VolBricks
May the Orange be with you!
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2013
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Why 8-4?
Every offseason the “Talking Heads” like to evaluate the talent on all of the top teams/conferences and make predictions about what they believe the state of each program is. They also guess how many wins a team will have based on schedule and returning talent.
This year most “Talking Heads” have us going about 8-4 and most on Volnation seem to somewhat agree. I have been curious as to why the talking heads think FL or KY is better than the Vols this year. Yesterday I was listening to 104.5 (or 102.5) in Nashville and they had a segment discussing the Vols. Their premise was “Who on this year’s team is a proven difference maker”? To make their point they went back to last year at this time and said who in July/August 2016 did we expect to be a difference maker? Their answer was:
Barnette, Sutton, Dobbs, Kamara, Hurd, JRM, Berry, (there were some others I do not remember).
The point was that any or all of these players could make a game changing play at any time. Then they focused again on this year’s team, who on this team do you Expect to make a game changing play? The only one was Evan Berry and maybe Jennings. All of our other returning players, although talented and with playing time, have not proven themselves to be that player that can turn a game on a single play. Add to that a new QB, new somewhat unproven RB’s and you can see why they pick us 8-4. Ky and Fl both have more “Proven” players returning than we do (according to the talking heads).
I will sum this all up by saying that I believe we are as talented or more talented across the board than we were last year. They may not have the “wow” factor attached to them yet, but I believe this year’s team is a “Team” and they have a desire to win that last year’s team did not. I believe last year’s team was divided by some player(s )that will be left unnamed. Do I think 8-4 is unreasonable? No, but I believe this year’s team could just as easily go 10-2 in the regular season.
Sorry for the long post but it is the offseason and we still have 36 more days until college football kicks off.
GBO!
Every offseason the “Talking Heads” like to evaluate the talent on all of the top teams/conferences and make predictions about what they believe the state of each program is. They also guess how many wins a team will have based on schedule and returning talent.
This year most “Talking Heads” have us going about 8-4 and most on Volnation seem to somewhat agree. I have been curious as to why the talking heads think FL or KY is better than the Vols this year. Yesterday I was listening to 104.5 (or 102.5) in Nashville and they had a segment discussing the Vols. Their premise was “Who on this year’s team is a proven difference maker”? To make their point they went back to last year at this time and said who in July/August 2016 did we expect to be a difference maker? Their answer was:
Barnette, Sutton, Dobbs, Kamara, Hurd, JRM, Berry, (there were some others I do not remember).
The point was that any or all of these players could make a game changing play at any time. Then they focused again on this year’s team, who on this team do you Expect to make a game changing play? The only one was Evan Berry and maybe Jennings. All of our other returning players, although talented and with playing time, have not proven themselves to be that player that can turn a game on a single play. Add to that a new QB, new somewhat unproven RB’s and you can see why they pick us 8-4. Ky and Fl both have more “Proven” players returning than we do (according to the talking heads).
I will sum this all up by saying that I believe we are as talented or more talented across the board than we were last year. They may not have the “wow” factor attached to them yet, but I believe this year’s team is a “Team” and they have a desire to win that last year’s team did not. I believe last year’s team was divided by some player(s )that will be left unnamed. Do I think 8-4 is unreasonable? No, but I believe this year’s team could just as easily go 10-2 in the regular season.
Sorry for the long post but it is the offseason and we still have 36 more days until college football kicks off.
GBO!