Recruiting Forum Football Talk III

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#143,601
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#143,602
#143,602
Weezer said:
I think I've finally pinned down where my enthusiasm has gone. It's not so much JH that I feel disappointed in as it's just our entire situation. People look at JH's offense and think "exciting and fun". They think about winning 8 or 9 games a year and how great that is. And it is great. But I miss going into every game thinking we can win. And I've lost that. A nine win season sounds great. Beyond great. Until you consider the three losses every year probably come against the same 3 teams, Florida, Georgia, and Bama. And that's where my enthusiasm just dies. 2016 is the last time we beat Florida or Georgia. Have to go back to 2006 for the last time we beat Bama. And it's hard to the point of almost impossible for me to see us beating any of those teams in the near future. And not solely because of JH, but mostly because of the mess created by Pruitt and our administration, And I include our administration because I really think Donde Plowman mishandled this investigation. I know some think she did what she had to do, but I disagree with how she managed it. Given our current circumstances, I don't even have the excitement of good recruiting classes to look forward too. And I really want to be optimistic, but being realistic, why would any top recruit want to pick us right now? We have a great in-state class coming up, but unfortunately, I really expect most to go out of state. I don't want it to happen, but I totally expect it to happen. I think schools like Bama, Clemson, Florida, and Georgia will keep racking up great classes, and we'll struggle to be in the top 20, mostly because of a self-inflicted wound. And I don't know all the politics, maybe this really did result from a booster power fight, no clue, but we did it to ourselves. I'm just so depressed when it comes to UT football right now. I feel like I got kicked in the nads so hard it completely split the cup. And this feeling sucks. But I'm a Vol for life. Unfortunately, I just don't feel like I'll ever see us be truly great again. We're an afterthought in the SEC, which will always hinder us on the national stage.
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So I started with dreading another year with JP then the disaster and thought we're not going to win many games for three years and continue to be a totally boring offensive team to watch. So I became hopeful with the hire that we would at least be fun on offense even if we don't win many. If the DC and staff ends up being good then we could be a good team if not great. If what is being said about not being penalized too bad, we may get out of the hole about the time JH has the team in good shape. I am choosing to ignore AL, GA, Clemson and OSU until something is done about the playoffs, and nothing will be done as long as people keep watching. I'm still in the camp of I don't care where they come from as long as they want to play at Tennessee and not sure why they make that a big deal. I think JH will develop players like JP should have been able to so I am hopeful there because we really do have some good players even if we are thin. Excited that the offense is easy to learn and doesn't take years. Just seems like we spent 3 years trying to be AL and GA, and that is not happening for anyone right now. But FL beat GA with much less talent and a horrendous defense. Let's be Tennessee and the underdog like the 80s. I just want to enjoy watching them for a while. These Pruitt teams were awful to watch except a couple of games. Butch's teams were only fun when the talent got tired and took over the game. We are an afterthought, and I hope we surprise a lot of people. But I want to support these players that stick with us. And I hope we get more fans like we used to have that does that. I hope we lose a lot of the loud mouthed entitled whiners that continously complain and put down the players and coaches. Guess we're just looking at the same situation from a different angle.
 
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#143,603
#143,603
Weezer said:
All of this waiting around for staff to be announced hasn't helped either. Not really a big fan of DW's "no leaks" policy if it means always being in the dark.
Click to expand...
Can't say I am enjoying it except loving that the Knoxville media has nothing to write their hit pieces over and keep the fans stirred up. Hopefully with recruiting and spring practice there will be more info.
 
