Here's a crazy thought

[Besteresque]

How about we start focusing on being consistently ranked across 2-3 seasons before we crank up the expectations to Playoffs/SEC Title or bust?

This fanbase, remarkably, has forgotten how bad we have been for the last decade.

Three years ago we were struggling for bowl eligibility, and now, we are on track to have our best season since 2001. Butch still has the very real possibility of continuing to increase our win total by 2 wins each year he has been here (5,7,9,11?). Calm down people and look at the big picture.

 

[jkleno]

How about we start focusing on being consistently ranked across 2-3 seasons before we crank up the expectations to Playoffs/SEC Title or bust?

This fanbase, remarkably, has forgotten how bad we have been for the last decade.

Three years ago we were struggling for bowl eligibility, and now, we are on track to have our best season since 2001. Butch still has the very real possibility of continuing to increase our win total by 2 wins each year he has been here (5,7,9,11?). Calm down people and look at the big picture.

"Crazy" thought is right.

 

[tbones0711]

How about we start focusing on being consistently ranked across 2-3 seasons before we crank up the expectations to Playoffs/SEC Title or bust?

This fanbase, remarkably, has forgotten how bad we have been for the last decade.

Three years ago we were struggling for bowl eligibility, and now, we are on track to have our best season since 2001. Butch still has the very real possibility of continuing to increase our win total by 2 wins each year he has been here (5,7,9,11?). Calm down people and look at the big picture.

there's a chance we could go 12-2 or 11-3, 10-4 or worse.

 

[Besteresque]

there's a chance we could go 12-2 or 11-3, 10-4 or worse.

Exactly my point; when was the last time we had any chance of reaching those win totals in late October? Butch is continuing to build this program back to sustained relevance. Once we have achieved continued success, we can turn our attention to elite excellence.

 

[Voltopia]

The big picture is, sadly, that we're almost 20 years out from our last national title and we just got demolished by our main rival for the tenth year in the row. The big picture is Lane Kiffin throwing his visor to the crowd in Neyland and Bama player smoking cigars and taking photos on our field.

Wins and losses, they matter, but you don't get to keep them. Last year's 9 wins are gone. They don't matter anymore. Each team, each season, has its own wins to earn. So when should we have expectations? Year 5? Year 6? Year 8? When is it alright to have expectations? When should Tennessee have expectations like Alabama or Ohio State has (and had) expectations?

I think the reality is that you have opportunities. No matter your team's age, depth, experience, you have opportunities, and you either take advantage of them or you don't. 4th and half a yard from Oklahoma's endzone is an opportunity. Being up 13 on Florida in the 4th quarter on the road is an opportunity. Having time for one Hail Mary pass from the Georgia 44 yard line is an opportunity. You have those opportunities, some good, some not so good, but you have those opportunities to change the course of your team's season. You either take advantage of them or you don't.

And I say this thinking Tennessee has come a long way. They have! We've come a world from 2010. A long way. But it's now the fourth year, and you have to start taking advantage of the opportunities. (playing Alabama after 5 straight games was not an opportunity, for the record, just more of a kiss of death)

 

[Besteresque]

The big picture is, sadly, that we're almost 20 years out from our last national title and we just got demolished by our main rival for the tenth year in the row. The big picture is Lane Kiffin throwing his visor to the crowd in Neyland and Bama player smoking cigars and taking photos on our field.

Wins and losses, they matter, but you don't get to keep them. Last year's 9 wins are gone. They don't matter anymore. Each team, each season, has its own wins to earn. So when should we have expectations? Year 5? Year 6? Year 8? When is it alright to have expectations? When should Tennessee have expectations like Alabama or Ohio State has (and had) expectations?

I think the reality is that you have opportunities. No matter your team's age, depth, experience, you have opportunities, and you either take advantage of them or you don't. 4th and half a yard from Oklahoma's endzone is an opportunity. Being up 13 on Florida in the 4th quarter on the road is an opportunity. Having time for one Hail Mary pass from the Georgia 44 yard line is an opportunity. You have those opportunities, some good, some not so good, but you have those opportunities to change the course of your team's season. You either take advantage of them or you don't.

