Ranking UTs opponents

[WA_Vol]

I thought this was an interesting read and a good assesment of UT's opponents this season.

RANKING TENNESSEE'S 2006 FOOTBALL OPPONENTS
Apr 27, 2006 | 12:38PM | report this RANKING TENNESSEE'S 2006 FOOTBALL OPPONENTS
By John Mark Hancock
Copyrighted - All Rights Reserved
Thursday, April 27, 2006

Thank goodness Tennessee doesn't have to play the Auburn Tigers at home or on the road this season. They, along with the other Tigers in the league, LSU, will definitely be the class of the SEC West, and Vol fans hope they can get both of them knocked off before the SEC Title game if UT makes it that far.

There is absolutely no question that the top team on Tennessee's 2006 schedule, as it is most years lately, is Florida. Fortunately, they get the Gators at home. The Volunteers owe them since they played well enough to beat them in Gainesville last year. If UT can whip them, it stands an excellent chance of having a great season and making it to a BCS bowl for the first time since 1999. Anything is possible, I suppose.

Here is an educated assessment of the top opponents Tennessee faces in in 2006 in terms of their raw strength:

1. Florida - If Urban Meyer goes 2-0 over Phillip Fulmer, that will be a tragedy for UT's program.

2. LSU - Tigers will be out for revenge after UT beating them and knocking them out of national title contention with a team that wound up with a losing record. Les Miles will really have something to prove in Knoxville. It will be the biggest game of his career.

3. California - Toughest home opener in Fulmer's tenure and one of the toughest home openers in UT football history. Cal is every bit as good as Notre Dame was last year, and we all know how that one turned out.

4. Georgia- Vols dominated the Dawgs in Athens last time after getting waxed by Auburn the week before, but this will be their toughest road game of the year by far.

5. Alabama - They are included only due to the intense rivalry and the fact that they beat UT last year, but the Big Orange will handle them in Knoxville.

None of the other seven teams are really good enough on paper to stay with UT on the field. With improved coaching and more experience in general, the Vols ought to whip, in order as they come, Air Force, Marshall, Memphis, South Carolina, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.

The Gamecocks and the Hawgs, of course, will be Top 50 teams nationally, but neither is Top 25 material. The problem is UT has to play both of them away from home, and anything can happen on the road in the SEC. The other five are very poor opponents. If Tennessee can't beat all of them easily, they are really in trouble.

Vanderbilt without Jay Cutler and Memphis without DeAngelo Williams simply aren't even on the radar screen nationally. Kentucky's talent isn't improved and no one believes Randy Sanders is going to save them. Marshall, which has no offense, and Air Force, which has no defense, are even worse.

Now, let's look at what is realistic, considering the way things will most likely develop:

UT will probably lose the opener to Cal and the SEC opener to Florida. The Vols traditionally start slowly and finish strong, and there is no reason to see this season as any exception. If they lose two out of the first three, however, there will be a sharp dropoff in attendance the rest of the year.

By the time they go to Georgia, they will, however, have a winning record, 3-2. Look for them to lose in Athens and then bounce back to beat Bama and the ghosts of Bear Bryant and Logan Young in Knoxville. That should be followed by another win in Columbia, as Fulmer will pay back Steve Spurrier for his evil upset win last season.

UT will then be 5-3 going into the LSU game. That one will be the key as to what happens the rest of the way. If the Vols can beat the Tigers and Fulmer can go 2-0 over Miles, they stand a great chance of running the table and finishing 9-3, getting a major bowl bid, and with a win there, go 10-3, a very respectable improvement over last year's unmitigated disaster.

[If, however, they lose to LSU, they will most likely also lose at Arkansas, meaning that a 7-5 finish will yield them a very minor bowl bid. Will that be enough to save Fulmer's job if that scenario pans out? An embarrassing bowl loss would end the year at 7-6. UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton would have virtually no choice but to make a change in that case, and would have the vast majority of the Big Orange Nation behind him if he did.

Tennessee football thus is certainly at a crossroads. Everyone on The Hill seems to realize the urgency of the situation in terms of showing vast improvement over last year. The schedule isn't all that daunting, given the talent at hand. As always, the key will be in how well the coaches are able to get the most out of it.

 

[VolinArizona]

I agree alot with the rankings of the opponets. UGA's outgoing seniors really leaves them as a question mark.

 

[jakez4ut]

pretty fair assesment imo...though i could see us beating UGA and losing to LSU and still finishing 9-3.

I think he's underrating ARK and USC a bit, but he hedges those with the fact that they are away games....

oh well....it's may.

 

[mattvols]

UGA is tons weaker then people think. There QB's are just terrible. The rest i agree with.

 

[OrangeSquare]

The article has SOME good points, but for the record, the guy that wrote it said that Randy Sanders would be our Co-Offensive Coordinator with Cutcliffe this season, just after Sanders "resigned".

He's not the most fruitful source.

