Honest Predictions for 2018

[05_never_again]

But the same thing was true last year. And UT is returning practically the same team minus all the good guys that graduated or went to the NFL. Vanderbilt won just one more game than UT. Guess which one game it was.

I think it'll be a rougher year for them this year than last year though. Vandy's defense was really bad down the stretch last year (making their defeat of us even more embarrassing), and defense is supposed to be Mason's strength.

The fact they are 4-2 against us since 2012 makes me sick to my stomach. 3 of the 4 victories haven't even been close games, either.

 

[landscapingvol]

If we are being honest with ourselves, there are three games on the schedule that are nearly impossible to win for UT at this point barring some unforeseen circumstances so that leaves nine other games. Does UT has the potential to win all of the remaining nine games? Maybe. Is it likely? No. So to me, 9-3 is the ceiling but the floor could be 3-9 if there are several key injuries or if Pruitt proves that he isn't ready to be a head coach. I don't know if there is another team in the SEC with that high of a ceiling and that low of a floor. We have the potential to be drinking early or celebrating late.

 

[MWAVolfan]

I think it'll be a rougher year for them this year than last year though. Vandy's defense was really bad down the stretch last year (making their defeat of us even more embarrassing), and defense is supposed to be Mason's strength.

The fact they are 4-2 against us since 2012 makes me sick to my stomach. 3 of the 4 victories haven't even been close games, either.

Right. And when you throw in the fact that even if Mason sucks, he's a veteran coach who knows how to beat UT and we have a first time head coach who may be dealing with loads of injuries and expectations by the end of the season that he may well not handle well.

Thanks to idiots like Dooley and Jones, Vanderbilt no longer feels like they should lose to UT every year. Don't discount things like that. Vandy was truly awful last year and they still won the game IN KNOXVILLE.

 

[05_never_again]

It hasnt stopped Vandy from beating us the past few years, has it? Ive come to realize that with UT fans you cant call that a defacto home game. People in the Nashville area are more Bama fans or big 10 fans than you think. Many of them love the novelty of watching UT lose to a crap team like Vandy and they root hard for it.

I agree that Nashville is not the UT territory that a lot of people think it is, but when we play them in Nashville it basically isn't a road game. It's always at least two-thirds orange, even when we suck. That's why losing to them anywhere is so embarrassing. Tennessee should be able to start second-stringers and beat them every single year. They are a football resource-constrained school that doesn't even care about football. They aren't even attempting to be competitive with us; they just are because we suck so bad. The fact that the "rivalry" with them has actually been competitive for the last decade might be the single-most embarrassing thing about this era of Tennessee football.

 

[UTK]

UT 34 WVU 31 W
UT 59 ETSU 3 W
UT 42 UTEP 12 W
UT 21 UF 17 W
UT 17 UGA 34 L
UT 23 AU 28 L
UT 16 Bama 30 L
UT 28 USC Jr 21 W
UT 41 Charlotte 17 W
UT 35 UK 24 W
UT 31 Mizzou 33 L
UT 45 Vandy 14 W

8-4

 

[photovol]

The 2018 Vols will be somewhere between 5-7 and 7-5...... That's my personal projection anyway
Go Vols

I have to remind myself, that as an old athlete, coaches coach and players play.
Pruitt can coach em up and motivate the players with schemes and fundamentals, but ultimately it's up to those 11 players on offense and defense.
I also have to remind myself that Pruitt took the Tennessee job knowing he will be behind the 8 ball until he gets his own players, this brings me back down to earth, unfortunately

Go Vols

 

[photovol]

I agree that Nashville is not the UT territory that a lot of people think it is, but when we play them in Nashville it basically isn't a road game. It's always at least two-thirds orange, even when we suck. That's why losing to them anywhere is so embarrassing. Tennessee should be able to start second-stringers and beat them every single year. They are a football resource-constrained school that doesn't even care about football. They aren't even attempting to be competitive with us; they just are because we suck so bad. The fact that the "rivalry" with them has actually been competitive for the last decade might be the single-most embarrassing thing about this era of Tennessee football.

5 Star post.......Telling it like it is...... The Only Way!

 

[dougvolfan]

3-9

Looking forward to being horribly wrong.

If we go 3-9 we have the wrong coach. It took Ky down to the last 33 seconds to score game winner also it was 9-9 against USCjr in the 4th. This is with the most terrible/POS coach in our history to achieve 4-8 (0-8 sec).

 

[Rifleman]

But the same thing was true last year. And UT is returning practically the same team minus all the good guys that graduated or went to the NFL. Vanderbilt won just one more game than UT. Guess which one game it was.

I don't think your case for Vandy is very persuasive. Vandy set the single season SEC record for most points allowed last year. They were not strong. They literally just lost their better players off a defense that was already, by the one key metric, the worst ever fielded in the history of SEC football. They may just break that record this year.

So, why did we lose to them then? Well, we'd fired our coach, had Brady Hoke as our interim, and pretty much no one cared anymore. There was zero effort defensively especially. That won't fly with this coaching staff.

 

[MWAVolfan]

I don't think your case for Vandy is very persuasive. Vandy set the single season SEC record for most points allowed last year. They were not strong. They literally just lost their better players off a defense that was already, by the one key metric, the worst ever fielded in the history of SEC football. They may just break that record this year.

So, why did we lose to them then? Well, we'd fired our coach, had Brady Hoke as our interim, and pretty much no one cared anymore. There was zero effort defensively especially. That won't fly with this coaching staff.

Sure, but saying that it wont fly with this coach doesnt mean much when he's dealing pretty much will all the same Butch Jones players from last year who managed to lose to that same awful team. what's he gonna do, bench the whole team for not playing hard?

