Bama, Georgia and everyone else.

[vegasvolfan]

Was thinking the same thing. Our D is as good as both teams and our offense hasn’t got even close to its potential. Our schedule is pretty favorable as well. We might just be tier 1 as well.

Our offense hasn’t got close to its potential… so we just imagine ourselves into a better team?

 

[hUTch2002]

What a game.

Georgia wins this game by a larger margin in Athens.

We are now seeing the best at this point in the season of GA and Bama, and I haven’t seen a team that can hang with this.

Either way, same ole same ole.

I think this is what we expected,

Albeit, when you consider what we have seen so far, the margin is smaller.

I expect to see more separation between these two from the rest of the pack as well as between the tier 2 teams to create a 5th tier.

I think TX will either join Bama and Georgia, or join some teams in tier 2 that separate themselves from the rest.

As of now, I think you have to put a lot of teams in tier 2.

Tier 1 = Bama, Georgia

Tier 2 = LSU, SC, KY, Ole Miss, Tennessee, TX

Tier 3 = TA&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri

Tier 4 = Miss St, Auburn

Tennessee has a heck of a challenge ahead of itself.. I think we have been a little high on ourselves considering the stats we have put up and the competition we have faced so far.

Tennessee has to get a LOT better. I also think this bye week, while early, came at a very good time.

If we stay healthy and get better… who knows? But as of now, it seems we may be a big step away from beating GA or Alabama.

You definitely can’t say we’re in the same tier as Ole Miss right now. we won our toughest game of the year on the road at OU. Ole Miss lost theirs at home. OU and UK and comparable teams too.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Dude yes. Our fans need to realize we are good! We can hang and beat anyone. This “it’s over for the us before we start,” mindset is weak. Cmon mannnnnnnn

It’s over for us was never said. Right now those two teams are the best. We have to get better. Especially on OL. Some teams do and some don’t.

 

[rjd970]

Both of those teams trounce TN if we play that game right now.

What is this based on? We’ve done exactly what we were supposed to up to this point. Can you point to anything that we could have done different to say they wouldn’t trounce us today?

I’m not disagreeing just genuinely wondering if this is based on anything objective.

 

[vegasvolfan]

I've seen us beat an overrated Oklahoma team, that's about it. We're not tier one, yet.

Somwone seems to get it. That same overrated team struggled with Auburn. Also, NC St was destroyed by Clemson who was destroyed by Georgia.

 

[LittleVol]

What a game.

Georgia wins this game by a larger margin in Athens.

We are now seeing the best at this point in the season of GA and Bama, and I haven’t seen a team that can hang with this.

Either way, same ole same ole.

I think this is what we expected,

Albeit, when you consider what we have seen so far, the margin is smaller.

I expect to see more separation between these two from the rest of the pack as well as between the tier 2 teams to create a 5th tier.

I think TX will either join Bama and Georgia, or join some teams in tier 2 that separate themselves from the rest.

As of now, I think you have to put a lot of teams in tier 2.

Tier 1 = Bama, Georgia

Tier 2 = LSU, SC, KY, Ole Miss, Tennessee, TX

Tier 3 = TA&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Vanderbilt, Missouri

Tier 4 = Miss St, Auburn

Tennessee has a heck of a challenge ahead of itself.. I think we have been a little high on ourselves considering the stats we have put up and the competition we have faced so far.

Tennessee has to get a LOT better. I also think this bye week, while early, came at a very good time.

If we stay healthy and get better… who knows? But as of now, it seems we may be a big step away from beating GA or Alabama.

Where’s the analysis to back ANY of this up?
NC State beat North Illinois and supposed “G5” darling of 2024 yesterday. Oklahoma won too.

Our offense and Defense is ranked ahead of BOTH of theirs.

I mean did you honestly just make these statements because Tennessee wasn’t playing yesterday or something??

Texas and Tennessee are just as good as either of those teams if not better!

Georgia can’t generate 1st down from the QB run like they had with Stetson Bennett, nor do they have a game breaker on offense.

Alabama looks good but they’re not “deep” surprisingly… Ryan Williams adds that extra dimension of stretching the field while Milroe is a faster Jalen Hurts being a true DT QB.

Tennessee DLine will handle both, and neither defense has an answer for Nico and our many weapons on offense.

 

[vegasvolfan]

On the road with both starting tackles down. We could have won by more

Injuries happen. Depth makes better team. Both Bama and Georgia have that. We don’t yet, and we just lost our best OL commit we have had in years to Oregon.

