Let's be honest

#301
#301
The attendance numbers are simply an effect of more things to do and less money to spend. Its been happening in the racing world as well, and I'm sure its gonna continue to happen if not already happening to other sports as well. Also it's much less of a hassle to take in the game at home, and there's much less of a tribal feel to sports, and college sports in general because our scope and worldview is much larger than even 10 years ago. For a program that's in as bad of shape as Tennessee, where the admin prices games like we're still going 10-2 every other year, 96000 average is pretty damn good.
 
#303
#303
Considering Tennessee has practically lost a generation of fans due to terrible performance and a high percentage of students don’t come from Tennessee by design it’s just the start of declining attendance I’m afraid.
 
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#306
#306
GoVols15 said:
I agree with you 100%! The real problem is not in S & C it is a CULTURE problem and the only way to fix it is tell the players who will not buy in is to hit the road. Short term pain for long term gain.
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Knowing only what has been reported this is my analysis of what our Seniors have experienced and it's very ugly. I liken it to a child that has been manipulated, neglected and mentally abused. Jones was/is a complete control freak with, at the beginning, a silver tongue. Hence the "used car salesman" tag. In a short time (after Okl. Fl, Al, ? losses) players realized Jones was in over his head and began to question/rebell (Hurd, others) Jones feeling he was losing the team reverted to his "iron fist" player management (benching, fake injuries) while promoting "champions of life" "5 star hearts" to the public (+ PR attempt - backfired). As players began to leave mid-season and leaked physical aggression stories (locker room fights, practice event) stirred the fanbase, Jones tried to win their loyalty back by being their friend (firing S&C coach, making working out optional (insane). I could go on and on. Our team lost trust, belief, desire and fell way behind in all aspects to other teams. The administration let them down while Jones rotted their spirit. In came CP. That's for another day. Hell, I'm surprised any of them stayed.
 
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#308
#308
PelhamUT said:
Knowing only what has been reported this is my analysis of what our Seniors have experienced and it's very ugly. I liken it to a child that has been manipulated, neglected and mentally abused. Jones was/is a complete control freak with, at the beginning, a silver tongue. Hence the "used car salesman" tag. In a short time (after Okl. Fl, Al, ? losses) players realized Jones was in over his head and began to question/rebell (Hurd, others) Jones feeling he was losing the team reverted to his "iron fist" player management (benching, fake injuries) while promoting "champions of life" "5 star hearts" to the public (+ PR attempt - backfired). As players began to leave mid-season and leaked physical aggression stories (locker room fights, practice event) stirred the fanbase, Jones tried to win their loyalty back by being their friend (firing S&C coach, making working out optional (insane). I could go on and on. Our team lost trust, belief, desire and fell way behind in all aspects to other teams. The administration let them down while Jones rotted their spirit. In came CP. That's for another day. Hell, I'm surprised any of them stayed.
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While you may be correct, bottom line is football is a big boy sport and not for the weak! Players need to get on board or get out! If they can't live up to standards they need to go somewhere else where they can work on their self esteem! I am sick of seeing half hearted effort!
 
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#310
#310
VolAllen said:
I know a lot of you are internet tough guys and actual conversation is far less likely than getting flamed. I don't hold it against you, it's just the East Tennessean fighter blood that flows through your veins. And no, this isn't a "knee jerk" reaction after a loss thread. This is a legitimate question/concern/conversation/get the gears in your head turning thread.

Do any of you guys actually like our coach? I know winning cures all. But I mean do you actually like the dude? Dig deep. Actually think about the question. Are you proud to call Jeremy Pruitt the coach of our beloved Vols? Or did Fulmer and our university totally just whiff the hell out of this thing the way they always do?

It would be fair to wait until the end of the season to judge, and even then seems a bit premature. But I'm not necessarily talking about his win/loss record. I'm talking about him as a representative of our program. Forget the 5-6 start. I can look beyond that.

Most of you are going to throw hateful things in my direction and tell me to go back to my momma's basement, but some numbers tell me that others may feel the same.

2009, Lane Kiffin's first and only season. 7-6 record. We averaged 100,000 fans in the seats.

2010, Dools first season. 6-7 record. We averaged 100,000.

2013, Butch Jones first season. 5-7 record. We averaged 96,000.

2016, Butch Jones best season. 9-4 record. 101,000 average attendance.

2018, Jeremy Pruitt's first season. 5-6 record. 92,869 average attendance. 3 games didn't even hit 90k.

