Age

#1

Aerie Vol

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2012
Messages
3,797
Likes
8,719
#1
We. Need. Age.

I see countless threads claiming Butch sucks because Pinkel beat him with inferior recruiting classes. Those claiming such need a serious dose of human anatomy class.

22 (often 23) year old 3 stars > 18 year old 5 stars

Those players who would be 22 on our team now are mostly gone from our supposedly great recruiting classes from 4-5 years ago. Some bailed with coaching changes, some couldn't hack it, and the best of them bolted for the NFL early.

Pinkel's making a living recruiting middle of the road players and training them for the next 4-5 years. Compare that with Butch's team full of 18/19 year-olds.

One last piece of supporting evidence. Remember those days back when Fulmer was dominating the conference with superior talent? How about Vandy? They had a run of 5 years or so where we barely beat them, then they eventually got us once. Why? Their defense was loaded with 5th-year players, several of whom went on to have great NFL careers.

Age. The great talent equalizer. Guess what we'll have more of next year? And the next. Go Vols!

AV
 
  • Like
Reactions: 14 people
#3
#3
You don't have to look any further than our senior night to see the that you are onto something OP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#5
#5
You don't have to look any further than our senior night to see the that you are onto something OP.

This! I was shocked that there were so few seniors! :yikes:

And not only that, I think 3 were not even dressed, and a couple I had never heard of??

Theres young, and there is OMG we are FREEKING young!



.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people
#6
#6
We have several missing pieces of the puzzle that are needed to be successful in the SEC. No depth at RB, no depth on the oline, undersized at DT, no depth at LB, too slow in the secondary.
 
#7
#7
I would love to have age added to our avatar. It would help me calm down with some of the post when you realize they are only 15 and have the right to live in moms basement.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 9 people
#8
#8
This! I was shocked that there were so few seniors! :yikes:

And not only that, I think 3 were not even dressed, and a couple I had never heard of??

Theres young, and there is OMG we are FREEKING young!



.
Same amount or fewer next year
 
#9
#9
I would love to have age added to our avatar. It would help me calm down with some of the post when you realize they are only 15 and have the right to live in moms basement.

Best post of the day!!!! :good!:

GBO!!!
 
#10
#10
Well, Don't expect the O-line to grow up to being dominate in 1 year, these guys are 2 years from being more dominate 2016 is when this team becomes the UT that we see all of the high lights on...so be patient because IM SURE the players don't like loosing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#12
#12
Young teams can and do win. The problem is that you cannot have an OL as limited as this one with young talent.. no matter how good that talent actually is.

UT's OL problem isn't really youth... or at least hasn't been until Crowder's injury. You had a 5th year player at one OT, a 4th year player at the other, a 4th year player at C, a 3rd year player at OG, and a true Fr at the other OG.

Age... ain't the problem with the OL.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#13
#13
Yeah, OP I was just listening to Cowherd talk about how disappointing Notre Dame is until you consider they are playing 9 true freshman and then went on to say he doesn't know of another team playing 9 true freshman. All I could do was laugh to myself. he said something true tho, "sometimes you are just a year away, there's nothing more to it than that, sometimes you are just a year away."
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#15
#15
Well, Don't expect the O-line to grow up to being dominate in 1 year, these guys are 2 years from being more dominate 2016 is when this team becomes the UT that we see all of the high lights on...so be patient because IM SURE the players don't like loosing.
They prefer tighting instead.
 
#16
#16
I hear from "reliable" sources on VN that we only need an average OL to be the dominant team in the SEC.
 
#18
#18
We. Need. Age.

I see countless threads claiming Butch sucks because Pinkel beat him with inferior recruiting classes. Those claiming such need a serious dose of human anatomy class.

22 (often 23) year old 3 stars > 18 year old 5 stars

Those players who would be 22 on our team now are mostly gone from our supposedly great recruiting classes from 4-5 years ago. Some bailed with coaching changes, some couldn't hack it, and the best of them bolted for the NFL early.

Pinkel's making a living recruiting middle of the road players and training them for the next 4-5 years. Compare that with Butch's team full of 18/19 year-olds.

One last piece of supporting evidence. Remember those days back when Fulmer was dominating the conference with superior talent? How about Vandy? They had a run of 5 years or so where we barely beat them, then they eventually got us once. Why? Their defense was loaded with 5th-year players, several of whom went on to have great NFL careers.

Age. The great talent equalizer. Guess what we'll have more of next year? And the next. Go Vols!

AV

Take the seniors from your local HS team and have them play all the 9th graders. Send me the score when they tap out!

:loco:

Tennesseeduke
 
#19
#19
I agree with the premise of this thread - that we need more experience and "age" before we can expect to compete with seasoned teams like Missouri. I also agree that experience can MORE THAN offset a talent advantage (which, on paper, we should have versus Missouri).

So, I looked at the starting lineups from Saturday's game for both the Vols and Mizzou. The results are telling:

Missouri starting lineup:

Freshmen - 0
Sophomores - 6 (6 redshirt Sophomores)
Juniors - 8
Seniors - 8

Tennessee starting lineup:

Freshmen - 7
Sophomores - 6 (2 redshirt Sophomores)
Juniors - 6
Seniors - 3

Think about that for a minute: Missouri had 16 upperclassmen and NO Freshmen in their starting lineup, compared to 9 upperclassmen and 7 Freshmen in our starting lineup!

In addition, all six of Missouri's starting Sophomores were Redshirt Sophomores! So ALL of Mizzou's starters were at least in their THIRD year of college football. Only half of UT's starters (9 upperclassmen plus 2 RS Sophomores) have been in our program that long!

So, even if everything else remains the same (no improvement in the talent pool, etc), our team should improve significantly in the next couple of year FROM EXPERIENCE ALONE.

Go Vols!!!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
#20
#20
Young teams can and do win. The problem is that you cannot have an OL as limited as this one with young talent.. no matter how good that talent actually is.

UT's OL problem isn't really youth... or at least hasn't been until Crowder's injury. You had a 5th year player at one OT, a 4th year player at the other, a 4th year player at C, a 3rd year player at OG, and a true Fr at the other OG.

Age... ain't the problem with the OL.

How many starts did those players have? Not very many. I think I read 6 total somewhere.
 
#21
#21
I agree!!! Senior night was like "Hey I remember those guys" and then "And here comes the talented ones..."
 
#24
#24
Young teams can and do win. The problem is that you cannot have an OL as limited as this one with young talent.. no matter how good that talent actually is.

UT's OL problem isn't really youth... or at least hasn't been until Crowder's injury. You had a 5th year player at one OT, a 4th year player at the other, a 4th year player at C, a 3rd year player at OG, and a true Fr at the other OG.

Age... ain't the problem with the OL.

Oline will be largely unchanged next year also. Make or break year for the oline coach. Another year will help I do imagine it's why he started the 2 freshman whether it hurt us this year or not.
 
#25
#25
We have several missing pieces of the puzzle that are needed to be successful in the SEC. No depth at RB, no depth on the oline, undersized at DT, no depth at LB, too slow in the secondary.

Pretty much all of this will be significantly improved next year.

Meanwhile, we got Vandy :shades: and probably some bowl, and any bowl is better than no bowl.
 

VN Store



Back
Top