that last sentence, but I've got nothing. This really fucking sucks. Something similar to this will certainly happen the next time Tennessee is in a position like it was coming into today, whenever that may be.

Dreams don't come true, kids. Life is a series of various bad things happening to you and then you die. There's actually a great deal of comfort in that once you accept it.