For all you think we may get 6 wins or less....

[Rifleman]

Last Year's Predicted Wins Poll:

9 or more Votes: 22 = 4.6%
8 Votes: 70= 14.7%
7 Votes: 190 = 39.8%
6 Votes: 144 = 30.2%
5 Votes: 47 = 9.9%
4 or less Votes: 4 = 0.8%

To Sum Up:
Overly optimistic VN posters = ~60%
Cautiously optimistic VN posters = ~30%
Realistic VN posters = ~10%
Bona Fide Negavols = Less than 1%

Which category do you think you're in?

 

[GBOVFL88]

I really don't think you have been paying attention to the recent recruiting and how many very good JUCO's Pruitt has landed the last two years.
He knows what he is doing. This is the year two jump up. Pruitt is a first time head coach too, but has always bleed football. You know we have what is considered by most to be the BEST coaching staff in the country right? Just watch and see.

I could see someone saying that we have one of the best coaching staffs in the country based on their resume's, but I am not sure I can get on board with that until we see the proof on the field. Don't get me wrong, I think that they are a great group of coaches and they have all proven themselves in their roles on other teams. I just think that each team dynamic is different and the talent, culture, and working relationship that they have with each other and CJP will have a lot to do with their success or failure at their respective positions within the staff as a whole.

I am a firm believer in the old saying that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but that can go one of two ways. Maybe we have an all-star staff that will gel together and be the best coaching corps in the nation, or they could be very good in their own role and not fit well together. A cohesive coaching staff must operate as a unit and present a unified front to the players and drive them all in the same direction with the same intent. If that happens you are right and we may have a break out year and play beyond the star rating of our players, but there is that slim chance that under the leadership of CJP as a relatively new head coach they may not all be held to the same standards or be pulling in the same direction right from the beginning. Being a HC means being a CEO and not only running the program right as it pertains to the players but also keeping all of your coaches gainfully employed and on the same sheet of music. That is a tall order for a new HC. I hope that he lives up to the expectations that some of us have put on him, but he may need a year with the staff assembled to get things just right. We shall see.

 

[1vol8]

Joking aside.

What about those here that say the fans are the reason we are where we are? They say the fans that still buy the shirts, hats and all the other UT stuff and still fill the stadium and support the lousy product on the field are the ones ultimately responsible for the continued suck.

What do you think about that?

I don't think that's true in most cases. If you put yourself in a recruits shoes would you rather go to a team that has proven in the past not to support their team by not showing up when they were down or one that is proving as we speak that the team means more than bragging rights? Maybe that's the issue within the past teams. Butch put players on the field that don't have the same mentality as the fanbase. They got down and gave up. As the losses started piling up they gave up on the seasons as well. Of course this is just my opinion. Idk how much weight that argument holds. Im only speaking about how I would personally feel

 

[graffj]

“Good JUCOS” has been more of an oxymoron for Tennessee the last 5-6 years.

Riyadh Jones
Woody Quinn
Dontavious Blair
Johnathan Johnson
Jeff George
Chris Weatherd
Justin Martin
Johnathan Kongbo
DJ Henderson

Shall I continue or is that good?

not saying i agree or disagre ... but these guys were coached by butch jones and co.

 

[Behr]

Last Year's Predicted Wins Poll:

9 or more Votes: 22 = 4.6%
8 Votes: 70= 14.7%
7 Votes: 190 = 39.8%
6 Votes: 144 = 30.2%
5 Votes: 47 = 9.9%
4 or less Votes: 4 = 0.8%

To Sum Up:
Overly optimistic VN posters = ~60%
Cautiously optimistic VN posters = ~30%
Realistic VN posters = ~10%
Bona Fide Negavols = Less than 1%

Which category do you think you're in?

Were you in the 10% group? Id like to see the 5 all those 10% predicted we'd win.

I predicted 6 but I had us winning SC and Vandy, but losing to Auburn. With beating Auburn and Kentucky, Vandy and SC should have been wins too, SC all but was. But... Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. I know.

I think anywhere between 5 and 8 wins is realistic this season. 9+ is a bit optimistic IMO. I think we win 7.

 

[thehutch40]

As someone not wearing orange glasses...still no way in hell y'all shouldn't go to a bowl.

GA St - W
BYU - W: you can not lose this game at home...just please don't
Chattanooga - W
UF - Ugh - my mind says UF by a score being in Gainesville...but I would to love to see y'all blow them out. My hatred for UF will not allow me to give them a W here regardless. toss up.
UGA - L
Miss St - toss up but I think y'all can pull it out at home if you play well. Miss St lost a lot of talent on D.
Bama - L
USCe - If they pick up Feaster and actually have a run game, this could be a tough game but their qb Bentley chokes often...toss up.
UAB - W: see BYU comment
Kentucky - I say W due to Kentucky losing their best player on D and Snell is gone...those two dudes carried that team last year.
Mizzou - Toss up as I have no idea how Mizzou will look with Kelly Bryant. If he excels, this game could be trouble.
Vandy - W - just stop Ke'Shawn Vaughn and you win.