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#143,605
#143,605
Weezer said:
I think I've finally pinned down where my enthusiasm has gone. It's not so much JH that I feel disappointed in as it's just our entire situation. People look at JH's offense and think "exciting and fun". They think about winning 8 or 9 games a year and how great that is. And it is great. But I miss going into every game thinking we can win. And I've lost that. A nine win season sounds great. Beyond great. Until you consider the three losses every year probably come against the same 3 teams, Florida, Georgia, and Bama. And that's where my enthusiasm just dies. 2016 is the last time we beat Florida or Georgia. Have to go back to 2006 for the last time we beat Bama. And it's hard to the point of almost impossible for me to see us beating any of those teams in the near future. And not solely because of JH, but mostly because of the mess created by Pruitt and our administration, And I include our administration because I really think Donde Plowman mishandled this investigation. I know some think she did what she had to do, but I disagree with how she managed it. Given our current circumstances, I don't even have the excitement of good recruiting classes to look forward too. And I really want to be optimistic, but being realistic, why would any top recruit want to pick us right now? We have a great in-state class coming up, but unfortunately, I really expect most to go out of state. I don't want it to happen, but I totally expect it to happen. I think schools like Bama, Clemson, Florida, and Georgia will keep racking up great classes, and we'll struggle to be in the top 20, mostly because of a self-inflicted wound. And I don't know all the politics, maybe this really did result from a booster power fight, no clue, but we did it to ourselves. I'm just so depressed when it comes to UT football right now. I feel like I got kicked in the nads so hard it completely split the cup. And this feeling sucks. But I'm a Vol for life. Unfortunately, I just don't feel like I'll ever see us be truly great again. We're an afterthought in the SEC, which will always hinder us on the national stage.
Click to expand...

Try to hear me out. In 2019 do you think Georgia State and BYU were better teams that the guys we had? Obviously they won on the scoreboard but I don’t think we had any business losing those games. Further, I think for whatever reason we never got our offense on track and were winning close games in 2019 mostly on the backs of our defense.

I think there was dysfunction, cockiness, and narcissism all throughout our staff. Men make a lot of money, sometimes it goes to some of their heads. The point is we’re a much better team that we have shown on game day, especially in 2019. As a minimum we should have won 10 games that year. jmo.

In 2020 we should have taken a step forward. Pruitt told Phil Steele that he thought we would be competitive with anybody. Phil believed him and I think we should have been. We had a 5-star offensive line and had to use a jumbo package to run against Missouri. Something was wrong and it wasn’t our kids.

We still have most of those kids and we just added some more good kids. Do we have some issues? Yeah, both on and off the field, but I also think we have the potential to have a good football team in 2021. Will we? I don’t know.

I’ve previously said I think we win 6 games but if I stretch my imagination and everything fell into place I think our ceiling is 10 or 11. While that may not be likely I don’t think it’s totally out of the question. We need to fix our staff issues. JH has a shot at doing that on the offensive side of the ball. He just needs to hire a DC and I would argue give the guy autonomy over the defense.

While I’m no big fan of Chaney, I think it’s entirely likely he did not have real autonomy over our offense the past couple years. I think Pruitt’s game planning called for using the offense to protect the defense and for the guys on the offensive side of the ball that was like holding them back. Where's the fun in that?

Further I think Pruitt lost the Team this past year when we were at Georgia. He was pissed and said so but he said something else publicly that you can’t say, he said he was going to replace some guys. You don’t win friends and influence people by threatening them and it will always backfire when you blame others for your own mistakes.

Some of the kids, I don’t know how many, probably didn’t feel like he had their backs anymore so why should they have his. It’s the staff’s responsibility to put the kids in positions where they can be successful. Ours didn’t do that and the kids knew it and probably felt betrayed and scapegoated by the men they had thought they could trust. Then all hell broke loose leading to the ouster of said staff.

We still have most of our kids and I think it’s very probable that with the right leadership on the staff they can be a pretty good football team this coming year. It’s early, way too early probably, but I can see a path, narrow though it may be, where when we take the field in 2021, we may be able to compete with anyone. I for one would enjoy watching that. jmo.
 