There should be a spike in enthusiasm for a coach's first season, so why such a large drop in attendance? Lane obviously got fans excited. I remember it vividly. He was the first coaching change I had experienced and it was a feeling of new blood and a new era. Dooley received far less enthusiasm from the fans, but it was expected given the sudden and strange departure of Kiffin. Butch came in and really had the fan support. He said all the right things, knocked recruiting out of the park, beat Steve Spurrier in his first season. Hell, he crushed it.

Pruitt. It irked the hell out of me the way he answered Bob's question in the 2nd episode of The JP Show regarding running through the T for the first time. I stated that it bothered me right after it happened in the JP Show thread and caught some heat for it. Guess what? It still bothers me. Even more so now that we're 5-6. "It was uhhh....different", was the line. Mind you, this episode was following a win. It wasn't after getting straight whipped by West Virginia. No. It was after beating lowly ETSU, Pruitt's first win as the Tennessee head coach. His attitude sucks, and it's not good for business.

Do I like Pruitt more than Schiano? You're damn right I do. Do I like him more than Mike Leach? Not even close. Les Miles? Nope. Dan Mullen? Hard to say. Butch Jones? I don't think so. Dooley? I'm not sure.

Win, and of course, I'll shut up. But Coach Pruitt, you're making $4,000,000 a year to coach football. Ideally, you're supposed to win the games. If you don't, however, at least give us the impression that you're a good dude and that you're happy to be in Knoxville. Because at the end of the day, you're still going to be rich, and we're still going to be sitting on cold, hard, metal bleachers hoping that things change.

I'll go on record right now and say I have doubts that this experiment is going to work out. I think Mike Leach, Les Miles, or Dan Mullen would have been a better choice. And I'm not saying fire the guy. That's not going to accomplish anything. But win or lose, I don't really like this dude, and I'm feeling super disconnected from Tennessee football because of it.

Flame away.
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Attendance is down across most games,
weve been beat down for the past 4 years by a horrible scam artist that and almost gettimg a disastrous coach, we've been neat down hard
 
#311
#311
What you are experiencing is patience burnout. The fan patience to allow a coach to rebuild from a team that didn't win a game in the SEC last year was expended on Dooley,then on Butch Jones. Now fans are expecting Pruitt to take that team and turn them into SEC contenders his first year. I like Pruitt and wish the fans would keep things in perspective.One recruiting season with in coming freshmen will not turn around a program.
 
#312
#312
volfeeva said:
What you are experiencing is patience burnout. The fan patience to allow a coach to rebuild from a team that didn't win a game in the SEC last year was expended on Dooley,then on Butch Jones. Now fans are expecting Pruitt to take that team and turn them into SEC contenders his first year. I like Pruitt and wish the fans would keep things in perspective.One recruiting season with in coming freshmen will not turn around a program.
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Agreed. Dont k ow why anyone would think we had nearly enough talent to beat Vandy. That is eat up with future NFL stars.

This coaching staff obviously know what they're doing. And anyone who cant see that doesnt know football or are simply negavol fake fans.


Bloo faunt missing
 
#316
#316
unfrozencvmanvol said:
The East actually beat the West (had a winning record against) this year for the first time in 10 seasons.
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Baby necropost to go into a good bit more detail about this...

The East went 9-5 vs the West this year, and the West was top-heavy. By top-heavy I'll just note that the East's bottom three had more than twice as many conference wins collectively as the West's bottom three. Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State and Ole Miss went a combined 0-8 against SEC East teams, and that's a bit of an eye-opener. Remember when it was the East that was top-heavy?

The numbers, for convenience:
SEC East: 9-5 vs SEC West
Georgia: 1-1 vs SEC-W (W-Auburn, L-LSU), 6-0 vs SEC-E
Kentucky: 1-1 vs SEC-W (W-Mississippi State, L-Texas A&M), 4-2 vs SEC-E
Florida: 2-0 vs SEC-W (W-Mississippi State, W-LSU), 3-3 vs SEC-E
South Carolina: 1-1 vs SEC-W (W-Ole Miss, L-Texas A&M), 3-3 vs SEC-E
Missouri: 1-1 vs SEC-W (W-Arkansas, L-Alabama), 3-3 vs SEC-E
Vanderbilt: 2-0 vs SEC-W (W-Arkansas, W-Ole Miss), 1-5 vs SEC-E
Tennessee: 1-1 vs SEC-W (W-Auburn, L-Alabama), 1-5 vs SEC-E

