CJH’s Blind loyalty/pure stubbornness is starting to concern me.

[Chitlin&theDude]

1) The Milton investment proved to be a bad decision. 2) Retaining Martinez proved to be a bad decision. 3) Is he able to make adjustments? Not that I've seen. 4) Can Heupel acess championship level talent and recruit it? I'm not so sure.

 

[sonofUT62]

I mean personally I'm not really concerned about our 3rd string QB next year. I'm sure we'll have someone...

Im guessing you weren’t watching games in 2000, 2004,, 2008,2010,2013,….I can go on. Also what if Nicos not ready? Then maybe the 3rd stringer is the starter.

 

[EZE]

I think its insane to see yall turn on our extremely successful headcoach for going 8-4 in a bridge year where literally EVERY credible football/sports writer, expert, magazine etc predicted that we would either go 8-4 or 9-3 before the season started.

So did about 75% of us VN posters in the poll before the season started. Maybe more actually adding those who chose 8 wins and those who chose 9...maybe 80%? 85%???

So we are EXACTLY where anyone with a good understanding of football said we would be at this time....yet every time we lose a game a small but extremely committed portion of our VN posters lose their mind like a 13yo girl pitching a hissy fit and call our Head Coach everything under the Sun. Lmao.

Who would have more wins than CJH right now, or better recruiting classes landed like our top10 class in 23 and our LOADED class committed for 24 thats madeup of 75% bluechip 4* and 5* kids....which ONLY 2 schools in the country have a higher % than our 75%... its our best class since peak Fulmers classes in prob 2001.....

Who? Who would have us in better shape? "The Legions of the Miserable" will never be happy like Majors said.

Excellent work!

 

[sonofUT62]

My observation…we have some really dumb @$$ fans.

Newsflash…we aren’t on Georgia’s level yet. And before you b!tch and moan that this is “Year 3” … it is doubtful that any team in the country is on their level right now.

We were outclassed today. No change at QB or different play calls was going to change it.

The only hope is that the recruiting slowly starts catching up. Which ain’t going to be easy because, another newsflash, Georgia’s recruiting is lights-out right now, too.

We apparently aren’t Missouri or Floridas level either.

 

[EZE]

I disagree. After what we’ve seen this year. 4 years in the portal era is enough to prove yourself

11-2 and 8-4 after the past 15 years is more than proving himself.

 

[D3Athlete]

One thing tho.
Tennessee will be 8-4 probably with inconsistencies at qb
USC will be 7-5 with a heisman qb

 

[Mccage]

Uh I don’t give a **** if he has an RS. Nico is gone in 2 years regardless

And you know this how?

 

[EZE]

We apparently aren’t Missouri or Floridas level either.

Not this year. And it ain’t the end of the world, either. If you are looking at the ping view.

Now…are there things that need to be improved? Absolutely 100%.

Our road game preparation and performance is abysmal. That must be improved.

And every position group on the roster needs to be better. Some showed flashes this season. But we weren’t consistently good anywhere.

And there are plenty of other areas for improvement.

 

[Majors]

I remember Fulmer making QB changes plenty of times lol

Even started a Freshman game 1 when he had CJ Leak and Rick Clausen.

His words, my freshman are making the same mistakes as my upperclassmen

 

[Volnbeers]

Heupel seems to be a bad decision maker and well decision making is part of the job. Like 95% of it. The other 5% being luck which apparently he was a recipient of last year. On to the next one.

 

[Majors]

1) The Milton investment proved to be a bad decision. 2) Retaining Martinez proved to be a bad decision. 3) Is he able to make adjustments? Not that I've seen. 4) Can Heupel acess championship level talent and recruit it? I'm not so sure.

Loss of Pili and loss of Hadden are now huge and key contributors to the defense struggling

 

[sonofUT62]

I think its insane to see yall turn on our extremely successful headcoach for going 8-4 in a bridge year where literally EVERY credible football/sports writer, expert, magazine etc predicted that we would either go 8-4 or 9-3 before the season started.

So did about 75% of us VN posters in the poll before the season started. Maybe more actually adding those who chose 8 wins and those who chose 9...maybe 80%? 85%???

So we are EXACTLY where anyone with a good understanding of football said we would be at this time....yet every time we lose a game a small but extremely committed portion of our VN posters lose their mind like a 13yo girl pitching a hissy fit and call our Head Coach everything under the Sun. Lmao.

Who would have more wins than CJH right now, or better recruiting classes landed like our top10 class in 23 and our LOADED class committed for 24 thats madeup of 75% bluechip 4* and 5* kids....which ONLY 2 schools in the country have a higher % than our 75%... its our best class since peak Fulmers classes in prob 2001.....

Who? Who would have us in better shape? "The Legions of the Miserable" will never be happy like Majors said.

I can’t speak for other fans. But if he had taken a QB to compete with Milton, hired a TE coach with a track record and replaced Banks with a new DC who probably would have only kept Garner, I wouldn’t have anything to say even with this record. I hate the losing but it upsets me more that he just seems lazy. That’s just my opinion.

 

[THEONLYTENISEE]

If Heupel is this scared to play Nico, I am starting to think Heupel is a scared coach. If he is truly that worried about some bad thing happening to Nico as a reason to not toss him out there, it’s very concerning.

Is he JH rattled? 55 yard FG attempt?

 

[sonofUT62]

Not this year. And it ain’t the end of the world, either. If you are looking at the ping view.

Now…are there things that need to be improved? Absolutely 100%.

Our road game preparation and performance is abysmal. That must be improved.

And every position group on the roster needs to be better. Some showed flashes this season. But we weren’t consistently good anywhere.

And there are plenty of other areas for improvement.

If he addresses them I’ll be the first one to sit down and STFU.

