So did we sacrifice this season

[VOLINVONORE]

Brave, I don't think 9 is the floor. I think 8-4 is the floor, and 12-0 is the ceiling, every year from now on, as long as we have Josh coaching us. 10-2 will be the "average," and there will be championship seasons, but there will also be off years.

Even a coach as elite as Robert Neyland would occasionally have a bad year (he had a 7-3 outing, a 6-2-2, and a 6-3-1...a 5-5, and a 4-4-2 as well). Bad things can happen to good people.

My concern is, having seen the way we treated our most recent national title winning head coach, that we avoid the pitchforks when Josh has an inevitable down year from time to time. 8-4 or 9-3 is no reason to change head coaches, as long as it is counter-balanced by 11-1 and 12-0 seasons.

I know that's not what you were saying, I just get antsy any time I see someone saying the floor is 9 or even 10 wins.

Go Vols!

Adding Oklahoma and Texas Keeps the SEC as the strngest conference in the Nation. It also means that it will be even more difficult to go through a season undefeated. As we continue to increase our talent, we will continue to increase our ability to climb spots toward the top of the League. After seeing Bama play last night, I think we are likely reaching their level and have passed Florida. We will be able to beat Missouri, and LSU and have our sights set on Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia.

 

[Carp]

It was 1 game folks. Against an Iowa team with an offensive capability that makes those Jeremy Pruitt teams look like 2019 LSU.

I love Nico as much as anyone. It was exciting watching him play well. But to think he would changed the outcome of our season is silly. As we saw, even a change at QB didn't stop our WRs from having a case of the dropsies. That has been an issue that has plagued us all season.

The biggest difference was how electric Nico was with his legs. That is the main weakness I've pointed out with Milton all season. He has good straight line speed, but zero agility. Nico adds that dimension to this offense that we missed with Hooker leaving.

 

[Smokymtnbullet]

Nico developed over the season.it wouldn’t have been pretty if he started when all the trailer park quarterbacks thought he should.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Brave, I don't think 9 is the floor. I think 8-4 is the floor, and 12-0 is the ceiling, every year from now on, as long as we have Josh coaching us. 10-2 will be the "average," and there will be championship seasons, but there will also be off years.

Even a coach as elite as Robert Neyland would occasionally have a bad year (he had a 7-3 outing, a 6-2-2, and a 6-3-1...a 5-5, and a 4-4-2 as well). Bad things can happen to good people.

My concern is, having seen the way we treated our most recent national title winning head coach, that we avoid the pitchforks when Josh has an inevitable down year from time to time. 8-4 or 9-3 is no reason to change head coaches, as long as it is counter-balanced by 11-1 and 12-0 seasons.

I know that's not what you were saying, I just get antsy any time I see someone saying the floor is 9 or even 10 wins.

Go Vols!

Sure. I was counting bowl wins as part of the win total. 8-4 as the regular season floor is what I meant. I think that's a fair expectation when looking out long-term for the program. And yes, anything can happen in bowl games so 8-5 would be a possibility as well.

But let me ask you this, what is your expectation for Tennessee regarding playoff appearances going forward? With it expanding to 12 teams, How many times in a 5 year span should we expect to be one of those 12 teams? I think conservatively, 3 out of 5 years should be the expectation.

 

[rikberry31]

By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.

If you think Nico is the same player at the end of the season as he was at the beginning you are mistaken. He learned a lot this season, like the system. Throwing a young qb to the wolves often scars them and creates bad habits, ask JG.

 

[posivol]

Nico developed over the season.it wouldn’t have been pretty if he started when all the trailer park quarterbacks thought he should.

he even said that himself.

 

[posivol]

Sure. I was counting bowl wins as part of the win total. 8-4 as the regular season floor is what I meant. I think that's a fair expectation when looking out long-term for the program. And yes, anything can happen in bowl games so 8-5 would be a possibility as well.

But let me ask you this, what is your expectation for Tennessee regarding playoff appearances going forward? With it expanding to 12 teams, How many times in a 5 year span should we expect to be one of those 12 teams? I think conservatively, 3 out of 5 years should be the expectation.

4 out of 5

 

[livefaith]

Nico never looks away from his first choice

He does and did. One play he made 3 progressions, tucked it and made a nice run for FD. Remember, many of our routes are WR options, that require the WR to be stared down until he makes a choice. Then the QB throws or holds.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Sure. I was counting bowl wins as part of the win total. 8-4 as the regular season floor is what I meant. I think that's a fair expectation when looking out long-term for the program. And yes, anything can happen in bowl games so 8-5 would be a possibility as well.

But let me ask you this, what is your expectation for Tennessee regarding playoff appearances going forward? With it expanding to 12 teams, How many times in a 5 year span should we expect to be one of those 12 teams? I think conservatively, 3 out of 5 years should be the expectation.

I agree with that 100%, Brave. I think we should make the playoffs "in an average season." Like, 6 or 7 years out of every 10.

It takes, roughly, a 10-2 or better regular season to end the year in the Top 12 (==making the playoffs). Once in a while you see a 10-3 team get there, but that's usually because they went 9-3 or 10-2 before playing in their conference CG.

So, 10-2. In years where we go 10-2, with or without a trip to Atlanta, we will almost always be in the playoffs.

And with a window of 8-4 to 12-0 as our expectation, we should be going 10-2 or better more than half the time. So 3 years out of every 5 in the playoffs seems about right to me.

And 2 out of every 5 we get to Atlanta. That seems about right, too. Don't you agree?

Go Vols!

p.s. I firmly believe we're going to the playoffs each of the next 3 seasons, for instance. I have that much confidence in our near-term future.

 

[Jxn Vol]

Name the more talented underclassmen

I will keep it easy. The old mules in the secondary along with their coach should have been retired/removed/relocated after last season. Start anyone that can fog a mirror over those guys.

