Bowl Expectations Poll

[Creekcat]

Music City Bowl, Liberty Bowl. What's the one played in Birmingham?

 

[KBVol]

Music City Bowl, Liberty Bowl. What's the one played in Birmingham?

The Birmingham Bowl.

 

[alaVOL]

8-4 is floor, 10-2 is ceiling imo.

If UT doesn’t even make a bowl, UT hired the wrong guy.
99% of coaches have the biggest improvement in year 2. Anything under 8 is a big underachieving year.

UT hired a very good coach who we hope becomes a very good HC. We are headed in the right direction even if we only win 6 next year.

 

[BraseltonVol]

We aren’t losing to Kentucky.

We can't even beat Vandy... I would focus more on being the best team in the state than beating any other team. I love being referred to as the 2nd best team in Tennessee..

 

[DaddyChad]

8-4? I just don't see that much improvement in our Oline or offense overall honestly. We can get better by a large amount and still have the worst Oline in the conference. I definitely believe we make a bowl though.

I think Pruitt is the right guy long term though. He's a helluva salesman for the program. Look at the recruiting job with the record we had last year. Also look at the staff additions as well. I think we see a little turnaround this year but we'll see a huge jump year three.

 

[GBO97]

7-5 imo. This growing team will unfortunately take its lumps in the stacked-as-always SEC, but we should still see marked improvement. Unfortunately it’ll be tough to get one against any of our 3 main rivals, but every one of the other 9 looks decently winnable. I think we beat the 4 OOC’s and Vandy, and we go 2-2 vs MSU/SC/UK/Mizzou. If I had to guess, wins over SC and UK.

But yes, the least we can do is make a bowl game, and I’ll be very disappointed if we can’t manage to do that with more home games, an easier OOC game and easier rotating West game than last year.

 

[The_Basket_Vols]

6 wins. We have a really young defense. Flowers will be a serious upgrade at safety.

 

[secking]

UT hired a very good coach who we hope becomes a very good HC. We are headed in the right direction even if we only win 6 next year.

Why do you only see 6?

Look at it like this, first 3 are cupcakes, so is UAB, so there is easy 4.

UT pulls MSU out of the West who is primed for a Huge setback this year after all their talent just hit the draft. Likewise for KY (400 seniors seems like) and Missouri losses Luck. I think their TE came back? He was eligible as RSo but Dooley is Dooley after all.

Biggest improvement should be on the OL, Friend is a good coach.

 

[alaVOL]

Why do you only see 6?

Look at it like this, first 3 are cupcakes, so is UAB, so there is easy 4.

UT pulls MSU out of the West who is primed for a Huge setback this year after all their talent just hit the draft. Likewise for KY (400 seniors seems like) and Missouri losses Luck. I think their TE came back? He was eligible as RSo but Dooley is Dooley after all.

Biggest improvement should be on the OL, Friend is a good coach.

I wasn't saying we couldn't win 7 or maybe more, but we have major line issues on both sides that might hold the win total down next year even with a lot of improved play. However, I don't think our coach is a failure etc. if we don't win XX amount of games was really what I was addressing. Many of the previous comments made it sound like if CJP doesn't win XX we should fire him or something. I firmly believe that the 2020 squad will be a very good team that might get 10 or more wins. After all the improvements I see coming, we still play Alabama, Florida and Georgia every year. Going from the cellar to the penthouse will take a lot of work and time.

 

[The_Basket_Vols]

Why do you only see 6?

Look at it like this, first 3 are cupcakes, so is UAB, so there is easy 4.

UT pulls MSU out of the West who is primed for a Huge setback this year after all their talent just hit the draft. Likewise for KY (400 seniors seems like) and Missouri losses Luck. I think their TE came back? He was eligible as RSo but Dooley is Dooley after all.

Biggest improvement should be on the OL, Friend is a good coach.

Because we have major problems on both sides of the ball.

