2018 Record

#105
#105
Still at 4-8 but inching towards 5-7 with the recent pick-ups. My big question is when does the SEC losing streak end? Also, too many injury questions to thoroughly commit to a number yet.
 
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#107
#107
Big questions to answer here for the Vols. Brand new staffs, coordinators, etc. are always a sizable transition period for programs, and the team is coming off of a poor season with few established stars, leaders, and big producers for the team to rally around.

Then there's the added obstacle of the new HC being a defensive-minded coach, who replaced an offensive-minded one. So emphasis on a particular side of the LOS will be flipped, which requires a team some time to get acclimated. Also the defense if I'm correct is transitioning from a base 4-3 to a base 3-4? That will result in some personnel-to-scheme issues, especially early on in the season.

IMO there's a good chance of going 6-6 and being bowl eligible. This involves a big toss-up versus UF: the Gators have good talent, but like your program will be working with an entirely new staff and it will be fairly early in the season. And the game is in Knoxville, which I'm placing some good advantage for your team.

The WVU game will be a tough one: a neutral site game against a perennially strong offensive team that's returning it's starting QB and 2 of it's 3 1,000-yd receivers. This may be too much for the adjusting defense to handle as the season-opening game. The Vols should be 2-1 heading into the UF game, and the home crowd should be ramped up for the Gators, who have big issues of their own starting with QB issues.

A win versus the Gators to improve to 3-1 on the season could prove tremendous considering the next 4 games against UGA, Auburn, Alabama, and South Carolina. Three of those 4 games are on the road, and the one home game being Alabama doesn't really make it look better. Being 3-1 could help UT develop some momentum that gets them through that gauntlet in as good a shape as they possibly could be in, and perhaps steal a win from it, but going in 2-2 could have them dealing with doubt.

After that run, I can see the Vols going 3-1 to close out the season. The lone loss to Missouri because Lock and company on offense is going to be strong this season: the UK game could be a slight toss-up but I'm leading towards UT because UK has big questions at QB and I see them sliding down a bit over the next 2-3 seasons beginning this season which may see Stoops moving on.

With that UF win I see UT finishing 6-6 and playing in a bowl....if they fall 2-2, and then stumble through the next 4 games and fall to 2-6, it will be very hard IMO to see them closing out the schedule 4-0. Team morale could begin to play a role then. They could fall as far as 4-8 as a result of that, but I'm thinking 5-7 (2-6) to 6-6 (3-5), depending on the UF game results....
 
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#108
#108
This thread should be fun to revisit at the end of the year. I think we get 9 wins too.

West Virginia - Win (we could lose this one)
ETSU - Win
UTEP - Win
Florida - Win (they went 4 wins last year and don’t have a QB so Home field gets the win. Not to mention we get 2 bye weeks basically to prepare for them.
Georgia - loss
Auburn - loss (an upset is possible but doubtful) Pruitt might cook something up over the bye week.
Alabama - loss
South Carolina - Win (they could hardly move the ball on us last year. We win with Jennings and improved QB play.
Charlotte- Win
Kentucky - Win
Missouri - Win (Dooley)
Vandy - Win

Maybe we lose to westvirginia and some how upset another team but 9 wins is possible and 7 is likely.
 
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#109
#109
LurkerExposed said:
Big questions to answer here for the Vols. Brand new staffs, coordinators, etc. are always a sizable transition period for programs, and the team is coming off of a poor season with few established stars, leaders, and big producers for the team to rally around.

Then there's the added obstacle of the new HC being a defensive-minded coach, who replaced an offensive-minded one. So emphasis on a particular side of the LOS will be flipped, which requires a team some time to get acclimated. Also the defense if I'm correct is transitioning from a base 4-3 to a base 3-4? That will result in some personnel-to-scheme issues, especially early on in the season.

IMO there's a good chance of going 6-6 and being bowl eligible. This involves a big toss-up versus UF: the Gators have good talent, but like your program will be working with an entirely new staff and it will be fairly early in the season. And the game is in Knoxville, which I'm placing some good advantage for your team.

The WVU game will be a tough one: a neutral site game against a perennially strong offensive team that's returning it's starting QB and 2 of it's 3 1,000-yd receivers. This may be too much for the adjusting defense to handle as the season-opening game. The Vols should be 2-1 heading into the UF game, and the home crowd should be ramped up for the Gators, who have big issues of their own starting with QB issues.

