Mark Woods: Hometown Hero

See, here's what I admire about Florida Times-Union columnist Mark Woods: He's dedicated.

Woods' commitment to journalistic excellent was on display during his recent working trip to Haiti, where he (and photog Jon Fletcher) documented a medical team's efforts to help Haitians recover physically and spiritually from the effects of the January earthquake.

But Woodsy went above and beyond the call of duty by snapping today's BOVB photo: A Vols shirt-wearing Haitian driving a three-wheeled contraption. Mark demonstrated exceptional wherewithal just to notice the shirt, and razor sharp motor skills to retrieve his camera, frame the shot and capture the pic (I'm def putting you in for a Sparkplug Award, Bubba).

Good job all around, Mark. Orange Nation is grateful.

Jeff

PS -- Oh and yes, because its driver is wearing an Orange shirt with Power T, the vehicles qualifies as an OV.

It's almost, almost time

So there I was, fixin' to get all excited about college hoops, when I saw the following headline at GoVolsXtra.com:"UT will open with the first of 15 workouts on March 18."

That's football workouts, y'all.

And this being a very spring-like day here in NE Florida, that headline just got me all pumped again for Tennessee football. It sure will be fun to see all that get cranked up again starting in less than a month!

News that exciting deserves an equally exciting Orange vehicle or two. So check out this Vol Navy boat, docked alongside Neyland Stadium on the Tennessee River, and this UT-Orange bus spotted in Los Angeles. Both were submitted by my brother, Rodneyla.

I usually avoid mixing modes of transportation, but I'm sorta mixing hoops and football already, so why not?

Jeff

O GTO!

Check out this sweet ride. I stole the pic of this awesome-O GTO from my friend and Detroiter Greg Piatt's FB page.

In giving me permission to use it, Greg (pictured w/ car) asked if it's the right Orange. Well, technically no. It's an Orange so heavily tainted with red that it's closer to the Gators' wannabe "Orange." Even so, it's a beauty (and so's Greg, obviously) and has just enough O to qualify for the BOVB.

Jeff

OV in Yulee

Good morning, all. Here's a bright, beautiful Orange Ford F-150 a faithful reader in the Yulee area spotted in the metropolis of Hedges (a suburb of Yulee, actually). Just shows to go you that no place is too sophisticated to boast OVs.

Jeff

Sign thing

It has wheels, therefore it is a vehicle. Image provided by my brother in Knoxville.

Jeff

Holy Cow!

More like the Holy Grail! Check out this Awesome-O VW van I spotted in Riverside a couple hours ago. The street light washes out the color a bit, but I promise you it's a gorgeous UT Orange.

Jeff


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Orange shui

NO idea where I saw this Orange and black Ford (is it an LTD?) or when. I was doing a little iPhone feng shui, getting rid of old pix and stuff, when I found it. I title this one Orange Shui.

Jeff

Gratitude Day

Today's Gratitude Day on the BOVB. Here's a partial list of things the blog staff is thankful for on this non-college-football Saturday:

* The football off season, because it makes us realize with each passing day, week and month how awesome college football, and especially Tennessee football, really is.

* The Internet, because it has given rise to so many great ways to keep up with the Vols (or insert your fav team here). In olden times you had to live in Tennessee to get a daily dose of UT sports news. Where would we be without blogs like

* GoVolsXtra.com, VolNation.com, RockyTopTalk.com, UTSports.com, among others. They're on Twitter along with other Tweet favs like @TennesseeVols and @VolWire.

* Lane Kiffin, because he gave us just the morale boost we needed after that horrid 2007 season. He got us back on the recruiting map and set things up so Derek Dooley could come in an build a new system from the ground up. Wishing Kiffin a great career at USC. (Now we just gotta hope Dooley doesn't have a similar attraction to UGA in the event of Richt's demise there, oy.)

* This super sweet convertible Orange Ford Mustang. I found the pic on my hard drive dated mid-June 2009. Don't know how I overlooked it. Anyway, it's a beauty.

Jeff


If you're feeling grateful about something, post it here as a comment. Ditto if I left your blog off the gratitude list.

Congrats, Coach Dooley

Hats off to Tennessee Coach Derek Dooley, who pulled a rabbit out of the hat with an excellent recruiting class on Wednesday. Thanks to GoVolsXtra.com for excellent coverage, including videos and stories (as usual).

Also, a thought on ex-coach Lane Kiffin: I don't have any ill will toward him for leaving the program after just one year.

@jonvines said to me on Twitter that Vols fans must be glad Kiffin is gone. I said yes, but without any anger. Think about the awesome year we just had, thanks to Kiffin. We came off that horrible 2007 season and immediately he had us laughing at Urban "Honey, I got a Headache" Whiner and the Gators and feeling all proud of the program and stuff. He gets Tennessee back on the map and turns in a winning season and then blows town for USC -- which then creates the opportunity to get what could turn out to be a coach who may truly turn this program around for the long haul.

So I say thanks to Coach Kiffin for being an excellent place holder.

Jeff

PS -- oops, almost forgot. I'm presenting this sweet Tennessee airplane as a way to celebrate the Vols' successful signing day. The pic was provided by faithful BOVB reader James Rink up in Tennessee, who spotted it on a Vols chatboard. (BTW, anyone know what kind of plane this is? Is it a homebuilt?)

National Signing Day

Well I'll be, here we are again on the eve of National Signing Day for college football and dadgum if Orange Nation ain't all a'flutter and stuff. Turns out that despite Lane Kiffin's stab-in-the-back move, the Vols are looking at 25 recruits singing on Wednesday and several of them are really solid players.

Meantime, there's other good news on Rocky Top. Tennessee's apparently hired an excellent defensive coordinator, several of our players have been invited to the NFL combine and our new coach Derek Dooley seems to just be doing a steady, solid job.

That calls for some solid Orange vehicles. So check out these pick'em'up trucks.

That Chevy up top was snapped in Jacksonville by Times-Union photographer Bruce Lipsky. "Just another Orange truck," he said.

In the middle is a truck (a Chevy too, right?) that my brother Rod saw in Knoxville. And last is a Toyota I spotted myself at the St. John's Town Center here in Jax this past weekend.

Jeff

Speechless beauty

Words just can't desctibe how beautiful this is.

Jeff