Moral Victory?

[appbio91]

Hell No! We lost. But hats off to our guys for playing their asses off! What an effort. A missed PAT... But we are young there and will get better. I hope that young man sleeps well knowing that redemption will come. See Camelia Bowl outcome. Thanks to coaches and players. Keep the pedal to the medal and lets get that SBC championship this year.

[appchicago]

Yep. An L's and L, but watching the highlights, the old adage of "game of inches" has never been truer. I mean, scooping up that OT fumble in the endzone. Nailing that PAT or field goal. Grabbing down Malone. We were damned close. I know that's not the same as a win, but we have a lot to hold our heads high about.

It's great to be a Mountaineer.

[AppDawg]

I HATE moral victories.... Nonetheless, we just played smash mouth football with the crowned "best" of the SEC and scared the $hit outta them!

Absolutely shocked at how little we tried to pass, yet we ran the ball all over them.... Inside/outside and up the gut....

[WXAPP]

Boy howdy.. if these young men play at this level.. with our Fun Belt folks... Son (we all talk like Foghorn Leghorn here in the South)... We are rolling it... I was impressed. Some issues.. but, overall, those men brought it!

[T-Dog]

No moral victories.

We had a chance to win and didn't.

[TheMackAttack]

I normally don't believe in moral victories either, but I'll take it in this case. We shot ourselves in the foot a bit, sure, but we also made big time plays and just got unlucky. Duck had great coverage on that touchdown pass, we had several forced fumbles that we didn't recover, if we had two extra seconds then we could've take a shot at a game winning field goal as time expired and Rubino certainly has the leg to hit from ~50 yards. I chalk this one up to bad luck more than anything else, we played better football than them and that's something to be proud of even if the scoreboard didn't end up the way we wanted.

[T-Dog]

Satt said after the game we don't take moral victories. Team echoed the same thought.

[hotrod2001]

We can make up for it in two weeks.

If anything was learned it was that we can take on teams of the Power 5 and be in a position to win it.

[Yosef84]

I won't be hanging my head over this game. I'm disappointed because we let it slip away but in the second half, we couldn't catch a break. Tennessee stepped it up on Defense. There is a lot about this game to be encouraged about: Our OL play was excellent! Cox continues to be amazing. Duck is playing unbelievably well as a true freshman DB. Lamb made some great plays and showed leadership.

We won't face another D like the one we played last night. Our passing game will be there when the D can be is a more reasonable level.

I didn't like seeing all the cramping. I think the announcers were making a bigger deal out of it but that worries me a little.

I feel sorry for Old Dominion (almost). One game at a time but I don't see a team remaining on our schedule that we can't beat. Stay health and keep playing hard!

Proud to be a MOUNTAINEER!!!!

[appst89]

No moral victories. We lost a game we should have won. Learn from the mistakes and move on.

[hapapp]

In the end to win games like that you have to execute and in the 2nd half we failed to do so after Capel's punt return and the final drive. There were many good things to point to from last night's performance. This team displayed its character for the nation to see. A number of individuals and units stood out last night. On both sides of the ball we were very physical and often won the battle in the trenches against a bigger team. Overall, special teams coverage was stout save the one kick return.

I think everyone understands the difficult position Rubino was put in last especially on the FG. But, you have to be concerned about leaving 4 points on the field. I hope he doesn't struggle thru the season like Matics did his junior year. No doubt his confidence is shaken at this point. It's a team loss but to be fair if he makes either kick we likely win.

I also think we still don't know what are receiving corps can do since we really didn't utilize them last night.

Credit goes to the staff for a game plan that brought us to the edge of victory and to the players for carrying it out. I'm very excited for the next two weeks at home. I hope we can build off the positives from last night. I anticipate two competitive games.

[WVAPPeer]

Moral Victory is a misnomer in my opinion - "victory" in the sense of a W or L sends the wrong message - I refer to a game like last night as "Confidence Builder" ---

[mountaineerman]

There is no Moral victory in this loss . I personally will give Tennessee no credit after having to sit and listen to 100,000 people booing our injured players at least four times . I have been to a lot of ball games and have never witnessed this .

