I support Heupel and Banks

#27
#27
I support the Tenn Vols and the brand. Coaches come and go so whoever's capable and puts the Vols in the best position is he who's earned the privilege.
 
#29
#29
LittleVol said:
Does Tennessee deserve better? I don't how anyone could make that call.
Great offense in 2021,2022, and ,2025
Great defense in 2024

We're recruiting well. Are over all winning percentage is high the past 4 years.

But
- bad clock management (terrible actually)
- bad play calling (still much improved (
- bad luck (injuries)
All play a part.

If we were able to add 2025 offense to 2024 defense we would be undefeated.
It's frustrating BECAUSE we should have beaten Georgia, and we had opportunities against Bama.
Both teams are still more talented than us. Don't forget that
- Who can make us as talented as UGA, and Bama by next season??
(Trick question)
It's Josh Heupel. Because of all the work he and his staff have done at this point. And yeah maybe there's a coach out there that can win right away with our roster - but we're 5-2 now.

Do I think we can win it all in 2026? Not unless we grab some FCS All-americans at safety and DT.

But show me the available coaching staff that can come in by January, 2026 and have us playing in the National championship 12 months later.

I don't see a program in regression. I see Heupel fighting and pushing against a ceiling. Trying like hell to raise it.

Losing sucks, but the SEC is hard. Bama and UGA both have losses. As does Ole Miss. Texas and Steve Sarkesian were all the talk this off-season. Texas has 2 losses and barely beat Kentucky. So does Sarkesian suck all of a sudden?

- we had a former walk-on rush for over 100 yards and 2 TDs against Bama.
- Also had our 5 star WR drop critical 3rd down pass. So ....is the coaching or recruiting?

I don't see an available better alternative than Josh Heupel and what he's built at Tennessee these last 5 years.
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This is a good post, and I second your support. We’ve seen too much progress to yank the carpet from under Heupel. Most everyone thought we would lose the two games we have lost. That was BEFORE we lost Nico. So, I found myself reminding myself that I wasn’t sure if we would go 7-5 this year—yet we could still go 10-2 and who knows?

As far as injuries go, I still question our strength and conditioning hire. As far as OC goes, I think we are witnessing how valuable Golesh was to Heupel, and how big of a loss he was to our program. I think Heupel might need to humble himself a bit and look for an OC who actually calls plays. The fact that Heupel feels the TN OC coaching job is a mentoring job is a bit disconcerting to me, and his philosophy requires him to focus more on getting plays in as opposed to other things like managing the people, the game and the game clock.
 
#30
#30
At this point, the defense is what it is. Which means it is going to give up 30+ points to any SEC offense, except maybe Kentucky, and I wouldn’t be comfortable even betting on that. Which means the offense has to score more than 30+ points. Sounds easy enough, except that they were held to 20 points against Mississippi State and Alabama. Perhaps coincidentally, and perhaps not, both of those games were on the road.

In any event, it’s too late to change the defense now. It is what it is. So we just have to ride it out, hope for the best, and hope for better next year, both coaching and playing.
 
#31
#31
I do support both and pull for each to be the best of the best, but as in business or any other venue, when sales are stagnant or your barely reaching your quarterly targets, someone has to change in order to exceed in any plan. We’ve been successful with our coaches, but we still fall behind the top tier teams and to get to that level, some changes need to be made at times or complacency will continue. All that being said, Heupel has made us relevant as with the case of Rick Barnes. The question is, do we want and expect more? Just my thoughts
 
#33
#33
LittleVol said:
Okay but were you calling for Heupel to be fired when Banks was fielding a top 5 defense last season? And Nico wasnt elevating the offense?

UGA gave up 41 to us and 35 to Ole Miss.
The days of 2011 LSU and Bama are defense are Long gone!

Banks is not playing with a full deck.
AS I SAID- He needs to get better during the Off-season.
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I would like to know what changed with his approach to coaching the defense with proper tackling technique. Last season we didn’t have that problem but now young guys and vets can’t wrap up.
 
