The Morning After - Sober Reflections Week 12

[UTFranklinVol]

My first thought...Tennessee's 14 game home win streak is over at the hands of Georgia, who is also the last team to beat us at home in 2021.

Jaylen Wright has a nice run to open the game and apparently used up all the gas in Tennessee's offensive tank because the rest of the game was cringe worthy stuff.

On second thought...
1. Apparently the Josh Heupel offense only works with Heisman level players. So much for him being a "system" coach because system coaches can plug anyone in and have success.
2. I'm not even really going to comment much on the game itself. If you want that breakdown please go back and find my post from last week because this week was exactly the same as that.
3. Tennessee made no observable progress throughout the year as many people on this board claim that teams do. I could make a reasonable argument that Tennessee's best performance of the year was week 1. There was no progression, no learning, no getting better as a team leading up to the more difficult games on the schedule.
4. Many people guessed exactly how this year would turn out before the season even began. People had a "floor" or minimum expectation of 4 losses as the absolute worst they could imagine and Tennessee gave them not one ounce more than the minimum (assuming no utter disaster against Vandy).
5. There were ZERO pleasant surprises and zero signature wins this year. We lost all four of the tough games on our schedule and minus the first half of the Bama game we were not even competitive in any of them. Also we beat ZERO ranked opponents.
A quick recap of the games:

Virginia - 3-8 on the year and 10th in the ACC. Pretty much a cupcake in a power 5 disguise.

Austin Peay - cupcake practice squad game

Florida - I'm still utterly convulsing that UT lost this game to a team that won't even make a bowl game and has lost 4 straight. Get this, Florida's 5 wins are as follows: McNeese, Charlotte, Vandy, South Carolina and TENNESSEE! This should have been our first warning that something was BAD WRONG with UT this year. This is not the group of teams we want to be associated with!

UTSA - cupcake practice squad game

USC - Another team that almost certainly will not be bowl eligible

TAMU - just paid the highest sum ever to tell their coach to GTFO. Their schedule looks a lot like UTs. They didn't beat anyone worth mentioning this year.

Bama - the beginning of the second half of the season for which I warned people would be MUCH different than the cakewalk of the first half of the season. Let's just say UT didn't disappoint and did exactly what I thought they would do but in a much more embarrassing way.

UK - honestly I don't know how we won this game. We suck so bad on the road and barely escaped with the win.

Ucon - see Virginia

Missouri and Georgia - yeah I've said enough about these already

6. UT almost did as bad as my worst second half of the year projection. Losing fully half of their games. Apparently I was right that the first half of the year was all smoke and mirrors made up of cupcake teams and lots of home games. I had hoped UT would have used that time to get better and face the tougher teams and really make something of this season.
7. My parting comments are this. UT better pray it starts landing 3 or 4 five * player and 15 four * players every single year because the Heupel offense doesn't work without elite elite talent. My personal believe is Josh Heupel will be Johnny Majors 2.0. He will rebuild the team and give you a surprise signature win every few years but he won't be the coach that gets us to Georgia and Bama level year after year dominance.

 

[CAVPUT]

Can't argue with your line of thinking, but there were several folks who saw 8 wins as the ceiling for this team.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

Can't argue with your line of thinking, but there were several folks who saw 8 wins as the ceiling for this team.

Those are truly negative people if they only saw 8 wins as the ceiling. Our schedule was easy this year. Truth be told we should have lost 2 games. We should have beat Bama and Florida there's no excuse fo those losses.

We will get the fire throw on us next year with our schedule compared to this year.

 

[ftsandersvol]

Apparently the Josh Heupel offense only works with Heisman level players. So much for him being a "system" coach because system coaches can plug anyone in and have success.

His offense is not predicated on 3 and outs. Not having elite players in AAC play might work when your drives go 3 and out, but in the SEC, teams will eat you alive when you’re consistently giving them the ball back.

 

[ReelfootVol]

Just my own thought you can consider....................Yall remember what Josh Dobbs did for the team he played for. Yall remember what Hendon Hooker did for the team he played for. In this type offense (even Butch Jone's offense) The quarterback either made the team or the team did not make much of a showing. That is all I have to say................yall can assume whatever you like !!! I just thank God for our amazing running backs. If not for them, what do ya think ?

