Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#31,053
#31,053
Picture this pre-game juxtaposition on Saturday:

Pruitt almost immediately gets surrounded by former players with an abundance of hugs, laughs, and even tears of joy.

Butch paces indignantly around the field with one or two random people coming up to reluctantly shake his hand. Former players don’t give him much more than the time of day.



I know who my coach is.
 
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#31,062
#31,062
Bassmaster_Vol said:
Went fishing today for the first time since July and thought a lot about the game. Had we played that game under the previous administration and were fortunate enough to have a lead in the 4th (highly doubtful), most likely we lose that game on a gut wrenching 4th quarter comeback. We know what would have happened: 3 runs up the middle and punt only to give Auburn plenty of time to steal the game.

Having said that, I would have come in here ready to lay out a bunch of excuses as to why. I would have talked about the injuries. “You know, we didn’t have Abernathy or Flowers playing safety, had they been there, that game winning TD pass probably wouldn’t have been completed,” or, “we lost Kongbo, JJ, and DWA! No way we could expect to beat Auburn after that.” I thought that way because the intern thought that way. He was the first to throw excuses out, and, I admit, led me to think the same way. I’m sure a lot of you would admit the same about yourselves.

But in this game, we won it. Not only did we win it, but we beat them down in all honesty. And we did it without Dobbs, Kamara, Barnett, Malone and others (imagine what Puit could’ve done with that team!) we did it in spite of the injuries we had. In fact, even tho we lost those guys, there was no noticeable drop off. When we lost guys in 2016, the backups got destroyed! But DJ comes in for Kongbo and saves the game with a big sack. The safeties played excellent, Wolf caught a bi pass in the 4th to kill more time.

I don’t even worry about injuries anymore because Pruitt doesn’t. He doesn’t use it as an excuse, and the level of play doesn’t drop off either. Look at what he’s getting out of Paul Bain right now!

He is instilling a winning attutude and a new culture already. This team was flying around yesterday, defense was hitting guys, they played confident the entire game. That was never there last season. It took Kirby until his second season to get Ga not to play soft. That’s already happening here. The culture is being installed before our eyes in one season and dang it, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I think we sweep November.
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Preach!

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#31,064
#31,064
95 Neroidska

& Yes us beating Bama this year would put it in the pantheon of greatest wins discussed amongst TN upsets. Forget what it means to a season and look at what it would mean to a program and a new coach.

85 Sugarvols - Auburn & Miami
Here
91 ND
01 UF
Or here at worst

Small odds we need to debate it after Saturday but arguing it's significance now just might be sillier.
 
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#31,067
#31,067
Ulysees E. McGill said:
Why does it bother you morans so much that I think this UT team beating this Alabama team would be an unbelievable all time great upset win?
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I agree with you. It would be a tremendous upset with huge ripple effects. It would be one of the biggest wins we've had in over a decade. And totally out of the blue news for any normal and reasonable college football fan. The implications of a Vols win for the trajectory of our program would be drastic immediately.

Pruitt would be viewed as a top tier SEC coach and the best we've had easily since Fulmer. Our team would clearly be a dangerous contender that nobody would want to play late in the year. We would have to feel confident about our chances over everyone else left on the schedule. The conversations would change from 6-6 and hoping for a bowl game to people thinking we could go 9-3. We would be essentially back. But for real this time.

Recruiting for us would likely explode in the night sky like 4th of July fireworks.

Bama, shamed and alone, would then have an SEC loss heading into a long bye week with the all important LSU game looming. Winner likely wins the west. Another loss could potentially knock them out of playoff contention. So a Vols win Saturday could have an impact on the big picture in the conference and nationally. It could also signal a resurgence from the SEC East.

Nobody is even considering us winning this game. But it's a heated rivalry as it stands. And even more so with Pruitt who isn't going to want to lie down and just take his spanking against his former boss. I'm sure he's been dreaming up ways to beat Saban for years. This is why he's here. He is going to be dialed in. I expect his players to follow suit.

I'm thinking they will leave it all on the field. I don't know where it ends up. But I'm not counting us out. Just gotta hang in there and fight and keep it close. And then anything can happen.

We have to weather the storms early. Bama will make big plays. It won't be because we suck. But because they are really good. We just have to punch back and keep doing it the whole game. And hope we can find a way to win.

The opportunity to change it all now is ahead of us. We just have to reach out and seize it. And maybe hope for a miracle. But sometimes we get those in sports.

I would say we are probably due for one by now. 😂

Go Vols
 
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#31,069
#31,069
Smokey123 said:
Nobody is gonna care 5 years from now lol, maybe even 2. Nobody talks about Syr and Pitt beating Clemson, terrible Stanford (40 point dog) beating #2 USC just 10 years ago, ect.

The rest is accurate but nobody is denying that
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Neither were #1 and neither discussed as greatest team of all time. Neither had the success of Bama for a sustained period. Neither are despised like Bama now. I actually do talk about Stanford beating USC. So do major publications when factoring greatest upsets.
 
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#31,074
#31,074
ChismsHeadband said:
I've always been pro-JG. Thought his GT sideline demeanor was waaay overblown, as was his penchant for hanging onto the ball too long.

That said, someone here, maybe Hank, said he doesn't go through any reads. That became pretty obvious to me in the Auburn game.

I think a lot of it was that he didn't have time to go through reads, but still, even slinging it out to the RB's in the flat, his eyes were LOCKED. ON. to his target.

He's still our undisputed starter, but he's gonna have to improve on that as our OL starts to give him more time.
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I think that I did see two checkdowns when his first (and usually only) option was not there. That is an improvement in and of itself.
 
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#31,075
#31,075
Brillovol said:
Picture this pre-game juxtaposition on Saturday:

Pruitt almost immediately gets surrounded by former players with an abundance of hugs, laughs, and even tears of joy.

Butch paces indignantly around the field with one or two random people coming up to reluctantly shake his hand. Former players don’t give him much more than the time of day.



I know who my coach is.
Click to expand...
I'd bet that is very close to reality.
 
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