My only concern this year is the carryover from last years South Carolina game.

[Hank Bukowski]

I have had a good feeling this team has that game circled on the calender. Its probably going to be a 7pm night game in Neyland too. This game has revenge written all over it.

This a thousand times. This game is not in doubt in my mind at all. If you’re a player who played in that game last year, then you are going to play for sweet, sweet payback and get everyone next to you to play that way, too. You are going to play the best game of your life. No mercy, no quarter. We owe these pretenders big time…especially our defense.

Our defense, every single player who steps on the field, needs to take it on themselves to smash these guys in the mouth from the very first snap and give them a few hours of absolute flaming hellfire. “Boys, this is what happens when you piss us off.” I want these SC players to never, ever forget this game as long as they live. I want it to be the most physical football game they’ll ever know. I want every snap to leave them exhausted and stunned by the king-hell ferocity of what they’ve just experienced. I am talking Jack Tatum, Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus, Al Wilson intensity and outright domination from the line of scrimmage all the way to the end zone…every snap.

Win the game? Oh, we’ll win alright. But that ain’t near enough. I want to put these SC boys back in their rightful place…somewhere way behind us.

 

[The_Big_Orange]

The Vandy game and The Orange Bowl tell me there won't be any holdover from the USCe game.

Same for me. In every season since probably 2003 the Vandy game would have been one we squeaked out 21-17 or some crap like that with an even wider talent gap. I really believe Milton has found a better stride than what he previously had.

 

[Megatron88]

The South Carolina game was a product of the Team missing Jeremy Banks and also if anything could go wrong it went wrong unfortunately. However I think Tennessee will be out for blood this year when South Carolina comes to Knoxville

 

[VolGirl81]

It didn't help that Rattler had the game of his life and will probably never again.

 

[basspond]

Watching on TV, I had an uneasy feeling in pregame when they showed the SC crowd. The atmosphere looked electric and I hoped we could get off to a fast start. It sucks to think that one player (or one incident among players) could lead to such a disastrous outcome.

I thought the exact same at pregame. The fans believed they could win and the players felt it. Rattler was in "the zone" and was seeing the game faster than anyone else. I hope it was a fluke and it was just their night.

 

[ArmchairQB]

Which do we want more? Lesser Carolina with as many wins as they can manage, and a night game? Or for them to go 0-4 and even lose to Furman, and limp into town for a noon kick as a ritual sacrifice. I know which way I'm leaning.

UNC is Greater Carolina, by the way. Go Heels. On Sept. 2 at least.

 

[bigorangepoppa]

I think Tennessee wins, but make no mistake, Beamer will use the game last year to motivate his team.

 

[aRmo]

It didn't help that Rattler had the game of his life and will probably never again.

This is TN tho. We make non-existant QBs look like Heisman contenders when we play them unfortunately. You gotta think tho. That South Carolina game is the sole reason TN didnt get into the playoffs. We win that game like we should have won. TN plays UGA in Atlanta in Rd. 1 over OSU. We had the better resume.

 

[Zues1]

Banks antics and Rattler playing out of his mind cost Hype and the boys a playoff spot in year two.
I imagine thats not sitting well with the 23 team.

 

[TnVol!]

There is no carryover.

 

[BigVol88]

After that "dust up" or whatever you want to call it, is when I realized we've got the right guy as head coach. Was proud we beat Pitt, happy as hell we beat Florida, ecstatic we beat LSU, and words don't describe beating the Gumps. However, I was a little concerned going into the Vanderbilt game (not that we'd get beat necessarily, but have to win a close game). There were rumors of locker room issues. We were playing in Nashville, and Vandy had just beaten Florida and Kentucky the previous two Saturday's (and Vandy was playing for bowl eligibility). 56-0 says it all. And the bowl victory only cements my thought on us having the right guy.

Yup. Was expecting a Butch Jones like collapse and instead we came back stronger than ever with our number 2 quarterback and even more absences in the bowl game. Proves Heupel is the guy.

It's not about failure, it's how you respond. No one is perfect. And the team's response said everything I needed to know.

 

[VolInNorthCack]

It didn't help that SC dumped tons of sand on their field and practiced on it all week.

 

[Tman44]

Tennessee 56 Vanderbilt 0
Tennessee 31 Clemson 14

We good.

