rekinhavoc
Deus Vult
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2007
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Why, for the love of all that is Holy, did we schedule Army?Right now on paper it looks like we have 5 likely wins for 2021, 4 toss-ups (projected margin within 7 points), and 3 likely losses. I think most folks agree on this though some may see some of the toss-ups as likely losses. Best case scenario is maybe we win all the toss ups. Hopefully we get at least two. jmo.
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This could potentially be the best roster we have for a couple years or so and what we’re able to do with it may influence where it’s at next year and beyond.
Next year we swap out facing Ole Miss in Neyland for a trip to Death Valley to face LSU. We also have a rematch next year with Pitt, only this time in their house. Rounding out our OOC schedule for next year is Ball State, Army, and UT-Martin. Right now ESPN FPI actually has MAC team Ball State ranked ahead of us for this year at #45; we’re at #48. Army this year is presently at #96 according to ESPN’s ranking. The biggest thing holding us down in preseason rankings this year is last year's offense. If we assume Heupel gets the offense rolling then we could surprise a lot of folks this year. jmo.
I was around 8 years old when I really started getting into Tennessee football. It’s been 56 seasons. During the first 40 years we had 35 winning seasons and these last 16 years we’ve only had 7 winning seasons. Ties weren’t wins so I counted them as losses.
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I remember as a kid when I first learned that our coach (Doug Dickey) had gone to school at Florida. I was dumbfounded. How in the world could anyone let a gator be in charge of our football program? It was the first scandal I discovered about how the world works and I was genuinely relieved when he went back to his alma mater and turned the program over to Bill Battle. The only time Dickey played Florida was in the 1969 Gator bowl and he lost. It just confirmed my suspicions about him. He had Bobby Scott (spoke at my freshman sports banquet) and Curt Watson and he still lost. smh.
Then I found out Battle who took over for Dickey was from Alabama. WTH? Don’t we have anybody we can trust? When Johnny came home, he was my coach. Finally, someone I could trust and sleep easy at night knowing he wasn’t from an enemy camp.
Dickey is credited with starting three Tennessee football traditions that endure today. He placed the iconic "Power T" decal on the sides of the football helmets, had the Neyland Stadium end zones painted in an orange-and-white checkerboard pattern, and originated the Pride of the Southland marching band's "T" formation through which our players run through to get on the field. Even though I didn’t trust him while he was our coach, I grew to have a great deal of respect and admiration for Dickey after he came back to be our AD.
Bob Woodruff was one of us but he had also served as the AD and Head football coach at Florida from the time before I was born until I was 3 years old. That was sort of before my time so I didn’t hold it against him, much. We beat him 3 out of the 4 times we played his team back then. Anyway, he officially became my AD for life when he brought Johnny home.
Life and football takes all sorts of twists and turns and you never know how things are going to work out. There’s all sorts of odd connections you discover between people, places, and events. Something I discovered Doug Dickey and Josh Heupel have in common is they were both born in South Dakota. That could be a good sign. You never know. Here’s the thing, on September 7, 2024 Oklahoma is scheduled to return to Neyland Stadium. Heupel has a bit over 3 years to get ready. If he wants my continued support he had better win that game. jmo.
Everything is "we'll see" right now. We'll see about this staff, we'll see about the sanctions, we'll see about recruiting, we'll see about players leaving, we'll see about developing those who stay, we'll see about plugging gaps with transfers, we'll see about rebuilding in-state relationships and convincing the best in-state talent to stay home and help rebuild.
We'll see about uniform changes and getting all the oranges to match. We'll see about facilities renos and hiring the right assistants and getting all of our marquee programs moving in the right direction... at the same time.
We are the University of We'll See.
If the ncaa blows up on us, there may need to be a little hillbilly retribution on the former staff. Show cause really means nothing if you can go get paid in the NFL or be an announcer for the duration of the show cause.
Maybe the former coaches will understand just how seriously we take our Volunteer spirit when they end up in a hollow and dueling banjos starts playing. FYI, hillbilly retribution comes directly from the Old Testament...Ever see the movie Next of Kin?
Would make for a great reality show...Run for your life, Neked and Skered, , something along those lines. Any suggestions?
I'll never understand how a coaching staff can get a school into so much trouble and then bolt to new jobs but the school has to bare the brunt of the punishment while the coaches get off free. I am glad we did our own investigation before NCAA caught us first. I believe that is going to help us a lot come penalty time but like I said, how is it right for coaches that caused it to not have pay in some way even more than the school.
Hey now , take that back. Catbone is never right about nothing. I just figured I would get the ints out here in public, we are use to INTs here
If Heup can develop the QB who played against Minnesota last year then we’ll have something
Well, it’s year 1. You think this roster sucks. I don’t think it does. But if he underachieves and wins 5 games, then it would be wrong of me to say, “well Kingston, you were right, congratulations, the roster wasn’t good enough.”And unlike Bass, if Heupel blows past my expectations this season, I will gladly come here and say I was wrong and that he did a great job.
If he underachieves relative to Bass's 6-8 win prediction, he will just move the goalposts.
I feel like we'll have a pretty good idea of things after the Pitt game. If we handle our business there and head into Florida at 3-0 then I like our chances to win 6-8. If we're 2-1 or worse then my confidence will be a tad low.
Ideally we carry 2 or fewer losses into the Bama game, I think we can legit beat every team on the schedule except the big 3 we play.
5 wins is my conservative prediction if we win that many or more I'll be pretty happy with the season all things considered.
Some tool asked about Wideman on that podcast yesterdayI like Eric Cain. I didn’t dislike Josh Ward but when he did it, IMO, I felt like he was just giving a very generic high level birds eye view of the team. Cain seems to give more of his opinion or things he’s hearing etc.
I could be wrong because I only discovered it a few weeks prior to Cain taking over for Ward - but that’s my take.
Plus I like the Twitter Tuesdays.
I do agree Cain needs to work out some kinks. Not sure if it’s prep work or organization. There will be times when he’s trying to read something and say he can’t find the tweet etc.
But the best part of it is he’s not mouth breather Trey Wallace or goober cuck Rucker.