No turning this program around.

#76
#76
Why does everyone give Bill Battle such a hard time. He had three seasons of 10 or more wins and never had a losing season. Compared to the last decade I’d take this all day long.

His recruiting was awful. That's why it took Johnny so long to rebuild, Battle was the worst recruiting HC ever at UT until Dooley signed 0 OL. He also had one of the all time worst losses in program history.
 
#78
#78
Football has really changed since Majors, but if you look at his yearly records, he did not build a consistent program. He had years of winning teams, losing teams, and SEC champ teams all mixed in. Fulmer put together seasons of big winning teams continuously.
Fans would never accept the Majors years now. They assume if you win your division you should never take a step back before you win the championship game. Mark Richt????
 
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#79
#79
Right now it's more about turning this season around. Start winning after Bama and don't stop til mid next season.
 
#80
#80
If the defense had 2 stud pass rushers it would be top 20 in the country. The d line played the run very well yesterday and the secondary played very well considering that they had to cover for 10 seconds. Warrior might of played his best game yet.

Ehh..

They played well "at times". They are improving. They need to continue getting stronger.

We really need to get that McDonald kid out of Whitehaven. He'll start as a freshman next to To'oto'o if he comes here. Still need more speed and length off the edge.

Lawrence coming in at DB is a huge boost.
The JUCO CB could also start.

This 2020 class is so vital.
 
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#81
#81
I find it strange that fans stick around if they really believe we are never going to get back to winning. If I ever get to that point, I'd just stop posting to Volnation. Yes, we have been in a bad stretch and our leadership sucked. But I believe it will turn around. Will it be with Pruitt? I don't know. But when you look at Georgia/Alabama, their depth and physicality is just crushing us now. We need more bodies. Sadly, we are nearer the bottom of the barrel in the SEC than the top. One step at a time - lets get to middle of the conference first before we aim higher.
 
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#84
#84
Jeremy needs to start recruiting nationally--the talent in Tennessee is limited and can't produce a title.
 
#85
#85
Guys this crap has been on a downward spiral since 2007. 12 years of misery with a few 9 win seasons in there. It's getting worse for our football program. I dont see any way this program is going to be back to where it used to be. I used to love tennessee football and was excited every year for ut to start since I was a kid. From the 80s to now. I never thought we would be down this long. This program is in a very dangerous position right now. But ive become numb to it. When will the misery end?
I will be happy if Tennessee is a bowl team year in and year out.
 
#86
#86
Guys this crap has been on a downward spiral since 2007. 12 years of misery with a few 9 win seasons in there. It's getting worse for our football program. I dont see any way this program is going to be back to where it used to be. I used to love tennessee football and was excited every year for ut to start since I was a kid. From the 80s to now. I never thought we would be down this long. This program is in a very dangerous position right now. But ive become numb to it. When will the misery end?
The only schools we play every year who consistently outrecruit us are Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. If you lose to those schools every year, plus have one other loss, that's 8-4.

Saying that we just aren't as good as our rivals explains 8-4, not 5-7 or worse. Over a multi-year period of time, Tennessee should not be so bad that we're consistently missing bowl games. A year here and there, perhaps, but in any given year 7-5 should be the floor.
 
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#87
#87
No big name coach wants to touch UT because the geographical disadvantage is very real. You have to play Bama, UGA, Florida every year who have everything you have when it comes to money/facilities, but much better positioned geographically.
You can’t build a great program only recruiting nationally, You need tons of depth, and that comes from your back yard while you are building.

For all the talk of HS football improving in the state, I wouldn’t put much weight into Memphis, 6 SEC schools are closer than Knoxville.
In my opinion Nebraska is the only big program with a worse geography.

Yes. I agree with this post. Combine the geographic and scheduling disadvantages and the 25 scholarship limit, and a rebuilding team like TN faces some serious obstacles. Can't do anything about the geographic/recruiting disadvantages but we should be lobbying the SEC to change the scheduling approach. My view is that the conference should break up the divisions and get rid of permanent conference opponents. Total rotation among the teams. Maybe add a 9th conference game. I don't think a lot of our fans appreciate the disadvantage that playing UF, Bama and UGA every year presents UT as it is rebuilding. Makes it difficult to recruit players and staff, and to generate any kind of positive momentum. Of course, losing to Ga State doesn't help, but that is a one off issue.
 
#88
#88
LOL... Are you really citing a shopping mall as a reason recruits would want to play for Tennessee? In 1987 the quality of the local mall might have mattered a slight bit, probably not, but definitely not at all in 2019.
Online shopping in Knoxville is on par with some of the great cities in the world, even New York and Paris.
 
#89
#89
I find it strange that fans stick around if they really believe we are never going to get back to winning. If I ever get to that point, I'd just stop posting to Volnation. Yes, we have been in a bad stretch and our leadership sucked. But I believe it will turn around. Will it be with Pruitt? I don't know. But when you look at Georgia/Alabama, their depth and physicality is just crushing us now. We need more bodies. Sadly, we are nearer the bottom of the barrel in the SEC than the top. One step at a time - lets get to middle of the conference first before we aim higher.
I enjoy shoveling dirt on the grave at this point. Why do you question folks like me participating for that reason?
 