My biggest fear is that Butch poisoned those player's minds to the point that they are ruined. We just have to wait to recruit new players and get all the Butch Jones stink off this team before we see big improvement. I hope I'm wrong about that but I also dont feel very good about a first time head coach who is trying to install a new offense, new defense and new culture in year 1 with a bunch of players that he didnt choose himself. Even if Pruitt is a great coach it may not matter this year.

 

[deezvols]

Improvements, that is the key. Win or lose against WVU, doesn't really matter, as long as improvements are made throughout the season. Which didn't happen last season, see the UMass game for example.

I'm on the same page. I don't really feel like the WVU game matters.

 

[MyBloodRunnethOrange]

Every game on the schedule is winnable imo with the exceptions of Georgia and Alabama. I’d include Auburn normally, but this is an even year so Auburn is normally down and we get them tired playing their 7th straight game while we come off a bye. We should all recall what that meant to us playing Alabama in 2015...we hung close to an outstanding team under the same circumstances. I think we’ll have an excellent shot to beat any of the others outside of Florida and maybe Missouri. And Vandy is anything but a pushover now that they’ve won 4 of the last 6. But I think this team wins 7, gets an unexpected upset signature win and probably loses one that they shouldn’t. We get to a middling bowl game with a shot of winning our 8th game imho.

I think we beat Florida this year, but other than that I agree with all of this. I think 7-5 is where we end up.

 

[jctenn1]

I think we win the first 4, steal 1 or 2 during the hell stretch and win the last 4...
9 wins or more...
CJP is COY

 

[checkerboards09]

I think Vanderbilt goes 3-9 and 0-8 in the SEC this season. Derek Mason will be an assistant coach at another football program in 2019.

3-9 will get a Vandy coach an extension.

 

[GrizzlyVol]

9-3 with losses to ga bama au. Call me crazy.

That's actually what I'm thinking, I don't really get the fear everyone's having over WV

 

[Vol4Life2289]

WVU - Loss
ETSU- Win
UTEP - Win
UF - Win
UGA - Loss
AUB - Loss
Bama - Loss
USCe - Loss
Charlotte- Win
UK - Win
Mizzou - Win
Vandy - Win

 

[LakeMaryFLVol]

What are your honest expectations for 2018? My best guess is we'll just miss a bowl. Close loss to Florida as usual, and revenge against UK, and a blowout of Vandy to go 2-6 in conference. I also think we play a good game at Auburn coming off the bye week.

UT 21 WVU 31
UT 70 ETSU 0
UT 38 UTEP 3
UT 21 UF 22
UT 6 UGA 30
UT 13 AU 17
UT 10 BAMA 34
UT 24 USC 28
UT 45 Charl 20
UT 30 UK 28
UT 23 Mizz 30
UT 48 Vandy 3

Florida, USC, Kentucky and Mizzou will be the nail-biter games decided by a few key plays. As I look at it more, I think the schedule really works against us, but maybe we can get one more of those and get to a bowl.

Sept 1

West Virginia (Charlotte) W

Sept. 8

EAST TENNESSEE STATE W

Sept. 15

UTEP W

Sept. 22

FLORIDA W

Sept. 29

at Georgia L

Oct. 6

Open Date W J

Oct. 13

at Auburn L

Oct. 20

ALABAMA L

Oct. 27

at South Carolina L

Nov. 3

UNC-CHARLOTTE W

Nov. 10

KENTUCKY W

Nov. 17

MISSOURI W

Nov. 24

at Vanderbilt W



Jan. 1

Outback Bowl

Penn State W

 

[VEKZY]

We will win: ETSU, UTEP, Charlotte, Vandy, UK
Toss-up: WV, UF, Mizz, Scar
Lose: UGA, Bama, Auburn

 

[Johncarter53]

WV- L
ETSU - W
UTEP - W
UF - L
UGA - L
AUB - L
Alabama - L
USC - W
Charlotte- W
UK - W
Missouri- W
Vandy - W

 

[TexasVolfan1]

Completely new offense and defense is tough to overcome and we don’t have much depth. These 9 win predictions are crazy, even Saban and Kirby only won 7 their first seasons. 6-6 is my expectation anything past that is great

 

[VFL-82-JP]

If Tennessee hypothetically was to beat WVU and UF, I don't know why I see so many of yall picking us losing to USCjr.

I see two main reasons for the Gamecocks getting as much respect as they are on these boards:

1 - that game comes at the end of a brutal gauntlet (UGa-Auburn-Bama), so our lads are going to be worn out and sore.
2 - a karma thing; the USCe coach seems to have the key to Tennessee's locker room, somehow.

Now, I'm not saying either of those are definitive reasons to expect an L that weekend. Just saying I can see the angles being taken by folks who do expect that result.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

It hasnt stopped Vandy from beating us the past few years, has it? Ive come to realize that with UT fans you cant call that a defacto home game. People in the Nashville area are more Bama fans or big 10 fans than you think. Many of them love the novelty of watching UT lose to a crap team like Vandy and they root hard for it.

MWA, you are full of it.

Nashville bleeds orange. Davidson County bleeds orange. All the towns around Nashville bleed orange, with the possible exception of Frankllin; several VN.com members who live there say that place is a hot bed of Bama and Vandy fans.

 

[checkerboards09]

Completely new offense and defense is tough to overcome and we don’t have much depth. These 9 win predictions are crazy, even Saban and Kirby only won 7 their first seasons. 6-6 is my expectation anything past that is great

Mahlzahn went to the NC game his first year at Auburn.

 

[SweetDaddy]

WVU L
ETSU W
UTEP W
UF L
UGA L
AU L
Bama L
USC W
Charlotte W
UK W
Mizzou L
Vandy W

 

[catss350]

Mahlzahn went to the NC game his first year at Auburn.

I like the way you think....