I'm going to miss the sweaty cheat!

First of all let me preface this with I hate Tennessee. I hate Louisville, North Carolina, Duke, Ohio State, and Florida with a a great deal of passion. However, growing up on the border, I hate Tennessee with the fire of a thousand Hells. Our friend from the famous youtube video said it best. "They low down, they dirty, and they some snitches." I honestly cannot tell you one redeeming quality about UT. Actually, yes I can. That is Bruce Pearl.

By saying he is (was) a redeeming quality doesn't mean I like the guy. He was a goober, tried to be much funnier than what he was, and obviously a liar and a cheat. That doesn't mean I won't miss the guy. Face it, he was great for the rivalry. He had a personality that you loved to hate. Who else in the SEC has that kind of personality? Billy Donovan, Darrin Horn, Trent Johnson, Mark Fox? They have the personalities of a mop handle. Kevin Stallings and Rick Stansberry are easy to dislike but they're not fun to dislike. Bruce Pearl had a personality to rival Cal. It didn't help that although severely underachievers, they were generally a threat to the Big Blue. When is the last time a coach/team combo featured that? Nolan Richardson with Arkansas and Dale Brown at LSU are the only two that come to mind.

With UK being the Big Dog of the SEC or shall I say "Everyone's' Super Bowl" since that seems to be our coach's go to saying, we need a rival! Every hero needs a villain. Batman had the Joker, Superman had Lex Luthor, and Dusty Rhodes had Ric Flair. Pearl was perfect for the SEC and most importantly, Kentucky. I mean we are the SEC when it boils down to it, right?

Look, the guy dug his grave and now has to lay in it. I'm not arguing that at all. No college president or AD could keep that around. You break the rules and lie, it happens. I'm not saying he should have kept his job. I'm just saying that I will miss the guy. We can only hope that Arkansas or Tennessee hire a coach to come in to give us a rival that is fun to hate. With Tennessee being arch enemy #1, I would love for it to be them that gets that. There is no better feeling that beating the everliving hell out of someone you hate. That's especially true when it is beating a coach that does his best to fuel the rivalry's fire like Bruce Pearl did.