What they're saying nationally

[VOLociraptorr]

I listen to a variety of college football podcasts. Here with the national guys say about us.

1. They say JA is much more comfortable in the system than they expected. He looks like a veteran in Heupels system
Someone even said-"Tennessee can finally throw the deep ball again"

2. They noticed the new wrinkles in our system with bunch formations and such. Some who were previously down on Tennessee's offense like the variety.

3. And finally, my favorite. Multiple people pointed out how physical our offensive line was. They said they were shocked how we pushed Syracuse around and relentlessly attacked defenders.

 

[NATHAN05]

Im glad these outlets are admitting their faults and giving Tennessee its due praise......but at the same time id also be fine with Tennessee just quietly going about their business, improving, and beating every team in their path while flying under the radar as long as possible.

Sidenote: this is exactly why (especially pre season) i listen to talking heads for simply amusement. They have absolutely no idea what's coming up in a season.....especially with the TP and NIL now.

 

[VOLociraptorr]

Im glad these outlets are admitting their faults and giving Tennessee its due praise......but at the same time id also be fine with Tennessee just quietly going about their business, improving, and beating every team in their path while flying under the radar as long as possible.

Sidenote: this is exactly why (especially pre season) i listen to talking heads for simply amusement. They have absolutely no idea what's coming up in a season.....especially with the TP and NIL now.

And with all their research, they failed to recognize that JA threw the 5th most FBS TDs in 2023. He isn't exactly a scrub

 

[EZE]

Im glad these outlets are admitting their faults and giving Tennessee its due praise......but at the same time id also be fine with Tennessee just quietly going about their business, improving, and beating every team in their path while flying under the radar as long as possible.

Sidenote: this is exactly why (especially pre season) i listen to talking heads for simply amusement. They have absolutely no idea what's coming up in a season.....especially with the TP and NIL now.

They don’t have much more insight than anyone else, if any.

 

[NATHAN05]

And with all their research, they failed to recognize that JA threw the 5th most FBS TDs in 2023. He isn't exactly a scrub

Agreed......I was actually cautiously optimistic on him coming into the season to be honest (or knew he would at min. be as good as Nico). I think a lot of sports writers just wrote us off and glanced over our roster as a rebuild, assuming we'd be dead 3 or 4 games in anyways.

 

[HooahVol]

2. They noticed the new wrinkles in our system with bunch formations and such. Some who were previously down on Tennessee's offense like the variety.

I said this preseason but I really think Heup looked at JA and he and his team, in a pretty short amount of time, built an offense that would work with his skills and feel familiar to a lot of things they do at App State (like the pistol formation). It may be his best coaching yet. Besides, Heup's offense isn't super complex but almost impossible to stop once the train gets rolling. That is the reason everyone fakes injuries against us. Once Heup has you on your heels you are toast.

 

[Other_Guy]

"We have to rank them so low because their offense could be poor"
"O wow their offense looks pretty good!"
*keeps them ranked low*

 

[Carp]

Im glad these outlets are admitting their faults and giving Tennessee its due praise......but at the same time id also be fine with Tennessee just quietly going about their business, improving, and beating every team in their path while flying under the radar as long as possible.

Sidenote: this is exactly why (especially pre season) i listen to talking heads for simply amusement. They have absolutely no idea what's coming up in a season.....especially with the TP and NIL now.

Flying under the radar is not good for playoff odds. It's always better to be ranked highly so that the playoff committee has some bias for you (like Bama last year).

 

[VOLociraptorr]

I said this preseason but I really think Heup looked at JA and he and his team, in a pretty short amount of time, built an offense that would work with his skills and feel familiar to a lot of things they do at App State (like the pistol formation). It may be his best coaching yet. Besides, Heup's offense isn't super complex but almost impossible to stop once the train gets rolling. That is the reason everyone fakes injuries against us. Once Heup has you on your heels you are toast.

You know, I never considered that Heup looked at what made JA successful and adjusted that way.

Very intelligent observation!

 

[Lekvolrrah]

Im glad these outlets are admitting their faults and giving Tennessee its due praise......but at the same time id also be fine with Tennessee just quietly going about their business, improving, and beating every team in their path while flying under the radar as long as possible.

Sidenote: this is exactly why (especially pre season) i listen to talking heads for simply amusement. They have absolutely no idea what's coming up in a season.....especially with the TP and NIL now.

Not happening in this era of Vol FB

 

[Carp]

And with all their research, they failed to recognize that JA threw the 5th most FBS TDs in 2023. He isn't exactly a scrub

I don't know if it's true, but someone told me that coming into this season, Aguilar was the career leader among active QBs in total offense (passing and rushing yards combined). I am not sure if that counts his time at Diablo Valley or not.

Edit: Looks like he was right. Google AI says "Joey Aguilar is the FBS active career leader in total offense per game and is second in passing yards per contest among active players."

 

[VFL-82-JP]

The pundits got it wrong in two separate ways. Together, the combination threw them waaaaay off course. And a lot of them, particularly the AP poll voters, haven't adjusted to reality yet.

The two ways:

(1) They thought Joey wasn't an SEC grade QB. They thought his high interception numbers in 2024 meant he was sub-par. A few of them (very few) recognized that had a lot to do with App State's defensive weakness and therefore need to take huge risks on offense. Most had no clue of any of that. They just wrote Joey off.

(2) Starting with that pessimistic base, they then ALSO assumed he wouldn't have enough time to learn Tennessee's playbook, so our offense would "run rough."

Both assumptions turned out to be dead wrong. But most of the media types are not ready to learn that yet. It will probably take us beating UGa, if we can.

Go Vols!


