Thanks Heupel/Players for Great Rebuild Season!

#1
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madbamahater

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#1
2025 was a HUGE question mark and it truly was a rebuild season. No one could seem to settle in on where they thought the 2025 Vols would finish. I think Vegas had them around 7/8 wins?

The optimist in me thought they could get to 9/10 wins before the season, but after I saw how bad the run defense was and how super thin and undersized they were in the dline during the Syracuse game, I knew they would be in big trouble during league play and that .500 wouldn't surprise me. Tennessee was VERY disadvantaged particularly in the interior defensive line this season.

The wide receiver corp was a huge question mark and no one had any idea how the group would perform. They had many issues catching passes in the 2024 season, so this was a legitimate area in which Tennessee had to improve and it did in a big way. But, no one expected this because we had no idea about the group.

Replacing Dylan Sampson was going to be impossible, provided he is statistically one of the best to ever do it at Tennessee. I believe Bishop was a former walk-on? (I may be wrong), but anyway, replacing Sampson was huge shoes to fill.

With Nico pulling what he did in the spring and Tennessee having to scramble to try to find a replacement over the summer and with no one, including the staff, really knowing who the starting quarterback this fall would be was a major hurdle for the entire program to overcome. Surprisingly, the Vols did upgrade at the position and Heupel did an amazingly miraculous job in short time.

Obviously this will sound like the excuse machine, but I'm a fan just laying out facts and obviously not a coach just making excuses. Refreshingly, Tennessee doesn't have an excuse machine coach anymore. Heupel is a no excuses guy and just routinely talks about how they have to get better at all the little details. For years we had coaches that would vomit out excuse after excuse. My point here, is about Tennessee being the youngest team in the league. This is just a fact and has been a reason for some of Tennessee's shortcomings this season. The young Vols have had to grow up quickly and I think they have.

Vanderbilt just physically dominated the line of scrimmage, particularly dominated Tennessee's defensive line in the second half. This goes back to my earlier point about how undersized, thin and not up to SEC par the defensive line is. Tennessee had no answers. To me, this is the #1 issue that has to be addressed with the portal. If Tennessee cannot get much better on the defensive line, particularly inside, they will stand no chance in league play. You just have to be really good at these positions to have a shot in the SEC.

I hate that the season ended on a note of them getting their rear ends kicked the second half of last night's game. But judging the whole body of work, I thought they did a really great job and there were several very exciting moments. No moral victories here, but the Vols were a few plays, or better coaching moments away from beating primarily Georgia and possibly Oklahoma. You can argue that they could have easily lost some of the games that they should have won handily, like Arkansas, they didn't lose them, they won them.

Thank you coach and players for the 2025 season! Go Big Orange!
 
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#3
#3
madbamahater said:
2025 was a HUGE question mark and it truly was a rebuild season. No one could seem to settle in on where they thought the 2025 Vols would finish. I think Vegas had them around 7/8 wins?

The optimist in me thought they could get to 9/10 wins before the season, but after I saw how bad the run defense was and how super thin and undersized they were in the dline during the Syracuse game, I knew they would be in big trouble during league play and that .500 wouldn't surprise me. Tennessee was VERY disadvantaged particularly in the interior defensive line this season.

The wide receiver corp was a huge question mark and no one had any idea how the group would perform. They had many issues catching passes in the 2024 season, so this was a legitimate area in which Tennessee had to improve and it did in a big way. But, no one expected this because we had no idea about the group.

Replacing Dylan Sampson was going to be impossible, provided he is statistically one of the best to ever do it at Tennessee. I believe Bishop was a former walk-on? (I may be wrong), but anyway, replacing Sampson was huge shoes to fill.

With Nico pulling what he did in the spring and Tennessee having to scramble to try to find a replacement over the summer and with no one, including the staff, really knowing who the starting quarterback this fall would be was a major hurdle for the entire program to overcome. Surprisingly, the Vols did upgrade at the position and Heupel did an amazingly miraculous job in short time.

Obviously this will sound like the excuse machine, but I'm a fan just laying out facts and obviously not a coach just making excuses. Refreshingly, Tennessee doesn't have an excuse machine coach anymore. Heupel is a no excuses guy and just routinely talks about how they have to get better at all the little details. For years we had coaches that would vomit out excuse after excuse. My point here, is about Tennessee being the youngest team in the league. This is just a fact and has been a reason for some of Tennessee's shortcomings this season. The young Vols have had to grow up quickly and I think they have.

