After 3 Years Where Are We Headed?

After a dismal year 3, where do see you see the JH tenure going?

  • JH will have us competing for championships in the next 2 years

    Votes: 61 21.0%

  • JH peaked last year

    Votes: 47 16.2%

  • JH is better than our last three coaches and that's enough for me for now

    Votes: 128 44.1%

  • I don't know yet

    Votes: 54 18.6%
  • Total voters
    290
#27
#27
Injury bug and bah humbug.
We got and have gotten our butt in the Trenches this year. I never would have thought it.
A lot of confidence dwindled as well.
You think about it the injury bug has caused us to take it backside.
I truly think we had too many injuries to make all this work effectively.
We are not depth experienced enough to fill holes.
Finish 9-4 and it is a good year. Nothing to panic over.
Losing Golesh was an adjustment, Hazle will figure it out.
Defense has got to pick up the pieces.
I am not sure what the Injury list looks like on both sides of the ball but it has got to be pretty lengthy.
 
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#28
#28
Chitlin&theDude said:
I thought this year would tell us a lot about JH. Are we catching up to GA and AL? Could we be as good or almost as good as last year? Obviously not.
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he has only had 2 recruiting classes and they were too far below UGA and Bama classes to begin to catch up. Not gonna "catch" them unless their recruiting falls or Tennessee's elevates into consistent top 5 classes.

Might compete with them every few years in a game but not close to catching them and frankly, after two classes should not be close. He has to establish things here to elevate recruiting. Hard to do in 2 or 3 cycles
 
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#29
#29
The Tall Gguy said:
I think it's sad some posters use strawman arguments to bash other posters. Nobody, NOBODY was expecting a national championship. However, EVERYONE was expecting to at least be competitive.
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I don't get why people think that Tennessee should be a major force in football and be competing every year for a national championship. Except for a few years under Fulmer, 20 years ago, we have not been close. Well actually we were close last year at one point (ranked number one in the country and ended the season ranked sixth). How soon we forget. You have to crawl first, walk, and then run. Right now we are walking.

Full disclosure: I have been watching UT football since the 60's and went to school there in the 70's so I know a little bit about the program.
 
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#31
#31
SCREW IT, FIRE EVERYONE, DROP OUT OF THE SEC AND BEAT UTC EVERY YEAR. LIFE IS GOOD. THAT MIGHT MAKE SOME OF YOU HAPPY.
 
#32
#32
Chitlin&theDude said:
I thought this year would tell us a lot about JH. Are we catching up to GA and AL? Could we be as good or almost as good as last year? Obviously not.
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Two sides to that. Not close to UGA and most teams are not…We out played Bama and was up 14 at halftime. Questionable calls and allowed Bama to run away in the second half.

Then we have a Florida/Missouri game where defense is drastically behind and can’t get off the field.
 
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#33
#33
FLVOL_79 said:
CJH has the program going in the right direction, even if many here are suffering from alcohol related blindness and cant see it. For this season many, myself included, had high hopes that CJH would work a miracle with Milton. That didnt happen. The RB crew got better but the drop off in QB and WR (including injuries) was just too much to overcome. I'll save judgement for next year. If we see the same vanilla play calling with Nico then somethings up..

That being said, last years team, in my opinion, would have gone undefeated this year.
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Pretty much where I’m at. Personally miss Hyatt and Fant more than Hooker. Those two opened up the playbook that is missing this year.
 
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#34
#34
Chitlin&theDude said:
I thought this year would tell us a lot about JH. Are we catching up to GA and AL? Could we be as good or almost as good as last year? Obviously not.
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You really thought this was a defining year for UT? You're kidding, right? Here's a question. How many recruiting classes has Heupel had? And I don't count year zero.
 
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#35
#35
Fatman Photos said:
SCREW IT, FIRE EVERYONE, DROP OUT OF THE SEC AND BEAT UTC EVERY YEAR. LIFE IS GOOD. THAT MIGHT MAKE SOME OF YOU HAPPY.
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Sickening watching Buck Fama run all over utc with the announcers praising how well they looked, why don't bama play Maryville College next yr.
 
#36
#36
BigOrangeTrain said:
This is just wrong. Nothing about last year was a fluke. With a good QB this year we are probably a one loss team right now.
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Very true. My concern is that he did it with another coaches players. What I'm still waiting to see is what a roster of his recruits looks like. That's when I'll know what we have or don't have as a coach and staff. Probably sounds like a cop out, but there's no quick fix to building a roster that can compete against the ugas and bamas of the CFB world.
 
