Recruiting Forum Football Talk IX

#61,552
#61,552
Fun coupon VOL said:
It’s an expectation problem? There are two universities south of us where one has been a perennial power with a handful of championships for 20 years and the other has been cruising now for almost 10 years.

What is the difference?
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They are better jobs, one being the gold standard and the other being the most talent rich state? Both can recruit top 5 in their sleep. We can recruit top 20 in our sleep. Huge difference.
 
#61,553
#61,553
Sandman Vol said:
Yeah that was a comment about Auburn, not us. Not gonna compare them to us either, unless it’s which coach of ours from our 15 years of irrelevance are they on right now.
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My guy, they hired a guy who got fired from a job 2 hours away for using his University phone to hire prostitutes. It's worse there than I ever remember it here. And if they fire that guy, who is taking over?

I know a lot of fans are slow to figure this out, but there's a direct correlation between how competitive you are with the teams on your schedule and how much NIL your boosters are giving you to buy players. Sometimes that changes with a coaching change, but how often by any significant degree that will actually catch you up with your big-spending rivals?
 
#61,554
#61,554
My post game ramblings:

  • My oldest shipped off to basic training just after our second game of the season and he was disappointed about missing the football season this year. I told him then - and it has proven true - that this was probably the best time to go because in all honesty, this year was going to be a transition year. We were very likely an 8-4 team talent wise.
  • The signs were there. I think we all clung to that electric game vs uga and thought we were really for real contenders. Just a missed field goal away from beating Kirby. How could we not think that? So we collectively overlooked how pourous our defense looked against UAB. How we went down to the wire with two very bad SEC teams in Arkansas and Missippi State, and how our defense probably costs us that Kensucky game had Mark Stoops and co not decided to retardedly play man defense all game. The signs were there that we actually are not that good of a team this year.
  • The problem wth an 8-4 team is, they're a lot harder to live through than they are to appreciate. I don't want to be that guy, but it wasn't that long ago that we all craved 8-4 seasons. I literally remember being excited when we hired Pruitt because while I knew we were going to get blown out by UGA, UF, and Alabama, I had hope that in each year we would at least be able to beat the "mids" of the SEC East like Vandy, Mizzou, uscjr, and Kensucky. I would consider sweeping those four a good year.
  • So with that said, I have a genuine appreciation that Danny White and Coach Heupel have raised our standards back to where they were when I was a kid. Josh is a good coach. I sat around a lot of fans in the stadium last night who were trash talking him and the playcalls all night and some even suggesting it was time for him to go. I don't want that at all. I mean, lets have some perspective. Look around the SEC - there are two teams with surefire coaches - Alabama and UGA. And most people wanted to run Deboer off not that long ago. For all the love of Kiffin... was he the bees knees last year when he had arguably the second best team in the country and lost to Kensucky and Florida?
  • The one thing I will concede is, I'm not convinced we will ever win a Championship under Heupel. And I remember years ago - either right when he was hired or immediately after the 2021 season, listening to the Ultimate Tennessee Podcast when Lucas Panzica was still their host, and he and his co-host were saying that Heupel would bring us back to respectability but not take us to the promised land. The homer in me scoffed at this and believed he could. But yeah, were here year 5 and we are still plagued by penalties, looking unprepared at times, poor preparation, etc. Playing complimentary football is rare for this team. That does not mean I'm in a rush to run off the best coach we've since a mostly underachieving Fulmer and try to see whats out there.
  • Back to the transition year - disregard the fact that we went into the year with a G5 QB - we also went into this year with.... I don't remember the exact number, but like almost half the team being first and second year players. We are a YOUNG team. That would lean into the notion that our future is bright. My concern is that when we do head into 2026, our schedule will be significantly harder and we will have a raw, inexperienced QB in McIntyre.
  • I just want to put down in black and white that I don't know that there has been a player in recent memory who has been as disappointing as boo carter. If he never stepped on the field again for us, I would be a net positive. He is a liability on defense, and he offers nothing - not even effort - as a punt returning. Enjoy Colorado.
  • Last thing - and I didn't even mean to ramble this much- is the down side of the playoffs is how if you don't make it, your season feels like a waste. While I don't think we do, we theoretically could still end up with 9 regular season wins, win a bowl game, and end the season with 10 wins. A 10 win season is a success. Hell, even a 9 win season - we've only had 10 of them since 2000, and Heupel brought us 3 of those.
 
