If/When Tennessee beats WVU...

#51
#51
I'll go super negative on the VOL's outlook and state that I don't see us winning 50% of our SEC games NEXT season, let alone this one. At this point I firmly believe we will settle into the bottom third of the SEC and remain there for years to come.

So yes that means I do not expect Pruitt to accomplish much at his first HC gig. I will be elated to be proven wrong, I just don't expect to be.
Are you to a uncle Lou?:):thud: You deserve a thud.:eek:lol:
 
#53
#53
I hope we beat WVU but I just do not see it. Too many offensive weapons. That game has the potential to get ugly (like losing by 3 TDs ugly). A win over SCAR or UF is more realistic.
 
#54
#54
How does that affect your W/L prediction for the rest of the season?

I'm forecasting 5-7, but if Tennessee wins the opener, that flips to 7-5 for me.

That would also speak VOLumes to how fast the new staff may be able to right the ship.

I think our other 3 non conference games are wins and Vandy, UK and Mizzou are too. I think we atleast go 1-2 vs Fla, W.Va and S.Car but 2-1 is very possible. We have zero business not getting to a bowl. There's 3 for sure losses Ala,Ga and Auburn. W.Va,Fla,S.Car and Mizzou are the 4 tossup games. 2 of those are in Neyland and both also with new Coordinator's and 1 with a whole new staff. I think 2-2 is the absolute worst results out of those 4 games. 3-1 with some luck and breaks. 6-6 should be the worst case and 8-4 being the best. 7-5 has been my prediction.

W.Va-Tossup but Vols could easily win.1-0 or 0-1

ETSU-Easy Win..2-0 or 1-1

UTEP-Easy win, especially with Canales there. 3-0 or 2-1

Flor.Tossup but Pruitt's first chance to really win over some of the doubting Vol Fans..calling for a W..4-0 or 3-1

GA-Loss in Athens-4-1 or 3-2

Aub- Loss on the Plains and losing streak continue's vs SEC West..4-2 or 3-3

Ala- Another loss to the Bammers..4-3 or 3-4

S.Carol..These games are always down to the wire..Prob a close loss at D.Carol..4-4 or 3-5

Char..Finally a break and easy win..5-4 or 4-5

UK..No back to back losses to UK and a new QB..6-4 or 5-5

Mizzou..Think we win at home vs a team who didn't beat 1 bowl team last year..7-4 or 6-5

Vandy..Pruitt isn't losing to Vandy and we end the horrible losing streak to them..8-4 or 7-5

I'm going with 8-4 or 7-5 and getting a decent bowl. This also gives our recruiting class a huge push!
 
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#55
#55
I see the loser brigade is out again today. :rolleyes:

We will win at least 6. Maybe more. If we win 4 Pruitt isn't the guy. He is going to be good. No way we win less than 6. If he does that means we lose to every team who is close in talent to us. Not happening.

Agree 100%.7-8 is very realistic but 6-6 is the worst case.
 
#56
#56
I think our other 3 non conference games are wins and Vandy, UK and Mizzou are too. I think we atleast go 1-2 vs Fla, W.Va and S.Car but 2-1 is very possible. We have zero business not getting to a bowl. There's 3 for sure losses Ala,Ga and Auburn. W.Va,Fla,S.Car and Mizzou are the 4 tossup games. 2 of those are in Neyland and both also with new Coordinator's and 1 with a whole new staff. I think 2-2 is the absolute worst results out of those 4 games. 3-1 with some luck and breaks. 6-6 should be the worst case and 8-4 being the best. 7-5 has been my prediction.

W.Va-Tossup but Vols could easily win.1-0 or 0-1

ETSU-Easy Win..2-0 or 1-1

UTEP-Easy win, especially with Canales there. 3-0 or 2-1

Flor.Tossup but Pruitt's first chance to really win over some of the doubting Vol Fans..calling for a W..4-0 or 3-1

GA-Loss in Athens-4-1 or 3-2

Aub- Loss on the Plains and losing streak continue's vs SEC West..4-2 or 3-3

Ala- Another loss to the Bammers..4-3 or 3-4

S.Carol..These games are always down to the wire..Prob a close loss at D.Carol..4-4 or 3-5

Char..Finally a break and easy win..5-4 or 4-5

UK..No back to back losses to UK and a new QB..6-4 or 5-5

Mizzou..Think we win at home vs a team who didn't beat 1 bowl team last year..7-4 or 6-5

Vandy..Pruitt isn't losing to Vandy and we end the horrible losing streak to them..8-4 or 7-5

I'm going with 8-4 or 7-5 and getting a decent bowl. This also gives our recruiting class a huge push!

Pretty good analysis. I have us going 6-6. Disagree about WVU being a toss up. Bad opener for UT IMO. Everything else is pretty fair.
 
#58
#58
West Virginia
Win but a close game but we pull this one out in Charlotte

East Tennessee State
Win

UTEP
Win

Florida
Win

Georgia
Loss

Auburn
Win toss up game

Alabama
Loss

South Carolina
Win

Charlotte
Win

Kentucky
Win

Missouri
Win

Vanderbilt
Win

Maybe 9-3 but I'm going 10-2 Team is better than people think with lots of talent. New coaching staff will bring this out.

6-2 in the conf. 2nd place behind Georgia.

:loco:
 
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#62
#62
My opinion means nothing apparently when I said the Georgia Tech game would be close and everyone else predicted a 14 point win minimum. Yet here we are again predicting 7-8 wins including winning our opener against a team that could compete for the Big 12 title.

