2011 Vols vs. 2007 Vols

#26
#26
Also, a 4-4 team will not win the East. 5-3 could possibly, and it may be USC again, unfortunately. They're very fortunate that their best teams ever just happen to coincide with down years for everyone else in the East (UT, UF and UGA, we all know UK and Vandy don't count).
 
#27
#27
99gator said:
the 2007 vols were outscored in SEC play during the season and made it to atlanta. that will never happen again.

that team was terrible. 2006 vols were much, much better
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For a terrible team, they sure got it together against LSU (in a losing effort) and Wisconsin at the end of the year. And there was that random awesome Georgia game too.

But really, people were talking about canning Fulmer that year as late as the South Carolina game.
 
#29
#29
Incipient said:
For a terrible team, they sure got it together against LSU (in a losing effort) and Wisconsin at the end of the year. And there was that random awesome Georgia game too.

But really, people were talking about canning Fulmer that year as late as the South Carolina game.
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that team looked fantastic in two games that year......georgia and arkansas.

they looked pretty good against lsu's second string and wisconsin.

they looked like complete garbage against cal, florida, bama, vandy, ky, sc.....

that team was literally a few feet from losing to vandy and kentucky in the same season.
 
#30
#30
tvolsfan said:
Not really. The teams most impressive performance of the season came before getting destroyed by a 6-6 team.
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Would have to disagree there. We played Arkansas - with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones - late in the season and blew their doors off. They we took the national champion to the wire and won our bowl game against a good Wisconsin team.

Early in the season we lost at Cal and got hammered by Florida. Do you not remember how poor our secondary was at the beginning of the season? The Georgia win was more of an anomaly than the trend when it happened.

The 2007 team was without question better by season's end than it was at the beginning.

If Bray is half of what we hope he is, he would have picked apart our early 2007 season defense.
 
#31
#31
99gator said:
that team looked fantastic in two games that year......georgia and arkansas.

they looked pretty good against lsu's second string and wisconsin.

they looked like complete garbage against cal, florida, bama, vandy, ky, sc.....

that team was literally a few feet from losing to vandy and kentucky in the same season.
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I'd take Kentucky and SC out of the "looked like garbage" category. Well, at least the first half against Carolina. In the second half, we let them storm back. But Carolina did get all the way up to #6 that year before their late season swoon, so they weren't that bad.

And that was Kentucky's best team in my lifetime. They blew the doors off McFadden on the road and they beat the eventual national champions (LSU) at home. They did have a stinker against Mississippi State, but all their other losses (save Tennessee) were against teams ranked in the top 12. When they played Tennessee, they were only a week removed from being in the top 25 (they dropped out after a 24-13 road loss to #10 Georgia). And we had a 31-14 lead at one point, before allowing a comeback and then winning in overtime.

The games against Vandy, Florida, Cal, and Alabama were actually terrible. But you forget that Kentucky and Carolina had pulses that year.
 
#32
#32
Thrasher865 said:
:confused:

And here, I thought the original post was ridiculous.
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What's so ridiculous about it? Bray, Hunter, and Rogers will be all be juniors. Our OLine is gonna be great this year, even better next. Our seconday is set for years and our front 7 will be much improved. What's the problem?
 
#34
#34
BigSteve09 said:
woooah, woah
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We're going to have 7 sophomores starting on offense and 5 on defense this year, not to mention any freshman who may win jobs. With that kind of talent entering their third year, we should expect a big upward swing.
 
#35
#35
The East as a whole will be much improved next year. Every school but Kentucky returns at least 13 starters (UT 18, Georgia 17, UF 15 or something like that).
 
#36
#36
General Jack said:
Would have to disagree there. We played Arkansas - with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones - late in the season and blew their doors off. They we took the national champion to the wire and won our bowl game against a good Wisconsin team.

Early in the season we lost at Cal and got hammered by Florida. Do you not remember how poor our secondary was at the beginning of the season? The Georgia win was more of an anomaly than the trend when it happened.

The 2007 team was without question better by season's end than it was at the beginning.
If Bray is half of what we hope he is, he would have picked apart our early 2007 season defense.
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Not really. Our schedule just got easier like it always does. It doesn't mean we weren't holding on for dear life against USCjr, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. And yes, the LSU game was close, but they always are with Miles.
 
#37
#37
tvolsfan said:
Not really. Our schedule just got easier like it always does. It doesn't mean we weren't holding on for dear life against USCjr, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. And yes, the LSU game was close, but they always are with Miles.
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You forget that USCjr and Kentucky were both in the top ten at points that year. Yes, the Vandy game was bad, but only one of the four worst performances of the year came in the last seven games, and four of the five best wins came in the last seven (in addition to the tight game against LSU).
 
#38
#38
It's good to know that there's quite a few on here who also think the 2007 team really wasn't all that great. If you wanted to call them great, you'd have to base it entirely on the fact that they survived many close calls and got some lucky bounces to even get to the SEC Championship, much less ten wins. Change a few plays and they're a six-win team.
 
