AP Preseason Poll: Good Guys #24

#127
#127
Big Orange Captain said:
At some point though Heuoel will lose to a team other than Georgia at home and it very well could be Oklahoma this season they are going to be much improved from last season and if they aren’t then Venables is likely gone.
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I am undefeated in Neyland going to the OK game this year, so hopefully not lol.
 
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#130
#130
…..and all of the teams from 11-23/25 would not be much of a challenge to UT outside of the SEC teams not named USC jr. All of the BIG teams starting with Illinois and lower are a joke as are the ‘Lesser’ conference teams. No way their rosters are as talented as ours. I also think Clemson and Miami are too high (not saying they shouldn’t be higher than us)
 
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#132
#132
jasonvol18 said:
He did put up big numbers on the 2 best teams he played, Boise and Syracuse. Combined 57-80 690 yards and 5 TD's and 3 Int's. Wash St was just a Horrible defensive team and were 6th in total offense. His numbers were pretty equivalent to Cam Ward the year before and that Wash St team was 5-7. Last years team was 8-5. Mateer threw more TD's than Ward did. Ward did average more yards, but that was because Wash St only ran for 84 yards a game, while Matteers team ran for 166. Matteers team had a better record and better overall offensive production. I understand the playing in a bad conference, but so did Cam Ward and Josh Allen. If you can play, you can play. And I'm not saying he will light up SEC Defense's, I'm just saying they will be much better offensively this year than last, UNLESS they battle injury problems like last year. No team could win with all the injuries OU had last year
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Mateer won't even be on the team after his gambling on college football on venmo scandal
 
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#134
#134
volgr said:
24 seems about right to me. I think this season has a better chance of being rougher than expected vs better. Our offense could be one of Heupel's worst. Defense should be solid but they will be leaned on heavily. 6 or 7 wins wouldn't surprise me.
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The defense will carry this team to 8 wins. If the offense runs the ball as well as i am expecting, 10 or more wins should happen.
 
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#135
#135
ConantheVolbarian said:
But most of the talking heads admit our line should be better. We had a few young guys working their way into the rotation last year and picked up some good new recruits and transfers this year.
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I have found in my many years of football, OLs are tricky to predict. I hope you are right, but remember our OL last year was a dominant run blocking line but struggled in pass pro.

I think we could be better in pass pro this year but take a bit of step back in run blocking, again though hard to predict OLs.
 
#136
#136
SDV said:
Remember a few years ago, when we used to be happy to even be included in the Top 25? I’m totally fine with starting at this #. I’d rather be overlooked
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Yeah and we will climb easily if we take care of business. Think D will be salty and if offense is at least as good as last year we will be mid range sec. If we are a little better on offense which I think we will be (slightly…more in pass game) we should be at least in top 5-6ish in sec pecking order.
 
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#137
#137
Actually I wouldn’t have been surprised if we weren’t even ranked. We have an unknown at QB. The three we have haven’t been consistent at fall camp so that’s a concern. We have an unknown about the offensive line. We have new running backs. The receivers are unknown as well, plus we can’t keep one out of handcuffs. The defensive side is our strength, but there are still unknowns there too. I see this as a 7-8 win season at best. If you think it’s better than that, then you really need to remove the orange glasses and check back into reality.
 
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#138
#138
OleRockyTopTennessee said:
Actually I wouldn’t have been surprised if we weren’t even ranked. We have an unknown at QB. The three we have haven’t been consistent at fall camp so that’s a concern. We have an unknown about the offensive line. We have new running backs. The receivers are unknown as well, plus we can’t keep one out of handcuffs. The defensive side is our strength, but there are still unknowns there too. I see this as a 7-8 win season at best. If you think it’s better than that, then you really need to remove the orange glasses and check back into reality.
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Unknown QB is the situation for more than half of the top 25 including teams like Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, etc.
 
#139
#139
volbound1700 said:
Unknown QB is the situation for more than half of the top 25 including teams like Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, etc.
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You’re right. I’m only concerned with the team I root for though. I could care less about the rest.
For alabama, Simpson is the starter and he is a darn good QB. Played really well last year in relief. Still young though. Can’t speak about Georgia or Ohio State.
 
#141
#141
jasonvol18 said:
He did put up big numbers on the 2 best teams he played, Boise and Syracuse. Combined 57-80 690 yards and 5 TD's and 3 Int's. Wash St was just a Horrible defensive team and were 6th in total offense. His numbers were pretty equivalent to Cam Ward the year before and that Wash St team was 5-7. Last years team was 8-5. Mateer threw more TD's than Ward did. Ward did average more yards, but that was because Wash St only ran for 84 yards a game, while Matteers team ran for 166. Matteers team had a better record and better overall offensive production. I understand the playing in a bad conference, but so did Cam Ward and Josh Allen. If you can play, you can play. And I'm not saying he will light up SEC Defense's, I'm just saying they will be much better offensively this year than last, UNLESS they battle injury problems like last year. No team could win with all the injuries OU had last year
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Mateer didn't play in their game against Syracuse, those stats were put up by his backup Zevi Eckhaus. Mateer faced 3 Power 4 teams last year including Boise State, Washington, and Texas Tech. He passed in those 3 for an average of 233 YPG, 57% completion rate, 4 TDs and 3 INTs. He did average about 95 yards rushing in those games and tack on 3 rushing TDs but that number is skewed by rushing for 197 yards against a terrible TTU rush defense. His stats last year were padded against bad teams and even then sometimes he couldn't break 200 yards passing, like against Wyoming, Utah State, and Fresno State. I'm not saying he won't improve at Oklahoma, but he's definitely a "wait and see" from me personally.
 
