My Thoughts on the Kentucky Game, After Sleeping on it

[CPVOL]

I think we've finished higher than UT the last 4 out of 5 years. Say what you want about the instability of UT or scheduling or whatever, but I'm just saying...

I'll await my roasting peacefully

There you are. I had you on my mind during the game Sat night and didn’t see any posts. I didn’t know if you were still active on here or not and that’s not sarcasm, it’s an earnest statement.

The only thing I’ll add is there was a comment on the Ky forum (I forget the name) where a poster said the Ky defense was better than Bama. Another said they’d keep our offense in check because they’d spy Hendon, stuff the run, and not allow chunk plays. Now all of us Vols fans have made ridiculous statements on here myself included. But I have to ask, are there people in your circle that truly believed the Ky defense is better than Bama??

 

[BigOrange15]

You remind me of the kind of kid who gets beat at home and then takes it out on the others kids at school lol

You know who didn't get beat at home? Them Vols.

He is right, a lot of Kentucky's rise has been smoke and mirrors based on a historically weak SEC East and Kentucky trying as hard as possible to load their schedule with easy games. Missouri was also able to take advantage of a weak SEC East when they first came over and they too overvalued their own level of relevancy. We see where that has gotten them lately.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I think we've finished higher than UT the last 4 out of 5 years. Say what you want about the instability of UT or scheduling or whatever, but I'm just saying...

I'll await my roasting peacefully

LittleCat, you're back!

Welcome back, where you been?

 

[LittleCat]

There you are. I had you on my mind during the game Sat night and didn’t see any posts. I didn’t know if you were still active on here or not and that’s not sarcasm, it’s an earnest statement.

The only thing I’ll add is there was a comment on the Ky forum (I forget the name) where a poster said the Ky defense was better than Bama. Another said they’d keep our offense in check because they’d spy Hendon, stuff the run, and not allow chunk plays. Now all of us Vols fans have made ridiculous statements on here myself included. But I have to ask, are there people in your circle that truly believed the Ky defense is better than Bama??

Just busy and honestly don't feel like arguing as much as I used to 10+ years ago. I could make the best argument possible and at the end of the day it always devolves into "Well Kentucky sucks and we own you". I learned it's not worh trying to have rational conversations with irrational fans. That's not to say there are reasonable people here, but most fit into a pretty bland copy-and-paste mold. Especially in the FF.

Can't speak to our fans comparing us to Bama or whatever. All I know is we have a pretty decent defense. UT is just a special offense and is gonna get their points/yards against any team in the nation. I don't blame our defense as much as I blame our offense and special teams. UTs starting field position compared to ours was absurd lol

 

[ButchPlz]

Just busy and honestly don't feel like arguing as much as I used to 10+ years ago. I could make the best argument possible and at the end of the day it always devolves into "Well Kentucky sucks and we own you". I learned it's not worh trying to have rational conversations with irrational fans. That's not to say there are reasonable people here, but most fit into a pretty bland copy-and-paste mold. Especially in the FF.

Can't speak to our fans comparing us to Bama or whatever. All I know is we have a pretty decent defense. UT is just a special offense and is gonna get their points/yards against any team in the nation. I don't blame our defense as much as I blame our offense and special teams. UTs starting field position compared to ours was absurd lol

Because the literal reality is that:
1. Kentucky sucks, and
2. Tennessee owns Kentucky.

Argue all you want, it's the truth. 3 wins against us in my entire lifetime is the definition of ownership. Hell, in arguably Kentucky's best ever season they still lost to Tennessee.

 

[LittleCat]

LittleCat, you're back!

Welcome back, where you been?

Chasing a 9 month old around!

 

[NighthawkVol]

Because the literal reality is that:
1. Kentucky sucks, and
2. Tennessee owns Kentucky.

Argue all you want, it's the truth. 3 wins against us in my entire lifetime is the definition of ownership. Hell, in arguably Kentucky's best ever season they still lost to Tennessee.

You're half right. Kentucky doesn't suck.

