We are Vandy; or at best, the new Kentucky

#1
jcon

jcon

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#1
Some sobering stats to help us keep in perspective what we have become as a football program. Analyze as you wish. It’s a sobering stat line to consider as we convince ourselves that “we are one good coach away from being great again.”

Since 1994 (seemed like the year we really started our ‘dominance’ in the SEC):
We are 5-22 versus Florida
We are 10-17 versus Alabama
We are 12-15 versus Georgia

In the past decade 2010-2020, we are:
1-10 versus Florida
0-11 versus Bama
2-9 versus UGA
5-5 versus Vandy
8-3 versus UK
5-6 versus South Carolina
4-5 versus Missouri
(And we lost to Georgia State)

Fulmer's record:
152-52 (8-7 in bowls)
15 bowl games
1 National Title
2 SEC titles
5 division titles

Since Fulmer was fired:
2009: 7-6 (4-4)
2010: 6-7 (3-5)
2011: 5-7 (1-7)
2012: 5-7 (1-7)
2013: 5-7 (2-6)
2014: 7-6 (3-5)
2015: 9-4 (5-3)
2016: 9-4 (4-4)
2017: 4-8 (0-8)
2018: 5-7 (2-6)
2019: 8-5 (5-3)
2020: 2-6 (for now) (2-6)

Overall record (Kiffin, Dooley, Butch, and Pruitt combined)
72-74 (32-63)
6 bowl games (4-2)

It's hard to believe that in 26 years, we are 27-54 versus our 3 big rivals.
That's not mediocre... that's not decent... that's very very bad. That's the type of stat we see associated with Vandy and Kentucky.

That's why people laugh when Vols fans wonder why people don't fear us/ even talk about us anymore.
 
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#3
#3
That's because Vol fans are very delusional. For some reason they believe that we are still a top tier program.

When the truth is, 18-year-olds have never ever seen Tennessee win. They've heard about it, they've just never seen it.

And it's funny you put it like that. When a friend and I were talking about the schedule when it came to UT he just laughed and said nothing. Not, man I'm worried about that game or I hope they don't beat us. Nothing, like we play you guys then vandy. Disheartening..
 
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#5
#5
I do like black and gold as colors, hmm. Look, I understand everyone hates losing, God knows I do. But if everybody thinks Freeze or any hot ticket for the year is the answer, I'm afraid your disappointment might be more than you can bear about three years down the road when you have two buyouts. A Saban or a Mullen is hard to find. If Freeze gets hired, I'm on board. Til then....
 
#6
#6
Vfl2407 said:
Despite the horrid 2000’s, we are still the 13th top winningest program.
List of NCAA football teams by wins - Wikipedia
Click to expand...

I truly love my Vols. I’ve defended them, paid so much money to attend games and buy the latest merch, and I’ll continue to do it! I’m proud of the rich tradition and history of Tennessee athletics. I’m 32 years old and can remember some good times as a Vols fan. I read a lot of your posts too, and I know you love your team.

But I see it so clearly, especially in the last several years.

Our fan base loves stats like these. “102,455.. we got one of the top ten stadiums!” “We are one of the top winningest programs in history!” “6 Nat’l titles and 16 Conference Titles!” “In the mid 90s we only lost four or five games in 5 years!” “Man, y’all know that in 1939 we went undefeated, unscored up, and untied! Last team ever to do that!”

Those are beautiful stats, and I’m proud of that history. But we often sound like New York Jets fans... “Well, we won Super Bowl 3! And nobody else had a Joe Namath (akin to our usage of Peyton Manning). So often, we sound ridiculous, because we haven’t been relevant in 2 decades. Like not even relevant because we’ve had 9 losing seasons in 15 years.

I remember when it was normal to think Clemson was overrated... when it was normal to snub the acknowledgement that UGA was a decent team... when we admitted that UF and Bama were worthy adversaries, but every year convinced ourselves they didn’t stand a chance against us!

Meanwhile, Clemson’s decade of dominance includes 2 National titles, 6-3 in the Playoffs, and 132 wins for Dabo.
Alabama under Saban is 161-23, 5 National titles, and 6 SEC Championships.

Bama and Clemson’s last decade is better than anything we’ve ever done as a football program... Lots of people say “Well Fulmer! Well General Neyland!” But when you have to go back in time to when football was played in leather helmets to site your best coach and best seasons, that’s when you know you aren’t relevant anymore.
 
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#7
#7
I was thinking that tonight after i listen to volquest. Listening to all the moral victory stuff. I thought this is what vandy has been doing for decades we lost but at least we scored or we lost but we kept them under 50 points. That is us now.. Moral victories.
 
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#8
#8
jcon said:
Some sobering stats to help us keep in perspective what we have become as a football program. Analyze as you wish. It’s a sobering stat line to consider as we convince ourselves that “we are one good coach away from being great again.”

