Top 25

#3
#3
Yep, among our SEC East opponents plus Bama, it couldn't have gone much better...without a Dawg loss, at least.

Florida, Mizzou, USCe, and Vandy all lost. Kentucky might've lost, but they were the ones making Florida lose.

Bama came within a fine frog's hair of losing to Texas.

And we beat the reigning ACC champion. At their place.

I expect we'll rise to about #19 or #20 in this week's AP poll.

Go Vols!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt, Arrested Devolopment, Southern_Accent and 2 others
#7
#7
TNHopeful505 said:
Definitely a lot of opportunities for us.

We did not play well at all yesterday, and still managed to pull out a win. That's the stuff good teams do.

However, I'm still not going to get excited until I see us beat Florida. If we can do that, then we may be on to something special.
Click to expand...
Honestly, we should smash Florida. If we play with the same defensive strategy as KY did, which is play bend/dont break defense, dont blitz a whole lot, and dedicate an LB to spy their QB the whole game to keep him contained, there's no reason why we cannot boat race them. I actually feel very good about Florida right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt, Rebel VOL, 5FingerVolPunch and 3 others
#8
#8
Brave Volunteer said:
Honestly, we should smash Florida. If we play with the same defensive strategy as KY did, which is play bend/dont break defense, dont blitz a whole lot, and dedicate an LB to spy their QB the whole game to keep him contained, there's no reason why we cannot boat race them. I actually feel very good about Florida right now.
Click to expand...

I felt very good about Pittsburgh until we lined up against them. And I've felt good about Florida MANY times only to be heartbroken. Call it BVS, or just not counting your chickens, or whatever, but I'm just going to say that I believe we CAN win that game. Will we remains to be seen.

Looking forward to Akron next week. Black helmets/Dark mode is coming from what I understand.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt, Johnnyreb#VFL, USMC-TNVOL and 4 others
#9
#9
VFL-82-JP said:
Yep, among our SEC East opponents plus Bama, it couldn't have gone much better...without a Dawg loss, at least.

Florida, Mizzou, USCe, and Vandy all lost. Kentucky might've lost, but they were the ones making Florida lose.

Bama came within a fine frog's hair of losing to Texas.

And we beat the reigning ACC champion. At their place.

I expect we'll rise to about #19 or #20 in this week's AP poll.

Go Vols!
Click to expand...
Should be top 15
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt, TCNC53, Orange Swagger and 1 other person
#10
#10
TNHopeful505 said:
I felt very good about Pittsburgh until we lined up against them. And I've felt good about Florida MANY times only to be heartbroken. Call it BVS, or just not counting your chickens, or whatever, but I'm just going to say that I believe we CAN win that game. Will we remains to be seen.

Looking forward to Akron next week. Black helmets/Dark mode is coming from what I understand.
Click to expand...
Vs Akron? Or Florida?
 
#11
#11
TNHopeful505 said:
I felt very good about Pittsburgh until we lined up against them.....
Click to expand...

I think you, SJT, and most folks who thought we would have an easy win over Pitt, who thought the Panthers were not a peer competitor, underestimated them. Or over-estimated ourselves.

Brave Volunteer said:
Honestly, we should smash Florida.
Click to expand...

And this is the same mistake, applied to another opponent.

Pitt is a peer. They proved it yesterday. Florida is a peer. LSU is a peer. Kentucky is a near-peer. USCe is kinda close to being a peer.

Aside from maybe the last one, these are going to be hard-fought games. There are no perfect games, and there are very few games where almost everything goes our way. Even the cupcake games aren't flawless. And these peer matches aren't even going to be that. They are going to be ugly at times, painful at times, nerve-wracking at times, disappointing at times.

That's football. That's especially football against peer competition.


Not casting aspersions, just think we as a fan base ought to be realistic about the challenges our lads will face for us this season. It is going to be brutal. And exciting. And fun. And thrilling. And frustrating. And awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I have tons of confidence in our lads. My head still says 8-4, while my heart still believes 9-3. I just know some of those Ws we pull in are going to be, as yesterday was, a real dog fight.

Go Vols!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Arrested Devolopment, teeball, xpsyclonex2002 and 4 others
#17
#17
TNHopeful505 said:
Definitely a lot of opportunities for us.

We did not play well at all yesterday, and still managed to pull out a win. That's the stuff good teams do.

