We are already mid-tier

[Vol in Buckeye Land]

Rebuild is ahead of schedule, from where I sit. USCe and Mizzou are not very good but they are not the pushovers we thought they were: both got to 6 wins today and beat Florida this season. Scar beat Auburn today, and while this Auburn iteration isn’t very good, that’s still punching above their weight for South Carolina as a program.

We dismantled both those teams. They were never in the game against us. We played Ole Miss, likely the second or third best team in the West, pretty much dead even. We are already clearly well above the bottom tier of SEC teams. Taking the next step into the upper echelon will be more difficult. Depending on how well we do in the portal, I believe we could take that step in 2023 if not next year.

Getting to “Elite” status a la ‘Bama for the last decade, 2019 LSU, or present day Georgia is harder to put a finger on. Who knows.

What I do know is that we have won or very nearly won in every game that we weren’t completely outmatched in terms of overall player skill. Against the two SEC east teams we were supposed to be on par with this year, we completely dominated. The tide is going to turn if and when we get more quality in Knoxville. And it may turn more quickly than some of y’all think.

 

[lukeneyland]

I’ve been saying it for a while but we are a top 25 team. There’s not 25 teams that’d be favored to beat us on a neutral field. The only difference between us and most of these ranked teams is that we play the toughest schedule in the country

 

[HarsinVol]

Scar beat Auburn today, and while this Auburn iteration isn’t very good, that’s still punching above their weight for South Carolina as a program

Sad but true. Auburn is talent-lacking. I can tell you that I am on an Auburn forum and this is acknowledged (except for the cretins). Love to all and a good nighty-nite.

 

[VolFan4Life87]

I wish we played Florida later in the season. Even when they suck, we just do not seem to have our s*** together by game 2-4 in the season when we face them annually.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

I’ve been saying it for a while but we are a top 25 team. There’s not 25 teams that’d be favored to beat us on a neutral field. The only difference between us and most of these ranked teams is that we play the toughest schedule in the country

Yes! For weeks now we've clearly been a top 25 team!
Average teams don't decimate teams like USA, USCjr and Mizzou like we did.

I mean we are a LOAD to handle. Our offense is just insane.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

We are this year. We are respectable. We've got to sustain it though. Most P5 schools have a one off 7-8 game win season now and then. That's got to become routine again around here to be solidly mid tier. I think we'll do it with Heupel.

 

[Memphisvol87]

Our defense needs a few more dudes and I would agree.

 

[SCVol2018]

I’ve been saying it for a while but we are a top 25 team. There’s not 25 teams that’d be favored to beat us on a neutral field. The only difference between us and most of these ranked teams is that we play the toughest schedule in the country

yea look at cincinnati....that schedule is BS

 

[sechamp2012]

I wish we played Florida later in the season. Even when they suck, we just do not seem to have our s*** together by game 2-4 in the season when we face them annually.

Remember the game in 9/11 season changed to later, we were I believe (maybe wrong) a 12 point dog and Travis Stephens ran for +200 and we win. I do believe if we flipped the dates we played UGA & Florida this year. We beat Florida. We had the hardest schedule so far and UGA was 42 nd nationally which was the easiest schedule in the SEC. Will be interesting how UGA handles 3 top teams in a row SECC game and playoff Semi & Championship if they make it to the Natty.

 

[UT Hill Man]

We'd beat the crap out of Florida if we played them next Saturday.

The timing of the game hurt us bad.

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

"Rebuild" hasn't begun until we land some quality transfers and sign an above average class for SEC standards. We are back to year 1 next year, especially since we are likely to lose a ton of our production in Evans, Mays, Payton, Hooker etc. Defense still MAC level. We got a long, long way to go.

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

USCe, Missouri, UF are all pushovers right now. East is absolute garbage this year, don't try and fool yourself.

 

[VolMarine1371]

I wish we played Florida later in the season. Even when they suck, we just do not seem to have our s*** together by game 2-4 in the season when we face them annually.

Would you rather play Florida or UGA later in the season?

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Rebuild is ahead of schedule, from where I sit. USCe and Mizzou are not very good but they are not the pushovers we thought they were: both got to 6 wins today and beat Florida this season. Scar beat Auburn today, and while this Auburn iteration isn’t very good, that’s still punching above their weight for South Carolina as a program.

We dismantled both those teams. They were never in the game against us. We played Ole Miss, likely the second or third best team in the West, pretty much dead even. We are already clearly well above the bottom tier of SEC teams. Taking the next step into the upper echelon will be more difficult. Depending on how well we do in the portal, I believe we could take that step in 2023 if not next year.

Getting to “Elite” status a la ‘Bama for the last decade, 2019 LSU, or present day Georgia is harder to put a finger on. Who knows.

What I do know is that we have won or very nearly won in every game that we weren’t completely outmatched in terms of overall player skill. Against the two SEC east teams we were supposed to be on par with this year, we completely dominated. The tide is going to turn if and when we get more quality in Knoxville. And it may turn more quickly than some of y’all think.

I think we are way ahead of schedule but so is South Carolina. I have been surprised at their last two wins even though both were are home and the crowd was rocking the stadium. It will be interesting to see waht happens at Florida. They have become the laughing stock of the SEC.

