An Akansas State fan apology to UT fans.

#4
#4
Got a good friend up in Long Island Riverhead. He and his younger brother palyed TE for Harding University (Searcy, AR) in DII. Thad got invited to NYG mini camp but ultimately turned it down because he would have had to walk away from the Children's Ranch and he was taking over exec duties from his dad who started it. James got signed by Seattle and played 2-3 years but was saddled with a back injury and retired.

Anyhow, the oldest, Thad, has a son who is a freshman LB or DB for CBJ at ArkState. Not sure how they all keep making it from NY to Arkansas to play football, but I was sad to see he ended up with jones. Good on him for getting a D1 ride, but Ark State?
 
#5
#5
I still am amazed, given how bad a HC he is, at how close he came to having a top 5 team in 2015. He lost 2 games on the very last play of the game (after blowing multi-possession leads), dropped a close game to a pretty good Arkansas team, and went toe-to-toe with the eventual national champ (Alabama), with that game being decided on the final possession. The writing was on the wall for him after the 2016 season when he brought back basically that entire 2015 team and we somehow weren't as good.

It would have collapsed in 2017 regardless, because he lost so many guys after 2016 and never had particularly deep teams, but a really good year in 2015 or 2016 might have bought him another year. In hindsight, it was better for the program long term that got out after 2017.
 
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#9
#9
05_never_again said:
I still am amazed, given how bad a HC he is, at how close he came to having a top 5 team in 2015. He lost 2 games on the very last play of the game (after blowing multi-possession leads), dropped a close game to a pretty good Arkansas team, and went toe-to-toe with the eventual national champ (Alabama), with that game being decided on the final possession. The writing was on the wall for him after the 2016 season when he brought back basically that entire 2015 team and we somehow weren't as good.

It would have collapsed in 2017 regardless, because he lost so many guys after 2016 and never had particularly deep teams, but a really good year in 2015 or 2016 might have bought him another year. In hindsight, it was better for the program long term that got out after 2017.
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Something I didn't understand at the time was letting Jancek go as DC to bring in Bob Shoop. Penn State got better once Shoop left and we sucked horribly once he arrived in 2016.
 
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#10
#10
PEPPERJAX said:
Something I didn't understand at the time was letting Jancek go as DC to bring in Bob Shoop. Penn State got better once Shoop left and we sucked horribly once he arrived in 2016.
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I think there was some fight with Jancek before he got fired. I can't remember what it was about, but I remember there being rumors about it.
 
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#11
#11
LouderVol said:
I think there was some fight with Jancek before he got fired. I can't remember what it was about, but I remember there being rumors about it.
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Yeah

It is hard to recall everything that happened with the program a decade ago. I do remember the finish of giving up a crap ton of points to KY, Mizzou, and Vandy with a sugar bowl appearance on the line.
 
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#13
#13
LouderVol said:
I think there was some fight with Jancek before he got fired. I can't remember what it was about, but I remember there being rumors about it.
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Reddit CFB is the nicest sub on the entire site. Much better than our FF.

And no big meanies like you posting hurtful things. 😢
 
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#15
#15
05_never_again said:
I still am amazed, given how bad a HC he is, at how close he came to having a top 5 team in 2015. He lost 2 games on the very last play of the game (after blowing multi-possession leads), dropped a close game to a pretty good Arkansas team, and went toe-to-toe with the eventual national champ (Alabama), with that game being decided on the final possession. The writing was on the wall for him after the 2016 season when he brought back basically that entire 2015 team and we somehow weren't as good.

It would have collapsed in 2017 regardless, because he lost so many guys after 2016 and never had particularly deep teams, but a really good year in 2015 or 2016 might have bought him another year. In hindsight, it was better for the program long term that got out after 2017.
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It's crazy to think that he was so close to bringing Tennessee back to the national spotlight yet it really doesn't feel like it because of how 2016 went down and then 2017 was the bottom falling out.

2015 felt like the start of something great, and the start of 2016 felt like oh yeah it's happening. But then A&M and Alabama but we still had the SEC East and then....choke. Then ok no SEC Championship but we get a NY6 Bowl and....Vandy.

Honestly his tenure is kind of a blur for me. Some of it is hindsight is 20/20 but I think most everyone kind of knew that he wasn't the guy the whole time. But crazy to think he was so close to the SEC Championship Game.
 
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#16
#16
VolsSportsFan said:
It's crazy to think that he was so close to bringing Tennessee back to the national spotlight yet it really doesn't feel like it because of how 2016 went down and then 2017 was the bottom falling out.

2015 felt like the start of something great, and the start of 2016 felt like oh yeah it's happening. But then A&M and Alabama but we still had the SEC East and then....choke. Then ok no SEC Championship but we get a NY6 Bowl and....Vandy.

Honestly his tenure is kind of a blur for me. Some of it is hindsight is 20/20 but I think most everyone kind of knew that he wasn't the guy the whole time. But crazy to think he was so close to the SEC Championship Game.
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I don't think Spurrier could beat Butch. Can you imagine the coach who routinely embarrassed Fulmer couldn't beat Butch??? Lol. Dude quit mid season.
 
