Tennessee Football is done

It hurts me to say this, but it's time we face the facts as a fanbase. This program will never be relevant in the SEC again. At least not any time soon. Bama and Georgia are getting too many elite athletes at too quick of a pace and Florida is about to be dominant again with Florida State and Miami falling apart along with them having the 2nd best coach in the SEC at the helm. Combine that with having to play 1 other team out of the west every year and a decent South Carolina program that seems to be improving, and it doesn't make for a promising outcome. There's no reason to think recruiting will pick up any time soon either. 7-5 doesn't sell any better than 5-7 when you're going up against Florida, Georgia, Bama, Auburn, and LSU for talent. Not to mention very few proven coaches want to coach in Knoxville. There may be years where a 9-3 finish happens, but there's no possibility of us going to Atlanta over the next 5-10 years unless it's for a kickoff game


I kinda agree with you just read where 3 best players from tennessee are going to georgia to play,maybe in time but not in the foreseeable future.
 
We’ve dug ourselves a huge hole, that’s what you get from an administration that’s not committed to winning. You don’t hire / put in charge guys like Mike Hamilton, Dave Hart, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and Butch Jones (in succession) without negative consequences. We’ve sunk so low that proven winners wouldn’t give us the time of day and thus we went to a completely unproven hire in Pruitt.

Pruitt is going to have to overachieve for us to become competitive again. And he’s an unproven HC so we are basically on a wing and a prayer at this point.

Tennessee can become competitive again, from a resource perspective Bama and Clemson got nothing on us. The problem is leadership and until that improves we’re irrelevant to everyone outside of our own fan base. Fulmer might be a good start.
 
People speak to how devastating the 2001 SEC championship game loss was.....

But, I wonder how different things would be if Tennessee beat Vandy and went to the Sugar Bowl in 2016
 
Florida got the absolute most out of their roster. One benefit of having a hfc who isn't learning otj.
GAVol covered there other thing I was gonna bring up.

Also, would be very interesting to see where we were right now had we hired Chip. Good chance you're posts would have different words. Lol.

*Yes, if it had been left up to me Chip would be our coach right now. But....I admit I probably would have been very wrong AND I'm not whining about Pruitt. So there! :)
 
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I'm not saying they should be in Atlanta in 4 years but he should have at least 2 8 win seasons by then, close to a .500 record against South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Bama combined
We're 0-4 in year 1, so under your test, you think it is unacceptable if we aren't at least 4 games over .500 against those four teams in years 2, 3, and 4. I don't think that's a reasonable expectation considering Bama is probably going to be the 2 time defending national champion after tomorrow, both UF and UGA are going to finish in the Top 10 and all 3 are ahead of in recruiting, with Bama and UGA being way ahead, at least doubling us up on blue chip (4 and 5 star recruits) in this class. If we beat South Carolina twice in the next 3 years and UF and UGA once, that will be great work, especially if we have a winning record against the rest of the East.
 
I kinda agree with you just read where 3 best players from tennessee are going to georgia to play,maybe in time but not in the foreseeable future.
It my be dead for you, but this old VOL fan will be around for many more years. I have seen the ups and downs and we will be up again and it will be soon. If you don't think so, go find another team anf come back in 4-5 years. We will let you non-believers back in during the good times.
 
It hurts me to say this, but it's time we face the facts as a fanbase. This program will never be relevant in the SEC again. At least not any time soon. Bama and Georgia are getting too many elite athletes at too quick of a pace and Florida is about to be dominant again with Florida State and Miami falling apart along with them having the 2nd best coach in the SEC at the helm. Combine that with having to play 1 other team out of the west every year and a decent South Carolina program that seems to be improving, and it doesn't make for a promising outcome. There's no reason to think recruiting will pick up any time soon either. 7-5 doesn't sell any better than 5-7 when you're going up against Florida, Georgia, Bama, Auburn, and LSU for talent. Not to mention very few proven coaches want to coach in Knoxville. There may be years where a 9-3 finish happens, but there's no possibility of us going to Atlanta over the next 5-10 years unless it's for a kickoff game
this thread is click bait. you seem to have a drinking problem or were never held as a baby. every program in the SEC has fell on hard times and recovered. UT crushed Bama and Georgia during ADPF era. Bama fans during that era were saying that same thing. Honestly, i dont think this forum is the place for people to post things such as this. This is a personal problem that has no truth to the nature of success and only creates negative responses from faithful fans. i think the Real Housewives of Knoxville chat room on AOL is accepting new members. Good luck snowflake
 
We have talented young men who signed with us who believe in TN football and and "their" ability to help get us back to relevancy. It would be nice if the fan base, though not all of you, would stop the woo is us, our team sucks for the remainder of our life time....and get behind these coaches, and recruits. Threads, comments such as these do NO good, except maybe make you feel better. I have NO idea, neither do you, as to what's coming down the pike, but if you thought it would be fixed in one season. lol, that's almost laughable, if we weren't so bad....definitely unrealistic. Carry on.......
 
