We are trying to compete with Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, etc. Sure, we can beat similarly talented teams like Arkansas, MSST, Ole Miss with the talent we have, but not the upper echelon teams our fanbase wants to compete with in order to win a championship.
Georgia and Texas has 4 or 5 players ranked every year as 5* recruits. The state of Tennessee hasn't had one since 2022 (Ty Simpson and Walter Nolan) who both went out of state. There hasn't been another in the last 3 recruiting classes and the one next year is going to Georgia. Either way, the numbers do not compare. Heupel is having to build up his reputation, like Saban did for Bama, in order to get more and more of those out of state 5* recruits. He is trending that direction, but until then the expectations should be tempered to reflect the talent discrepancy.