This was always a bridge season.

#1
ToineMac

ToineMac

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#1
Nobody expected us to be a playoff team at the start of this season. Personally I thought 9-3 was our ceiling. We lost to 4 teams this year and none of them were the "How the hell did we lose to that team" games that we have had in the past couple years. Even the Vandy team we lost to if has an argument to be a playoff team. It is very frustrating to be so close and it not happen yet but I need everyone to see the vision. We have the youngest roster in conference. We have top 10 recruiting class. Entire O Line can come back plus we have played some of the young guys in significant snaps this year due to injury. We lose 3 skill guys our top WR and TE and number 2 RB. We should be even better there next year. There's a lot to be optimistic about for next season. 4-4 in conference was our ceiling for 15 seasons and now that's our floor and you want to fire the people responsible. I'm not saying we don't need to make some changes. We will definitely need some portal help on defense, especially on the DL and secondary. I'm not opposed to some coaching change but keeping our contributors and young guys out of the portal and getting reinforcements need to be the priority.
 
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#3
#3
ToineMac said:
Nobody expected us to be a playoff team at the start of this season. Personally I thought 9-3 was our ceiling. We lost to 4 teams this year and none of them were the "How the hell did we lose to that team" games that we have had in the past couple years. Even the Vandy team we lost to if has an argument to be a playoff team. It is very frustrating to be so close and it not happen yet but I need everyone to see the vision. We have the youngest roster in conference. We have top 10 recruiting class. Entire O Line can come back plus we have played some of the young guys in significant snaps this year due to injury. We lose 3 skill guys our top WR and TE and number 2 RB. We should be even better there next year. There's a lot to be optimistic about for next season. 4-4 in conference was our ceiling for 15 seasons and now that's our floor and you want to fire the people responsible. I'm not saying we don't need to make some changes. We will definitely need some portal help on defense, especially on the DL and secondary. I'm not opposed to some coaching change but keeping our contributors and young guys out of the portal and getting reinforcements need to be the priority.
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Tell yourself whatever you have to.

It makes zero difference.
 
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#6
#6
BigOrangeTrain said:
Just stop it. Year 5 is no bridge season. There should never be a TN HC in year 5, getting absolutely donkey stomped at home against Vandy. I don’t care how good Vandy is
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Yep. This was supposed to be Nico's coming into maturity and we were supposed to be contending for hardware. Definitely not a "bridge year."
 
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#9
#9
I’m starting to believe some of you think it takes 10 years for a coach to “get his system in place and his players”. Excuse after excuse just because you wanna take the “safe route” of not having to search for another coach. We all want Heup to miraculously turn us into a well oiled machine, but the outlook just doesn’t look good.
 
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#11
#11
CAVPUT said:
Yep. This was supposed to be Nico's coming into maturity and we were supposed to be contending for hardware. Definitely not a "bridge year."
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Yep, supposed to be his coming out party this year, he goes to the draft, and we start over next year. That means we should have had a team built around him, offense and defense, for that reason. He left in the spring, by himself, so this bridge year stuff is nonsense.
 
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#13
#13
ToineMac said:
Nobody expected us to be a playoff team at the start of this season. Personally I thought 9-3 was our ceiling. We lost to 4 teams this year and none of them were the "How the hell did we lose to that team" games that we have had in the past couple years. Even the Vandy team we lost to if has an argument to be a playoff team. It is very frustrating to be so close and it not happen yet but I need everyone to see the vision. We have the youngest roster in conference. We have top 10 recruiting class. Entire O Line can come back plus we have played some of the young guys in significant snaps this year due to injury. We lose 3 skill guys our top WR and TE and number 2 RB. We should be even better there next year. There's a lot to be optimistic about for next season. 4-4 in conference was our ceiling for 15 seasons and now that's our floor and you want to fire the people responsible. I'm not saying we don't need to make some changes. We will definitely need some portal help on defense, especially on the DL and secondary. I'm not opposed to some coaching change but keeping our contributors and young guys out of the portal and getting reinforcements need to be the priority.
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Highly reasoned take. Seems to be from an informed perspective. There are a few of us in this forum that wholeheartedly agree with it. I totally understand the frustration and criticism from the many here. We must fix our defensive scheme and style, or at a minimum, be able to adjust it because of injuries. When the back end is depleted due to injuries and quality depth, a blitz heavy defense is required. Not just some of the time, but all the time. There might be some in disagreement with that approach but it's exactly what great NFL DCs do when they are short handed on the back end. Fixing the offense are some quick fix issues, like clock management and not scrapping running plays for passing plays. We actually had a nice improvement from penalities the last few games of the season
 
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#14
#14
You all do realize that the SEC is NOT your father's or grandfather's SEC. There is no undefeated team left standing in the SEC. None. There are three one loss teams, but two of them benefited from the schedule. This is not like the old east and west series anymore.
 