Since 1994 (seemed like the year we really started our ‘dominance’ in the SEC):
We are 5-22 versus Florida
We are 10-17 versus Alabama
We are 12-15 versus Georgia

In the past decade 2010-2020, we are:
1-10 versus Florida
0-11 versus Bama
2-9 versus UGA
5-5 versus Vandy
8-3 versus UK
5-6 versus South Carolina
4-5 versus Missouri
(And we lost to Georgia State)

Fulmer's record:
152-52 (8-7 in bowls)
15 bowl games
1 National Title
2 SEC titles
5 division titles

Since Fulmer was fired:
2009: 7-6 (4-4)
2010: 6-7 (3-5)
2011: 5-7 (1-7)
2012: 5-7 (1-7)
2013: 5-7 (2-6)
2014: 7-6 (3-5)
2015: 9-4 (5-3)
2016: 9-4 (4-4)
2017: 4-8 (0-8)
2018: 5-7 (2-6)
2019: 8-5 (5-3)
2020: 2-6 (for now) (2-6)

Overall record (Kiffin, Dooley, Butch, and Pruitt combined)
72-74 (32-63)
6 bowl games (4-2)

It's hard to believe that in 26 years, we are 27-54 versus our 3 big rivals.
That's not mediocre... that's not decent... that's very very bad. That's the type of stat we see associated with Vandy and Kentucky.

That's why people laugh when Vols fans wonder why people don't fear us/ even talk about us anymore.
Click to expand...
Vandy and Kentucky don't have a 1/3 the amount of wins combined vs their 3 big rivals in that same timespan. I disagree, we are nowhere near their level as a program and they have way more hurdles to a championship than we do.
 
Last edited:
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#9
#9
jcon said:
I truly love my Vols. I’ve defended them, paid so much money to attend games and buy the latest merch, and I’ll continue to do it! I’m proud of the rich tradition and history of Tennessee athletics. I’m 32 years old and can remember some good times as a Vols fan. I read a lot of your posts too, and I know you love your team.

But I see it so clearly, especially in the last several years.

Our fan base loves stats like these. “102,455.. we got one of the top ten stadiums!” “We are one of the top winningest programs in history!” “6 Nat’l titles and 16 Conference Titles!” “In the mid 90s we only lost four or five games in 5 years!” “Man, y’all know that in 1939 we went undefeated, unscored up, and untied! Last team ever to do that!”

Those are beautiful stats, and I’m proud of that history. But we often sound like New York Jets fans... “Well, we won Super Bowl 3! And nobody else had a Joe Namath (akin to our usage of Peyton Manning). So often, we sound ridiculous, because we haven’t been relevant in 2 decades. Like not even relevant because we’ve had 9 losing seasons in 15 years.

I remember when it was normal to think Clemson was overrated... when it was normal to snub the acknowledgement that UGA was a decent team... when we admitted that UF and Bama were worthy adversaries, but every year convinced ourselves they didn’t stand a chance against us!

Meanwhile, Clemson’s decade of dominance includes 2 National titles, 6-3 in the Playoffs, and 132 wins for Dabo.
Alabama under Saban is 161-23, 5 National titles, and 6 SEC Championships.

Bama and Clemson’s last decade is better than anything we’ve ever done as a football program... Lots of people say “Well Fulmer! Well General Neyland!” But when you have to go back in time to when football was played in leather helmets to site your best coach and best seasons, that’s when you know you aren’t relevant anymore.
Click to expand...

you are correct.
we are irrelevant now and have been for a long time.
but it HAS BEEN done here and CAN BE again.
we have all the elements needed especially with a burgeoning Nashville population to recruit from.
we just need ONE thing. A GREAT head coach.
 
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#11
#11
PulaskiVolFan said:
Vandy and Kentucky don't have a 1/3 the amount of wins combined vs their 3 big rivals in that same timespan. I disagree, we are nowhere near there level as a program and they have way more hurdles to a championship than we do.
Click to expand...
So you gave up, and this is your best argument to see us relevant? Got news for ya.... we are on their level, and trajectory is only down
 
#12
#12
PulaskiVolFan said:
Vandy and Kentucky don't have a 1/3 the amount of wins combined vs their 3 big rivals in that same timespan. I disagree, we are nowhere near there level as a program and they have way more hurdles to a championship than we do.
Click to expand...

Well, then, let’s just say we are the new Vandy and UK to other good teams in our league. When you see Vandy on your schedule, you don’t fear because we’ve beaten them consistently for the past three or four decades. When you see UK, you don’t fear.

Well, as sited above in great detail, being a combined 3-30 against UF, Bama, and UGA in the past 11 years DOES make us Vandy to them. In fact, Vandy has more WINS against US in that time period.

So, disagree if you like... but you can’t have your own facts.
 