Vanderbilt just physically dominated the line of scrimmage, particularly dominated Tennessee's defensive line in the second half. This goes back to my earlier point about how undersized, thin and not up to SEC par the defensive line is. Tennessee had no answers. To me, this is the #1 issue that has to be addressed with the portal. If Tennessee cannot get much better on the defensive line, particularly inside, they will stand no chance in league play. You just have to be really good at these positions to have a shot in the SEC.

I hate that the season ended on a note of them getting their rear ends kicked the second half of last night's game. But judging the whole body of work, I thought they did a really great job and there were several very exciting moments. No moral victories here, but the Vols were a few plays, or better coaching moments away from beating primarily Georgia and possibly Oklahoma. You can argue that they could have easily lost some of the games that they should have won handily, like Arkansas, they didn't lose them, they won them.

Thank you coach and players for the 2025 season! Go Big Orange!
Click to expand...
It’s year 5. All of the excuses you layout rest squarely on the staff. Calling year 5 a rebuild is crazy work. I believe the only team we beat with winning record was ETSU. No need to thank anyone.
 
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#6
#6
Year 5 didn't use to be a rebuilding year but times have changes. With the transfer portal and players can swap teams almost at will, every year is pretty much a rebuilding year unless you are one of the very few teams that only has one or two transfers. There is no team loyalty anymore,
 
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#7
#7
madbamahater said:
2025 was a HUGE question mark and it truly was a rebuild season. No one could seem to settle in on where they thought the 2025 Vols would finish. I think Vegas had them around 7/8 wins?

The optimist in me thought they could get to 9/10 wins before the season, but after I saw how bad the run defense was and how super thin and undersized they were in the dline during the Syracuse game, I knew they would be in big trouble during league play and that .500 wouldn't surprise me. Tennessee was VERY disadvantaged particularly in the interior defensive line this season.

The wide receiver corp was a huge question mark and no one had any idea how the group would perform. They had many issues catching passes in the 2024 season, so this was a legitimate area in which Tennessee had to improve and it did in a big way. But, no one expected this because we had no idea about the group.

Replacing Dylan Sampson was going to be impossible, provided he is statistically one of the best to ever do it at Tennessee. I believe Bishop was a former walk-on? (I may be wrong), but anyway, replacing Sampson was huge shoes to fill.

With Nico pulling what he did in the spring and Tennessee having to scramble to try to find a replacement over the summer and with no one, including the staff, really knowing who the starting quarterback this fall would be was a major hurdle for the entire program to overcome. Surprisingly, the Vols did upgrade at the position and Heupel did an amazingly miraculous job in short time.

Obviously this will sound like the excuse machine, but I'm a fan just laying out facts and obviously not a coach just making excuses. Refreshingly, Tennessee doesn't have an excuse machine coach anymore. Heupel is a no excuses guy and just routinely talks about how they have to get better at all the little details. For years we had coaches that would vomit out excuse after excuse. My point here, is about Tennessee being the youngest team in the league. This is just a fact and has been a reason for some of Tennessee's shortcomings this season. The young Vols have had to grow up quickly and I think they have.

Vanderbilt just physically dominated the line of scrimmage, particularly dominated Tennessee's defensive line in the second half. This goes back to my earlier point about how undersized, thin and not up to SEC par the defensive line is. Tennessee had no answers. To me, this is the #1 issue that has to be addressed with the portal. If Tennessee cannot get much better on the defensive line, particularly inside, they will stand no chance in league play. You just have to be really good at these positions to have a shot in the SEC.

I hate that the season ended on a note of them getting their rear ends kicked the second half of last night's game. But judging the whole body of work, I thought they did a really great job and there were several very exciting moments. No moral victories here, but the Vols were a few plays, or better coaching moments away from beating primarily Georgia and possibly Oklahoma. You can argue that they could have easily lost some of the games that they should have won handily, like Arkansas, they didn't lose them, they won them.

Thank you coach and players for the 2025 season! Go Big Orange!
Click to expand...
We did have a great performance by Joey at QB. I am concerned about the QB position in 26. Mcintyre does throw the ball well. He needs to put on a lot of good muscle weight for next year. Merklinger has ideal size for a college QB. I have two grandsons who live in Savannah and he had great statistics out of high school
when he signed with TN. I hope he will stay next year and truly complete for the QB position. Good QB prospects will not sign with us going forward, if Heuple only brings experienced QB's in through the portal. Brandon may be a phenom who will play right away. Manning started 8 games as a freshman. 4 new QB's in four years with the backups not playing will never work.
 
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#8
#8
kiddiedoc said:
Could be a tough thread...

When a coach is making close to $10M and several of the players make more than most fans, there is going to be some frustration after the performance last night.
Click to expand...