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#143,606
#143,606
SweetasSoda said:
So I started with dreading another year with JP then the disaster and thought we're not going to win many games for three years and continue to be a totally boring offensive team to watch. So I because hopeful with the hire that we would at least be fun on offense even if we don't win many. If the DC and staff ends up being good then we could be a good team if not great. If what is being said about not being penalized too bad, we may get out of the hole about the time JH has the team in good shape. I am choosing to ignore AL, GA, Clemson and OSU until something is done about the playoffs, and nothing will be done as long as people keep watching. I'm still in the camp of I don't care where they come from as long as they want to play at Tennessee and not sure why they make that a big deal. I think JH will develop players like JP should have been able to so I am hopeful there because we really do have some good players even if we are thin. Excited that the offense is easy to learn and doesn't take years. Just seems like we spent 3 years trying to be AL and GA, and that is not happening for anyone right now. But FL beat GA with much less talent and a horrendous defense. Let's be Tennessee and the underdog like the 80s. I just want to enjoy watching them for a while. These Pruitt teams were awful to watch except a couple of games. Butch's teams were only fun when the talent got tired and took over the game. We are an afterthought, and I hope we surprise a lot of people. But I want to support these players that stick with us. And I hope we get more fans like we used to have that does that. I hope we lose a lot of the loud mouthed entitled whiners that continously complain and put down the players and coaches. Guess we're just looking at the same situation from a different angle.
Click to expand...
I'll always support the players and the overall team. Like I've said in the past, I don't cheer for the coaches, I cheer for the team, so I don't really have a problem criticizing coaches when I think they deserve it. JH hasn't really done anything to deserve it yet. Honestly, I'm not even sure what he has done. I'm sure he's been busy behind the scenes, but the media blackout means we know next to nothing. We don't even know for sure who he's going to have on staff. That's another reason it's hard to be positive right now IMO. It's hard to get excited when you have no clue what is happening.

I enjoy competing. And if we're not competing with every team, including Florida, Georgia, and Bama, then it's hard for me to consider UT football "fun". We can blow out every other team on the schedule, but if we're losing year after year to those three teams, I'll be miserable. That's just how I feel. But everyone's entitled to their own opinion. If others can be happy while losing to those three teams on an annual basis, more power to them. It just means we'll never be in the conversation for championships, SEC or national. And that's where I want UT to be. I really hope JH surprises me, and that we don't get hammered by the NCAA, but right now, I just can't see that as realistic. I want to be wrong. I badly want to be wrong. But I can't convince myself to believe. I did that with every previous coach only to be badly disappointed. Now I'm at a point where I have to see it to believe it. I really hope to see it.
 
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#143,607
#143,607
ChattaTNVol said:
Try to hear me out. In 2019 do you think Georgia State and BYU were better teams that the guys we had? Obviously they won on the scoreboard but I don’t think we had any business losing those games. Further, I think for whatever reason we never got our offense on track and were winning close games in 2019 mostly on the backs of our defense.

I think there was dysfunction, cockiness, and narcissism all throughout our staff. Men make a lot of money, sometimes it goes to some of their heads. The point is we’re a much better team that we have shown on game day, especially in 2019. As a minimum we should have won 10 games that year. jmo.

In 2020 we should have taken a step forward. Pruitt told Phil Steele that he thought we would be competitive with anybody. Phil believed him and I think we should have been. We had a 5-star offensive line and had to use a jumbo package to run against Missouri. Something was wrong and it wasn’t our kids.

We still have most of those kids and we just added some more good kids. Do we have some issues? Yeah, both on and off the field, but I also think we have the potential to have a good football team in 2021. Will we? I don’t know.

I’ve previously said I think we win 6 games but if I stretch my imagination and everything fell into place I think our ceiling is 10 or 11. While that may not be likely I don’t think it’s totally out of the question. We need to fix our staff issues. JH has a shot at doing that on the offensive side of the ball. He just needs to hire a DC and I would argue give the guy autonomy over the defense.

While I’m no big fan of Chaney, I think it’s entirely likely he did not have real autonomy over our offense the past couple years. I think Pruitt’s game planning called for using the offense to protect the defense and for the guys on the offensive side of the ball that was like holding them back. Where's the fun in that?

Further I think Pruitt lost the Team this past year when we were at Georgia. He was pissed and said so but he said something else publicly that you can’t say, he said he was going to replace some guys. You don’t win friends and influence people by threatening them and it will always backfire when you blame others for your own mistakes.

