DiderotsGhost
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Even if the powers-that-be discontinued the beer barrel, it still exists in our hearts! Besides, it started out as an unofficial, unapproved trophy anyway, so why not continue it unofficial and without approval? Congrats to our boys for a dominant win and keeping the (unofficial, imaginary) Beer Barrel in Knoxville!
Some thoughts after this win:
How far we've come. Look back on that Pitt game, which we barely won in overtime. Hooker played his heart out and got us over the finish line, but the game could've easily gone either way. As it turns, Pitt isn't very good. They started the season in the top 20, but they are now 4-4 against a weak SoS, which includes a loss to a bad Georgia Tech team. They haven't beat a single team with a winning record. In all reality, narrowly escaping Pitt looks bad now. So if you could have looked into the future to see Pitt's season unfold and saw our narrow win over them, it would be fair to project us as a 7-5 or 8-4 team
We've improved every week. But here's the thing ... we've improved every week since that Pitt game. Indeed, this is the most improvement I can ever remember across the season for a Tennessee team in my lifetime. I was skeptical of us after our Pitt win and even Florida, but since then, we've played like one of the best teams in the country. The win over LSU, which looked great at the time, looks even better now (unlike Pitt). And a win over Bama (even a narrow one) is a win over Bama. And we obliterated a Kentucky team that had a week to prepared and was a popular upset pick (on the basis that we would look ahead to Georgia). Our boys weren't looking ahead; Heupel keeps them focused and we destroyed Kentucky.
The D was dominant. The D, particularly the secondary has had its struggles this season, but not last night. We held Kentucky to one TD, and we even blocked the extra point. An "A" performance from the defense. We didn't even need to score 40 last night. The first TD pass to Jalin Hyatt with 13 minutes left in the 1st Quarter was enough.
Secondary looked great. By far the best performance by the secondary all season. 3 picks is just insane. Could've easily been 4 too (as we were a hair away from a pick 6 on one of Levis' passes). And while it's safe to say, they got help from the big hole Kentucky dug (forcing them to become more 1-dimensional), it doesn't take away from a dominant performance by the secondary.
Secondary looks better with McCullough. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not, but the entire secondary plays better with him on the field. Remember, we looked very good in coverage against LSU as well. Then McCullough sat out against Bama (but we also lost several others) and the seconardy looked awful. Now, it looks even better than it did against LSU. Tbf, Bryce Young is obviously an elite QB, but still just seems like pass coverage is much better with McCullough out there.
Hooker. I want to wait to the end of the season to say anything, but he's quickly moving up the list of all-time Vols QBs. We have some greats, too, with Manning, Shuler, Condredge Holloway, Casey Clausen, etc, etc.
Hyatt. It's actually crazy that I got this far into the post to mention Hyatt, but another dominant performance by him. 5 recs, 138 yards, 2 TDs. The only bad thing with Hyatt is that he's played so good this season, I can't imagine he'll stick around for his Senior year. NFL teams are taking notice. So happy for him after his struggles last season; Hyatt, alongside of Hooker, and Tillman (who remember was an afterthought under Pruitt) have all been testaments to working hard and perseverance. But how is Hyatt not in the Heisman race? Seriously?! Guy has absolutely torn apart defenses this year.
Tillman. Speaking of Tillman, it was a pleasant surprise to see him back. He didn't have a huge night, but just seeing him on the field getting some reps was great.
Bru McCoy. Quietly putting up a very good season as well. 6 recs for 54 yards. These WRs compliment each other very well, with Hyatt being the big play guy who can sprint past the defense, and Bru being a possession guy who can make the catches when you need them to move the chains.
Jaylen Wright. Best game I've seen him play in his career. 7 runs for 73 yards. And most importantly, 0 fumbles! Dude took some hits last night too, but he held onto the ball. Remember, he's just a Sophomore, so we'll likely have him for 2 more seasons, too.
O-line continues to dominate. This has quietly been the best Tennessee O-line in a long, long time.
Front 7 also had great night. Overshadowed a bit by the great secondary play, but our D had 4 sacks and 8 TFLs last night. They kept pressure on Levis which allowed the secondary to make some big plays.
That 4th and 1 hurry up. That was a thing of beauty. We had some big plays last night, but that was one of my favorite plays of the night. Heup didn't even hesitate; completely caught Kentucky off-guard.
Offense had an off night. Too many penalties and execution mistakes ... but we still won the game 44-6. Which is crazy for an "off night"! That said, hope we clean some of that up for next week versus Georgia.
On Kentucky
Will Levis. NGL, I never understood why he was being hyped as a potential #1 pick at the beginning of the season. I never saw anything from him last year that screamed out 1st round pick, and I saw him as one of the weaker QBs we faced. He looked very overrated last night, too. 16 for 27 for 98 yards, with 3 INTs (and lucky it was only that many). Our D played great, but he made a lot of poor decisions. That said ...
