If We Beat Florida & Go 9-3 Is The Season Still Acceptable?

[OrangeBeachVol]

Disappointing season but not unacceptable. The losses to GA and OK were winnable not blowouts. Winning in the swamp and beat Vandy would make it acceptable given the fact up to this point, this team has not beaten anyone that was really good so 9-3 is a ceiling for this team.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

Well we didn't get a starting QB until July and we lost about 4-5 WR to the portal and we are still competitive. Not to mention the injuries to CB and DL.

I think you always want to go the Playoffs and be your best.

I'll be honest if we still had Nico we would be looking at 4-5 right now instead of 6-3.

 

[knox73]

It will be a super year and give the staff raises for excellent performance. Vols never beat Bama and Florida on the road anyway so save your exuberance for the even numbered years which are home games. If they go 10-3 that is excellent. 7-5 or 6-6 is not good.

9-4 with a bowl loss due to having no kicker or muffs by one player may be excused.

Losing winnable home games vs Georgia and Oklahoma will cause some wailing to continue but the team has weaknesses that can be cured with more experience and a few portal upgrades.

 

[Sara Clark]

After Saturday, the only game I'm confident we win is NM State. How will the fans handle a loss to both FL and Vandy? We'll be RABID!!

 

[pimo1]

9-3 would be beyond reasonable preseason expectations. I was worried something like this would happen the Joey hype builds up, he has a bad game, then the wolves come out. Dude has played well beyond expectations all season. This team has shown a lot of grown and we are young.. That's not an excuse its reason for hope. The guys showing out on the feild this year are mostly guys that should be returning. Also, we will be in a better situation at QB next year. It will be Merks' 3rd year in the system. I am disappointed we lost to Oklahoma, but we haven't lost a game to an Arkansas this year. We lost to all top 18 teams 2 top 6. Every team that beat us is likely in the playoffs. Its also not impossible, though unlikely, that if we win out we still make it in. Take this bye week and the buy week to heal up and come out swinging.

 

[CAVPUT]

It’s 7 5. We won’t beat Gators or Vandy. At least the team I’ve been watching can’t beat them!!!

Same here. 7-5 til it ain't. Should help sell early playing time for recruits and starting roles for portal guys. At least that's my silver lining to the season.

 

[VFL9798]

Beating Florida in the swamp and finishing up with a win over Vanderbilt... who is actually relevant this year?? Yes, of course that's acceptable and I'll take it but I still won't overlook the losses up to this point and the poor play over the couse of the season. We haven't won in the swamp sinc 03 and would ruin Vandys playoff hopes, highly unlikely we acchomplish that, but if we do, it gives us a hell of a lot of momentum into the 2026 offseason.

 

[Ned Ray McWorkher]

@pimo1 The sad part is we could have been better. Our ceiling was not 9-3. We underperformed. Period. From the top, on down. That is the issue. This dude may not be it. If there are any doubts in year 5 then I doubt the whole ****.

 

[GoVols64]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

If we win out, we finish in one of the better case scenarios from pre-season. Acceptable? Absolutely. Did we leave wins on the table? Absolutely.

All of this panic button crap needs to stop.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

in the new era of having a 12 team and soon 16 team playoff, missing the playoff is a failed season.

there should be clauses built into every college football coach contract that says if you miss the CFP 2 years in a row your buyout is automatically cut by 50%

 

[first time caller]

If we go 9-3 that would mean we beat both Florida and Vandy. All that would do for me would make the sting of that missed field goal against Georgia hurt a little more.

 

[JPL]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

The way the team is playing right now, a win at Florida is unlikely. To me, 9-3 is certainly a respectable record all things considered. Absolutely better than the days of Kiffin, Dooley, Jones, Pruitt etc. It looks like Heupel is going to keep Tennessee competitive especially with the talent he's brought in and is slated to bring in with the 2026 class. He's 7-6, 11-2, 9-4 and 10-3 after four full seasons and probably finishes the 2025 campaign 8-4 plus/minus the outcome of the bowl game. While he won't be competing for championships annually I think he will have us competing for sec/playoffs every 2-3 years. I'd like to see him with 2-3 full years with the same QB. (This is how I feel after I've had the weekend to simmer down and consider everything after the sting of the loss to OU)

2026 schedule is brutal, probably a minimum of 4 losses. 2027 much more manageable. It seems almost certain a Freshman QB will start for the VOLS next year, George or Fazion. Depending how George or Fazion develop, 2027 could be special.

