So, 2/3rds of the staff will be going to Berkeley for the game, while the remaining 1/3 will be getting drunk in Germany with some good German beer whilst cheering on the Vols tomorrow. We’ll probably be back around Sunday night or so, and so we’ll try to update with a game review on Monday or so.

Until then, I’ll leave up a Gameday Discussion thread, so you guys get to discussin’!

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8:00 PM EST TV: ABC

Go Vols!

It’s finally here. It’s game week. It’s the opening week of meaningful football. I get giddy for NFL Preseason football if for no other reason than that football is actually being played, but after about the third week, it starts to suck too because no one cares about the outcomes of the games. But now, comes the first of the meaningful games in the best of any type of “football,” COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

This first week of action sees the Vols take on California in the biggest game of the weekend. Slated by many as a “revenge game” for Cal, in a sense, the game has become a “revenge game” for UT as well due to being slighted in the polls and by broadcasters as a Cal win before the game is even played. Hopefully this all sounds familiar to you, because it is eerily similar to what happened last year. Also hopefully, the results will be about the same as last year.

Without further ado, check the jump for the Opponent preview for Cal. (Complete with FOOTNOTES!)

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Doug, over at the Power T, has a great post about the slight, subtle difference between pregame at say… a place like Neyland Stadium to pregame at oh… say, a Cal Memorial stadium.  Check it out, it’s really funny.

Well, since Doug has covered the intros, I thought I’d contribute, and offer up a little comparison of reactions as seen from the stands, in terms of well… level of madness.  Let’s have a look-see.

Obviously, this is a biased blog, but I’m trying my best to be fair here.  So, here is a video from a game against one of our biggest rivals, Alabama, where Tennessee scores a touchdown, along with the subsequent crowd reactions.

Tennessee vs. Alabama

Tennessee vs. LSU

Now, I’ve looked around a bit at several different videos that are available, and I found a couple videos of Cal games against Oregon and UCLA respectively.  They would seem to me to be relatively “big” games, and quite frankly, I was impressed with the first vid crowd reaction.  The second one?  Well… not so much.

Cal vs. Oregon

Cal vs. UCLA

Check out a couple bonus vids after the jump…

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Well, It’s the first of the season and I don’t know about you, but I’m totally PSYCHED!  Anyway, let’s get down to it.  There were a few games last night, and although none of the games were really ever in doubt, it was just nice to see some games being played that mattered.

The marquee matchup was the SEC opener LSU vs. Mississippi State.  The Bulldogs, coming off of another disappointing season, came into the game with high hopes of a possible upset of the #2 ranked team in the country.

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The defense played well enough to keep the Bulldogs in the game until just before halftime, but the offense, led into the ground by quarterback Mike Henig, struggled to find anything that worked against the fast and powerful LSU defense.  To MSU’s credit, it wasn’t really anyone’s fault except Henig’s (that’s right, I went there), because it got to a point where he was just throwing every ball up in the air just in case.  Like the poker player getting his aces cracked one too many times, he was on 100% tilt, and going all-in every hand.

LSU scored 45 points in what is being called a “rout,” and I suppose it was, but their offense looked out of sync for the better part of the first half.  The offensive line was very porous against an inspired Bulldog D-Line, and if they don’t patch that up real fast (particularly the right side), Flynn’s not going to make it through the season.

The other games featured blowouts of clearly inferior opponents as to make the teams feel better about themselves.  These are out of conference cupcakes that don’t even stand a chance at playing against decent competition, and well, it’s basically a “feel good stroker” if you catch my drift.

Rutgers, the most merciful of the teams to play, only ran up the score 38-3 mostly on Ray Rice rushes and Tiquan Underwood’s few, but meaningful catches against a hapless Buffalo team.  Boise State ran up 56 points against the poor bastards from Weber State, and Louisville, experts in sportsmanship, ran up 73 points against (running out of adjectives to mean bad) Murray State.  Hope you guys feel real good about yourselves there.

But, no matter the lack of sportsmanship, I’m just glad that there’s college football back on, and it’s only a day or so until the REAL boys come out to play!

So, Cal Blog, The Band is Out on the Field or TbiOOtF seems to have issues with our rallying song, Rocky Top. The blog merely mentions it as being “annoying” which, if you’re not a Tennessee fan, almost anyone else can attest to (ask the rest of the SEC), but in the comments, a few commenters go so far as to say that it’s “mundane” and “dull.” I don’t really understand how this is the case. The same commenter goes on to say:

Notre Dame, Michigan, Cal, USC, Texas — now those are distinct, unique, memorable, and annoying (to the right people). Hell, you KNOW Cal’s fight song is one of the best if Fucla steals it and continues to use it!

Notre Dame? Michigan? Don’t they have the same fight song? USC Only knows the one 5 note number which is almost as bad as FSU, and if Texas has a fight song, no doubt, it’s some form of a “burnt” Rocky Top as they have a penchant for “borrowing” Tennessee traditions.

And oh yeah, Cal has a fight song? Apparently they do. An extensive two try search, yielded this particular thing which was tagged as the Cal fight song, so I’ll take their word for it. Very… Inspiring.

OK, I’m pretty sure that’s not the fight song… but still instills lots of confidence right? Thought so. Now, couple that together with a mini-megaphone, and well, we might as well not show up on Saturday.

Let’s get straight to the questions today.  Give me your thoughts in the comments~!

1. What will the final score of the UT/Cal game be?

2. How loud can “minimegaphones” really get?

Of course, we all know that there have been some tweaks to the rules this year. Most notably, the kickoffs will originate from the 30 yard line, and the clock will actually stop between possessions and will only start after the opposing team touches a kickoff.

Those two are the most obvious and visible of the rules changes, but we here at Fulmer’s Belly like to offer up some more tweaks for the upcoming year. We will unveil them a few at a time, if for no other reason than to milk this idea for all it’s worth. Here we go.

Sucking – 10 yards.

This was introduced for teams populating the Mountain West, Sun Belt, Conference USA, and the ACC (oh yeah, I went there). A team shall be flagged for sucking if they suck and be penalized 10 yards. This one might get ugly real fast.

Grabbing Boobies - 5 or 15 yards.

A penalty shall be issued for any player running into the stands after a big play and grabbing a girl’s boobs or worse, “tuning their radios.” Depending on how hot the girl is, the penalty shall be less severe. i.e. Gisele Bunchen: 5 yard penalty, Janet Reno: 15 yard, loss of down.

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into some of the more obscure rules changes for the upcoming season. Stay tuned as we’ll have more to come.