Todays signings confirm Josh Heupel has us pointed in the right direction

[Carp]

This is a good word and I agree with your take, it truly is a balance...

NIL and the portal allowed Tennessee to come back quickly (2022) from the dumpster fire that it has become under the previous administrations.

I think the new challenge is going to be keeping (talented) rosters in tact where the players (I'm staring at you, Boo Carter) don't think so highly of themselves they feel like they are worth more somewhere else. CJH does a great job in my opinion of strengthening the locker room, which is also part of the reason Boo was shunned and ended up moving on.

We've moved on. Technically Boo hasn't because he still hasn't entered his name in the portal, lol.

 

[EastTNVol6240]

Your expectation simply does not align with reality.

We've been dealing with scholarship limitations for 90% of Heup's tenure and his first class was basically a washout after our best players transferred out after Pruitt was fired. He had to lean heavily on the portal the first years just make this team competitive. That worked well the first 2 seasons, but it left the team short on talent in 2023, which resulted in a 8 win regular season (credit to us for just getting to 8 wins that year).

We finally started getting top tier high school talent starting in 2023, when we finished 11th. Those guys were Juniors this year and the ones that stuck around were generally very productive. We have done extremely well in the portal, despite not being big spenders. The rest of the team is largely made up of freshman and sophomores, and as expected, they were pretty raw, with some good and bad mixed in.

Also, by every metric, our offense was insanely better this year than in 2024. So no, we did not regress in every aspect.

Again, you seem to be assuming that the youngest team in the SEC, with a bunch of top tier talent, won't improve. Or that we won't fix most of the issues in the portal. Or that none of this top 5 recruiting class will make an impact. That's some mighty impressive pessimism.

Schollie excuse is just another excuse to cope. We’re down 2. In the NIL era is that even an issue? Likely not. They can throw money at those 2 extra players even if it’s not a true “schollie”. Our last 4 classes have averaged the 14th classes. Not great, but not awful by any metric. The reality is the difference in 5-15 is usually a player or two. Once again if we are “to young”, all of that falls on staff. They have to plan for that. It’s part of why they are rewarded with rather large checks. I’m not saying we weren’t young, I’m saying it’s crazy work to say we should’ve “expected a “down” or “bridge” year in year 5”. If anything year 5 things should be trending up. All of HIS players and recruits. Fans of a prestigious program should be “expected” to eat a “down” year in year 5 with the resources this program has. Completely unacceptable. Staff should’ve planned accordingly.

I’m not assuming much at all. I’m using my eyes to look at our schedule coming off a year we didn’t win 1 game of significance. As for the freshmen class, every ounce of evidence you will find will point to true freshmen generally not being impactful. I sure hope they are, but history tells us otherwise.

And you’re right. Thanks to the JA find, Offense was refreshing. It was the 1 thing we did right this season , until the signing class.

 

[Carp]

Schollie excuse is just another excuse to cope. We’re down 2. In the NIL era is that even an issue? Likely not. They can throw money at those 2 extra players even if it’s not a true “schollie”. Our last 4 classes have averaged the 14th classes. Not great, but not awful by any metric. The reality is the difference in 5-15 is usually a player or two. Once again if we are “to young”, all of that falls on staff. They have to plan for that. It’s part of why they are rewarded with rather large checks. I’m not saying we weren’t young, I’m saying it’s crazy work to say we should’ve “expected a “down” or “bridge” year in year 5”. If anything year 5 things should be trending up. All of HIS players and recruits. Fans of a prestigious program should be “expected” to eat a “down” year in year 5 with the resources this program has. Completely unacceptable. Staff should’ve planned accordingly.

I’m not assuming much at all. I’m using my eyes to look at our schedule coming off a year we didn’t win 1 game of significance. As for the freshmen class, every ounce of evidence you will find will point to true freshmen generally not being impactful. I sure hope they are, but history tells us otherwise.

And you’re right. Thanks to the JA find, Offense was refreshing. It was the 1 thing we did right this season , until the signing class.

Lack of Schollie's is not an excuse. It's a fact. We self imposed SIXTEEN schollies between 2021 and 2022 alone. That is pretty massive.

And what a way to cherry pick. The 2022 class was ranked 23rd on 247. That's a far cry from 14.

And again, we lost our starting QB in April. We lost our AA CB in January. We lost our Number 2 corner in game 1. And then Boo ghosted us in the summer and mentally checked out during the season. That is 3 defensive starters and our starting QB. All guys we were depending on. And yet we still went 8-4 with a brand new QB with no experience in this system and should have been 9-3 if our kicker could make a kick.

So again, your expectations are unrealistic. We were always going to have a young team this year. And that isn't the fault of any coaches that are still here. It's simply a result of the situation we were put in before Heup arrived.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

If JA doesn’t return our QB situation is completely unknown. We haven’t seen meaningful playing time from either back up.

