Is the HONEYMOON over?

[Neyland Law Vol]

In before the "We are Tennessee" argument.

You'd think people would finally learn that the days when the "T on the helmet" got us a bunch of wins are long gone. This program is having to be rebuilt from the bottom up.

 

[VolFan4Life87]

Nothing personal against the players but the class Dooley left Jones was weak by any standard. I agree with you on basically all points. Butch's first full class and the current class he is working on are program changing with actual elite players. The program will not be fixed this year but anyone paying attention can see the trajectory is positive.

Not only was it weak for the stargazers and with gaping holes in depth but also completely undeveloped. BUT that has been a problem at UT since Fulmer's days. Somewhere in the early-mid 2000's I stopped saying "wow, he's gonna be great when he's a junior/senior" when I saw freshman do well because I began to realize that they never really did get any better.

 

[Rooster1]

I'm a Butch Jones fan, love what he's doing off the field, still pretty excited he's our head coach, even though I wasn't overly impressed with how our team looked last year, our poor/slow roster not withstanding. But I'll say this, if we go to Oklahoma and do anything remotely similar to what we did last year at Oregon when we gave up 59 unanswered points....I'll pretty much consider the "honeymoon" over.

Ditto.

 

[volinbama256]

Get to a bowl this year and we are on our way..... we will keep the recruiting class we have currently in place and add a few more studs by showing everyone the process is working and we are improving as a football team. The team this year will be VERY dangerous and much improved next season and no one will want to play us. Carry that momentum along with recruiting into '16 and we are leading our conference division and will be playing for an SEC championship. simple math.

 

[Neyland Law Vol]

Get to a bowl this year and we are on our way..... we will keep the recruiting class we have currently in place and add a few more studs by showing everyone the process is working and we are improving as a football team. The team this year will be VERY dangerous and much improved next season and no one will want to play us. Carry that momentum along with recruiting into '16 and we are leading our conference division and will be playing for an SEC championship. simple math.

This.

 

[VolFan4Life87]

I'm a Butch Jones fan, love what he's doing off the field, still pretty excited he's our head coach, even though I wasn't overly impressed with how our team looked last year, our poor/slow roster not withstanding. But I'll say this, if we go to Oklahoma and do anything remotely similar to what we did last year at Oregon when we gave up 59 unanswered points....I'll pretty much consider the "honeymoon" over.

Honestly I think if we lose in that fashion to anyone on next year's schedule I'm going to have alot of concern with Jones going forward. This November Jones will have been on campus for 2 years now. Surely to God that is enough time to atleast stop the bleeding. I understand it's going to take some time to heal the wounds, but we can't keep getting blown out like we're FCS school.

 

[james_govols]

Get to a bowl this year and we are on our way..... we will keep the recruiting class we have currently in place and add a few more studs by showing everyone the process is working and we are improving as a football team. The team this year will be VERY dangerous and much improved next season and no one will want to play us. Carry that momentum along with recruiting into '16 and we are leading our conference division and will be playing for an SEC championship. simple math.

I'm not going to say we will be playing for an SEC Championship in 2016. However, if we keep recruiting in the top 10-15 area then by 2016 we will have a roster comparable in talent to the other top teams in the SEC.

Then it all comes down to coaching.

 

[Ned Ray McWorkher]

Absolutely ZERO teams had 3 different coaching staffs from 2008 to 2012. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of turnover on the roster as a result. You're not using an apples to apples comparison.

Apples to crab apples in this case.

 

[photovol]

I would say after coming off a 5-7 season (and 4 loosing seasons in a row) and loosing your entire offensive and defensive lines would qualify for saying the Honeymoon is over. No?

 

[DD4ME]

Are we pregnant?

 

[volroadwarrior]

You forgot to mention replacing both lines, and the lack of experience depth at most positions because of lackluster recruiting and evaluation by Dooley.

You might say 'lots of teams' had this and that as a negative and won, but name a team in the SEC that all of these hit in a short time and won? I bet it is not 'lots of teams'.

Simple minds will not understand what you are saying. Cause and effect means nothing to them.

 

[orangeluvr]

It's like people slept thru the last 5 years

I'll have some of what they were taking. :ill_h4h:

 

[Spawn]

Honeymoon is still going strong. Butch is recruiting well and filling our empty coffers after Doo-little, Past players are back in the fold and support CBJ, and the team looks better on the field.

 

[alaVOL]

Honeymoon maybe short in time span, however it can last a very long time in attitude. We keep it going!

 

[GAVol]

The honeymoon is over when progress ON THE FIELD stops. A baseline has been set. It has to get better now.

I've never heard it put that way, but that makes perfect sense.

 

[rickyyrs]

When do real expectations for this team begin? When is a .500 season no longer acceptable? Lot of teams are young, but find a way to win. Lots of teams have students who graduate, but find a way to win. Lots of teams have mediocre QBs, but find a way to win.