However, I'm still not going to get excited until I see us beat Florida. If we can do that, then we may be on to something special.
Click to expand...

replace with "a good season"...
 
#18
#18
Remember how fast Florida bumped up? We need to see the opposite with a few teams and I rank them. I’m looking at you A&M and Notre Dame.

A few others needs to slide back a good bit too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Smokey19rt
#19
#19
Brave Volunteer said:
Honestly, we should smash Florida. If we play with the same defensive strategy as KY did, which is play bend/dont break defense, dont blitz a whole lot, and dedicate an LB to spy their QB the whole game to keep him contained, there's no reason why we cannot boat race them. I actually feel very good about Florida right now.
Click to expand...
I feel very good about Florida most years.
 
#20
#20
therealitytheory said:
I'm feeling better about our W in the light of a new day. Plus I've read comments from gutted Aggie fans....
Click to expand...
Laying an egg, at home, to an unranked opponent, with the Number 1 ranked recruiting class and a $75 million dollar coach that most Aggie fans think can't coach, will do that to a fan base. Most Aggie fans are frustrated that there is a better QB on the bench than the one that Jimbo is playing.
Adding to their frustration is every #1 ranked recruiting class has won a National Championship within 4 years of the ranking in the past 10-15 years or so. So the expectations are higher than what was shown yesterday.

I'm happy that the Vols gutted out a win against the #17 ranked team at their place. It was nerve racking, but it was a W. There was a lot of ugly football around the nation yesterday. GBO!
 
#23
#23
VFL-82-JP said:
I think you, SJT, and most folks who thought we would have an easy win over Pitt, who thought the Panthers were not a peer competitor, underestimated them. Or over-estimated ourselves.



And this is the same mistake, applied to another opponent.

Pitt is a peer. They proved it yesterday. Florida is a peer. LSU is a peer. Kentucky is a near-peer. USCe is kinda close to being a peer.

Aside from maybe the last one, these are going to be hard-fought games. There are no perfect games, and there are very few games where almost everything goes our way. Even the cupcake games aren't flawless. And these peer matches aren't even going to be that. They are going to be ugly at times, painful at times, nerve-wracking at times, disappointing at times.

That's football. That's especially football against peer competition.


Not casting aspersions, just think we as a fan base ought to be realistic about the challenges our lads will face for us this season. It is going to be brutal. And exciting. And fun. And thrilling. And frustrating. And awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I have tons of confidence in our lads. My head still says 8-4, while my heart still believes 9-3. I just know some of those Ws we pull in are going to be, as yesterday was, a real dog fight.

Go Vols!
Click to expand...
Stop making sense. The sunshine pumpers can't get their jollies on unless they can scream "bring on Bama!"
 
  • Like
Reactions: VFL-82-JP
#24
#24
If I had a ballot in the AP poll, I think I'd vote like this:

#1 - UGa
#2 - Bama
#3 - Ohio State
#4 - Oklahoma
#5 - Michigan
#6 - USCw
#7 - Clemson
#8 - Arkansas
#9 - Texas
#10 - Oklahoma State
#11 - Ole Miss
#12 - Michigan State
#13 - BYU
#14 - Baylor
#15 - Tennessee
#16 - Pitt
#17 - Kentucky
#18 - Florida
#19 - Miami
#20 - Texas A&M
#21 - Utah
#22 - NC State
#23 - Oregon
#24 - Penn State
#25 - Notre Dame

Yes, I'm giving Texas a huge boost up. I think they earned it. Far more than Florida did the week prior (not FL's fault, really, more the fault of the poll voters for over-estimating Utah pre-season).

I know, I know, I should've dropped ND from the list entirely. At 0-2, they certainly don't deserve better. I should've given LSU their place. But keeping them here, at the bottom, gives us a chance to think about them and chuckle. Otherwise, we'd forget they exist for the year.

I wouldn't have given ourselves such a big boost, but a lot of teams above us lost, and needed to be penalized. And I just can't see putting us behind KY, FL, Miami, or NC State. They're all peer competition, but I think we have a slight edge over all four. We'll get to prove it against two of them. Heh.

I didn't penalize Pitt for losing to us. They played us very close, and ought to stay close behind us in the new poll. They're a good team.

Go Vols!


p.s. I don't think this is how the new AP poll WILL be. I think we'll actually end up around #19 or #20. I just think this is how it objectively SHOULD be.
 
Last edited:
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement



Back
Top