I know for me personally, it's difficult to allow myself to itch with positivity too much. It's been so long since we have won 10 or more games, beaten Florida or Bama, beaten a top ranked team, and been relevant in general that I feel like a dog who has been kicked around a lot. Now I'm being told to come and let myself be petted because everything is alright and no one has proven that to me yet. If we make it to our open week with 2 losses or less then I'll let someone pet me. (I didn't set out to continue on with this dog analogy, but it seemed to work well.)
This stuff happens every year in the off-season. If a posters says 15-0, he/she is criticized for being too gung-ho. If a posters says 9-3 they're considered scared.
It doesn't really matter what any of us think as none of us are playing in the games.
Personally, 15-0 is doable, but 9-3 is also a reality. If UT loses to UF to open "the stretch" then I could easily see UT dropping 2 out of the next 3. If UT beats UF and gets that monkey off its back, then 4-0 is possible.
With threads about our coach needing to do certain things to keep his job to our OC being less than respected quite often to our QB not being as good as he actually is etc.This is easily the most positive preseason outlook I've seen for the program since 2007 and it's almost as positive as I've seen it since the 90s. I don't know what else people want.
Both sides exist in all fan bases. People want to act like this is exclusive to Vol fans. It isn't. I work with a Bama fan(unfortunately)who has had them losing three games every year for as long as I can remember. I work with another one (more unfortunately) that expects them to win every game.
People are different. That's a fact of life. I think 15-0 is a realistic possibility. I also don't think 10-2 is a failure. Some people will agree with me and some will think I'm an idiot. Neither would necessarily have to be wrong.