So that makes 6 wins, 4 toss ups, and 2 losses. I expect y'all to win at least half of the toss up games. If y'all stay healthy, play well, and Guarantano takes several steps forward y'all could win at least 3 of them. If Pruitt and co. are as y'all think (sorry I personally haven't heard or read anything about UT staff being "the best" outside of UT country), 8-4 should be easily achievable. Just please upset the clown in Gainesville because you know...F them.

 

[Behr]

I don't think that's true in most cases. If you put yourself in a recruits shoes would you rather go to a team that has proven in the past not to support their team by not showing up when they were down or one that is proving as we speak that the team means more than bragging rights? Maybe that's the issue within the past teams. Butch put players on the field that don't have the same mentality as the fanbase. They got down and gave up. As the losses started piling up they gave up on the seasons as well. Of course this is just my opinion. Idk how much weight that argument holds. Im only speaking about how I would personally feel

I think its stupid. Just wondered what you thought.

 

[1vol8]

I think its stupid. Just wondered what you thought.

I can't imagine anyone that would think that. Regardless of how many shirts anyone buys or how many games they attend, it wont change how a player feels when he gets hit in the mouth.

 

[VolForLife83]

Link or its not true...

I can't find all the UT articles I've read, but a quick search pulls these up. And one was before the upgrades. I'm not saying we do or we don't, I'm just saying it has been said numerous times

 

[solivols]

How would you know about Alabama's it changes ever year, and there results have a lot to with the Jimmy's and Joe's.

Valid question. Saban's main assistants have been a revolving door the past few years but the wins pretty much stay the same. I'd say at this point it's more of a trend than an anomaly that Bama still wins despite changing coordinators frequently. The results have shown that as long as Saban is coaching they will win at an elite level. Regarding Jimmy's and Joe's (and I put about 2 minutes of research into this because I don't really care about Alabama), their recruiting for the past 10 years has been top 5, and #1 for most of the past decade.

On another note, I saw a tweet from Chris Low earlier today on the regular season conference records for the last three years combined. Bama is 23-1 in that time. It's really remarkable what Saban has built down there. I hope Pruitt can do the same, but to say that Pruitt's staff is the best in the country right now is a little questionable.

 

[KingGenius]

Last Year's Predicted Wins Poll:

9 or more Votes: 22 = 4.6%
8 Votes: 70= 14.7%
7 Votes: 190 = 39.8%
6 Votes: 144 = 30.2%
5 Votes: 47 = 9.9%
4 or less Votes: 4 = 0.8%

To Sum Up:
Overly optimistic VN posters = ~60%
Cautiously optimistic VN posters = ~30%
Realistic VN posters = ~10%
Bona Fide Negavols = Less than 1%

Which category do you think you're in?

The majority

 

[KingGenius]

Wow! Somebody's been hitting the sauce early. You need to start surrounding yourself with a smarter crowd.

Ha, my spelling should not have passed inspection on this one. But remember, I'm the genius here so all is intentional. You will find the orange has enlightened my mind this season in particular, so I see more clearly. This is about ball and a factual statement, regardless of sentence structure or time of day. Perhaps your "smarter" crowd also said keep butch, we couldn't get a better coach, keep the AD, hire Schiano Vols fans are crazy, and so forth.

 

[KingGenius]

Sorry, but who considers us to have the best staff in America? We have a HC who is proven as a DC, but not as a HC. We have a good OC, but not top 10 or anything. First time, but highly respected DC. What else? Friend is pretty well regarded and obviously Tee is a great position coach. Nieds is an excellent recruiter, don't know about coaching. The rest of the staff is experienced, but nothing out of this world. Rocker's history leaves something to be desired. I do like coach YAC, but he's no longer coaching his optimal position group either. Rumph and Sherrer are fine.

I'd say we certainly have a staff we should be proud of, but let's see some progress before we anoint them. Still not sure who in the country has said we have the best staff. That surely has to fall to Clemson at the moment. They have developed and schemed like no other.

Development
Utilization of talent
Play calls
Returning starters and other talent
Connections (transfers to recruiting)
Schedule
Resources
Support
Known high school coaches in many districts
Respect across the board between coaches (transfers to players and on the field performance)
No micromanagement (except on defense probably)

Oh and Clemson is loaded with 5*'s. So the talent doesn't have to be nearly as developed as say 3 star RB putting in work like a machine.

 

[KBVol]

At least now there is potentially some people that know what they are doing perusing the JUCO players. Only time will tell.

Hope so. I think Savion Williams looks exactly like the physical and mental profile we need and he sounds “hungry” to prove himself with his social media posts. Just keeping my powder dry though given Blair and Kongbo in particular....those two were major busts.