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GAVol covered there other thing I was gonna bring up.

Also, would be very interesting to see where we were right now had we hired Chip. Good chance you're posts would have different words. Lol.

*Yes, if it had been left up to me Chip would be our coach right now. But....I admit I probably would have been very wrong AND I'm not whining about Pruitt. So there! :)
Much as I detested the idea of Chip Kelly being here, I would have returned to my true nature and tried to find how he could improve in year two instead of grousing how he misused tainted talent...like he ended up doing at UCLA. 😉 Would have been quite a challenge since he sucks at recruiting...and life.
 
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Seems to me someone was probably saying something similar about mens basketball 3 or 4 years ago.
I don't agree with the "we're forever doomed" sentiment either, we can come back, but basketball and football are two totally different animals, there are far fewer players in basketball, it is much easier to turn over a roster, and a good coach can get more mileage out of just a couple of good players. When you are as bad at run blocking and pass blocking as we were this year, there's not a whole lot you can do to cover that up. To use a biblical analogy on this fine Sunday morning, that's a house built on sand. This thing is going to take time to get turned around, even with good coaching.

I do like CJP'S focus on getting bodies up front. We may not have a Bama level OL or DL recruited but we've got some good players like Wanya who hopefully can immediately contribute and some quantity, with players who could develop into really good players as juniors and seniors. The Stoops formula basically, that's the road back. Just because of our history/support we'll have a little more staying power once we do get back than say a Kentucky would, but the long road come back has to happen first.
 
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It hurts me to say this, but it's time we face the facts as a fanbase. This program will never be relevant in the SEC again. At least not any time soon. Bama and Georgia are getting too many elite athletes at too quick of a pace and Florida is about to be dominant again with Florida State and Miami falling apart along with them having the 2nd best coach in the SEC at the helm. Combine that with having to play 1 other team out of the west every year and a decent South Carolina program that seems to be improving, and it doesn't make for a promising outcome. There's no reason to think recruiting will pick up any time soon either. 7-5 doesn't sell any better than 5-7 when you're going up against Florida, Georgia, Bama, Auburn, and LSU for talent. Not to mention very few proven coaches want to coach in Knoxville. There may be years where a 9-3 finish happens, but there's no possibility of us going to Atlanta over the next 5-10 years unless it's for a kickoff game
th
 
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People speak to how devastating the 2001 SEC championship game loss was.....

But, I wonder how different things would be if Tennessee beat Vandy and went to the Sugar Bowl in 2016

Probably not much different. The 2017 was still gonna fail most likely. Maybe Tennessee could have gotten a real OC instead of promoting Larry Scott but it’s not like the defense was that good.

Now the 2015 Florida game....now that might have changed some things. Because I assume Tennessee would then beat Arkansas, then Tennessee would be 10-2 going into Atlanta against Bama would they could have beat after year 3.
 
The OP is trolling, but a point can be made that the probability Tennessee makes it back to their 90’s status is unlikely.

We are stuck in a vicious, vicious style. Because as I’ve posted before. We keep hiring guys who don’t accomplish a lot their first two years and it never gets the recruiting fully going. And I like Pruitt but the last two games were not a good sign. Another season where Tennessee doesn’t have momentum to finish the season. And while I know Tennessee has a good class, it’s still not a ten top class right now (Wright could change that).

So is Pruitt the guy? Well probably not. Don’t see guys go 5-7 in year one (cue the Saban went 6-6, he also had a title on his resume) and turn it around to be a champion usually. The recruiting is good. So is everyone else in the SEC, not really separating himself. But high school recruits don’t know Tennessee was good. Ever. National perception is bad because there is no national perception.
 
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Why? isn't this was @Gandalf was referring to the other day?

Yes, it is. Nothing wrong with complaining about what we have seen in the PAST or legit criticisms of actual events. What makes a Negavol the legion of the miserable, however, is that they never see hope for the FUTURE and assume that it will always be this way and that TN will always fail. The orange in their souls are bent and twisted. That is what I dont like.
 
It my be dead for you, but this old VOL fan will be around for many more years. I have seen the ups and downs and we will be up again and it will be soon. If you don't think so, go find another team anf come back in 4-5 years. We will let you non-believers back in during the good times.
The problem is people were saying the same thing 4-5 years ago. Being back up again soon has not really been so soon......
Not saying it won’t happen but I think our fans have earned the right to be a little pessimistic.
 
People speak to how devastating the 2001 SEC championship game loss was.....

