A reminder: This is Georgia Tech week. The Board seems blissfully unaware of whatever danger awaits in Atlanta. Instead, it has returned to the middle-aged men re-fighting old fights and resumed sniping at itself. What follows combines two of the week’s more active threads:

The REDACTED finally found an offensive-line post it could believe in.

It came with five numbered arguments and instructions to blast the author later.

Vols1024 opened:

“Blast me later in the year if this take is off.”

This was optimism written in bomb-disposal gear. His rambling post included the following:

Starting center Sam Pendleton had been suspended for violating team rules three months after a DUI arrest. The defense brief called this “without our starting center,” as though Pendleton had been misplaced during warmups. Tennessee had played a true freshman quarterback. Pendleton had been injured last season, Jesse Perry was an “absolute dude,” eight linemen had rotated against Furman, and Josh Heupel had apparently hidden the good rushing offense until Georgia Tech.

Vols1024 had considered every possibility except the possibility that REDACTED might let him enjoy this of reflective thought that he should have kept to himself.

VolDrew agreed that Tennessee hadn’t used its counters or pulling game. Pendleton would return. The rotation would shrink. The real offense was coming.

Then he added:

“If we struggle this Saturday, then it is an issue.”

The optimism now had an expiration date.

Otis111 offered the traditional Board postponement:

“We’ll know more after Saturday against GT.”

Otis was correct. Useless, but correct.

RJ_Vol called Furman a “situational scrimmage” and noted Tennessee had put its foot on the gas whenever necessary.

VictoryLapVol required seven words:

“Ory Williams looks very suspect at RT.”

Five numbered arguments entered.

Seven words survived.

Then ChowChow summoned the dead:

“Pendleton ain’t Bob Johnson, Jason Layman, Chip Kell or even Coop.”

The first hopeful offensive-line thread of the season had lasted fourteen minutes before Tennessee’s historic linemen were dug up and placed in pass protection.

RDBIPB issued his grades: C-minus to D-plus in the first half, better in the second. Tennessee could not be great until it ran between the tackles.

The line had received partial credit for getting out of the way.

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Across the Board, another thread was heating up about where Tennessee’s linebackers should stand before the snap.

VFF put Arion Carter in the middle and Jeremiah Telander on the edge. ATLVFL preferred Carter inside, Telander in a rotation and Campbell somewhere nearby. Jet_3 split the edge snaps. Zeusify said Telander wasn’t big enough to play there full time.

By the end of the first page, Telander had played Mike, Will, Jack, edge and bench.

It goes without saying that DC Jim Knowles had not been consulted.

rkc1234 watched Telander against Furman and reached a clean conclusion:

“I think he’s slow and a step behind. Saturday I never heard his name.”

ATLVFL called Telander smart and versatile, though “not as athletic as some.”

That was when VFF stopped discussing football and reached for gasoline and some stick matches.

“If the kid was black none of you would be questioning him.”

Good morning y’all.

The Board had begun by moving Carter outside. It was now conducting a racial inquiry into Jeremiah Telander before most people had finished coffee.

VFF cited Knowles praising Telander’s versatility and called him Tennessee’s highest-rated linebacker against Furman. He accused the doubters of seeing skin color instead of football.

GoRoute1 returned fire. Telander had taken bad angles the previous season, looked slow and had not been athletic enough.

“Maybe he’s better, who knows? But don’t act like the kid is being judged off his skin.”

An argument about linebacker alignment now required character witnesses.

Oklavol brought physics, you can’t beat physics:

“Power equals Force times Velocity.”

Excellent.

By 9:42 Monday morning, REDACTED had introduced racial bias, force, velocity and infinite differences in human body composition to determine which side of the formation a linebacker should stand on.

SaltyVol said Telander had lost contain “a couple of times.”

BlueZone101 had heard it happened three consecutive plays.

One missed assignment was reproducing into a litter.

Volfrombama wanted Spillman on the edge because he “plays like his hair is on fire.”

This remains the preferred Tennessee scouting measurement. Forty times may be disputed. Flaming hair is an official intangible.

The argument drifted into last season. Carter, Spillman and Perlotte had all taken bad angles. Carter had turf toe. Somebody mentioned a film evaluator who supposedly said No. 22 would never play at Tennessee because he lacked athletic ability.

MattARockyTop accused GoRoute1 of proving he was full of shit.

Cleveland2854 tried to restore order:

“We were talking angles.”

They were not talking angles anymore.

They were discussing turf toe, race, PFF, draft stock, defensive formations and whether Jim Knowles could recognize a linebacker without consulting the Board.

Eventually BigOrangeBilly arrived with the actual percentage of snaps Tennessee had played in a 3–3–5.

Nobody thanked him.

That was the mood by Wednesday night.

The offensive line had one believer carrying a five-point brief and requesting delayed punishment. The linebacker thread had assigned four positions, accused half the Board of prejudice and turned one lost edge into a semester of applied mathematics.

Georgia Tech plays Tennessee on Saturday.

REDACTED Message Board has already lost contain on Justice Haynes.