Phil Steele Projects Tennessee in 2016 Preason Top 10

#51
#51
OH-Vol said:
Tennessee vs. LSU tomorrow, neutral site.. who ya got?
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I would say 2016 teams I would probably take LSU.

I think we are even or maybe a little better in talent, BUT I will take the Mad Hatter as the difference maker and doing a fake punt or FG or going for it on 4th and 6 from their own 40.

Butch does not have the balls to do those things.
 
#52
#52
KBVol said:
True. But the results were starkly different. Harbaugh improves by 5 wins in his first year, whereas Butch improved by zero wins year one and by 1 regular season/2 total wins in year two. IMHO, while the programs weren't in identical situations, that shows/helps define the difference between an elite coach like Harbaugh and a good coach like Jones.
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Results are different cause Michigan ain't in the SEC and didn't play OU back to back seasons.
 
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#54
#54
lawgator1 said:
His Top Ten for last year were:

Ohio State 12-1 #4
Alabama 14-1 #1
Oregon 9-4 MISS
Baylor 10-3 #13
TCU 11-2 #7
UGA NR MISS
Mich State 12-2 #6
LSU 9-3 #16
Notre Dame 10-3 #11
USC NR MISS


Only three of those were in the final Top Ten ranking. He had no Clemson, Oklahoma, or Stanford, for example.
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Not too bad only missed 3 who were not in the top 25. His top 2 were in the CFP. All things considered not too shabby. There will ALWAYS be a team that no one picked to be in the CFP or a dark horse that goes 12-1 and surprises everyone. WHY NOT US????????
 
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#55
#55
orangemadam said:
I would switch LSU and UT.:good!::good!:
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I'd do the same, Madam in Orange. Also, RE UM's hype vs. UT's: These two programs are confronting very different sets of opponents with polar opposite personnel strengths when their coaches arrived. Also, had the Vols not suffered a horrific injury epidemic in '15, team 119 possibly could've been in the NC playoff lineup. Personally I think UM's being way, way over hyped; more-so than were the Vols last year. Barring a repeat of that previous litany of injuries, there should be no way the Wusserines will wind up higher in the polls than Butch's men than at year's end.:hi:
 
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#56
#56
jbr82 said:
Imo...we were a double digit win team last fall but coaching let us down with that. We squandered hand full of games we were leading ...even with a not so great roster

Preseason opinions don't mean nothing....they didnt to FL last fall.
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Yeah it was clearly all coaching and nothing else. Good God some people....
 
#57
#57
volmsbd said:
Lol. Uuuummm the blatantly obvious thing you are missing about the Michigan/Vols comparison is the two coaches. Harbaugh-Elite, knowledgeable, proven winner. Jones-Average Joe.
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Uuuumm, that's why I said, "they make a great hire, so now it is ok to have expectations them to turn it around in year 2."
 
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#59
#59
volnpowell said:
I have as high of expectations for Tn as anyone, but I could not help but notice Michigan makes a great hire and so it is ok to expect him to turn it around in year 2.

I know I know we had worse roster right... but still even taking that into consideration, that is a huge jump to go to number 7 would be like expecting Jones to have had us in top 25 by year 2 imo.
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You have to remember 3 things:

1) Preseason rankings are terribly weighted towards the previous season. It's plug-and-play, with a few adjustments for individual team trends.

2) UM (like Florida, wink wink) had GREAT classes just a few years ago. I would say they're putting too much emphasis on last year due to having great veteran talent, but I know Steele puts work into looking at returning players, so I'll take his word on UM continuing to be good, even with their elite class graduating. Or it could just be a lot of respect for Harbaugh.

3) Let's not pretend to compare Harbaugh's pre-UM resume with Butch's pre-UT.
 
#60
#60
greenbacknative said:
2016....:thumbsup:
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I'll believe it when I see it. All this preseason crap is just that. A team's record will be greatly affected by injuries, arrest(In our case) and finally, and maybe most importantly,"Lady Luck", WHICH WE SEEM TO HAVE AN EXTREME SHORTAGE OF IN THE LAST 10 YEARS. So I am not getting excited till I see the defeat of the likes of Florida & Bama (which I really doubt as long as Saban is there).
 