Some of the kids, I don’t know how many, probably didn’t feel like he had their backs anymore so why should they have his. It’s the staff’s responsibility to put the kids in positions where they can be successful. Ours didn’t do that and the kids knew it and probably felt betrayed and scapegoated by the men they had thought they could trust. Then all hell broke loose leading to the ouster of said staff.

We still have most of our kids and I think it’s very probable that with the right leadership on the staff they can be a pretty good football team this coming year. It’s early, way too early probably, but I can see a path, narrow though it may be, where when we take the field in 2021, we may be able to compete with anyone. I for one would enjoy watching that. jmo.
Click to expand...
I agree Pruitt was a problem that needed to go. I don't agree with how we handled getting rid of the problem. I think how we handled the problem has led to some key personnel leaving, and now we have holes at several positions. That's gonna create problems. None of this is JH's fault, but it's become his problem to fix. I'm not convinced it can be fixed. And I think it's a problem that can and most likely will stretch across multiple years. And more than anything, I think we keep losing to Florida, Georgia, and Bama, and that pains me. I want to be relevant again, and to me, relevancy is being able to beat those teams. Being the best of the second or third tier, that's not relevancy. That's just being meh.
 
#143,610
#143,610
ChattaTNVol said:
Try to hear me out. In 2019 do you think Georgia State and BYU were better teams that the guys we had? Obviously they won on the scoreboard but I don’t think we had any business losing those games. Further, I think for whatever reason we never got our offense on track and were winning close games in 2019 mostly on the backs of our defense.

I think there was dysfunction, cockiness, and narcissism all throughout our staff. Men make a lot of money, sometimes it goes to some of their heads. The point is we’re a much better team that we have shown on game day, especially in 2019. As a minimum we should have won 10 games that year. jmo.

In 2020 we should have taken a step forward. Pruitt told Phil Steele that he thought we would be competitive with anybody. Phil believed him and I think we should have been. We had a 5-star offensive line and had to use a jumbo package to run against Missouri. Something was wrong and it wasn’t our kids.

We still have most of those kids and we just added some more good kids. Do we have some issues? Yeah, both on and off the field, but I also think we have the potential to have a good football team in 2021. Will we? I don’t know.

I’ve previously said I think we win 6 games but if I stretch my imagination and everything fell into place I think our ceiling is 10 or 11. While that may not be likely I don’t think it’s totally out of the question. We need to fix our staff issues. JH has a shot at doing that on the offensive side of the ball. He just needs to hire a DC and I would argue give the guy autonomy over the defense.

While I’m no big fan of Chaney, I think it’s entirely likely he did not have real autonomy over our offense the past couple years. I think Pruitt’s game planning called for using the offense to protect the defense and for the guys on the offensive side of the ball that was like holding them back. Where's the fun in that?

Further I think Pruitt lost the Team this past year when we were at Georgia. He was pissed and said so but he said something else publicly that you can’t say, he said he was going to replace some guys. You don’t win friends and influence people by threatening them and it will always backfire when you blame others for your own mistakes.

Some of the kids, I don’t know how many, probably didn’t feel like he had their backs anymore so why should they have his. It’s the staff’s responsibility to put the kids in positions where they can be successful. Ours didn’t do that and the kids knew it and probably felt betrayed and scapegoated by the men they had thought they could trust. Then all hell broke loose leading to the ouster of said staff.

We still have most of our kids and I think it’s very probable that with the right leadership on the staff they can be a pretty good football team this coming year. It’s early, way too early probably, but I can see a path, narrow though it may be, where when we take the field in 2021, we may be able to compete with anyone. I for one would enjoy watching that. jmo.
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He was threatening everybody except the person who obviously needed replacing
 
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#143,611
#143,611
Lol everyone pissed that there are barely any leaks out of UT regarding the hiring process.....

“That’s how it should be by the way” we don’t need to know every little detail because that is how information gets distorted etc.

