No one comes close to climbing a bigger mountain to reach the summit than do we

[volfan2024]

It’s crazy to look at out schedule look what we have achieved look at what we must achieve to win it all. The SEC is so much stronger than any other league right now their needs to some kind of curve it’s just not fair to have to beat two number one teams Georgia Alabama two three four times combined in a season to win it all. This is a possibility with the playoff system.

 

[jeff1vol]

Its ridiculous. When they expand the playoffs, dont be surprised to see a majority of SEC teams on the regular. Figures we'd peak a year too early. Even when our team is awesome, the football universe kicks us in the nuts. Dont see us making the playoffs with a loss. Too many teams will go undefeated. Clemson, TCU, OSU play maybe 1-2 real teams. In the SEC, you'll play 5 or 6+ most years.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Its ridiculous. When they expand the playoffs, dont be surprised to see a majority of SEC teams on the regular. Figures we'd peak a year too early. Even when our team is awesome, the football universe kicks us in the nuts. Dont see us making the playoffs with a loss. Too many teams will go undefeated. Clemson, TCU, OSU play maybe 1-2 real teams. In the SEC, you'll play 5 or 6+ most years.

Who said we're peaking?

Brother, we'll still headed up. This isn't the best of Josh Heupel's tenure, this is just the start.

Big things ahead, in 2023 and beyond.

Shrug off the BVS, it's ruining your life.

 

[ttocswob]

Just win, it cures all ills.

 

[madbamahater]

Imagine when UTs defense gets more depth and talent rich.......

 

[ptcarter]

This thread can zip off on a quick tangent if you want. The elephant in the room (no reference to Bama or their cheerleaders) is the realignment that is inevitably about to happen with the coming of Oklahoma and Texas. By Golly, a win over Georgia Nov 5, and we've slayed 3 of our biggest dragons in Florida, Bama and UGA. Not saying we will beat Georgia, but if we do, it's obvious we are on an upward trajectory as mentioned by JP, and that puts us up there with "Bad Haircut Kirby" and "I can't dunk a basketball Nicky".

So are our traditional rivals going to be stripped away from us by the SEC? With "pods", we can't have them all. Where will we land in the realignment? Still it's going to be good, but dang it, I want some streaks to begin against the guys with us having W's. Who knows what they will do to us? Anybody talking about this, or have any scuttlebutt on what the league is planning? I know it's been batted around, and honestly I'm feeling a little lazy today and not looking for those threads. Anyway, with Heupel at the helm, regardless it'll be fun.

 

[jeff1vol]

Who said we're peaking?

Brother, we'll still headed up. This isn't the best of Josh Heupel's tenure, this is just the start.

Big things ahead, in 2023 and beyond.

Shrug off the BVS, it's ruining your life.

I hear you, but I dont think you give Hooker enough credit. We are going to miss his play MIGHTLY next year. There will be significant dropoff in offensive performance, IMO.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

I hear you, but I dont think you give Hooker enough credit. We are going to miss his play MIGHTLY next year. There will be significant dropoff in offensive performance, IMO.

I agree. I too believe our offensive production will drop off next year.

 

[ptcarter]

I agree. I too believe our offensive production will drop off next year.

It's year 2. Go back to the preseason threads. 8 wins was going to be a stretch, and we would be ecstatic for 9. 10 was out of the question.
OK, so what if we have a drop off next year? Let's enjoy this one, and understand that those recruits at the Bama and Florida game that saw the "Real Neyland" are foaming at the mouth to play in Knoxville. Yes, may be a drop in year 3, but year 4, 5 and onwards are going to be fun. And Heupel has shown something that hasn't existed on the Hill in a long time; player development in the offseason. Year 3 just might be a surprise. And by the way, a couple of those all world studs at Bama, Young, Gibbs and Anderson will be in the NFL next year (I hope). They will experience some drop off as well.

 

[Sea Ray]

I agree. I too believe our offensive production will drop off next year.

I would hope that the defense would be better

 

[WesternNCVol]

I remember the ‘98 team had to overcome some things to get in the national championship and it seems a key lose by another team boosted us in position to get in.

Lots of football left. All our games are winnable. Not many will be easy.

Kentucky will come for us with all they got. So will SC.

Georgia is dang good. (So are we)

The other games will be pushovers but then again Missouri took Georgia to the wire.

We certainly need some help along the way if we don’t win out including the SEC.

Lsu needs to beat bama. Clemson needs a loss. , OSU/Michigan will sort itself out. Can a PAC 12 team go undefeated? If so they get a spot. Then there’s TCU.

It’s a great year for us and all of college football.

Just know that if our next two quarterbacks can develop like Hooker and we can get a little more defense, we will continually be in the playoffs when expanded.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I hear you, but I dont think you give Hooker enough credit. We are going to miss his play MIGHTLY next year. There will be significant dropoff in offensive performance, IMO.

I give Hendon all the credit in the world. He is awesome.

And yet, he was lost in the shuffle at Va Tech. It took him being surrounded by a coaching staff who deeply understand the game of football and how to design playbooks around the players' skill sets to launch Hendon up to the place where he could show just how good he really is.

Every quarterback on our roster will get that same boost. Every player on our roster will get that same boost. Particularly on the offensive side of the ball at first, but more and more on the defense as well.

