ESPN: Vols have the most lopsided schedule in the SEC

#1
Dobbs 4 Heisman

Dobbs 4 Heisman

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ESPN: Tennessee Vols football has 'most lopsided' schedule in SEC in 2016

So a lot of people think having our 4 toughest games (Florida, at Georgia, at A&M, and Alabama) in 4 consecutive weeks at the beginning of the season is a disadvantage.

I disagree.

I believe having all those games early in the season and in consecutive weeks is to our advantage. We're now a veteran team with the most returning starters in the SEC. Playing our toughest opponents early gives us the advantage since we have more returning talent with lots of experience. A lot of these other teams will be breaking in lots of new starters that we won't. This continuity is greater advantage for us early in the season than in late November.

In addition, winning builds momentum. If we beat Florida, the momentum from that win could power us to a better than expected performance the following weeks.

All in all, I love the way the schedule falls for us.
 
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#2
#2
I wouldn't want Ole Miss' schedule.

Florida State neutral site
Wofford
Alabama
Georgia
Memphis
bye
@Arkansas
@LSU
Auburn
Georgia Southern
@Texas A&M
@Vanderbilt
Mississippi State

That's rougher than ours, I would argue.
 
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#3
#3
BigSteve09 said:
I wouldn't want Ole Miss' schedule.

Florida State neutral site
Wofford
Alabama
Georgia
Memphis
bye
@Arkansas
@LSU
Auburn
Georgia Southern
@Texas A&M
@Vanderbilt
Mississippi State

That's rougher than ours, I would argue.
Click to expand...

Much rougher. I think Ole Miss, Southern Cal, and Alabama have the toughest schedules in the country.

Our schedule in contrast looks rather easy. Most of the folks here like to stress themselves out worrying about everything but our schedule is EASY.

We play only 4 real games of which we'll be favored in all but one.

Our schedule screams 11-1.
 
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#4
#4
With our schedule, 11 wins would be ideal, 10 wins seems reasonable, and 9 wins or less would be a disappointment. The only thing that would make up for a 9 win season would be if we beat Bama in Atlanta. But 9 wins to get to Atlanta would probably be a stressful season anyway, and VN would explode.
 
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#5
#5
That's an interesting way to look at it and might be true considering the uncertainty or inexperience many of our opponents will have at QB.
 
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#7
#7
I agree, if we do in fact, beat Florida, then go to Athens and get a victory, we will be pumped when we get to A&M. Now if we go 3-0 in that stretch, all he11 will break loose when our team gets home to play Alabubba. Neyland will be rocking like we've not seen in years.
 
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#8
#8
Sound theory, for a chess tournament.
Unfortunately football is a physical sport. Better teams get in bigger and harder hits. The more big games you play in a row, the less time, the guys you need the most, have to recover.

You don't want Dobbs getting sacked to the ground on his shoulder three weeks in a row, then passing against Alabama.
That's one example but replace Dobbs with any player that takes a lot of physical contact
 
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#10
#10
BigSteve09 said:
I wouldn't want Ole Miss' schedule.

Florida State neutral site
Wofford
Alabama
Georgia
Memphis
bye
@Arkansas
@LSU
Auburn
Georgia Southern
@Texas A&M
@Vanderbilt
Mississippi State

That's rougher than ours, I would argue.
Click to expand...

Except for FSU, it's very comparable to our schedule. We play four of the same teams. Appy State, Ohio, and VA Tech are better than Wofford, Memphis, and GA Southern. Florida is our LSU. ARK, MSU, and Auburn are only slightly better than SC, MO, and KY.
 
#11
#11
Dobbs 4 Heisman said:
ESPN: Tennessee Vols football has 'most lopsided' schedule in SEC in 2016

So a lot of people think having our 4 toughest games (Florida, at Georgia, at A&M, and Alabama) in 4 consecutive weeks at the beginning of the season is a disadvantage.

I disagree.

I believe having all those games early in the season and in consecutive weeks is to our advantage. We're now a veteran team with the most returning starters in the SEC. Playing our toughest opponents early gives us the advantage since we have more returning talent with lots of experience. A lot of these other teams will be breaking in lots of new starters that we won't. This continuity is greater advantage for us early in the season than in late November.

In addition, winning builds momentum. WHEN we beat Florida, the momentum from that win could power us to a better than expected performance the following weeks.

All in all, I love the way the schedule falls for us.
Click to expand...

