Would you call it a "successful" season?

#151
#151
Daniel_Lincolns_Foot said:
As brutal as the GA State and BYU losses were, wins wouldn't have done much more for us overall except put us ahead of Texas A&M in bowl selection. From an optics standpoint it still stings, and I think we all have a little more gray in our hair, but I'm at a point where I'm willing to look past it and call the season a success.

Even more so if we win our bowl game.
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I think it would have been huge because if we won those games then we could say that we won every game we were "supposed to." That'd be nice to sit here and be able to say that we lost to teams currently sitting #9, #4, and #12 in the CFP, and then beat everyone else we played. That's not a bad season at all given we're still very much in a rebuild. We'd probably be ranked somewhere between 15th and 20th if we had beaten Georgia St and BYU, and would have a chance to improve perhaps into the upper teens with a bowl victory. The last time we've finished a season ranked in the top 20 was 2007.

We went 6-1 in our last 7 games. That's awesome, but we also didn't exactly face a Murderer's Row. We won those 6 games against teams that finished 35-37, and if you remove UAB (since they aren't an SEC team) they finished 26-34. And it isn't like we blew all of them out either...it took knock-down, drag-out fights to beat Miss St, Kentucky, and Mizzou. All of the games, to varying degrees, were still sloppy on offense. It still is encouraging though, because those are all games we almost certainly would have lost last year. We found a way to consistently beat mediocre teams as the season went on, which we didn't do last year.
 
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#152
#152
Other_Guy said:
Most media and even VN posters predicted between 5-7 and 7-5. I don't recall seeing many 4-8s or 8-4s. I predicted 6-6.
So the team goes 7-5. Wouldn't anything better be overachieving, given the dumpster fire 2 years ago, young OL and even worse DL entering this season, and the disastrous start to QB play/injuries?
The opposed will point to losing to GSU and BYU and ask how could one say successful with inexcusable loses to them. I understand, and yes, they were inexcusable.
But did you consider what a 7-5 team that beat GSU and BYU would mean? They're losing to Miss St, Kentucky, Missouri, SCjr or Vandy. Had they upset someone that means they would have dropped 3 of those 5 games mentioned. Would you really rather them end on another sour note, or get the bad play out of the way and start rolling into 2020?
I don't think it's fair to predict 6-6 or 7-5, then say "Oh it's not really successful because they should be 9-3".
So if anyone doesn't think it was a "successful" season, I am curious as to how you would have rather the 7-5 season play out.
Super pumped about finding out the bowl game matchup and then... bring on Oklahoma!
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Nothing would make me happier than for this to be the mirror image season of 1988.
 
#153
#153
Other_Guy said:
Most media and even VN posters predicted between 5-7 and 7-5. I don't recall seeing many 4-8s or 8-4s. I predicted 6-6.
So the team goes 7-5. Wouldn't anything better be overachieving, given the dumpster fire 2 years ago, young OL and even worse DL entering this season, and the disastrous start to QB play/injuries?
The opposed will point to losing to GSU and BYU and ask how could one say successful with inexcusable loses to them. I understand, and yes, they were inexcusable.
But did you consider what a 7-5 team that beat GSU and BYU would mean? They're losing to Miss St, Kentucky, Missouri, SCjr or Vandy. Had they upset someone that means they would have dropped 3 of those 5 games mentioned. Would you really rather them end on another sour note, or get the bad play out of the way and start rolling into 2020?
I don't think it's fair to predict 6-6 or 7-5, then say "Oh it's not really successful because they should be 9-3".
So if anyone doesn't think it was a "successful" season, I am curious as to how you would have rather the 7-5 season play out.
Super pumped about finding out the bowl game matchup and then... bring on Oklahoma!
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I picked UT to finish 7&5 and though I had them 3&5 in conference play I thought 7 wins against an easier schedule was doable and a very obtainable goal.
 
#155
#155
Yep. I would rather lose early, even with the emrrassment and then run the table n our late season SEC foes than beat GS and BYU and lose to Miss State and SC. 5-3 in the SeEC is a successful season for this team.
 
