Front Porch FootballFPF’s Featured Stories
The South is full of great stories. Its history runs deep. And nowhere is that more evident than on the football field. Our featured stories take a glimpse into one of the South’s oldest traditions — college football.
Tools of the BBQ Trade
Introduction
Every famous artist has his medium. Picasso was known for many things, but his true talent was as a painter. For a BBQ Pitmaster, his or her medium is a beautiful mixture of meat, fire, and patience. One of those masters of barbecue is a dear friend to Front Porch Football, Edward Able. We sat down with Ed (like we have so many times before) and talked about barbecue and football. Here’s how our conversation went. Ed, take it away. READ MORE.
Why Can’t Tennessee Football Climb Out From Rock Bottom?
Surely now Tennessee has hit rock bottom. Of course fans and spectators have thought this for years, but somehow Tennessee has found a way to stoop even lower. It appeared to be rock bottom for Tennessee when fans rioted after Lane Kiffin left; it wasn’t. It appeared to be rock bottom during the Dooley years; it wasn’t. It appeared to be rock bottom when fans protested the potential hiring of Greg Schiano at the steps of the football facility; yet again, it wasn’t. Finally, though, after Tennessee fired Jeremy Pruitt along with nine other members of the staff for an estimated 50 recruiting violations, including giving recruits cash inside of McDonald’s bags in the parking lot, it appears that Tennessee is actually at rock bottom, and it quite possibly won’t get any worse from here.
Of all the times it felt as if the Vols had hit “rock bottom,” I think they have finally truly hit rock bottom, which is actually a good thing. Once you’ve hit rock bottom, you can’t get any worse, and work on rebuilding.
Tennessee has turned into a shell of the program it once was, and I think I speak for all Tennessee fans and anyone associated with the football program that they wish they could just forget the past 12 years and escape what feels like a never-ending pit of misery. Tennessee must learn from its mistakes, so it doesn’t repeat the past. This isn’t 1998 anymore. Heck, this isn’t 2007 anymore. Tennessee has crashed and burned, but it’s still possible to rise from the ashes and back to prominence.
Breaking Down the Carolina Job, and Why Shane Beamer is the Man For It
On November 14, 1931, Auburn beat Sewanee in a shutout at Birmingham’s Legion Field. It had been 32 years since the 1899 Iron Men of Sewanee had gone undefeated, a perfect 12-0. During that run, Sewanee played five games in six days throughout the South and physically dominated each opponent. Grantland Rice named the 1899 Tigers “the most durable team I ever saw.” According to the late, long-time journalist and author Wendell Givens, the night before that 1931 Auburn game, Diddy Seibels, the team captain of the 1899 Sewanee team was on what today would be described as a sports talk radio show. Seibels recalled what made that Sewanee team so great. “Discipline was perfect. There were no jealousies, only the indomitable will to win.”
Durability. Discipline. Will to Win. Those winning characteristics back in 1899 are the same characteristics that President Bob Caslen and Athletic Director Ray Tanner sought when trying to find the 36th head football coach of the University of South Carolina. Those characteristics are why they chose Shane Beamer.
In his introduction of Beamer, Caslen stated that the hiring of Beamer was “a day of great promise.” Promise for a fanbase that needed it. A fanbase that is rabid. Caslen would go on to say that athletics were important to the alumni, the students, and the fanbase. Athletics, and let’s be precise here, football, is woven into the identity of this university. And by having football woven into its identity, the job of head football coach at the University of South Carolina is a unique one.
My First Time in Neyland
I really hate that my first time in Knoxville for a college football Saturday found me actively rooting against the home team. It’s hard to enjoy the pageantry of a Volunteer Gameday when you’re about to have an aneurism watching the Gamecocks give up two special teams touchdowns.
Yes, I, a South Carolina fan, think that Tennessee has the best pregame in the SEC. Nothing against South Carolina’s. It’s awesome. It gets me fired up and ready for the game. But there’s something about the Pride of the Southland whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Throughout the entire pregame you can feel the anticipation growing, and growing, and growing. Ultimately, the pregame reaches its climax as the Tennessee Volunteers enter the playing field as they “run through the T”. So many cool moments in the pregame. Below is a video for you to watch it in its entirety.