Your hope for better is nothing more than just that, hope. We should’ve gotten better this year, we regressed.

I hope as well, but once again our hope hinges on the portal.

You have used the term "regressed" quite often. Technically it's correct when just referring to wins from last year to this year, but overall program isn't regressing as a whole. Yesterday's results proves that

 

[tbones0711]

Uh, if you think we can pay the kind of money LSU dropped to get Kelly out and Kiffin in, you're simply wrong.

We're not going to win a money race with several schools which is EXACTLY why we haven't gotten top 5 recruiting classes in the NIL era.

gonna have to put a cap in place similiar to NFL or else the big oil men in texas and la. who have the deeper pockets gonna get the better players consistently. even U of Tenn biggest booster made his money through oil. it's wide open now but it's bordering on unfair and likely to get worse imo.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

gonna have to put a cap in place similiar to NFL or else the big oil men in texas and la. who have the deeper pockets gonna get the better players consistently. even U of Tenn biggest booster made his money through oil. it's wide open now but it's bordering on unfair and likely to get worse imo.

Yeah, but they can't without an Antitrust Exemption like the NFL has. We need Congress to act...... I can't type that without almost laughing and crying at the same time. It's like typing "We need a fairy Godmother to appear...."

 

[hUTch2002]

The leash is and has been longer, and for good reason. He did walk into a mess. But White said he's here to win championships, and I believe him. Through 5 years we haven't played for one, and this year indicated we're not headed for one. If we retain Heupel for the next 3 years like you said and he's batting 7-5/8-4 White is a complete loser, and the program is dead. In my opinion, if it's late October/early November and we're already out of the playoffs next year, he'll be canned. And I honestly think JH knows that.

Just curious, how is the program dead at 7-5/8-4 when we just went through a period where we typically didn’t hit those “highs”?

 

[hUTch2002]

We'll disagree there and I've had crow before (mostly Old Crow but I digress) and might again.

I believe Coach Heupel will make some hard decisions about staff and I believe he'll begin to be a more forceful practice coach and sideline coach. I'd be willing to bet he has some heart to heart talks with his Dad and other mentors soon and gets good advice for his future.

If we see 7-5 next year, the seat is very warm and another 7-5 might finish him in 2027.

I just don't believe he's a 7-5 coach at UT. Like I said, I've got my shot glass..... er..... fork ready for crow, if needed.

Agreed on the 7-5 part, but I have a feeling he keeps Banks. And I definitely don’t think he suddenly becomes more forceful. That’s just not his personality.

 

[tbones0711]

Signing day isn't near as big as it used to be Who knows which players will be here in 2 years. It's nice to have a top 5 recruiting class, but if you don't develop them it really doesn't matter.We still need to replace Banks and Martinez. Not so sure Halze and Sims don't need to be upgraded either. It's still concerning that we can't land any blue chip DB's or Safety's. I can't remember the last 5* Seconaryplayers we landed. We recruit well on the DLine and LB, but the secondary continues to lag behind. Hopefully replacing Banks/Martinez will help with that.(If Heupel mans up and does what he needs to do).

memphis may bail us out. they are considering banks as next HC i heard.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Agreed on the 7-5 part, but I have a feeling he keeps Banks. And I definitely don’t think he suddenly becomes more forceful. That’s just not his personality.

It's blasphemy but Heupel taking Hartline's old job as OC at Ohio State would be scary. His offense and the Ohio State defense would be a problem.

It's a gnawing feeling for me but Josh Heupel might be a really good high level OC but not the guy for the top chair. It's a temperament thing, not a talent thing.

I'll just put on my Kevlar and sit in the corner while y'all do your thing.

 

[hUTch2002]

It's blasphemy but Heupel taking Hartline's old job as OC at Ohio State would be scary. His offense and the Ohio State defense would be a problem.

It's a gnawing feeling for me but Josh Heupel might be a really good high level OC but not the guy for the top chair. It's a temperament thing, not a talent thing.

I'll just put on my Kevlar and sit in the corner while y'all do your thing.

You could be right. I hope he doesn’t leave, I’m not there yet like some.

 

[tbones0711]

Just goes to show you how little this message board and the derogatory comments from the idiot masses mean to him. He’s working, competing and trying to
Bring a Natty to Tennessee.

This class wouldn’t have happened if we fired Tim banks after last Saturday’s debacle.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, worst fanbase in the country. Go Vols!

# 2 right behind texas and tied with several other fanbases.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

You could be right. I hope he doesn’t leave, I’m not there yet like some.

I'm not either and Josh Heupel has done extremely well with what he walked into.

It's a little like parenting maybe. After the kid completely destroys the couch or whatever, they need a "let's flip it over and clean up" approach but after awhile you need to be a hardass to instill that internal discipline in the kid so it doesn't happen again.

I'm not sure Heupel has that hardass gear. We'll see.