Preseason ALL-SEC team and media poll (Vols 9th)

[ntxVOL]

Gators will be a better team overall but not sure I see them winning all those road games.

Yep, they could be a lot better and still only win 8 games. I don't see the Vols beating them in the swamp but a lot can happen before we play them.

 

[swchandler1988]

Remember when the 2018 men’s basketball team was picked to finish 13th out 14?

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Because they've done well in the transfer portal, and they have a returning 5 star QB who helped turn around their season last year.

They should be a lot better this year unfortunately.

Their WR room is as talented as it's been in a long long time. When Florida has good WRs the league feels it.

I think they beat LSU and Texas AM and Ole Miss.

UF vs UT could be a Top 10 match up like old days.

If Florida wins all of those road games they should be ranked #1 or 2 when we play them. Those 3 teams are CFP caliber teams IMO

 

[NeverWe'llSever]

South Carolina is getting a lot of love considering what they lost. I know Sellers is back, but they lost some critical guys too.

I was hanging out with my dad yesterday, who’s not even an SEC guy, and I listed off USCjr’s schedule to him and said tell me win or loss. 5-7 is what he ended up with lol. Idk if it’ll be that bad, but I think 8 wins would be an incredible coaching job by Beamer.

That’s the thing with these rankings. I feel like they don’t take into account the schedules of these teams. USCjr has a really tough schedule. They’re not a bad squad, but they’re just not a great team. Tennessee, on the other hand, gets to play the 4 worst teams in the league and an absolutely pedestrian Syracuse squad imo.

 

[deatojl]

There’s a big difference when Georgia dominates us every year regardless of location and we haven’t kept a Bama or Florida road game within two scores. I do expect us to lose a game that we shouldn’t because we do every year.

Okay, I'm not completely disagreeing with that take. However, We have only played at Florida and Alabama twice under Heupel and the first time was his first season here. The last time we played at Florida was a 13 point loss, which seems to be within two scores to me. Similarly, our last road game at Alabama was a 14 point loss which is also within two scores. If you take the stance that we will lose a game that we shouldn't because we do every year, then you should also have the stance that we will not lose a home game to anyone other than Georgia for the same reason.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

I was hanging out with my dad yesterday, who’s not even an SEC guy, and I listed off USCjr’s schedule to him and said tell me win or loss. 5-7 is what he ended up with lol. Idk if it’ll be that bad, but I think 8 wins would be an incredible coaching job by Beamer.

That’s the thing with these rankings. I feel like they don’t take into account the schedules of these teams. USCjr has a really tough schedule. They’re not a bad squad, but they’re just not a great team. Tennessee, on the other hand, gets to play the 4 worst teams in the league and an absolutely pedestrian Syracuse squad imo.

I agree. Plus USCjr lost 5 defensive players to the draft. They still have some very good players on the roster, but the schedule is pretty tough. That’s why I think we’re in pretty good shape. Our schedule shapes up nicely. The funny thing is about some on here, is that they’re very quick to point our unknowns and how that’s a negative, but very rarely talk about the unknowns of the teams we’re playing . They just assume we’re going to be worse and don’t point out flaws of our opponents How good is Ty Simpson? If he is going to be a difference maker, why didn’t he play last year? How is Lagway’s health? What happens if he goes down? What about Mateer at OU? We don’t know what he’ll be yet. We might be worse, but we also might just be a different looking football team . At this point I’m giving our coach and his staff the benefit of the doubt because they’ve earned that.

 

[vavolfan6]

It has to be bulletin board material for Heupel and the offense that there is no one projected as a 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd team all conference player. I think our OLine will perform well behind Joey A who us a quick decision maker. I think at least one or two guys will emerge on that list by the end of the year. I also think the connection between Kitselman and Joet could be special too. So I could see Miles cracking 3rd team at least. RB will be by committee, so I think opportunities will be spread out for anyone to be anything other than 3rd team at best. As for WR, we have plenty if potential, but hard to tell who will emerge. But I expect better performance at the position..Aguilar will be hitting some guys deep for sure. If Brazzel could finish the catch he could be Hyatt 2.0. Though maybe not as high a ceiling.

 

[orangemadam]

Guess our roster full of 3*s is not panning out like we hoped.
Thought they were all diamonds in the rough that no one else noticed.
Guess we'll find out this season.

 

[livefaith]

We need to go to a non-game SEC schedule, and play Mississippi State in Kentucky twice.

 

[orangebloodgmc]

You realize, the voting above was done by whatever "sports-writers" with press credentials were at the SEC Media days. It is my understanding the Baton Rouge paper had at least 3 or 4 folks there. Knoxville probably sent John "sleeper cell" Adams and others. So, TIFWIW.