HuntlandVolinColo
Rocky Top High Colorado
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2011
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He's lead us to 3 bowl wins in a row for the first time in 20 years. He beat a VT team that finished with 10 wins and a #16 national ranking -- in front of the largest audience to ever watch an American football game. Was that a big game?
The more important question to me is are we getting better under Butch? And I think the evidence suggests that we are. I think if not for the unusually high number of injuries to key players last season, we win a couple more games and finish with 11 wins. That would make our last four seasons look like this...
2013: 5 wins
2014: 7 wins
2015: 9 wins
2016: 11 wins (-2 in reality due to the injuries, IMO)
He's recruiting quality kids who are staying out of trouble (for the most part), taking care of their academics and generally representing the school well. As long as we keep going along like this, I feel like Butch gives us as good a chance to win as any coach we could realistically hope to get to replace him.
I think any reasonable person would have to agree....
He's lead us to 3 bowl wins in a row for the first time in 20 years. He beat a VT team that finished with 10 wins and a #16 national ranking -- in front of the largest audience to ever watch an American football game. Was that a big game?
The more important question to me is are we getting better under Butch? And I think the evidence suggests that we are. I think if not for the unusually high number of injuries to key players last season, we win a couple more games and finish with 11 wins. That would make our last four seasons look like this...
2013: 5 wins
2014: 7 wins
2015: 9 wins
2016: 11 wins (-2 in reality due to the injuries, IMO)
He's recruiting quality kids who are staying out of trouble (for the most part), taking care of their academics and generally representing the school well. As long as we keep going along like this, I feel like Butch gives us as good a chance to win as any coach we could realistically hope to get to replace him.
This is why I'm still on the train. Believe me, I have a ton of ? marks and head scratches. But, overall, there are too many +s to overlook. Here's hoping that our staff is growing along with the rest of the program. If so, we may experience some exciting times again.
2013 -- 1 -- beat #11 South Carolina, 23-21
2014 -- 0 -- no signature wins; best was defeating unranked South carolina 45-42 in overtime
2015 -- 2 -- beat #19 Georgia, 38-31, and #13 Northwestern, 45-6 (!!)
2016 -- 4 -- beat Virginia Tech, 45-24, #19 Florida 38-28, and #25 Georgia 34-31 before the wheels came off; came back at end of season to beat Nebraska 38-24
Those are all quality wins; they're not all signature wins, but in my book they are all 'quality'.
When UGA and UF are our main east rivals, I think those wins have to be considered quality.
That Northwestern team was pretty hyped until we beat their brains in. Then everyone decided they were overrated.
There's no doubt that the Vols have improved since the Dooley dark ages, but how much have they improved? They've won more games, but those wins have mostly been over lower tier non-conference teams and division teams in a historically weak Eastern Division. How many quality wins does Butch have so far? And what wins do you think count as quality wins?
I think our fans don't appreciate our bowl wins. I understand the frustration of the season but Butch has clobbered each team in the bowl games. He has done a fantastic job with bowl preparation.
He's lead us to 3 bowl wins in a row for the first time in 20 years. He beat a VT team that finished with 10 wins and a #16 national ranking -- in front of the largest audience to ever watch an American football game. Was that a big game?
The more important question to me is are we getting better under Butch? And I think the evidence suggests that we are. I think if not for the unusually high number of injuries to key players last season, we win a couple more games and finish with 11 wins. That would make our last four seasons look like this...
2013: 5 wins
2014: 7 wins
2015: 9 wins
2016: 11 wins (-2 in reality due to the injuries, IMO)
He's recruiting quality kids who are staying out of trouble (for the most part), taking care of their academics and generally representing the school well. As long as we keep going along like this, I feel like Butch gives us as good a chance to win as any coach we could realistically hope to get to replace him.
The "-2 in reality due to injuries" is a weak argument that still stems from a Dooley like mentality.
I agree with Bill Parcells that you are what your record says you are. Tennessee flirted with disaster throughout the entire year. Sometimes they came out with a win, sometimes they didn't.
I could just as easily call "+2 in reality due to luck"