Rebuilding year

#76
#76
DarkVolder said:
One of my felllow collegues suggested that this upcoming season was a rebuilding year for us in 2026. I disagree yes we got a new DC and a new QB but a coach going into his sixth season especially coming off a disappointing five loss season last year shouldn’t have anymore rebuilding and wasted seasons at this point in his coaching career. Thoughts?
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Hype has been here too long for rebuilding. It's no excuses
 
#77
#77
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
We simply don't have TX or Ohio State or aTm or Miami booster money. We just don't.

In the end, that makes a difference.

What separates the P4 from other conferences? Talent.
Why don't non-P4 recruit elite talent from the portal?
Money.

It eventually separates out the schools. A school like Northwestern in the B1G isn't going to emphasize their collective/NIL and isn't going to recruit like Ohio State.

Tennessee originally had a very strong collective and got burned and also the TX schools woke up their very rich donor base. At this point, we're behind and lack the rich donor base.
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So why does everyone on here even remotely believe we’re ever going to be competitive in the NIL era? Us along with about 128 other universities. That’s why college football is dead as we know it.
 
#78
#78
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Every year is a potential rebuilding year now.

Let's say we agree this is a "building year" for the Faizon era and Knowles to get his D installed but after this year Faizon decides he'd like to go to Miami or Ohio State or wherever and a couple of Knowles chosen DBs decide they like it better elsewhere, then what? Does 2027 look good?

We're never going to have the money to throw around like TX oil billionaires or super rich in the Miami area or whatever.

Saying Danny should "loosen the purse strings" is laughable when we simply don't have the long list of wealthy donors TX schools can call on.

It is what it is in this era. We may get raided after this season.
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We're never going to have the money to throw around like TX oil billionaires or super rich in the Miami area or whatever.

WHAT ABOUT THE SHINE $$$$$? There is big money there to be had.
 
#79
#79
DarkVolder said:
One of my felllow collegues suggested that this upcoming season was a rebuilding year for us in 2026. I disagree yes we got a new DC and a new QB but a coach going into his sixth season especially coming off a disappointing five loss season last year shouldn’t have anymore rebuilding and wasted seasons at this point in his coaching career. Thoughts?
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I feel good at most positions on Offense and Defense. My question, as many others have, is our QB play. Has Josh been holding the ace up his sleeve, true freshman phenom or completely unknown? I have no idea what to expect from our QB's. Only position I'm lost in, Vol fans.
 
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#80
#80
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Unfortunately, other teams, like Cuban suddenly coming out of nowhere to support Indiana, are finding more support.

I believe it was LWSVOL here who suggested we were having issues because donors are getting weary of guys leaving and such.

We're still in the top 15, barely, in NIL and Heupel is a good coach but to stay elite requires the kind of commitment Ohio State and Bama have shown to increasing NIL as the market increases.

We were elite, at first, but others have taken the money game up a notch and we're not seeming to meet them.
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What was Indiana's nil budget last year? No more excuses. They didn't pay for a single big name but maybe Mendoza. And nobody even knew who he was kept year.
 
#82
#82
Jaxon_Vol2017 said:
What was Indiana's nil budget last year? No more excuses. They didn't pay for a single big name but maybe Mendoza. And nobody even knew who he was kept year.
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Cuban reportedly dropped about $20M on them on top of whatever they were getting. He did so for a couple of years which corresponded with Cignetti getting there, who definitely had a big role too.

Denying that money played a big part in Indiana rising quickly is as dumb as denying that Cignetti had a big part in their rise.

Coaching matters a lot. Money also matters a lot.

We have one of those things at an elite level. We don't have the other at an elite level.

To win you need both.
 
#83
#83
I “think” Heupel is a really good coach at developing young talent and overachieving. You can justifiably question his game management though. I think we probably win more than we should this year but let some get away that we shouldn’t. Just usually the formula with a new young QB and a rebuilt defense.

If you look at the offense you’ve got GMac who probably will be more of a game manager this season. You’re leaning on a running game that’s pretty good but idk if it’s the kind of good that wins you a lot of conference games. You’ve got a defense that I feel probably will be much better but isn’t dominant enough to outright win games. I think we’ll be decent but the schedule is difficult and I see us struggling; any injuries and it could get uglier.
 
