If this is the beginning of the end of Heupel at Tennessee—his executive decision to continue to play Joe Milton in 2023 is what prevented a breakout

#151
#151
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Love Josh Heupel. He’s done some great things for us. Couple of head scratching decisions. The biggest one being—not having Nico ready to roll in 2023.

Joe Milton was never a major starting QB. Michigan saw it right away. He has great tools, a great young man, and a great teammate.

But the way this season played out is precisely why he should have had Nico hitting the field as early as possible.

Nico played his ass off against Ohio state but it was obvious he wasn’t ready for game speed for much of this season.

don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but next year won’t be a playoff year. And then we have no idea what our schedule will look like the following year, but I think it’s going to get more difficult to recruit and this may be the high water mark of Heupel as our head coach.

I hope it’s not. But it’s going to be difficult to get back to where we were this year.

Fun year. Proud we made the playoffs. Should have had Nico ready for rush run after it was obvious Joe Milton wasn’t the guy. Instead we rode Milton for the entire 2023 season and missed the opportunity to really make progress in 2024.
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No
 
#153
#153
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Love Josh Heupel. He’s done some great things for us. Couple of head scratching decisions. The biggest one being—not having Nico ready to roll in 2023.

Joe Milton was never a major starting QB. Michigan saw it right away. He has great tools, a great young man, and a great teammate.

But the way this season played out is precisely why he should have had Nico hitting the field as early as possible.

Nico played his ass off against Ohio state but it was obvious he wasn’t ready for game speed for much of this season.

don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but next year won’t be a playoff year. And then we have no idea what our schedule will look like the following year, but I think it’s going to get more difficult to recruit and this may be the high water mark of Heupel as our head coach.

I hope it’s not. But it’s going to be difficult to get back to where we were this year.

Fun year. Proud we made the playoffs. Should have had Nico ready for rush run after it was obvious Joe Milton wasn’t the guy. Instead we rode Milton for the entire 2023 season and missed the opportunity to really make progress in 2024.
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If you look back over the years, UT has never given any meaningful game snaps to our backups. Especially the QB position.
We're gonna be in that same boat next year because we have Nico and 2 freshmen behind him. Buckle up buttercups because it's probably gonna be rocky ride on Rocky Top next year.
 
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#154
#154
volfeeva said:
There was a whole lot of us on this forum calling for Nico to play last year once we lost games early and was pretty much out of NC contention. There was no rationale for keep playing Milton except we were told JH was "loyal " to JM. And many of us on the forum predicted that Nico's lack of playing would be a negative this year and it certainly has.
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Some of us wanted the playoffs. When that became unrealistic, we wanted the SEC championship. When East became unrealistic, we wanted a NY6 bowl. When that became unrealistic we wanted the best bowl left, the Citrus Bowl. Our rich history means a lot more than CFP or bust to many of us.

We would have been a laughing stock if we started tanking at 5-2 after the bama loss took us out the cfp, or if we benched Milton for Nico at 7-3 after the Mizzou loss took us out of the East Division race. All that would have done is wave an embaressing flag to the cfb world saying "we hope we can compete against elite teams next year". No chance that could affect recruiting or perception......

Heck, Georgia might have damaged Nico like FL did Peterman. Milton had a slightly better stat line in 23 than Nico this year, so I find it a tough sell that Nico was the better option to win in 23 than Milton. I can't prove Nico wasn't ready and could have been damaged by playing too soon anymore than you can prove he was ready and would have improved.

We didn’t build our history by tanking when we were out of natty contention. We built it by demanding the most every year. We didn't bench Jeff Francis for Andy Kelly after we started 0-6 in 1988.
 
#156
#156
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Love Josh Heupel. He’s done some great things for us. Couple of head scratching decisions. The biggest one being—not having Nico ready to roll in 2023.

Joe Milton was never a major starting QB. Michigan saw it right away. He has great tools, a great young man, and a great teammate.

But the way this season played out is precisely why he should have had Nico hitting the field as early as possible.

Nico played his ass off against Ohio state but it was obvious he wasn’t ready for game speed for much of this season.

don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but next year won’t be a playoff year. And then we have no idea what our schedule will look like the following year, but I think it’s going to get more difficult to recruit and this may be the high water mark of Heupel as our head coach.

I hope it’s not. But it’s going to be difficult to get back to where we were this year.

Fun year. Proud we made the playoffs. Should have had Nico ready for rush run after it was obvious Joe Milton wasn’t the guy. Instead we rode Milton for the entire 2023 season and missed the opportunity to really make progress in 2024.
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Not sure Nico will ever be ready, he looks to have a lot of the same issues Joe did.
 
#157
#157
Golfprovol said:
We do not have a coach problem, a system problem, a predictability problem. What we do have is a QB problem. I have explained it a few times in other threads that the QB this year was the issue. Not that Nico is bad or wont be the guy we want him to be, but this year he could not process information fast enough. Same with Joe. Our offense is built to go fast, there is no misdirection, no motion, nothing to move the eyes of the defense. It is made to be fast, so fast that defenses have to mainly play a base.

Our offense slowed down the last 2 years because our QB's could not process what the defense quick enough. This gave the defense time to see our formation and adjust. Nico had predetermined receives to throw the ball to and we ran simple plays because of his processing time and the OL.

When Hendon was here he was a 5th year QB, he could process the information quickly and get us into the right formation and get the ball snapped quick. We ran the same plays then as now, the defense just did not have time to adjust or get lined up correctly.

Think about when Hendon got to the red zone, we slowed down and scoring became much more difficult. In 2022 we were much more deadly from the 40 than we were from the 15.

If Nico gets quicker, our pace gets quicker, and teams will not be able to adjust. 2022 Georgia was 27-13 with a defensive secondary built in the image of a high school team.

If we get Nico to read the defense quicker, or go to someone who can, then we will speed up and these conversations can go away.
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From what I have seen so far Nico is not going to be the next Hendon Hooker. He has the same issues Joe did and hasn't gotten better the entire year. Indecision, starring down receivers, pocket panic and inaccurate throws to wide open receivers are a bad harbinger of the future. I hope he improves but he is two years into the program and so was Joe when he came to Tennessee from Michigan.
 
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#159
#159
CPVOL said:
We’ve been on both sides of the tracks. I like it on this side better. IMO, with what CJH has done in 4 years has earned him the grace to keep working to get it right. The balls in his court though, and he has to be wise enough to see what there can be versus what he has. I really am proud of the team though. To win 10 games in the SEC with what we seen Sat night deserves an Emmy. I want to win to the point that it’s not healthy, but I dang sure don’t want to relive pre-Heupel & post Fulmer ever, ever again.
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I really don’t think anyone understands the opportunity we had this year. We were literally a playoff team with an elite front 7.

My point is that we shouldn’t have wasted time on Milton when we should have been prepping Nico for this season.
Jackcrevol said:
Very dramatic
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You’re the one asking for the teacher to help…
pimo1 said:
Boy they smoking some good stuff somewhere.... where do people come up with this crap? Not playing Milton last year would affect this season how? It would stop our WR's this year from getting hurt and dropping balls? It would have miraculously cured the turnstile at RT?

We won 10 freaking games guys....

You ask anyone preseason even the nuttiest nuts.. and you tell them we go 10-2 regular season (WIth wins vs Bama and Florida) and make playoffs they are sold.
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just say you don’t have the ability to think outside of what you see directly in front of your face and be silent.
 
#160
#160
JMSqb11 said:
All I know is when people say there is regression, there is a simple way to see if the data backs up that claim.... The 2024 season was an improvement over the 2023 season.... The program is currently in the midst of trending up
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Opportunity is fleeting. We had an opportunity this year to get over the hump. Next year we’re losing a lot. I don’t want to hear incessant complaining when it’s a surprise to all the low functioning folk that can’t see what is about to happen.

