Next year means everything

#76
#76
UTFranklinVol said:
Yes, same team minus Hooker and Hyatt but with a better OL and better RBs.
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I didn't echo the panic from many that this OL was a disaster, but it DEFINITELY wasn't "better". You could credit the coaches for ramping up the run game to compensate for Milton's decisions on the field.
 
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#77
#77
UTFranklinVol said:
Yes our OL has given up 10 fewer sacks than last year and produced a better running game. Regardless of Darnell, this year's OL has been better, sorry you got star struck and didn't look at the actual numbers
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More than likely a result of more quick, short passes with Milton vs with Hooker last year
 
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#78
#78
a vol n tears said:
I’ll use Bama is an example of OL play.
Vols gave up 34 sacks, Bama 33
Vols average rushing is over 200 per game, Bama 176
Vols yards per attempt is almost a yard more than bama
Vols total offense per game is higher than bama.

Is the OL worse than last year? Stats say production better than bama’s
Only problem is Vols didn’t beat any ranked teams this year
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You're reading the stats wrong. Tennessee has had 34 sacks on defense which is second beat in the SEC. The OL has only given up 17 which is second fewest in the SEC this year.

The Vols not beating any ranked teams is not the fault of the OL or defense.

It's all on Joe Milton sucking and Josh Heupel being way too aggressive with his 4th down attempts
 
#80
#80
UTFranklinVol said:
Not sure I agree with the premise. OSU did not "miss" on Burrow. They already had JTBarrett who threw for 9400 yards at OSU and owns several Big10 passing records and was a Heisman candidate. Burrow was not a "miss" OSU simply didn't need him and he transferred. They were loaded with QB talent. Same thing with Ugalali, Clemson has Tevor Lawrence and did amazingly.

Heupel is not going to be choosing from a stable of amazing QBs. It's Nico or disaster. We don't have any other amazing QBs.
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Ok on Burrow, but Ugalali was 100% a miss by Dabo. And since we’re not calling Burrow a miss, I’ll give you a better example for Meyer: John Brantley. Recruiter as a 5-star and went 8-5 as a starter.

Nico or disaster? I’m not sure what you mean by that but if Nico turns out to be a Ugalali, Guarantano, or Milton caliber QB and never wins more than 9 games that would not be a disaster. It would just be a miss, and Merklinger or a portal transfer would get a chance.
 
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#81
#81
butchna said:
I didn't echo the panic from many that this OL was a disaster, but it DEFINITELY wasn't "better". You could credit the coaches for ramping up the run game to compensate for Milton's decisions on the field.
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Except that if you read my previous response to someone, we have not "ramped up" the running game. We are over 4 rushing attempts per game less than last year. We are just better at rushing this year because of a better OL and RBs who are actually all the same RBs lol
 
#83
#83
UTFranklinVol said:
You're reading the stats wrong. Tennessee has had 34 sacks on defense which is second beat in the SEC. The OL has only given up 17 which is second fewest in the SEC this year.

The Vols not beating any ranked teams is not the fault of the OL or defense.

It's all on Joe Milton sucking and Josh Heupel being way too aggressive with his 4th down attempts
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I agree that he's gone for it a few too many times . . . but what game did we lose because of a failed 4th down?
 
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#85
#85
UTFranklinVol said:
No we did a lot of those screen passes with Hooker. But the passes were accurate and the WRs were fast and could do something with it.
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There are definitely several contributing factors. The YPA is down around 7ish this year and was over 10 last year.
 
#86
#86
UTFranklinVol said:
This is a bad argument though. "Hooker and Hyatt and Tillman weren't good before Heupel worked his magic on them" but wait why didn't Heupels magic wand work on Milton or Keyton or White? Since he apparently has the hand of God that turns players into NFL draft picks. Lol pass.