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#84
#84
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
We did own the D shortcomings and replaced the DC which leads to...... rebuilding with a new DC.

We obviously were rebuilding after Nico.

We've had situations with Pili, a leader, being sidelined and no one really to step up to a hole like that.

The Mays injury and lack of leadership hurt us.

I'm less about calling it rebuilds always but more about calling it "how much can you expect when you have holes?"

People like to say "next man up" like that guy wasn't sitting at #2 for a reason. There's a reason why your second team is second team.
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At most positions your 2nd team players are not NEARLY what they were pre NIL at SEC schools either. If the guy actually IS starter quality he will transfer laterally or even down to a lesser school for big money and a starting job. Hell our starting Tackle on our Oline did so this year...Heard to UK for Pete's sake. Unheard of.
 
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#85
#85
marcusluvsvols said:
At most positions your 2nd team players are not NEARLY what they were pre NIL at SEC schools either. If the guy actually IS starter quality he will transfer laterally or even down to a lesser school for big money and a starting job. Hell our starting Tackle on our Oline did so this year...Heard to UK for Pete's sake. Unheard of.
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Exactly. The portal makes stacking talent at positions extremely difficult unless you're willing and able to pay a second team guy good money to sit. Lots of schools cannot do that nor are they Bama or Ohio State where sitting for a potential ring might tempt them.

The landscape has changed such that a key injury may leave a team with a big drop in a position.

This means starting players can leverage their worth to the team, as we've seen, and threaten to leave or actually leave for a bigger bag.

It's money. Like it or not, teams with big NIL budgets are going to be able both to retain talent and to back up talent easier than teams without big NIL money.

If our NIL budget was bigger this year, there's a good chance our starting QB would be different this year. It is what it is.
 
#87
#87
Volbrando said:
every year is a rebuilding year with NIL - no more excuses
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Is it an excuse if you say to your wife, "It's a great car but we simply can't afford it. We're going to have to get something less nice but affordable for us and make do."

We're #15 NIL in most lists so if we can't pay for the talent, is that an excuse or just reality?

I'm just trying to be the voice of reality in this era. If you aren't able to buy talent, you can't expect to win as though you did buy the talent.
 
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#88
#88
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Is it an excuse if you say to your wife, "It's a great car but we simply can't afford it. We're going to have to get something less nice but affordable for us and make do."

We're #15 NIL in most lists so if we can't pay for the talent, is that an excuse or just reality?

I'm just trying to be the voice of reality in this era. If you aren't able to buy talent, you can't expect to win as though you did buy the talent.
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Exactly. No More Excuses means Just Win Baby. If only it were that easy. So many factors go in to winning a championship (or going to the playoffs) and those factors must be considered in evaluating our Football performance. For instance, yes, we're in a new era with NIL and need to have the money to field a top team. Nico not working out was a big factor. If he had been 'the man', that would have made a huge difference in Heupel's progression. But, he didn't and we scrambled. Now, we have two young QBs with unknown abilities at the SEC level. They hit and we are much more likely to make playoffs. Long story short, sounds silly to say 'no more excuses'.
 
#89
#89
screenthis said:
Exactly. No More Excuses means Just Win Baby. If only it were that easy. So many factors go in to winning a championship (or going to the playoffs) and those factors must be considered in evaluating our Football performance. For instance, yes, we're in a new era with NIL and need to have the money to field a top team. Nico not working out was a big factor. If he had been 'the man', that would have made a huge difference in Heupel's progression. But, he didn't and we scrambled. Now, we have two young QBs with unknown abilities at the SEC level. They hit and we are much more likely to make playoffs. Long story short, sounds silly to say 'no more excuses'.
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If some billionaire had come out of the woodwork and said "I'm going to start supporting UT with generous NIL donations" then No More Excuses would make sense for Josh Heupel.

As it is, you can't draw big deep buckets of water from a shallow well and you can't buy elite players from a relatively smaller NIL cash pile.

We had the jump on the NIL market early on but others have caught up and passed us. Nico and others playing money games apparently soured some of our big donors.

If, during this oil spike, a company says "We're going to need to raise our rate because diesel has jumped and it simply costs a lot more to get the product to you now......" is that an excuse or a reflection of reality?
 