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#142
#142
SDV said:
Remember a few years ago, when we used to be happy to even be included in the Top 25? I’m totally fine with starting at this #. I’d rather be overlooked
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Teams aren’t overlooking us, just the media. We have had 30 wins in 3 seasons and are coming off a CFP birth. SC and UF are coming off 8-5 years with worse talent. This is disrespectful after what Heupel and crew have demonstrated in his tenure.
 
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#144
#144
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
I believe the SEC had 7 to the B1G's 5 in the final AP poll last year.

It's definitely the B1G and SEC at the head of the football class but the SEC consistently places more teams at the top than the B1G. For sure, we owe a heck of a lot to Nick Saban for pushing the SEC to get better or get crushed.

I've called 9-3. I believe Heupel will find a way to get some ugly wins and he'll earn every penny of his money this season.

I'm not a UT homer but Heupel has made it work with scholly, visit, contact day dings still hanging on us. I have questions about his on field coaching (his play calls, time management, etc) but he has gotten us more wins than I ever expected after Pruitt left us with sanctions.
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I admire your confidence, with that 9-3 prediction. The very best I could do was 8-4, but finally settled on 7-5. I am even worried about Syracuse. I hope I am wrong and you are right. I believe a 9-3 gets us into the playoffs.
 
#145
#145
MadMaxSC said:
I admire your confidence, with that 9-3 prediction. The very best I could do was 8-4, but finally settled on 7-5. I am even worried about Syracuse. I hope I am wrong and you are right. I believe a 9-3 gets us into the playoffs.
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I don't think 9-3 gets us in the playoffs this year but I am okay with it. Nico leaving when he did had to force Heupel to rethink a lot of plans for this year.

Unlike many, I think we beat FL, but lose a real heartbreaker to OU at Neyland. I hope I'm wrong on that but I believe they're a bigger problem than FL this year.

It's going to be a pivotal year for Josh Heupel as an SEC coach, I think. He'll get a lot of praise and hopefully good recruiting "juice" from what he does this year.
 
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#146
#146
I think we got a lot of battered Vol Syndrome with the 8-4 and 7-5 crowd and here is why. I took an entirely neutral stance on this Tennessee team and came up with 9-3 as most likely for the following:

1. Talent - even though inexperienced, this is likely the most talented team, star rating/blue chip wise, Tennessee has had in a decade. Recruiting has been stronger and caught Tennessee up. It is the same reason people have Alabama and Georgia in top 10 despite their question marks for example

2. Schedule - there isn't 5 teams on Tennessee's schedule that even match Tennessee on talent. The schedule is very favorable minus Alabama and Georgia. If you go off recruiting talent alone, they are the only two teams clearly ahead of Tennessee. Florida and OU might be close but both of those progra.s don't check the box on 3 below. The rest of the schedule pits Tennessee against teams that they are clearly more talented then.

3. Coaching consistency - Heupel has proven to be a more consistent winner than over half the SEC coaches and anyone since Fulmer.

At this point 7-5 would be a disaster as it would have Tennessee losing to at least one team that they are inferior to talent wise.
 
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#147
#147
volbound1700 said:
I think we got a lot of battered Vol Syndrome with the 8-4 and 7-5 crowd and here is why. I took an entirely neutral stance on this Tennessee team and came up with 9-3 as most likely for the following:

1. Talent - even though inexperienced, this is likely the most talented team, star rating/blue chip wise, Tennessee has had in a decade. Recruiting has been stronger and caught Tennessee up. It is the same reason people have Alabama and Georgia in top 10 despite their question marks for example

2. Schedule - there isn't 5 teams on Tennessee's schedule that even match Tennessee on talent. The schedule is very favorable minus Alabama and Georgia. If you go off recruiting talent alone, they are the only two teams clearly ahead of Tennessee. Florida and OU might be close but both of those progra.s don't check the box on 3 below. The rest of the schedule pits Tennessee against teams that they are clearly more talented then.

3. Coaching consistency - Heupel has proven to be a more consistent winner than over half the SEC coaches and anyone since Fulmer.

At this point 7-5 would be a disaster as it would have Tennessee losing to at least one team that they are inferior to talent wise.
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Agree..
9-3 would be an acceptable season with the talent and schedule, 10-2 or better would be a great season
8-4 would be disappointing but understandable

7-5 or worse would be a disaster barring some kind of legit reason (multiple injuries, etc.)

I think they upset Georgia, but lose to Alabama

They split Florida and Oklahoma

Syracuse, Arkansas, Kentucky, Vandy, Mississippi St "COULD" upset them if UT comes out with a D type performance, but I just don't see that with this coaching staff, and Neyland for the home games.

The other 3 are layups
 
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#148
#148
Rickyvol77 said:
Agree..
9-3 would be an acceptable season with the talent and schedule, 10-2 or better would be a great season
8-4 would be disappointing but understandable

7-5 or worse would be a disaster barring some kind of legit reason (multiple injuries, etc.)

I think they upset Georgia, but lose to Alabama

They split Florida and Oklahoma

Syracuse, Arkansas, Kentucky, Vandy, Mississippi St "COULD" upset them if UT comes out with a D type performance, but I just don't see that with this coaching staff, and Neyland for the home games.

The other 3 are layups
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Yeah, the way I see it is we have 2 better teams than us, Alabama and Georgia (on paper) that we will likely lose to.

We have 2 games against even talented teams, Florida and Oklahoma.

8 games against inferior talent.

I split the even games and go with the win over the team that has to play us in Knoxville, Oklahoma. We could win both of them but that means overcoming the Swamp Curse.
 
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