 

[tombowalker]

I’ve praised this coach since year 1 and think he has overachieved given the situation he walked into. And By no means am I calling for his head or anything but I’m starting to get a bad feeling in the gut. There’s no reason to keep trotting out Joe and there’s no reason Banks should still be employed. There’s no reason Wille should be employed. I’m afraid Josh is just a blindly loyal person and can’t make the hard decisions that’s needed to win in this business. This year coulda been another great year with a simple QB change maybe, maybe not. But you never tested those waters to find out. I’m afraid next year we will light it up with Nico just for a Tim Banks defense to blow a couple games for us.

I believe you're a bit delusional with the highlighted portion.

Our WR's are average at best. Our O-line is not good. Our defensive backs are even worse.

A "simple QB change" isn't fixing these issues.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

What do we have to gain by putting Nico in now? We are going to lose. If he's as good as advertised he won't need a lot of reps. Why risk a serious injury and then we're looking for a QB in the portal next year. Not to mention this is the best defense in the country.

We should be tearing up the portal for a QB and an upgrade at every position right now. Spyre needs to put up or shut up. We are not going to upgrade this program fast enough with new high school players every year. We simply can’t compete with the GA’s and AL’s of the world.

Next year’s season began earlier this year, maybe last week. A few weeks ago, I was saying “I trust Heup. If Heup thinks Nico isn’t ready, that’s good enough for me.” We are near the end of the season. Nico has earned his time on the field and he should be getting significant snaps now. I’m not going to not play a guy for fear of him getting hurt, unless it’s in garbage time and the game’s been decided.

Suppose Nico knows that he’s more capable than Joe and Nico decides to enter the portal himself? Joe is today and yesterday; Nico is tomorrow and the future. And the future seems to be right now.

Joe’s last game in Neyland is next week. Let’s play him a few series, honor him, hail him as a warrior, and then give the ball to Nico and tell him to go win the game.

OP has a legit point about Heupel’s apparent unwillingness to experiment, change, take risks, make changes, etc. The next few weeks are pivotal in his development and maturation not just as a HC but as a HC in the toughest football conference in America. This is the big leagues and we are in some challenging times; this is when championship coaches make the hard decisions and tough choices and meet the moment and the challenge. Heup has to fix things. It’s his job to fix things. It’s his job to upgrade our program all around. Starting yesterday.

I do hope that Heup is currently in private conversations with several coaches who would be upgrades over a few we have now.

These next few weeks will tell us a lot about Coach Heup. Let’s hope he steps up.

 

[Mccage]

1) The Milton investment proved to be a bad decision. 2) Retaining Martinez proved to be a bad decision. 3) Is he able to make adjustments? Not that I've seen. 4) Can Heupel acess championship level talent and recruit it? I'm not so sure.

CT

Is he JH rattled? 55 yard FG attempt?

as good as a punt

 

[Nationdom]

11-2 and 8-4 after the past 15 years is more than proving himself.

No sir

 

[Mccage]

I believe you're a bit delusional with the highlighted portion.

Our WR's are average at best. Our O-line is not good. Our defensive backs are even worse.

A "simple QB change" isn't fixing these issues.

I would say more than a bit

 

[sonofUT62]

Even started a Freshman game 1 when he had CJ Leak and Rick Clausen.

His words, my freshman are making the same mistakes as my upperclassmen

Even started a Freshman game 1 when he had CJ Leak and Rick Clausen.

His words, my freshman are making the same mistakes as my upperclassmen

Started two freshman cornerbacks that year and beat Bama/ UGA and Florida.

 

[Backwards K]

No one wants to win or has more at stake than Coach Heupel. If Nico was better, he'd get a chance. It appears as if he has not proven himself in practice. You don't hear any of the players or coaches raving about the things he has done in practice. Maybe he just isn't that good.

It would be my guess, you will see him next week and hopefully, he will prove some of you right and is the 2nd coming of Peyton Manning and Heath Shuler all rolled into one. To date, I haven't seen or heard anything that would make me think he is the answer this year....

Heupel has built successful QBs everywhere he has been. I trust his opinion over guys that have never played an organized sport above little league.

 

[Majors]

I believe you're a bit delusional with the highlighted portion.

Our WR's are average at best. Our O-line is not good. Our defensive backs are even worse.

A "simple QB change" isn't fixing these issues.

Cannot say enough that we have backups at WR trying to be starters. Our 4-6 from last year are now 1-3. As much as we don’t have a Hyatt, we are drastically missing Fant.

 

[VolRage]

What do we have to gain by putting Nico in now? We are going to lose. If he's as good as advertised he won't need a lot of reps. Why risk a serious injury and then we're looking for a QB in the portal next year. Not to mention this is the best defense in the country.

Good lord, players get hurt. It’s part of the game. Nico could get hurt next year too so should he just sit on the bench for the next 3 years. I just don’t understand this chicken sheet mentality.

 

[AthensVol2007]

What do we have to gain by putting Nico in now? We are going to lose. If he's as good as advertised he won't need a lot of reps. Why risk a serious injury and then we're looking for a QB in the portal next year. Not to mention this is the best defense in the country.

Why is he going to get hurt? I’m so tired of reading this; he’s not a 7 yr old girl. Why might he get hurt but not Joe? If he gets hurt, then you have Joe to go in. If Joe gets hurt you have Nico to go in; literally the same scenario.

 

[stillwater5]

Heupel got lucky with Hendon Hooker. He did not even start him to begin with. No HH then we would be calling for Heupel's head.

I remember watching the Jim Rome show after Tn hired Heupel and Rome said that Tn got this hire right because Heupel is not just smart he is scary smart, yes he is scary alright. Ride that horse till he drops.