The frustration lies solely with the defense. Is the offense perfect? Absolutely not, but they have consistently ranked in the top 20 every year. Outside of last season, the defense has been average with two seasons, this year and the first, being absolutely terrible. If we could field a more consistent top 40 type defense then expecting offensive perfection wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Heupel’s approach to the portal and focusing more on high school talent may need to be revisited. There are several highly paid players on the team who aren’t developing at a high level like Mike Matthews, Ethan Davis, and Jake Merklinger. The number of drops between Matthews and Davis are astounding and it’s quite obvious Merklinger is remotely ready to be the starter.
 
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#11
#11
I guess I’ll go ahead and say this for the thousandth time for those that either don’t realize it or neglect to consider it substantial.

3-9
7-5 (ETSU)
4-8
5-7
2-10
5-7
4-8
4-8

Combined record of 34-62 for teams we beat this year, and that’s counting the cupcake game being the only team at or above .500 that we beat. In year 5. No issues there? Alright. I must be an idiot to think so.
 
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#14
#14
Rebuild what? Year 4 and 5 are the coming out party. Of course we did not have the players to compete, why is that? Crappy facilities, no, lack of funding, no, lack of fan contributions, no, then why? All we hear is we are very disappointed and then we go back to the same nonsense spending 30 to 40 million to beat D2 teams by 50 points.
 
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#15
#15
CNCVol88 said:
Losing to vanderbilt is not a good season
Click to expand...
I agree for the most part. Most rational people had us at 8 wins preseason. so I am not surprised at the final outcome.

However, I am very disappointed in our home field performances. 75% of our losses were at Neyland. I thought home field was supposed to be a big advantage, especially at Neyland. There was a time when a game at UT was almost always a W for the home team.

I feel sorry for the fans that braved the weather paying more than 100 bucks for a ticket to watch that fiasco, especially the 2nd half. Hell I just paid SLING a dollar for a day pass to watch it in the comfort of my living room, and I still want a refund! ;) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
 
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#16
#16
kiddiedoc said:
Could be a tough thread...

When a coach is making close to $10M and several of the players make more than most fans, there is going to be some frustration after the performance last night.
Click to expand...
That’s the going rate these days. You have to meet that baseline to even be competitive most years
 
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#18
#18
madbamahater said:
2025 was a HUGE question mark and it truly was a rebuild season. No one could seem to settle in on where they thought the 2025 Vols would finish. I think Vegas had them around 7/8 wins?

The optimist in me thought they could get to 9/10 wins before the season, but after I saw how bad the run defense was and how super thin and undersized they were in the dline during the Syracuse game, I knew they would be in big trouble during league play and that .500 wouldn't surprise me. Tennessee was VERY disadvantaged particularly in the interior defensive line this season.

The wide receiver corp was a huge question mark and no one had any idea how the group would perform. They had many issues catching passes in the 2024 season, so this was a legitimate area in which Tennessee had to improve and it did in a big way. But, no one expected this because we had no idea about the group.

Replacing Dylan Sampson was going to be impossible, provided he is statistically one of the best to ever do it at Tennessee. I believe Bishop was a former walk-on? (I may be wrong), but anyway, replacing Sampson was huge shoes to fill.

With Nico pulling what he did in the spring and Tennessee having to scramble to try to find a replacement over the summer and with no one, including the staff, really knowing who the starting quarterback this fall would be was a major hurdle for the entire program to overcome. Surprisingly, the Vols did upgrade at the position and Heupel did an amazingly miraculous job in short time.

Obviously this will sound like the excuse machine, but I'm a fan just laying out facts and obviously not a coach just making excuses. Refreshingly, Tennessee doesn't have an excuse machine coach anymore. Heupel is a no excuses guy and just routinely talks about how they have to get better at all the little details. For years we had coaches that would vomit out excuse after excuse. My point here, is about Tennessee being the youngest team in the league. This is just a fact and has been a reason for some of Tennessee's shortcomings this season. The young Vols have had to grow up quickly and I think they have.

Vanderbilt just physically dominated the line of scrimmage, particularly dominated Tennessee's defensive line in the second half. This goes back to my earlier point about how undersized, thin and not up to SEC par the defensive line is. Tennessee had no answers. To me, this is the #1 issue that has to be addressed with the portal. If Tennessee cannot get much better on the defensive line, particularly inside, they will stand no chance in league play. You just have to be really good at these positions to have a shot in the SEC.

I hate that the season ended on a note of them getting their rear ends kicked the second half of last night's game. But judging the whole body of work, I thought they did a really great job and there were several very exciting moments. No moral victories here, but the Vols were a few plays, or better coaching moments away from beating primarily Georgia and possibly Oklahoma. You can argue that they could have easily lost some of the games that they should have won handily, like Arkansas, they didn't lose them, they won them.