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#61,557
#61,557
RandomUTfan said:
What is nuts, is there's not a scenario where we, the customer, wins in this.
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Tbf why would we though? Demand is very strong.

It's like high COL cities...they're expensive because people want to move there. And UT tix have gotten high under Hype, because we're no longer in the ditch. And sports packages will continue to drive up prices, because there's great demand and enough folks that are willing to pay more. And any new market entrants that start out bottom feeding, quickly realize they can charge more and more. There's no true downward pressures.

Same as housing, cars, groceries. Until society shift toward thriftness, prices have no reason to come down. People have stopped negotiating, stopped shopping for bargains. They just go with the flow and we all get rolled over.
 
#61,558
#61,558
Checker_the_Shire said:
Apparently he’s afraid to fire assistants because of what he went through getting fired at OU, so he feels for them and is reluctant to fire them. I’m sure I was being hyperbolic about PTSD, but it’s hard not to be right now.
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Meaning he won’t make an assistant a scapegoat for the teams underperformance.

That is also different from an assistant not calling good plays often enough and/or not having the players ready for the plays they run in crucial situations. And I would argue our #1 in the country offense has suffered from both. I’m ready for halzle to be gone.
 
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#61,559
#61,559
Enki_Amenra said:
What is our historic record? Hint: it's not a 10 win average (which Heupel has, amid probation and a dumpster fire)
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No team in D1 college football is above the .700’s all time and that includes Bama and OSU. Before the last 20 years of 💩, we have been a top 10 program in every metric and even now, sit just outside the top 10 in all time wins and winning percentage. A top 10 finish every year with an SEC or national championship every 4 to 5 should be the expectation.
 
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#61,560
#61,560
Devo182 said:
Tbf why would we though? Demand is very strong.

It's like high COL cities...they're expensive because people want to move there. And UT tix have gotten high under Hype, because we're no longer in the ditch. And sports packages will continue to drive up prices, because there's great demand and enough folks that are willing to pay more. And any new market entrants that start out bottom feeding, quickly realize they can charge more and more. There's no true downward pressures.

Same as housing, cars, groceries. Until society shift toward thriftness, prices have no reason to come down. People have stopped negotiating, stopped shopping for bargains. They just go with the flow and we all get rolled over.
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I'll explain it very simply: the insatiable greed that we are seeing on display in the sport is just hubris that will inevitably lead to a decline in the popularity of the sport. It's short-sighted, but it's almost like everyone wants to get theirs while its still raking in money.
 
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#61,561
#61,561
RandomUTfan said:
I'll explain it very simply: the insatiable greed that we are seeing on display in the sport is just hubris that will inevitably lead to a decline in the popularity of the sport. It's short-sighted, but it's almost like everyone wants to get theirs while its still raking in money.
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ESPN is already starting to feel it. Will be intresting to see who ends up eating the big loss.
 
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#61,563
#61,563
Sandman Vol said:
I appreciate your section for doing their job. I was in lower bowl and it was a materially different experience.

They didn’t use their timeouts because of comm problems. I don’t think their false starts were crowd induced.

Our fans can and should be much better.
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Dang, well from our viewpoint it sounded like the crowd was on fire. I yelled my guts out on every defensive play. I guess the people who can afford $500-$1000 tickets don't care about making an impact. Not talking about you, I just wish more of our psycho redneck fans could come to games.
 
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#61,564
#61,564
TheMookieMonster said:
This has been such a sloppy year of football. I can’t thing of a single game where the team has come out, set the tone early, and played really good football for 4 quarters. Not a single game. It’s been a circus for 2 months.
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Uga. We should have won it. I think maybe the fact that we didn’t hurt this teams will.
 
#61,566
#61,566
Would you all consider a win at Florida and a loss to Vandy a good season? Or vice versa.

I fear we lose both.

Literally no good wins for the year. Gotta win out. We can’t lose to Vandy.
 