Kentucky OC Rich Scangarello is awful! I think this is one of the worst hires Mark Stoops could've ever made. I mentioned earlier this week that his press conference made him sound like a terrible OC. And nothing about his career resume is particularly impressive. He's implemented a pro-style offense to help Levis's draft stock. I don't claim to know what NFL scouts look after, but I can tell you this offense has made Levis look much, much worse. Last year, Levis was a threat running the football, which put pressure on our defense. This year, they don't want him running, and it's hurt his game severely. So while our D deserves a lot of credit for last night, Scangarello was an awful OC hire by Kentucky. It's almost like they are sacrificing their season to boost Levis' draft stock; and who knows if it'll even work after performances like this. Hope Kentucky keeps Scangarello for a long time, but I suspect he'll get canned after this season.
Kentucky's defense actually played well. We put up 44 points on Kentucky, but I was impressed with Kentucky's defense in the 1st half. We had several plays where I thought we'd pick up a first down or score, and Kentucky's defense closed quickly. I don't think they played poorly on defense. We were just that good.
Stoops was angry. I have nothing against Stoops, but nice to see opposing coaches going crazy trying to figure out how to defend our offense. Also maybe sweet revenge for Heupel on one of the Stoops boys.
Looking forward and Miscellany
Georgia. I've dreaded this game all season. Georgia will have the best D we face all season and we'll be on the road. This is a team that's a legit national title contender. Yet, the way we're playing right now, we have a shot. We've wildly exceeded expectations thus far this season, so I'm not going to be down if we lose next week in Athens, but if we win, this will go down as one of the best seasons in UT history.
Matchup vs UGA. While beating Georgia is going to be a monumental task, I will say, we match up better against UGA than we did against Bama. Bryce Young tore apart our struggling secondary. Our run defense has been our strength this year. Georgia is more of a running team. Still, not an easy task, but I'm excited to see if we can pull it out next week!
Oklahoma 2000. Just as a reminder, 2000 Oklahoma team with Josh Heupel as QB started the season ranked #19, had two huge upsets against the #2 and #1 teams in the country (Kansas State and Nebraska), and went on to go 13-0 and win a national title. I don't think that's going to happen for us this season, but it would be crazy if history repeated itself with Heupel.
Quant poll roundup after UK win. We're still #3 in the Massey Composite rankings, behind Georgia (#1) and Ohio State (#2). We jumped to #4 in Sagarin this week (jumping over Michigan). While some are disappointed in this, remember it's still factoring in our close wins versus Pitt and Florida. Massey has Ohio State #1, Bama #2, Georgia #3, Tennessee #4, and Michigan #5. If we beat Georgia on the road, we'll almost certainly jump in every poll (quant and human).
That is all. Wasn't even planning on doing a write-up this week, but couldn't resist.
GBO!
Some thoughts after this win:
How far we've come. Look back on that Pitt game, which we barely won in overtime. Hooker played his heart out and got us over the finish line, but the game could've easily gone either way. As it turns, Pitt isn't very good. They started the season in the top 20, but they are now 4-4 against a weak SoS, which includes a loss to a bad Georgia Tech team. They haven't beat a single team with a winning record. In all reality, narrowly escaping Pitt looks bad now. So if you could have looked into the future to see Pitt's season unfold and saw our narrow win over them, it would be fair to project us as a 7-5 or 8-4 team
We've improved every week. But here's the thing ... we've improved every week since that Pitt game. Indeed, this is the most improvement I can ever remember across the season for a Tennessee team in my lifetime. I was skeptical of us after our Pitt win and even Florida, but since then, we've played like one of the best teams in the country. The win over LSU, which looked great at the time, looks even better now (unlike Pitt). And a win over Bama (even a narrow one) is a win over Bama. And we obliterated a Kentucky team that had a week to prepared and was a popular upset pick (on the basis that we would look ahead to Georgia). Our boys weren't looking ahead; Heupel keeps them focused and we destroyed Kentucky.
The D was dominant. The D, particularly the secondary has had its struggles this season, but not last night. We held Kentucky to one TD, and we even blocked the extra point. An "A" performance from the defense. We didn't even need to score 40 last night. The first TD pass to Jalin Hyatt with 13 minutes left in the 1st Quarter was enough.
Secondary looked great. By far the best performance by the secondary all season. 3 picks is just insane. Could've easily been 4 too (as we were a hair away from a pick 6 on one of Levis' passes). And while it's safe to say, they got help from the big hole Kentucky dug (forcing them to become more 1-dimensional), it doesn't take away from a dominant performance by the secondary.
Secondary looks better with McCullough. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not, but the entire secondary plays better with him on the field. Remember, we looked very good in coverage against LSU as well. Then McCullough sat out against Bama (but we also lost several others) and the seconardy looked awful. Now, it looks even better than it did against LSU. Tbf, Bryce Young is obviously an elite QB, but still just seems like pass coverage is much better with McCullough out there.
Hooker. I want to wait to the end of the season to say anything, but he's quickly moving up the list of all-time Vols QBs. We have some greats, too, with Manning, Shuler, Condredge Holloway, Casey Clausen, etc, etc.
