A lot of streaks were broken this year...along with alot of hearts but hey, that's how it goes.

Welcome to college football. The fans live and die with each and every play, keep track of the entire Top 25 like it was presidential election coverage, and worry that they might make it to a bowl game.

Most schools have well-established standards as to what bowl games they go to and who is and is not good in their respective conference. For the past few years schools that were once the prominent and most storied schools were going through hard times, i.e. Alabama, Notre Dame, and Penn State. Schools with longstanding traditions of excellence were being consistent in winning conference titles, bowl games, etc., i.e. Michigan, USC, Tennessee, and Florida among others.

This year has been full of surprises and also full of expectations that were bypassed. The 3 biggest surprises: the old Big 3: Bama, Notre Dame, and Penn St. Why would these teams be surprising? They've been mediocre and far off of their winning traditions. Well, Notre Dame is 9-2 and has locked up a BCS bowl bid, Alabama was 8-0 until losing 2 straight which will cost them a shot at the SEC championship and a BCS bowl berth yet they bounced back nicely after a 6-6 season last year, and finally Penn State has been nothing short of horrible these past few years and shocked the nation when JoePa seemed to have a little magic left in leading them to a 10-1 record and a BCS bowl berth. If you have kept up with college football over the past 6 or 7 years then this year is almost like living way back when nothing was better than watching the Bear stroll the sidelines in the now famed checkerboard hat or South Bend being a hotsopt for something other than a team blind to it's past.

There are many more surprises but now I'll talk about the one surprise that shocked the whole SEC, as well as ESPN and the rest of the country: the collapse of what was the Tennessee Volunteers.

I grew up in a house where both Alabama and Tennessee were cheered for. I has Alabama license plates on my truck and wore Alabama hats, but always pulled for UT when they played. When the decision came to where I would attend college it was down to the two schools either side of my family loved so much: my dad's Tennessee Vols vs my mom's Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama was a major possibility until I "checked the price tag." Let's just say I sent in applications to both but was more concerned with what the response from Tennessee. Low and behold, the letter comes, I am accepted, and even though it's March I can't wait to walk into Neyland knowing my football team is abso-freaking-lutely awesome. Apparently, that's where I went wrong.

We came into the regular season ranked #3 in the nation in all polls. We were coming off of a huge Cotton Bowl win against Texas A&M. We had the whole country saying "When Texas loses, the original UT will be there to take it's place." Orange Nation should have sensed something wrong when good ol' Phil bought into the hype and basically said we were going to be awesome. To avoid an even longer story, lets just sum up the whole season in one sentence: Tennessee loses to Vanderbilt for the first time in 22 years. The preseason #3 had not only fallen from the Top 25, it had fallen below Vanderbilt to the near bottom of the entire SEC. Did I mention no bowl game? 16 straight years of bowl games, a few SEC titles, a National Championship, and we lost to Vandy?

Leaving Neyland Stadium and being trash talked to by a Vandy fan felt like being made fun of by Siegel High School fans after their team beat ours (senior year). "They're not supposed to be good. I mean for God's sake..it's VANDERBILT!" That was the lowest point a Tennessee team had been at in a long time. Vanderbilt! What's next? Losing to Kentucky and Vandy in the same year? That hasn't happened since 1964.

This season was so disappointing that I actually considered transferring to MTSU, all in joking of course. I might as well focus on my education because I had about as much fun during the football games here as I would have there and before all you MTSU people get pissed you probably can agree with me on that.

There were many upsides to this year however. Myself and Jason made the Knoxville News Sentinel after the South Carolina game. You can see the picture by looking in my photobox right over there à. The Jumbotron seemed to favor our seats as we made it up there probably 10 or so times this year. We had front row seats every game but the first one when  we were four rows back but still..they were good seats. We made it onto TV albeit during some Jefferson Pilot broadcasts. They're no ESPN but hey, it's worth it to have friends and relatives calling you saying "I saw you on TV!!" I also made it on TV during the Vandy game with my sign that read "FOSTER FOR HEISMAN IN '09." In that game he rushed 40 times for 223 yards. I'll keep that sign handy for a few more years..

So with all of this being said it comes down to this: was coming to Tennessee worth it and is it what I thought it was going to be, including football despite the dismal year?

Yeah, I'd say so. Hey, win or lose they're my team now and I'll support them through the good and the bad times. If you don't believe me, ask someone from last year's senior class at Blackman who traveled to Cookeville on a Tuesday night to watch our then 6-16 basketball team play? I can deal with losing and I'll deal with it now but just you wait..

We'll bounce back. We'll be on top again next year.

I've seen Peyton Manning up close, I've been apart of an absolutely insane stadium crowd, I've rioted after an enormous win, and I made it onto TV long before I had ever hoped to.

It's been worth it no matter who we lost to.
And to think..3 more years of this.

"Good old Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee."