The Sports Animal says UT not a high profile program or an elite job

[Boca Vol]

When did the “WOO” thing start? That might be the issue right there.🤔

One of my sore spots indeed. The Woo was around in '98 but not like now. It hadn't fully caught on.

If I have to lay blame somewhere it is taking down the V O L S letters when they put the original jumbotron up in 99 and I believe the same year UT replaced the white goal post pads for the orange ones.

Things haven't been the same since.

 

[jakez4ut]

Back when all the Schiano/Gruden **** was going on, Bomani Jones broke it down better than anyone. It's not the best job in the East or the second best. But it's way closer to being the 2nd best job in the East than it is the 4th best job.

yeah, i remember his rant on this....he was one of the very few in the national media that "got it". i thought it was a pretty fair assessment as well.....

 

[TNnative]

Freedom of the press should be based on the ability to understand events and state the story factually; both require sufficient intelligence and honesty to figure out the story. That's in very short supply in the legitimate news, and completely missing in most opinion pieces. Basically sports shows are self help programs for wannabe shock jocks. It's refreshing when Marvin West writes a story and reminds everyone that good journalism and reporting are still possible.

Bravo. You just mentioned the one Knoxville based sports journalist I would spare from the purge. Calling him refreshing hit the nail square on the head.

 

[TNnative]

When did the “WOO” thing start? That might be the issue right there.🤔

I'm not sure, but I don't get why they do it when our offense is on that end of the field, and the QB is trying to call his signals.

Nothing makes me want to hang the band director more than that nonsense.

 

[AM64]

Bravo. You just mentioned the one Knoxville based sports journalist I would spare from the purge. Calling him refreshing hit the nail square on the head.

I've often imagined that Marvin West is someone you could sit and talk with for hours and absolutely enjoy the experience - the wisdom, the history, and good natured presentation. I'd guess much of that comes from predating shock jocks - the time when civility, reason, fact, and common sense all became irrelevant in the world of "journalism".

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Deciding who's elite and who isn't depends entirely on your range of vision.

If you are 12 years old and became a college football fan two years ago, there are probably only about four truly elite college football programs: Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Oklahoma (Ohio State and Washington don't count, they were so badly embarrassed in their recent playoff appearances).

If you're 20 years old and have been a fan for a decade, you may include a dozen or more programs as elite: Bama, Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Florida State, Oregon (but have they dropped from "eliteness"? maybe), and maybe Auburn, LSU, Texas, USC.

Even older? Longer horizon? Add Stanford, Notre Dame, Florida, and Miami.

Are you an old fella like me? Okay, add in Nebraska, Tennessee, Penn State, and Michigan.

And if you're ancient, or a big student of history, you start thinking back to the really old days: Army ... Minnesota (yep!) ... Notre Dame in a big way ... or all the way back to the founding days of the sport: Princeton ... Yale ...

~ ~ ~

So yeah, this is one of those questions that doesn't have a Right answer...it only has answers that reveal more about the respondent than the sport.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

p.s. one definition of elite might be this: Power 5 teams who made it into the College Football Playoffs or the BCS championship game, or won their conference title in a given year.

So how many teams are elite, using that metric? This shows how the answer depends on how long your memory is. From 2016 to present, only eight teams are elite by that definition. While from the start of the BCS era to today, 35 teams make the grade:

2017 (6): Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, Georgia
2016 (8): + Penn State, Washington
2015 (10): + Michigan State, Stanford
2014 (13): + Florida State, Baylor, Oregon
2013 (14): + Auburn
2012 (17): + Wisconsin, Kansas State, Notre Dame
2011 (19): + LSU, Oklahoma State
2010 (20): + Virginia Tech
2009 (21): + Texas
2008 (22): + Florida
2007 (22): --
2006 (23): + Wake Forest
2005 (24): + West Virginia
2004 (25): + Iowa
2003 (27): + Miami, Michigan
2002 (27): --
2001 (31): + Nebraska, Maryland, Illinois, Colorado
2000 (31): --
1999 (31): --
1998 (35): + Tennessee, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA

Generally speaking, the further back you have to go in time to find a team listed, the less likely they are to be considered elite today.

There's another element to that, in how FREQUENTLY a team makes the cut. Alabama and Oklahoma are all over the record books of the past twenty years, where Tennessee, Nebraska, A&M, and other teams only met the criteria once. That'll have a bearing, too, on how they're viewed today.

 

[Glocker_Alum_2005]

Well ol' Clay Travis thinks we are overrated.
Clay Travis: Georgia, Tennessee among 5 most overrated college athletic programs

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Well ol' Clay Travis thinks we are overrated.
Clay Travis: Georgia, Tennessee among 5 most overrated college athletic programs

Can you be overrated if you're unrated?

Asking for a friend.

 

[OnlyGodForgives]

While I agree with the right coach, Tennessee can get where you want them to be.....

Tennessee is nowhere close to where Clemson was when Dabo took over for Tommy Bowden.

Tennessee has more losing seasons in the last 10 years than Clemson has had in the last 40.

Posters comparing Tennessee to other big-time programs that have had huge upswings got ponderous a long time ago. Don't you realize that UT is exactly where Ohio State was 17 years ago before they shored up their shortage at back-up punter? If they can do it, so can we.

 

[114VOL]

We haven’t been relevant in a long time. 20 years since our NC. It has to change! Go Vols!

We haven't been nationally relevant since 2001. We were ranked really high in the preseason a few times during the 2002-2008 stretch, but mediocre to dismal seasons would follow

But of course, we put the guy responsible for that slide into the AD role. He'll be ok because he's a UT guy, but I'm not confident he'll bring our AD back into national prominence. In one regard, we're pretty lucky to have a guy like Rick Barnes coaching our Men's BB team. We'll see how our new AD does with his hires. Hopefully Pruitt will turn out to be a gem

 

[82_VOL_83]

Well ol' Clay Travis thinks we are overrated.
Clay Travis: Georgia, Tennessee among 5 most overrated college athletic programs

Was just getting ready to post this. He had a fair explanation for this also and conceded that he was borderline including us in the 5.

 

[Glocker_Alum_2005]

If it was like 2010, we should still be on the list. However the past 8 seasons, we were really overrated only once(2016). Pretty much predicted to be .500 or worse the other 7 seasons.