We are EXTREMELY soft at the line of scrimmage and that is where most of our problems stem from.

 

[KBVol]

I’ll remind everyone here that I had UT’s win/losses pegged almost exactly last year, including the Auburn upset. The only game I missed on was Vandy as I had UT going 6-6. Having said all that, and I reserve the right to change my mind after spring and fall practices, but here’s how I see 2019 at this point; wins against - Ga State, BYU, Chattanooga, SC, UAB and Vandy. Losses against - Florida, Georgia, Miss State, Bama, Kentucky and Missouri. 6-6 and yes, you earn a bowl game.

We got Kentucky’s number, kinda like the way Florida has ours. It’s the only number we got, but we got it. We ain’t losing to Kentucky.

 

[KBVol]

Why do you only see 6?

Look at it like this, first 3 are cupcakes, so is UAB, so there is easy 4.

UT pulls MSU out of the West who is primed for a Huge setback this year after all their talent just hit the draft. Likewise for KY (400 seniors seems like) and Missouri losses Luck. I think their TE came back? He was eligible as RSo but Dooley is Dooley after all.

Biggest improvement should be on the OL, Friend is a good coach.

We’ll see what kind of step back MSU takes....better be a fairly signifcant one or that’s a loss.

As far as Mizzou...the reason we’ve gotten drubbed the last 2 years 100-34 is due to their physical dominance over us at pretty much every position, not because Locke just picked us apart...he was just the icing on the cake. Bryant won’t throw the ball as well as Locke does, but he’s a playmaker, so I doubt there’s a whole lot of drop off to their offense when we play them in Columbia this year.

I’d argue against Friend being a very good OL coach. He had literally zero positive impact on our OL last year...they were as bad and missing as many assignments in the last game of the year vs Vandy as they were on the first play of the year vs WVa when they nearly got JG killed.

Until further notice, 6, maybe 7 wins is the expectation imho.

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

P

We’ll see what kind of step back MSU takes....better be a fairly signifcant one or that’s a loss.

As far as Mizzou...the reason we’ve gotten drubbed the last 2 years 100-34 is due to their physical dominance over us at pretty much every position, not because Locke just picked us apart...he was just the icing on the cake. Bryant won’t throw the ball as well as Locke does, but he’s a playmaker, so I doubt there’s a whole lot of drop off to their offense when we play them in Columbia this year.

I’d argue against Friend being a very good OL coach. He had literally zero positive impact on our OL last year...they were as bad and missing as many assignments in the last game of the year vs Vandy as they were on the first play of the year vs WVa when they nearly got JG killed.

Until further notice, 6, maybe 7 wins is the expectation imho.

Helps that Mizzou played against our third string QB in 2017 and second string in 2018.

 

[chrismc1000]

Blew 6th win against both Mizzou and Vanderbilt. No way UT should lose to either. Neither team has half the talent of UT. UT needed those extra practices bad and was playing for their bowl lives, yet laid down 88-30. Hopefully those players that quit are recruited over or moved on.

ESPN has TN in the top 20, that’s about right, talent should fall around top 12, zero reason not to win 8 this year.

Actually both teams had better talent, better lines, Sienority of players etc...

 

[CardsNVols]

Yes, the team has a very favorable schedule. I would not be surprised if they managed to go 8-4.

 

[GBOVFL88]

Because we have major problems on both sides of the ball.

We are EXTREMELY soft at the line of scrimmage and that is where most of our problems stem from.

I agree that we are very soft on the lines, but that means that we have the most room for improvement there. I don't think that we are going to have any all-Americans on the lines by any means, but if we improve from a bad to even a mediocre line I see two wins from that alone. They have had a full season in the S&C program and have added size with new nutrition plans. There is the chance that they are improved enough to let our skill players break out and give the offense some much needed explosiveness. I think that a weak o-line from 2018 gives enough room to improve in 2019 to make lemonade from the lemons that played on the line last year. I remain cautiously optimistic.