Hooker and Hyatt were all time good players.
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There was a lot of good chemistry last year, and you are right, those guys were special. But they were also upperclassmen. As for Milton, I'll say he is middle of the road, and the chemistry doesn't seem to be as unified from a leadership standpoint. We've had a lot of season ending injuries, and in some cases, leadership is taken away by a player who get's a season ending injury.

Also, don't underestimate last year's O.C. Alex Golesh. He seemed to be able to get the right play called and get it in quickly enough to execute. That's missing this season. Could totally be personnel issue rather than O.C. issue. If you have receivers that can't separate, and they shut down the passing game, then it's easier to shut down the run game. Granted, Bru played against Florida and the outcome wasn't much different than Georgia.

So what about next season? First - Thinking it is a GOOD thing that Nico preserved his redshirt. If he's not first rounder and this (sometime over optimistic) Vol fanbase wants to believe, NIL money could keep him here an extra season. Wonder why Brock Bowers of Georgia didn't ask for a waiver last season? As a true freshman, he could have left, and the waiver would have been a slam dunk.

Also, new blood means new leadership, new chemistry, and different players can actually be better than what we've seen in 2023. Case in point: In the basketball forum, @Freak posted the replay of the Tennessee- Syracuse game. I almost didn't watch it because I knew the final score, but I couldn't resist. WOW, some new players there were really balling out. I know this thread is fresh and by the time most read this, it'll already be over, but Tennessee plays Purdue at 8:00 Eastern tonight.

Watch these guys and hope this scales to next years football team:

Cameron Carr
J.P. Estrella
Dalton Knecht <---- This guy!!!!
Jordan Gainey

Totally different team with these new guys. Transfer portal, decent recruiting so far and new blood could do the same for football.
 
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#87
#87
@UTFranklinVol Put the pipe down dude. Without looking up all of our opponents rushing defensive ranks, and comparing them to this season opponents rankings, your "stats" are bunk. Our OL was easily worse this year, and the only reason we gave up less sacks, is because we threw a WR screen on 50 percent of plays. Our offense as a whole lost a top 10 draft pick on our OL, (only Spraggins is sniffing a shot at the NFL, as a very late round or undrafted FA), this team also lost 2 WR's ( and a 3rd if you count Bru's injury, QB, TE, 2 starting OL. Thats a ton of drop off in talent, when the cupboard was left bare from the NCAA sanctions, and mas exodus from the prior administration. The only damn thing you got correct was the title of the thread, cause not one bit of your "stats" mean a thing, without looking into them in more depth.
 
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#89
#89
So are we taking a cue from the SEC?

"Next Year: It just means more."
 
#90
#90
UTFranklinVol said:
I think I can make a pretty good argument that the 2023 team was basically the same (or better) except for Hooker and Hyatt.

We had a better more experienced OL than last year which is evidenced by the fact that they have given up 10 fewer sacks than last year. There was very little that Milton was genuinely pressured this year. The second evidence was how much better our running game was. That's 100% due to a better OL. Not to rob our RB of their due credit because they have had more yards per carry and more yards per game.

And I've pointed out that in spite of all the belly aching over the defense. It has actually produced better numbers than the last 2 years. The defense had one big issue this year and that issue was named Joe Milton who went 3-and-out like it was his job. Or defense was on the field way too much this year vs last but has so far outperformed last year.

So yes I am quite confident that I can say the 2023 team as a whole was basically the same (or in cases better) than 2022 with the main difference being no Hooker or Hyatt.
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Well, it didn’t work.
 
