Mpivol posted a thread titled, “This win feels like a loss kinda.”

“Am I the only one feeling that way?”

Johnny_Hopkins was not interested in processing grief for the legion of miserables.

“No there are plenty b!tches on the board just like you. We won the game, it only feels like a loss to you because you’re a loser.”

Scramble Mode: “This thread is a loss.”

RC_100: “Logging on to the GQ feels like a loss for me lol.”

VirginiaVol: “Nope. A win is a win.”

Racer Vol tried basic civility: “Ridiculous. You take any win you can get these days. It’s way too hard to win in the SEC. People need to appreciate that.”

Thevol skipped civility and went with: “I sincerely hope you get kicked in the nuts tonight or suffer from diarrhea. No, this does not feel like a loss at all.”

That settled it. A kick in the nuts.

Tennessee beat Auburn, moved to 4–1, rushed for 237 yards, watched DeSean Bishop go for 220 and found some life at quarterback. OBTW, only two sacks and those were the QB waiting for water to boil in the pocket.

Naturally, half the board was more than devastated by the win.

It is amazing what a committed crew of miserable bastards can build by midnight. The Legion of the Miserables — LOMs — was already fully operational.

This is when Aguilar4heisman took over the board — and, for a while, the entire night.

He started off the afternoon demanding that Josh Heupel “put us in a position to win today. No more qb excuses.”

“That’s Heupel job to put us in a position to win. Going out there with a freshman at qb is ultimately on Heupel. Stop giving him an excuse because he started a freshman. Like that was his only option”

Heupel did.

That was inconvenient.

MonsterVol reminded him Tennessee was 4–1 and had lost to the No. 1 team by three. Thevol asked, “What excuses? We won, just enjoy it. What exactly are you even bitching about?” RowdyVol went directly at the math: “He quite literally made a decision to put us in a position to win the game… are you slow?”

To his credit, Aguilar did not retreat. Like a Heupel offense when it is clicking, Aguilar went uptempo. One complaint became three. The win turned into a roster-budget referendum before anybody had finished the postgame show.

“We aren’t a contender. We have a 45 million dollar roster and Heupel is in year 6. If you’re content with mediocrity go be a South Carolina fan. This isn’t what it should be with the resources we have.”

Then he opened QuickBooks:

“This team isn’t giving you what a top 8 roster spend should. The ROI isn’t there. Keep being excited about scraping by a bottom tier sec team at home.”

Then, after Tennessee had in fact done the thing he demanded:

“We won today. But beating Auburn at home isn’t the standard buddy. Hang the banner.”

There it was: the standard.

Sort of.

Winning was mandatory. It just didn’t count. Auburn was too bad. The margin was too small. The roster cost too much. Year Six was too late. Even 4–1, with the only loss coming by three to No. 1, wasn’t enough. The standard existed. It just moved every time Tennessee got close to it.

Godfather Voltello contributed the complete rebuttal: “Get a life OP.”

LWSVOL, usually steady in the saddle right up until he isn’t, watched everybody else breaking furniture: “good description of what happened. He put us in position to win the game and called the plays to get there. Nice post.”

Meanwhile, the GMacolytes were climbing onto the hood of the car.

Faizon Brandon struggled. George MacIntyre came in, settled the offense and took zero sacks. Same offensive line. Different quarterback. Kwyjibo, the board’s resident engineer, reduced the evening to one sentence: “Same five linemen. Different clock in the quarterback’s head.”

Weird how NOT holding the football until Christmas helps.

hcm brook then had the weirdest take on GMac: “Just seems like a guy who is more athletic than he looks. That’s a guy I want my daughter to date. First in last out guy. Coaches son. Lives in the playbook.”

OBTW, if Elarbee owns every sack, he probably gets a small piece of Bishop’s 220 rushing yards.

Tennessee pounded Auburn up the middle until the Tigers started walking funny. “Hey, Barner, want a little more Bishop and General Neyland?” Two hundred twenty yards and 75 years later, Auburn had seen enough.

Board whipping boy Jeremiah Telander was everywhere, including the YUUUGE fourth-down stop late in the game. volnavyman, checking in from Rhea County, put it better: “Telander was in everything but the All-Barn huddle.”

The offensive line also spent Saturday night answering a week of abuse. RustyVol had already opened “OL needs apology” with “From a bunch of yall.” We dealt with that Saturday night. “Y’all need to get right with Jesus about this offensive line stuff.” — Holy Land Vol

The good news lasted about six minutes. Then everybody remembered there was still a quarterback controversy to fight over. A collective sigh of relief swept the board. There was still work to do.

turkeyhunter5000 had already called the original decision a train wreck and wondered whether Heupel had been arrogant or stupid for starting Faizon. SECBEast went with stubborn. GMac coming in and playing well did not settle the argument. It just gave it fresh ammunition.

james_govols had the theory ready: “I felt the players and talent won in spite of Heupel trying to lose this game.”

o_Xanderlise found the small accounting issue: “Sorry but you can’t blame poor QB management on Heupel and then not give him credit for his other players winning.”

Then OakVol found another emergency: “Year 6 we have no QB and no QB development. He can’t coach up his own two five-star quarterbacks, needs a portal QB or he’s a nobody.”

This was posted shortly after Tennessee’s other five-star quarterback came in and played well.

So Year Six mattered until it didn’t. Depends what you were trying to prove.

BigOrangeJr finally snapped: “YEAR SIX DOESN’T MATTER!!!!! This isn’t 1985!”

And still the anger needed somewhere to go.

Logical_Larry opened “MODS have no more sack than Heupel does” because the Forum’s postgame mini-pod had not criticized Heupel hard enough. He called the game plan “atrocious,” said Knowles was saving Heupel’s ass and told Austin Price it was time to hold the man accountable.

Price replied that he had already said the first half sucked and had already called out the clock management.

Not enough.

Logical_Larry: “This is a bunch of bullshit. It’s Year Six. We shouldn’t be at the point where we’re having to worry about fucking podcasts or mini-pods.”

SmokiesToRockies wanted to know whether Josh “actually thinks what they’re putting on the field is good enough.”

Does he actually know Coach Heupel? He called him “Josh” after all.

Volfanatic16 supplied the needed editorial note: “this should’ve stayed a thought in your brain.” RockyTopRambler1 surveyed the wreckage: “Lordy. We have some humdingers on this board.”

Tennessee had won. The board reviewed the coaches. Then it reviewed whether the people reviewing the coaches had reviewed them angrily enough.

Now people were studying Heupel’s face.

George Cafego read the body language and decided the head coach did not look happy enough that GMac had played well. By late Saturday the film study had left the field entirely. We were breaking down facial expressions. GMac’s success, instead of counting as a good adjustment, became proof Heupel should have started him earlier. Then Cafego found the next layer: Heupel didn’t look happy that GMac succeeded.

So after all that: GMac played well. Bishop ran for 220. Telander played his ass off. The offensive line answered the bell. Tennessee is 4–1.

LoganVol finally quit rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic long enough to look up:

“That was a Top 5 win of the Heupel era.”

Four-and-one isn’t bad. Top 10 is still sitting there. Maybe even the playoffs.

The Titanic, inconveniently, was still floating.