We find out when the University actually makes the hire not when they are talking to every possible candidate. (Again as it should be)

Suck it up buttercups. This means the UT Administration is finally being ran properly the way it should of been ran. (Brighter pastures ahead)
 
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#143,613
#143,613
ChattaTNVol said:
Try to hear me out. In 2019 do you think Georgia State and BYU were better teams that the guys we had? Obviously they won on the scoreboard but I don’t think we had any business losing those games. Further, I think for whatever reason we never got our offense on track and were winning close games in 2019 mostly on the backs of our defense.

I think there was dysfunction, cockiness, and narcissism all throughout our staff. Men make a lot of money, sometimes it goes to some of their heads. The point is we’re a much better team that we have shown on game day, especially in 2019. As a minimum we should have won 10 games that year. jmo.

In 2020 we should have taken a step forward. Pruitt told Phil Steele that he thought we would be competitive with anybody. Phil believed him and I think we should have been. We had a 5-star offensive line and had to use a jumbo package to run against Missouri. Something was wrong and it wasn’t our kids.

We still have most of those kids and we just added some more good kids. Do we have some issues? Yeah, both on and off the field, but I also think we have the potential to have a good football team in 2021. Will we? I don’t know.

I’ve previously said I think we win 6 games but if I stretch my imagination and everything fell into place I think our ceiling is 10 or 11. While that may not be likely I don’t think it’s totally out of the question. We need to fix our staff issues. JH has a shot at doing that on the offensive side of the ball. He just needs to hire a DC and I would argue give the guy autonomy over the defense.

While I’m no big fan of Chaney, I think it’s entirely likely he did not have real autonomy over our offense the past couple years. I think Pruitt’s game planning called for using the offense to protect the defense and for the guys on the offensive side of the ball that was like holding them back. Where's the fun in that?

Further I think Pruitt lost the Team this past year when we were at Georgia. He was pissed and said so but he said something else publicly that you can’t say, he said he was going to replace some guys. You don’t win friends and influence people by threatening them and it will always backfire when you blame others for your own mistakes.

Some of the kids, I don’t know how many, probably didn’t feel like he had their backs anymore so why should they have his. It’s the staff’s responsibility to put the kids in positions where they can be successful. Ours didn’t do that and the kids knew it and probably felt betrayed and scapegoated by the men they had thought they could trust. Then all hell broke loose leading to the ouster of said staff.

We still have most of our kids and I think it’s very probable that with the right leadership on the staff they can be a pretty good football team this coming year. It’s early, way too early probably, but I can see a path, narrow though it may be, where when we take the field in 2021, we may be able to compete with anyone. I for one would enjoy watching that. jmo.
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I agree 1000% ok maybe 999%
 
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#143,616
#143,616
Weezer said:
I think I've finally pinned down where my enthusiasm has gone. It's not so much JH that I feel disappointed in as it's just our entire situation. People look at JH's offense and think "exciting and fun". They think about winning 8 or 9 games a year and how great that is. And it is great. But I miss going into every game thinking we can win. And I've lost that. A nine win season sounds great. Beyond great. Until you consider the three losses every year probably come against the same 3 teams, Florida, Georgia, and Bama. And that's where my enthusiasm just dies. 2016 is the last time we beat Florida or Georgia. Have to go back to 2006 for the last time we beat Bama. And it's hard to the point of almost impossible for me to see us beating any of those teams in the near future. And not solely because of JH, but mostly because of the mess created by Pruitt and our administration, And I include our administration because I really think Donde Plowman mishandled this investigation. I know some think she did what she had to do, but I disagree with how she managed it. Given our current circumstances, I don't even have the excitement of good recruiting classes to look forward too. And I really want to be optimistic, but being realistic, why would any top recruit want to pick us right now? We have a great in-state class coming up, but unfortunately, I really expect most to go out of state. I don't want it to happen, but I totally expect it to happen. I think schools like Bama, Clemson, Florida, and Georgia will keep racking up great classes, and we'll struggle to be in the top 20, mostly because of a self-inflicted wound. And I don't know all the politics, maybe this really did result from a booster power fight, no clue, but we did it to ourselves. I'm just so depressed when it comes to UT football right now. I feel like I got kicked in the nads so hard it completely split the cup. And this feeling sucks. But I'm a Vol for life. Unfortunately, I just don't feel like I'll ever see us be truly great again. We're an afterthought in the SEC, which will always hinder us on the national stage.
Click to expand...