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#90
#90
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Is it an excuse if you say to your wife, "It's a great car but we simply can't afford it. We're going to have to get something less nice but affordable for us and make do."

We're #15 NIL in most lists so if we can't pay for the talent, is that an excuse or just reality?

I'm just trying to be the voice of reality in this era. If you aren't able to buy talent, you can't expect to win as though you did buy the talent.
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Indiana didn't have top talent or the top NIL, they were just more experienced and well coached - there are ways to play the game and still be in the playoffs... we just spend less wisely at times imo
 
#91
#91
Volbrando said:
Indiana didn't have top talent or the top NIL, they were just more experienced and well coached - there are ways to play the game and still be in the playoffs... we just spend less wisely at times imo
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Cignetti is a good coach, for sure, and he brought guys with him that were excited to have the opportunity and bought in heavily. They had near flawless execution and lots of experience which let them overcome teams with a lot more gifted players.

This is like the "buy in" Heupel had in 2022 which takes a team a long way and further than they could go without it.

We've not enjoyed the team leadership we had when Hooker was here and that's been reflected in the "buy in" dropping and more of a "me first" attitude being tolerated by the team.

Until we have strong locker room team leadership and hardcore buy in by the players to working their tails off for near flawless execution, we're not in the Indiana realm of "doing something magical with less."

People keep saying "Indiana did it" but there are good reasons why they did it: tremendous execution on every play which comes from hardcore practice of your assignment, a strong sense of team coming from good leadership by Mendoza and a few other older guys on the team, and dang strong coaching.

Frankly, we don't have that kind of execution nor team led leadership like we did in 2022 and Heupel is not Cignetti.
 
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#92
#92
With the portal, there's no such thing as a rebuilding year. If you play young guys who aren't ready then you either chose to do it or you failed in the portal.
 
#94
#94
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
To be successful now, you have to not only buy and recruit but retain talent you bought.

Duke was able to buy and try to legally retain Mensah but Miami doesn't care. We need to pay Duke $4M and pay Mensah $4M to play? No problem. Legal issues? We don't care. We got our QB.

If that can happen, and it just did, there's nothing to do but stack more and more money in your outside NIL like a school like Ohio State has obviously done.

Imagine the offers coming at a guy like Ohio State's WR Jeremiah Smith. It has to get ridiculous at some point to say no if TX or LSU or whoever is contacting his agent with huge money deals. Ohio State has to be able to fend that off with money for QBs to hit him, linemen to protect the QB, other targets so he can't be doubled all the time, etc, etc and obviously his own big bag.

It's going to take a lot of money to compete from now on.
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True. And Smith didn’t entertain offers as Ohio State (And NIL) agreed to pay him a ridiculous amount before season ended. Not sure amount but it never became a bidding war - supposedly.
 
#95
#95
ftsandersvol said:
It’s funny how the perennial playoff teams, i. e., Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, etc., never have rebuilding years. If a six-year coach is having a rebuilding year, his recruiting is very suspect.
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This- drives me insane to see Ohio st, UGA, Bama (until recently), and others always in the mix. The question is rarely “will GA or Ohio st make playoffs?” Usually the question is their seeding and can they win the playoffs.
 
#96
#96
vol94 said:
True. And Smith didn’t entertain offers as Ohio State (And NIL) agreed to pay him a ridiculous amount before season ended. Not sure amount but it never became a bidding war - supposedly.
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The one that was strange for me concerning UT was Hoover, the QB from TCU who went to Indiana. Apparently Josh wanted him to leave TCU last year after Nico bailed on us but he stayed at TCU. This year, he went to Indiana but supposedly at a relatively low $2+M NIL.

We wanted him after Nico left but apparently didn't want him for this year? I find it hard to believe we wouldn't have gone beyond $3M for him and while I know Indiana is coming off the Natty, his relatively low NIL and our previous interest makes me go hmmmm.
 
#99
#99
DarkVolder said:
One of my felllow collegues suggested that this upcoming season was a rebuilding year for us in 2026. I disagree yes we got a new DC and a new QB but a coach going into his sixth season especially coming off a disappointing five loss season last year shouldn’t have anymore rebuilding and wasted seasons at this point in his coaching career. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
There are no such things as rebuilding years in college football anymore.
 
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