Tennessee and Iowa -- initial comparison

[Tin Man]

That's cause Bammers can't spell RAGBRAI.

"RAG wut?"

"Roll Tide!"
"Roll Tide!" "Roll Tide!"
"Roll Tide!"

ad infinitum

 

[DuckInAPen]

Opting out option for Joe is a lose/lose situation. If he does half our negavol/emotionally challenged consortium will roast him for a lack of loyalty, and if he does not they will dog him and repeat the urban legend that he ran out of bounds to avoid contact in the MS game and trash him for standing in Nico's way. We will hear from that very versatile group one way or the other. They have taken cyber backslapping to a new art form.

You win the euphemism of the year award!

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Where were the points against A&M , Florida , Mizzou and Georgia?

Those teams also scored and held the ball themselves. Iowa is going to keep going 3 and out and sending their defense back out there. Eventually, it's going to break.

 

[PEPPERJAX]

In 50 years of following the Vols I can’t think of any Tennessee game I have less interest in than this one. Iowa??? Yuck!

So your interest was at an all time high when the mighty UCONN huskies rolled into Neyland this year?

 

[Budalicious]

Tennessee lost to Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, all in top 10 in Nation. We will just forget about Florida loss. Iowa lost to Michigan, (who Bama will beat). And they lost to Penn St (who Ole Miss will beat.)

Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri are all very high octane offenses. Iowa is ranked dead last #130 in FBS on offense

 

[Volfan1000]

In spite of the fact that Iowa is 10-3 and the Vols are only 8-4, the two teams seem to balance fairly well.

1. Iowa's best wins were against three 7-5 teams: Iowa State, Wisconsin, and Northwestern. The Vols best wins were against two 7-5 teams: Texas A&M and Kentucky.

2. Iowa's worst loss was against a 5-7 team: Minnesota. Tennessee's worst loss was against a 5-7 team: Florida.

3. Iowa lost to both Top 10 teams it played: Penn State and Michigan. Tennessee lost to all three Top 10 teams we played: Bama, UGa, and Mizzou.

4. The combined record of all the teams Iowa beat this year was 55-65 (.458). The record of all the teams the Vols beat was 44-42 (.512).

5. One significant difference: the average score of Iowa's 2023 games was 17-13 in Iowa's favor. Their MO was to win close games, with not much offense but a smothering defense. Only one opponent scored more than 30 points on them. By contrast, the average score of Vols matches was 32-22, in our favor. While not the fire-hot offense of 2022, our lads still scored 30+ points seven different times. So, something has to give here.

6. Tellingly, the point margin in Iowa's favor this year was, on average, just 4 points. The delta in the Vols' favor averaged out at 10 points. Advantage to the Vols.

Given all this, I wouldn't be surprised to see Vegas put the spread at about 3 or 4 points. In our favor. Yes, in spite of the fact that Iowa is the 10-win team that went to its conference championship match, I think the Vols are going to be favored to win.

Go Vols!

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Let's trap some Hawkeyes.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

You win the euphemism of the year award!

Based on the OFFICIAL definiton......

NOUN

1. a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
   
   I will accept your analysis as accurate. It is the combination of quantity and consistency of our dark sides that makes reading this board UNPLEASANT at a minimum. Hard to really assess the impact on visitors or agenda based talking heads who just see the posts as evidence.