#158
#158
SmilezDavis said:
This has probably been the hardest season to judge in my life, but I think this is the right take. It looked like a complete disaster in the beginning. We seem to have righted the ship, but that just makes me wonder what if. One could absolutely argue that this team should be 9-3, but one must also wonder how we would have played down the stretch without the early adversity. At best, this season will be remembered as a springboard if we can maintain the late season momentum.
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You can't look at this in a vacuum. You have to take into account where this team came from. They were 0-8 in the SEC two yrs ago and 2-6 last year. If 5-3 isn't a successful season then I think you've got unrealistic expectations. Obviously we want to get to a point where our expectations can be higher but given where this team was, yeah it's a successful season
 
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#159
#159
Sea Ray said:
You can't look at this in a vacuum. You have to take into account where this team came from. They were 0-8 in the SEC two yrs ago and 2-6 last year. If 5-3 isn't a successful season then I think you've got unrealistic expectations. Obviously we want to get to a point where our expectations can be higher but given where this team was, yeah it's a successful season
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Unfortunately, we also play out of conference games.
 
#161
#161
Given what happened at the beginning of the year this year turned out great. We truly came a long way from the first game of the season. Now here are the facts:

1. We lost to Georgia St and that BYU game was very winnable. Imo we got caught looking ahead and our defense made a mental error during BYU. BYU is a good football team this year so we shouldn't pretend like we should of blown them out bc we shouldn't have.

2. We lost to the 3 teams I think we all would have agreed we would lose too.

3. We beat showed life and effort against Bama like we did last year but this time it was different everyone seen it everyone knew it. F the refs in that game.

4. We are third in the sec east and 6 in the sec conference. I'll say that again WE are 3rd in the east and 6th in the conference! That is remarkable considering how this team was when CJP took over. There is a thread that someone did that shows our rankings with offense and defense and how we progressed from CBJ last year and all the way up until now. We still need to be humble and keep getting better every day. GBO!!!
 
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#162
#162
If you told me it was going to be a 7-5 season, I'd rather be 7-5 and be playing bad football at the start of the season and improve throughout the year, and do it with a lot of young players on the field who are growing as college football players.

That's exactly what happened. Yes, losing to Georgia State sucks, but some guy that Jeremy Pruitt used to work for lost a game to UAB early in his tenure at one SEC school and then lost to Louisiana-Monroe early in his tenure at a second one. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Losses like that happen because of things that are correctable, and people not buying in. Good coaches fix that. CJP and his staff did that and then started beating SEC teams. They didn't beat anyone with a winning record except for UK, but just two years ago, we couldn't beat anyone in the SEC. There was a time not too long ago when Tennessee's most recent meeting with every other SEC team had been a loss.

In one season, they beat everyone on their SEC schedule except for the big boys, and did it with a team that should keep improving. Now they can work on catching up to the Dawgs, Gators, and Tide. We're still a long way off, but for the first time since Josh Dobbs was making Butch Jones look almost competent, the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a freight train coming the other way...
 
#163
#163
05_never_again said:
I think it would have been huge because if we won those games then we could say that we won every game we were "supposed to." That'd be nice to sit here and be able to say that we lost to teams currently sitting #9, #4, and #12 in the CFP, and then beat everyone else we played. That's not a bad season at all given we're still very much in a rebuild. We'd probably be ranked somewhere between 15th and 20th if we had beaten Georgia St and BYU, and would have a chance to improve perhaps into the upper teens with a bowl victory. The last time we've finished a season ranked in the top 20 was 2007.

We went 6-1 in our last 7 games. That's awesome, but we also didn't exactly face a Murderer's Row. We won those 6 games against teams that finished 35-37, and if you remove UAB (since they aren't an SEC team) they finished 26-34. And it isn't like we blew all of them out either...it took knock-down, drag-out fights to beat Miss St, Kentucky, and Mizzou. All of the games, to varying degrees, were still sloppy on offense. It still is encouraging though, because those are all games we almost certainly would have lost last year. We found a way to consistently beat mediocre teams as the season went on, which we didn't do last year.
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This is what I’m not understanding, though: people are arguing against success saying we went 6-1 to finish, but it’s not like we faced good teams—they were all mediocre, at best.

But let’s just assume we had beat Ga State and BYU and are 9-3. Would the season be more or less successful, or would we still be saying we didn’t beat any good teams? What I’m getting at is, you can’t say the season is a success because you won the games you were supposed to win, while at the same time trying invalidate the wins because the teams weren’t that good.

I’m not really going to consider a season very successful until we start competing with Florida, Georgia, and Bama, but considering it’s year 2, the improvement over last year, and how we turned it around this year, I’ll make an exception.
 