Most teams you talk about does not play in the SEC. They do not play Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, S. Carlonia, Florida, Missouri(who won the SEC east last year. Butch will get it done. He has to build us back up after the last few years with Kiffin, and Dooley. It is changing. We will be back on top of the SEC soon.

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

I would love to believe that we could do what Auburn did last year. However, I'm not quite sure how we compare to last year's Auburn team in terms of schedule and roster. Plus, even Auburn wouldn't have had the season they did without a whole bunch of inexplicable bounces. For example a touchdown pass with 10 seconds left against MSU, stopping Manziel inside the 20 against tA&M, a tipped touchdown against Georgia, and the final miracle against Bama.

Realistically, though, you can't expect miracles all the time, by definition, or they stop being miracles. Our schedule and our roster call for a somewhat more cautious view of this season.

Psychologically, a losing season will put our fan base on suicide watch, but a losing season is a lot more likely than an eight win or better season.

Auburn also won a NC in 2010 and has had very good recruiting classes since. Plus Malzahan already guys in place to run his system perfectly. CBJ is just getting guys to run the system he wants.

A losing season this year would be a vast underachievement.

 

[92volalum]

if we lose to vandy or kent its over... if ou and bama beat us by 40 its over.. if he wins 5 games its over regardless of all the reasons vn says he should get a lifetime contract because he needs...this n that..

sorry folks its a bowl game or bust n yr/3.. no way he has two losing season n then n yr 3 wins 7 n fans still spend money n donate for that type of product. this is big business semi pro football n at some point the "no team has ever had it this bad" crowd needs to understand ... its a win or get fired world..

if you want stability then win. no coach will ever get as many years to rebulid as johnny majors did..sorry not happening.

 

[MR_VOL]

Whether we win 2 games or 9, we have our coach. "What does it take to keep his job" talk at this point is just trolling for attention. If you think he is a mistake, say so. If not, let him do his job. Nick and Steve would love to see him leave. He will get us there. Surely no one thinks there is a better coach that we can remotely have a shot at. At this point, I wouldn't swap him for anyone in the country.

I wouldn't swap him either.

 

[Rooster1]

Whether we win 2 games or 9, we have our coach. "What does it take to keep his job" talk at this point is just trolling for attention. If you think he is a mistake, say so. If not, let him do his job. Nick and Steve would love to see him leave. He will get us there. Surely no one thinks there is a better coach that we can remotely have a shot at. At this point, I wouldn't swap him for anyone in the country.

Saban
Spurrier
Malzahn
Miles
Stoops
Fisher
Dantonio
Meyer
Briles
Kelly
Shaw
Peterson
Mora
Strong
etc.

 

[KBVol]

Saban
Spurrier
Malzahn
Miles
Stoops
Fisher
Dantonio
Meyer
Briles
Kelly
Shaw
Peterson
Mora
Strong
etc.

My list isn't this long (for example, certainly wouldn't include Charlie Strong) but I agree that there are a handful of head coaches I'd swap Butch for before the end of the day. At least 3 are in our conference.

 

[oregonvol]

Saban
Spurrier
Malzahn
Miles
Stoops
Fisher
Dantonio
Meyer
Briles
Kelly
Shaw
Peterson
Mora
Strong
etc.

no Franklin?

Clearly a posi-vol.

 

[knoxvols11]

When do real expectations for this team begin? When is a .500 season no longer acceptable? Lot of teams are young, but find a way to win. Lots of teams have students who graduate, but find a way to win. Lots of teams have mediocre QBs, but find a way to win.

Are we still iN year 0? Or was last year negative 1?

 

[samanderson]

Heck yeah the honeymoon is over. Jones hasn't recruited well. The players don't seem to "buy in" and the other coaches don't respect him, they will leave first chance they get. More than anything I get the impression Jones isn't all that into Tennessee or our traditions. He doesn't seem "fired up" to be here, it's a stepping stone job for him. Look at how the former players talk about him.

We need new energy, more new coaches, we need to switch to a 3-4 D RIGHT NOW in the middle of camp and by golly we need to get back under center, in the I formation and ram it down the other team's throat.

Jone's has coached one full season, I mean really, isn't that enough time! Look at this veteran team he has coming back, a roster chocked full of players that know how to win!

The SEC East is down right now, even so, the East is stronger than the West. A good head coach could take advantage of it...THIS YEAR!

Pay attention people, he's lost the team and the boosters, rumor is they aren't going to let him use the planes for "Kruitin...

The Admin has proven time and time again that they know how to conduct a search that's going to bring us a proven, national championship winning coach...because at Tennessee that's what we deserve, we deserve 10 win seasons every year.

Butch better hurry up.

A nice one!! Feels like watching "The Colbert Report." Talk about hitting the nail on the head!!

 

[JoeltonVol]

Need visible on-the-field development this season. Need win-loss improvement next year. If not, then it may begin to be dicey.