And I say this thinking Tennessee has come a long way. They have! We've come a world from 2010. A long way. But it's now the fourth year, and you have to start taking advantage of the opportunities. (playing Alabama after 5 straight games was not an opportunity, for the record, just more of a kiss of death)

We should maintain a long term focus when setting our expectations for any given year. You are loosing the forest for the trees. Look at the trends, and don't forget where the starting point was located.

If we had spent the majority of the last two decades falling just short of meeting our goals of reaching the national title game, then we would be justifiably upset about this loss and its impact on our national title expectations. However, we spent the majority of the last decade wondering through the wilderness. Our expectations should be appropriatly tempered by our recent (2-3 year) performance.

Again, once we have shown over a 2-3 year period that we can sustain reasonable success and regain our reputation as a Top 25 program, then we can, justifiably, turn our attention to being a Top 5 program and national title contender.

It doesn't just come overnight.

 

[OrangeWayOfLife]

How about we start focusing on being consistently ranked across 2-3 seasons before we crank up the expectations to Playoffs/SEC Title or bust?

This fanbase, remarkably, has forgotten how bad we have been for the last decade.

Three years ago we were struggling for bowl eligibility, and now, we are on track to have our best season since 2001. Butch still has the very real possibility of continuing to increase our win total by 2 wins each year he has been here (5,7,9,11?). Calm down people and look at the big picture.

That's not allowed here, is freak out, absolutes, or you're just a sheep sunshine pumper. No one picked us to win this game prior to the season when we had all our guys, we lose half of the roster and get gassed in our 4th huge game in a row and now it's time to fire Butch because every top program wins a national title by year 3,

 

[Voltopia]

That's not allowed here, is freak out, absolutes, or you're just a sheep sunshine pumper. No one picked us to win this game prior to the season when we had all our guys, we lose half of the roster and get gassed in our 4th huge game in a row and now it's time to fire Butch because every top program wins a national title by year 3,

Actually I heard a lot of the talking heads saying that Bama was a better game for Tennessee than Texas A&M on the road (though they won't be saying anything like that for a while after this past Saturday, I imagine). And with all the injuries, I didn't expect Tennessee to win the Bama game. I don't want anyone fired. I'm not all up in arms. But the thing about "winning a national title by year three" has some merit.

NYTimes: Want A National Title? Hire A Coach And Wait Three Years

I'm not trying or asking for anyone to be fired, I think we are getting better to some extent, but there is some merit to the idea that if you're going to get there you'll get there within a certain window -- at least that's how's it's been over the past decade. Saban and to some extent Urban Meyer have skewed the measurement of success out of the ballpark. It used to be teams would sniff a national title every so often and everyone was fine with that. But Saban has shown there's another gear college programs can get to. He absolutely has. He's a once-in-a-lifetime coach but he has shown it's possible to sustain success over periods of time. Meyer's sort of done the same, his teams are always on the cusp of title games as well.

Tennessee's chances to make that happen -- those are the opportunities I was talking about. Think about this. Tennessee almost had a W against Oklahoma and Florida, by all rights should have won both those games, lost to Arkansas 20-24, and was leading #1 Alabama 14-13 in the fourth quarter last year. Tennessee had a very real opportunity to be 11-1 or 12-0 last year going into the SECCG. Now the breaks happen, we make certain decisions, don't make others, and we didn't get there. My point is, there was an opportunity for Tennessee to actually make the playoffs in year 3, just like the new article said, and we just couldn't punch the cards for it. Those don't happen all the time. I don't think those are things you get through incremental improvement; you just take those moments as they come. We may get another opportunity down the road, or we may not. We should win out this year, and maybe we'll get an chance to play in Atlanta, and that will represent an opportunity as well. Maybe we'll get that chance and shock everyone. I certainly hope so.