Poll: Is this Technically a Rebuilding Year?

[madbamahater]

Seems like UT is overachieving in what should be viewed as a rebuilding year. Less than 2 months ago, most people had no clue who the QB was going to be. Tennessee's returning QB left them high and dry a few shorts months before the upcoming season. Had to replace Sampson and wasn't sure how that'd work out. WR corps was questionable at best and they have been better than most thought. The defensive line is the biggest issue with lack of depth and size at the dtackle positions. The secondary is young and thin and the Vols are suffering from critical injuries in the secondary.

Despite some very bad coaching with time management (mostly) and some very bad play calling, Heupel has done a remarkable job for the most part to this point in the season. An overtime loss to UGA and a bad performance on the road in Tuscaloosa. Crazy to think he is just a few plays executed or better time management/play calls away from being ranked arguably #1 in the country, or top 5.

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

I think we've been in a perpetual state of rebuilding since 2008.

 

[volbound1700]

Seems like UT is overachieving in what should be viewed as a rebuilding year. Less than 2 months ago, most people had no clue who the QB was going to be. Tennessee's returning QB left them high and dry a few shorts months before the upcoming season. Had to replace Sampson and wasn't sure how that'd work out. WR corps was questionable at best and they have been better than most thought. The defensive line is the biggest issue with lack of depth and size at the dtackle positions. The secondary is young and thin and the Vols are suffering from critical injuries in the secondary.

Despite some very bad coaching with time management (mostly) and some very bad play calling, Heupel has done a remarkable job for the most part to this point in the season. An overtime loss to UGA and a bad performance on the road in Tuscaloosa. Crazy to think he is just a few plays executed or better time management/play calls away from being ranked arguably #1 in the country, or top 5.

Hard to say we are necessarily "Overachieving" as we have beaten 2 bottom feeders in tighter than they should be games and lost to 2 heavy favorites. I guess the "almost" win over Georgia is overachieving.

The remaining schedule is going to be HUGE on how we view this season. I think we really need to beat Florida to feel like we have accomplished something as 0-3 against Bama, Fla, Georgia isn't good.

 

[james_govols]

Tennessee has one of the youngest teams in the nation.

Future is bright.

 

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

The reason I voted yes is that we are one of the youngest rosters in the SEC with a QB that showed up after spring practice.

Lets face it: we all got too hopeful when we should have beat UGA. Now that teams are figuring out our new offense and exploiting our young and inexperienced defense, we look like a team in a rebuild year.

 

[madbamahater]

I think we've been in a perpetual state of rebuilding since 2008.

Losing your starting QB out of thin air, replacing the top SEC offensive player of the year at RB and no depth at dline and tons of youth in secondary does more than justify this being a rebuild. If this isn't a roster rebuild, what is?

 

[jeff1vol]

You don't rebuild in year 5. At least competent football programs aren't rebuilding in year 5. good grief.

 

[Volanta]

All good points. Let’s just stop shooting ourselves in the foot and compete to win!

 

[madbamahater]

You don't rebuild in year 5. At least competent football programs aren't rebuilding in year 5. good grief.

Year 5 is often a rebuild for many college programs especially. The good and the bad teams. College players cycle in and out.

 

[The Original Fade]

There’s no such thing as rebuilding in the portal era. Take that somewhere else

 

[madbamahater]

There’s no such thing as rebuilding in the portal era. Take that somewhere else

Huh?

 

[savannahfan]

Year 5 is often a rebuild for many college programs especially. The good and the bad teams. College players cycle in and out.

With the portal most teams, from now on, are going to be in some sort of rebuild.

 

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

Losing your starting QB out of thin air, replacing the top SEC offensive player of the year at RB and no depth at dline and tons of youth in secondary does more than justify this being a rebuild. If this isn't a roster rebuild, what is?

From that perspective, it feels like Heupel is doing more with less. Which I do think is true regardless of the on the field issues.

But call me a sunshine pumper if you want

 

[VOLfrombama]

Losing so many bodies in the Secondary and the DL has forced them to rebuild the D

Joey has played well for the most part as a new Qb/new system, but his play Saturday night and in spots in all of the SEC games has made him look human. Inconsistency of mechanics, throwing high, ball placement, and the WRs dropping balls and possibly even running wrong choice routes has led to a lot of 3 and outs, especially after critical turnovers/momentum swings. They haven't been able to play consistently enough when they had golden opportunities to take over some games in critical situations. The play calling has been suspect at best in some very critical situations so it's hard to point the finger at one thing on O. The O simply hasn't improved enough in 7 games. In fact it seems they have taken a step or two back imo.

The WR room rebuild has not resulted in what we all hoped it would by this point in the season. Almost leading the league in drops (2nd to last behind App State) is not high level football. Again its more consistency issues than anything there.

The DL has missed the bigs from last year on stopping the run too, which has typically been the strength of the D until this season.

The OL has been the only rebuild bright spot imo.

 

[GVF]

Seems like UT is overachieving in what should be viewed as a rebuilding year. Less than 2 months ago, most people had no clue who the QB was going to be. Tennessee's returning QB left them high and dry a few shorts months before the upcoming season. Had to replace Sampson and wasn't sure how that'd work out. WR corps was questionable at best and they have been better than most thought. The defensive line is the biggest issue with lack of depth and size at the dtackle positions. The secondary is young and thin and the Vols are suffering from critical injuries in the secondary.

