I never forgot about this article. I think it's time to go remind this clown on Twitter.
The truth hurts, but here it is: Tennessee, you will never be elite again...
Article:
Tennessee has to accept the reality that the 1990s are long gone and not coming back. Matt Hayes explains why, what's realistic and what's next for the Vols.
www.saturdaydownsouth.com
Matt Hayes Twitter (X) Account:
x.com
There are so many obvious holes in this story that make no sense to anyone that knows football.
For instance
Lie: Tennessee is the SEC’s version of Nebraska, a former college football power that continues to circulate through coaching failures without addressing the true north reason.....Players
Fact check: Nebraska always had and always will have recruiting issues. They depended on their walkon program to rise to prominence. Developing a large amount of their talent in-house and recruiting a lot of under the radar guys that fit their system. once they moved away from the triple option they were toast. Their recrtuing classes are mostly 3 stars with a few 4's and a rare 5 sprinkled in.
Lie: The Vols’ recruiting footprint is the state of Tennessee — and fighting an uphill battle in the South. Or potentially using an illegal move (see: Pruitt firing).
Fact Check: UT has always recruited Nationwide and has a very strong recruiting base across the south. Until post Fulmer years UT didn't recruit hard in TN. In state recruiting took off right around the time the level of football instate jumped. Especially middle TN and West TN.
Gaslight alert: Because there’s only one Dabo. Just like there’s one Saban and one Urban Meyer and after that, there’s a deep, deep chasm to the rest of college football coaching fiefdom.
Truth: Before those guys were those guys, they weren't. Josh Heupel exists.. he's real there's also only one of him. There is also Kirby Smart. Just saying there are always great young coaches stepping up to replace the old guard. You just gotta be ready for them when they come around.
Lie: Want to know who can take the current Tennessee situation – with its inherent geographical footprint recruiting issues and lack of elite high school players in the state of Tennessee – and win big?
Fact Check: As mentioned before the lack of high school talent was true in the 80's through the 90's and early 2000's its no longer true. As far as geographical footprint issues that's NEVER been an issue. Knoxville is one of the best situated SEC cities as far as that. As far as the SEC and College football in general goes its one of the few colleges in a major city. Most big colleges are in podunk towns or at best cities you wouldn't know of unless you knew of that college. Most college towns you wouldn't want to visit unless there is a game. I used to also believe the myth that UT had a hard time recruiting but history has shown that's false.. when is the last year UT didn't have a top 25 recruiting class? Do you know how few teams can claim that? I did some research because my memory cant be trusted....I was able to find an article from 2021 that looked at the last 20 years of rivals. UT's average recruiting class at that time was 13.4 over 20 years ranked 11th.. That period of time is the whole desert. So where is the recruiting problem?
Why do people just suck up this garbage without using their brains and doing a bit of research on the statements people make? There are many other hilariously wrong statements (factually) in that article that I could go into but this board has a short attention span and I've already probably made a few heads explode.