:hi:
 
#12
#12
this is not new information.

we've always had an easy November. we've always had a front loaded schedule.

it's been this way for a long long time, and it's apparently not changing, save some conference re structuring that i don't see happening, any time soon.

it's something i've tried to discuss before in regards to how relevant TN can be in the conference and nationally, how perception will affect us should we get in to play off talk, and how it's affected post season individual awards.

the old saying, they remember what you did in November, applies to everyone but TN because we very rarely (01 FL being a lone exception) play a game of consequence past the Bama game.

so while OSU/Mich, Bama/Auburn, FL/GA, FL/FSU, GA/GT, Clem/USC, USC/UCLA etc....are all playing each other...we're playing Vandy, KY and MO. and no one cares.

i still think that's why Manning dind't win the the heisman. the day Woodson went off against Ohio State on national TV, Manning was putting up 500+ yards and 5 TD's against KY on regional tv.

our schedule has always been set up this way. and it's not always been because that's the way we wanted it to be.
 
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#16
#16
in light of not having a c'ship game, the Big 12 re arranged it's conf scheduling to put more of the marquis games at the end of hte year for the very specific reason of perception.

so while there's a certain advantage to how our schedule plays out from a competitive stand point....perception can change. what we did in September may not look as impressive by Thanksgiving, especially if some of those teams falter down the stretch.

so yes, it's an advantage if...

1) we manage to make it out of Sept undefeated more than 5 times in 25 tries.
2) the teams we beat in sept/early october, go on to have quality seasons
3) we don't get complacent and "look" like we play down to the competition
4) find a way to play in early December in ATL. do that and you're relevant, no matter what.

to me, and i've been saying this forever it feels like....the front part of our schedule is so important BECAUSE after the first 5-6 weeks, usually our path is laid out in concrete, and there's no playing catch up. we either are relevant after week 6, or we're a complete afterthought.

and given our performance in September, generally speaking, we've found ourselves in the "hoping FL loses" camp, thus making us irrelevant.

it'll be nice, for the first time in a while, to see how we can play the rest of the schedule out, if we could get out of Sept undefeated.

Beating FL is HUGE. it automatically makes every game from that point forward that much more relevant to the conf, and nationally.
 
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#17
#17
I wouldn't call our schedule front-loaded this year. Center-loaded is more like it.

In the past couple of decades, the Vols' schedule has always taken on one of two aspects, depending on how imposing an OOC opponent we arranged.

In years with a very strong OOC foe (Oregon, Oklahoma, etc.), our schedule has been front-loaded: two hard games in September (the major OOC foe and either FL or UGa) ... 3-4 hard games in October (the other of FL/UGa, Bama, other SEC-W, and in some years a challenging USCe) ... and an easy November (Vandy, Kentucky, another OOC). Recap: 2 hard and 2 easy in Sep, 3-4 hard in Oct, 0 hard in Nov.

But in years where our best OOC opponent is not so dominating (NC State, Va Tech), it looks more like this: 3 easy games in Sep ... 1 hard game at the tail end of Sep, kicking off the Oct gauntlet ... 3-4 tough Oct games ... and easy Nov. So recap: 3 easy, then 4-5 hard, then 4-5 easy.

The Mountain is always in the middle for us. Only sometimes there's a mountain at the start, too. Not this year.
 
#18
#18
VFL-82-JP said:
I wouldn't call our schedule front-loaded this year. Center-loaded is more like it.

In the past couple of decades, the Vols' schedule has always taken on one of two aspects, depending on how imposing an OOC opponent we arranged.

In years with a very strong OOC foe (Oregon, Oklahoma, etc.), our schedule has been front-loaded: two hard games in September (the major OOC foe and either FL or UGa) ... 3-4 hard games in October (the other of FL/UGa, Bama, other SEC-W, and in some years a challenging USCe) ... and an easy November (Vandy, Kentucky, another OOC). Recap: 2 hard and 2 easy in Sep, 3-4 hard in Oct, 0 hard in Nov.

But in years where our best OOC opponent is not so dominating (NC State, Va Tech), it looks more like this: 3 easy games in Sep ... 1 hard game at the tail end of Sep, kicking off the Oct gauntlet ... 3-4 tough Oct games ... and easy Nov. So recap: 3 easy, then 4-5 hard, then 4-5 easy.

The Mountain is always in the middle for us. Only sometimes there's a mountain at the start, too. Not this year.
Click to expand...
appreciate the technical correction to my post.

here's the only point i'm making....we play FL most ever year in September, and prior to the 12 game schedule, we played them many times in week 2 or 3.

