Tennessee Vols Bar Brawl: A Rocky Bottom for Rocky Top

Over the past year and a half, covering Tennessee athletics has been an adventure. The last 18 months have featured a vicious cycle of hatred for coaches, coaching searches, coaches with loose tongues, NCAA investigations, a coach abruptly leaving the school, more hatred for said coaches, another coaching search, and incidents with athletes wielding weapons, involved in drugs, and now, bar-room brawls. 

When Derek Dooley took over this fledgling football team in January, we heard there were going to be changes in the culture of this program.

All the right words were spoken. Glad-handing and triumphant fist pumps were broadcast for the nation to see.

After all the public relations hits the athletics program had taken, it was the signal of a hopeful, new beginning. 

Just weeks prior to that moment, in the early morning hours of New Years Day, four UT basketball players were involved in a high-speed traffic stop where a weapon was seized along with open containers of alcohol and a small portion of illegal drugs. 

Just weeks before that incident, in November, three football players were arrested for holding up two young men at gunpoint at a Knoxville gas station.

Later in the week it was publicized that another player had been cited for shoplifting, a charge that was initially swept under the rug by coaches. 

In April, shortly after new head coach Derek Dooley coached in his first Orange and White game, a sophomore defensive back was arrested for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest after being caught riding around on the hood of a car, which came shortly after being kicked out of the restaurant he was at.

The sophomore safety, Darren Myles, fought with officers as they took him into custody. 

Now, we fast forward to the present. According to Wes Rucker of the Chattanooga Times Free Press , in the early morning hours of July 9, 2010, as many as 10 football players were allegedly involved in a bar fight at Bar Knoxville. 

Preliminary reports indicate that the very same sophomore safety, Darren Myles, was arrested for assault, evading arrest, and resisting arrest. Also arrested was highly touted incoming freshman wide receiver, Da’Rick Rogers. His only charge was disorderly conduct. 

Adding to the disgust of this latest incident is the fact that an off-duty Knoxville police officer was injured in the melee. 

Currently, there are reports that a third Tennessee football player could be arrested soon. 

Among the players brought in for questioning are sophomore DT Montori Hughes, freshman WR Matt Milton, senior WR Denarious Moore, and JuCo transfer OL John Brown. 

Before today’s incident, the Vols tallied seven arrests and one citation in five months, which resulted in three athletes being kicked off their respective teams. 

The arrests and expulsions are growing as we speak. But what if 100 percent of the offenders had been kicked out? 

Maybe coaches Lane Kiffin and Bruce Pearl should have kicked them all out. Maybe athletics director, Mike Hamilton, should have issued the edict himself. Maybe Derek Dooley should kick every last player that was at that bar last night out of his program. Would that be a deterrent? 

One thing it would definitely signal is the rapidly approaching “Rocky Bottom” for Tennessee athletics. Expelling every player involved in the most recent brew-ha-ha would cut this football team deeply.

It would be a stunning precedent set by a new head coach who is ready to make some changes in Knoxville. 

I know all the facts aren’t out yet. I realize that not everyone who was present was arrested. 

These student-athletes were, however, out of their dorm rooms, on a school night, at a bar, at 2 a.m.

Four of the questioned/arrested were freshmen and sophomores, which are all under the legal age limit to purchase alcohol. 

Those are all the “facts” I need.

Just as three freshmen football players riding around on the Strip with a weapon in their vehicle was all I needed to hear last November. And just as four basketball players, traveling at a high rate of speed, with a weapon, alcohol, and drugs in a rented car, was all I needed to hear in January. 

What if someone in authority had stood up and flatly stated, “If you were involved at all we do not need you here at Tennessee"?

Would the July 9, 2010 incident have happened? 

Would fans be reliving yet another terribly embarrassing moment in recent Tennessee history so soon? 

As bad as things got in January, many fans would have preferred that time to have been the lowest point.   

For Derek Dooley, Bruce Pearl, Mike Hamilton, and the future of Tennessee Athletics’ sake, let’s hope this is the Rocky Bottom for Rocky Top.