We should have had Nico ready this year and we had that opportunity to do that in 2023, and it was obvious. I have a post saying that we should have had Nico ready by Florida last year. I’m not paid millions of dollars to make those common sense decisions tho. Maybe I should be. Instead I spend thousands of dollars watching my Alma mater get whipped when they didn’t have to if Heupel just maximized the team’s potential by getting the QB of 2024 reps when it was obvious we had nothing going for 2023.

The opportunity was this year. Next year will be rough. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I will be. And I won’t be as disappointed because I see what is coming. As I said, if this is the beginning of the end of Heupel at Tennessee—it was his own doing by not getting Milton on the bench and getting Nico reps in 2023. My post history backs up what I’m saying. Lot of people here didn’t understand the move in 2023. But it was obviously the correct one as of right now.
 
#162
#162
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Bet if I go through your post history you’d be sitting there saying no one should critique Guarantano for 3 years of sub par Qb play…..we did the same thing with Milton and had Hooker and Nico on the bench behind a player that made our team play worse with him on the field for the duration of his time as QB1.

It’s not personal with Hooker or Guarantano. But if you have someone like Nathan Peterman starting games consistently, you’re not going to have a winning program.
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“I’m going to make up a thing you did, then insinuate that said made up thing you did was stupid, then make some other arbitrary statements, in a weird attempt to marginalize your statement that some of us are insane, unironically.”
 
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#163
#163
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
I really don’t think anyone understands the opportunity we had this year. We were literally a playoff team with an elite front 7.

My point is that we shouldn’t have wasted time on Milton when we should have been prepping Nico for this season.

You’re the one asking for the teacher to help…

just say you don’t have the ability to think outside of what you see directly in front of your face and be silent.
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Merry Christmas.

(Welcome to my ignore list, Sir).
 
#164
#164
rumaso11 said:
From what I have seen so far Nico is not going to be the next Hendon Hooker. He has the same issues Joe did and hasn't gotten better the entire year. Indecision, starring down receivers, pocket panic and inaccurate throws to wide open receivers are a bad harbinger of the future. I hope he improves but he is two years into the program and so was Joe when he came to Tennessee from Michigan.
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Nico got us to the playoffs with less talent. Hooker well, different rules but didn’t get it done. So, yes he won’t be the next Hooker as he already surpassed what Hooker achieved as QB1 as a R-Fr.
 
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#165
#165
It's weird how entitled VolNation posters are considering the spot they were in for 20+ years. A bad loss to a team that has 30 five stars vs a team that probably doesn't have 10 warrants an unsuccessful season to these guys. A 10 win season is very successful, especially when you play Bama, Georgia, and Florida every year.
 
#168
#168
Mccage said:
Yeah Joes processing all the way to the bank
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At first I thought OP was just having a typical overreaction after our momentous letdown against OSU. Now I can't tell if he's trolling or if this is a serious case of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I can't rule out incredibly stupid, either. Maybe I've previously earned a spot on OP's block list, but he's avoided stuff that doesn't fit his narrative from a few other's besides myself in this thread. Avoiding stuff, like tanking a season playing an unproven true FR over an upperclassman would inevitably cause fallout and damage to our culture. Maybe OP's just never played a team sport and can't understand team dynamics and chemistry.
 
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#169
#169
vik said:
Milton did fine. With Milton at QB in 2023, with the exception of a mystifying loss at Florida, we beat who we were supposed to beat, and got beat by who we were supposed to get beat by. Nico QB'd his own mystifying loss at Arkansas in 2024, and no less than Hendon Hooker himself QB'd a mystifying loss at South Carolina in 2022.

Nico wasn't ready to be the starting QB in 2023, and spent a decent chunk of last season injured.
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Issue wasn't just getting beat but how we got beat. Missouri was a horrible loss in 2023 and Georgia wasn't great.

There is a difference between losing by 7-14 points or getting blown out and NOT being competitive. This is why people are upset about Ohio State, not necessarily losing to them but how we lost to them.
 