#34
#34
cncchris33 said:
I'm fine with you defending Heupel's program development. His clock management is abysmal, his staff loyalty is going to hold him back, but he has rebuilt us into a very respectable program.

However, if you find reason to defend Tim Banks, I can't help you. The McCoy injury is a fine and legitimate excuse, but we are waaaaay beyond simply missing an All-American corner back. And yes, we are missing Rickey Gibson, too, but Colton Hood has been a more than adequate replacement.
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Also missing a lot of transfers on defense It’s today’s game
 
#35
#35
Banks has his 2 best defensive backs injured before the season. He is hamstrung with what he can scheme up with a freshman trying to cover SEC elite receivers. They were a really good defence last year and you have to pump the brakes on Banks.

Heupel has issues on offense that are kind of his own making. Nico leaving, Joey coming in right before season, receivers leaving in the portal and only having 3 that play most of the time. But, he still is scoring points and putting us in position to win.

Kicker makes a field goal and we are 6-1. But he didnt so we are 5-2 and can win all the rest of the games if we play well. There are a couple we could drop if things go bad.

I am surely not ready for a good ole fashioned Tenn coaching search.......we have had some terrible coaches in the last decade.
 
#37
#37
You shouldn't lose to a second year coach in your 5th year. I know the argument will be "But Bama has more talent" who's responsibility is it to hire a staff that recruits elite talent? Heupel and the AD. The only good coach on the defensive side of the ball is RG until he retires or goes elsewhere.
 
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#39
#39
Banks sucks and should be fired by the end of the season. Literally nowhere to go but up for the defense.

I 100% support Heupel though.
 
#41
#41
If we lose to Florida, Heupel definitely ain’t it sadly but I’m not sure I wanna start over next year. We’ll just have to deal with the ups and downs of garbage football.
 
#42
#42
LittleVol said:
Does Tennessee deserve better? I don't how anyone could make that call.
Great offense in 2021,2022, and ,2025
Great defense in 2024

We're recruiting well. Are over all winning percentage is high the past 4 years.

But
- bad clock management (terrible actually)
- bad play calling (still much improved (
- bad luck (injuries)
All play a part.

If we were able to add 2025 offense to 2024 defense we would be undefeated.
It's frustrating BECAUSE we should have beaten Georgia, and we had opportunities against Bama.
Both teams are still more talented than us. Don't forget that
- Who can make us as talented as UGA, and Bama by next season??
(Trick question)
It's Josh Heupel. Because of all the work he and his staff have done at this point. And yeah maybe there's a coach out there that can win right away with our roster - but we're 5-2 now.

Do I think we can win it all in 2026? Not unless we grab some FCS All-americans at safety and DT.

But show me the available coaching staff that can come in by January, 2026 and have us playing in the National championship 12 months later.

I don't see a program in regression. I see Heupel fighting and pushing against a ceiling. Trying like hell to raise it.

Losing sucks, but the SEC is hard. Bama and UGA both have losses. As does Ole Miss. Texas and Steve Sarkesian were all the talk this off-season. Texas has 2 losses and barely beat Kentucky. So does Sarkesian suck all of a sudden?

- we had a former walk-on rush for over 100 yards and 2 TDs against Bama.
- Also had our 5 star WR drop critical 3rd down pass. So ....is the coaching or recruiting?

I don't see an available better alternative than Josh Heupel and what he's built at Tennessee these last 5 years.
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I understand people get drunk and butthurt and post crazy stuff after every loss. Every. Single. Loss.

If you think this program is regressing...when we have the #1QB, #1WR, #1WR class with 4 NFL caliber athletes in it, as well as great Oline players and 2 stud top 100 LBers...ALL already committed and coming in next years class ... you just don't know much about our team or are irrational. Its that simple. CJH has landed a better class every year than the year before including an elite 2026 class especially at skill positions. We have improved depth and % of Bluechip players every year under CJH...despite the NIL era NOT being conducive to building depth because guys will transfer immediately if they dont play.

