Tennessee may not always produce the best product on the football field, but if there’s one area where the Volunteers really excel it’s on Twitter.
It’s really quite impressive. If you’re an SEC football fan, you’ve likely had a heated exchange with a member of VolNation on Twitter. They’re ruthless.
Tennessee has not had a good football team since the early 2000s. But despite two decades of cheering for a bad team, their Twitter presence is the strongest and most annoying I’ve seen.
Let’s get one thing straight, because I know there’s going to be people calling me out for saying anything positive about Tennessee (though I’m not sure how positive being mean on social media is). I can’t stand these guys. They talk a big game and they’re downright mean. They’ll come for all your insecurities. And they’ll invite their Twitter friends to gang up on you. It’s intimidating, but entertaining if watching from a distance.
And this week, No. 1 Georgia (9-0) travels to Tennessee (5-4) to take on the Vols at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS. Tennessee fans are already predicting a win.
Ever since I created the UGA Football Live Twitter account Tennessee fans have done nothing but impress me and drive me crazy.
In 2014 I even made a “Retweet for Uga, favorite for Smokey” tweet. And remember, this is a UGA football fan page we’re talking about…surely Uga should have received more retweets than Smokey did favorites. Nope, Tennessee fans came out in full force and Uga lost the battle. To this day, Smokey has 3,900 favorites to Uga’s 3,100 retweets.
RT for Uga
FAV for Smokey pic.twitter.com/SEqVyisOC5
— UGA Football Live (@UGAfootballLive) September 23, 2014
We all watched on as Tennessee fans threw golf balls and bottles of mustard at Ole Miss players and coaches during the Rebels win over the Vols earlier this year. Their reputation was in question prior to that October night, but now it’s stained, says Adam Sparks of USA TODAY’s KnoxNews.
But it’s nothing new. They’ve been virtually throwing golf balls and mustard bottles at fans of literally any opposing teams since Twitter really began to gain popularity in 2010.
In 2019, Darren Rovell conducted a poll on Twitter to determine which college fan bases are the most annoying. Tennessee was named the nation’s fourth most annoying.
They even made fun of Nick Chubb’s gruesome knee injury suffered at Neyland Stadium in 2015.
What I’m trying to say is this: To all UGA fans on Twitter this week, don’t take it personal. You may remember a mean tweet from, let’s say…@ViciousVol98 (made that one up and proud of it), but I promise @ViciousVol98 won’t remember you.
Pick your battles wisely.
