The Vandy Loss Sucks, but Let's Take a Look at Reality ...

#51
#51
DiderotsGhost said:
This was always going to be a down year.

Sorry, folks, but I called it at the beginning of the season. I said back then that 7-5 or 8-4 was the expectation. The reasons why:

* Loss of key defensive players to NFL Draft. We lost James Pearce Jr and Omar Norman-Lott. 2 players who were always going to be difficult to replace
* Key defensive injuries. What hurt even more was all the injuries - Jermod McCoy, Ricky Gibson, Arion Carter, and Jaxson Moi. Our secondary was really held together by duct tape this season and did better than expected. I'm particularly encouraged by the emergence of Ty Redmond.
* Nico defection. Look, we can all agree that Joey was better than Nico. But it's also rare for a QB to come in late in the Spring and thrive in Year 1, no matter how "senior" they are --- normally these types of QBs don't thrive till Year 2. The brutal truth ... we lost the Alabama game back in 2021 when Bama landed Ty Simpson over us. But we've landed G-Mac and Faizon Brandon in back-to-back classes now.
* Tougher schedule than anticipated. Everyone thought we had an easy schedule at the beginning of the season. Turns out, a lot of those teams were much better than expected. We played 3 top 10 teams; arguably 4 if you count Vandy. We ended up with an unexpectedly polarized schedule.
* Youngest team we've had in years. For whatever reason, everyone seemed to be ignoring this. This is one of our youngest teams in years. And it's tough to win in the SEC with a very young team.

I never expected this to be a CFP campaign type of season. It's honestly a miracle that if we hit a single FG, we're 9-3.

This isn't to suggest there shouldn't be changes. The defensive performance against Vandy was awful. But those who want to pull out the "FAHR EVERYONE!" playbook do more harm than good. Banks was, the prior 2 seasons, one of the best DCs in the country. We had the #4 ranked defense in America last year; and #21 in 2023.

We have one of our best recruiting classes in a long while coming in. We have a horde of promising young players. Expectations have risen again after the dismal Dooley/Jones/Pruitt triumvirate, but let's not go insane. Heupel took over a bad situation and turned the program into something again. This is a place people want to come.

I can't guarantee success, but I think burning down the house would be the worst thing possible right now.

GBO!
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All these things are true, but I'd argue we would have lost a couple more games with nico. Heupel just got lucky with Joey. I'm not in favor of burning it all down but heads have to roll on the defensive side of the ball. That being said no changes will probably be made.
 
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#53
#53
UTFranklinVol said:
I disagree with these points.

By all accounts losing Nico allowed us to win more games that we would have. we would have lost 1-2 more games with Nico and his fat f#ck dad being a cancer in our locker room. this is a fact.

I also completely dispute that our schedule was tougher than anticipated. we played 4 out of 12 games against teams with winning records. yes all were ranked but 3 out of 4 of those games were in Knoxville and completely winnable without massive collapses. I also said that Tennessee would lose 4 games but that was BEFORE I knew how bad Kentucky Florida and Arkansas were going to be. IMO we could have easily won 11 games this year with our talent and competent coaching. The ONLY team we played that was tougher than expected was Vanderbilt but there were many teams that were way weaker than anticipated.

and finally I don't agree that a really young team means anything. Georgia also has a really young team and it didn't stop them.
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100% agreed. People keep bringing up the 8.5 preseason prediction like it matters when the real results start coming in. We all saw this team could be relatively good based on the UGA performance, but we only had 1.5 good games (KY and 1st half against FL) after that. We escaped with wins against awful teams, and we convincingly lost against 2 of the 3 ranked teams we played after Georgia. I think it should be emphasized that 2025 is likely to be Heupel's worse performance as the HC at Tennessee, including his first year in 2021.
 