 

[xpsyclonex2002]

You remind me of the kind of kid who gets beat at home and then takes it out on the others kids at school lol

Ya'll don't remind us of anything. We don't even think about ya'll at all. All season long we talk about AL, GA, and FL. We talk about the SEC W team we are going to play like LSU. We talk about the out of conference teams we usually open the season against like Pitt. Heck, we even talk about SC. But we don't even remember that you guys exist until the week of the game and even then, we talk over that game and are looking beyond to the next game. You're the pothole in the road we always forget about until we run over it.

 

[Backwards K]

I think we've finished higher than UT the last 4 out of 5 years. Say what you want about the instability of UT or scheduling or whatever, but I'm just saying...

I'll await my roasting peacefully

Tennessee has won 4 of the last 6 basketball games vs UK. The Cats haven't beat the Vols in football four times in your lifetime. You probably shouldn't be comparing the football programs in public.

 

[LittleCat]

Ya'll don't remind us of anything. We don't even think about ya'll at all. All season long we talk about AL, GA, and FL. We talk about the SEC W team we are going to play like LSU. We talk about the out of conference teams we usually open the season against like Pitt. Heck, we even talk about SC. But we don't even remember that you guys exist until the week of the game and even then, we talk over that game and are looking beyond to the next game. You're the pothole in the road we always forget about until we run over it.

Need a hug brother?

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Ya'll don't remind us of anything. We don't even think about ya'll at all. All season long we talk about AL, GA, and FL. We talk about the SEC W team we are going to play like LSU. We talk about the out of conference teams we usually open the season against like Pitt. Heck, we even talk about SC. But we don't even remember that you guys exist until the week of the game and even then, we talk over that game and are looking beyond to the next game. You're the pothole in the road we always forget about until we run over it.

Whoa, man, ease back a bit.

LittleCat is the classiest, most down-to-earth, and most realistic rival fan on these boards. Every single one of the gators, and the bama fan, and the two or three georgia fans, and the elusive vandy fan, they all have sarcastic or passive-aggressive or boorish sides at times. Even the best of them.

And that has been true of the Kentucky fans who came out of the woodwork this year, by and large.

But not LittleCat. He is a decent human being who knows how the SEC stacks up and doesn't try to over-inflate his team's place in the pantheon.

Get to know him a bit before you hit him full blast, heh.

Go Vols!

 

[LittleCat]

Tennessee has won 4 of the last 6 basketball games vs UK. The Cats haven't beat the Vols in football four times in your lifetime.

We are a basketball school and won a title in 2012 and competed deep in the tourney for multiple others. UT is a football school and hasn't competed for a title this millennium. I do remember good years but not title contention. So calm down on the program bashing friend. The expectations are wildy different!

This might be the year though. You beat UGA and i think it's a lock UT gets to the playoff. It'd be a sweet redemption story.

 

[CPVOL]

Just busy and honestly don't feel like arguing as much as I used to 10+ years ago. I could make the best argument possible and at the end of the day it always devolves into "Well Kentucky sucks and we own you". I learned it's not worh trying to have rational conversations with irrational fans. That's not to say there are reasonable people here, but most fit into a pretty bland copy-and-paste mold. Especially in the FF.

Can't speak to our fans comparing us to Bama or whatever. All I know is we have a pretty decent defense. UT is just a special offense and is gonna get their points/yards against any team in the nation. I don't blame our defense as much as I blame our offense and special teams. UTs starting field position compared to ours was absurd lol

Be honest. UT vs uGa…..who you rooting for and why?

 

[LittleCat]

Be honest. UT vs uGa…..who you rooting for and why?

I always cheer for UT when they don't play UK.

 

[volbound1700]

I think we've finished higher than UT the last 4 out of 5 years. Say what you want about the instability of UT or scheduling or whatever, but I'm just saying...

I'll await my roasting peacefully

The issue with Kentucky is schedule. Your division opponent is Mississippi State while Tennessee plays Alabama every year.

Tennessee's schedule is infinitely harder. This is why Tennessee has often had a worse record than UK and still beat UK most years.

UK has an easier path to 10 wins most years. Compare our schedule over this span and you will see it.

 

[volbound1700]

I always cheer for UT when they don't play UK.