 

[McDad]

Injuries happen. Depth makes better team. Both Bama and Georgia have that. We don’t yet, and we just lost our best OL commit we have had in years to Oregon.

Wrong.

David Sanders says, hello.

 

[vegasvolfan]

My goodness our fanbase drinks the kool-aid like no other.
Solid post, OP.

Thanks chief. I fully expected these responses. I’m typically right. Note, I said we had to get better. This is current and accurate in my opinion based on what I have seen.

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

It’s over for us was never said. Right now those two teams are the best. We have to get better. Especially on OL. Some teams do and some don’t.

I completely agree with this take. I'm not sure if the Vols are/aren't in the same class as bama, Georgia and Texas. Through no fault of its' own, TN's opponents have been poor to average at best. The Nico we fawned over against UTC has come back down to earth and the OL is a valid concern. None of the teams have put up a challenge for the defense. That will change. Must take care of Arkansas and Florida with little drama if we're going to compete with AL & GA.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Bama had a defensive meltdown worthy of John Chavis. Their secondary is athletic but very young and undisciplined. Milroe carries them. UGA's defense is nowhere near as good as it has been in the past. We have a stronger front 7, and a better oline to protect Nico. Our WRs will create mismatches. We've got Donte, Bru, and Brazell. That's 6'4, 6'3, and 6'5. Good luck to these secondaries trying to shut them down.

We will have to beat both of them through the air as I don't think you can run all over them traditionally. Nico will need to run and throw.

Either team will never give Nico the time to throw if our OL plays like they did against the defense that allowed Auburn to hang 24 on it.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Bama had a defensive meltdown worthy of John Chavis. Their secondary is athletic but very young and undisciplined. Milroe carries them. UGA's defense is nowhere near as good as it has been in the past. We have a stronger front 7, and a better oline to protect Nico. Our WRs will create mismatches. We've got Donte, Bru, and Brazell. That's 6'4, 6'3, and 6'5. Good luck to these secondaries trying to shut them down.

We will have to beat both of them through the air as I don't think you can run all over them traditionally. Nico will need to run and throw.

Delete. Duplicate response.

 

[vegasvolfan]

I completely agree with this take. I'm not sure if the Vols are/aren't in the same class as bama, Georgia and Texas. Through no fault of its' own, TN's opponents have been poor to average at best. The Nico we fawned over against UTC has come back down to earth and the OL is a valid concern. None of the teams have put up a challenge for the defense. That will change. Must take care of Arkansas and Florida with little drama if we're going to compete with AL & GA.

100%. I think it’s all on the OL. It will be two years in a row the OL is a problem and if our D holds up, fans may be wanting another OL coach. We just lost Utu to Oregon.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Some folks mean well they just can’t get defeat out their head. But that’s what makes us a Vo family. We gotta lift each other up!

Who counted anyone out? And the Vols family gets overhyped every year. Some of us in the familu, who grew up in Knoxville and also went to school there, know what we see at this point in the year. As I said, WE HAVE TO GET BETTER. ESPECIALLY ON OL, or these two teams take us to the woodshed. Nothing we have done and no team we have played has showed us otherwise. NC ST was destroyed by Clemson who was destroyed by Georrgia.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Call it BVS all you want, but I saw speed, size, and athleticism on both sides of the ball last night that, frankly, we don't have an abundance of yet. I agree with the OP that we are currently in that "Tier 2" list of teams from a talent standpoint but I dont agree with some of his other teams in those categories. Right now I would list it this way...

Tier 1:
Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas.

Tier 2;
Tennessee, Penn State, Ole Miss, Miami, Oregon, Clemson, USC, Notre Dame, Michigan.

 

[Rockytopoftheworld]

I don’t think we are as good as Alabama or Georgia yet. It all depends on Nico’s ability to develop as the season goes along, and our offensive line health.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Wrong.

David Sanders says, hello.

Wrong in your alternate reality universe

 

[TartanTurff]

Watching Georgia and Alabama and their own struggles on offense as well as defense, some of which were self-inflicted, 10 or 11 wins is a distinct possibility for Tennessee, particularly if they continue to improve as the season progresses, with a lighter road schedule now that the Oklahoma game is in the rear view mirror.

The UT athletic department is already looking at ticketing plans for hosting a first round playoff game for their season ticket holders.

Alabama is still a Saban stocked team with plenty of talented sophomores and juniors on the field, the true freshman guys on the field were all Saban offer and commits and fully met his recruiting specs, this time last year Ryan Williams was catching passes down at his Mobile Saraland high school, a can't miss phenomenal talent and Zabian Brown was solid consensus five star coming out of Mater Dei in Orange County, California who chose Alabama over Georgia, Ohio State as well as USC up the road. Will be interesting to see if DeBoer can hang on to the talent pipeline and following assembled by Saban.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Call it BVS all you want, but I saw speed, size, and athleticism on both sides of the ball last night that, frankly, we don't have an abundance of yet. I agree with the OP that we are currently in that "Tier 2" list of teams from a talent standpoint but I dont agree with some of his other teams in those categories. Right now I would list it this way...

Tier 1:
Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Texas.

Tier 2;
Tennessee, Penn State, Ole Miss, Miami, Oregon, Clemson, USC, Notre Dame, Michigan.

I was speaking about the SEC. How would you recat that one? Curious.

 

[vegasvolfan]

I don’t think we are as good as Alabama or Georgia yet. It all depends on Nico’s ability to develop as the season goes along, and our offensive line health.

It isn’t Nico as much as it is our OL. They didn’t give Nico time and they didn’t open up holes.

 

[Dobbs 4 Heisman]

Our #1 defense is a result of four very poor offenses we’ve played with OU being the best we’ve seen. Our D line and linebacker corp is solid. We still don’t know all that much about our secondary until we see them up against a real offense. OU offense is far below what we’re going to see when Alabama rolls in here. Georgia for that matter, too. Milroe is an enormous problem for any defense, throwing or running. Arkansas will likely tell us more about we have or don’t have than Florida will.

Alabama and Georgia also played weak teams for the first 3 games of the season and neither were holding their opponents to as many yards of total offense as we were. You can talk level of competition all you want however the fact remains we dominated that weak competition more than other teams when they played that same weak competition. For example, we hammered Kent State 65-0 in the first half with our backups playing most of the second quarter while Penn State was only up 14-0 against Kent State with 1:30 left in the first half with their starters still in. We also only gave up 10 points to NC State in a nuetral site while Clemson gave up 35 points to them at home.

You can only play who is on your schedule and we've handled our competition in a more dominant manner than similarly suited teams have done with the same teams we've faced.

 

[Dobbs 4 Heisman]

Both of those teams trounce TN if we play that game right now.

Actually the opposite would happen. We'd trounce both cause we actually play defense like they used to. They're playing like the 2022 Vols while we're playing like 2022 Georgia.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Where’s the analysis to back ANY of this up?
NC State beat North Illinois and supposed “G5” darling of 2024 yesterday. Oklahoma won too.

Our offense and Defense is ranked ahead of BOTH of theirs. View attachment 681918View attachment 681919

I mean did you honestly just make these statements because Tennessee wasn’t playing yesterday or something??

Texas and Tennessee are just as good as either of those teams if not better!

Georgia can’t generate 1st down from the QB run like they had with Stetson Bennett, nor do they have a game breaker on offense.

Alabama looks good but they’re not “deep” surprisingly… Ryan Williams adds that extra dimension of stretching the field while Milroe is a faster Jalen Hurts being a true DT QB.

Tennessee DLine will handle both, and neither defense has an answer for Nico and our many weapons on offense.

Both teams have an answer for our OL. I think Nico is still as good as billed. Some are blaming Nico’s low stats on him. OL is the problem once again.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Alabama and Georgia also played weak teams for the first 3 games of the season and neither were holding their opponents to as many yards of total offense as we were. You can talk level of competition all you want however the fact remains we dominated that weak competition more than other teams when they played that same weak competition. For example, we hammered Kent State 65-0 in the first half with our backups playing most of the second quarter while Penn State was only up 14-0 against Kent State with 1:30 left in the first half with their starters still in. We also only gave up 10 points to NC State in a nuetral site while Clemson gave up 35 points to them at home.

You can only play who is on your schedule and we've handled our competition in a more dominant manner than similarly suited teams have done with the same teams we've faced.

Georgia destroyed Clemson who destroyed NC St. They are much better than any team we faced. And they played each other. OK squeaked by Auburn. We haven’t faced anything like these two teams. They will beat us badly if we don’t improve drastically at OL.

 

[vegasvolfan]

Actually the opposite would happen. We'd trounce both cause we actually play defense like they used to. They're playing like the 2022 Vols while we're playing like 2022 Georgia.

Simply great comedy.