I didn't see anything from W.Va last year that says they will be competing for the big 12 championship.Teams that have the #106 ranked defense don't usually win many power 5 conference's. They will score points but when they ran into the better and more physical Defense's they didn't put up big numbers. I have a feeling they will be this upcoming season's version of most over hyped team.
 
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#63
#63
Pretty good analysis. I have us going 6-6. Disagree about WVU being a toss up. Bad opener for UT IMO. Everything else is pretty fair.

I definitely could be way off about W.Va, wouldn't be the first time!🤣.But they had one of the worst Defense's in the country last year and struggled scoring against some of the better Defense's they faced. Va Tech, TCU, Iowa St, Texas and Utah all held them to 24 pts or less.They did score 31 on Oklahoma, but they were held to under 400 yards and W.Va didn't start scoring until they were down 45-10 and OU had backups in.
 
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#64
#64
Like it or not WVU is a top 25 team this year. It doesn't mean we can't or won't beat them but it also means they aren't exactly chopped liver. We are a team that has not won an SEC game since 2016. I think all of us on VN should tamper our expectations somewhat until we see the product that we put on the field. I expect to win, I want us to win, but by the same token this WVU team is no pushover and we for at least a year and perhaps longer have not been the usual Vols either. I trust CJP but must verify on the field what he is producing.
 
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#65
#65
Like it or not WVU is a top 25 team this year. It doesn't mean we can't or won't beat them but it also means they aren't exactly chopped liver.

I think W Va starts the year as a Top 25 team.

But they won't end it as one.

Losses to Oklahoma, TCU, and Oklahoma State are likely. Then if they split the Texas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Iowa State games (those 4 are all peer competitors to them), that's 5 losses already.

That's even before we figure out whether the Vols can knock them down on the first game of the season.

So the Mountaineers are likely to repeat last year's 7-5 result, or worse.

They won't be ranked with that.
 
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#66
#66
There are 6 or 7 games this team should win this season.

Vandy, KY, ETSU, UTEP and Charlotte should be wins.

SC, WVU are toss ups IMO. FL isn't in great shape either but they should be favored.

Anything less than 6 probably has to be chalked up as a failure barring some extreme circumstances with injuries.
 
#67
#67
Yeap, HE GONE!!!
We have football coaches now, not a used car salesmen.

7-5 to 10-2.

Yes, my cup of Big Orange koolaide is half full.

I disagree. The cup is half empty due to chugging it down from full. That's not having a negative outlook, it's just how things are.

As for the predictions.......CJP has a high sense of urgency to win now. He is used to more talent that's recieved better coaching. He knows he has to set the example to the players of how to work and prepare for the season and each game.

We have had coaches that weren't used to the amount of talent to game plan with and thought we could run a base defense and a low risk offense and win. It work for a little while, but when injuries impacted talent they still felt base and low risk was their best bet. That got them all fired.

CJP&S know they will need to dial it up a notch on offense and defense.

There were plenty of formations for every team on our schedule to have to prepare to defend. Same goes for defense. From 3-5 on the line means we will be the ones forcing the issue with formation rather than lining up and allowing them to get comfortable with what they are doing.

WVU is at a disadvantage due to the amount of film on this year's team. When know what their identity due to last year's tape.

Sure we have to install schemes to compete in the SEC, but with them being in the middle of the pack(Talent wise.) of our schedule, we can spend some extra time on a game plan specific to them. With two warm up games between WVU and DTU that will give us time to get things right for our SEC schedule.

I like how our schedule stacks up. I expect us to get better as the year goes on, something that hasn't really happened like it should have in a long while. With that we should see more wins in November like we were used to in the past.

It's all about a game plan that puts the pressure on them to figure out what we will do rather than knowing what's coming and stacking the deck against us.
 
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#69
#69
Beating USCe is an absolute must for me this year. Muschamp completely owns Tennessee. He is not a good enough coach to be 6-0 against us. That speaks volumes about the level suckage we have reached.

As for WVU, not worried about them at all. Every year we hear about the out of conference foe we face first and have come out with a W. I also think WVU is really over-hyped. Dangerous but over-hyped. I don't have a predicted win total but I know that less than 8 wins and the season will have sucked.
I couldn't agree more about Muschamp, on top of that he's obnoxious about it. He has no class and no tact.
 
#71
#71
I think W Va starts the year as a Top 25 team.

But they won't end it as one.

Losses to Oklahoma, TCU, and Oklahoma State are likely. Then if they split the Texas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, and Iowa State games (those 4 are all peer competitors to them), that's 5 losses already.

That's even before we figure out whether the Vols can knock them down on the first game of the season.

So the Mountaineers are likely to repeat last year's 7-5 result, or worse.

They won't be ranked with that.

Outstanding analysis JP.

If the Vols win both teams may finish 7-5.
 
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#73
#73
Have there been any rumblings behind the scenes about a start time for this game? My apologies if this has been discussed in another thread.
 
#74
#74
Have there been any rumblings behind the scenes about a start time for this game? My apologies if this has been discussed in another thread.

Really hope it's a night game. There aren't a lot of big time opening games. Mich/ND play but it's gonna be on NBC. Ole Miss plays Tex Tech, Ala plays Louisville, Auburn plays Washington, TN plays W.Va and LSU plays Mia on Sunday. I'm betting AU/ Wash will be at night with it being in Atlanta. I think there's a good chance it will be at night.
 
#75
#75
Probably 9-3. WV’s offense might be the best we see this year. From what I saw in the spring game, it’s gonna be a 45-20 loss.
 
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