Saban will retire someday and that Bama luster will wear off.
UF has Mullen, who is not known as a great recruiter, so maybe, given time, we'll catch them.
Smart is recruiting big, but he outsmarts himself often in game coaching.

Sports are very cyclic.
I have a feeling that if we Vol fans hang in there, things are about to start cycling our way again.
 
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#143,617
#143,617
Weezer said:
Body aches and extreme exhaustion. What causes that? No fever, no trouble breathing, none of the other things I hear associated with COVID.
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That’s the issue with COVID and why it has spread so much. It’s symptomatology is so variable. A lot of no symptoms, some have very mild/vague symptoms, and some have catastrophic respiratory failure and die
 
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#143,618
#143,618
Weezer said:
Let's say it is COVID. Do they do anything to treat it, or do you just suffer through until it's gone?
Click to expand...
If you are well enough to be home then most likely not. There are monoclonal antibody infusions that have been shown to reduce hospitalizations (bamlanivimab) a good bit in high risk populations.

It’s helpful so you can quarantine and pass on to others, etc. If you require hospitalization it would lead to quicker administration of steroids, etc.
 
#143,621
#143,621
SweetasSoda said:
So I started with dreading another year with JP then the disaster and thought we're not going to win many games for three years and continue to be a totally boring offensive team to watch. So I because hopeful with the hire that we would at least be fun on offense even if we don't win many. If the DC and staff ends up being good then we could be a good team if not great. If what is being said about not being penalized too bad, we may get out of the hole about the time JH has the team in good shape. I am choosing to ignore AL, GA, Clemson and OSU until something is done about the playoffs, and nothing will be done as long as people keep watching. I'm still in the camp of I don't care where they come from as long as they want to play at Tennessee and not sure why they make that a big deal. I think JH will develop players like JP should have been able to so I am hopeful there because we really do have some good players even if we are thin. Excited that the offense is easy to learn and doesn't take years. Just seems like we spent 3 years trying to be AL and GA, and that is not happening for anyone right now. But FL beat GA with much less talent and a horrendous defense. Let's be Tennessee and the underdog like the 80s. I just want to enjoy watching them for a while. These Pruitt teams were awful to watch except a couple of games. Butch's teams were only fun when the talent got tired and took over the game. We are an afterthought, and I hope we surprise a lot of people. But I want to support these players that stick with us. And I hope we get more fans like we used to have that does that. I hope we lose a lot of the loud mouthed entitled whiners that continously complain and put down the players and coaches. Guess we're just looking at the same situation from a different angle.
Click to expand...
I don't think we'll get many more new fans without wins. Kids today don't want to be identified with losers. I have friends my age who went to UTK and whose kids are there now. Many of those kids wear Bama and Clemson swag when back home in Nashville area. Those are UTK students. It's worse with non-legacies. Like Europe, the fanbase is dying off and isn't creating enough new fans to sustain what it once was. All we're left with is adults who either won't be excited for anything less than 90s-level success (gotta admit I am probably one of those although I can enjoy an upset win on the field or the recruiting trail as much as anyone) or are so committed to the principles of the power of positive thinking that they make the other part of the fanbase question their sanity. That's where we are. Only thing that will save it is winning.
 
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#143,623
#143,623
Would like to share something with y’all that’s In the works and I’m really proud of....

I’m working with a couple guys from back home on developing a “blog” through Twitter that Is completely related to film break downs. We’re hoping to have some former VFLs on and walk us through the calls and what happened. Hopefully if it gets off the ground and people enjoy it we can do some live “watch parties” once the season arrives. The goal is to make it as interactive as possible and help teach vol fans of all ages, backgrounds, and knowledge levels.
 
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