My Ranking of opponents in order of importance:

1. California- MUST get off on the right foot.
2. Florida- MUST send a message to the Eastern Division that the Vols are back
3. South Carolina- MUST show everyone that Spurrier does not have his number with a much weaker team.
4. LSU- A win here shows last years win was no fluke. Unless Miles and staff are much better, they will be outcoached again, and this time by a much better overall staff.
5. Georgia- An SEC win on the road is always important.
6. Vanderbilt- Vols can NOT afford to lose to Vandy two years in a row.
7. Memphis- Land mine game....always is.
8. AirForce- Their option attack should help prepare for Urban Meyer's version a week later.
9. Alabama- Not a MUST WIN game, but a game that Tennessee should win. Coaching staff is MUCH better than Bama's.
10. Marshall- Can't afford a letdown after the Florida game.
11. Kentucky- Gotta go out on a winning note, no matter what the record.

 

[Volunteersfan]

UGA is tons weaker then people think. There QB's are just terrible. The rest i agree with.

i saw part of their spring game on CSS and its hard to tell becuase they are playing against eachother but they didnt look that good. i wasnt impressed

 

[Atreus21]

4. LSU- A win here shows last years win was no fluke.

Take it from me. Your win against us last year was no fluke. We totally underestimated you in the second half, and worse, decided to run the clock out with 2 minutes left to take it to overtime. 2 freaking minutes. Easily the worst call Miles has made yet at LSU. Classic example of playing not to lose.

Forgive me. I'm still pretty steamed about that game. :banghead: :banghead:

 

[VolinArizona]

Take it from me. Your win against us last year was no fluke. We totally underestimated you in the second half, and worse, decided to run the clock out with 2 minutes left to take it to overtime. 2 freaking minutes. Easily the worst call Miles has made yet at LSU. Classic example of playing not to lose.

Forgive me. I'm still pretty steamed about that game. :banghead: :banghead:

Wow, a nice LSU fan. Not a crack on you or even the majority of your fanbase, but I had a run in with some rude, threatening, mean LSU fans in 2001.

 

[OrangeSquare]

Agreed. Kudos to you Atreus. Although I have seen you around and I'm not all that surprised, you are class.

 

[kiddiedoc]

Atreus has been around here for a long time and is, almost always lol:, polite and level-headed. Too bad not all opposing "fans" act so civilly on other teams' sites. . . .

As to the assessment:

1. I'm not so sure that losing to Meyer would be as much of a "tragedy" as losing to Spurrier the Gamecock two years in a row. THAT would show that we are being outcoached.

2. I don't know that I'd hang the entire season on the LSU game. A lot can happen between the opener and then, and while it will be a big 'en, aren't they all?

3. Don't overlook the ground attack of Arkansas. With our youth up front on defense, that could be one heck of a game.

4. Predicting that UT will "handle" Bama (or anyone else, at this point) seems a bit far-fetched. I'll take scoring more than three points and a last-second field-goal win, thank you very much.

5. Agree that 10-3 would have to be considered a decent turnaround, but losses on an opener, to Georgia, and to Florida will still cause grumblings around K-town. You have to think that 4 or 5 regular season losses could spell certain doom. Finishing with 2 losses or fewer and/or taking a December trip to Hot-Lanta seem all that would satisfy the doomsdayers.

 

[milohimself]

Take it from me. Your win against us last year was no fluke. We totally underestimated you in the second half, and worse, decided to run the clock out with 2 minutes left to take it to overtime. 2 freaking minutes. Easily the worst call Miles has made yet at LSU. Classic example of playing not to lose.

Forgive me. I'm still pretty steamed about that game. :banghead: :banghead:

Thank you for the comforting. I feel bad that you have to deal with Miles as your coach... He never won the big one at Oklahoma State, and I don't see him doing it at LSU. Last season seems to me more of a result of what Saban left over than anything.

 

[Atreus21]

Thank you for the comforting. I feel bad that you have to deal with Miles as your coach... He never won the big one at Oklahoma State, and I don't see him doing it at LSU. Last season seems to me more of a result of what Saban left over than anything.

That's possible, but I think he'll get it together. With the kind of talent on this team, even DiNardo would be hard pressed to lose. I just hope Miles turns out to be another Saban/Mclendon and not another Archer/Hallman/DiNardo. (Or as I prefer to call it, another Archmanardo.)

 

[WA_Vol]

Take it from me. Your win against us last year was no fluke. We totally underestimated you in the second half, and worse, decided to run the clock out with 2 minutes left to take it to overtime. 2 freaking minutes. Easily the worst call Miles has made yet at LSU. Classic example of playing not to lose.

Forgive me. I'm still pretty steamed about that game. :banghead: :banghead:

Everything I read said LSU suffered from a lack of conditioning. After hurricane Katrine the team got bounced around. The defense seemed to get winded in the 4th quarter. Miles made a mistake going to a prevent defense. If they would have played the same style of defense in the second half of the game, as they did in the first half, they most likely would have won.

 

[WA_Vol]

3. Don't overlook the ground attack of Arkansas. With our youth up front on defense, that could be one heck of a game.

UT has had trouble in the past beating Arkansas, they are the dark horse in the west. They have the potential to be very good the next couple of years, it depends on how well their QB progresses.