Team Depth

Kentucky
Mizzou
South Carolina
Pittsburgh
Ole Miss
Aren't deep either.

Mizzou and Ole Miss are the only one with a QB
Vandy
Bowling Green
TENN tech
South Alabama

Out of those 9 you think we win only 4???

Agreed. And these are not orange colored glasses. Vanda and USC are way down. Mizzou and Ole Miss are a year ahead and depth may be an issue there. Kentucky has more talent and depth.

But Bowling Green, Tenn Tech, South Alabama, Vandy, Mizzou and Pitt are winnable games.
 
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Gotta love those who cant help but poor mouth everything...

I’m being realistic - it’s not being negative to say that a lot of teams on our schedule could beat us based on the stated theme of the thread, which is a problem with our depth. I want JH to be a runaway success here and think he can be. It will take time based on what we’ve been through as a program
 
Pitt has been more competitive against tougher teams than we have in the last 5 years. So idk why people think Pitt will be an easy win
 
I’m being realistic - it’s not being negative to say that a lot of teams on our schedule could beat us based on the stated theme of the thread, which is a problem with our depth. I want JH to be a runaway success here and think he can be. It will take time based on what we’ve been through as a program
The problem that I have with the depth issue thing is we watched a 3-8 season followed by a 5-7 season. The argument at the time wasnt depth. It was does UT even have SEC caliber players. It was said by anyone whoever thought they knew football, that it would take multiple recruiting classes to become respectable. They won 8 games with Pruitt right after his 1st full class and we can all agree that we shoulda won more games (ga st, BYU) that year. IMO, CJH is getting a much more talented team then Pruitt started with and he has an easier schedule then any 1st year UT coach in recent memory. I dont see a thin roster at all. In fact I would say QB, RB, TE, WR, OL are all as deep as last year if not deeper. Look at the defense and the dline probably has more games played then any SEC dline. DB room has about the same amount of depth as last year and you have guys who have played a ton of snaps. I would say we probably need 1 more LB but that wont make or break the season. If you playing your 5th & 6th guys meaningful minutes you are probably in trouble anyway.
 
I understand most of what you are saying the part I don't understand is how you think we will be any worst off than last year. Sure some people have left, however, we really were not very good with the guys and coaches we had.

I really have no idea how good we are going to be this year, but if a lifetime of watching college football has taught me anything it's that when you lose players off of a bad team, that is not an indicator that your next team will also be bad. Sometimes, that is the breath of fresh air that the team needed.

If that is true in this situation, it doesn't mean that we are going to be good. It simply means that we will be different. Hopefully, all the young guys that haven't played yet will be our stars of the future. We won't know until sometime after the first kickoff of the season.
 
I keep seeing Pitt listed among our easy wins. Here's another pre-season ranking, which is... I know... a pre-season ranking but Pitt is #55 and UT is #89. Even if you take that with an entire grain bin of salt, that's 34 positions above us and Pitt probably isn't going to be a creampuff.

College Football Rankings 2021 - CBS Sports Ranking
Not "easy win" but a game where we have at least a 50-50 chance, if not better.

TTech, S. Ala, Vandy, Bowling Green, SCar. ... these should be expected wins, though 3 of them may not be easy.

Of Pitt and Missou, I predict we will win at least one of those.

We should battle head to head with KY and Ole Miss and anything could happen with those two, given the current state of our program.
 
The problem that I have with the depth issue thing is we watched a 3-8 season followed by a 5-7 season. The argument at the time wasnt depth. It was does UT even have SEC caliber players. It was said by anyone whoever thought they knew football, that it would take multiple recruiting classes to become respectable. They won 8 games with Pruitt right after his 1st full class and we can all agree that we shoulda won more games (ga st, BYU) that year. IMO, CJH is getting a much more talented team then Pruitt started with and he has an easier schedule then any 1st year UT coach in recent memory. I dont see a thin roster at all. In fact I would say QB, RB, TE, WR, OL are all as deep as last year if not deeper. Look at the defense and the dline probably has more games played then any SEC dline. DB room has about the same amount of depth as last year and you have guys who have played a ton of snaps. I would say we probably need 1 more LB but that wont make or break the season. If you playing your 5th & 6th guys meaningful minutes you are probably in trouble anyway.
Patrick Brown of GoVols247 did a break down comparing the recruiting rankings of Pruitt's first team to the 2021 team. The 2018 team was more talented on paper than the 2021 team in the majority of position groups. Of course, last year we supposedly had the 15th most talented team inside the country and went 3-7.
 
Kentucky has more talent and depth.

But Bowling Green, Tenn Tech, South Alabama, Vandy, Mizzou and Pitt are winnable games.

I'm quoting this segment of this post because if I had a time machine and could take this quote back to 1996 or 2001, think about utterly absurd it would sound to you.
 
Patrick Brown of GoVols247 did a break down comparing the recruiting rankings of Pruitt's first team to the 2021 team. The 2018 team was more talented on paper than the 2021 team in the majority of position groups. Of course, last year we supposedly had the 15th most talented team inside the country and went 3-7.
Bro you can go compare the 2 yourself and im willing to bet that your opinion will be similar to mines. We have the power of hindsight in this situation but we can still compare.
JG & Chryst or HB, BM, Hooker, Milton,& Salter??
Chandler, Jordan, London or Evans, Small, Wright,
2018 wins the WR debate easily with JJ, Calloway, & Palmer.
Fant is probably just as good as Wolfe at TE.
2021 wins the OL debate easily bc its just as talented and way healthier.
Then we go to the defense and its not really a huge difference.
The Dline was more talented in 2018 but we all saw them underachieve the majority of their time here. I would say the current dline has done as much as they did with the exception of D. Taylor.
LB group was injured in 2018 and 2021 is a big unknown so I'd call it a tossup at this point.
You could make an argument that the DB room is almost the same. 2021 has basically the older version of 2018 minus Warrior, & Thompson. They have Tank, Neiko, & Mcdonald instead
 
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I’m being realistic - it’s not being negative to say that a lot of teams on our schedule could beat us based on the stated theme of the thread, which is a problem with our depth. I want JH to be a runaway success here and think he can be. It will take time based on what we’ve been through as a program
It's also not unrealistic for us to win those games, and yes you are negative almost always but that's just you not bad mouthing you or anything that's just who you are. I know alot of people that would rather be negative that way if something positive happens It's great
 

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