My dad was a big UK fan (although more basketball). If I wasn't a Tennessee fan, I would cheer for UK.

I love the rivalry and have family that are UK. Sure we are rivals and I want to beat down UK but that doesn't mean that I hate UK . Hell, I can say the same about Florida and Alabama as well.

Sports get unhealthy once you start hating rivals. We are all Americans in the scheme of things .

 

[Sarms58]

He dropped one in the endzone, but otherwise nothing. We only ran 65 plays. Maybe the only thing Kensucky was successful at last night was shortening the game.

Yea that pass was a bit behind him. It seems that he and Hooker are not nearly as in sync as Hooker is with the other receivers. I know in a previous game Kenton appeared to slow down in anticipation of the ball being thrown back shoulder but Hooker led him so it was an incompletion. After the play you could see Hooker motioning to him that he needed to keep running. Not sure on Keyton’s route on that throw Saturday but the angle of that cut has to be sharp enough to get your man behind you but not so sharp as to run you into another defender. They just don’t seem as comfortable with each other as Hooker is will Tillman, Hyatt or the TEs.

 

[pimo1]

People need to stop doing the thing where they constantly downplay opponents. LSU, FL and UK are not bad teams. We are just better than them right now. UGA and Bama are both legit top 5 teams.

What was done the past few years and UK is nothing to be sneezed at. We are back it does not mean everyone else sucks. We just no longer suck. We do ourselves a disservice by downplaying our opponents. It takes away from the accomplishment that our football program has made and invalidates just how good we are.

No team in the SEC should be slept on. Most bottom feeder teams in the SEC would be at worst mid pack in other conferences. The mid level teams would be competing for conference champs. Even Vandy would do fine in this year's ACC or big10 west.

 

[Sarms58]

I think we've finished higher than UT the last 4 out of 5 years. Say what you want about the instability of UT or scheduling or whatever, but I'm just saying...

I'll await my roasting peacefully

I think as Tennessee fans we’ve been wanting to declare our era of wandering in the desert to be over for more a decade and the rapid turnaround under Heupel gives us hope that it finally is. Time will tell and there’s much uncertainty about how the league will look going forward. I’ll just try to enjoy the moment and not really worry if we’re at the beginning of a new era of Tennessee dominance - we’re 8-0 going into November for the first time since 1998 (I think) and I just want to enjoy it. We can argue in the off season about streaks and who is going to win next year.

 

[Hunter10139]

I always cheer for UT when they don't play UK.

I do the same for Kentucky. I was really hoping you guys would smoke Kiffin and Beamer.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

I always cheer for UT when they don't play UK.

I remember as a kid back in the 1940s, I would listen to Kentucky basket with Cawood Ledford on the radio. :I could pickup the Kentucky broadcast in East Tennessee but, could not get the Tennessee basketball broadcast on our radio. I was always a Tennessee fan, but enjoyed hearing the Kentucky's games on the radio. After John Ward, Cawed was the best in the SEC in those days.

 

[ThreatLevelOrange]

Great environment again. Not as loud as Florida or Alabama, but still really loud. Neyland at night is special. The added light and pyrotechnics have brought it to another level.

-I have to start with the defense. I know Kentucky doesn't have the best offense in the SEC, but they're decent. I mentioned a few days ago that we were starting to come around defensively against LSU, then experienced the loss of some DBs and played Bama, so we took a step back. When I saw that both Hadden and Charles were out again, I was a little disheartened that our secondary would be moving forward any against Kentucky. I was wrong. Turnage and Slaughter need to be the starting CBs going forward. They played the best combined game by UT's outside CBs against an SEC team since Heupel took over. Slaughter lining up at CB shocked me. He hasn't played that position since he arrived. But he looked very natural there. Turnage was excellent too. Can't remember which of the two it was who turned and played the ball to get an INT on the long bomb, but that's what we've been wanting from our CBs for years.

I know it's hard to tell on TV, but being at the game, I was watching the secondary and they left Kentucky very few openings. Also, Wesley Walker played really well. Might be time to start him at Star. I'm very encouraged about this defense going forward because of the improved play of the secondary.