 

[Rocky Top T]

Get used to 7-8 wins on average. We were one play in 3 games last year from finishing 7-5.

 

[ftsandersvol]

Those are truly negative people if they only saw 8 wins as the ceiling. Our schedule was easy this year. Truth be told we should have lost 2 games. We should have beat Bama and Florida there's no excuse fo those losses.

We will get the fire throw on us next year with our schedule compared to this year.

While Missouri is having a flash-in-the-pan type season, I would argue we should not have lost to them too.

Everybody in the country expected Bama to mount a come back in the 2nd half except for our players apparently.

 

[UTFranklinVol]

Just my own thought you can consider....................Yall remember what Josh Dobbs did for the team he played for. Yall remember what Hendon Hooker did for the team he played for. In this type offense (even Butch Jone's offense) The quarterback either made the team or the team did not make much of a showing. That is all I have to say................yall can assume whatever you like !!!

A bad QB can ruin a team but there have been plenty of Bama and Georgia teams that had passable QBs but an amazing team of 5 stars built around them and they won big. You don't have to be Dobbs or Hooker or Manning. You just have to not suck @ss

 

[CDB]

UT better pray it starts landing 3 or 4 five * player and 15 four * players every single year because the Heupel offense doesn't work without elite elite talent.

Doesn’t everybody’s? That is what separates Bama, UGA, OSU, etc. year in and year out. You will get teams that put it together for one year (us last year) but cannot be consistent. Great teams have great recruiting classes every year. Injuries just kill you if you don’t have somebody else to step up… which we didn’t. Not to mention, we did not have a playmaker at quarterback.

 

[CAVPUT]

Those are truly negative people if they only saw 8 wins as the ceiling. Our schedule was easy this year. Truth be told we should have lost 2 games. We should have beat Bama and Florida there's no excuse fo those losses.

We will get the fire throw on us next year with our schedule compared to this year.

I tend to live in reality and pay attention to history. If that makes me a nega, so be it. There are multiple years of evidence and multiple staffs that have tried to solve the riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Joe Milton. Folks jumped on the end of last season and the Clemson bowl game and thought that Joe was gonna roll through this years schedule like a hot knife through butter. I repeatedly said that UT needed to bring in another QB this season. I really wanted the kid from Wake because I thought he'd be a great fit here. Time and time again I was told Milton was the guy and if he went down, we had Nico. We just didn't need a QB. Well, we know how that played out now don't we? Granted, that was a tough sell to a qb in the portal, but this is twice that Heupel has chosen to roll with Milton over someone else. He did it with Hooker early on and again this year. I can understand loyalty, but he screwed up with this one. Even more amazing is that Heupel was a top flight QB. He, of all people, knows what a guy needs to be a great QB. How in the world did he think Milton had the mental make up to succeed at QB in this league? I mean he interacted with him, saw him in practice, saw him in games, saw the same decisions and reads in games, but he still saddled up and rode him again this season. Blows my mind. Yes, Milton is gone next year, but we'd better get deadly serious about spending top dollar on OL in the portal because if Nico goes down, we're in for a long, long season. We'll have a true freshman at the wheel and Moore/Shuler behind him with a much tougher schedule to navigate. Honestly, we'll be fortunate to get the same record next season. Personally, I see 7 wins as our likely win total next season. Yeah...nega.

 

[Chitlin&theDude]

Can't argue here. Very sobering. 1) No progression throughout the year. 2) No winning in game adjustments. 3) Embarrassing loses across the board. 4) And I'm not seeing nearly enough young recruits to compete with the big boys. ((Crappy ass FL is recruiting better than we are)

 

[Rocky Top T]

