We are good. I am excited about this season!

#3
#3
I'll give you a thumbs up because you seem nice. But I'm having trouble deciding if VN or the media is in first place for worthless articles during the off season..
 
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#5
#5
I say we wait till 10/11/15 till we say "we are good"...
 
#6
#6
Controlled optimism is the approach I'm trying to take. Hard not to get excited but prefer to see it on the field before I start crowing. I saw some epic meltdowns on here after games last year.
 
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#7
#7
utfantilidie said:
So say you?
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Yeah we are good. But are we good enough to execute to our ability game in game out? If we do that we win 10+ games.

If Wrs step up this year we will be damn tough to stop.

I'm excited too. We'll be in everygame we play this year.
 
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#9
#9
We are not good. How can we make proclamations with zero games played? Our concerns are well known (OL, MLB, game day coaching).

I think it is very fair to say we HOPE we are good; or, with our recent recruiting we SHOULD be good; or, on paper we have the players to MAKE us good.

Don't get me wrong. I love the hype in the media and love the optimism in our fans. Keep that going! But to answer OP, no we are not good (yet :)).
 
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#10
#10
Excited yes - controlled optimism yes - expect more than 7 wins NO - this team is still at least a year away. There are still too many freshmen and sophomores to be a contender in the SEC.
 
#11
#11
McDad said:
We are not good. How can we make proclamations with zero games played? Our concerns are well known (OL, MLB, game day coaching).

I think it is very fair to say we HOPE we are good; or, with our recent recruiting we SHOULD be good; or, on paper we have the players to MAKE us good.

Don't get me wrong. I love the hype in the media and love the optimism in our fans. Keep that going! But to answer OP, no we are not good (yet :)).
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The talent is very good. The experience is good. Development and time in the system are very good.

All of the elements are there... now Jones just has to bake the cake.
 
#12
#12
zqvol said:
Excited yes - controlled optimism yes - expect more than 7 wins NO - this team is still at least a year away. There are still too many freshmen and sophomores to be a contender in the SEC.
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Couldn't disagree more, ZQ. Likely two-deep has 10 seniors, 11 juniors, 17 sophomores, and 8 freshmen (includes 12 positions on D, to cover both 4-3 and nickel formations). Sophomore-centric, but with a solid core of upperclassmen providing leadership.

That demographic is actually pretty standard for many teams around the nation these days. Georgia will be just about the same "age" ... Ohio State was built that way last year. FSU, as well. Oh, and OSU won a national championship with a sophomore-centric team.

So no, we're not too young to contend for the SEC East, the SEC, or even nationally in 2015. Whether we do or not, that's anyone's guess. But we might.

From this point on, every year is a potential championship year for the Vols. :good!:
 
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#13
#13
We have potential, I'm going to leave it at that. I'll also add I can't wait to watch this team play!
 
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#14
#14
zqvol said:
Excited yes - controlled optimism yes - expect more than 7 wins NO - this team is still at least a year away. There are still too many freshmen and sophomores to be a contender in the SEC.
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You can be pessimistic if you want. But as Daniel Moynihan once said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts.

This team should not be a "year away" from winning at least 8 games.

As for "too many freshman"... who are they? McKenzie and Tuttle may play but the former in particular looks to be the most SEC ready DT UT has had in all my years watching the Vols. Physically, he's ready in every respect. With a former NFL great as his father enabling him to hang around an NFL training facility and players, you have to figure he's ahead of the knowledge curve too.

The only other freshman with much of a chance at all to start is Richmond... and that's pretty doubtful.

Sophomores starting? So what? That's one of the reason you start them as Fr and take your lumps... so you have a Soph with an upperclassman's experience.

As it sits right now, UT will have 13 upperclassmen starting and another 10 in the two deep. That is only "slightly" younger than the typical college team. But again, many of those Sophs played a lot as Fr mitigating that "youth". That 13 doesn't include Pearson who may be back.


Bottom line. This isn't a team that should be crippled by youth any more than any other team not named Bama or tOSU. I'm afraid that if you expect this team to be a 7 win team then make a run in '16... you are going to be very disappointed.
 
