Excitement in the air reminiscent to 98 Vols

#51
#51
utfantilidie said:
Just wanna be the first to post that. Gotta believe no?
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firefly-serenity.gif
 
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#52
#52
CAVPUT said:
Since they're the only one we have a snowballs chance of beating, I agree. Don't think we can take both Pitt and UF so I'll gladly take the gators if I can only get one.
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After watching both of those games, there is no real reason we can't win both. GBO!
 
#54
#54
Oh good grief...does someone HAVE to do this every year? We played ball st for crying out loud. No offense, but it worries me that some of you are out there voting.
 
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#56
#56
dduncan4163 said:
I'd say it feels like 2006 or 2015. Not expecting a championship but I do think we're capable of slaying some giants this year. All I want is 1 of the big 3 preferably Florida. We beat Florida the season will be a success. Well, for me at least.
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Feels more like 2006 to me.
 
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#61
#61
It feels a lot more like the 1986 year to me. UT had just started to gain momentum, they didn't have a room full of 5 stars but was a team of brothers. With the whole vibe of culture and brotherhood; we will look back 10 years at this team knowing it was the catalyst of the rise of UT back to relevance.
 
#62
#62
We have a great coach . We have a two dimensional qb. A year experience with coach. Probably a lot will fall on our running backs if we can reach the pinnacle again. I know I’m excited but the most realistic chance we’ve had about 20 years .
 
#67
#67
Voltopia said:
Tell me you didn't just compare the excitement around Tennessee football today with the excitement around a Tennessee football team that had Al Wilson, Raynoch Thompson, Chad Clifton, Jamal Lewis, Peerless Price, Darwin Walker, Travis Henry, Cosey Coleman, Corey Terry, Shaun Ellis, Deon Grant, Shawn Bryson, Jeff Hall, superstar Peter Warrick headhunter David Leaverton, oh, and a 50-11 record in its last five seasons.

I love your spirit, man, but c'mon now.
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Going to have fun with this:

QB - I think you have to give Hooker the nod over Tee
Tillman previous year (1081) over Peerless Price previous year - 698
I think a tie between Bru McCoy and Cedric Wilson is also fair, as CW had only caught 77 yards in '97.

Stephens and Henry and Lewis averaged 2, 4 and 4.6 yards per carry respectively in 97.

Bryson was a solid utility guy.

Small averaged 5.7 last year, Whitehead averaged 6.7, but we have no one else proven back there. Albeit, Sampson apparently looks the part. I still have the give the edge to Lewis, Henry and Stephens as they all went to the NFL and played well.

Al Wilson had 83 tackles in 97. Banks had 128
Raynoch had 67. Beasley had 84, Mitchell had 62 his last full year. Hard to say here, but I'm still giving the nod to the bunch that won it. Albeit, this group could be really good.

We had some big uglies on both sides of the ball. Can't remember them all. Jury is still out on our current OL. It was just Ball St., But my lord Hooker has all day AND night to throw the ball. Still, we have to give the OL that won the NC the nod. We do have Cooper and Wright on this OL.

Our Dline wasn't too impressive unless they brought the rush, but it seems like we did that a lot the year we won an NC. I'm giving our 98 DLs the nod. They won an NC.

Edge, could you compare Ellis to Young on the End? Who was our best DE then? Ellis had 2 sacks the previous year. Young had 5.5. Is Baron going to complete that edge? Neither did much against Ball St.

DBs? Who do we have that are as good as Deon Grant. Game changer. Had almost 70 tackles his senior year. Burrell did start out his first game with 8! Hadden looks decent. But we have a lot of questions marks there. We looked pretty bad in the beginning of Ball St.

Other things to consider are how good the teams are from top to bottom in the SEC vs back then.

We don't have a complete roster.

Some numbers are bloated. If Banks averages the same amount of tackles he got against Ball St. He only gets 72 tackles. Beasley gets 96 though and Burrell too (even though he is a FB) Point is, part of the reason these numbers are high from last year is how much our Defense was on the field.

Plus there is the entire point that a lot of these guys I'm mentioning on the NC were not starters the previous year.

Anyways... it gets interesting when you look at the numbers, but I still think a lot of that is subjective.

I'm sure I missed plenty of reasons it is highly unlikely.
 
#70
#70
Voltopia said:
Tell me you didn't just compare the excitement around Tennessee football today with the excitement around a Tennessee football team that had Al Wilson, Raynoch Thompson, Chad Clifton, Jamal Lewis, Peerless Price, Darwin Walker, Travis Henry, Cosey Coleman, Corey Terry, Shaun Ellis, Deon Grant, Shawn Bryson, Jeff Hall, superstar Peter Warrick headhunter David Leaverton, oh, and a 50-11 record in its last five seasons.

I love your spirit, man, but c'mon now.
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I will throw in a starter you didn't mention because it leads into a huge difference between now and then when it comes to the cultural maturity of the program.

In 1994, we signed the best class in the country, and it included a top 5 OT from Louisiana named Jarvis Reado. Can you imagine us pulling such a recruit from there now? Reado didn't really pan out as expected. He didn't start until 1998, when he was a 5th year senior. He was tough but not ever dominant. He did contribute though.

The point is ... in the late 90's even our busts were good. That is nothing like what we have now.
 
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