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#37
#37
With Milton at QB, plus the injuries and still lack of quality depth across the roster, this team wasn’t going to do much this year.

And as talented as Georgia is…If Milton is starting for them, they most likely have two losses, Auburn & Missouri themselves.
 
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#38
#38
CAVPUT said:
Very true. My concern is that he did it with another coaches players. What I'm still waiting to see is what a roster of his recruits looks like. That's when I'll know what we have or don't have as a coach and staff. Probably sounds like a cop out, but there's no quick fix to building a roster that can compete against the ugas and bamas of the CFB world.
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That’s not entirely accurate, he lost well over 30 players once Pruitt was fired. He had a mixed bag of former players of good and low quality from Pruitt as well as had to tap into the portal to patch up missing parts for depth and pray for the best.
 
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#40
#40
DarkVolder said:
It was a fluke last season and Hooker contributed to those 11 wins much more than Heup did. . Heup is probaly a 7 to 8 win coach long term going forward. He won big at UCF with Scott Frost’s players and he won 11 here with mostly Pruitt’s guys. He got worse at UCF after his first season.
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Same could be said for Scott Frost winning with O’Learys players. Frost didn’t translate that over to Nebraska and was fired but somehow CJH parlayed higher expectations at Tennessee in year 3.
 
#41
#41
I think year after next will “tell the tale.” Heupel still needs a few more recruiting classes. I expect 8-4 again next year with losses to UF / Bama / UGA / Oklahoma.

But if we are still stuck in year 5 with an 8 win cap . . . It’s probably what we can expect from our head coach. These 3 things will determine how it turns out (obviously):

1. Nico - he needs to be a great - not just an OK - QB. CJH will never have the overload of talent that Bama and UGA can pile up. Without a really strong QB . . . He’s not winning these big games.

2. Our defense sucks - whatever on the stats. They are comically bad on 3rd and long. And they are bad overall. If that continues . . . Not good.

3. Oline recruiting. We need an infusion of talent and development in that area fast.
 
#42
#42
Majors said:
That’s not entirely accurate, he lost well over 30 players once Pruitt was fired. He had a mixed bag of former players of good and low quality from Pruitt as well as had to tap into the portal to patch up missing parts for depth and pray for the best.
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What's not accurate? He used Pruitt's kids and transfers from other programs last year. They weren't HIS recruits. That's my point. Again, I'm talking about Heupel recruits. I want to see what a roster of kids he's evaluated, signed and developed looks like.
 
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#43
#43
BigOrangeTrain said:
This is just wrong. Nothing about last year was a fluke. With a good QB this year we are probably a one loss team right now.
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I disagree with this statement.

We were unprepared and played with no heart against Florida and Missouri. Can't put that on the QB.
Huepel got out coached by Florida, Missouri, Alabama in the 2nd half and again by Gerogia
 
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#44
#44
IMO the rich get richer and even to stay within earshot we have to stay the course. My analogy is the NIL is turning College Football into travel ball. Where you play big tournaments, and the TEAM sees a player from a so-so team, and we should see if he's interested in playing with the best. UGA had Miss States best Receiver and Missouri best and West Virginias top D back and that's just some TV highlighted. Sure, all teams can go after in a Suttle roundabout way but think of Travel ball you know before the tournament who is going to win because the best keep stealing the best from others with promises of winning and helping your future. Nobody except families of players is interested in going as fans.
 
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#47
#47
Brave Volunteer said:
As of next year college football becomes a playoff sport with them expanding it to 12 teams. Here's the reality, As long as Saban and Smart are at their respected schools, nobody is catching them in most years. They are simply recruiting in another league compared to everyone else. Our goal should be to reach that #3 team spot in the SEC. The #3 SEC team at 10-2 or 11-1 will make the playoffs in most years. That's where we should be heading.
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I'm hoping Saban just wants one more NC. Hopefully this year is it, but UGA is just soo good.
 
#50
#50
CAVPUT said:
What's not accurate? He used Pruitt's kids and transfers from other programs last year. They weren't HIS recruits. That's my point. Again, I'm talking about Heupel recruits. I want to see what a roster of kids he's evaluated, signed and developed looks like.
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Every new coach wins or losses with the fired/coach that left players. If Pruitts teams were good or if he could coach tap into them he’d still be the coach. CJH lost quality to the portal, 7 starters and gameday backups that he didn’t have. If you’re wanting his evaluations you’ll get a better idea next season.
 
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