 

[TennesseeZep]

Much of the success this year began and continued with competent qb play. The confidence and leadership qualities (and of course outstanding play) exuded from HH and led this team to a solid season. Eight or nine regular season wins were within grasp which would have been phenomenal, especially under the circumstances. It is a real pleasure watching him all calm and collected with that mean stare on his face slinging it around the field.

 

[Cartervol]

It will become more about players over time. Everyone has seen this offense now. They'll flop around like fish and find a few other ways to slow it down. Hooker has done a very good job of running this offense this year. Heupel got lucky with him.

 

[guido4198]

There’s little or no consistent logic in the “ top 25” rankings. Yesterday I watched #4-Ohio State absolutely OBLITERATE # 7- Michigan State. The score at HALFTIME was 49-0. If rankings had any relation to team strength that should never have been possible. I agree with the previous posts, that our program is definitely ahead of any kind of “ schedule “. The only metric that matters to me however is how we stack up against Bama and Georgia. When those games are a toss-up in Vegas...
we’ll be BACK. For now.. Coach Heupel has us on the right track.
GBO..!!!

 

[Woke]

Rebuild is ahead of schedule, from where I sit. USCe and Mizzou are not very good but they are not the pushovers we thought they were: both got to 6 wins today and beat Florida this season. Scar beat Auburn today, and while this Auburn iteration isn’t very good, that’s still punching above their weight for South Carolina as a program.

We dismantled both those teams. They were never in the game against us. We played Ole Miss, likely the second or third best team in the West, pretty much dead even. We are already clearly well above the bottom tier of SEC teams. Taking the next step into the upper echelon will be more difficult. Depending on how well we do in the portal, I believe we could take that step in 2023 if not next year.

Getting to “Elite” status a la ‘Bama for the last decade, 2019 LSU, or present day Georgia is harder to put a finger on. Who knows.

What I do know is that we have won or very nearly won in every game that we weren’t completely outmatched in terms of overall player skill. Against the two SEC east teams we were supposed to be on par with this year, we completely dominated. The tide is going to turn if and when we get more quality in Knoxville. And it may turn more quickly than some of y’all think.

Agreed. IMO everything moves in long cycles and that’s what we’re seeing unfold this season.

It’s been 20 years since we were a national P5 football force. Since then we’ve been in a death spiral caused by multiple self-inflicted wounds from our ADs and the multiple HFC misfits they brought in to “fix” things. But nothing on the field was ever gonna get fixed until the deeper systemic issues got fixed first.

Now we’re on our year 1 rebuild. Our down-cycle is OVER. It took us 20 years to finally find the right hires at AD and HFC and stop scraping the bottom. It took an unholy trinity of Fulmer/Pruitt/NCAA investigation to finally bitch-slap us awake.

Everyone step aside bc the Vols aren’t the biggest dumpster fire program in the SEC E anymore. That honor now belongs to the Gators who’ve completely fallen apart under Mullen. And they fell apart breathtakingly fast.

WTH happened at FL?? Would love to have an insider’s view. But what matters is FL won’t get fixed overnight. Like TN 20 years ago something deeper is clearly going on there and just finding a better HFC won’t solve the problem.

Finally it’s all starting to move our way.

 

[Vol_atile]

It will become more about players over time. Everyone has seen this offense now. They'll flop around like fish and find a few other ways to slow it down. Hooker has done a very good job of running this offense this year. Heupel got lucky with him.

And vice versa!

 

[VolunteerCeltic]

Need to sign at least a top 15 class this cycle......

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Need to sign at least a top 15 class this cycle......

It ain't happening in 2022. Maybe 2023 but the whole NCAA thing is really handicapping us until it's over.

 

[norrislakevol]

Need to sign at least a top 15 class this cycle......

We likely won't, but the transfer portal could be good to us. With some luck, and if Hooker stays we could be 8 - 4 or MAYBE even 9 - 3 next year. Next year is when we could really make some hay in high school recruiting. Gotta get better NIL deals for high profile players too. That is important.

 

[LittleVol]

Need to sign at least a top 15 class this cycle......

Why?

We need depth and impact players at mission crucial positions. I don't care if it's 10th or 20th ranked class.

Sign guys that develop and produce.

We've been signing good classes the past 10 years and it amounted to very little production.

 

[VolunteerCeltic]

Why?

We need depth and impact players at mission crucial positions. I don't care if it's 10th or 20th ranked class.

Sign guys that develop and produce.

We've been signing good classes the past 10 years and it amounted to very little production.

Why?

We need depth and impact players at mission crucial positions. I don't care if it's 10th or 20th ranked class.

Sign guys that develop and produce.

We've been signing good classes the past 10 years and it amounted to very little production.

Because recruiting class talent means something, develop the players yes, but UT will never catch GA, FL, Bama if they are developing 3 stars and those schools are developing 4 and 5 stars.

 

[walkenvol]

This season has exceeded most all reasonable expectations and things are trending in the right direction. What causes my concerns is how will things look if Hooker leaves. We looked way different with Hooker running the show vs Milton. College football has become so dependent on qb play as demonstrated by the drop off of both LSU and Florida after losing quality qb’s. If CJH can reload the qb position then 7 wins may possibly become the minimum each season.