Are we perfect? No...

[VFL-82-JP]

...but we are a damn good football team, nonetheless.

Look, none of us is perfect. Not you. Not me. Not that fella or gal over there. And that includes our coaches and players.

A head coach probably makes 150+ decisions in the course of a ball game. His coordinators probably about the same amount, each. Most of those decisions are made in a second or two: see, consider, decide. Just about as fast as you can say those three words. Given that, it would be surpassing strange for them not to get a handful of things wrong. Come on, be honest, how many of you scored better than 97% on a 4-hour exam, while riding in a HMMWV in the streets of Baghdad with IEDs all around? By that, I mean distractions and concerns all around you while making each of those split-second decisions.

All that to say, our coaches are ****-hot. They are excellent. Even if they did mess up clock management that one time.

And our players, too. People on these boards giving grief to Telander ... Carter (either/both) ... our kicker ... hell, our QB! This fella who is night and day better than anything we've had since Hendon Hooker, who had like 15 minutes to study the playbook before the first game. Someone even down-talked our freshman right tackle, in his first appearance in a college game, ever, even though he did a marvelous job under those conditions.

All these lads are really, really good. Put it this way: they are able to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the nation (barring possibly Ohio State, still having trouble seeing past that game last December).

We have the talent now. Now. We can compete for the SEC and national titles now. We can be that good, with these lads. Occasional mistakes and all. And it's only gonna keep getting better.

So stop whining about how we're not perfect. Stop pole vaulting over every little blemish you see like it caused us to start the season 0-5.

If you can't see all the good in our current team, coaches and players alike, maybe just chill out and let the rest of us enjoy some good football.

There. Nega-Vol lightning rod struck.

Go Vols!

 

[WeNeedaQB]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

 

[zeppelin128]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

That muffed punt really screwed up the momentum of the game: 3 and out for our defense followed by the Heupel scripted first drive for a TD would have punched them in the mouth, calmed the cowbells a bit, and set the tone.

Oh well, such is life sometimes. A win is a win, especially on the road for a program that has a pattern of dropping one head-scratching loss on the road each year.

Our guys never quit and kept fighting, that's the important part.

Edit: shout out to the Staley redemption arc. He had a rough game, but fought like hell and picked up a critical first down in the 4th.

 

[JMSqb11]

I think this team is decent and will get better with the guys coming back from injury paired with guys like Redmond getting this valuable playing time. However, I think this win was in spite of the coaching.

I feel for Heupel because that was a game we normally lose just on its own, but he tried to make it even harder to win with his decision making.

He's still a young coach so the face he is still making these awful in game management decisions repeatedly is concerning. Especially since his entire coaching career/philosophy is predicated on him being a former QB and offensive coordinator for years.

I hope it is just brain farts because at the end of the day, he took this job at death's door and has gone 41-16 while basically making Neyland Stadium a no win zone for opposing teams minus Georgia.

But man I have never seen a coach so uncomfortable on the sidelines like he was the final 30 seconds of regulation. He just looked like he had no idea on what he wanted to do while having timeouts in the backpocket.

It also killed me that our pass rush was getting to Shapen the entire second half and on that last play, we didn't all out blitz the guy. MSU dropped the gametying touchdown, we didn't stop it.

The one good takeaway from this game is I think we will lay the smackdown on Arkansas to get all the pentup frustration out the system

 

[DiderotsGhost]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

Exactly. Game should not have been as close as it was. The refs were the only reason it was. Awful, awful officiating. The OPI was one of the worst calls I've seen, but they also missed some a blatant DPI by MSU.

If Heupel lost this one, I wouldn't have blamed him. The fact that we pulled it out in spite of all the bad luck is a testament to how good this team is.

Defense played great. Much better than people are giving them credit for. A lot of those 34 points were essentially given up by mistakes on offense and special teams.

 

[NATHAN05]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

Agreed......and ill throw in the Mike Matthew's "pitch-n-catch" drop for a walk in.

The ONLY real side eye glance ill give Heupel is true road game demeanor. Yes, this was Miss St super bowl and they were jacked out their minds. But I felt we came in flat, uninspired and expecting to win. Thats a coaching thing. (And i still would have liked to of seen Gilbert get at least a shot at the end of regulation vs a hail mary).

Other than that.......4-1 (as is UGA and Bama whos coming up) SEC is wide open. Definitely excited to see how this year unfolds.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

...but we are a damn good football team, nonetheless.

Look, none of us is perfect. Not you. Not me. Not that fella or gal over there. And that includes our coaches and players.

A head coach probably makes 150+ decisions in the course of a ball game. His coordinators probably about the same amount, each. Most of those decisions are made in a second or two: see, consider, decide. Just about as fast as you can say those three words. Given that, it would be surpassing strange for them not to get a handful of things wrong. Come on, be honest, how many of you scored better than 97% on a 4-hour exam, while riding in a HMMWV in the streets of Baghdad with IEDs all around? By that, I mean distractions and concerns all around you while making each of those split-second decisions.

All that to say, our coaches are ****-hot. They are excellent. Even if they did mess up clock management that one time.

