Expectations for the 2025 Season and ESPN direspect.

#101
#101
Mullet Vol said:
I just don’t understand putting Bama third. They have no QB and Deboer looked like a deer in headlights all season long. Half the state of Alabama wants him fired right now. He’ll be a dead man walking by mid season.

Also, don’t understand the Tennessee hate. You said Tennessee overachieved last year. I say they underachieved. Lost a game they shouldn’t have. Should have finished 11-1.
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The 1,2,3 is where they finished in recruiting this year. Top three classes which is why I said they aren’t going away.

Not hate at all. My assessment of the season and next season. They could have lost several games they won just like they could have won Arky. How many wins came down to last five minutes?
 
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#103
#103
Hulavol said:
Winning on the road in this league is incredibly difficult- and hate to point out the obvious- but both of those teams have as much if not more talent returning than we do- 8 and 4 is not a bad season with what we’ve got this year. Nor is it a step backwards- in ‘26 we are looking at having an NC contender team.
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Sorry don’t buy it. We should be able to beat both UF and Bama on the road. I know about the history with UF. But at some point that excuse has to be gone. 8-4 is not a horrible season but UFs a step backward giving what we have coming back.
 
#110
#110
We regress. 8-9 wins is our ceiling. Our o line isn't likely to improve. Likely the exact same thing as this year. D should take a step back. It's logical to assume based on last year. Our running game is going to be a steep drop off. Again, logical based on the performance last year. Hopefully Nico and the receivers get on the same page to compensate. But across the board, I don't see top 15 talent. On paper we have it. It's not showing up on game day. Blame whoever you want, but that's the truth. We can drop GA, AL, and FL and have a respectable season. But the truth is we drop a "WTF?" game every year.
Alabama and FL are winnable games, despite being away games.What we need is the unexpected players to show out. It's completely within the realm of possibility. Hooker did it. Hyatt did it. We have higher caliber players on paper than they were on our team that are under performing. They show up big and we could be a 1 loss team going into the playoffs.
 
#111
#111
LWSVOL said:
The 1,2,3 is where they finished in recruiting this year. Top three classes which is why I said they aren’t going away.

Not hate at all. My assessment of the season and next season. They could have lost several games they won just like they could have won Arky. How many wins came down to last five minutes?
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Recruiting rankings don’t mean nearly as much as they used to before the transfer portal. Their entire 2025 class could transfer out after this season. DeBoer walked into a no win situation. They finish 8-4 at best next year.
 
#112
#112
Mullet Vol said:
Recruiting rankings don’t mean nearly as much as they used to before the transfer portal. Their entire 2025 class could transfer out after this season. DeBoer walked into a no win situation. They finish 8-4 at best next year.
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that's true for every program... SEC classes from 2023 signing period are leaving fast. That is what makes predicting the next season for any team hard to do. Heck, teams could lose 5-10 more players to the portal in April and many will.

Bama signed 28 / 13 gone
Arkansas 23 / 17 gone
auburn 22 / 7 gone
Florida 22 / 7 gone
Georgia 26 / 10 gone
kentucky 19 / 11 gone
LSU 26 / 15 gone
Ole Miss 16 / 6 gone
miss st 27 / 21 gone
Missouri 19 / 4 gone
oklahoma 26 / 15 gone
S Carolina 24 / 13 gone
Tennessee 25 / 10 gone (exactly why UT is so young 55 of our 83 scholarships are under classmen)
Texas 25 / 7
Texas A&M 19 / 8
Vandy 22 /8

BTW, hope you're right on Bama.
 
#115
#115
Nicovfl8 said:
Tell me what threat we have at WR? None.
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You sound upset. I would have like to have gotten Branch or Tate, but I’m not concerned about replacing any of the guys we are replacing with the talent on the roster and the talent coming in. Actually looking forward to seeing what Matthews, Staley, Jefferson and Boo can do. And Brazzell is no slouch.
 
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#117
#117
LWSVOL said:
that's true for every program... SEC classes from 2023 signing period are leaving fast. That is what makes predicting the next season for any team hard to do. Heck, teams could lose 5-10 more players to the portal in April and many will.