#61
#61
volpreacher said:
So it didn't matter that Harbaugh came in with a junior and senior class that were ranked 7th and 5th in the nation? I believe Phil Steele also said UT wouldn't win 6 games last year. But I'm dumb right?
When you name a coach who turned things around without a roster full of really good players then I'll believe you. Both coaches you mentioned had a roster full of good players along with the fact they both played in the Big (weak 10) and UT had one of the toughest schedules in the nation.:salute:
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1. According to NFLDraftScout.com, Harbaugh's senior class this year ain't exactly wowing NFL executives responsible for this year's draft.....Michigan's top prospect is QB Jake Ruddock, who's ranked as the draft's 352nd player and 19th best QB. Followed by the 415th best prospect LB James Ross, number 421 Center Graham Glasgow, number 466 LB Desmond Morgan, etc, etc. None of these guys are likely to be drafted.....unlike players from Butch's first team....guys like first round draft pick Ja'wan James and 6th round picks Zach Fulton and Daniel McCullers. We'll see who winds up in the NFL from last year's Michigan team before too long. We know that as of today, there are at least 6 players from that 2013 Vols team on an NFL roster.

2. You're very badly mistaken about what Phil Steele said about the 2015/last year's Tennessee team.....


24. Tennessee
"There's excitement brewing in Tennessee as the Volunteers are on the rise. They will be picked by some to win their division and for good reason, as after returning only 10 starters in 2014, coach Butch Jones' team has 18 back this season. In addition, of their five SEC losses, two came vs. the SEC division winners, one was to Florida by a single point and another was at No. 12 Georgia by three points. There's no better feeling for a team going into the offseason than dominating a bowl opponent, and the Vols did just that against Iowa."


I'm guessing if he picked them to finish #24 in the country, which was about where they finished, that he thought they'd win more than 6 games. Also, I've not ever called you dumb. You're the one who started all this off by responding to my post and saying that I don't know anything about college football.

3. I already gave you the Rivals class rankings for Tennessee and Michigan since 2009....which shows that Tennessee has indeed recruited better/should have the more talented roster at this point. That wasn't good enough for you?

Saban took over a 6-7 team about to be hit with sanctions and went 12-2 two years later, 14-0 and National champions in year three.

Meyer took over a 6-7 Ohio State team and went 12-0, 12-2 and 14-1 with a national title by year 3

Here's another one..... Hugh Freeze took over an awful 2-10 team, 0-8 in the SEC, and immediately improved by 5 games.....has gone 7-6, 8-5, 9-4 and 10-3 in his first four seasons....are you gonna try to tell us he had a roster full of good players? I'd say taking a broken program that had gone 6-18 and 1-15 in the SEC the two previous years and posting the record he has the next four is a pretty good turnaround.

4. I've already referenced that Sagarin had Michigan and Tennessee as having almost identical strengths of schedule at season's end. Again, Tennessee was ranked #37, Michigan #45....Tennessee 0-2 vs Top team teams, Michigan 0-1....Tennessee 1-4 vs Top 30 teams, Michigan 1-3
 
#62
#62
JohnnyBall said:
Results are different cause Michigan ain't in the SEC and didn't play OU back to back seasons.
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But the albatross that is still hanging around Butch's neck is that Vandy loss in year 1. That should have never happened with the talent differential. Now if we have one of the top defenses in the country this year that Vandy loss will make more sense since Shoop will have been the D coordinator in both instances
 
#63
#63
volnpowell said:
I have as high of expectations for Tn as anyone, but I could not help but notice Michigan makes a great hire and so it is ok to expect him to turn it around in year 2.

I know I know we had worse roster right... but still even taking that into consideration, that is a huge jump to go to number 7 would be like expecting Jones to have had us in top 25 by year 2 imo.
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It's a lot easier to turn it around in the Big Ten. Look at Mich's schedule. They'll only play 3 top 25 teams all yr. Win the rest, go 9-3 and they'll easily be in the top 25. They don't have to play the teams we do
 
#64
#64
Sea Ray said:
It's a lot easier to turn it around in the Big Ten. Look at Mich's schedule. They'll only play 3 top 25 teams all yr. Win the rest, go 9-3 and they'll easily be in the top 25. They don't have to play the teams we do
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Honestly though, which teams did we play last year that wound up being a top-level team? Georgia....no. Florida....no. Arkansas, SCar, Kentucky, Mizzou, Vandy, Northwestern...no. Alabama and Oklahoma were pretty much it.

Furthermore, who do we have this year?
 
