Would you still? FTR, I believe Sampson does have a better 40 time than Hurd or Kamara did. Seldon supposedly ran a 10.4 100m in HS. That is also faster than Hurd or Kamara.
UT's D isn't as good as Michigan's. That is still as true today as it was when you wrote it. However without the yardage put up by your back up QB in trash time... UT would have held your O to less yardage than Michigan did. Three teams shut you out this year. PSU and Michigan are the other two. That's pretty good company for a D missing a lot of starters from the season. Bright outlook for the Vols on D though.
Actually, I am as impressed as I thought I would be. Your D has some studs. The two LBs were pretty much the only thing that kept the Vols from making it a complete laugher. The problem is all the players around them vs the players UT had across the LOS.
Having stars surrounded by role players who are more or less on par with the typical B1G West opponent works in those games.
I don't hate Iowa at all. I live in MO and work for a company with several locations in Iowa. I have a lot of friends in Iowa because of it. I really love the people I've met in Iowa. To be honest, the reputation of the U of Iowa as Chicago West University makes me favor ISU more... but I like Iowa. The problem for schools across the Midwest is homegrown talent. There isn't enough and definitely not enough to go around. Missouri has started producing more talent but it is typically going to Mizzou or another SEC school. The Chicago City schools do not produce the talent you'd expect. The suburbs produce some talent but again not enough. The Twin Cities produces some talent. But competing for those guys you have Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, ISU, Illinois, ND, Michigan, MSU, Purdue, Indiana,...
That leaves you looking for scraps in FL, GA, TX, and CA. That's just not a formula to make you competitive in a game like this one or an opponent like UT.
