Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#44,876
#44,876
Chief Vol 13 said:
He said we were picked last by most people. That's wrong. He also said it was the first time we've had two signature wins in "decades", which is wrong. I'm not saying the Auburn and Kentucky wins weren't big. Don't know how you got that from my post. But since you brought it up, Kentucky was not and is not a top 15 team in all reality. Probably not even a top 25 team if you want to know the truth. Nonetheless, still a nice win. I guess you're using one source for your toughest schedule argument. Because every strength of schedule article I looked at, did not have Tennessee at the top. Tennessee fans have Tennessee at the top. In other words, homers. Take your L and move on.
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You just provided your opinion without anything to back yourself up. When you say Kentucky isnt a top 15 team "in reality", you mean "in my opinion" because in reality, the polls say otherwise.

I've seen multiple sources with Tennessee having a top 5 most difficult schedule. You say otherwise, source?
 
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#44,877
#44,877
HankHill said:
That’s a stretch we had the best roster in the east for two years. Specifically on offense.
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A roster is more than just the #1's. His recruiting classes were very top heavy, but gave us no depth whatsoever; that's why I say smoke and mirrors. Dobbs and those guys were great; but, the drop off from 1's to 2's and 3's, was enormous, and eventually ruined us, no?
 
#44,879
#44,879
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#44,880
#44,880
SugarCC said:
A roster is more than just the #1's. His recruiting classes were very top heavy, but gave us no depth whatsoever; that's why I say smoke and mirrors. Dobbs and those guys were great; but, the drop off from 1's to 2's and 3's, was enormous, and eventually ruined us, no?
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They may have been a tad overrated but they were easily good enough to win 10+ games both years. Every team except for bama, Clemson, and Ohio state basically the last 5+ years are gonna have drop offs somewhere in their roster.

If Pruitt and co had that same roster dobbs junior and senior years... we would demand a SEC East title and a big bowl game.
 
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#44,882
#44,882
HankHill said:
That’s a stretch we had the best roster in the east for two years. Specifically on offense.
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We had Dobbs. He was an extremely talented DT QB. Most of his highlight reel is the offensive line crapping the bed and him
Houdining is way out of it. He would be killing it with the current OL.
 
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#44,886
#44,886
VolunteerHillbilly said:
Hired December 7. National signing day was February 7. I guess 2 months could be a few weeks depending on your definition of 'few'.
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Dec 7, 2017 was 13 days before the first ESD, which was Dec. 20, 2017. 13 days. Even with the kids that didn't sign on ESD, February 7, 2018 was only 8 weeks out from CJP's hiring. I would consider that a relatively short amount of time. Even with a lot of the kids CJP may have already had a relationship with while recruiting them to Bama, that is a difficult task to suddenly try to convince kids you have been recruiting to a dynasty to follow you to a team that just went winless in the SEC.

It is a bit different now, because players have seen this year's Vols win some SEC games, which were both upsets of ranked teams, they get to visit and see how this staff conducts practices, they get to see the players interact with each other, they see how players and staff interact. It is much easier to recruit now that CJP and the staff are familiar with their surroundings at UT, are familiar with each other, and familiar with the players, things that weren't there in that short window after CJP was hired.
 
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#44,887
#44,887
SugarCC said:
Ok, I'll dial it back just a bit on point 1: Day after day leading up to season on Finebaum, SEC Nation, and other TV and radio outlets, I heard "expert" after "expert" pick us either 6th or 7th in the East, with some of them predicting we would go winless in the league again; I'm sure others heard a variation of this, as well.

Point 2: No other coach, since Fulmer, has had 2 signature wins IN THEIR FIRST 11 GAMES (which was my comment); and thus makes it DECADES since this has happened (not, "2 signature wins in decades"; big difference; two completely different statements, as I believe you know. Why the need to change what was originally posted? 🤔)

And yes, both Auburn AND Kentucky are signature wins; you can try to shuck and jive about beginning of season compared to end of season all that you want; but, it still will never change the fact that Auburn was ranked #23 at the time, and a 15(?) point favorite at home; and Kentucky was ranked #11 at the time, and a 5(?) point favorite, not to mention picked by you to beat us.

Point 3: True, it is debatable about whether or not Pruitt has gotten everything out of this group that he possibly can. All I can say is, I'll refer to Hubbs' comments, just tonight, about the progress and improvement of the players. However, you are right, it is debatable.

Point 4:
LSU, combined record of opp is 75-58.
Combined record of SEC opp is 30-28.

Ms St, combined record of opp is 77-54.
Combined record of SEC opp is 30-28.

A&M, combined record of opp is 86-45.
Combined record of SEC opp is 28-30.

Vols, combined record of opp is 83-47.
Combined record of SEC opp is 36-24.