 

[Volinnooga]

Who was the one healthy CB we had? If it was Hadden, the only healthy thing I saw him do all night was run his mouth after getting torched. Perhaps he was playing hurt

 

[aRmo]

Tennessee 56 Vanderbilt 0
Tennessee 31 Clemson 14

We good.

We have to be better on third downs and in pass coverage. Vandy is just a bad football team. But clemson, even though they scored 14 points, still put up atrocious numbers on offense against us. I understand the numbers will be inflated due to our style of play, that still doesnt change the fact that the defense needs to be better.

 

[ntxVOL]

We will beat USCe, no problem. There are other potential trap games on the schedule to worry about though.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

I think any carry over from that game will be to make sure it doesn't happen again. If II was a betting man had to bet, I would bet we win big

 

[901 Orange]

From what I was hearing Banks had a bit of a hot temper, see all the personal fouls, and as EconVol said it was just a little blowup. Everything seemed fine by the bowl game and both players have moved on. There was always some concern when the NIL was approved that it may cause some hard feelings between players due to the money disparities but it does not seem to be a wide spread issue anywhere. Hopefully some controls will be put on NIL soon.

The way to control it will simply be look at the NFL. QB's getting the most and if u wanna fight about it you'll either meet his OL up close or be looking for a new job.

 

[Volador]

Everybody wants to beat the top Dog, and the Cocks were pumped. Championship teams need to always be prepared for this.

Next issue!

 

[HalfullVol]

WGWTFA !!!

 

[Pride85]

All I know is that it is a teams responsibility to stop the other team from scoring and I'm all for it, but I don't want to hear any bellyaching if we hang over 70 on them.

After last year, I wouldn't complain if we went triple digits.

 

[KTrain]

I attended that game in person and my surface level observations were:

1. We just looked slow and heavy footed on defense. Its not much that USCe was fast, but as a team we all looked like we were functioning in slow motion. Missing Jeremy Banks surely didn't help either.

2. Never made an adjustment to stop the easy stuff. It seemed like Rattler was throwing the same quick out/hitch throws time and time again down the field. He did this for essentially what seemed like the whole 1st half until he got confident enough to then started to mix it up.

3. The night game atmosphere was grueling. It wasn't so much that USCe had an amazing amount of fans, because we had a good amount there, but moreso that they would put on these darude sandstorm light-shows, with stadium assisted video chants during TV timeouts and breaks. The fact we were playing from behind the whole game was exhausting and then you add in these long timeouts on top of that. For example, USCe would drive down the length of the field, score, go crazy, then do a 5 minute light show, then kick off, then do another 3 minute chant. It was over the top and probably messed with the psyche of the team.

4. Playing from behind in an away stadium heightens the pressure on Huepel's uptempo offense. Falling behind is never a good position to be in. But a few quick 3-outs coupled with the opposing team scoring TD drives leaves alot of pressure on the offense that otherwise isn't there. Huepel's offense works best when his team is able to work freely and loosely. But when playing from behind, as we did against USCe, you could sense the offense tightening up and the pressure to score be put on the QB, Hooker. This led to doing too much, some missed throws, and trying to go for the homerun shot every play instead of waiting to strike at the right time.

All of this^ and Hooker had a injury with a unforced fumble that led to a TD and basically a 14 point differential non contact injury turnover, all the bad elements. We lose our starter gave them some points and as you said Rat started getting confidence and Home crowd game over.

 

[Greysmokey906]

The Vandy game and The Orange Bowl tell me there won't be any holdover from the USCe game.

I agree.

 

[Enki_Amenra]

I have it from the highest authority that we will run the score up as far as we can til the final whistle blows in the USCe game. If we can hit 100, we're going to, even if they never score a single point.

 

[vavolfan6]

Agree. I’m sure the atmosphere this season’s games in the swamp and Bama will be louder and more electric. My concern is how Milton handles crowd noise and the pressure during a big game.

Again, I emphasize it wasn't as much as a rowdy fan base, as much as it was all the extra thins they could do at night time to mentally wear down the other team. The 5 minute lightshow they do mixed with darude sandstorm and waving their white towels is alot in itself. But then you have these motivational videos they play and stadium assisted chants. I don't think it is as intimidating if it was a day game.