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#14
#14
jcon said:
Well, then, let’s just say we are the new Vandy and UK to other good teams in our league. When you see Vandy on your schedule, you don’t fear because we’ve beaten them consistently for the past three or four decades. When you see UK, you don’t fear.

Well, as sited above in great detail, being a combined 3-30 against UF, Bama, and UGA in the past 11 years DOES make us Vandy to them. In fact, Vandy has more WINS against US in that time period.

So, disagree if you like... but you can’t have your own facts.
Click to expand...
Sad and pathetic FACTS!
 
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#16
#16
I was born in Knoxville and still live here. I love Tennessee football but I really don't know how much more I'm going to take. I most likely will never root for another team but I'm at the point to where when they play I probably will not watch and spending money on them is totally out of the question. But hey GO VOLS
 
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#17
#17
Eastknox865 said:
I was born in Knoxville and still live here. I love Tennessee football but I really don't know how much more I'm going to take. I most likely will never root for another team but I'm at the point to where when they play I probably will not watch and spending money on them is totally out of the question. But hey GO VOLS
Click to expand...

I totally understand. Really since 2017, I’ve almost sleepwalked through football season. I’m apathetic at best. I enjoyed our 8 game win streak.. but it never felt valid. It felt like we beat 8 teams that were equal to us (sorta bad). And anytime we’ve played anyone good, we’ve gotten destroyed.

So, I feel ya.
 
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#18
#18
jcon said:
And what’s sad is Derek Mason was 3-3 against us as a head coach. His overall record was 27-54... that’s putrid. Oh wait, that’s our exact record against our rivals since the mid 90s. Hmmm.
Click to expand...
I about puked reading your post.
 
#19
#19
I’ll never cheer for **** but Tennessee. So I will be missing every damn game until we are good. I can’t even watch other teams or I get upset they are commited to being better. In 1997-1998 I thought this would be a yearly thing of us being great. Holy crap was I wrong
 
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#21
#21
jcon said:
Well, then, let’s just say we are the new Vandy and UK to other good teams in our league. When you see Vandy on your schedule, you don’t fear because we’ve beaten them consistently for the past three or four decades. When you see UK, you don’t fear.

Well, as sited above in great detail, being a combined 3-30 against UF, Bama, and UGA in the past 11 years DOES make us Vandy to them. In fact, Vandy has more WINS against US in that time period.

So, disagree if you like... but you can’t have your own facts.
Click to expand...
Hard for facts to matter when you change the original statement you made. My facts were right as you said nothing about 11 years in the previous post.
 
#22
#22
escapegoat2 said:
I’ll never cheer for **** but Tennessee. So I will be missing every damn game until we are good. I can’t even watch other teams or I get upset they are commited to being better. In 1997-1998 I thought this would be a yearly thing of us being great. Holy crap was I wrong
Click to expand...

We have a special gift as Vols fans to be unreasonably optimistic. To a degree, as a fan, you should be. Root for your team! Read about the recruits and get excited for their future! Read practice updates during the summer and dream about the beat possible scenario for the upcoming season.

But at some point we have to realize that the product we’ve put out on the field over the past decade or so is embarrassing. Our best season was in 2016 when we catastrophically under-performed. Our program...our coaches...our record... they would all make us cackle if we were reading about it with another team. We would have zero respect for ourselves.

So... I’m hoping for the best. I’d love to see Coach JP turn us around. Or I’d love to see us luck out and get the next Dabo. But for now, I’m just going to be realistic, and when we lose, I’m going to have expected it. Anybody that doesn’t, hasn’t watched us play in 15 years.
 
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#23
#23
PulaskiVolFan said:
Hard for facts to matter when you change the original statement you made. My facts were right as you said nothing about 11 years in the previous post.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure you’re understanding. I’m saying that we are Vandy and UK to the good teams in our league. In the same way we don’t respect them, other people don’t respect us. I’ve put a lot of stats that give merit to that opinion. Whether or not we literally have worse records than them since (insert year) isn’t really what the post is about.
 
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#24
#24
Tennessee, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina will pave the road for Georgia or Florida, to win the SECE Championship for several years to come. Missouri just might take bite out of one of them and steal a victory before one of the other four does.
 
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#25
#25
jcon said:
I’m not sure you’re understanding. I’m saying that we are Vandy and UK to the good teams in our league. In the same way we don’t respect them, other people don’t respect us. I’ve put a lot of stats that give merit to that opinion. Whether or not we literally have worse records than them since (insert year) isn’t really what the post is about.
Click to expand...

I'll admit it gets harder and harder each year to watch the intro for this game as the TV production crew tries to hype the history of the series and plays the same 3 or 4 Tennessee clips every time. The Florida missed FG in 98, the failed 2 point conversion in 01, Wilhoit's kick in 04, Jennings down the sideline in 16.

I'd be lying if I said the last 2 seasons, I wasn't more concerned about playing Kentucky than I was Tennessee
 
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