This was always a bridge season.

#29
#29
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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You do know a HC making 9 million a year, all the resources he has that there's not a Bridge year. Those don't exist anymore and are no longer excuses. We got better QB play than Nico this year, injuries are NOT an excuse. Bad Coaching, not Developing players is the issue. All you need to do is listen to JA's post game comments, that tells us everything we need to know.
 
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#32
#32
Some of y'all are getting a bit ridiculous.

Our program took a shot to the crotch in April. Roughly 30 months of plotting thrown into the winds.

Folks expectations got a bit out of whack after the first few games when Joey didn't crap the bed as many feared he would

In the bitter end we were exactly what we were predicted at the end of the year. A talented but inconsistent team rolling out a QB unproven in big time football who had been on campus 4 months.

I can be mad at my dog doesn't answer me in English when I ask him a question, but in the end he is never going to answer my question in English. No matter how much I wish he would. Sometimes teams just are what they are

We had some highs and some dizzying lows.

Welcome to CFB guys. Some seasons you are just gonna be scratching your head a bit

If you're not used to it, then you probably haven't been around here very long.
 
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#33
#33
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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Could not agree more. That's how any top performing organization runs. Being caught without adequate resources (bench depth, seniority, coaching, etc) is on the top leadership.
 
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#36
#36
RiverVol said:
Excuses, coping... hahahaha... BIG money. 124 million in revenue, 1.37 billion valuation.

"bridge season" Other school with those numbers don't talk like that. Winners don't talk like that. Winners over deliver for what they have. Winners consistently exceed expectations.
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Exactly. Last year did we fortify our roster in portal with the great players we lost? The answer is no. We had the least amount of transfers in the league.
 
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#37
#37
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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23 and 24 year old guys who have already graduated from college and are talented are easier to coach. They may not be as talented as our players overall but they have an understanding of how to play much better, even before they get to their final destination. That's the model on a smaller scale Heupel needs to follow. Lose a Thomas at safety. Go out and get a grad from a G5 or lower P4 who was damn good to replace the portal loss
 
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#39
#39
BernardKingGOAT said:
23 and 24 year old guys who have already graduated from college and are talented are easier to coach. They may not be as talented as our players overall but they have an understanding of how to play much better, even before they get to their final destination. That's the model on a smaller scale Heupel needs to follow. Lose a Thomas at safety. Go out and get a grad from a G5 or lower P4 who was damn good to replace the portal loss
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I’d agree. It’s the new era. Hopefully we see our staff learn and evolve this cycle.
 
#40
#40
StuckInBamaVol said:
Year five? Come on. Did you see how we played in our sec wins? We barely beat them. It was pathetic.
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I did. And I've seen iffy Alabama teams and marginal GA teams and some downright bad Ohio State teams over the years.

It's just ridiculous to expect even the most solid programs to have a great year EVERY year.

This was not our best year at all AND some of it falls squarely on Coach Josh Heupel but some of it comes from players who didn't develop, some who got hurt, some who seemed to be head cases, and some who were not really SEC caliber talent.

To say there are "no down years" or "no transition years" or "no bridge years" is just not true of any sport and VERY few teams you can name.
 
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#41
#41
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
I did. And I've seen iffy Alabama teams and marginal GA teams and some downright bad Ohio State teams over the years.

It's just ridiculous to expect even the most solid programs to have a great year EVERY year.

This was not our best year at all AND some of it falls squarely on Coach Josh Heupel but some of it comes from players who didn't develop, some who got hurt, some who seemed to be head cases, and some who were not really SEC caliber talent.

To say there are "no down years" or "no transition years" or "no bridge years" is just not true of any sport and VERY few teams you can name.
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We are in year five. There is no excuse for a bridge year and having no top 25 wins, pathetically winning the games vs unranked SEC teams like we did, and not finishing in the top 25.

Quit making excuses. Not being in the top 25 ending the year is pathetic.

Call those teams iffy if you want, did they finish in the top 25?

No one says be great every year, let’s just try not to look like a **** show like we did.
 
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#44
#44
StuckInBamaVol said:
We are in year five. There is no excuse for a bridge year and having no top 25 wins, pathetically winning the games vs unranked SEC teams like we did, and not finishing in the top 25.

Quit making excuses. Not being in the top 25 ending the year is pathetic.

Call those teams iffy if you want, did they finish in the top 25?

No one says be great every year, let’s just try not to look like a **** show like we did.
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No one has more to lose when UT sucks than Josh Heupel and no one deserves more heat than him but I'm trying to explain what actually happened and you're calling it excuses.

It's reality. We were picked by most people to be a 9-3 team and we are an 8-4 team.

It's been discussed that we were a couple of plays away from some wins (and, to be fair, some losses) this year.

You're acting like we were 4-8.
 
#45
#45
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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…yet. You don’t see them having those seasons yet. You can’t add as many top tier programs to your conference as the SEC and BIG have and expect to stay at the top. Before 21 Alabama didn’t have many close games and they definitely didn’t lose to terrible teams. The last 2 years they lost to teams that were barely bowl eligible and most of their games were close no blowouts no domination a very good not great team who caught some breaks. Same with UGA, peak UGA dominated the best team we had in years. This year with the second worst team Heupel has had they barely won. Ohio state is regressing slower maybe but it will be the same for them
 
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#46
#46
ToineMac said:
…yet. You don’t see them having those seasons yet. You can’t add as many top tier programs to your conference as the SEC and BIG have and expect to stay at the top. Before 21 Alabama didn’t have many close games and they definitely didn’t lose to terrible teams. The last 2 years they lost to teams that were barely bowl eligible and most of their games were a close no blowouts no domination a very good not great team who caught some breaks. Same with UGA peak UGA beat the dominated the we had in years. This year with the second worst team Heupel has had they barely won. Ohio state is regressing slower maybe but it will be the same for them
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I hope you are correct.
 
#49
#49
deatojl said:
Well, Georgia lost more games last year than they had the previous three years combined. That might qualify.
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There was loud “fire Ryan Day” after the Michigan game last year. A lot of people thought that might help us in that playoff game last year. The decline isn’t as obvious for the top dogs because they were at the top coming down.
 
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