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#15
#15
ToineMac said:
Nobody expected us to be a playoff team at the start of this season. Personally I thought 9-3 was our ceiling. We lost to 4 teams this year and none of them were the "How the hell did we lose to that team" games that we have had in the past couple years. Even the Vandy team we lost to if has an argument to be a playoff team. It is very frustrating to be so close and it not happen yet but I need everyone to see the vision. We have the youngest roster in conference. We have top 10 recruiting class. Entire O Line can come back plus we have played some of the young guys in significant snaps this year due to injury. We lose 3 skill guys our top WR and TE and number 2 RB. We should be even better there next year. There's a lot to be optimistic about for next season. 4-4 in conference was our ceiling for 15 seasons and now that's our floor and you want to fire the people responsible. I'm not saying we don't need to make some changes. We will definitely need some portal help on defense, especially on the DL and secondary. I'm not opposed to some coaching change but keeping our contributors and young guys out of the portal and getting reinforcements need to be the priority.
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“How the hell did we lose to that team” definitely occurred two days ago. In no world is Vandy more talented than us. However, they are better coached.
 
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#16
#16
BigOrangeTrain said:
Just stop it. Year 5 is no bridge season. There should never be a TN HC in year 5, getting absolutely donkey stomped at home against Vandy. I don’t care how good Vandy is
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I've seen a few posts like this and I'd like to see one of the folks posting it go through the various problems the team has been dealing with during this 8 year probation and scholarship reduction and show what a better coach would have done to fix it.

This year's team had a legitimate path at ridiculously overachieving given the roster. Considering the limitations of the players we had, how would someone have avoided those problems?

Ohio State certainly figured it out, but they have both more money and scholarships than we do, and they still had two disappointing losses last year that had their fans calling for their coach's head.

Our penalty has been 28 scholarships. Probably the closest comparison are USC's 30 scholarship penalty in 2010 and Alabama's 21 scholarship penalty in 2002. If you remember how those affected them, you get a good idea of how much Heupel is getting done, having never had a complete team. This year's weakness is a roster full of freshmen and software from highly rated recruiting classes -- if he didn't recruit so well he'd already be out of town -- and consequently little room to backfill with veteran transfers (we used all our scholarships as it is). For the next two years we have to carry at least two scholarships in penalty, before we're finally in the clear. Thanks, Pruitt.
 
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#19
#19
EastTNVol6240 said:
“How the hell did we lose to that team” definitely occurred two days ago. In no world is Vandy more talented than us. However, they are better coached.
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Vandy pushed all in on this season and it hit. Had 20 portal guys come in mostly seniors and grad guys and they contributed. 40% of their roster is seniors. They are very veteran and well coached team. I expect next year to be their bridge year. Unless the nail the greatest portal class of all time they probably don’t make a bowl game.
 
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#21
#21
MemphisVolFan1978 said:
With proper planning and foresight there should never be a “bridge” or “rebuilding” year for a major college football program. You don’t see Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, etc. having those years. We should be aspiring to be at the same level as those schools.
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^^ This.

Football is not as it was 10 years ago. There are no bridge years, "too young" years, and no rebuilding years. Every year is a rebuilding year, and proper rebuilding happens with roster management through the portal.

A modern football team needs a GM (or a coach with GM skills) to properly build the team each year.
 
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#22
#22
ToineMac said:
Nobody expected us to be a playoff team at the start of this season. Personally I thought 9-3 was our ceiling. We lost to 4 teams this year and none of them were the "How the hell did we lose to that team" games that we have had in the past couple years. Even the Vandy team we lost to if has an argument to be a playoff team. It is very frustrating to be so close and it not happen yet but I need everyone to see the vision. We have the youngest roster in conference. We have top 10 recruiting class. Entire O Line can come back plus we have played some of the young guys in significant snaps this year due to injury. We lose 3 skill guys our top WR and TE and number 2 RB. We should be even better there next year. There's a lot to be optimistic about for next season. 4-4 in conference was our ceiling for 15 seasons and now that's our floor and you want to fire the people responsible. I'm not saying we don't need to make some changes. We will definitely need some portal help on defense, especially on the DL and secondary. I'm not opposed to some coaching change but keeping our contributors and young guys out of the portal and getting reinforcements need to be the priority.
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Just stop it. We got whipped by vandy and a coach that is paid less than half as much. No bridges, no rebuilding, no excuses. You either get it done or your don't.
 
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#23
#23
OrangeRev said:
^^ This.

Football is not as it was 10 years ago. There are no bridge years, "too young" years, and no rebuilding years. Every year is a rebuilding year, and proper rebuilding happens with roster management through the portal.

A modern football team needs a GM (or a coach with GM skills) to properly build the team each year.
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💯
 
#24
#24
The NIL has made each year questionable now. When a team can completely overhaul their roster, there may be no easy teams anymore. ( Vandy)
 
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