I tend to live in reality and pay attention to history. If that makes me a nega, so be it. There are multiple years of evidence and multiple staffs that have tried to solve the riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Joe Milton. Folks jumped on the end of last season and the Clemson bowl game and thought that Joe was gonna roll through this years schedule like a hot knife through butter. I repeatedly said that UT needed to bring in another QB this season. I really wanted the kid from Wake because I thought he'd be a great fit here. Time and time again I was told Milton was the guy and if he went down, we had Nico. We just didn't need a QB. Well, we know how that played out now don't we? Granted, that was a tough sell to a qb in the portal, but this is twice that Heupel has chosen to roll with Milton over someone else. He did it with Hooker early on and again this year. I can understand loyalty, but he screwed up with this one. Even more amazing is that Heupel was a top flight QB. He, of all people, knows what a guy needs to be a great QB. How in the world did he think Milton had the mental make up to succeed at QB in this league? I mean he interacted with him, saw him in practice, saw him in games, saw the same decisions and reads in games, but he still saddled up and rode him again this season. Blows my mind. Yes, Milton is gone next year, but we'd better get deadly serious about spending top dollar on OL in the portal because if Nico goes down, we're in for a long, long season. We'll have a true freshman at the wheel and Moore/Shuler behind him with a much tougher schedule to navigate. Honestly, we'll be fortunate to get the same record next season. Personally, I see 7 wins as our likely win total next season. Yeah...nega.

I agree. 8 wins at the most next year

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

We are a long way from competing at the top level because of recruiting and depth.

Injuries are really starting to take their toll as the OL, Secondary and WRs are on 3 and 4 deep players. When UGA and bama lose players, the sub a 5* or 4* for the 5* that got hurt. We are subbing 3* for 4* starters.

We haven't had a good secondary under CJH/Banks/Martinez. I think Martinez is the biggest problem and he needs a change of scenery. If we had a respectable secondary, we probably could have had 50% more sacks because we could blitz more often.

Why haven't we attempted anything on special teams this year. No fake punts, no onside kicks, fake XPs, etc.

Seems like we have totally forgotten about TEs the last 5 games unless the OL is just so porous that they have to stay in and block every down. Some quick tosses to TEs will give the defenses something else to get confused about.

Offense too Vanilla: Remember that nice play (Mizzou 22) where Hyatt hid behind an OT and then went uncovered for a TD? I think the other teams have forgotten about it too by now. We haven't used the shovel pass in a few games either.

I also don't think we are playing nearly as fast as we were last season. Those extra seconds make it easier for defenses to get aligned and result in less opportunities for big plays.

One last thing, we have got to fix the red zone woes. It certainly would have made the bama game a lot closer with those extra 8 points in the first half.

Looking to next season, we may not bring back anyone on the OL that is in the 2 deep, unless there are another COVID year available for Lampley. We also need to get Nico some real weapons, tall-lanky speedsters with great hands. McCastles at TE is quite a gem that needs to be polished up.

 

[J C Higgins]

My first thought...Tennessee's 14 game home win streak is over at the hands of Georgia, who is also the last team to beat us at home in 2021.

Jaylen Wright has a nice run to open the game and apparently used up all the gas in Tennessee's offensive tank because the rest of the game was cringe worthy stuff.

On second thought...
1. Apparently the Josh Heupel offense only works with Heisman level players. So much for him being a "system" coach because system coaches can plug anyone in and have success.
2. I'm not even really going to comment much on the game itself. If you want that breakdown please go back and find my post from last week because this week was exactly the same as that.
3. Tennessee made no observable progress throughout the year as many people on this board claim that teams do. I could make a reasonable argument that Tennessee's best performance of the year was week 1. There was no progression, no learning, no getting better as a team leading up to the more difficult games on the schedule.
4. Many people guessed exactly how this year would turn out before the season even began. People had a "floor" or minimum expectation of 4 losses as the absolute worst they could imagine and Tennessee gave them not one ounce more than the minimum (assuming no utter disaster against Vandy).
5. There were ZERO pleasant surprises and zero signature wins this year. We lost all four of the tough games on our schedule and minus the first half of the Bama game we were not even competitive in any of them.
A quick recap of the games:

Virginia - 3-8 on the year and 10th in the ACC. Pretty much a cupcake in a power 5 disguise.

Austin Peay - cupcake practice squad game

Florida - I'm still utterly convulsing that UT lost this game to a team that won't even make a bowl game and has lost 4 straight. Get this, Florida's 5 wins are as follows: McNeese, Charlotte, Vandy, South Carolina and TENNESSEE! This should have been our first warning that something was BAD WRONG with UT this year. This is not the group of teams we want to be associated with!