#39
#39
Incipient said:
You forget that USCjr and Kentucky were both in the top ten at points that year. Yes, the Vandy game was bad, but only one of the four worst performances of the year came in the last seven games, and four of the five best wins came in the last seven (in addition to the tight game against LSU).
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South Carolina almost made a bowl game, and Kentucky had a 7-5 regular season. Those wins aren't remotely impressive.
 
#40
#40
tvolsfan said:
South Carolina almost made a bowl game, and Kentucky had a 7-5 regular season. Those wins aren't remotely impressive.
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South Carolina was #6 in the country at one point and was #17 when we played them. They had a road victory over the #2 team in the country.

Kentucky had reached #8 that year, and 4 of their five losses were to teams that spent time in the top 15 (3 of the 5 were to teams that finished in the top 15). They also beat the national champion that year.

They may not have been signature wins (and note that I never claimed they were), but both teams had better resumes than Alabama (who destroyed us), and both teams had resumes at least as good as Cal (who beat us by double digits). So save the "our schedule just got way easier" argument.
 
#41
#41
Incipient said:
South Carolina was #6 in the country at one point and was #17 when we played them. They had a road victory over the #2 team in the country.

Kentucky had reached #8 that year, and 4 of their five losses were to teams that spent time in the top 15 (3 of the 5 were to teams that finished in the top 15). They also beat the national champion that year.

They may not have been signature wins (and note that I never claimed they were), but both teams had better resumes than Alabama (who destroyed us), and both teams had resumes at least as good as Cal (who beat us by double digits). So save the "our schedule just got way easier" argument.
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It did get easier. Maybe not a a lot easier, but it was certainly easier from South Carolina to the title game than it was from Cal to Bama. Just having Florida and Georgia in the first half gives it the nod. We weren't playing great football for any consistent amount of time in 2007.
 
#42
#42
tvolsfan said:
It did get easier. Maybe not a a lot easier, but it was certainly easier from South Carolina to the title game than it was from Cal to Bama. Just having Florida and Georgia in the first half gives it the nod. We weren't playing great football for any consistent amount of time in 2007.
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I think if you look more closely, you'll find it actually wasn't significantly easier, if it was easier at all. Certainly not different enough to justify being 4-3 over the first seven and 6-1 over the second without improvement. Keep in mind, I'm not saying we were world beaters in the second half of the season, just that we were improved. We wouldn't have allowed 59 points to Florida if we played them again.

I'll try to rank the opponents and see how they stack up. Guess we'll see how it comes out.

First half Second half Advantage
Georgia (#2) LSU (#1) second (slight)
Florida (#13) Wisconsin (#21) first
Cal (7-6) Kentucky (8-5) second
Miss St (8-5) Arkansas (8-5) second--Arky beat MSU
Alabama (7-6) USC (6-6) second
So Miss (7-6) Vandy (5-7) second
Arky St Lou-Laff who cares?

Kentucky just had a plain better resume than Cal, even though it was less talented. Carolina had a better win than Bama's best and didn't have a loss as bad as Bama's worst. I do think Bama was better than we played them than their overall resume (and Carolina was probably worse). But I also think that Georgia was much worse when we played them than they were overall, so it evens out. The others should be self-explanatory. So I'd actually say the second half might've been slightly tougher.

Apologies for the formatting fail. Apparently, multiple spaces are a problem there. Hopefully it's still legible.

edit: Note that the second half result was more impressive in four cases (Wisky, Kentucky, Arky, USC) and worse in two (LSU, Vandy).
 
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#43
#43
In regards to the OP...
2007 would win by a field goal in OT, just like they did against USC, UK, and Vandy.
I think this year's squad in overall quality, offense and defense combined, is comparable, just because our offense will be explosive with Bray's arm and a WR like Hunter. But the 2007 squad wins because they've got a steady front seven (with 1st round pick Jerod Mayo) and EB was legitimately the best safety to ever wear the power T on his helmet.

2007: 31 (with an Eric Berry pick-6)
2011: 28
 
#44
#44
ChismsHeadband said:
In regards to the OP...
2007 would win by a field goal in OT, just like they did against USC, UK, and Vandy.
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Whereas if the '07 squad played the '10 squad, the '10 squad would be declared the victor, then time would be put back on the clock and the '07 squad would hit a game-winning field goal.

I swear, it's hard to find two teams with more consistently opposite fortunes.
 
#46
#46
Hey in all honesty you can't say the 2007 team would beat the 2011 team or the 2011 team would beat the 2007 team. You have to see the 2011 team play first.
 
#47
#47
ChismsHeadband said:
In regards to the OP...
2007 would win by a field goal in OT, just like they did against USC, UK, and Vandy.
I think this year's squad in overall quality, offense and defense combined, is comparable, just because our offense will be explosive with Bray's arm and a WR like Hunter. But the 2007 squad wins because they've got a steady front seven (with 1st round pick Jerod Mayo) and EB was
legitimately the best safety to ever wear the power T on his helmet.

2007: 31 (with an Eric Berry pick-6)
2011: 28
Click to expand...


Didn't Eric berry play corner in 2007?
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