Not as bad as it looks

#26
#26
Building a football team is not like playing legos. So many of you react that way. It's not just plug and play. Replacing a more talented guy with someone not as talented can sometimes lead to a better team dynamic. Or replacing them with someone just as good, can do the same.

We lost good players that DIDN'T want to be here. In other words a bunch of negativity left. Now watch how POSITIVE those guys will be at their new schools.

We got some pretty talented transfers to come in. And right now, they are positive about their fresh start. The game of football is majority mental approach.

It's not legos. It's chess...

The 1997 team was MORE talented the 1998 National Championship team. Yet, who was the better team??

The whole approach is 180 degrees different than Pruitt.
You had the worst leadership in the most critical spots of a program. The Head Coach and the QB. Both are gone now.
 
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#28
#28
Behr said:
"We have sucked for 15 years, we suck now and will suck forever. Gators and Bama are awesome and we should stop playing teams we can't beat."
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Ah, seen that plenty. It feels that way sometimes, and I can get that sentiment after a crushing loss because that's the way it feels sometimes, but it's the off-season!
 
#32
#32
SayNoToJorts said:
Losing JG is equivalent to adding three 5* players IMO
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I'm not going to bash JG, but we just went from a QB that "gives us the best chance to win", to a room full of eager guys with talent and experience. Not to mention they are coached by a guy who really knows offense. If that's not reason for optimism, I don't know what is.
 
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#33
#33
I would be interested in seeing a break down of defense and offense of guys that bailed and dudes we gained.
Seems like at first glance we lost more from the defense and gained more on offense.
Which aligns with the new coaching staff.

As others have stated, the defense is going to be suspect at best this year and in my opinion Key Lawrence leaving is going to be the biggest impact - not Toe-to-toe.
 
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#34
#34
TNnative said:
The light won't be different, until those 9 who transferred in play like All Americans, and change the mojo for the rest.

Then again, everybody will be running about doing Rocky Top Woo. Yuck.
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There wasnt a whole bunch of All-American play last year in Knoxville. Well not by orange clad players anyhow.
Gray had moments
Henry T looked lost most of the year

I do think we lost more than we gained. However what we added will make us better than if they hadnt shown up. With quality coaching they will perform at a higher level than those who departed.

Just my opinion of course
 
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#41
#41
Here is the way that I see it and I think both groups are correct:

We lost a lot of talented players that were also poor sports and did not play well as a team. If the less talented players have greater buy-in, comradery, and desire to win (plus confidence), we could have a better season.

However, do to the talent loss, we are going to look even more ugly against some of the more talented teams on our schedule (like Alabama). However, I don't see us laying eggs and getting beat by teams that are far inferior to us like Georgia State. If the players buy-in, they will play hard in ALL games and not give up which means ugly losses to the top caliber SEC teams due to lack of speed/talent but tough fights and possibly wins against teams that are on our level (i.e. Non-Conference opponents, Vandy, South Carolina, Missouri, and Kentucky).
 
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#43
#43
There remains the unanswerable question of how many players were lost through the portal and how many were "escorted" through the portal.

If what we lost in on-field production (and it will be January before we know if we actually lost anything by that measure) reduces what would have been our NCAA penalties by one season of bowl game eligibility, or a dozen scholarships over the next few years... then I'd say we did okay with the portal.

"McDonald's Bag" Departures?
 
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#44
#44
Last years line was marginally better that the year before, which was the worst line I’ve ever seen. In short, they both sucked so I don’t really think it could get any worse. Friend was a terrible coach.
 
#45
#45
I think we will see the majority of the ones who transferred out play at a higher level solely because they will actually receive competent positional coaching and teamwork as opposed to what they received here.

I also think that we will see improvement from what we have experienced here recently at all positions. Based on the same expected improvement at positional coaching.
 
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#46
#46
If players don’t want to be here, it’s kinda self defeating to regret their leaving. Addition by subtraction.
 
#47
#47
IndianaVol said:
I would be interested in seeing a break down of defense and offense of guys that bailed and dudes we gained.
Seems like at first glance we lost more from the defense and gained more on offense.
Which aligns with the new coaching staff.

As others have stated, the defense is going to be suspect at best this year and in my opinion Key Lawrence leaving is going to be the biggest impact - not Toe-to-toe.
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Lawrence was a great prospect, but he couldn't even beat out Slaughter at NB.

That might have changed as time passed, but Slaughter is still here. We lost depth. Really good depth, and it looks like we might have replaced that too.

The biggest losses are Wanya, and Johnson at OT.
 
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#48
#48
TNnative said:
The light won't be different, until those 9 who transferred in play like All Americans, and change the mojo for the rest.

Then again, everybody will be running about doing Rocky Top Woo. Yuck.
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I seriously doubt you can make the case that the nine who left played like All Americans
I can not think of any who had a great deal of success. Maybe with the new coaching staff those who are coming in to replace them will be more successful than those who left.
 
#49
#49
KB5252 said:
No, we lost more than we gained. Not even close. We got rid of some dead weight, but we also lost some very key players on both sides of the ball that will start wherever they go. We got some people that couldn't break the two deep at other schools.
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And yet we probably still win more games.
 
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#50
#50
It's very obvious we have gained more them we lost.

You all know why?

Yes you do... ima say it...

BECAUSE JG IS GONE.

He's gone, we addressed every other weakness on this team and we are about to land a freshman all American corner.

JG and Pruitt not involved with the offense is a massive boon to the entire offense, defense and morale of the whole team.

We can't be worse, so we are obviously better. Just watching the spring game you can tell the offense is going to operate at a whole different level. We have 4 QB's better than what we had last year.
 
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