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#65
#65
08Vol said:
But the albatross that is still hanging around Butch's neck is that Vandy loss in year 1. That should have never happened with the talent differential. Now if we have one of the top defenses in the country this year that Vandy loss will make more sense since Shoop will have been the D coordinator in both instances
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LOL UT went 5-7 that year, Vandy was 9-4. What "talent differential?"
 
#66
#66
HoptownVol said:
LOL UT went 5-7 that year, Vandy was 9-4. What "talent differential?"
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I believe Vandy had less than 5 4* athletes play on that day while we were in the upper teens. Look deeper than the record, let's swap OR with UMASS and now UT is 6-5 going into the Vandy game while Vandy is also 6-5. Franklin purposely scheduled weak OOC opponents to build up Vandy's record. One of the reasons why an 8 win Vandy team played in Birmingham in 2013 while an 8 win UT team played in Tampa in 2015
 
#68
#68
KBVol said:
Honestly though, which teams did we play last year that wound up being a top-level team? Georgia....no. Florida....no. Arkansas, SCar, Kentucky, Mizzou, Vandy, Northwestern...no. Alabama and Oklahoma were pretty much it.

Furthermore, who do we have this year?
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Right it doesn't matter that UF went to the SEC championship game.
 
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#69
#69
QuickSmurf said:
Right it doesn't matter that UF went to the SEC championship game.
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Yep, pretty much. They were an average team that got steadily worse throughout the season. In the end they were awful. Barely beat an awful Vandie team at home....Fla Atlantic nearly beat em in OT....barely beat East Carolina.....embarrassed themselves in their bowl game. It was a bad loss for Tennessee in September that became an atrocious loss by the time January rolled around.
 
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#70
#70
08Vol said:
I believe Vandy had less than 5 4* athletes play on that day while we were in the upper teens. Look deeper than the record, let's swap OR with UMASS and now UT is 6-5 going into the Vandy game while Vandy is also 6-5. Franklin purposely scheduled weak OOC opponents to build up Vandy's record. One of the reasons why an 8 win Vandy team played in Birmingham in 2013 while an 8 win UT team played in Tampa in 2015
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Give me a break. Vandy beat Georgia and Florida, two teams we lost too. We also lost to Vandy, but you
people go on claiming we were better in the face of facts that say otherwise. Sheez!
 
#71
#71
Imo LSU is way way to high on that list. They didn't even show much last year. Heck they were about to fire a legendary coach. Top 15? Maybe but not top 10
 
#72
#72
KBVol said:
Yep, pretty much. They were an average team that got steadily worse throughout the season. In the end they were awful. Barely beat an awful Vandie team at home....Fla Atlantic nearly beat em in OT....barely beat East Carolina.....embarrassed themselves in their bowl game. It was a bad loss for Tennessee in September that became an atrocious loss by the time January rolled around.
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Florida beat Ole Miss 38-10 also
 
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#73
#73
jbr82 said:
Imo...we were a double digit win team last fall but coaching let us down with that. We squandered hand full of games we were leading ...even with a not so great roster

Preseason opinions don't mean nothing....they didnt to FL last fall.
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I don't see how coaching made our players forget how to tackle in the last two plays of two games..

Blows my mind seeing this posted over and over.

Can't blame coaching when a player you have been smashing the entire game blows by you withought even trying to tackle him. Secondary laid down and let OU and UF have those games for free...just saying, blame coaches if it makes you feel better, but you must have watched a different game then I did.
 
#74
#74
HoptownVol said:
LOL UT went 5-7 that year, Vandy was 9-4. What "talent differential?"
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He just had the wrong team with better talent. Candy actually had better talent for 2-3 years at that time. My how things have changed. Tangy is back to their norm and Tennessee is almost back to their norm. This Fall should be the mourning stick as where we are, relative to their norm.
 
#75
#75
KBVol said:
Yep, pretty much. They were an average team that got steadily worse throughout the season. In the end they were awful. Barely beat an awful Vandie team at home....Fla Atlantic nearly beat em in OT....barely beat East Carolina.....embarrassed themselves in their bowl game. It was a bad loss for Tennessee in September that became an atrocious loss by the time January rolled around.
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Without checking, I believe they were 6-0 with Grier and 4-4 without him.
2 completely different teams with a change to the most important position on the field.
It was a game that we should and could have won but there is no reason to make it sound like we lost to a team equivalent to Vanderbilt.
They looked like UT with Dobbs V Peterman.
 
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