Bama signed 28 / 13 gone
Arkansas 23 / 17 gone
auburn 22 / 7 gone
Florida 22 / 7 gone
Georgia 26 / 10 gone
kentucky 19 / 11 gone
LSU 26 / 15 gone
Ole Miss 16 / 6 gone
miss st 27 / 21 gone
Missouri 19 / 4 gone
oklahoma 26 / 15 gone
S Carolina 24 / 13 gone
Tennessee 25 / 10 gone (exactly why UT is so young 55 of our 83 scholarships are under classmen)
Texas 25 / 7
Texas A&M 19 / 8
Vandy 22 /8

BTW, hope you're right on Bama.
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This right here is why we need the portal to be sure things. We have to buy time. As we saw in the NC game, experience and age does matter and we are still a year away age wise.
 
#118
#118
bpalmer28 said:
You sound upset. I would have like to have gotten Branch or Tate, but I’m not concerned about replacing any of the guys we are replacing with the talent on the roster and the talent coming in. Actually looking forward to seeing what Matthews, Staley, Jefferson and Boo can do. And Brazzell is no slouch.
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Yes I know and not upset, just hoping we can make strides there and not go backwards lol
 
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#119
#119
Nicovfl8 said:
Yes I know and not upset, just hoping we can make strides there and not go backwards lol
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Me too! If we have been recruiting good players, we shouldn't take a step back, and I think we've been recruiting good players.

Of our top 5 leading receivers last season, we got 4 from the portal. For this program to take the next step, the 4-star and 5-star WRs we've signed have to show up to the party. It's fair to be concerned that we don't have much experience returning, but that doesn't make our talent any less capable of making plays, and how will they ever get experience if we continue replacing starters with portal players?
 
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#120
#120
bpalmer28 said:
Me too! If we have been recruiting good players, we shouldn't take a step back, and I think we've been recruiting good players.

Of our top 5 leading receivers last season, we got 4 from the portal. For this program to take the next step, the 4-star and 5-star WRs we've signing have to show up to the party. It's fair to be concerned that we don't have much experience returning, but that doesn't make our talent any less capable of making plays, and how will they ever get experience if we continue replacing starters with portal players?
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they won't. But the expectation while they gain that experience should be to expect lots of mistakes. See Nico 2024. JMO
 
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#121
#121
bpalmer28 said:
Me too! If we have been recruiting good players, we shouldn't take a step back, and I think we've been recruiting good players.

Of our top 5 leading receivers last season, we got 4 from the portal. For this program to take the next step, the 4-star and 5-star WRs we've signed have to show up to the party. It's fair to be concerned that we don't have much experience returning, but that doesn't make our talent any less capable of making plays, and how will they ever get experience if we continue replacing starters with portal players?
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Spot on, In my opinion, still everything goes back to recruiting.
 
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#125
#125
I don't think we regress a lot but the chances we are a better team this season than last are very unlikely. We lost a lot of talent to graduation and depth to the portal.

The guys we lost to the portal almost all went to D1 and even P4 programs. This is not the past when guys transferred out to go to UT Martin to get playing time. These guys are transferring out to the BIg10 and ACC. The sheer amount of guys we lost in the WR room is insane. Hate on them as much as you want but pretty much all of them proved they can play at the SEC level. We are left with Brazzell and a bunch of prospects. Talented heck yeah.. but we have 0 idea what they are capable of. Losing Dylan Sampson is massive... but we have two somewhat proven guys in that spot though not a lot behind them but hopes and dreams. That should be the motto of this years team. Hopes and Dreams. If all of these guys pan out and a few overperform we are a playoff team. If not we win 8-9 games.

The good part is we bring back most of our defense and at worst they are likely to be pretty good. That bodes very well for us being able to pull off an upset in Gainesville. Make no mistake the team we see this year down there wont be as bad as any we have seen recently and the fact we swapped the UGA and FL games on the schedule sucks. I would much rather get to Florida early than late. UGA is an L. Bama likely an L. Look at what Williams and the Bama passing offense did with Milroe behind center... he (Williams) is a year older they have more talent in the WR room and now they can trot anyone out there at QB and he's gonna look good. Milroe is Vince Young 2.0 Diet Lite.

9-3 give or take a game. I think we beat Florida and lose a random one we shouldn't like we always do. Thats not even a UT thing. It seems all SEC teams tend to lose one weird one each year.
 
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