Athlon Schedule Predictions

#52
#52
Jnunn said:
I'm really surprised that they have us unanimously beating Missouri. I expect us to be underdogs in that game.
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Much of their team's hopes hinge on Drew Lock, but the guy is so inconsistent week to week. He racked up a ton of his numbers last year against teams like Missouri St and Idaho (threw for 988 yards and 13 TDs against them alone) but against good defenses (South Carolina, Auburn) he is more pedestrian, and he even had a stinker against Purdue. He only went 13/28 against our atrocious defense last year. Granted they were running the ball a ton, but 13/28 is hardly efficient.
 
#53
#53
Here we go again with being offended by some off season prognostication article. I DID read the actual article (for a change). I think any fair minded sports fan could see generally what they are talking about. All four acknowledged we could be better than they predict but its a huge order to accomplish. Personally I hope we go 15-0 and win a NC but I strongly suspect it'll be in the 5-7 to 8-4 range...
 
#54
#54
05_never_again said:
Much of their team's hopes hinge on Drew Lock, but the guy is so inconsistent week to week. He racked up a ton of his numbers last year against teams like Missouri St and Idaho (threw for 988 yards and 13 TDs against them alone) but against good defenses (South Carolina, Auburn) he is more pedestrian, and he even had a stinker against Purdue. He only went 13/28 against our atrocious defense last year. Granted they were running the ball a ton, but 13/28 is hardly efficient.
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Eh, we also have a running game. If Tennessee can't stop the run, it'll likely be another win for Mizzou

Drew Lock never plays well against Tennessee, but we haven't needed him to
 
#55
#55
05_never_again said:
Much of their team's hopes hinge on Drew Lock, but the guy is so inconsistent week to week. He racked up a ton of his numbers last year against teams like Missouri St and Idaho (threw for 988 yards and 13 TDs against them alone) but against good defenses (South Carolina, Auburn) he is more pedestrian, and he even had a stinker against Purdue. He only went 13/28 against our atrocious defense last year. Granted they were running the ball a ton, but 13/28 is hardly efficient.
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Good point. Just to drill down this point a little more I looked at his numbers minus Missouri State, Idaho and UConn. So only including Mizzou's 10 "real" opponents last year, Lock threw for 2,599 yards, 26 TD's and 11 Int's on 167 comps, 315 attempts with a completion percentage of 53%... Not exactly awe-inspiring numbers. That includes four games of under 50% completion percentage and only two 300+ yard games.

So against quality opponents, he's really not that impressive.

Edit: They also lost their top RB, Ish Witter, and top WR, J'Mon Moore, from last year, both 1000+ yard performers.
 
#56
#56
Jnunn said:
Good point. Just to drill down this point a little more I looked at his numbers minus Missouri State, Idaho and UConn. So only including Mizzou's 10 "real" opponents last year, Lock threw for 2,599 yards, 26 TD's and 11 Int's on 167 comps, 315 attempts with a completion percentage of 53%... Not exactly awe-inspiring numbers. That includes four games of under 50% completion percentage and only two 300+ yard games.

So against quality opponents, he's really not that impressive.
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Whether he will face quality competition in Knoxville is yet to be determined
 
#58
#58
KCMOTIGERS said:
Whether he will face quality competition in Knoxville is yet to be determined
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True, but even in the absolute reaming we took last year Lock still finished <%50. If our run defense is even marginally better, he will have to be more consistent than that to keep the Mizzou offensive train going.
 
#59
#59
KCMOTIGERS said:
Whether he will face quality competition in Knoxville is yet to be determined
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I think it would be in your interest to play Tennessee earlier in the season, when I expect the defense to still be pretty bad. They might be playing halfway decent by the end of the season.
 
#60
#60
KCMOTIGERS said:
Whether he will face quality competition in Knoxville is yet to be determined
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Hi, Tiger. Don't see many of you guys around VolNation. Welcome. :)

As for your comment: you can say that again. We're all eager to find out what we've got: in our new coaching staff, and in our mixed-signal (is there talent?) roster. But right now, no one outside the team knows. I'm sure you're eager to learn about all that, too, but in a different way from most of us.

Go Vols!
 
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#61
#61
Jnunn said:
True, but even in the absolute reaming we took last year Lock still finished <%50. If our run defense is even marginally better, he will have to be more consistent than that to keep the Mizzou offensive train going.
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The last two seasons, Mizzou has rushed for 420, and 433 yards against Tennessee. That'll likely be the key to the game. A good run game will help Mizzou a lot in a loud stadium (Tennessee fills the stadium regardless of record)
 
#62
#62
Let us all remember that Athlon and everyone else picked the basketball team to finish 13th last season and we finished first. I know that is not going to happen in football but the point is the talking heads are afraid to pick anyone that played like we did last season and has a new unproven coach. If his system is as good as I think it is were gonna surprise some people at least one or two. Hopefully that starts Saturday.
 
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#64
#64
Volfan2012 said:
Let us all remember that Athlon and everyone else picked the basketball team to finish 13th last season and we finished first. I know that is not going to happen in football but the point is the talking heads are afraid to pick anyone that played like we did last season and has a new unproven coach. If his system is as good as I think it is were gonna surprise some people at least one or two. Hopefully that starts Saturday.
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It makes literally zero sense for anyone in the media to predict that Tennessee would do any better than 6-6. On what basis would they be making such a prediction? Given that we have basically the same players as last year (minus the good players that graduated or went to the NFL) a new coaching staff, new schemes etc. Plus we didnt (and probably still dont really) know who the starting QB is. I mean why would anyone have a basis for sayoing UT will do well this year?
 
#65
#65
99gator said:
I don’t know how high anyone is. I didn’t see this publication’s prediction, so I can’t tell you about this one specifically.

I have not seen them picked higher than 2nd in the east and what would that mean? Would it mean they were good?

I’m not sure they will face a ranked conference opponent outside of Georgia. If they went 6-2 or 5-3 in the league, would it mean anything? They won the division twice and I didn’t think they were any good those years.

So, you can think a team will win games and not necessarily be “high on them”. If they beat Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Vandy, and SC, what would it prove?

The other thing is that there may be a higher level of respect for Mullen in media circles than exists elsewhere, particularly this board
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Lots of truth in this post.
 
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