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[QUOTE="leftytg, post: 1584316, member: 2651"]
...on the road against a ranked SEC opponent who has you outgunned in talent and athleticism.

By going for it, he was telling his offense that he believed in them, and that he wasn't going to be intimidated by TN.  People were fond of pointing out how Shafer ran a bunch of fakes with Dixon as evidence that he wasn't ultra conservative, but there's a difference.  Pulling off a fake is counting on tricking the other team or catching them off guard.  Lining up your offense and going for it is looking your offense in the eye and telling them you believe in them, and looking the other team in the eye and saying go ahead and stop us.

Sure, it might have failed.  But Tennessee was going to put up a lot of points.  As we have the benefit of seeing the entire game play out, that is exactly what happened.  The only chance they had was to keep up pressure by scoring and hoping Tennessee would crack under the pressure of losing at home to a midmajor.  Babers understood the need to keep up that pressure proactively, rather than "punting" (pun intended) the decision down the line and then hoping for an aburd collection of aberrations that would have to fall into line to be back in the game.

I'll go ahead and put myself on record right here - I will not criticize or second guess a decision to go for it on 4th down.
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