#61,567
#61,567
Disappointed in the outcome last night and while Max G isn’t the reason we lost, we’ve got to find a more reliable kicker. Games come down to big kicks all the time and the guy just doesn’t have what it takes. I’m sorry but he doesn’t. He looks scared to death when he goes out there, even when it’s not for a game-winner. I wouldn’t trust him at all with a game on the line.
 
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#61,568
#61,568
mr.checkerboards said:
ESPN is already starting to feel it. Will be intresting to see who ends up eating the big loss.
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ESPN is freaking out, but they are making a very crucial mistake: they are offering their product on an inferior platform to what their competitors provide.

What they've done is what I described earlier. It's hubris. In the search for endless growth, they've driven people off of a product that worked really well for most people for a long time: Cable TV.

What that did was create direct competition to Disney in the media rights/streaming arenas and it's just made the TV experience more complicated and frustrating for the customer. And of course those price hikes due to ESPN blackmailing the cable companies into raising prices on customers didn't go away when people moved from cable as you see with the current carriage dispute.

But look at who is in bed with Disney! You can tell them all because they are shilling for Disney or against Google. Often both.

Why? People are worried. Important people who are appointed by very wealthy men who expect this obscene revenue stream to keep going and not start moving in the opposite direction.
 
#61,569
#61,569
headhunter15 said:
Seems like a lot of posters are out on Heupel or think the team won’t get any better. Ok, say Heupel were to bolt this season for another job.

Who realistically would come to Tennessee?
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Let’s not encourage this conversation, as much as I agree with the point you’re trying to make.

Nobody should be clambering for heupels job. Criticize him, yes absolutely? Demand he make changes needed to correct ongoing issues, yes absolutely. That’s it.
 
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#61,570
#61,570
Enki_Amenra said:
It's not a down year. This is a successful year compared to what Tennessee has been for more than a decade, spanning 5 different coaches, not including Heupel.
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That's to be determined. This could be 9-3 or 7-5. The latter won't be well received. Nor should it be. The portal and NIL has changed things. This isn’t 1995. 9 wins should be the floor with the resources apparently being dumped in the program. There's gonna be A LOT of opportunity in the off-season. Losing basically all the playmakers on defense. I hope the necessary changes are made to staff and personnel.
 
#61,571
#61,571
When Auburn fires Freeze, Heupel needs to be on the phone two seconds later and get Durkin to come be our defensive coordinator, and tell Timmy so long. Auburn defense is elite. I would suggest they’re probably the best in the SEC. We would be undefeated if we have their defense.
 
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#61,573
#61,573
College football is fun. I want to win every stinking game, but I stopped letting it dictate my life. Glad I made the change. Watching my daughter get excited for the game and demand the band play Rocky Top so we can sing at the house was all it took to make yesterday a great day for me. She was a mess when we had to make her go to bed during the second quarter.

Also glad because I see on social media and on here how angry grown men are over a game. Makes me wonder what it would be like if we all collectively put that energy towards making lives more enjoyable and livable for ourselfs and our neighbors.

Just Sunday musings. Go Vols, y'all be good. Should be a fun one this weekend.
 
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#61,575
#61,575
Guess for those of us that saw this coming, said something, got blasted for it--- well, now it's pretty safe to assume we can all agree that staff changes MUST to be made at the end of the year (FACTS), and this is certainly not the same Josh Heupel in year 5 that we saw in year 1-3...

We will also need to make some difficult ($$) moves in the portal, even if it's taking the chance of upsetting a few on the roster in terms of NIL payouts...

This team has been close for a few years now, and some have kept saying it's going to take us making tough, difficult changes to get to the next level, and that's still the case... Now it's whether or not DW and CJH want to finally make those changes.

This team has fought really hard this season, even with the injuries and QB situation, and it's been great to see... There is a ton of talent on this team and if we can hold onto this current recruiting class, more talent on the way... Discipline, execution, and coaching have been the three things that have made the team fall short, and the good news is that it can be fixed/adjusted/improved on...

Question remains, will we or won't we? Hopefully last night was the final wakeup call and confirmation of what needs to be done.

Ohhhh--- and as someone else mentioned earlier, freakin just remove boo off the roster at this point. Waste. Waste. Waste. No way he is not having some negative impact not only on the field, but off the field. You are either all in or all out. Bye...
 
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