SEC West: 5-9 vs SEC East
Alabama: 6-0 vs SEC-W, 2-0 vs SEC-E (W-Tennessee, W-Missouri)
Texas A&M: 3-3 vs SEC-W, 2-0 vs SEC-E (W-South Carolina, W-Kentucky)
LSU: 4-2 vs SEC-W, 1-1 vs SEC-E (W-Georgia, L-Florida)
Mississippi State: 4-2 vs SEC-W, 0-2 vs SEC-E (L-Florida, L-Kentucky)
Auburn: 3-3 vs SEC-W, 0-2 vs SEC-E (L-Tennessee, L-Georgia)
Ole Miss: 1-5 vs SEC-W, 0-2 vs SEC-E (L-South Carolina, L-Vanderbilt)
Arkansas: 0-6 vs SEC-W, 0-2 vs SEC-E (L-Vanderbilt, L-Missouri)

In other words, Tennessee is rebuilding in an East that's deeper top-to-bottom than the West is, at least for this year. I'm not going to say that we'd magically be a .500 team this year if you were to dump us in the West in a trade for Mississippi State or anything. But you can for sure say that we beat Auburn, and that Ole Miss and Arkansas are pretty bad at the moment.

Anyway, there are no easy outs, and that's a factor in anyone's rebuild. Good luck, Chad Morris. Back to your regularly scheduled program.
 
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#317
#317
ptclaus98 said:
The attendance numbers are simply an effect of more things to do and less money to spend. Its been happening in the racing world as well, and I'm sure its gonna continue to happen if not already happening to other sports as well. Also it's much less of a hassle to take in the game at home, and there's much less of a tribal feel to sports, and college sports in general because our scope and worldview is much larger than even 10 years ago. For a program that's in as bad of shape as Tennessee, where the admin prices games like we're still going 10-2 every other year, 96000 average is pretty damn good.
Click to expand...

2018, Jeremy Pruitt's first season. 5-6 record. 92,869 average attendance. 3 games didn't even hit 90k

And those three games were ETSU, UTEP and Charlotte...No big fan bases there buying tickets...

2019, Average Attendance will drop below 90,000 with no Florida or Bama fans buying seats. Throw in the lost tax-deduction for non-seat cost donations to sit in the best seats and...

Estimated attendance by home game:

8/31/19 - Georgia State - 84,500 - W 1-0
9/7/19 - BYU - 91,500 W 2-0 (Their Fans travel, but local taverns will see no windfall from their non-alcohol drinking fan base)
9/14/19 - Chattanooga - 88,500 W 3-0
10/5/19 - Georgia - 102,455 L 3-2 (Sell the seats for $250 each to the maniacal dawg fans and go fishing)
10/12/19 - Mississippi State - 89,500 W 4-2 (Unless Hurts is the Bulldog's QB)
10/26/19 - South Carolina - 92,500 W 5-3 (Finally a big fan base not named Georgia shows up)
11/2/19 - UAB - 85,500 L 5-4
11/30/18 - Vanderbilt - 85,000 W 6-6

8 Home Dates: 719,455 Total/89,932 Average
 
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#318
#318
As a rival ... I am still not sure what I think about CJP. I really didn't watch enough UT games this season but the ones I did watch I didn't really see any coaching issues more so than lack of talent issues.

But I will say this ... running through the T aint that special. Every team in college football runs out onto the field in their own way. That is y'alls way so of course you guys think it is special.
 
#319
#319
neteng said:
As a rival ... I am still not sure what I think about CJP. I really didn't watch enough UT games this season but the ones I did watch I didn't really see any coaching issues more so than lack of talent issues.

But I will say this ... running through the T aint that special. Every team in college football runs out onto the field in their own way. That is y'alls way so of course you guys think it is special.
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I’m way more concerned about what happens after the kickoff
 
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#322
#322
He just needs to learn to sell Tennessee, he sells football. Don’t really care for his Deep South demeanor in public forums. That being said, I believe he’s a good coach that is in his rookie season.
 
#323
#323
BearBryant said:
You people that put these threads together like this DISGUST me. Pruitt is an excellent coach. He will be very successful here. You don't have a clue as to what it takes to be a good coach. Your stupid attendance stats above are, well STUPID!! You have no clue of how good the SEC is. You have no clue how good Missouri is. They are the 3rd or 4th best team in the SEC. You take away the two turnovers, the game would have been close. Tennessee probably would have lost, but it would have been a close game.

I've looked at a thread this morning where some egotistical elitist is concerned about Pruitt's use of words. I'm sure that guy has perfect English, and probably never had dirt on him his whole life.

I've looked at a thread this morning where one of you was trying to make a big deal out of Pruitt missing his own show. Wow, let's fire him immediately for that. Let's not look into why he missed.

There are so many others like these. Negative and Stupid. Please stop posting. Go home to mommy and eat your milk and cookies and take a nap.
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Why is your screen name Bear Bryant?
 
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