Hyatt. It's actually crazy that I got this far into the post to mention Hyatt, but another dominant performance by him. 5 recs, 138 yards, 2 TDs. The only bad thing with Hyatt is that he's played so good this season, I can't imagine he'll stick around for his Senior year. NFL teams are taking notice. So happy for him after his struggles last season; Hyatt, alongside of Hooker, and Tillman (who remember was an afterthought under Pruitt) have all been testaments to working hard and perseverance. But how is Hyatt not in the Heisman race? Seriously?! Guy has absolutely torn apart defenses this year.
Tillman. Speaking of Tillman, it was a pleasant surprise to see him back. He didn't have a huge night, but just seeing him on the field getting some reps was great.
Bru McCoy. Quietly putting up a very good season as well. 6 recs for 54 yards. These WRs compliment each other very well, with Hyatt being the big play guy who can sprint past the defense, and Bru being a possession guy who can make the catches when you need them to move the chains.
Jaylen Wright. Best game I've seen him play in his career. 7 runs for 73 yards. And most importantly, 0 fumbles! Dude took some hits last night too, but he held onto the ball. Remember, he's just a Sophomore, so we'll likely have him for 2 more seasons, too.
O-line continues to dominate. This has quietly been the best Tennessee O-line in a long, long time.
Front 7 also had great night. Overshadowed a bit by the great secondary play, but our D had 4 sacks and 8 TFLs last night. They kept pressure on Levis which allowed the secondary to make some big plays.
That 4th and 1 hurry up. That was a thing of beauty. We had some big plays last night, but that was one of my favorite plays of the night. Heup didn't even hesitate; completely caught Kentucky off-guard.
Offense had an off night. Too many penalties and execution mistakes ... but we still won the game 44-6. Which is crazy for an "off night"! That said, hope we clean some of that up for next week versus Georgia.
On Kentucky
Will Levis. NGL, I never understood why he was being hyped as a potential #1 pick at the beginning of the season. I never saw anything from him last year that screamed out 1st round pick, and I saw him as one of the weaker QBs we faced. He looked very overrated last night, too. 16 for 27 for 98 yards, with 3 INTs (and lucky it was only that many). Our D played great, but he made a lot of poor decisions. That said ...
Kentucky OC Rich Scangarello is awful! I think this is one of the worst hires Mark Stoops could've ever made. I mentioned earlier this week that his press conference made him sound like a terrible OC. And nothing about his career resume is particularly impressive. He's implemented a pro-style offense to help Levis's draft stock. I don't claim to know what NFL scouts look after, but I can tell you this offense has made Levis look much, much worse. Last year, Levis was a threat running the football, which put pressure on our defense. This year, they don't want him running, and it's hurt his game severely. So while our D deserves a lot of credit for last night, Scangarello was an awful OC hire by Kentucky. It's almost like they are sacrificing their season to boost Levis' draft stock; and who knows if it'll even work after performances like this. Hope Kentucky keeps Scangarello for a long time, but I suspect he'll get canned after this season.
Kentucky's defense actually played well. We put up 44 points on Kentucky, but I was impressed with Kentucky's defense in the 1st half. We had several plays where I thought we'd pick up a first down or score, and Kentucky's defense closed quickly. I don't think they played poorly on defense. We were just that good.
Stoops was angry. I have nothing against Stoops, but nice to see opposing coaches going crazy trying to figure out how to defend our offense. Also maybe sweet revenge for Heupel on one of the Stoops boys.
Looking forward and Miscellany
Georgia. I've dreaded this game all season. Georgia will have the best D we face all season and we'll be on the road. This is a team that's a legit national title contender. Yet, the way we're playing right now, we have a shot. We've wildly exceeded expectations thus far this season, so I'm not going to be down if we lose next week in Athens, but if we win, this will go down as one of the best seasons in UT history.
Matchup vs UGA. While beating Georgia is going to be a monumental task, I will say, we match up better against UGA than we did against Bama. Bryce Young tore apart our struggling secondary. Our run defense has been our strength this year. Georgia is more of a running team. Still, not an easy task, but I'm excited to see if we can pull it out next week!
Oklahoma 2000. Just as a reminder, 2000 Oklahoma team with Josh Heupel as QB started the season ranked #19, had two huge upsets against the #2 and #1 teams in the country (Kansas State and Nebraska), and went on to go 13-0 and win a national title. I don't think that's going to happen for us this season, but it would be crazy if history repeated itself with Heupel.
Quant poll roundup after UK win. We're still #3 in the Massey Composite rankings, behind Georgia (#1) and Ohio State (#2). We jumped to #4 in Sagarin this week (jumping over Michigan). While some are disappointed in this, remember it's still factoring in our close wins versus Pitt and Florida. Massey has Ohio State #1, Bama #2, Georgia #3, Tennessee #4, and Michigan #5. If we beat Georgia on the road, we'll almost certainly jump in every poll (quant and human).
That is all. Wasn't even planning on doing a write-up this week, but couldn't resist.
GBO!
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