Here's an interesting question for the group to think about. Do you think Tennessee football will ever get back to being the powerhouse it once was?

[chas]

YES with the right coaching staff and great recruiting

 

[ru4real-really?]

Regardless--Yes, I do!

 

[Longshank]

He had the number 5 class in the country, the day he was fired., including, Tajh Boyd and Bryce Petty, the QB that went to Baylor and lit it up. As far has hiring. Nobody can really say Dave Clawson was a bad hire. 11 months on the job. Also 11 months removed from being in Atlanta!

O-2 vs saban. O-3 vs Meyer. Like 2-5 vs richt. Saban crushed him with a bad bama team.

 

[coffeevol]

No. The game has changed and it is only going to get more difficult. We should enjoy the wins and winning seasons. I would say give us an average that is between 7-9 wins with the occasional 5 win season and the occasional 10+ winning season and I'll take the next 20 years.

 

[Boca Vol]

Did you know We used to be 1 of only 2 teams that had never lost 8 games in a season?

I was not aware of such a monumental accomplishment. I'm glad UT only played 10 games last season.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

To answer your question we need to understand a few things.
First - What constitutes a "powerhouse"? 8-12 wins per year? Number of championships? Number of bowl wins?
Second - To me you must not look at only a good/great period of time. You must look at the overall history of a program.
Third - I think you should leave out the long past history. I would start from say 1950. To me the ability of hearing and then seeing the game from that point is far enough back.
Fourth - The measuring stick. You would need to know the average wins by all "big time teams" per year. Then our own average. Then apply these averages to your definition of powerhouse. Now where does UT fall in this situation. Have we ever been a powerhouse in this equation?

Honestly, everything before universal integration, which I believe was 1972, is too alien of a brand of football to even begin to compare to today's game.

 

[1Volnation]

Yes

 

[VolinMC]

Eh,eventually it can happen. Maybe in 5 years or 50 years,,,,no one knows for sure. I just hope it happens before my dirt nap so I can see it happen.

 

[TNnative]

One can hope..

One can buy Powerball and Mega Millions tickets for every drawing. And you might win both on consecutive days. I would think the odds of Tennessee football returning to Championship form is about twice as unlikely. And that is due to how some twits will always find a way to screw it up.

 

[Behr]

I was not aware of such a monumental accomplishment. I'm glad UT only played 10 games last season.

Us true fans were aware and we're devastated.

 

[ksgovols]

I'm glad there's not a poll attached...........

 

[Boca Vol]

Us true fans were aware and we're devastated.

I love "true fan" posts and threads.

 

[butchna]

Yes. There’s a platform and a fanbase behind it. Ready for the soul to get things going.

 

[rjd970]

No. The game has changed and it is only going to get more difficult. We should enjoy the wins and winning seasons. I would say give us an average that is between 7-9 wins with the occasional 5 win season and the occasional 10+ winning season and I'll take the next 20 years.

This. It's a sad reality.

 

[Baulder]

I was not aware of such a monumental accomplishment. I'm glad UT only played 10 games last season.

Was one proud thing we could hold on to in the depths of mediocrity and then Butch killed that too on the way out the door.

 

[BDP!]

Yes

 

[rocky top buzz]

This is a loaded question, Tennessee has the financial resources to compete and be a powerhouse, but the Vols have lost a generation+ of new Vol fans. This means that over the next 10-20 years they will lose donors. Tennessee has not been viewed as a powerhouse for over a decade now by recruits or coaches. This will continue till UT has strung 3-4 solid winning seasons in a row, which is highly unlikely due to the demonstrated mismanagement of Tennessee's administration. I hope Heupel can be a good coach that can right this program but I fear the deck and odds are greatly stacked against him.

I do not think the 2 issues are correlated. Is UT's attendance going down? That is where future donors will mostly come from. And the fact that middle Tennessee is booming and UT Knoxville is the state's flagship school, I think will continue to grow. I don't think money will be an issue. As far as football succes, if Clemson can have their success, UT can because there are several advantages over Clemson (which is the 2nd most popular school in their state).

 

[VolRage]

I absolutely believe we can be a powerhouse again. If Clemson can hijack our program and do what they’ve done in 12 years or so then there is no reason we can’t do the same. Bama won’t always be Bama, Clemson will fall off eventually. UGA wasn’t even a contender for the East for the first 10 years of division play . Everything goes in cycles, if we find the right combo of coaches, quarterbacks and playmakers I don’t think it will take as long as others would think.

You probably have a valid point regarding Clemson. Would Clemson be where they are today if Tennessee hadn’t of dropped off the map? There was a time when TN pulled a ton of talent out of NC, SC, GA, etc…..that kept a ton of talent away from Clemson and the Gamecocks. I believe Tennessee being down has helped Clemson rise and they'll suffer when Tennessee starts to gain momentum.

 

[sona]

I don't see a return to those days. Our opponents would have to take a dive down the shitter while we enjoyed a meteoric rise just to break even.

 

[allen phillips]

Thoughts?

The main two reasons I think the NCCA is going to make it as hard on us as they can is that 1. In the last two years or so the NCCA has seen its influence and power dimming with the politics of sports in America. They will relish showing what damage they can still do by *****ing on us. 2. The UT administration for the last 25 years has shown that they have no balls to stand up to the NCCA and therefore will do as it has done so many times, they will bend over and drop their drawers and ask the NCCA to please make it easy.

 

[harrit4]

Tennessee will absolutely become a powerhouse again. This current staff has an offense that is on the cutting edge, and Heupel has designed elite offenses in the SEC on this level, so I anticipate more of that happening here in Knoxville. I look at that defense staff with Martinez, and Garner, there are some proud men on that side of the ball who won't accept being the scapegoat for why this thing didn't get turned around. My guess is by 2024, Oklahoma may be looking to re-schedule that trip to East Tennessee for that date with these Vols. Hope some of those transfers are still on their roster too.

 

[Volfan76]

Depends on the administration making a commitment to winning and ultimately for the customer base to stop settling for mediocrity. We aren't on track for it to happen in the next decade.

 

[GVF]

Should we talk about how many games we are giving Huepel until we run him out of town or how Rick Barnes can't recruit?

No, we just think people that joined the board last month should scan the existing thread titles from same said topic that strapped the dead horse down a dozen times....in same said time frame.

 

[Boca Vol]

Was one proud thing we could hold on to in the depths of mediocrity and then Butch killed that too on the way out the door.

Did Behr put you up to this? I'm not taking the bait...

I should have used the blue font on my original post.

 

[butchna]

Depends on the administration making a commitment to winning and ultimately for the customer base to stop settling for mediocrity. We aren't on track for it to happen in the next decade.

Customer base has no effect on-field.