Sunday Blog: A lot of great stories

The Sunday Blog comes at you one last time after a day that had plenty of storylines, even with all of the cancellations and postponements. I'm not saying there were a lot of great college football games, just a lot of great stories. 

1. For example, I give you the first female (Sarah Fuller) to kick in a Power 5 game and it's not her fault that Vanderbilt stinks so badly that she couldn't try an extra point. At least she got a kickoff in and that was historic enough for me to drag Kelsey out into the backyard with some scuffed up balls. Just kidding. The point is, dream your dreams and don't let anyone tell you what you cannot do. Like if you're Jaret Patterson of Buffalo and your dream is to run for 409 yards and eight touchdowns. Man, Kent State, how about putting extra guys in the box? Anyway, I put Buffalo 25th in my poll just for the heck of it.

2. Dan Mullen said Saturday that he thinks one reason we are getting out of the business is because it is supposed to snow in Knoxville on Saturday. First of all, I love snow games. Second of all, we weren't going either way. But I did check the weather and the forecast for Knoxville and on Saturday it's going to be in the 30s and there is a chance for a rain/snow mix. Sounds delightful. Maybe I'll watch out back with the fire pit engaged.

3. So when Sam Pittman and Arkansas won a few games in a season when we thought the Razorbacks might not win any, everyone jumped on the SEC Coach of the Year bandwagon. He could still win it, but don't we have to consider Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz, who has the Tigers flirting with a winning record at 4-3. And, of course, Mullen. I'd also consider Lane Kiffin, now 4-4 on the season, and Jimbo Fisher. And why not Nick Saban, who has an unbeaten record on this Time of COVID? All I'm saying is that there are several candidates worthy and the rest in this league have done pretty mediocre jobs with their teams.

4. I want to give a special shoutout to the people at the University Athletic Association for the way they made two old sportswriters feel special Saturday. It meant a lot. And the standing ovation by the other writers and broadcasters in the press box at halftime brought a tear to my eye. If we were going to go out, I don't think we planned it well picking a COVID season and leaving with a team that has a chance to do something special. But the people around us have really planned things well and we appreciate it. This is my last Sunday Blog for the newspaper. Follow me on Twitter and Facebook and know that my new email will be patrickdooley54@gmail.com. Thanks for letting me plug away. The farewell column is coming Monday and I bet you're getting tired of this long goodbye.