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#15
#15
VFL-82-JP said:
Couldn't disagree more, ZQ. Likely two-deep has 10 seniors, 11 juniors, 17 sophomores, and 8 freshmen (includes 12 positions on D, to cover both 4-3 and nickel formations). Sophomore-centric, but with a solid core of upperclassmen providing leadership.

That demographic is actually pretty standard for many teams around the nation these days. Georgia will be just about the same "age" ... Ohio State was built that way last year. FSU, as well. Oh, and OSU won a national championship with a sophomore-centric team.

So no, we're not too young to contend for the SEC East, the SEC, or even nationally in 2015. Whether we do or not, that's anyone's guess. But we might.

From this point on, every year is a potential championship year for the Vols. :good!:
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I can buy "caution" with regard to winning the East... but not with saying that 7 wins would be an acceptable result. Barring extraordinary injuries this is an 8 win minimum roster vs this schedule.

Fun fact: Since the SEC expanded, UT's West opponents have averaged 10.8 wins per season. While I expect Arkansas to be improved and a good team, I don't expect them to be better than a 10 win team and probably not that considering the West competition.
 
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#16
#16
Sjt and JP make superb, factual points about UT's experience relative to other teams. We have the EXPERIENCE to be good, no doubt.

The season hinges on the 3 established areas of concern.
 
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#18
#18
zqvol said:
Excited yes - controlled optimism yes - expect more than 7 wins NO - this team is still at least a year away. There are still too many freshmen and sophomores to be a contender in the SEC.
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What freshmen? Literally not one on offense at this point .... perhaps 2, maybe 3 only in the 2 deep on defense (KMac, Tuttle, maybe Kirkland). Juniors, seniors and RS seniors all over the place and the sophomores who will start and contribute are very talented and very experienced. Just look at the roster/2 deep and you'll see what I mean.
 
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#19
#19
I agree with a couple of different posters above. We have the potential and pieces to be good, I just can't say we are good until actual games are played. Not going to worry about debating the cause, but I still am concerned about the O line.
 
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#21
#21
I think we'll start saying we are good when we beat Oklahoma. Then we'll say it more confidently when we drain the Swamp. Then we'll thump it in Morse code off our chests once we beat Arky and Georgia. If we take out Bama too, we won't have to say it...the rest of the world (except sour grapes) will say it for us. :)
 
#22
#22
The Vol's finally have much better talent than they have had for several years and should be exciting to watch barring injury to key positions.
Go Vol's
 
#23
#23
VFL-82-JP said:
I think we'll start saying we are good when we beat Oklahoma. Then we'll say it more confidently when we drain the Swamp. Then we'll thump it in Morse code off our chests once we beat Arky and Georgia. If we take out Bama too, we won't have to say it...the rest of the world (except sour grapes) will say it for us. :)
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Im not so sure. If we win close , hard scrabble games, there will be many on here grousing that we didn't win convincingly and use it as evidence that we are lucky; not good.
 
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#25
#25
McDad said:
Sjt and JP make superb, factual points about UT's experience relative to other teams. We have the EXPERIENCE to be good, no doubt.

The season hinges on the 3 established areas of concern.
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At the risk of getting into an ugly dog fight... This season hinges on whether this staff has the game week and game day ability to win in the SEC. The pieces are there. Jones and Co IMO get excellent marks for team building, team development, and individual development. One thing that few notice or mention is his emphasis on execution over all else... I LOVE that about him.

But game day and even strategic results have been pretty mixed. IMHO, the Vandy game in '13 wasn't lost on the field as much as in the strategy to think of it as a game requiring "management". There have been three games imo when Jones took that approach. The other two were MU and USCe last fall. Dobbs saved a bad strategy at USCe. The Mizzou game was "managed" into the 4th qtr with UT taking very few chances... then Mizzou "stole" the game with a few big plays.

Jones is definitely at his best when he doesn't try minimize risks but rather tries to pressure the other team. Those few tendencies to "play not to lose"... give me Fulmer flashbacks in a very bad way.
 
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