#90
#90
the program can be turned around, but it will be like turning an aircraft carrier---it will take awhile.
 
#91
#91
Guys this crap has been on a downward spiral since 2007. 12 years of misery with a few 9 win seasons in there. It's getting worse for our football program. I dont see any way this program is going to be back to where it used to be. I used to love tennessee football and was excited every year for ut to start since I was a kid. From the 80s to now. I never thought we would be down this long. This program is in a very dangerous position right now. But ive become numb to it. When will the misery end?
FANTRANSFERPORTAL
 
#92
#92
I don't agree. He was a good recruiter but had a schiitty system and tried to fit square pegs into round holes, and completely lacked developmental skills and game day coaching ability.

Give that talent to a competent coach and we would have been competing for the SEC title and potentially been a top 10 team those years. One thing's for damned sure - even a half-assed coach would have recognized how great a talent Kamara was and utilized him properly.


The Kamara issue is way over blown for me. The fact he left Bama because he was buried on their depth chart, says he was not the player he is now, when he arrived at Tenn. His Sr year is when he really came into his own. He played a bunch his Sr year and was still a 3rd round pick.
 
#93
#93
Exactly

Knoxville is a metropolis when compared to most SEC towns.

And facilities are equal to the top programs and outshine most places.

Recruiting or lack thereof cannot be blamed on those issues.
It isn't the size of the town that the school is actually located in that matters. It's proximity to the areas where the athletes live.

Kirby has to make an hour or less drive into the Atlanta metro area and he can field 2/3rds of his team. A ton of those kids also grow up liking UGA because it is just down the road and there are a ton of UGA people in Atlanta. Coach O can do the same thing in the New Orleans metro. Mullen can do the same thing in central and south Florida, although he has to fight with other in-state schools for that talent. There is not much football talent at all in East Tennessee; the pockets of in-state talent are located 2.5-5 hours away.

Tennessee's most fertile recruiting area is probably West Tennessee (although probably about to be surpassed by the Nashville metro, if not surpassed already), but West Tennessee is closer to Tuscaloosa, Arkansas, and the Mississippi schools and equidistant from LSU and Auburn (yes, Knoxville is actually a 10 min further drive from Memphis than Auburn is, and a 20 minute further drive from Baton Rouge). It's closer and has more in common culturally with those places than Knoxville; Knoxville is a mountain town in Appalachia. Baton Rouge, for example, is flat and right on the Mississippi just like Memphis is.

Personally, I think there needs to be a focus on recruiting North Carolina, particularly Charlotte. More talent comes out of that area than you'd think, and unlike Atlanta, a lot of those kids in Charlotte doesn't grow up liking some in-state team because there isn't a big in-state football program.
 
#94
#94
We have a few teams on our schedule that we can beat. It's up to the staff and especially the team to do it, all we can do is sit back and watch. As pissed as I am about the season... reality is to wait and see.
 
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#95
#95
It's so simple but we won;t do it, we need a elite coach that can RECRUIT and Coach, you would think after 5 games we would know where to line up on defense but 20 percent of the time we don't it will take a major overhaul to turn this around and i don;t see that now, so this is what to expect for the next 10 years,.
 
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#96
#96
It was only 5 years ago that we were 3 years away from being elite. With some adjustments since then, we are now only 3 years away!!!
I been hearing we are a young team and just wait till next year, for 12 years when i first started hearing that the players are now 30 year of age.
 
#97
#97
Guys this crap has been on a downward spiral since 2007. 12 years of misery with a few 9 win seasons in there. It's getting worse for our football program. I dont see any way this program is going to be back to where it used to be. I used to love tennessee football and was excited every year for ut to start since I was a kid. From the 80s to now. I never thought we would be down this long. This program is in a very dangerous position right now. But ive become numb to it. When will the misery end?
When we impeach the haslams
 
#98
#98
Football has really changed since Majors, but if you look at his yearly records, he did not build a consistent program. He had years of winning teams, losing teams, and SEC champ teams all mixed in. Fulmer put together seasons of big winning teams continuously.
Fans would never accept the Majors years now. They assume if you win your division you should never take a step back before you win the championship game. Mark Richt????
I agree. I've said multiple times on here that Johnny's tenure at Tennessee is actually quite overrated and gotten flamed for it, but I think it's true. He has the soft spot he does because of what he did as a player at Tennessee, not a coach, and he had the leash he did for that reason plus he had just won a title at Pitt before coming here. In today's era, he would have never made it beyond 4 seasons.

If it wasn't for the '85 Sugar Vols and Miracle at South Bend, there's basically nothing of note from the Majors era.
 
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#99
#99
Tennessee should be sleep walking to the top 25 every year and they will soon enough. Recruit and get some more players. Still should get 7 wins this year.
It takes 8 or 9 wins and 4-4 in conference to crack the top 25. UT can't "sleep walk" it's way through the SEC and Alabama every year and realistically win 8 or 9 games.
 
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It takes 8 or 9 wins and 4-4 in conference to crack the top 25. UT can't "sleep walk" it's way through the SEC and Alabama every year and realistically win 8 or 9 games.
Going 8-4 is beating no one that matters. Sleepwalking
 

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