A win versus the Gators to improve to 3-1 on the season could prove tremendous considering the next 4 games against UGA, Auburn, Alabama, and South Carolina. Three of those 4 games are on the road, and the one home game being Alabama doesn't really make it look better. Being 3-1 could help UT develop some momentum that gets them through that gauntlet in as good a shape as they possibly could be in, and perhaps steal a win from it, but going in 2-2 could have them dealing with doubt.

After that run, I can see the Vols going 3-1 to close out the season. The lone loss to Missouri because Lock and company on offense is going to be strong this season: the UK game could be a slight toss-up but I'm leading towards UT because UK has big questions at QB and I see them sliding down a bit over the next 2-3 seasons beginning this season which may see Stoops moving on.

With that UF win I see UT finishing 6-6 and playing in a bowl....if they fall 2-2, and then stumble through the next 4 games and fall to 2-6, it will be very hard IMO to see them closing out the schedule 4-0. Team morale could begin to play a role then. They could fall as far as 4-8 as a result of that, but I'm thinking 5-7 (2-6) to 6-6 (3-5), depending on the UF game results....
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The fact you pencil in South Carolina as a loss is laughable. They beat us because the clock ran out last year. That’s a toss up at best.
 
#110
#110
GetEmVols said:
The fact you pencil in South Carolina as a loss is laughable. They beat us because the clock ran out last year. That’s a toss up at best.
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Often wins and losses are determined by who has the ball last or clock management. We could make an excuse for every loss this way. As it stands Muschamp owns Tennessee and will be that way until we prove otherwise.
 
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#112
#112
I predicted 5-7 last season when some of you perpetually delusional people were predicting a 10 win season and an East title.

I see nothing has changed. Reality is in short supply in this thread.

6-6 will be a miracle.
 
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#113
#113
KingGenius said:
I don't care what the media wind bags predict.
If Butch can win 9 win seasons, Pruitt can his first go.
I think 9 wins is obtainable, 10 and we are cookin with peanut oil. 9 is my bar.
8 wins acceptable, but we can win more, below my expectations.
7 and below, I don't think it is happening you negaVol sheep. Funny how everyone takes another opinion and runs with it.
Losses last season? Yeah, the team quit on Butch, as they should have. He was a joke, a tool, turkey and the team knows what football looks like now. Trained by the best. Yeah quite probably the best top to bottom coaching staff.
Nigel Warrior is going to go on a rampage.
9 wins.
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How cool would it be if Nigel Warrior goes berserker on Florida and we beat them 45-3 any begin a decade of dominance
 
#114
#114
GetEmVols said:
The fact you pencil in South Carolina as a loss is laughable. They beat us because the clock ran out last year. That’s a toss up at best.
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South Carolina doesn't exactly have the toughest schedule this coming season. They didn't have a tough one last season and won 9 games, and yet this season's schedule should be even easier (replacing NC State in Charlotte for Coastal Carolina in Columbia).

I am not going to say that South Carolina "owns" Tennessee. I'm just looking at the qualifiers. Someone stated above that with Jennings and improved QB play UT would win the game last season. Well, with 10 kick-off returns for touchdowns UT would've won the game too - and scored 70+ pts while they were at it - but what is the point of saying this?

UT really struggled last season against the run. They had a solid pass defense rankings-wise, but that was thanks to the run defense: UT led the SEC in fewest opposing pass attempts but was dead last in most opposing rush attempts. Summary: no one bothered to pass the ball much, because they could run the ball all day.

But I am looking at the points for argument here: the game last season was played in Knoxville, which is always a tough place to play. It will be in Williams-Brice this season, so advantage there goes to USC. Also, the Gamecocks' top rusher, Rico Dowdle, broke his leg in the game last season on his 4th carry of the game. That impacted the Gamecock's offense a bit, even though they still rushed for nearly 200 yds. They came in with a gameplan of running the ball - Bentley only threw 24 passes but completed 15 of them, they were just short out-routes and dump-offs. Can't expect that this season with the depth at WR for them.

And that doesn't include the fact that USC was already without their top WR and offensive player Deebo Samuel, who was lost for the season in Game #3 against UK. So would the argument still be the same if UT had Jennings, but USC gets to have Dowdle AND Samuel, AND play the game on their home field? That is what my thought process involves. And that's why I don't have UT beating USC this season.

As I already said, the 4 game run for UT involving UGA, AU, UA, and USC is 3 road games plus 1 home game, which is Bama. UT could very conceivably be 0-3 after the first 3 games, heading into Williams-Brice against USC. USC likewise has UGA in the 2nd game of the season, and that will be a tough game: it's in the top 2 toughest contests IMO for them this season, after Clemson of course.

