OK Vol friends, with the addition of OU-TX likely, what do we have to do to get competitive again with all these powerhouses?

#1

rbvol

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#1
We're at the doorstep of being a bottom dweller in football in the SEC. The league is adding even more power teams. I want us to get back if it's possible. Heck we are not even mentioned as being one of the top teams in the league anymore. WHAT must we do???
 
#3
#3
We're at the doorstep of being a bottom dweller in football in the SEC. The league is adding even more power teams. I want us to get back if it's possible. Heck we are not even mentioned as being one of the top teams in the league anymore. WHAT must we do???
First, let’s not sugarcoat it. We are a bottom dweller. We have to accept it. Us fans can’t really do anything about it other than show up to games and support the team. We are extremely aware of the ineptitude and incompetence of the UT Admin and Coaching the past 15-20 years, most painfully noticeable on Saturdays. This has to be a top down rebuild. Donde Plowman Randy Boyd Danny White have to put football first. A good first step would be for Heupel and co to make a bowl game this year, look competitive and fiery, and keep recruiting well. Like I said, this most telling indicator will be the product on the field we see with our own eyes. It’s going to be hard to look worse than we did last year, but I’ve said that several times in the last 15 years.
 
#6
#6
Hire a good coach. Will never happen

I personally think we have two times out of the last 5.

Kiffy and Heupel. I didnt and dont hate CBJ as much as some of yall do.
Dooley was a nice press conference with poor recruiting and coaching. CJP was...well in over his head. I dont blame him for taking the job becuase had it been offered to me for that amount of money i would have taken it knowing i would be swimming in deep water.

So IMO not all the hired have been awful. Of course CJH may prove me wrong ahout his hire...
 
#7
#7
We're at the doorstep of being a bottom dweller in football in the SEC. The league is adding even more power teams. I want us to get back if it's possible. Heck we are not even mentioned as being one of the top teams in the league anymore. WHAT must we do???
Think it through, and you'll realize this changes very little for the Vols. Our annual slate of SEC games will look very much as it has always looked: Bama, Florida, and Georgia remain our biggest hurdles, year in and year out. Sure, we'll now play OK and TEX once every 4 years or so, but we've played OK twice in the past 8 years already, and they've not even been in the conference. Truly, the only significant change in schedule difficulty is that Auburn will be on the slate every year.

So really, no big changes. What we must do is (a) have a really good coach, and (b) give him time to solidify a really good stable of assistant coaches and roster of players.

This BS some trolls are saying in this thread about us being a bottom-dweller, ignore that. It's just trolls. We're down, but not out. Top teams have bounced back from worse. We just need to re-learn what it takes to win.

Go Vols!
 
#12
#12
What are the odds Lincoln Riley never even coaches in the SEC? What if Mike McCarthy fails and Jerry Jones want Lincoln to take over the Cowboys? These are probably pretty crazy hypotheticals, but then again 3 days ago our biggest discussion was NIL. So much is going to happen in the next 6-8 months .

We can’t forget who we are and what made us good. Do Texas and OU have better fan bases than us? I don’t think so. I sure as hell don’t think Texas is. I’m terms that they know… they’re all hat and no cattle. They haven’t done anymore than we have in the past 20+ years and it took a fluke game that they lose 9/10 times to have accomplished what we have. We’ll be fine when take of ourselves and control what we as a football brand, team, athletic department etc… can control. Thanks
 
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#13
#13
8-4 or 7-5 will be great seasons for UT going forward and probaly the ceiling cause we are never winning the SEC again we will never see the 90’s run of success again either. Tennessee would be best served if they asked or expressed interest to the ACC about joining. Tennessee will continue to be a bottom feeder in the SEC for years to come. Oklahoma and Texas coming to the SEC doesn’t help us not one bit.
 
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#14
#14
We're at the doorstep of being a bottom dweller in football in the SEC. The league is adding even more power teams. I want us to get back if it's possible. Heck we are not even mentioned as being one of the top teams in the league anymore. WHAT must we do???
Tell me more about the powerful Texas Longhorns 🙄, and their most recent Big 12 title in 2009!

OU gets smacked every playoff game. Hey maybe they'll play better since they've stolen 3 of our own players? But yeah, they must be really good! National Championship good 🤣🙄

We play Bama, Florida and UGA every year.
This changes almost nothing.

We just need to find a good coach. Heupel seems like a good coach. We'll see...
 
#15
#15
Think it through, and you'll realize this changes very little for the Vols. Our annual slate of SEC games will look very much as it has always looked: Bama, Florida, and Georgia remain our biggest hurdles, year in and year out. Sure, we'll now play OK and TEX once every 4 years or so, but we've played OK twice in the past 8 years already, and they've not even been in the conference. Truly, the only significant change in schedule difficulty is that Auburn will be on the slate every year.

So really, no big changes. What we must do is (a) have a really good coach, and (b) give him time to solidify a really good stable of assistant coaches and roster of players.

This BS some trolls are saying in this thread about us being a bottom-dweller, ignore that. It's just trolls. We're down, but not out. Top teams have bounced back from worse. We just need to re-learn what it takes to win.

Go Vols!

!00 percent spot on post. The degree of difficulty for Tennessee didn't really change too much at all. We can drop our addition of an out of conference power 5 team (I'm sure the SEC will allow that for everyone) and you have virtually the same thing you have now.
 
#16
#16
I personally think we have two times out of the last 5.

Kiffy and Heupel. I didnt and dont hate CBJ as much as some of yall do.
Dooley was a nice press conference with poor recruiting and coaching. CJP was...well in over his head. I dont blame him for taking the job becuase had it been offered to me for that amount of money i would have taken it knowing i would be swimming in deep water.

So IMO not all the hired have been awful. Of course CJH may prove me wrong ahout his hire...
Heupel hasn’t proven anything yet. Hard to say how kiffin would have done had he stayed. Took him a while after that before he was considered a “good” coach
 
#17
#17
Tennessee’s issue right now isn’t at the AD or coach level. It’s at the administrative level. Everyone HAS to get on the same team for one purpose. That hasn’t been the case since Fulmer was fired.

Now that Johnny has passed & Fulmer has completely $hit the bad as AD, there’s no reason for everyone not to get behind the new AD & coach.
 
#18
#18
Probably a couple of years before all of this materializes. If Heupel is the one to bring us back, we will know by then and us being competitive should already be established. If we are still only winning three games a year, I might become an Ice Vols hockey fan instead.
 
#19
#19
Adding Texas and OU is literally no different than our schedule every year with a big OOC game. Just don’t schedule another big OOC game lol
 
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#20
#20
Tennessee’s issue right now isn’t at the AD or coach level. It’s at the administrative level. Everyone HAS to get on the same team for one purpose. That hasn’t been the case since Fulmer was fired.

Now that Johnny has passed & Fulmer has completely $hit the bad as AD, there’s no reason for everyone not to get behind the new AD & coach.
Correct. We can’t hire a good coach because of total dysfunction in the roles above him.
 
#23
#23
its hard to sit and wait but it will become clear for all by the end of the first quarter of the Bowling Green game!
Up or down, we will all know! I'm betting thumbs up!
 
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#24
#24
Continue to look for the right coach who walks into a situation that allows him to be successful. UT already hired the wrong coach at the right time with Butch Jones. There will be another opportunity if Heupel doesn't turn out to be it.

One of the things that will help is finding an elite QB that emerges and makes the team dramatically better... think Burrough or Newton. Before those guys emerged... they were just guys who had failed to take over at their previous school.
 
#25
#25
WHAT must we do???
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