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#58,479
#58,479
Anyone remember streamers at Neyland in the 90s? Back then we would score a TD and everyone would throw paper streamers and release balloons. You could get multipack of streamers at StarSales in Knoxville for cheap. At some point they became banned but as a kid seeing the streamers shoot overhead was awesome.
 
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#58,485
#58,485
ChattaTNVol said:
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes I'll see you on the dark (mode) side of the moon –



When everything is going so good a lot of folks don’t like to hear that maybe there is an area that we really need to work on. We have a lot of strengths on our team (staff & players), rushing offense, passing offense, 3rd down offense, redzone offense, 1-minute offense, 2-minute offense, 4-minute offense, run defense, 3rd down defense, redzone defense, special teams, etc. Pass defense is simply not one of the stand-out strengths of our team this year. We’ve lost bodies so our ability to play a lot of guys (like upfront) has been very limited. Additionally some of the guys we are playing have limited experience. Christian Charles for example was a high school QB. He played a few snaps at safety last year until his injury but as far as I know he’s only played 7 games at CB in his entire football life. Anyway, I think we’ll get better. I won’t be surprised to see some of the incoming 2023 freshmen DBs in the lineup next year. jmo.

Heupel talked about our pass defense on this week’s SEC teleconference and then again Wednesday night on Vol Calls. It’s the one area of our team that from a performance perspective lags behind the breakout performances of every other area of our team. I’m not really worried about it because I do believe that in due time it will catch up to the performance standard Heupel has set for the rest of the team. jmo.

Forget about yards and number of plays and think about first downs. We give up an average of 16 first downs per game via the pass. Our 3rd down defense is pretty good (29th in the nation) so we’re just giving up a lot of first downs via the pass, often on early downs. If we gave up half as many first downs via the pass all else being equal it would likely have a night and day difference in the perception and ranking of our overall defense because as you point out our defense would likely be on the field for fewer plays. jmo.

View attachment 506615

Georgia leads the conference in limiting first downs via the pass (of course they haven’t played us yet) at 42.24% of completions allowed; we’re at #11 in the SEC with 55.72% of completions allowed going for a first down. Alabama (who has played us) is giving up 46.31% completions for first downs. They’re 4th best in the conference in this metric. Our pass defense just needs to win around 8 more plays per game to surge up the rankings. Heupel says it’s a little bit of everything and I’m pretty confident it will improve as he continues to rebuild our football team. We may just need to give him a bit more time in this one particular area. jmo.




Brian Fremeau tracks points per possession (drive) for FBS vs FBS teams (he doesn’t include FCS opponents). Against FBS opponents we are scoring 3.92 points per possession; Kentucky is scoring 2.19 points per possession against FBS opponents.

Last year against Kentucky we each had 11 possessions. It’s expected by many to be similar this year. It may not work out that way but that seems to be the general expectation. Heupel has said a number of times this week that possessions in this game will be limited.

So this is the math:

Tennessee - 11 X 3.92 = 43.12

Kentucky – 11 X 2.19 = 24.09
Click to expand...
Very similar to what I calculated in the game thread. I did mine by points per play and plays per game. Kentucky should have more plays than they average in this game, and Tennessee will probably have less than average.

Mine came out to a range between 26-30 pts for Kentucky and 38-50pts for the Vols depending on the hi/low # of plays. But that was across all games, not just FBS.
 
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#58,490
#58,490
SoilVol said:
No, that's not what anyone is saying and is a total mischaracterization of what I said. Beating who you're expected to beat is a minimum requirement. Beating garbage programs is expected. Losing to garbage programs is a major problem.

A loss to Vandy is worse than a loss to Alabama.
That does not mean that a win over Vandy is better than a win over Alabama - and that's not what was said (but it's what you're implying I said). A win over Alabama is astronomically better than a win over Vandy (obviously).... what we are (or I am) trying to point out is that it's not a vacuum dichotomy where you choose a win over Alabama or a win over Vandy and for some strange reason some are "picking" the win over Vandy instead. It's a win over Bama (very good) and a loss to Vandy (very very bad) or a win over Vandy (expected) and a loss to Bama (frustrating but expected preseason).

And that compounds when you factor in real-life where you start 7-0 then lose 4/5 to UK, UGA, Mizzou, USC, and Vandy. Where 3 of those 5 are HORRIBLE losses and 1 (UK) would be absolutely embarassing. So yeah, most people don't like the implication of going 8-4 AFTER a 7-0 start when you consider the losses. It's about the losses, and how they happened, not the wins.

I'm still going to be happy with this season, too, because of what they've done and the fun and joy it's brought back to Tennessee football. There's obvious improvement and positivity. Not sure anyone is saying finishing 8-4 (NOW) would be a failure. What it WOULD be is not finishing where and how we should be at this point.
Click to expand...
Ok. So a loss to Vandy is worse than a win against Alabama is good. Got it.
 
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#58,499
#58,499
Enki_Amenra said:
Fant looked a lot faster than I thought he was.
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He's deceptively fast. Just not that quick.

He's also huge

I walked passed him once

I'm 5'11 205 with a decent amount of muscle on me and it felt like a damn toddler next to him. He's like 250 of pure muscle.

Not surprised He's flourished at the goal line so well lol
 
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