There's the top four, and then there's everyone else

[TennesseeTarheel]

I disagree...you can't make a watermelon out of a prune.

You can make wine out of a prune. But, it takes time.

 

[tnutater]

You can make wine out of a prune. But, it takes time.

Plum wine is my second favorite after elderberry. Never tried with the dried ones.
And you can spike the hell out of watermelon with ethanol.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Plum wine is my second favorite after elderberry. Never tried with the dried ones.
And you can spike the hell out of watermelon with ethanol.

Lairds Applejack is my favorite. Unusual process, too, to make it.

 

[08Vol]

Holy mother of moses..........we only have 5 5-stars??? Versus 16 and 12 with Georgia and Bama respectively??? I know we shouldnt star watch but thats suprising......I knew our recruiting was down compared to theirs and we still have a lot of Butch hold overs, but I didnt realize it was that low.

Same with 4-stars 50's vs 31

Of our current 5* players Butch recruited 1, Pruitt recruited 2, and Pruitt got 2 to transfer in. 4 are on the O-line even tho it doesn’t show. The last one is on the D-line and hasn’t played up to his ranking which is one reason he transferred to UT.

 

[08Vol]

I keep coming back to this. Too many on this board want to blame one player or position group and that's just lazy. I knew after the first half that UGA was going to come back just because of the amount of time our Defense was on the field. You have to have talented depth to overcome and the talent gap was what stood out above everything in the UGA game. Georgia just has far more superior players that they can swap in and out. UT does not have that luxury. What is good to see was that we outplayed them first half. We at least got to see that we could hang with the big boys for at least a half. Jason Swain mentioned this in his podcast as being the single biggest reason we got squashed second half. The talent gap is still too big and the only remedy is recruiting.

The talent gap really showed when our offense took the field against their defense. I don't know of a single offensive unit that outplayed any of their defensive units. Their DB's made most of our wide receivers look like kids. Their Dline mauled our Oline and RBs. Their is only so much you can do as a coach when your chess pieces can't compete with the other guys' chess pieces.

People blame JG b/c the QB is the most important position in the game. A great one can elevate a team well above their talent level. Dobbs made Butch’s offense look good and hid the poor O-line development.

Right now UT will never be able to out recruit UGA & Bama. Clemson has locked down the parts of South Carolina that Fulmer use to raid. The best talent in GA goes to UGA. Knoxville just isn’t a big enough city to generate elite talent. Nashville is growing but UT doesn’t have the presence here they used to. Memphis is closer to Tuscaloosa and Oxford than to Knoxville.

The only way UT can elevate their recruiting is by winning big. Pruitt blew an easy shot at 10 wins last year and it will haunt his recruiting. At this point his only hope is for a Dobbs type of game changer that can win UT a national championship and raise our recruiting profile nationally.