But, I wonder how different things would be if Tennessee beat Vandy and went to the Sugar Bowl in 2016
That loss and the two prior losses to A&M and USCe were enough to have CBJ run flat out of K-Town yet Hart let us down simply because he was retiring. UT gave up huge ground because of that. Now we have to make up that ground and it's not easy. UT has to learn the need to utilize foresight. No excuse for this complacency.
 
I don't agree with the "we're forever doomed" sentiment either, we can come back, but basketball and football are two totally different animals, there are far fewer players in basketball, it is much easier to turn over a roster, and a good coach can get more mileage out of just a couple of good players. When you are as bad at run blocking and pass blocking as we were this year, there's not a whole lot you can do to cover that up. To use a biblical analogy on this fine Sunday morning, that's a house built on sand. This thing is going to take time to get turned around, even with good coaching.

I do like CJP'S focus on getting bodies up front. We may not have a Bama level OL or DL recruited but we've got some good players like Wanya who hopefully can immediately contribute and some quantity, with players who could develop into really good players as juniors and seniors. The Stoops formula basically, that's the road back. Just because of our history/support we'll have a little more staying power once we do get back than say a Kentucky would, but the long road come back has to happen first.
Two classes of players that look and think what you teach and you have a winning core. Every class afterwards adds to that. There’s no 5 year plan in college football. The best players leave in 3.
 
Two classes of players that look and think what you teach and you have a winning core. Every class afterwards adds to that. There’s no 5 year plan in college football. The best players leave in 3.
I agree we have every right to expect improvement after 2 full classes, I just think the .500 or bust record against Bama, UF, UGA, and Sakerlina by year 4 (inclusive of this year's 0-4 mark) is a tad unrealistic under the present circumstances.
 
We’ve dug ourselves a huge hole, that’s what you get from an administration that’s not committed to winning. You don’t hire / put in charge guys like Mike Hamilton, Dave Hart, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley and Butch Jones (in succession) without negative consequences. We’ve sunk so low that proven winners wouldn’t give us the time of day and thus we went to a completely unproven hire in Pruitt.

Pruitt is going to have to overachieve for us to become competitive again. And he’s an unproven HC so we are basically on a wing and a prayer at this point.

Tennessee can become competitive again, from a resource perspective Bama and Clemson got nothing on us. The problem is leadership and until that improves we’re irrelevant to everyone outside of our own fan base. Fulmer might be a good start.
Just because you hire a first time HC doesn’t mean it was out of desperation or that we are on a wing and a prayer, as you put it. Smart had never been a HC when hired. Neither had Richt, Dabo, Stoops at OU, Fulmer, and others that have done very well. Hiring a first time HC is just as likely to work out as hiring someone who has been a HC before. We’ve gone with guys that have prior HC experience for the last 3 hires and that hasn’t worked out.
 
The OP is trolling, but a point can be made that the probability Tennessee makes it back to their 90’s status is unlikely.

We are stuck in a vicious, vicious style. Because as I’ve posted before. We keep hiring guys who don’t accomplish a lot their first two years and it never gets the recruiting fully going. And I like Pruitt but the last two games were not a good sign. Another season where Tennessee doesn’t have momentum to finish the season. And while I know Tennessee has a good class, it’s still not a ten top class right now (Wright could change that).

So is Pruitt the guy? Well probably not. Don’t see guys go 5-7 in year one (cue the Saban went 6-6, he also had a title on his resume) and turn it around to be a champion usually. The recruiting is good. So is everyone else in the SEC, not really separating himself. But high school recruits don’t know Tennessee was good. Ever. National perception is bad because there is no national perception.

Well said (unfortunately).

Optimism for success in the near term continues to be an exercise in blind faith. It would require substantial over achievement from a roster that is middle of the pack in the SEC at best, and from a head coach and DC that are OTJ training. Pruitt showed some very good signs this year, but they were largely tarnished by the way we finished the season. That probably doesn't happen from a coach destined for greatness.
 
Just because you hire a first time HC doesn’t mean it was out of desperation or that we are on a wing and a prayer, as you put it. Smart had never been a HC when hired. Neither had Richt, Dabo, Stoops at OU, Fulmer, and others that have done very well. Hiring a first time HC is just as likely to work out as hiring someone who has been a HC before. We’ve gone with guys that have prior HC experience for the last 3 hires and that hasn’t worked out.

You cite 4 good examples of first time head coaches that were successful. Compare that to a list of first time coaches that did not succeed and see which is longer.

What Tennessee has needed is a proven winner (Rick Barnes anyone...), and unfortunately a proven winner will not come to Tennessee under the current circumstances (schedule, talent level, administration, etc.), so we are left, hoping against hope, that Pruitt is the next Stoops. Odds of that are slim.

Tennessee hasn't made a good head football coach hire in over a quarter of a century. I hope Pruitt succeeds but my days of blind optimism are over.
 

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