After UGA they have Marshall, Vandy, and UK in Lexington. As much as USC has "owned" UT lately, UK has "owned" USC, and it will be a tough road game. USC very well could lose this game if they have UK in their heads.

But after UK, USC has 3 straight home games against Missouri, Texas A&M, and Tennessee. If USC's OC and offense struggles, they could have 3-4 losses by the time the Vols come to town. I'm guessing they will be 5-2, but either way, it will be a home team that's been playing home games for nearly a month, versus a road team that's coming into town after going through a meat-grinder of a 3-game stretch.

IMO, there's just too many factors favoring USC in this game this season. Thing is we get to find out for real later on....
 
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#115
#115
Manning Up said:
I predicted 5-7 last season when some of you perpetually delusional people were predicting a 10 win season and an East title.

I see nothing has changed. Reality is in short supply in this thread.

6-6 will be a miracle.
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This may end up being true, but you have to also consider that other things led to 4-8 besides roster. Things that can be fixed. Like how about having an actual S&C program? How about having a non-toxic team environment? How about playing with heart and not going through the motions? How about not having a lame duck coach? That’s why 6-6 is the expectation for me, especially with the grad transfers and JUCOs.
 
#116
#116
My guess would be 7 or 8 regular season wins with the team being more competitive in losses than currently predicted.

Pruitt did a really good job with the grad transfers. They should help a lot. The blocking scheme will be more aggressive which should help the OL's a lot. They're going to pound it and probably try to control clock which should prevent some of the runaways we saw under Jones early then again late.

IF... he can just make the D and OL credible for the first time in a while then they'll outperform expectations. This team is NOT without talent.
 
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#117
#117
LurkerExposed said:
IMO, there's just too many factors favoring USC in this game this season. Thing is we get to find out for real later on....
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All your points are valid but I still expect us to beat SCjr. They’re so overrated. People are saying 10-2 for them and if that happens, that just shows how trash their schedule is, including us. I’m expecting 8-4 for them. Again. Maybe worse.
 
#120
#120
Game by Game.

W. Va. tossup
Other three non conference games wins.
Florida tossup
SC tossup
Georgia loss
Alabama loss
Auburn loss
Missouri win
Kentucky win
Vanderbilt win

So should have six wins and three games that could go either way. No reason to finish worse than 6 and 6 ultimate 9 and 3.
 
#121
#121
5-7 if we are lucky...I want 14-0 but I just don't see CJP lighting it up in his 1st year...Too many problems to fix in one year.
 
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#122
#122
dduncan4163 said:
Beating Fla and making it to a bowl is what I'm hoping for in 2018. I believe both a very doable, and Pruitt can earn years of goodwill from the fans by beating the Gators on his first try.
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Exactly. Pruitt needs to take advantage of these type of opportunities to move the program forward in terms of performance and perception. Butch missed on Florida x 2 when the opportunity was right there, same with Oklahoma at home.

Florida this year at home coming of a 4 win year with a new coach is winnable and would move the needle with the fans.

Overall I'll go with 7-5
 
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#123
#123
VOLnMiami said:
5-7 if we are lucky...I want 14-0 but I just don't see CJP lighting it up in his 1st year...Too many problems to fix in one year.
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Not if Pruitt is the right coach. Lots' of coaches win with less. The difference in beating teams like USCe and UF this year is coaching. He likely doesn't have the talent to win all of those games or beat the big three on the schedule. But if he doesn't win the majority of games against teams with roughly equal talent then he's not the right guy.

And... I think he might be the guy. He at least talks, acts, and thinks like a coach without the magic green notebook.
 
#124
#124
VFL-82-JP said:
I want to think 8-4 this year...but honestly, anything between 5-7 and 9-3 wouldn't surprise me. But 8-4 would be cool.

Next year: 9-3. Outside chance at the East, but UGa would have to have a surprisingly dismal season.

In Atlanta for sure by 2020. And from that point out, we're swinging for the fences every season, in perpetuity.



That's what it'll look like if CJP is the right fella.
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As you all know, Pruitt is getting grad T/F's and Juco's in quick. We don't have a young team. All the vids I see are getting everyone serious reps quickly and efficient.

We are going to turn a bunch of heads this season.
I stick to my 9 wins.
Media gets it wrong all the time. Like in our Bball, supposed to be last in SEC, ha those fools.
 
#125
#125
dan4vols said:
If this team wins 8 or more it won't be just because of the new staff it will be because the chemistry of the team has changed. Attitudes about themselves, their teammates, how they approach their assignments on everything they do.
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IMO,
All of what you have mentioned is directly related to new staff and new procedures of how to live football life.
 
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