Despite some very bad coaching with time management (mostly) and some very bad play calling, Heupel has done a remarkable job for the most part to this point in the season. An overtime loss to UGA and a bad performance on the road in Tuscaloosa. Crazy to think he is just a few plays executed or better time management/play calls away from being ranked arguably #1 in the country, or top 5.

Considering we are a missed field goal away from winning in Athens, and a bad day coaching in Tuscaloosa, we've done quite well. Three distinct drives Saturday, and that game is literally a probable win for us. Bama did not beat us outright by any stretch of the imagination. That was not a whooping. We tossed that game, and it still took them till about 6 minutes to put it away for sure. As bad as we played, we were still in that game the whole way. The emergence of Simpson is the only reason Bama is not a 3 loss team at this point. But SEC football is weird. They could replay that game in Athens for the next 6 weeks and lose all of them.

IMO, yes we are overachieving. I for one was predicting 10-2, but knew 9-3 was very possible and still be a successful season. But, our shortfalls do rear up. And we are thin at WR which is why I think Matthews is still getting the nod. We moved the ball quite easily Saturday in totality. Our discipline and stone hands killed a solid 3-4 potential scoring drives. Plus the pick 6, and a 3 penatly defensive effort gave them an extra 14. Just those two and it's a 3 point game to overcome ot tied because that was a 17 point swing. Passing on 3 to give them 7, and 3 15 yard penalties to keep them alive and score. And a botched 15 yard loss for a 25 yard 1st down run and eventual score. That's 21-24 points right there before you critique the rest of the offensive misses on positive drives. That's the hard pill for that loss. We didn't lose from being outmanned, even with all our injuries. We didn't give up. We lost on attention to dtail, and tackling, which is attention to detail.

I shudder to think what we'd be if we still had a QB that can't throw for more than 180.

 

[Volador]

Tennessee has one of the youngest teams in the nation.

Future is bright.

BUT, they have to STAY.

 

[GVF]

Losing so many bodies in the Secondary and the DL has forced them to rebuild the D

Joey has played well for the most part as a new Qb/new system, but his play Saturday night and in spots in all of the SEC games has made him look human. Inconsistency of mechanics, throwing high, ball placement, and the WRs dropping balls and possibly even running wrong choice routes has led to a lot of 3 and outs, especially after critical turnovers/momentum swings. They haven't been able to play consistently enough when they had golden opportunities to take over some games in critical situations. The play calling has been suspect at best in some very critical situations so it's hard to point the finger at one thing on O. The O simply hasn't improved enough in 7 games. In fact it seems they have taken a step or two back imo.

The WR room rebuild has not resulted in what we all hoped it would by this point in the season. Almost leading the league in drops (2nd to last behind App State) is not high level football. Again its more consistency issues than anything there.

The DL has missed the bigs from last year on stopping the run too, which has typically been the strength of the D until this season.

The OL has been the only rebuild bright spot imo.

In fairness. Lot's of injuries there too. Not many options available to see who won't drop the ball. But, a well formed opinion otherwise. In lieu of those injuries though, I think PLewis is a good reveiving RB, and we could overcome some depth issues working him in more on pass plays.

 

[GVF]

From that perspective, it feels like Heupel is doing more with less. Which I do think is true regardless of the on the field issues.

But call me a sunshine pumper if you want

I think that's fair and accurate. And if he could work out some of his own in game sideline issues, he'd be utterly brillaint.

 

[ButchPlz]

Hard to say we are necessarily "Overachieving" as we have beaten 2 bottom feeders in tighter than they should be games and lost to 2 heavy favorites. I guess the "almost" win over Georgia is overachieving.

The remaining schedule is going to be HUGE on how we view this season. I think we really need to beat Florida to feel like we have accomplished something as 0-3 against Bama, Fla, Georgia isn't good.

Like many things you post, it's apparent you haven't actually paid attention to anything beyond your very narrow tunnel.

 

[GVF]

There’s no such thing as rebuilding in the portal era. Take that somewhere else

Not that simple. In Saban's own words you better do your due diligence if your gonna recruit the portal cause most guys are there for a reason, and bad choices will kill your team and lockerroom.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

Like many things you post, it's apparent you haven't actually paid attention to anything beyond your very narrow tunnel.

To be fair, Arkansas and MSU are bottom feeders. They arent the old school 2-10 type Vandy teams but they will likely go 3-13 or worse combined in SEC play.....

 

[Vol_in_NC_1999]

The OP makes a fair point, so after reading I wish I could change my vote to "yes". I think there is so much parity in the SEC right now that anyone can beat anyone in any given week. We shouldn't hit the panic button every time we lose or win a close game against an inferior opponent. But hey, I do the same thing. I turned the TV off after the pick-6.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

It shouldn't be in year 5, but unfortunately it is.

 

[Delmar]

Year 5 is often a rebuild for many college programs especially. The good and the bad teams. College players cycle in and out.

Cycling in and out more so now than ever before.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

The OP makes a fair point, so after reading I wish I could change my vote to "yes". I think there is so much parity in the SEC right now that anyone can beat anyone in any given week. We shouldn't hit the panic button every time we lose or win a close game against an inferior opponent. But hey, I do the same thing. I turned the TV off after the pick-6.

Losing to a better team in their building is nothing to be ashamed of. However, when you lose because of poor, unsound fundamentals and costly self-inflicted mistakes, thats another matter.