#91
#91
stonesk said:
@UTFranklinVol Put the pipe down dude. Without looking up all of our opponents rushing defensive ranks, and comparing them to this season opponents rankings, your "stats" are bunk. Our OL was easily worse this year, and the only reason we gave up less sacks, is because we threw a WR screen on 50 percent of plays. Our offense as a whole lost a top 10 draft pick on our OL, (only Spraggins is sniffing a shot at the NFL, as a very late round or undrafted FA), this team also lost 2 WR's ( and a 3rd if you count Bru's injury, QB, TE, 2 starting OL. Thats a ton of drop off in talent, when the cupboard was left bare from the NCAA sanctions, and mas exodus from the prior administration. The only damn thing you got correct was the title of the thread, cause not one bit of your "stats" mean a thing, without looking into them in more depth.
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I don’t even think the title is correct. Next year is important but it isn’t “everything”. If we go 7-5 and Nico doesn’t look good then we reload with Merklinger and/or a portal QB in 2025 with Samson, Seldon, Davis, Matthews and company. Regardless of how next year goes, there’s no reason to think we won’t keep handling our business against middle tier SEC teams until we find a QB.
 
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#92
#92
UTFranklinVol said:
You're reading the stats wrong. Tennessee has had 34 sacks on defense which is second beat in the SEC. The OL has only given up 17 which is second fewest in the SEC this year.

The Vols not beating any ranked teams is not the fault of the OL or defense.

It's all on Joe Milton sucking and Josh Heupel being way too aggressive with his 4th down attempts
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Of those 34 sacks how many did they have in the 4 losses??

Sacks against UCONN and AP are really meaningless sacks imo.
 
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#95
#95
volfan_28 said:
I don’t even think the title is correct. Next year is important but it isn’t “everything”. If we go 7-5 and Nico doesn’t look good then we reload with Merklinger and/or a portal QB in 2025 with Samson, Seldon, Davis, Matthews and company. Regardless of how next year goes, there’s no reason to think we won’t keep handling our business against middle tier SEC teams until we find a QB.
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Next year always means everything! It may not be in the way OP stated though, but we should start to be able to see a clear picture on floor vs ceiling, as the talent level and depth should be better. If we win 8 games again( and I know this message board will lose its damn mind if we do), it at least establishes a floor. I'm sure the Merk chants will come out shortly after our first loss next year, without doubt. I'd be willing to bet that even if we sneak into the playoff with 3 losses, some would still want to label Heup a failure.
 
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#96
#96
Next year success as a foregone conclusion seems flawed logic. If JH had been forced to get Nico on the field for meaningful experience this year I might feel different. I feel about same record next year…too much unknown, including true multiple difference makers at WR. Now if Nico is truly special and on D we can finally figure out how to get off the field on third down, then the opportunity for 10+ wins is there.
 
#97
#97
UTFranklinVol said:
UT won 11 games last year which was our best showing in a very long time. Some people think that is a reason not to question the results this year because Heupel is the best coach we have had since Fulmer.

I think it's worth asking the question though... Which year was the outlier? Was Heupel really a genius coach that got us to 11 wins or did he get extremely lucky to have Hooker and Hyatt on the same team?

Because this year I saw the same coach with basically the same team as last year but with a better OL and better rushing game but minus Hooker and Hyatt and the results were much different. Like, A LOT different we didn't compete against any of the tough teams on our schedule.

So was 2023 the "norm" and 2022 the "outlier"? Or should I expect more out of this team in 2024?

Heupel now has "his guy" at QB and IMO next year will tell the story of which year was the real outlier and who was REALLY responsible for the success last year. I hope Heupel is the real deal and not "in the right place at the right time" guy.
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Butch had more talent and could only win 9 and that was with beating Georgia twice so I’d say Heupel has a lot to do with the 11 wins
 
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#98
#98
2025 will be the year that everything should come together. We should be solidly in the blue chip ratio then, and should be in the play-offs. If that doesn't happen then something is wrong. Next year will look a lot like this year 9 - 3ish. I'll be shocked if we are better than 9 - 3 next season.
 
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#100
#100
UTFranklinVol said:
I hope Heupel is the real deal and not "in the right place at the right time" guy.
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Imagine if we could time travel to 2021 after losing 20-something transfers, coming off a 3-7 season, staring down the barrel of NCAA sanctions… and we read this zinger from 2 years into the future.

What a time to be alive.
 
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