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#18
#18
PEPPERJAX said:
Yeah

It is hard to recall everything that happened with the program a decade ago. I do remember the finish of giving up a crap ton of points to KY, Mizzou, and Vandy with a sugar bowl appearance on the line.
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Josh Dobbs completed 32/34 passes in that Vanderbilt game for 300 yards, breaking Tee’s completion record, and though I’m not looking at the stats, knowing Dobbs he probably also rushed for 60/70 yards and a scored.

It was arguably the greatest QB performance in school history until Hendon stepped on campus and his Bama masterpiece.

And we lost the game to Vandy.

That sums up Butch Jones tenure.
 
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#19
#19
GVF said:
Got a good friend up in Long Island Riverhead. He and his younger brother palyed TE for Harding University (Searcy, AR) in DII. Thad got invited to NYG mini camp but ultimately turned it down because he would have had to walk away from the Children's Ranch and he was taking over exec duties from his dad who started it. James got signed by Seattle and played 2-3 years but was saddled with a back injury and retired.

Anyhow, the oldest, Thad, has a son who is a freshman LB or DB for CBJ at ArkState. Not sure how they all keep making it from NY to Arkansas to play football, but I was sad to see he ended up with jones. Good on him for getting a D1 ride, but Ark State?
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If it's who I'm thinking of, I think the kid transferred to IMG for his senior year of HS.
 
#20
#20
McDad said:
I don't think Spurrier could beat Butch. Can you imagine the coach who routinely embarrassed Fulmer couldn't beat Butch??? Lol. Dude quit mid season.
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I like to think Spurrier retired for that very reason, like after that last loss in 2014 he just looked in the mirror and said "If I can't beat that guy then I'm washed." and then the next season when they're sitting at 2-4 he's like "Nope...not going to lose to that jackhole again".
 
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#22
#22
05_never_again said:
I still am amazed, given how bad a HC he is, at how close he came to having a top 5 team in 2015. He lost 2 games on the very last play of the game (after blowing multi-possession leads), dropped a close game to a pretty good Arkansas team, and went toe-to-toe with the eventual national champ (Alabama), with that game being decided on the final possession. The writing was on the wall for him after the 2016 season when he brought back basically that entire 2015 team and we somehow weren't as good.

It would have collapsed in 2017 regardless, because he lost so many guys after 2016 and never had particularly deep teams, but a really good year in 2015 or 2016 might have bought him another year. In hindsight, it was better for the program long term that got out after 2017.
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Butch still feels like the best of the bad 3 (not sure that is saying much). Basically, he seems to be better than Pruitt and Dooley. However, he had this great recruiting class based off TN legacy players and in-state talent that lined up for the perfect collection of players. Josh Dobbs also made him look better than he was.

Early in Butch Jones tenure, Tennessee was also still seen as a strong program from a recruiting perspective.
 
#23
#23
volbound1700 said:
Butch still feels like the best of the bad 3 (not sure that is saying much). Basically, he seems to be better than Pruitt and Dooley. However, he had this great recruiting class based off TN legacy players and in-state talent that lined up for the perfect collection of players. Josh Dobbs also made him look better than he was.

Early in Butch Jones tenure, Tennessee was also still seen as a strong program from a recruiting perspective.
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Agreed. Each one of them brought their own unique bad mark to the table, lol.

Dooley was the worst overall coach of the 3 (had the worst record and recruited the worst). Butch had the single worst season (2017). Pruitt had the the single worst/most embarrassing loss (Georgia St).
 
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#24
#24
05_never_again said:
Agreed. Each one of them brought their own unique bad mark to the table, lol.

Dooley was the worst overall coach of the 3 (had the worst record and recruited the worst). Butch had the single worst season (2017). Pruitt had the the single worst/most embarrassing loss (Georgia St).
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Pruitt was the worse.

To be fair to Dooley, he had absolutely brutal SEC schedules. I went back and looked, there were instances where he played 6-7 ranked teams a season. Dooley was around when Spurrier was at South Carolina and they were top ten, he caught some of James Franklin Vandy tenure, Kentucky was hot, and Arkansas had Bobby Petrino. Also Florida, Georgia, and Alabama were pretty much ranked every year Dooley played them.

Here are Dooley's three seasons for example. Nearly every loss is to a ranked opponent that was pretty good that year. Granted, Billy Napier is kind of in that spot with Florida. He isn't a good coach but his schedules are not doing him a favor.

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#25
#25
volbound1700 said:
Pruitt was the worse.

To be fair to Dooley, he had absolutely brutal SEC schedules. I went back and looked, there were instances where he played 6-7 ranked teams a season. Dooley was around when Spurrier was at South Carolina and they were top ten, he caught some of James Franklin Vandy tenure, Kentucky was hot, and Arkansas had Bobby Petrino. Also Florida, Georgia, and Alabama were pretty much ranked every year Dooley played them.

Here are Dooley's three seasons for example. Nearly every loss is to a ranked opponent that was pretty good that year. Granted, Billy Napier is kind of in that spot with Florida. He isn't a good coach but his schedules are not doing him a favor.

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UF was ranked when we played them 2 out of Dooley's 3 years, but they were a good team only in 2012. The 2013 team finished 4-8 and they blew Dooley out. Then there was the infamous 10-9 loss the next year in Neyland to an unranked team with a backup QB who finished 7-5. Dooley also got to play UGA teams that were good but not elite in 2011 and 2013 while Pruitt had to face Kirby every year.

Overall I guess it is kind of like having to decide which turd smells worse. They were both horrendous.
 
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