And our players, too. People on these boards giving grief to Telander ... Carter (either/both) ... our kicker ... hell, our QB! This fella who is night and day better than anything we've had since Hendon Hooker, who had like 15 minutes to study the playbook before the first game. Someone even down-talked our freshman right tackle, in his first appearance in a college game, ever, even though he did a marvelous job under those conditions.

All these lads are really, really good. Put it this way: they are able to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the nation (barring possibly Ohio State, still having trouble seeing past that game last December).

We have the talent now. Now. We can compete for the SEC and national titles now. We can be that good, with these lads. Occasional mistakes and all. And it's only gonna keep getting better.

So stop whining about how we're not perfect. Stop pole vaulting over every little blemish you see like it caused us to start the season 0-5.

If you can't see all the good in our current team, coaches and players alike, maybe just chill out and let the rest of us enjoy some good football.

There. Nega-Vol lightning rod struck.

Go Vols!

Amazing they cannot see the negative value add they produce as fans when their tolerance for players and coaches is so low. Just like players some fans would be better on the sidelines like players, but they keep putting themselves in.

 

[tbh]

Even with all the setbacks and inconsistency yesterday, one of the things that has impressed me with this year's squad is that I can't think of a single player who dialed down their effort or outright quit when things weren't going as they would hope.

 

[Bigorangefan 98]

Tell me something, what team out there in the country is perfect , absolutely no one . Parity has taken over. Perhaps best team Amon the rest is still Ohio state bad as I hate to say. But their offense is sluggish

 

[VolBricks]

Staley had an AWFUL game, but kudos to him for fighting through the adversity and not giving up. I think his -performance was indicative of the whole team.

 

[JMSqb11]

Agreed......and ill throw in the Mike Matthew's "pitch-n-catch" drop for a walk in.

The ONLY real side eye glance ill give Heupel is true road game demeanor. Yes, this was Miss St super bowl and they were jacked out their minds. But I felt we came in flat, uninspired and expecting to win. Thats a coaching thing. (And i still would have liked to of seen Gilbert get at least a shot at the end of regulation vs a hail mary).

Other than that.......4-1 (as is UGA and Bama coming up) SEC is wide open. Definitely excited to see how this year unfolds.

I'm still shocked that Heupel had 2 timeouts in his pocket and didn't use one after picked up the first down with 13 seconds left

Or spike the ball and keep the 2 timeouts. Plenty of time to run if he wanted with Star and get 10 yards to set up Gilbert at the bare minimum.

It was just a very weird game for Heupel. He looked so uncomfortable that last 2 minutes of regulation.

 

[Rocky Top T]

We have a good team. We are not SEC or national championship team. We have talent, but not enough yet. I still believe we lose at least 2 more. Coaching was not good at times yesterday. Go Vols!

 

[#1fulmerite]

Can you imagine how many people would not be on these boards if they made the same amount of money the coaches do? Even some of the players?

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Some of these negative Nellie’s will never be happy, they never look at the positive in anything. Football is rarely perfect, it isn’t an easy game. Nearly every team out there has breakdowns and flaws. Our team keeps battling, we have weapons on offense and defense. We beat a good team on the road. We could easily be 5-0, people forget where this team was when Heupel took over. We have a winning culture here now, the future is bright. GBO

 

[DaddyChad]

We have a good team. We are not SEC or national championship team. We have talent, but not enough yet. I still believe we lose at least 2 more. Coaching was not good at times yesterday. Go Vols!

Clock management was horrible. Some of this though is lack of execution still. We win comfortably if not for self inflicted wounds. Pop up INTs, dropped balls, etc.

I will add what Heupel and Aguilar have accomplished as late as he got here is impressive. Heupel is a great developers, great play caller as well, late game management though is terrible. I wouldn’t have expected to be a contender for anything this year before the season started. Aguilar has been a blessing for us.

 

[Rocky Top T]

Clock management was horrible. Some of this though is lack of execution still. We win comfortably if not for self inflicted wounds. Pop up INTs, dropped balls, etc.

Agree

 

[PEPPERJAX]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

Matthews dropped a TD pass too.

 

[EZE]

...but we are a damn good football team, nonetheless.

Look, none of us is perfect. Not you. Not me. Not that fella or gal over there. And that includes our coaches and players.

A head coach probably makes 150+ decisions in the course of a ball game. His coordinators probably about the same amount, each. Most of those decisions are made in a second or two: see, consider, decide. Just about as fast as you can say those three words. Given that, it would be surpassing strange for them not to get a handful of things wrong. Come on, be honest, how many of you scored better than 97% on a 4-hour exam, while riding in a HMMWV in the streets of Baghdad with IEDs all around? By that, I mean distractions and concerns all around you while making each of those split-second decisions.

All that to say, our coaches are ****-hot. They are excellent. Even if they did mess up clock management that one time.

And our players, too. People on these boards giving grief to Telander ... Carter (either/both) ... our kicker ... hell, our QB! This fella who is night and day better than anything we've had since Hendon Hooker, who had like 15 minutes to study the playbook before the first game. Someone even down-talked our freshman right tackle, in his first appearance in a college game, ever, even though he did a marvelous job under those conditions.