#164
#164
Freak said:
They don't have any signature wins, either. (Texas State, Lamar, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss. St, UTSA and South Carolina).

I know LSU is fantastic, but I'll take the team like Tennessee with momentum over the team that just lost 50-7.

I point this out, not because I think Tennessee is the best 7-5 team in the country, but I think we're a better bowl draw and should get a better placement than the Aggies. JMO.
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#165
#165
I would call it an improved season over last year, but not a successful one. Losing to Georgia State and BYU at home and only winning 7 games is not a successful season at Tennessee and never should be taken as such, especially when losing to each good team we played by at least 3 touchdowns. Last year was a complete failure and this year looked like it would be one as well but we pulled the F up to a D+. Because frankly, 7-5 with the historically bad opening loss is below average here, meaning it rates below a C.
 
#166
#166
Given the circumstances of how we started and then ultimately finished. Given that we can see players being developed by the staff and getting better. Given that we can see the culture improving for the better. Yes, it’s been a successful season
 
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#167
#167
Other_Guy said:
A&M would have something to say about that.
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Why? What did A&M do this year besides get boat raced by 40+ points to LSU. Nothing that I saw from them this year says they’re any better than Tennessee, while they were taking a step backward from Fisher’s first year. Guarantee you there are a ton of A&M fans that are pissed that Fisher is their head coach right about now. I’d love to see the Vols play them today and I’d feel like we’d have a great shot at beating them
 
#168
#168
Overall? The team made a bowl game after last season's poor outing, and managed not to choke/not show up for late-season matchups that they should win. After the early season's gut-punch losses, it seems as though the team 'grew up' along with Pruitt somewhere along the way. For a guy who is still wet behind the ears in terms of HC experience, Pruitt and staff appear to be stepping into their own as well. If the coaching staff keeps developing from where they are now, things are quite likely to keep improving.
 
#169
#169
Daniel_Lincolns_Foot said:
This is what I’m not understanding, though: people are arguing against success saying we went 6-1 to finish, but it’s not like we faced good teams—they were all mediocre, at best.

But let’s just assume we had beat Ga State and BYU and are 9-3. Would the season be more or less successful, or would we still be saying we didn’t beat any good teams? What I’m getting at is, you can’t say the season is a success because you won the games you were supposed to win, while at the same time trying invalidate the wins because the teams weren’t that good.

I’m not really going to consider a season very successful until we start competing with Florida, Georgia, and Bama, but considering it’s year 2, the improvement over last year, and how we turned it around this year, I’ll make an exception.
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"Success" means different things given the situation. If Tennessee had landed 3-4 top 5 recruiting classes in a row and we had finished 9-3 the last 2 seasons, then yes, this season we had (or even going 9-3) would have been a miserable failure.

Down the stretch, Tennessee won multiple games as an underdog. I think calling Miss St, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Mizzou "should win" games is a little bit of a stretch - we were actually underdogs in all of those games. They were toss-up games at best. Those are all games that we probably lose last year, so we definitely made progress. If we beat Georgia St and BYU, I don't think it would have helped our bowl standing much but we absolutely would be ranked. Look at the current CFP rankings...the #25 team (Oklahoma St) is a 4-loss team, so we'd likely be ahead of them. The worst 3 loss team is Virginia at #23 and we played a stronger schedule than they did, so we'd probably be ranked 20th or somewhere around there. With a victory in the bowl game we'd have a chance to be ranked in the teens, which is something that hasn't happened since 2007. So yes, winning those first two games would have made a difference. Would have had a chance to have even more momentum heading into the 2020 season.

The next logical step for this program is to become competitive with Florida, Georgia, and Alabama will continuing to beat teams like South Carolina, Kentucky, Mizzou, etc. Especially considering South Carolina, Vandy, Mizzou, Arky, etc. appear to be headed in the wrong direction at the moment and have rebuilds ahead of them. Meanwhile, Tennessee appears to be headed in the right direction. However, I do hope that there isn't a strong "we can win the East" train next year...I think that'd be premature.
 
#170
#170
for me, it's a huge success! I will probably never know what funk crept into the locker room, last year, after the Kentucky game?....but it definitely rolled into the this year!

And then, just like the Grinch That Stole Christmas, Tennessee grew a heart! A big, beautiful orange and white heart! Yes, the Vols are winning ugly. But they are winning! Fighting, refusing to quit! Competing!

Yeah, very successful, imo. Cheers to the coaches and players for showing a ton of grit!
 
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