#170
#170
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Opportunity is fleeting. We had an opportunity this year to get over the hump. Next year we’re losing a lot. I don’t want to hear incessant complaining when it’s a surprise to all the low functioning folk that can’t see what is about to happen.

We should have had Nico ready this year and we had that opportunity to do that in 2023, and it was obvious. I have a post saying that we should have had Nico ready by Florida last year. I’m not paid millions of dollars to make those common sense decisions tho. Maybe I should be. Instead I spend thousands of dollars watching my Alma mater get whipped when they didn’t have to if Heupel just maximized the team’s potential by getting the QB of 2024 reps when it was obvious we had nothing going for 2023.

The opportunity was this year. Next year will be rough. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I will be. And I won’t be as disappointed because I see what is coming. As I said, if this is the beginning of the end of Heupel at Tennessee—it was his own doing by not getting Milton on the bench and getting Nico reps in 2023. My post history backs up what I’m saying. Lot of people here didn’t understand the move in 2023. But it was obviously the correct one as of right now.
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I'm absolutely sure you are seeing things better than Heupel. You are in the wrong line of work 😯
 
#171
#171
TartanTurff said:
Sticking with Joe created a bit of a log jam at the QB slot as Nico probably won't be NFL ready next year, may not be adequately developed next year for regular competitive SEC play, McIntyre is on campus going through practices, with that super quick release, he will not sit idlely by while the Nico experiment goes into 2026 and Faizon Brandon is not coming to Tennessee to wait on anybody, but all trains are running behind while we let Joe do the 8-4 stint in 2023, the tempo on the field is one thing, train wrecking talent sequencing is another, if talent doesn't see the field, there is a well oiled portal and megadollars to help second string quarterbacks see somebody's field
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What makes you think that team is better than 8-4 with Nico playing qb?
 
#172
#172
WhenUrVolUrVFL said:
Love Josh Heupel. He’s done some great things for us. Couple of head scratching decisions. The biggest one being—not having Nico ready to roll in 2023.

Joe Milton was never a major starting QB. Michigan saw it right away. He has great tools, a great young man, and a great teammate.

But the way this season played out is precisely why he should have had Nico hitting the field as early as possible.

Nico played his ass off against Ohio state but it was obvious he wasn’t ready for game speed for much of this season.

don’t want to be a Debbie Downer but next year won’t be a playoff year. And then we have no idea what our schedule will look like the following year, but I think it’s going to get more difficult to recruit and this may be the high water mark of Heupel as our head coach.

I hope it’s not. But it’s going to be difficult to get back to where we were this year.

Fun year. Proud we made the playoffs. Should have had Nico ready for rush run after it was obvious Joe Milton wasn’t the guy. Instead we rode Milton for the entire 2023 season and missed the opportunity to really make progress in 2024.
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You can't say Nico wasn't ready this year and argue he should have been starting last year?? The game is still moving fast for him with 2 years in this system now.. I'd rather go 8-4 last year and look like a semi-functional team (While Nico continues to practice and learn) then sacrifice the whole year for Nico to get game reps as a TRUE freshman and maybe only get 5-6 wins. I wasn't a Joe Milton fan boy by any means but after watching Nico this year makes me realize no way in hell he would have been capable of playing efficiently last year. Anybody that watched Nico this year I think can say they came away a little underwhelmed in comparison to what we hoped for...But IMO the biggest issue with this team was scheme/creativity on offense/and lack of elite WR talent. That doesn't even get into the issue of pass defense on the other side of the ball.
 
#173
#173
Batman1948 said:
If you look back over the years, UT has never given any meaningful game snaps to our backups. Especially the QB position.
We're gonna be in that same boat next year because we have Nico and 2 freshmen behind him. Buckle up buttercups because it's probably gonna be rocky ride on Rocky Top next year.
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“Meaningful snaps” for the backup QB is a fan generated fantasy that almost never happens.
 
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