Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons

The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. All aboard! Daggum, 2020 and all the craziness that followed seems like yesterday, yet here we are saying goodbye to 2022 and hello to 2023, a new year!

Don’t get me wrong, craziness still exists, but for those of us reading this article fortunate enough to reside in one of the greatest states in America, count your blessings! You want one example?

I appreciate living in a state that is one of the few to truly restrict transgender athletes from competing willy-nilly (no pun intended) in women’s sports. I am proud that Tennessee has some of the toughest legislation on transgender athletes in America. The integrity of female athletics has been and will remain dead until the rest of the country wakes up and admits what is obvious. Those born with twinkies have an unfair advantage over those who weren’t. It’s why we have gender separation to begin with. It’s hilarious to me how the biological facts I’ve already written would be considered hate speech on many social media platforms.

What an opening! Maybe I should have opened with a statement about how I was going to start eating healthier or working out this year? Ha-ha!

Alright, let’s talk FOOTBALL! Yee-yee, Tennessee! The Tennessee Volunteers ended the season on a high note while the Tennessee Titans have been struggling to find any groove, going 0–5 in the month of December.

The Volunteers finish with 11 games won on the season, something the team hasn’t done in over 20 years. Let’s be honest, it’s an amazing accomplishment for Coach Heupel, who is only in Year 2 of what appears to be a very successful makeover of this proud football program. The Vols had a chip on their shoulder entering the 2022 season after they finished 2021 on a high note (aside from that crazy bowl game vs. Purdue).

But in the preseason AP polls, they were just left out of the Top 25. The Vols entered this season unranked and ended the season 11–2, winning the Orange Bowl and beating teams like Alabama, LSU and Clemson—the teams who have accounted for six out of the past seven national championships.

UT defeated Clemson in the 2022 Orange Bowl; photo by Andrew Ferguson / UT Athletics

Respect to the South Carolina Gamecocks, you ended the season on fire, but my advice would be this, if your fan base is going to troll the Orange Bowl with messages being flown behind airplanes for the world to see, you have to win your own bowl game! The ‘cocks should have paid more attention to Notre Dame instead of Tennessee.

There is a reason the national media, social media and other fan bases are obsessed with the fandom that is Vol Nation. I mean, it’s obvious the fan base is wild, throwing a goal post into the Tennessee River and showing out in full force on game day regardless of the situation. But the real obsession with Tennessee is the fact that this team has been in the dumps for the last few decades and yet the passion, the loyalty and the fandom never wavered. Haters assumed Tennessee fans would be quiet, hiding during those consistently tough years.

And yet they always were loud. Many haters confuse that passion with delusion! But even the haters know that the Tennessee Volunteers have some of the wildest, most passionate fans in college football, and it irks the hell out of Tennessee’s rivals.

Coach Josh Heupel, entering year three as the leader of Vol Nation, has the respect of his locker room and the hearts of the fan base. Something is brewing down in Knoxville and the world has taken notice for good reason.

So, let’s get into a more complicated Tennessee football team. My Tennessee Titans have been a mess down the stretch! I mean, that can happen when you lead the NFL in injuries in back-to-back seasons. The team used over 90 players last season, an NFL record. And that wasn’t because they had an abundance of talent waiting to suit up. Here we are in the 2022 NFL season leading the league in that category yet again with over 80 players used. Right now, the team has 22 players on IR and those players account for nearly half the team’s salary cap (49.6%) at $103.9 million. That is a mighty big difference in comparison to the team they play the first weekend of January to decide the fate of the AFC South. The Jacksonville Jaguars have placed only seven players (the league low) on IR all season, compared to the Titans’ NFL-leading 33.

I have no clue who is to blame for this unfortunate truth. Strength and conditioning? The medical staff? Hell, I don’t know. Fire them ALL! That is unacceptable, and it’s a trend that needs to end.

It’s been a weird season indeed. The AFC South seemed untouchable in November. Yet here we are with the Titans losing games and the Jags winning them.

This article was published before the Week 18 game so I desperately hope the Titans can figure out a way to go into Jacksonville for a huge winner-take-all showdown and the Titans can claim a third straight division title and host another playoff game.

Kevin Byard, photo by Donald Page / tennesseetitans.com

I don’t even care about how the Titans would or wouldn’t compete in the playoffs. I want the Jaguars’ momentum and hope of its first division title since 2017 to die at the hands of Coach Vrabel and whatever players are ready to go into battle. Trevor Lawrence has been on fire, and it will take a heavy pass rush and great performances from players like Big Jeff, Denico and KB to stop that Jags momentum. I just hope whoever is at QB for the Titans, King Henry, Burks and Chiggy can score enough points to keep up because this awful offensive line is going to have to step up and play tough and smart if they want to stay in it.

I will end this article with a few quick hits: Congrats to the Middle Tennessee State Football team on its bowl game victory. The Blue Raiders overcame a 14-point deficit in a game that featured six lead changes to defeat San Diego State in the Hawaii Bowl.

The Nashville Predators continue to drive this fan crazy. Good one night, bad the next, and currently hovering around .500. I love my Smashville hockey but over these next three months this team better find its identity, or the NHL Central Division will leave them in the dust.

Tennessee Basketball, keep up the good work. The team has some big wins already and even an impressive loss in a hostile environment last month, in a big-time Arizona matchup. That game was horrendous regarding the officiating. Just look at the free throw stat line. The crowd seemed to get into the refs’ heads, or they were paid off. Who knows? All I know is that this Tennessee Basketball team is legit, and come March it would be nice to see them dance.

Alright, enough! The Z-Train is rolling into the station. Thank you to all my readers, much love. Happy New Year!