The future is blindingly bright, friend. I'll acknowledge Hendon Hooker's great talent, and you acknowledge Josh Heupel & Co.'s brilliance.

No more rebuilding needed (except in our defensive backfield). It's all reloading from here on.

Go Vols!

 

[cwbytruckers]

Who said we're peaking?

Brother, we'll still headed up. This isn't the best of Josh Heupel's tenure, this is just the start.

Big things ahead, in 2023 and beyond.

Shrug off the BVS, it's ruining your life.

Exactly recruiting is about to blow up

 

[Vol865]

We still have to play 5-6 more games before this should be a conversation along with everyone else. Calm down.

 

[Vol in Buckeye Land]

Its ridiculous. When they expand the playoffs, dont be surprised to see a majority of SEC teams on the regular. Figures we'd peak a year too early. Even when our team is awesome, the football universe kicks us in the nuts. Dont see us making the playoffs with a loss. Too many teams will go undefeated. Clemson, TCU, OSU play maybe 1-2 real teams. In the SEC, you'll play 5 or 6+ most years.

If TCU wins out, I’ll eat my hat.

 

[Vols1313]

It’s crazy to look at out schedule look what we have achieved look at what we must achieve to win it all. The SEC is so much stronger than any other league right now their needs to some kind of curve it’s just not fair to have to beat two number one teams Georgia Alabama two three four times combined in a season to win it all. This is a possibility with the playoff system.

We virtually have to win the CFP ( Bama, GA)for the right to play a CFP team (Bama)for a right to maybe play the other again in the CFP(Georgia) but hey Ohio state beat Iowa so that’s something

 

[Mr. Lofton]

Who said we're peaking?

Brother, we'll still headed up. This isn't the best of Josh Heupel's tenure, this is just the start.

Big things ahead, in 2023 and beyond.

Shrug off the BVS, it's ruining your life.

I guess there are a lot of young people on here who weren't around when we were good. They don't understand this isn't a one year anomaly. The groundwork is being done. UT finally hired a really good head coach...not a position coach.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I guess there are a lot of young people on here who weren't around when we were good. They don't understand this isn't a one year anomaly. The groundwork is being done. UT finally hired a really good head coach...not a position coach.

Yeah, I think a lot of folks (and that includes a lot of media types, not just fans on this board) just don't have the right kinds of eyes to see the intangibles that fill in all the space around the program.

I mean, they look at our lads this year and they see parallels to the one-and-done Joe Burrow-led squad of a few years back.

They can't see the massive, weighty, monumental differences in leadership, and culture, and structure surrounding our success that Ed Orgeron never built at LSU.

So they think they're being wise when the envision us falling off a cliff in 2023 the same way Orgeron and LSU did in 2020.

There is no cliff for us. The path ahead is paved with those intangibles I just mentioned. The road continues to climb as far into the distance as the eye can see.

Go Vols!

 

[Volosaurus rex]

Although it will not play out in this fashion, the four best college football teams are, in my opinion, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State, seeded in no particular order. In a perfect world, the fact that three of them play in one conference should not factor into the equation, but you obviously will not wind up with three teams from one conference in the current four-team format. However, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado wound up ranked 1-2-3 in the AP Poll, I believe, after the 1971 season and, honestly, they deserved those rankings.

 

[Volosaurus rex]

Yeah, I think a lot of folks (and that includes a lot of media types, not just fans on this board) just don't have the right kinds of eyes to see the intangibles that fill in all the space around the program.

I mean, they look at our lads this year and they see parallels to the one-and-done Joe Burrow-led squad of a few years back.

They can't see the massive, weighty, monumental differences in leadership, and culture, and structure surrounding our success that Ed Orgeron never built at LSU.

So they think they're being wise when the envision us falling off a cliff in 2023 the same way Orgeron and LSU did in 2020.

There is no cliff for us. The path ahead is paved with those intangibles I just mentioned. The road continues to climb as far into the distance as the eye can see.

Go Vols!

In my opinion, the closest parallel in Tennessee football history, in terms specifically of revolutionary offensive change and immediate turnaround in our record, are the first two years of Dickey's tenure. He inherited a mediocre program, went 4-5-1 in 1964, 8-1-2 in '65 and finished 7th in the country in both polls that year. After decades of single-wing football, Dickey also produced the nation's leader in passing efficiency, Dewey Warren, in 1966.

Needless to say, the changes produced by Heupel are more pronounced on both fronts.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

In my opinion, the closest parallel in Tennessee football history, in terms specifically of revolutionary offensive change and immediate turnaround in our record, are the first two years of Dickey's tenure. He inherited a mediocre program, went 4-5-1 in 1964, 8-1-2 in '65 and finished 7th in the country in both polls that year. After decades of single-wing football, Dickey also produced the nation's leader in passing efficiency, Dewey Warren, in 1966.

Needless to say, the changes produced by Heupel are more pronounced on both fronts.

That's a really good comparison. Thanks for it, Rex!

 

[Volosaurus rex]

That's a really good comparison. Thanks for it, Rex!

If only Dickey had not gone back to Florida, we might have a really good template as long-term precedent. As it was, Dickey was 3-2-1 against Alabama, and very few coaches can claim a winning record against the Bear.