 

[KBVol]

Sorry, but who considers us to have the best staff in America? We have a HC who is proven as a DC, but not as a HC. We have a good OC, but not top 10 or anything. First time, but highly respected DC. What else? Friend is pretty well regarded and obviously Tee is a great position coach. Nieds is an excellent recruiter, don't know about coaching. The rest of the staff is experienced, but nothing out of this world. Rocker's history leaves something to be desired. I do like coach YAC, but he's no longer coaching his optimal position group either. Rumph and Sherrer are fine.

I'd say we certainly have a staff we should be proud of, but let's see some progress before we anoint them. Still not sure who in the country has said we have the best staff. That surely has to fall to Clemson at the moment. They have developed and schemed like no other.

Yep.

 

[XknoxvolsX]

Has anyone else ever noticed how the UAB game has always been closer than it should? I remember the late scoring tack on in '98. I also remember Watson Brown blowing smoke after the '05 win stating that we were as good that year as in '98.

 

[Devo182]

I can't find all the UT articles I've read, but a quick search pulls these up. And one was before the upgrades. I'm not saying we do or we don't, I'm just saying it has been said numerous times

I think you just posted utsports.com and a local writer.

And this is sort of what I suspected. You may believe this reading local articles, just like UF and FSU fans would down there and LSU fans would in Baton Rouge and Washington fans way out there would.

Show me various national articles that believe this. Otherwise we are just sort of infatuated with our own guys, like many fanbases are. The fact is many across the nation probably don't know a lot about Ansley or Tee and Chaney isn't all that highly regarded, still best known for coaching at Purdue 15 or 20 years ago. They don't know YAC or Nieds. Hopefully we can prove they are the best, but until then it's a lot of orange tinted hoping.

 

[Devo182]

Oh and Clemson is loaded with 5*'s. So the talent doesn't have to be nearly as developed as say 3 star RB putting in work like a machine.

They really aren't. And what they have is very very recent. They won it all in 2016 with just 4 5*s on the roster, fewer than ucla or a&m or lsu, and many others. This years class would be their first ever top 5 class. They only have like 1 or 2 top 10 classes, much like us. Furthermore, they really came from nothing. A bunch of top 25ish classes in dabo's early years. But they developed and schemed and retained staff like no one else.

 

[KeyVol14]

Are these analists experts on staffs?

Man your one funny guy

 

[Devo182]

Hope so. I think Savion Williams looks exactly like the physical and mental profile we need and he sounds “hungry” to prove himself with his social media posts. Just keeping my powder dry though given Blair and Kongbo in particular....those two were major busts.

Yeah, talk is cheap and few realize how big the jump from juco to sec is. Better buckle up and just work hard.

 

[chargervol]

Sorry, but who considers us to have the best staff in America? We have a HC who is proven as a DC, but not as a HC. We have a good OC, but not top 10 or anything. First time, but highly respected DC. What else? Friend is pretty well regarded and obviously Tee is a great position coach. Nieds is an excellent recruiter, don't know about coaching. The rest of the staff is experienced, but nothing out of this world. Rocker's history leaves something to be desired. I do like coach YAC, but he's no longer coaching his optimal position group either. Rumph and Sherrer are fine.

I'd say we certainly have a staff we should be proud of, but let's see some progress before we anoint them. Still not sure who in the country has said we have the best staff. That surely has to fall to Clemson at the moment. They have developed and schemed like no other.

I'm definitely filing this under stating opinion as fact.

How did you even rate that? Offensive production, including conferences that play basically no defense?

 

[SmokyRiverDog]

Man your one funny guy

TY

 

[Johnnyreb#VFL]

I mean, he's no Derek Mason. But who is?

Derek Mason has a worse overall SEC record and winning percentage in the SEC than Jeremy Pruitt

 

[hUTch2002]

Last Year's Predicted Wins Poll:

9 or more Votes: 22 = 4.6%
8 Votes: 70= 14.7%
7 Votes: 190 = 39.8%
6 Votes: 144 = 30.2%
5 Votes: 47 = 9.9%
4 or less Votes: 4 = 0.8%

To Sum Up:
Overly optimistic VN posters = ~60%
Cautiously optimistic VN posters = ~30%
Realistic VN posters = ~10%
Bona Fide Negavols = Less than 1%

Which category do you think you're in?

Cautiously optimistic. That’s why I’ll be voting for 7 wins this year. I voted for 6 last year and we got 5. Hopefully that doesn’t mean we will get 6. I think 7 is realistic. One extra win for improvement and one more for an easier schedule.

 

[Mike Moffett]

Many analysts among the conference have said this multiple times. From top to bottom you'd be hard pressed to find a staff as good as ours in the country.

Best head coach - no way
Best offensive coordinator- no way
Best OL coach - no way
Best Def coordinator- unproven but likely good
Best S&C - no way.

This may turn out to be a decent staff, time will tell. But it’s not best in the county, best in the conference, or best in the eastern division. It might be the best in the state of Tn, but that is not a given either.

Keep your chin up and cheer the Vols on, and with luck in a few years you will begin competing again.