The Milton, Nico issue is settled after yesterday. It’s obvious who is the better, more accurate passer. We also played faster and didn’t have to look to the sideline for every call.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I will keep it easy. The old mules in the secondary along with their coach should have been retired/removed/relocated after last season. Start anyone that can fog a mirror over those guys.

The Milton, Nico issue is settled after yesterday. It’s obvious who is the better, more accurate passer. We also played faster and didn’t have to look to the sideline for every call.

I agree with Nico

 

[Orangeslide]

Nico wasn’t ready. He has the potential to be as good as Hendon, which is the modern benchmark for how good a player could be in Heupel’s system, but he would’ve gotten slaughtered with this team in SEC play. It could have ruined him.

I love the kid and what I think he can accomplish the next few years though.

I agree with your take that Nico was not ready. Heupel knew he was not ready. Nico has been groomed by Heupel for over a year preparing to grow and learn the system. I think he took Joe and made him the best he could be with what he had to work with. With that being said, Nico has something that Joe didn’t have and HEUPEL cannot teach and that is instinct. He has the ability to make plays when things break down. I think Heupel
realizes what a gem he has to work with for the next two years. The future looks bright for Tennessee football.

 

[TJVol95]

Tf ? Did you even watch hime play today ? He went through progressions multiple times

I watched him look at his first receiver and hit him or run multiple times. Or get sacked. He has a great arm and aim. Just needs to pump and look off more. He will be solid no doubt! He’s a much better passer than Joe.

 

[BigALWiLson]

I watched him look at his first receiver and hit him or run multiple times. Or get sacked. He has a great arm and aim. Just needs to pump and look off more. He will be solid no doubt! He’s a much better passer than Joe.

Several occasions he went through his entire route tree. Its hard to do that when you have 0.2 seconds to throw the ball

 

[VOLINVONORE]

I agree with that 100%, Brave. I think we should make the playoffs "in an average season." Like, 6 or 7 years out of every 10.

It takes, roughly, a 10-2 or better regular season to end the year in the Top 12 (==making the playoffs). Once in a while you see a 10-3 team get there, but that's usually because they went 9-3 or 10-2 before playing in their conference CG.

So, 10-2. In years where we go 10-2, with or without a trip to Atlanta, we will almost always be in the playoffs.

And with a window of 8-4 to 12-0 as our expectation, we should be going 10-2 or better more than half the time. So 3 years out of every 5 in the playoffs seems about right to me.

And 2 out of every 5 we get to Atlanta. That seems about right, too. Don't you agree?

Go Vols!

p.s. I firmly believe we're going to the playoffs each of the next 3 seasons, for instance. I have that much confidence in our near-term future.

I agree with almost everything you said, However, we both know that we must continue to participate in the NIL to a highest possible level. If not, 10-2 and above seasons will not happen.

 

[njvols]

Nico never looks away from his first choice

Not that the announcers for the game were any great talents, but one of them noted at least twice that he threw to his third option. I don't know if he did or he didn't, but trust JH to dial that in w/ Nico. Think he did great for his first start, and besides being generally on target w/ most of his throws, to me, the two most impressive things were his command of the flow of the game and appeared extremely elusive ...almost like Dobbs slippery...something Joe's never had.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Nico never looks away from his first choice

Choice or option/read?

 

[VolInDayton]

The gap of talent in the junior class made it a transition year more than Miltons play.

 

[LWSVOL]

By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.

The package for him was very vanilla. Impossible to say how he would have done across an entire season. He would have learned and gotten better each week but likely some losses along the way. That's kinda at a learning experience.

Check out Dante Moore results. Another five star thrust into action too soon.

 

[OptimisticFan]

The real answer: nobody knows because you have no way of realistically determining how much Nico could have developed throughout the season. We likely would have performed worse or the same at the beginning of the season and slightly worse or much better throughout the duration of the season.

 

[TheVolsFrog]

The package for him was very vanilla. Impossible to say how he would have done across an entire season. He would have learned and gotten better each week but likely some losses along the way. That's kinda at a learning experience.

Check out Dante Moore results. Another five star thrust into action too soon.

Nico had a good win. The Iowa game he was given vanilla packages which I would expect.
Iowa D didn't live up to their ranking. I don't care what they held MI to when they played. TCU made it to the Champ game so things happen.
Iowa offense is so horrible that when we went up 2 scores it was pretty much over. Nico didn't have to go out and win this game like he would've during SEC play, I hope the staff keeps pounding into his head go down or OB. SEC Defense speed > Iowa speed.
With the way our WR corp dropped balls this year. I don't think we would've done any better this season that what we did with Nico starting. This late in the season and they were still dropping catchable passes then you have Ollie Lane constantly getting us behind the sticks. With Nico extended plays with his legs. I expect Ollie to get flagged even more

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

Some of us here will look at how Nico looked today and assume if we had started him first game that’s what he would’ve been. He’s been practicing and learning a ton along the way folks. We don’t know.

But looks bright moving forward.

This, folks that say you can’t learn by not playing are wrong. I guarantee Nico is much more confident going on the field now versus going out there in September. And he will be even more ready next fall. GBO

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

I agree with your take that Nico was not ready. Heupel knew he was not ready. Nico has been groomed by Heupel for over a year preparing to grow and learn the system. I think he took Joe and made him the best he could be with what he had to work with. With that being said, Nico has something that Joe didn’t have and HEUPEL cannot teach and that is instinct. He has the ability to make plays when things break down. I think Heupel
realizes what a gem he has to work with for the next two years. The future looks bright for Tennessee football.

This is what I said at halftime, he has better instincts already than Joe ever had. You can’t teach instincts. GBO