Tennessee has proven we have more patience with our coaches than other SEC schools which I think is good for TN. While I'm frustrated as both GA and OK were very winnable games, any talk of moving on from CJH is grossly premature. I think Danny gives him AT LEAST 2 more years after this season before even considering such a move.

I thought this line from AU announcement of getting rid of Freeze was interesting, but to me, it's unrealistic with what's going on in college football. "Our expectations for Auburn football are to annually compete for championships,..."The days of a coach like Saban dominating for a decade or longer are gone in my opinion, NIL has helped level the playing field when it comes to acquiring talent.

 

[farmdogvol]

Not sure but currently TN has one win over a team with more wins than loses. That was against Miss State. Not sure they can beat FL or Vandy. Florida's defense is better than OU and the QB can hurt you running. We will be in Vandy's bulls eye as this is there best chance to beat TN in years.

OU has the top defense in the SEC. UF is 9th or 10th.

 

[vegasvolfan]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

I had us 7-5 to 9-3 after losing Nico, Sampson, Thornton, almost every starting DL snd OL. The surprises this year had me thinking we might pull out another surprising season and perhaps make it to the playoffs.

But, this season is chalked up to a hall pass for me. I can’t say acceptable, but I can’t say a 9-3 season didn’t meet the better end of my expectations. Still, we have a serious pattern of depth, penalty, injury issues and poor OL play. Then there is the huge dip in defense.

I can’t figure out why in year 5, a starter goes down and we are playing Freshmen. We have been one of the most penalized teams in the SEC during the entirety of Heupel’s tenure. The number of injuries to key players during off-season and beyond is staggering, and our OL seems to either have to make decision to block for the QB or block for our running backs. Lately, they are struggling with both.

Huepel was supposed to get us back to the promised land in 5 years. We aren’t there, we are close to close.

Huepel played the long game with loyalty to his staff, and promoting within and developing staff, etc, and I respect that. However, he needs to make some tough decisions.

The poor OL play is glaring. Perhaps Sam Pittman would like a job? We need a rock star OL coach to bring immediate, noticeable change to that group and who can salvage this awesome situation we have with who is here and who is coming.

Injuries happen often due to poor strength and conditioning. Of all the hires Huepel made, that one stuck out to me as a a questionable hire.

I’m not sure what we do about penalties. Part of that is coaching, but it takes a certain pedigree to have discipline. Perhaps our coaches make that an important factor when recruiting and look at how penalized these kids were in HS? I have no idea, but something has to change and that needs to be a heavy focused. You can’t win a championship with that mag penalties.

I’m not sure what the deal is with depth. We have a lot of players in most positions, so it seems we are heavily missing in recruiting/and or development. But in year 5, it seems we should be over that hump?

And wow, what happened to our defense? Yes, we lost most of our starting line and I discuss depth next, but we are awful. By year 5 we should be deeper. Next man up seems to be lip service. This is the first year Banks’ defense has trended downward and it fell off a cliff.

All this to say… sure rhe record alone would have been acceptable for me, but I had hoped to see stability and improvement in these areas —looking strong headed towards next season and doing what we could without Nico—but we are stuck or trending on the wrong direction in too many areas.

Banks’ just posted one of the best defenses in the nation last year (make no mistake some of that was because of the schedule we drew), Martinez is looking like he may be establishing DB U, our WRs and TEs took a step forward. Our running game has been at the top half to the top of the SEC consistently. Rodney’s line typically shuts the run down and gets good pressure on the QBs. Huepel has surprised us with two 10+ win seasons in 5 years.