[t4pizza]

No moral victory. We lost a game we should have won. We out played them, we were more physical, we won the trenches, but we made mistakes and those mistakes cost us the game. Its a loss and it hurts because we should have won.

[fjblair]

No moral victory. We lost a game we should have won. We out played them, we were more physical, we won the trenches, but we made mistakes and those mistakes cost us the game. Its a loss and it hurts because we should have won.

Tennessee was also very lucky in the 2nd half but I agree with your post. Kicking cost us the game-missing a PAT is inexcusable. Missing FG's happens but I really hopecoaches have a grip on improving the kicking game.

[EastHallApp]

The Sun Belt already has one team that makes t-shirts and tweets highlight reels to celebrate moral victories. That's not us.

In the long run, though, hopefully a sign of progress. Plus, the close loss will lend some credibility for the media when we beat Miami.

[FairShake]

Greetings Mountaineers! More than likely this is the first and last post I will make here. I lurked your board as an unregistered visitor for 1-2 months. Mostly because I didn't know much of anything about you. Except that you are that school that humbled Michigan and Phil Fulmer hired your OC, if I recall right. In any case, I came to express respect for your team playing well enough to win. Like many other Vols fans I expected us to blow you out. You are a heck of a team and I'll be more than just surprised if you lose another game this season. I honestly think you can whip some P5 schools. The first among them is likely to be Miami. I dare say you would likely beat up more than just one school in the P12, SEC or Big 10. Not just flapping my lips. That defense of yours which I thought UT would push and shove around is STRONG, FAST, and man, oh man, well coached. They know how to tackle, hit, wrap up a player and get his rear end on the ground, and how! Go get those remaining wins and including whatever bowl you're sure to be in.
Now, another reason I'm posting is to hopefully correct a misunderstanding. UT fans were not booing your players because they got hurt (cramps) nor anything close to that. I along with many viewed the cramping as a cheap tactic to give your defense a breather. UT plays a fast tempo game and each time we seem to be getting into gear, one of your players had "cramps." I commented to another an if your men were experiencing menstrual periods or something. One after the other and ALWAYS your defense. Your offense players never cramped. The tactic was so obvious and the effect of slowing us down just as we were getting in tempo and progressing we get fed up with it. Thus the boos. Now, of course you can deny this is what your players were doing but we didn't see it that way. It was just too obvious timing-wise and selective-wise. Then the cramped player would become miraculously fine. One of your players even got up and taunted us by waving while walking off the field without a hint of a cramp. It was a cheap tactic and not even remotely hidden as such. UT doesn't boo hurt players. Know why? If it can happen to your opponent it can happen to us. Georgia had a similar misunderstanding last year when Nick Chubb got hurt. On seeing Vols fans clapping, they accused us of celebrating his injury. That wasn't true. We clapped because he was up off the ground and mainly OK. No one clapped while he was on the ground as no one was certain what had happened. Or how serious he was injured. Even if it was neck injury, spine injury or something worse. So I tell you from experience, UT fans aren't the devil you think we are. It was the fake cramps we didn't like. Nor did we like the obnoxious referees who did nothing about it despite the behavior repeating itself.

[appst89]

The cramps weren't fake.

[Saint3333]

Tell your angel fans to stop tweeting our kicker and thanking him for the victory. Everyone has bad fans, unfortunately for UTk you have a lot of redneck Walmart fans that are fairly classless today.

Reading an SEC message board is truly hilarious, while I wish we had the following on the "big boys" I'm glad we don't have to deal with loud mouth fans that probably couldn't find Knoxville on a map.

Good luck the rest of the year, I hope you prove everyone wrong that said UTk was overrated today so maybe they'll give App some credit for the game.

[WVAPPeer]

As was stated by the announcers, the hottest day in Boone during fall camp was 82 degrees - there is no way to replicate the humidity and heat - Our coaches don't pull Mickey Mouse crap like you are accusing - sorry you can't grasp that ---