EDIT: On reflection, I'll add a third mistake the media types are generally making: they under-value Josh Heupel's ability to improvise. They think our offensive playbook is fixed. They believe the Heupel offense is what we saw in 2022, and nothing more. They assume the only remaining question is how well each year's lads can implement it on the field.

The media generally don't anticipate significant changes to how it works; adjustments and wrinkles like the ones we saw against Syracuse. But the fact is, Josh is so canny offensively that he can rebuild his playbook around the players' strengths, and can modify it in general to keep our opponents off balance. Some of the media recognize this in our head coach; many have not...yet.

 

[DonDiego]

3. And finally, my favorite. Multiple people pointed out how physical our offensive line was. They said they were shocked how we pushed Syracuse around and relentlessly attacked defenders.

I love to think the OL is going to ball out, but I'm going to need to see a bigger sample size before I'm totally convinced about them or the offense in general. Syracuse' defense is all time garbage, I'm afraid.

 

[chuck0303]

Agreed......I was actually cautiously optimistic on him coming into the season to be honest (or knew he would at min. be as good as Nico). I think a lot of sports writers just wrote us off and glanced over our roster as a rebuild, assuming we'd be dead 3 or 4 games in anyways.

I hate to say it in one way, but we definitely dodged a bullet with Nico. I was all optimistic with him, but we definitely hit the jackpot with Joey. Yes, he may have some downside down the road but he looks sharp and focused and able to make the reads. So glad TN didn't cave to their (Nicos) demands. So far looks like our talent has increased on both sides of the ball.

 

[Voltopia]

2023. Tennessee whips Virginia 49-13.
2024. Tennessee whips NC State 51-10.
2025. Tennessee whips Syracuse 45-26.

Good rule of thumb. Never read too much into these kickoff out-of-conference games against teams outside the big P2 contenders. Tennessee's had major talent advantages in each of those games, which in turn made us look great - but it can be easy to read too much into beating outmatched opponents. I feel like the national media is especially guilty of this because they don't often pay very close attention to anything that isn't prime time game of the week material.

It's fine to feel good about Tennessee after game 1. I know I do. And I'm damn glad we're in a place where these kickoff OOC games are mostly automatic for the Vols thanks to their talent and coaching advantages. We've come a long way from Southern Cal highlights, Rommel rabble, and brick boy. Just. I urge folks not to read too much into this one game. If you want to know what we've got, give it two more weeks.

 

[The Original Fade]

I want to see how JA responds to Georgia’s pressure and athleticism on defense before I go all in. But so far so good

 

[Casual Mustard Yeeter]

2023. Tennessee whips Virginia 49-13.
2024. Tennessee whips NC State 51-10.
2025. Tennessee whips Syracuse 45-26.

Good rule of thumb. Never read too much into these kickoff out-of-conference games against teams outside the big P2 contenders. Tennessee's had major talent advantages in each of those games, which in turn made us look great - but it can be easy to read too much into beating outmatched opponents. I feel like the national media is especially guilty of this because they don't often pay very close attention to anything that isn't prime time game of the week material.

It's fine to feel good about Tennessee after game 1. I know I do. And I'm damn glad we're in a place where these kickoff OOC games are mostly automatic for the Vols thanks to their talent and coaching advantages. We've come a long way from Southern Cal highlights, Rommel rabble, and brick boy. Just. I urge folks not to read too much into this one game. If you want to know what we've got, give it two more weeks.

Hahahaha I just watched the "we're like the Germans on D-Day," bit with my dad earlier this week! He might've sucked as a coach but his press conferences were funny as hell.

 

[KTrain]

Yep

2023. Tennessee whips Virginia 49-13.
2024. Tennessee whips NC State 51-10.
2025. Tennessee whips Syracuse 45-26.

Good rule of thumb. Never read too much into these kickoff out-of-conference games against teams outside the big P2 contenders. Tennessee's had major talent advantages in each of those games, which in turn made us look great - but it can be easy to read too much into beating outmatched opponents. I feel like the national media is especially guilty of this because they don't often pay very close attention to anything that isn't prime time game of the week material.

It's fine to feel good about Tennessee after game 1. I know I do. And I'm damn glad we're in a place where these kickoff OOC games are mostly automatic for the Vols thanks to their talent and coaching advantages. We've come a long way from Southern Cal highlights, Rommel rabble, and brick boy. Just. I urge folks not to read too much into this one game. If you want to know what we've got, give it two more weeks.

Yep, you cannot read too much in the 1st game OOCs. I remember in 1998 we eked out a win vs Syracuse with the help of a PI on 4th down to keep the final drive alive. I was worried after the game and said we would be a 8-4 team when the dust settled. We ended up 13 & 0 so first games can be misleading.

 

[hUTch2002]

Yep

Yep, you cannot read too much in the 1st game OOCs. I remember in 1998 we eked out a win vs Syracuse with the help of a PI on 4th down to keep the final drive alive. I was worried after the game and said we would be a 8-4 team when the dust settled. We ended up 13 & 0 so first games can be misleading.

That Syracuse team was actually pretty good, especially early when healthy. McNabb and Freeney were studs.

 

[Imallvol]

remember what UCLA HC said, JA didn't take film study seariously and didn't practice well in off season. Seems total opposite of JA in Knoxville.

 

[Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va]

remember what UCLA HC said, JA didn't take film study seariously and didn't practice well in off season. Seems total opposite of JA in Knoxville.

Joey looked comfortable and on schedule. Granted, our OL HANDLED Syracuse's defensive front, giving Joey plenty of time to focus downfield. That makes it so much easier for QBs to grow in a system when they have time to go through the reads and focus on the plays that the coaches scheme for them.