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#55
#55
titansvolsfaninga said:
Your reality is skewed. You've not taken one snap, ran one drill. I'm 50, and TN has loss to Vandy multiple times. So this isn't the first time it has happened. Touch some grass and grow up. How old are you?!
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It's not simply losing to vandy, they are very good. It's getting utterly destroyed in every facet in your own building and acting like you don't GAF
 
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#70
#70
DiderotsGhost said:
This was always going to be a down year.

Sorry, folks, but I called it at the beginning of the season. I said back then that 7-5 or 8-4 was the expectation. The reasons why:

* Loss of key defensive players to NFL Draft. We lost James Pearce Jr and Omar Norman-Lott. 2 players who were always going to be difficult to replace
* Key defensive injuries. What hurt even more was all the injuries - Jermod McCoy, Ricky Gibson, Arion Carter, and Jaxson Moi. Our secondary was really held together by duct tape this season and did better than expected. I'm particularly encouraged by the emergence of Ty Redmond.
* Nico defection. Look, we can all agree that Joey was better than Nico. But it's also rare for a QB to come in late in the Spring and thrive in Year 1, no matter how "senior" they are --- normally these types of QBs don't thrive till Year 2. The brutal truth ... we lost the Alabama game back in 2021 when Bama landed Ty Simpson over us. But we've landed G-Mac and Faizon Brandon in back-to-back classes now.
* Tougher schedule than anticipated. Everyone thought we had an easy schedule at the beginning of the season. Turns out, a lot of those teams were much better than expected. We played 3 top 10 teams; arguably 4 if you count Vandy. We ended up with an unexpectedly polarized schedule.
* Youngest team we've had in years. For whatever reason, everyone seemed to be ignoring this. This is one of our youngest teams in years. And it's tough to win in the SEC with a very young team.

I never expected this to be a CFP campaign type of season. It's honestly a miracle that if we hit a single FG, we're 9-3.

This isn't to suggest there shouldn't be changes. The defensive performance against Vandy was awful. But those who want to pull out the "FAHR EVERYONE!" playbook do more harm than good. Banks was, the prior 2 seasons, one of the best DCs in the country. We had the #4 ranked defense in America last year; and #21 in 2023.

We have one of our best recruiting classes in a long while coming in. We have a horde of promising young players. Expectations have risen again after the dismal Dooley/Jones/Pruitt triumvirate, but let's not go insane. Heupel took over a bad situation and turned the program into something again. This is a place people want to come.

I can't guarantee success, but I think burning down the house would be the worst thing possible right now.

GBO!
Click to expand...

BS to all of this. Every team has roster turnover and defections and somehow some overcome it and even get better. Tired of excuses.
 
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#72
#72
titansvolsfaninga said:
Your reality is skewed. You've not taken one snap, ran one drill. I'm 50, and TN has loss to Vandy multiple times. So this isn't the first time it has happened. Touch some grass and grow up. How old are you?!
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They beat us four times from 65-05. It happens. So do appearances of Halley’s comet. It’s a black mark on any coach’s resume.
 
#73
#73
BowlBrother85 said:
It's not an excuse. Vanderbilt is simply a much better team. Their approach to football has changed with the portal. They didn't use to take transfers from just anywhere ..... and they are throwing money around to boot.
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They needed some gifts from officiating to put away a coachless Auburn team. They are nothing special. We shouldn’t be getting wedgies from them in year five.
 
#74
#74
BowlBrother85 said:
They won't get in, and it's not unfair. Who was the best team they beat? Missouri? Tennessee?
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Vanderbilt is a good team. However, they aren't Top 12 good.

People just need to get a grip on how excruciatingly bad this defense was. It just all came to a head yesterday. There is still no excuse for getting whipped at home by Vanderbilt and to see zero improvement on defense all year.

Defense is not the only concern. Did you see a reverse all year? Hot routes?

The kicking game is average at best. Kickoff man - good. Punter - average. Field goal kicker - average.

We were out coached. You also either have to assess evaluations or player development.

I'm not suggesting anything about Heupel other than he act with some urgency about problems we've seen all year. Does he have a mentor or benchmark in the offseason for new wrinkles? I'd be interested to know.
 
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