I'll own up to being wrong. Gladly.
However... I echo Fade's thoughts. The team was trash against App State, they were trash against VT and trash against Ohio. They were sleepwalking through the schedule and looked to have completely regressed. No focus, poor execution and playcalling was atrocious. This isn't Year 1 or 2 or 3. This is Year 4, folks. Azzani has been here all 4 years as has Mahoney. The inconsistencies at WR (drops, poor routes, poor blocks) and OL ... issues are squarely on them. 4 straight games now the team has started very slow and groggy. I put that squarely on the entire coaching staff.
Need we remind everyone Florida (with a 2nd string QB) had 300 yards at the half and Tennessee couldn't score from the 3 yard line with 4 chances?
Tennessee looked completely lost. Tennessee looked like it took not just 1 but 2-3 steps back from 2015. They got down on themselves with drops or miscues. That's not a good thing to see. If anyone needs a refresher... start looking at the game thread from around page 8... 12 is when it gets good (failed 4 downs after fumble recovery).
Then the team we all expected to see finally showed up. Getting down happens, look at Bama versus Ole Miss.
If anyone here was looking at the first 3 games and how we played through the first half and said "we got this, we're still in it" I honestly say they're lying.
Now. I'm happy the team we should have had all year finally showed up for 30 minutes. Until this staff proves that wasn't a drop in the bucket and they can crank out that sort of performance week-in-week-out ad not just intermittently, I'll be on board.
I'm not fully on board still. I'm happy with the win as it's been a very long 11 years and the last 20 have honestly sucked for us against them. However, I'm not any more optimistic about the year. We just got 30 minutes of what this talent is capable of.