I am not one to bail on these guys yet and cast this season or them as an utter disappointment (season isn’t over yet). But, something has got to give between this year and next year in those areas.

 

[Doctrippin]

Florida sucks and is not ranked however I see 100% they still win.

Bad news is they are better than they were if we had played the Napier version. Their defense held up pretty well against GA.

 

[djones24]

Give me 10-3 with the bowl win. Ill be PUMPED. Sucked losing saturday, but before season i had us 8 wins max. With 7 more realistic. If we win out. Im estatic

 

[Fatman Photos]

I can't wait to go back to Jeremy Pruitt Win Seasons

 

[Brave Volunteer]

No, its not. This is a PLAYOFF sport now, just like how basketball is a tournament sport. Would you consider it acceptable if Rick Barnes won 17 games and missed the NCAA tournament? No, you wouldn't. 9-3 with no playoff spot and our highest quality win being against Vanderbilt? Yeah, no. That is an unsuccessful season.

 

[njvols]

Many teams have played folks close. Arkansas,Mississippi St and even Kentucky at times along with Auburn. And they are the 4 weakest teams in the SEC.

Yeah, I guess it's a blessing and a curse...Vols can seriously win every game we play this year, but if we don't show up, there's a good chance for a loss. SEC becoming like NFL...first page of results on espn from yesterday not so different than many slim results in SEC. When margins of victory are slim, details are what gets you the W's...tackling, eliminating pre-snap penalties, turnovers, clock management, and having a dependable kicker.

 

[LWSVOL]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

I don't think anyone can reject it and what would rejecting it look like? So we have to accept it...

 

[LadyVolette]

Beating Florida anytime under any circumstances.. like Martha Stewart says ‘it’s a good thing ‘. I think fans will still be disappointed but would assuage some acrimony

 

[JMSqb11]

If we go 9-3 that would mean we beat both Florida and Vandy. All that would do for me would make the sting of that missed field goal against Georgia hurt a little more.

I'm sorry but winning in the Swamp this year is not impressive. It took moving a traditional early season game back to the final couple of weeks so Florida could run thru a schedule, get their coach fired, and roster opt outs, and interim coach almost out of the job just so we can have a chance to win.

It is so Tennessee it hurts that the one year we likely do win in the Swamp is against the worst Florida team we will have played in the last 20 years.

 

[njvols]

No, its not. This is a PLAYOFF sport now, just like how basketball is a tournament sport. Would you consider it acceptable if Rick Barnes won 17 games and missed the NCAA tournament? No, you wouldn't. 9-3 with no playoff spot and our highest quality win being against Vanderbilt? Yeah, no. That is an unsuccessful season.

I agree...however, going into the season down your 2 best DBs and a stellar D which graduated or transferred high talent, along with an unknown at QB...if you told me we'd go 9-3, I'd probably take it.

When I saw what JA could do w/ this offense, I adjusted my expectations...and it turns out he's probably about what we were told about him coming in...gunslinger who can make plays, but prone to interceptions, and this team not good enough on D or rushing the ball to overcome multiple turnovers + 3 and out's.

 

[JMSqb11]

I think so, what say you?

We would’ve beaten a Florida team on the road for the first time in over 20 years, have our best recruiting class as of yet (if everything holds up) and make it out with a 9 win season with a chance to win 10 in a bowl game.

Our recruiting class is going to hold up regardless of a 7-5 or 9-3 record. Given all the firings and turnover, Heupel being one of the few big program coaches with firm stability here is a bigger deal than how we finish.

 

[Chaplain_Vol]

I'm sorry but winning in the Swamp this year is not impressive. It took moving a traditional early season game back to the final couple of weeks so Florida could run thru a schedule, get their coach fired, and roster opt outs, and interim coach almost out of the job just so we can have a chance to win.

It is so Tennessee it hurts that the one year we likely do win in the Swamp is against the worst Florida team we will have played in the last 20 years

at the end of the day winning is more impressive than losing. Though I agree it is nothing to write home about. But that losing streak is a thorn in our side. Let’s pluck it out this year please.