-The offense was extremely explosive against a very good defense, scoring 44 points (and could've scored more, but we went vanilla in the 4Q), and they really didn't play as well as they could. Squirrel dropped 2 passes that could've been TD. Tillman looked okay, but was kept on a pitch count and didn't play much. Some penalties got UT behind the chains on a couple of drives. And yet...44 points. If the defense is this good going forward and the offense hits its peak, this team will be unbeatable.

-Other than the missed PAT after the hold, special teams were great. Deflected a punt (not sure how Perry didn't block it), punt return game was great, and covered very well. Brooks also got off some great punts. Ekeler has really improved that unit.

-Kentucky is back in our rearview mirror as a program. It's embarrassing that we made them an actual tough game for awhile, we're back to the proper position of Kentucky being a program that is beneath us and should be an automatic win. The only question is margin. That'll be the case going forward.

The best takeaway is the attitude of this team. They come into every game with a business-like approach. They weren't overlooking Kentucky. They don't play intimidated against Bama or Florida (and won't against Georgia). They just go out and compete the way they know they should each Saturday. It's so refreshing.

Oh and Perry is from Georgetown, KY. 15 minutes from UKs campus. Hopefully he can help us at LB at some point.

 

[NighthawkVol]

We are a basketball school and won a title in 2012 and competed deep in the tourney for multiple others. UT is a football school and hasn't competed for a title this millennium. I do remember good years but not title contention. So calm down on the program bashing friend. The expectations are wildy different!

This might be the year though. You beat UGA and i think it's a lock UT gets to the playoff. It'd be a sweet redemption story.

To be fair, you can't really compare being a football school to being a basketball school.

A) Football is the sport that matters most in this country. Ratings, revenue, merchandise sales, volume of programming, area economic impact, etc...by any measure, football MATTERS more than basketball. And it's really not close. That means it's more desirable to be good in football because it's a better investment, which leads to....

B) Because of A, there has historically been a bigger investment in football. ADs know that football pays for all of the other sports. So there has historically been a greater investment across the board, resulting in more blueblood programs and more parity in football. You don't see Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, Duke, etc. go through sustained droughts in basketball because they are part of a much smaller group of schools that, decades ago, saw a path of less resistance and took it. In football, those droughts are much harder to avoid, especially in the SEC. Consider Bama from 97-07. LSU from 89-2000. Tennessee from 2008-2021. Even outside the SEC, Oklahoma between Switzer and Stoops, USC for about 10-15 years before Carroll. Texas post-Mack Brown, Nebraska in the last 10-15 years, Notre Dame between Holtz and Kelly, Penn State post-Paterno...all have had sustained droughts. It's just harder to stay on top in football because there are more schools fighting for those top spots. But in the SEC, which boasts 6 of the top 15 winningest programs of all-time, a sustained drought is almost inevitable.

 

[Backwards K]

We are a basketball school and won a title in 2012 and competed deep in the tourney for multiple others. UT is a football school and hasn't competed for a title this millennium. I do remember good years but not title contention. So calm down on the program bashing friend. The expectations are wildy different!

This might be the year though. You beat UGA and i think it's a lock UT gets to the playoff. It'd be a sweet redemption story.

You still bragging about a national title that occurred when this recruiting class was in elementary school. Barnes beats the Cats regularly and has put. the Cats out of the last 2 or 3 SEC tournaments. I notice how you ignored the fact that the Vols have won more basketball games in the last 2 years over UK than the Cats have won in football in your lifetime.

 

[LittleCat]

You still bragging about a national title that occurred when this recruiting class was in elementary school. Barnes beats the Cats regularly and has put. the Cats out of the last 2 or 3 SEC tournaments. I notice how you ignored the fact that the Vols have won more basketball games in the last 2 years over UK than the Cats have won in football in your lifetime.

Regular season matchups don't matter as much in basketball. You can lose 10 games a year and still make deep runs in the nccat. In football you lose 1 or 2 and your hopes for a conference title or natty are done.

My point was pretty basic. UT is a football school, UK is a basketball school.