All these lads are really, really good. Put it this way: they are able to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the nation (barring possibly Ohio State, still having trouble seeing past that game last December).

We have the talent now. Now. We can compete for the SEC and national titles now. We can be that good, with these lads. Occasional mistakes and all. And it's only gonna keep getting better.

So stop whining about how we're not perfect. Stop pole vaulting over every little blemish you see like it caused us to start the season 0-5.

If you can't see all the good in our current team, coaches and players alike, maybe just chill out and let the rest of us enjoy some good football.

There. Nega-Vol lightning rod struck.

Go Vols!

Well said. Nobody is perfect at their job. So it’s very easy to always be complaining if you want to nit pick and harp on the 5% mistakes and ignore the 95% good.

We even had one genius on here calling the clock management a “fireable offense.” Hard to understand.

 

[sambronkowitz]

There are dominant teams out there, but I don't see any that are perfect. I don't see any that are Teams of the Century. Ohio State, while pretty good, didn't look too dominant against Washington. I think that any team can be beaten this season, and it's very possible that we have a playoff this season where NO team is undefeated.

It gets to me that so many fans have been complaining that we had to scratch and claw our way to an unimpressive looking win against Mississippi State yesterday evening. And complaining about the mistakes made by the coaching staff. We beat an undefeated SEC team on the road, for crying out loud. There are plenty of other teams that'd kill for that.

And look at how far we have come with Coach Josh Heupel and his staff. Are we liking a Nick Saban or Kirby Smart team with their staff? No, we're not. But we are competitive in every game, and they've made UT football fun to watch again. Think about how bad we had it under Doolittle, Butch, and Cornbread and how we'd get blown out in SEC road games and how uninspired we looked playing.

I am very grateful that we have Coach Heupel and this staff compared to what we had before. They have turned us around. And if we can get a few more pieces to place in the puzzle, we could be right up there with Georgia, or even surpass them one day, as among the Elite in the SEC. Instead of complaining, we should be happy with how good we are having it right now. We could be like Nebraska. Gone from being one of the greatest all-time programs in College Football to being an average team every year.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

We have a good team. We are not SEC or national championship team. We have talent, but not enough yet. I still believe we lose at least 2 more. Coaching was not good at times yesterday. Go Vols!

I haven’t seen one team yet that is head and shoulders above everyone else amongst the squads that have a legit chance to win it all. I think the bye is coming at the perfect time for UT to get healthier and clean some stuff up in all three phases.

 

[Bigorangefan 98]

Strong word on some sports talks radio , the natives In state college are growing restless on Franklin … saying he don’t best Ohio state his job could be in jeopardy. He has only beaten up on the lightweights and just can’t win a big game …. Couldn’t happen to a
Better guy lol

 

[Delmar]

Well said. Nobody is perfect at their job. So it’s very easy to always be complaining if you want to nit pick and harp on the 5% mistakes and ignore the 95% good.

We even had one genius on here calling the clock management a “fireable offense.” Hard to understand.

Not hard for me. Many of them are probably miserable in their regular lives and it just bleeds over. That’s why my Ignore list is so long. No patience for trolls or the incessantly negative.

 

[GetEmVols]

I think we had three plays that took us from an easy 21 point win to a nail biting win in overtime. Dropped punt, personal foul on lineman for body slamming ball carrier and the terrible OPI call on Brazzel (spelling?) that took away a TD.

and you didn't even mention the two interceptions caused by our TE.

 

[volfeeva]

I'd love to see our defense get stops to where we're not playing catch up the whole game. But a good win on the road,

 

[the_todd]

I think this team is decent and will get better with the guys coming back from injury paired with guys like Redmond getting this valuable playing time. However, I think this win was in spite of the coaching.

I feel for Heupel because that was a game we normally lose just on its own, but he tried to make it even harder to win with his decision making.

He's still a young coach so the face he is still making these awful in game management decisions repeatedly is concerning. Especially since his entire coaching career/philosophy is predicated on him being a former QB and offensive coordinator for years.

I hope it is just brain farts because at the end of the day, he took this job at death's door and has gone 41-16 while basically making Neyland Stadium a no win zone for opposing teams minus Georgia.

But man I have never seen a coach so uncomfortable on the sidelines like he was the final 30 seconds of regulation. He just looked like he had no idea on what he wanted to do while having timeouts in the backpocket.

It also killed me that our pass rush was getting to Shapen the entire second half and on that last play, we didn't all out blitz the guy. MSU dropped the gametying touchdown, we didn't stop it.

The one good takeaway from this game is I think we will lay the smackdown on Arkansas to get all the pentup frustration out the system

I'm still shocked that Heupel had 2 timeouts in his pocket and didn't use one after picked up the first down with 13 seconds left

Or spike the ball and keep the 2 timeouts. Plenty of time to run if he wanted with Star and get 10 yards to set up Gilbert at the bare minimum.

It was just a very weird game for Heupel. He looked so uncomfortable that last 2 minutes of regulation.

You have been whining non stop about this. At the end of the day UT won on the road against an undefeated SEC team in a hostile environment. Get over it