One Returned to Louisiana
When I was a senior at Wofford College, I wrote a piece for the school paper as a contributing writer. I titled it “They Used to be Gods.” It might have been a bit sacrilegious, but it proved my point. SEC Football coaches used to be larger-than-life characters.
In that piece I wrote about Butch Jones who was watching his Tennessee team collapse after a promising start to the 2016 season. Butch is from Saugatuck, Michigan. He played college football at Ferris State University, located in Big Rapids, Michigan. Big Rapids is about a fourth of the size of Spartanburg, South Carolina. His coaching career started in the Old Northwest. He coached at Central Michigan University, only then to have a brief three-year stint at the University of Cincinnati. In 2013, he was tasked with taking over one of the proudest football programs south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Other Featured Stories
Gentlemen of the Gridiron
On November 16, 2013, the Auburn Tigers hosted the Georgia Bulldogs for what turned out to be one of the most thrilling installments in the history of the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry. After a furious comeback by the Bulldogs, Auburn faced a fourth down on their own side of the field, trailing with just a few seconds left. The play that followed will be remembered and discussed for decades to come in bars, BBQ restaurants, churches, and family reunions throughout the states of Alabama and Georgia.
That night, the nation was enthralled by “The Prayer in Jordan-Hare.” An improbable, tipped-up-in-the-air, Hail Mary that propelled Auburn one step closer to what wound up being an SEC Championship season. Legends and heroes were born that night on the plains of eastern Alabama.
Godfather of the South
I never met Clisby Clarke. He passed away when I was a freshman in college. In fact, it wasn’t until I was a senior at Wofford that I even heard of the legendary Georgian. And like most great stories, our meeting starts with me being a horrible student.
I was sitting in the library, not studying, but instead watching old SEC football highlights on YouTube. Among the suggested videos on the right side of my computer screen was something called “Bulldog Bite” by Clisby Clarke. I don’t even think I meant to click on it, but somehow it started playing, and before you knew it, I was grinning and tapping my feet along to the song.
“Who the hell is this guy?” I remember thinking.
Pride & Glory
In the state of South Carolina, three historic colleges play Division I Football. All three were founded before the Civil War. All three have student bodies of less than 4,000 students. Two are private. One is a military college. Each college has a football program that competes at a high level. Each is a member of the same athletic conference. I couldn’t find another Southern state like it. Why should you care? Because Furman University, Wofford College, and The Citadel provide a history that is unmatched not only in the Palmetto State, but throughout the South.
Wofford and Furman started by playing what is widely considered the first college football game in South Carolina in 1889, three years before Auburn and Georgia, commonly referred to as “The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.” In fact, Wofford and Furman had already beaten, scratched, and bloodied each other multiple times before South Carolina and Clemson started their bitter in-state rivalry.
Furman was the older of the two schools. Founded in 1826 by a handful of Baptist preachers (it is one of the oldest colleges in the state), they would go on to put together a proud history on the gridiron. In 1936, Furman joined the Southern Conference and went on to win 14 league titles, the most in conference history.
Cocktails & Football
There are only a handful of newspapers printed in the United States that are universally known throughout the American citizenry. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post. Maybe a few others. In the South, most Southerners know of the Atlanta Journal Constitution. I’m guessing, while a fine newspaper, that most Americans don’t know much about the Florida Times-Union. In fact, because the name of the paper doesn’t really give it away, I’m guessing most Americans, outside of Floridians, have an idea of what city the Times-Union is based out of. (It’s located in Jacksonville, by the way.)
With all that being said, the Times-Union has played a significant role in the shaping of this great country. In fact, in my opinion, the Times-Union is second to none in their efforts to enlighten and report hard-hitting news to their subscribers. Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and the entire Washington Post staff fall short in their efforts to claim “Watergate” was more influential and consequential in the development of our great country than whatever the Florida paper contributed.
“Chris, what in the world are you babbling on about,” many of you are asking yourselves. My love for the Times-Union is unparalleled for one reason and one reason only.