Take your L, dude.
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Good ol Moses just keeps coming back for more butt whippings. Well you dialed it back on your first point, as you should have. Most of the "experts" said Arkansas and Vanderbilt were the two worst teams in the league prior to the season. So, no other coach has had two signature wins in their first season, making it "decades" since it last occurred. So Kiffin's wins against South Carolina and Georgia in his first year weren't signature wins? Because by your definition, they would be. Wrong again. I also haven't crapped on the Kentucky or Auburn wins, as I've stated on numerous occasions that they were very nice wins. Especially the Auburn win. Don't know why you're chasing that rabbit. And as you and I both said, it's at best debatable to say he's gotten "every last ounce" out of this team. If he loses to Vanderbilt to finish 5-7, that's going to be a no. The strength of schedule argument is exactly that. An argument. You said we played the toughest schedule in all of college football. That's another homeristic opinion, that isn't backed up by anything. Because just about every list and SOC ranking I've looked at, does not have Tennessee's schedule ranked as the toughest. So really just about every point I've touched on is either an opinion by you, or it's just wrong.
 
#44,888
#44,888
This debate reminds me of listening to The Audible podcast with Stewart Mandell and Bruce Feldman last spring. Mandell visited Tennessee and watched a practice up up close and talked to Pruitt afterwards and came away declaring Tennessee would be a 4-8 team. He said the roster was terrible and they were light years away from the college football elite. Feldman was surprised but Mandell stuck to that.

Barrett Sallee said similar things all summer, that Tennessee would be doing extremely well to make a bowl.

I recall being defensive at the time because I thought Butch’s problem was development not talent but it’s clear we have a serious talent problem.

So, Pruitt has already exceed Mandell’s expectations and probably matched the best that Sallee honestly thought we could do. If he makes a bowl game that will be very impressive given what we’ve gone through with injuries.

Give him 6 years. We will be glad we did.
 
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#44,890
#44,890
HankHill said:
In their defense you have a college and a NFL team on the same field it’s hard. Had a couple of sat/sun games the last few weeks
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Except that any field that has an NFL team playing on it has the money to be in good shape. I didn’t see it as a huge problem last night, but generally, there’s no excuse for an NFL franchise.
 
#44,892
#44,892
BruinVol said:
You are a good man.

One thing I know we can agree on is let's win this dang game Saturday so there is no more talk about what 5-7 means.
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Absolutely, my man!

My problem is, from the Admin to the coaches, to the players to the fans, we all have been in such disarray for far too long now, and last year and coaching search was such an epic disaster...I truly believe we have found the man in Pruitt, and everything is now in place, to get us back to a top 5 program; and I'm just a bit defensive and always on guard against what I may sometime percieve, wrongly sometimes, someone trying to tear it down, before it even gets started, you know. If that makes any sense...
 
#44,893
#44,893
Quick question for the board. Who’s the next ACC team the media will pimp on us to make us think that garbage conference is good?

They tried Florida State, NC state, Virginia Tech, UVA, Boston College and Syracuse.

Any others left?

Clemson is good but their UCF schedule makes me think they’ll get exposed in the playoff.
 
#44,895
#44,895
HankHill said:
They may have been a tad overrated but they were easily good enough to win 10+ games both years. Every team except for bama, Clemson, and Ohio state basically the last 5+ years are gonna have drop offs somewhere in their roster.

If Pruitt and co had that same roster dobbs junior and senior years... we would demand a SEC East title and a big bowl game.
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Not that it matters but I’ve always wondered if that 15’ season turns out any different if Maggit and/or Gaulden don’t get hurt or if just Bajakian returns. Debord really struggled the first couple weeks and Maggit just always seemed to make a big sack when we needed it, w/o him teams focused on Barnett a lot more and limited him early in the season
 
#44,896
#44,896
So what do y’all think are our bigg st questions heading into Saturday?

IMO:

1. Will the defense play competently like they did against Auburn and UK or will we see the unit who played against USCe and Mizzou?

2. Will the OL get things going like they did against USCe and UK or will they look like they did against Charlotte and Mizzou?


If we can win in the trenches, I think we win this one prettt comfortably.
 
#44,898
#44,898
utvols88 said:
You just provided your opinion without anything to back yourself up. When you say Kentucky isnt a top 15 team "in reality", you mean "in my opinion" because in reality, the polls say otherwise.

I've seen multiple sources with Tennessee having a top 5 most difficult schedule. You say otherwise, source?
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Some of you people are incredible. So you must think Kentucky is a top 15 team because the polls say they are. My opinion, which is most likely reality, is that they're not a top 15 football team. That what you think? He said Tennessee had THE most difficult schedule, he didn't say top 5. That's incorrect. Stop moving the goal posts.
 
#44,900
#44,900
VolunteerHillbilly said:
Crikey! When the expectation is shite, meeting the expectation does not equate to success.
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everything's relative.

5-7 nor 6-6 is successful.

i think everybody gets that.

but we need something to argue about. so the difference between the two is absolutely monumental and critical to the success of the program going forward, and moreover, a clear indication of whether or not Jeremy Pruitt and this band of misfit coaches have a prayer of ever being more than mediocre at best.

i mean, the entire future of hte program hinges on this game. it's the biggest game since last week.

honestly, if we can't go 6-6 this year, i'm not sure what hte point of having a football program is anymore.

5-7 is just unacceptable. and if that's the mark we reach, then we need go back and pick apart every move that has been made, and determine why this happened and who should be hung from their toe nails.

and then go find a real coach that can do everything we want him to do, as fast as we want him to do it. no excuses, we're Tennesseee. go vols.
 
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