If we had defeated Cal to start the season..?

#1
tango

tango

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#1
This is my second wake-up of the morning....

just saw that Stanford (4-8) defeated Cal yesterday.

Does anyone think our season would perhaps have turned out differently if we had beat them to start things off?

I'm thinking it's quite possible...

From a mental standpoint, we beat Cal, we go into the UF game 2-0 with a lot of confidence... I think we beat UF which only adds to that confidence.

Kids with confidence just play better, ,IMO. They make tackles.. they don't drop passes... etc. etc.

Seriously, Cal turned out to be nothing special, but I believe that had he won that game, we might have been undefeated going into the SECCG... in fact, it's possible we end up #1 going into the NC.

just wondering if anybody else thinks that loss to Cal to start the season had a bigger impact on our season as a whole than perhaps we realize...
 
#2
#2
If my Aunt had balls, she'd be my Uncle. Trying to figure out this question now is as useless as pondering how we can get Peyton his Heisman Trophy. It doesnt matter any more. Cal was a totally different team at the start of the year that was 100% hell bent on proving to everyone that they could beat an SEC team. Hell.... they were talking about Jackson winning the Heisman after they played us. Injuries killed Cal and our team is totally different too. You want to ponder a real question.... Ask why we dont switch the Florida game to the end of the year instead of the beginning.
 
#4
#4
vol stuck in irishcountry said:
This is not the same Cal team as the start of the season, they lost a TON of starters due to injury.
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Justify however helps you feel good, but we got our hats handed to us by a mediocre Cal team with a pathetic defense.

Let's be honest, our D at that time was one of the worst units in the nation.
 
#5
#5
BigPapaVol said:
Justify however helps you feel good, but we got our hats handed to us by a mediocre Cal team with a pathetic defense.

Let's be honest, our D at that time was one of the worst units in the nation.
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I agree about our Defense but Cal were not mediocre from the start. You cant argue at all that Cal is not the same team right now than the beginning of the season.
 
#6
#6
CovVol said:
I agree about our Defense but Cal were not mediocre from the start. You cant argue at all that Cal is not the same team right now than the beginning of the season.
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I'm not, but much of their early season hype was steeped in making our D look like a HS squad, which, as it turns out, wasn't much of a feat.
 
#7
#7
BigPapaVol said:
I'm not, but much of their early season hype was steeped in making our D look like a HS squad, which, as it turns out, wasn't much of a feat.
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Again.... agreed. Our defense was laughable from the start, but Cal was crushed with injuries much like we were in '02. At any rate... Cal could've beat Western Kentucky.
 
#8
#8
we should not be playing @ Cal to begin the season. In fact we shouldn't be playing any tough non conference games.
 
#9
#9
I think Cal suffered from the same thing we did in 95. It's called NFL draft. selfish play.
 
#11
#11
Sudeepvol said:
we should not be playing @ Cal to begin the season. In fact we shouldn't be playing any tough non conference games.
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And why not... because of ranking? Who cares? You should've seen all those Cal boys come to Knoxville thinking they were gonna take it from us in '06 cause the odds makers said they would. They didnt look so hot walking out of Neyland with their tails between their legs in the 2nd quarter. Why not go out and play someone and show what we can do... why play scared? Chance favors the bold and it makes our team grow up at a faster pace which is handy down the stretch run in the SEC.
 
#12
#12
What if we had beaten Cal...

What if Vandy had made the field goal?
What if KY had made 3 more yards in ot?
What if SC had made a fg?
What if Tebow's shoulder hadn't been hurt in UGA game?
What if Vandy had not fumbled on UGA 14 yd line?
What if Meyer hadn't called t/o vs Auburn?

Most / some would have definitely put UT at least 3rd just in the SECE.
 
#14
#14
one loss shouldnt demoralize you.... we were not expecting a NC at the beginning of the season... its just how we gave up even before the game was over is wat makes it bad... I am happy atleast we tried to win t his game and not give up like with did in our earlier losses... thanks to D
 
#16
#16
CovVol said:
And why not... because of ranking? Who cares? You should've seen all those Cal boys come to Knoxville thinking they were gonna take it from us in '06 cause the odds makers said they would. They didnt look so hot walking out of Neyland with their tails between their legs in the 2nd quarter. Why not go out and play someone and show what we can do... why play scared? Chance favors the bold and it makes our team grow up at a faster pace which is handy down the stretch run in the SEC.
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Tenn already plays a damn difficult SEC schedule, we dont need to play other top teams outside of our conference.
 
#17
#17
i'it sucks we lost to cal. but saying that we would be #1 in the polls if we would have won is ridiculous
 
#18
#18
This may come as a shock to some but UT is not that good a team. It has all the talent it needs, it has fan support, it has all the facilities offered in todays football arena, it has a 100,000 football fan base regardless of opposition and a football rich history. We only lack a good Coaching Staff.
 
#19
#19
Sudeepvol said:
we should not be playing @ Cal to begin the season. In fact we shouldn't be playing any tough non conference games.
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TN has pretty much of a tradition of opening with strong non conference opponents.

i much favor the Gator and bammer approach of having a couple of cupcakes to develop with before the real season starts.
 
#20
#20
tm3 said:
TN has pretty much of a tradition of opening with strong non conference opponents.

i much favor the Gator and bammer approach of having a couple of cupcakes to develop with before the real season starts.
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Like switching the Vandy & Florida games up... but dont change up playing out of conference. It helps recruiting too much and it show everyone who watches football that we are a team to be reckoned with because we will play anyone any time anywhere.
 
#21
#21
I don't recall Cal being "that" good when we scheduled them.... I think they vastly improved since we signed the home/away series.....
 
#22
#22
CovVol said:
If my Aunt had balls, she'd be my Uncle. Trying to figure out this question now is as useless as pondering how we can get Peyton his Heisman Trophy. It doesnt matter any more. Cal was a totally different team at the start of the year that was 100% hell bent on proving to everyone that they could beat an SEC team. Hell.... they were talking about Jackson winning the Heisman after they played us. Injuries killed Cal and our team is totally different too. You want to ponder a real question.... Ask why we dont switch the Florida game to the end of the year instead of the beginning.
Click to expand...

That's a damn good question. :hmm:
 
#23
#23
Gentlemen, in case you haven't seen UF or for that matter UGA recently I don't believe UT wants any part of them.
 
#25
#25
Point is quite simple, UF & UGA are both better now than when they played us.

Generally UF improves week to week, I can't agree with those that think UT can hang with them late season. Trust me it pains me to say that!!!!!!!!!!

I will give Chavis credit for improvement with our defensive unit. Offense has remained about the same & will until some real changes in Staff takes place.
 
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