Reality Check

[TNStudMuffin]

I think when a team looks defeated, disoriented, discombobulated, ie Titans, thats when the talk should begin.

We are nowhere near that. Our team still plays hard and together. Don’t let VN trolls upset you. There are a lot of rabble rousers who probably get paid by other teams to come here and post.

They play hard and together? We've scored 10 points in our last 4 second halves. lol

 

[SpookyAction]

TX has not won the BigXII since 2009.
OK is not playing at the elite (playoff) level the past few seasons.
I expect a bit of a shock to these two programs playing against high level opponents most of the season.
It is going to be a shock to every SEC team. No CFB conference has ever played schedules like we will the next two seasons. SEC play will look like the NFL conference schedules where no one escapes the season unscathed.

The 12 team playoff may produce the same final four each year (as has been stated in the thread), but we will see them have to beat some good teams, which is not guaranteed during the regular season.

 

[OptimisticFan]

View attachment 596976

Here are the football records for the last 16 seasons.

Note that HALF were LOSING seasons.

Heupel has the best season by far (and the best going all the way back to 98)…and with two more wins this season would tie for the second-best record, too.

So…my question: How are so many on here losing their freaking minds over this season? You act like South Carolina fans thinking that anything less than perfection isn’t good enough. When our recent history doesn’t back up your expectations.

I remain all-in on Heupel. By far the best coach we’ve had since early-00s Fulmer.

Thank you for injecting sanity into the public consciousness.

 

[JMSqb11]

Majors posted 4-7, 5-5-1,7-5,5-6,8-4 in his first 5 years. With this crowd he would not have made it to the SEC championship team in 85.

I don’t care about comparing Heupel to that drunk.

 

[DarkVolder]

TX has not won the BigXII since 2009.
OK is not playing at the elite (playoff) level the past few seasons.
I expect a bit of a shock to these two programs playing against high level opponents most of the season.
It is going to be a shock to every SEC team. No CFB conference has ever played schedules like we will the next two seasons. SEC play will look like the NFL conference schedules where no one escapes the season unscathed.

The 12 team playoff may produce the same final four each year (as has been stated in the thread), but we will see them have to beat some good teams, which is not guaranteed during the regular season.

Nothing is really gonna change though when OU and Texas come in next year it will still be Georgia and Bama rolling over everyone else

 

[EastTNVol423]

Looking up actual facts to give context is not lazy.

What is lazy is pulling your fing out of your ___, sticking it in the air to feel which way the wind is blowing and spouting off judgments without any factual support.

The Florida loss was disappointing, but it still was a conference road game at night. The other three losses were to really good football teams (with two being on the road).

The bottom line is that this Vols team is not great by any stretch. Getting to 8-4 with some solid conference wins is not the end of the world.

hahahahaha Florida is terrible. Please tell me which of our wins is the most solid? a terrible UK team? A&M team that fired their coach midseason? Mizzou is having a good season for what Mizzou is but there is no reason for us to be that far behind them in year 3.

 

[EZE]

hahahahaha Florida is terrible. Please tell me which of our wins is the most solid? a terrible UK team? A&M team that fired their coach midseason? Mizzou is having a good season for what Mizzou is but there is no reason for us to be that far behind them in year 3.

We beat them the last two seasons, Einstein. They have the better QB this season and will win 10+ games while playing and SEC schedule. That is good. Period.

One season does not define the future.

Anyhow, what do you propose as a solution? I’m interested to hear it.

 

[EastTNVol423]

What is Mizzou's best win this year? us?? They haven't beaten anybody that matters. It's too late to solve any issues this season. Everybody better hope that Nico is everything he is hyped up to be.

If you went back in time to the day Huepel was hired, what would you say his record/expectations be should be in year 4? My answer would be that we should be winning 9-11 games and competing for the SEC/12 team playoff.

 

[BeardedVol]

They act like we’re 4-8 instead of 8-4.

No one cares about the 4 OOC wins when we are still .500 in conference play.



With a win over Vanderbilt, we are 3rd in the division, and 6th in the conference.

It's the literal definition of "middling SEC team".

 

[EZE]

 

[UTFranklinVol]

View attachment 596976

Here are the football records for the last 16 seasons.

Note that HALF were LOSING seasons.

Heupel has the best season by far (and the best going all the way back to 98)…and with two more wins this season would tie for the second-best record, too.

So…my question: How are so many on here losing their freaking minds over this season? You act like South Carolina fans thinking that anything less than perfection isn’t good enough. When our recent history doesn’t back up your expectations.

I remain all-in on Heupel. By far the best coach we’ve had since early-00s Fulmer.

I think the biggest thing people question is that 11 win season. Were we really lucky to have Heupel as a "the best coach since the early 00s" or were we really lucky to have Hendon Hooker and Jalen Hyatt on the same team? Because this year I saw the same coach and basically the same team with a better OL and better running game but minus Hooker and Hyatt and the results are crazy different. Like, a whole lot different.

I made this point in a previous post but our 8 wins this year was a stroke of luck by the scheduling gods. We played basically 4 cupcake OOC games plus Candy Kentucky and a South Carolina team with a horrendous OL and the most sacks given up ever. Then throw in TAMU who just fired their coach and we played basically nobody outside of the 4 games we LOST. We beat absolutely nobody of note without Hooker and Hyatt.

So are we supposed to hope that Nico is a Heisman level QB next year because Heupels system didn't work this year.

 

[sami]

I think the biggest thing people question is that 11 win season. Were we really lucky to have Heupel as a "the best coach since the early 00s" or were we really lucky to have Hendon Hooker and Jalen Hyatt on the same team? Because this year I saw the same coach and basically the same team with a better OL and better running game but minus Hooker and Hyatt and the results are crazy different. Like, a whole lot different.

I made this point in a previous post but our 8 wins this year was a stroke of luck by the scheduling gods. We played basically 4 cupcake OOC games plus Candy Kentucky and a South Carolina team with a horrendous OL and the most sacks given up ever. Then throw in TAMU who just fired their coach and we played basically nobody outside of the 4 games we LOST. We beat absolutely nobody of note without Hooker and Hyatt.

So are we supposed to hope that Nico is a Heisman level QB next year because Heupels system didn't work this year.

Question - what was Hooker before spending a year with Heupel going into 2022? What was Hyatt? Who exactly made who?

"Basically the same team"? Minus a Heisman level QB, the Biletnikoff winner WR, a 1st round LT, and with an inordinate amount of injuries.

You're making comments as "facts" without a shred of context. But there's no point in going through it again, because you guys have made your minds up that despite inheriting the program in the shape it was in, and as mediocre as it's been over the last decade and a half, that anything less than 10 wins annually by Heupel's third year is a failure.