John Adams: why we shouldn’t schedule Oklahoma in 2020

[AM64]

I didn't know that, wish we played Ohio for the home and home.

Lame on the nine game conference schedule of the Big Ten for being the cancellation reason. Their bottom tier is dreadful.

It absolutely is, and Big 10 knows that. They also know most other conferences are more evenly divided and vulnerable to losing another game or so in a nine conference game scheme - the PAC has already shown it by one round of no representation in NC play.

 

[05_never_again]

He even starts off the article with that old, untrue trope that playing Alabama every year hurts Tennessee, as if we could have achieved more if we didn't have to play them every year. Tennessee playing Alabama every year wasn't even some "new thing" that was introduced with division play or anything like that either. That last year we didn't play them was 1943. They've been on a historic run lately, and Adams basically wants to give up.

Getting pummeled by Alabama nearly every year for a decade hasn't cost Tennessee one damn thing beyond what we've already endured. The program would have been mediocre to bad for a decade regardless of whether we play Alabama or not.

2020 is 3 football seasons from now, and Adams is already convinced we shouldn't play Oklahoma. As others have said, total loser's mentality. What if Lincoln Riley loses the momentum Stoops passed on to him and they are a beatable program in 2020? I wonder if that thought ever crossed his mind.

 

[AM64]

He even starts off the article with that old, untrue trope that playing Alabama every year hurts Tennessee, as if we could have achieved more if we didn't have to play them every year. Tennessee playing Alabama every year wasn't even some "new thing" that was introduced with division play or anything like that either. That last year we didn't play them was 1943. They've been on a historic run lately, and Adams basically wants to give up.

Getting pummeled by Alabama nearly every year for a decade hasn't cost Tennessee one damn thing beyond what we've already endured. The program would have been mediocre to bad for a decade regardless of whether we play Alabama or not.

2020 is 3 football seasons from now, and Adams is already convinced we shouldn't play Oklahoma. As others have said, total loser's mentality. What if Lincoln Riley loses the momentum Stoops passed on to him and they are a beatable program in 2020? I wonder if that thought ever crossed his mind.

Only hiring good ADs and coaches would have changed the Tennessee football trajectory over the last ten years; and, yes, it would be a travesty not to play Alabama; and, no, losing to AL hasn't been a real factor in the last ten years.

There's something I did learn from the pre-broken NASCAR years ('60s and '70s) that applies to college football afterbirth - after the birth of the "we have to have a national championship". First, it's all about survival; you don't win a race if you aren't around at the end in a competitive car. That can apply in games when BJ failed to conserve the defense by playing his idiotic offense. It also means you aren't in the championship with more losses - regardless of "quality". So a loss to AL can matter - just not in the past few years.

The other thing the absurd NC has ruined is the quality of games by making them not the thing but the thing that qualifies a team for the thing. You could see the trend coming - lots of unimportant games to keep a zero in the loss column, and the demeaning of the few real bowl games. A lot of old drivers couldn't stand seeing somebody cross the line ahead of them, and the points battle didn't originally override that, but given time it perverted NASCAR just like a fictional NC is perverting college football.

Tough games matter only if everybody else plays a schedule of tough games, and that's not happening. Lose enough tough games and you are left in the dust by teams who won the stats by playing patsies. Lose tough games (like never beating AL) and you lose coaches and reset the team to a perpetual game of catch up with a series of new coaches - that's precisely where most of the SEC is right now.

 

[RavinDave]

Nearly every time I read a *piece* written by JA, I wonder if he was motivated by the sole desire to have UT fans hate him even more. I just don't understand why someone so negative wouldn't just find something else to cover.

I don't understand why the KNS hasn't canned him.

 

[114VOL]

He also holds Tennessee to a standard that does not exist.

2014 Ohio State lost its home opener badly to a mediocre Virginia Tech and was back in the mix for a title by November despite playing absolutely no one of consequence.

Bama in two recent instances could not even win their division in the SEC West but was still given a red carpet to play for a title.

But if the Vols lose an away opener in a tough venue, then we are supposed to tear down Neyland and set it afloat on garbage barges down the Tennessee River?

Nah, we won't get back to being the most-feared jersey in college football by hiding in the corner of the cafeteria away from the bullies. If we catch a beat down here and there, so what. As long as we walk right up to these guys and bloody a nose or two in the meantime, then we will be in a better place for the next fight.

We've had some really good teams in my lifetime, but never have we been the "most-feared". EVER

 

[Vol Main]

I changed my mind. Ink the deal.

 

[peaygolf]

Screw OU game. Bring back an old SEC rival and play Tulane! Easy wins!