20 times in the last 25 times we've come out of September, before the season really even gets started, in the back seat of the East division.

break it down however you want, but that's front loaded.

many other conferences and teams have those big time marquis, conference deciding games much later in the season, thus allowing those teams the opportunity to remain relevant in their conf races for longer than 3 weeks in to the season.

i realize that's mainly our fault because we've lost way more than we've won that game. but it is what it is.

by week 6 (1/2 way point) many times our season is basically done, at least as far as the division is concerned....
 
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#19
#19
chargervol said:
Sound theory, for a chess tournament.
Unfortunately football is a physical sport. Better teams get in bigger and harder hits. The more big games you play in a row, the less time, the guys you need the most, have to recover.

You don't want Dobbs getting sacked to the ground on his shoulder three weeks in a row, then passing against Alabama.
That's one example but replace Dobbs with any player that takes a lot of physical contact
Click to expand...

Hopefully Dobbs isn't taking too many hits like that
 
#20
#20
Jake, I was really responding more to the article quoted in the OP than your post in particular.

I've always seen our schedule as mostly middle-loaded, with front-loading on top of that when we play a top-tier OOC opponent.

But I do absolutely see your point. As long as we're getting Florida and/or Georgia in mid/late September, that first month will never be without challenge.
 
#21
#21
VFL-82-JP said:
Jake, I was really responding more to the article quoted in the OP than your post in particular.

I've always seen our schedule as mostly middle-loaded, with front-loading on top of that when we play a top-tier OOC opponent.

But I do absolutely see your point. As long as we're getting Florida and/or Georgia in mid/late September, that first month will never be without challenge.
Click to expand...
the challenge is less of a concern than the potential finality of the season after that game.

maybe it's because we've lost it so much and been put in the position of playing catch up and hoping someone else loses, that my opinion is swayed to feel this way.

i'm sure looking thru FL lens, it probably seems fairly advantageous to get that win under the belt.
 
#22
#22
Dobbs 4 Heisman said:
ESPN: Tennessee Vols football has 'most lopsided' schedule in SEC in 2016

So a lot of people think having our 4 toughest games (Florida, at Georgia, at A&M, and Alabama) in 4 consecutive weeks at the beginning of the season is a disadvantage.

I disagree.

I believe having all those games early in the season and in consecutive weeks is to our advantage. We're now a veteran team with the most returning starters in the SEC. Playing our toughest opponents early gives us the advantage since we have more returning talent with lots of experience. A lot of these other teams will be breaking in lots of new starters that we won't. This continuity is greater advantage for us early in the season than in late November.

In addition, winning builds momentum. If we beat Florida, the momentum from that win could power us to a better than expected performance the following weeks.

All in all, I love the way the schedule falls for us.
Click to expand...

I thought about this too D4H.

Assuming we take care of business to kick off all of CFB against App St. we will have a lot of buzz heading into an extra few days to prepare for the BABristol.

In that game we will be playing a tricky VT team with a solid D (able to retain Bud Foster) but that will be going through a complete Offensive overhaul. There is very little chance Fuente will have them ready to go that early.

Given what I think VT could look like I could see that game looking like Iowa or Northwestern where were wear them down and once some turnovers start happening we explode for a huge win.

Take that momentum and a 3-0 start into the biggest home game in Neyland stadium in a decade against a Florida team that will be just slightly less talented on D (still loaded) but will have a walk on transfer QB playing his first real road game ever. We have a shot to turn that game into a blowout as well. Which I think we need to so the "oh SHHHHHHH here we go again" factor doesn't come back.

Then after beating UF our team's confidence will be soaring heading to our first road game against UGA.

This is where I am torn. Does our team handle that success and just get more fired up and play even more motivated and beat a team with a likely freshman QB starting, or do they let the great start get to their heads and think a 1 or 2 loss UGA team is "beneath" them and let a tricky talented team trip our season up?

I like our path to a 4-0 start it is that UGA game where I get concerned.
 
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#24
#24
volboy81 said:
Not to mention the Big 10 (14) grind known as Illinois, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland & Purdue! (They have 5 Vanderbilts!)
Click to expand...

Pft, Indiana's much better than Vanderbilt at this point. (No blue font)

(But to the best of my knowledge, no one plays all of those teams next season.)
 
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#25
#25
BigSteve09 said:
I wouldn't want Ole Miss' schedule.

Florida State neutral site
Wofford
Alabama
Georgia
Memphis
bye
@Arkansas
@LSU
Auburn
Georgia Southern
@Texas A&M
@Vanderbilt
Mississippi State

That's rougher than ours, I would argue.
Click to expand...

A lot rougher. The only rough thing about our schedule is the 4 game stretch... If it was separated it would be a super easy schedule. It's already pretty easy
 
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