Thank you coach and players for the 2025 season! Go Big Orange!
Click to expand...
TRUTH.
No orange glasses, just an objective appraisal.

And for anyone accusing the OP of excuse-making... did he even once mention the injuries we suffered on defense? No. But that is the major reason we became the youngest team in the SEC. It wasn't poor planning.

This isn't a thread made to coddle or confirm fans emotions. There are a dozen threads in the forum for venting and flailing. The OP is for devoted fans who are ready to "snap and clear," turn the page, and start dealing positively with the battlefield as we find it.

And for those who claim we should have addressed all our weak areas in the portal, let the saga of Boo Williams be a reminder that all the talent in the world means nothing if the player isn't just as committed to fitting with your culture.

Yes, there's plenty of talent out there in the portal--but which ones also fit our culture? Before NIL and social media, a team and program could manage to add a couple of high talent/but immature character players. With players having no money, and with high character teammates assigned to be with them 24/7, you had a decent chance of keeping those guys out of trouble between kickoffs. That corral for "spirited" ponies doesn't exist today. Not even when you're winning like Georgia.
 
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#19
#19
Fatman Photos said:
Year 5 didn't use to be a rebuilding year but times have changes. With the transfer portal and players can swap teams almost at will, every year is pretty much a rebuilding year unless you are one of the very few teams that only has one or two transfers. There is no team loyalty anymore,
Click to expand...
DING..DING..DING..!!
We got a winner..!!
The current state of Power 5 football disgusts me. THERE..I said it. Unfortunately, not only is this not your Daddy’s Vandy… college football has evolved so dramatically, so quickly, that any here who still judge the administrators of a Power 5 program by traditional metrics ( like 5th year can’t be rebuilding, etc) is already so far behind the curve that they can’t see what’s happening in front of their eyes. Today… EVERY offseason is “ a rebuilding year”. I don’t like it, but here we are. Frankly, Vanderbilt might be congratulated not just for having a great season but also for learning how to negotiate this ugly new world so quickly.
 
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#23
#23
overseasorange2 said:
I agree for the most part. Most rational people had us at 8 wins preseason. so I am not surprised at the final outcome.

However, I am very disappointed in our home field performances. 75% of our losses were at Neyland. I thought home field was supposed to be a big advantage, especially at Neyland. There was a time when a game at UT was almost always a W for the home team.

I feel sorry for the fans that braved the weather paying more than 100 bucks for a ticket to watch that fiasco, especially the 2nd half. Hell I just paid SLING a dollar for a day pass to watch it in the comfort of my living room, and I still want a refund! ;) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
People have to start using some perspective. That 8 number means nothing when as said above we beat no one with a pulse. The people we beat were 34-62. AND we lost 3 at home, one of those being a beating by Vandy. Not acceptable.
 
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#24
#24
landscapingvol said:
The frustration lies solely with the defense. Is the offense perfect? Absolutely not, but they have consistently ranked in the top 20 every year. Outside of last season, the defense has been average with two seasons, this year and the first, being absolutely terrible. If we could field a more consistent top 40 type defense then expecting offensive perfection wouldn’t be as much of an issue. Heupel’s approach to the portal and focusing more on high school talent may need to be revisited. There are several highly paid players on the team who aren’t developing at a high level like Mike Matthews, Ethan Davis, and Jake Merklinger. The number of drops between Matthews and Davis are astounding and it’s quite obvious Merklinger is remotely ready to be the starter.
Click to expand...
In response to defense, Oklahoma is the perfect example. They win some ugly games, but their defense is the reason they will be in every game. Won't be surprised to see them upset a higher seeded team in the playoffs.
 
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#25
#25
overseasorange2 said:
I agree for the most part. Most rational people had us at 8 wins preseason. so I am not surprised at the final outcome.

However, I am very disappointed in our home field performances. 75% of our losses were at Neyland. I thought home field was supposed to be a big advantage, especially at Neyland. There was a time when a game at UT was almost always a W for the home team.

I feel sorry for the fans that braved the weather paying more than 100 bucks for a ticket to watch that fiasco, especially the 2nd half. Hell I just paid SLING a dollar for a day pass to watch it in the comfort of my living room, and I still want a refund! ;) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Click to expand...
8-4 didn't include a loss to Vandy. It included a loss to Florida. I went to that game. I enjoyed that game. I would have stomached a loss better and prepared for a loss. Florida fans heckling me about being ready to lose I just responded with "yeah probably."
 
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