UTSA - cupcake practice squad game

USC - Another team that almost certainly will not be bowl eligible

TAMU - just paid the highest sum ever to tell their coach to GTFO. Their schedule looks a lot like UTs. They didn't beat anyone worth mentioning this year.

Bama - the beginning of the second half of the season for which I warned people would be MUCH different than the cakewalk of the first half of the season. Let's just say UT didn't disappoint and did exactly what I thought they would do but in a much more embarrassing way.

UK - honestly I don't know how we won this game. We suck so bad on the road and barely escaped with the win.

Ucon - see Virginia

Missouri and Georgia - yeah I've said enough about these already

6. UT almost did as bad as my worst second half of the year projection. Losing fully half of their games. Apparently I was right that the first half of the year was all smoke and mirrors made up of cupcake teams and lots of home games. I had hoped UT would have used that time to get better and face the tougher teams and really make something of this season.
7. My parting comments are this. UT better pray it starts landing 3 or 4 five * player and 15 four * players every single year because the Heupel offense doesn't work without elite elite talent. My personal believe is Josh Heupel will be Johnny Majors 2.0. He will rebuild the team and give you a surprise signature win every few years but he won't be the coach that gets us to Georgia and Bama level year after year dominance.

Re:........"but he won't be the coach that gets us to Georgia and Bama level year after year dominance."

So who would without a roster of 4 and 5 star players?

 

[BigBadVol]

Those are truly negative people if they only saw 8 wins as the ceiling. Our schedule was easy this year. Truth be told we should have lost 2 games. We should have beat Bama and Florida there's no excuse fo those losses.

We will get the fire throw on us next year with our schedule compared to this year.

There’s no excuse for losing to Bama at Bama? Ok, you lost any credibility with that statement.

 

[HuntlandVolinColo]

Just my own thought you can consider....................Yall remember what Josh Dobbs did for the team he played for. Yall remember what Hendon Hooker did for the team he played for. In this type offense (even Butch Jone's offense) The quarterback either made the team or the team did not make much of a showing. That is all I have to say................yall can assume whatever you like !!! I just thank God for our amazing running backs. If not for them, what do ya think ?

Yeah, do you think LSU wins 6 games this year without Jaden Daniels?

 

[Rocky Top T]

I hate Georgia, but they come to kick your tail, all we want to do is those stupid handshakes . Kirby eats their tail, Heupel doesn't say a word. He wants to be their best friend. It did not surprise me to lose the last 2, but to get blowed out should be unacceptable. Don't want to hear about injuries, the only real good player we lost was Bru and Pili

 

[BruiserVol]

I knew we were in trouble when we played Austin Peay. Virginia we looked like crap, but chalked it up to being the first game. When we were struggling and actually going toe to toe with Austin Peay for 3/4 of the game I knew there was an issue. Blame that on being out talented, too?

 

[led0321]

The depth and talent on this team was never as good as it was hyped up to be. Key injuries decimated certain positions, WR being example A.

Milton isn’t the guy either. We all know that but he didn’t have a bit of help from his WRs.

 

[BruiserVol]

There’s no excuse for losing to Bama at Bama? Ok, you lost any credibility with that statement.

Maybe more along the lines of there’s no excuse to squander a lead the size we had at halftime. That was a complete and total collapse showing they had coaches at half time and we had who the hell knows what.

 

[CAPTAIN--VOL CAVALRY]

My Thoughts -- Morning After -- Sober Reflection

Georgia is not just A dominant force in the SEC, they are THE dominant force in the SEC

I honestly believe they could beat (or at the very least compete) with NFL teams like the Cardinals, the Bears, the Panthers, or the Giants this year.

We (UT) are good, not great. The Georgia Bulldogs are great. With two past Nattys under their belts and a third this year very likely the fact that they are one of the all time greats can hardly be debated. 29 wins in a row and counting, you gotta give them props.

Plus, nobody scored in the 4th quarter last night which I thought was pretty amazing.

