USA Today College Football Countdown No. 68 - Tennessee

#2
#2
Lol. We are #68 and MTSU is #70. I love MTSU, but we would beat the hell out of them.
 
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#3
#3
All of it a good solid read and I would agree with most of the major points. Neither pollyanna nor chicken little. Clearly others are seeing CBJ rebuild the program in ways that are foundational rather than flash. Those should result in more wins and CBJ has a good history of winning but this year is still going to be tough. I think the last part sums it up pretty well:

SEASON BREAKDOWN & PREDICTION:

In a nutshell: Butch Jones has spent the last 18 months up to his elbows in concrete and mortar, laying the foundation for Tennessee's return to SEC competitiveness by adding layer upon layer of depth to each position on the Volunteers' roster. It's been impressive: Tennessee is loaded with young talent on both sides of the ball, in the trenches and out, and can now turn its focus to player development, the next stage in Jones' rebuilding project. But there's a key word there, and it deserves to be italicized: young. Tennessee is young, without a doubt, and dangerously so at several key positions – receiver, offensive line, defensive line, secondary and special teams. Only a diehard pessimist could ignore UT's overall talent; it doesn't take a pessimist to notice the Volunteers' overall youth, however.

But talent will end this program's run outside the postseason, hinging on six factors: one, whether Worley can be the steady, reliable presence this offense needs under center; two, how well the freshmen grasp the offense at the skill positions; three, if the reworked offensive line can stay healthy; four, if the front seven can hold up, particularly along the interior; five, how much of an impact the freshmen will have along the back seven; and six, whether or not UT can maintain some consistency in the kicking game. In general, it's vital that Jones and his staff get the entire roster – a third of which is new to the program – on the same page before late August. I trust in Jones' ability to get this done. He's done nothing since arriving to alter my faith in the process.

This is a six-win team that will struggle to land more than seven wins, given the difficulty of the schedule. All told, UT will face either nine or 10 bowl teams, depending on how well Vanderbilt takes to Derek Mason. The Volunteers take on Oklahoma, Georgia and South Carolina on the road; Florida, Alabama and Missouri come to Knoxville. The basic point: Don't expect any miracles. Do expect, however, a substantial degree of improvement, a stronger performance against all competition, a stiff sense of purpose and huge strides during the course of the season. It's a young team, but the potential is off the charts.

Given what Tennessee has in hand and coming in next year's class, all Jones needs to do is find a quarterback. The skill players are there. The line will only get better. The defense will improve as the youngsters gain a stronger comfort level in the system. The back seven, for example, is brimming with all-league potential. If UT can find its quarterback – and maybe it's Dobbs – the Volunteers are one year away from competing for the SEC East Division. For 2014, the Volunteers should be happy with a six-win return to the postseason.

Dream season: Tennessee nets eight wins, losing to Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina.

Nightmare season: The Volunteers fall back to 4-8, finishing a game ahead of Kentucky in the East.
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#4
#4
I am sorry but I will not read any article that ranks us 67th in the nation, prove them wrong Big Orange! Trust me I live in Raleigh and had to hear all summer how great NC State is and there great secondary. I said yeah they are pretty good for the ACC but we have a pretty good recieving corp Wolf Pack. Monday morning was a quiet day at work lol.
 
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#5
#5
Nice article & a long one too. Good over-all look at UT. Key word for UT this year is that we are a young team but we may whip dey ass once we jell as a team. If we can play w/our confidence up I'm going w/a 7-5 year.
 
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#7
#7
jacobyvoln27 said:
I am sorry but I will not read any article that ranks us 67th in the nation, prove them wrong Big Orange! Trust me I live in Raleigh and had to hear all summer how great NC State is and there great secondary. I said yeah they are pretty good for the ACC but we have a pretty good recieving corp Wolf Pack. Monday morning was a quiet day at work lol.
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Oh, well you can read this article....they have us at 68th in the nation 😁😊😳
 
#8
#8
I think Tennessee is a six win team and so do they. As long as this team is bowl bound and shows improvement that is all that matters.
 
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#9
#9
Well thanks KB Vol so if we played in lets say Utah or ECU conferences and went 10-2 unlike the scenario we face this year ending up 6-6 or no greater then 8-4? I wonder if us be ranked just outside that top 25 would make us a better team. No team with the exception of maybe Ky. should be lower then 50th.
 
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#11
#11
jacobyvoln27 said:
Well thanks KB Vol so if we played in lets say Utah or ECU conferences and went 10-2 unlike the scenario we face this year ending up 6-6 or no greater then 8-4? I wonder if us be ranked just outside that top 25 would make us a better team. No team with the exception of maybe Ky. should be lower then 50th.
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Nothing matters outside of the final Top Four rankings. The rest is just fluff and conjecture.
 
#12
#12
vtvol98 said:
Nothing matters outside of the final Top Four rankings. The rest is just fluff and conjecture.
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I agree that is how it used to be for us long time Vol fans and I hope this is where we are back to in two to three years.:crossfingers:
 
#15
#15
jacobyvoln27 said:
Well thanks KB Vol so if we played in lets say Utah or ECU conferences and went 10-2 unlike the scenario we face this year ending up 6-6 or no greater then 8-4? I wonder if us be ranked just outside that top 25 would make us a better team. No team with the exception of maybe Ky. should be lower then 50th.
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I was just funnin' 27. I agree that being ranked 68th is a bit dubious and nothing to get excited about. I kinda took the nebulous ranking with a grain of salt and took in the information presented even though there was nothing really new. I'm just jonesin' for the season to commence.
 
#16
#16
Frankly, my give-a-$hit ratio is very low when considering pre-season ratings. That is one problem with the entire rating system ... it's hard to climb and just as difficult to fall. The first polls should be no earlier than October.
 
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#18
#18
GolfvolSC said:
What is the lowest ranking a team has come up from to win the National Championship before this year's Tennessee Team?
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No idea. I was just goofin on 27 cause he said he wouldn't read an article that had us ranked 67th, when the article actually had us ranked 68th.
 
#21
#21
I don't necessarily buy the ranking at 68. I think that's low. But the article itself was very well-written. It might be the best summary I've seen so far of the current state of Tennessee football. Good find, OP, thanks.
 
#22
#22
I think it would be higher if we had an easier schedule. Yes we could very well finish 8-4 over some quality teams as mentioned in the "dream season" portion, but we could also finish historically low as mentioned in the "nightmare season" portion. It's tempered off the expectation we will win 6 games or so, and make the post season again, nothing great, nothing terrible, just improvement. As it should be.
 
#23
#23
jacobyvoln27 said:
I am sorry but I will not read any article that ranks us 67th in the nation, prove them wrong Big Orange! Trust me I live in Raleigh and had to hear all summer how great NC State is and there great secondary. I said yeah they are pretty good for the ACC but we have a pretty good recieving corp Wolf Pack. Monday morning was a quiet day at work lol.
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NC State had a great 2ndary when we played them in 2012 & we burned them time & again hehe. I think 68th is WAY too low. We'll surprise some people I think.
 
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