We are set up to be better in 26 than now.
We are set up to be better in 27 than 26.

This isnt regression. This is overachieving in a year where Vegas had us at 7.5wins on the season and our own SEC media picked UT to finish 9th out of 16 teams. We are better than ANYONE thought we would be that has any sense. That isnt regression. Its the exact opposite actually. I am done listening to the same people whine in here after every loss...it gets so old. GO VOLS
 
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#43
#43
Flipdaddy said:
If we lose to Florida, Heupel definitely ain’t it sadly but I’m not sure I wanna start over next year. We’ll just have to deal with the ups and downs of garbage football.
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Im not giving up on Heupel just yet, His road woe's have been discipline issues. If he can fix that we would be ok. But Banks... he got to go. He has been riding the success of Rodney Gardner for 3 years now. His zone defenses are god awful. Our safeties look atrocious. Alot of times on 3rd down our defenses look lost. "But we had good defense last year" thats because noone tossed motions and messed with the eyes of our linebackers until the UGA game. This defense as a whole just aint it. And dont feed me "We have Injuries BS" Our injuries have nothing to do with the middle of the field zone busts and the play of our Safeties.
 
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#44
#44
aRmo said:
Im not giving up on Heupel just yet, His road woe's have been discipline issues. If he can fix that we would be ok. But Banks... he got to go. He has been riding the success of Rodney Gardner for 3 years now. His zone defenses are god awful. Our safeties look atrocious. Alot of times on 3rd down our defenses look lost. "But we had good defense last year" thats because noone tossed motions and messed with the eyes of our linebackers until the UGA game. This defense as a whole just aint it. And dont feed me "We have Injuries BS" Our injuries have nothing to do with the middle of the field zone busts and the play of our Safeties.
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You right but can’t lose to Florida this year
 
#48
#48
cncchris33 said:
I've never called for Heupel to be fired, and especially not in my post you quoted, so I don't know how thay question is really relevant.

Banks fielded a good defense last year. It has been the anomaly, though. You have to admit that. And spare me the full deck speech. We played yesterday minus 2 of our top 3 CBs. Outside of that, we pretty much had everyone we'd expect to play. The problem is that our LBs are slow to react and miss too many tackles, Telander couldn't defend you in coverage, our Safeties can't cover or tackle. The scheme Banks employs in certain situations is completely head-scratching. And this isn't just based on the Bama result.
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Man stop taking words out of context.

I’ve said TWICE now in this thread , that he (Banks) needs to get better during the off-season. He did nothing to address DT or Safety last offseason. That and the injury at CB are a problem.

Heupel has had two subpar offensive seasons compared to his own standard. And of course you DIDNT call for him to get fired. Banks defenses were improving every season until they peaked in 2024. Obviously they took a step back this season. But he’s shown steady improvement since hes been here.

And you can’t just overlook two staring CBs been hurt.
Yes hes NOT playing with a full deck.

Try to be fair for once…
 
#49
#49
PEPPERJAX said:
I would like to know what changed with his approach to coaching the defense with proper tackling technique. Last season we didn’t have that problem but now young guys and vets can’t wrap up.
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Good question.
They weren’t tackling very much this fall camp.
Remember?

Because people kept getting injured.

Also the skill level is down from last year in the secondary.
 
#50
#50
VOLumeS said:
You shouldn't lose to a second year coach in your 5th year. I know the argument will be "But Bama has more talent" whose responsibility is it to hire a staff that recruits elite talent? Heupel and the AD. The only good coach on the defensive side of the ball is RG until he retires or goes elsewhere.
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He’s got a true freshman at CB. And two safeties starting that wouldn’t be in the 2 deep at UGA or Bama.

They’re giving every opportunity for Spillman to take the job form Telander but he’s not made the right plays yet. Telander is still in position until someone out athletes him. Which usually happens on a 3rd down.

We had a top 5 defense last season with a walkon at safety.

He needs to get busy in the portal this off-season. Same position. DT and Safety
 
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