Just wait'll next year? Ill give you the final word

 

[turbovol]

I tend to live in reality and pay attention to history. If that makes me a nega, so be it. There are multiple years of evidence and multiple staffs that have tried to solve the riddle wrapped in an enigma that is Joe Milton. Folks jumped on the end of last season and the Clemson bowl game and thought that Joe was gonna roll through this years schedule like a hot knife through butter. I repeatedly said that UT needed to bring in another QB this season. I really wanted the kid from Wake because I thought he'd be a great fit here. Time and time again I was told Milton was the guy and if he went down, we had Nico. We just didn't need a QB. Well, we know how that played out now don't we? Granted, that was a tough sell to a qb in the portal, but this is twice that Heupel has chosen to roll with Milton over someone else. He did it with Hooker early on and again this year. I can understand loyalty, but he screwed up with this one. Even more amazing is that Heupel was a top flight QB. He, of all people, knows what a guy needs to be a great QB. How in the world did he think Milton had the mental make up to succeed at QB in this league? I mean he interacted with him, saw him in practice, saw him in games, saw the same decisions and reads in games, but he still saddled up and rode him again this season. Blows my mind. Yes, Milton is gone next year, but we'd better get deadly serious about spending top dollar on OL in the portal because if Nico goes down, we're in for a long, long season. We'll have a true freshman at the wheel and Moore/Shuler behind him with a much tougher schedule to navigate. Honestly, we'll be fortunate to get the same record next season. Personally, I see 7 wins as our likely win total next season. Yeah...nega.

Fully agree. Heupel should have known last year what he had in Milton and sought another QB in the portal. But Heup has apparently always overestimated the guy, for starters, and unless he was fully prepared to move on he wasn't going to look for another QB in the portal--and no other talented QB would have come. But he was locked into the guy--he was the successor QB, the QB in waiting, won the bowl game, and it would have been hard to suddenly pull the plug on the Milton experiment. Our passing attack has gone from spectacular to utterly pedestrian in one year.

Even given Milton's issues--and the issues we've had at receiver---I expected more from the offense. Not great, not last year--but better than what we've seen. I thought our play-calling and execution in the first-half of the Alabama game was excellent--very impressive--and I expected more of that this year. But we haven't been able to sustain that level of play at all in other big games. The running game as been good--and some credit should be given to Heup for leaning on it as it has become clear that we have passing-game problems. Even so, our 3rd-down futility yesterday--and in other games---has been shocking. Yesterday we were utterly unable to make a play on offense when we needed to move the chains. Failure to get 4, 5, 6 yards over and over again. Not much creativity. That's been both surprising and disappointing.

 

[Chippo]

My Thoughts -- Morning After -- Sober Reflection

Georgia is not just A dominant force in the SEC, they are THE dominant force in the SEC

I honestly believe they could beat (or at the very least compete) with NFL teams like the Cardinals, the Bears, the Panthers, or the Giants this year.

We (UT) are good, not great. The Georgia Bulldogs are great. With two past Nattys under their belts and a third this year very likely the fact that they are one of the all time greats can hardly be debated. 29 wins in a row and counting, you gotta give them props.

Plus, nobody scored in the 4th quarter last night which I thought was pretty amazing.

Just wait'll next year? Ill give you the final word

Maybe Kirby figured the game was won and
Just let his second and third string play.

 

[VolForLife83]

Just my own thought you can consider....................Yall remember what Josh Dobbs did for the team he played for. Yall remember what Hendon Hooker did for the team he played for. In this type offense (even Butch Jone's offense) The quarterback either made the team or the team did not make much of a showing. That is all I have to say................yall can assume whatever you like !!! I just thank God for our amazing running backs. If not for them, what do ya think ?

No team is going to win at a high level with a Joe Milton leading it. And middle school secondary.

 

[volsack]

Those are truly negative people if they only saw 8 wins as the ceiling. Our schedule was easy this year. Truth be told we should have lost 2 games. We should have beat Bama and Florida there's no excuse fo those losses.

We will get the fire throw on us next year with our schedule compared to this year.

The over/under on the win total before the season was 9.5. Not sure how people who saw 8 as the ceiling are negative? I paid my tuition this semester on the under win total