Vols destined to only be a top 20 team...

#26
#26
alleyvalley said:
Agree with the above; however, why can't we recruit? Is it an issue of long-term stability with the coach? I mean the fan base is there.
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Might have something to do with being a dumpster fire for two decades before Heupel got here. Vols were kind of the laughing stock poster child for athletic department dysfunction.
 
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#27
#27
Illinoisvolfan2 said:
After watching that debacle last night we are a long way from having a legitimate national title contender. OSU would beat us 19 out of 20 times. We had no chance
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Maybe not 19 out of 20 cause Ohio State isn't that much more talented than say Georgia and we were competitive in that game. Also we beat Alabama who on paper has a similarly talented roster. What happened last night was Ohio State played their A game. They won't play that way every time. But when they do it's impossible for a team with our talent profile to beat them. To have a chance we would need them to play a C game while we played our A game. And even then they could still win at Columbus. We would need a home game in addition to them not playing their A game to have a shot against a roster that much more talented than ours.

If we wanna win national championships we'll need to recruit a lot better so that we can take on an Ohio State who is playing their A game and still come out with the victory like Georgia did in 2022.
 
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#28
#28
Dobbs 4 Heisman said:
Maybe not 19 out of 20 cause Ohio State isn't that much more talented than say Georgia and we were competitive in that game. Also we beat Alabama who on paper has a similarly talented roster. What happened last night was Ohio State played their A game. They won't play that way every time. But when they do it's impossible for a team with our talent profile to beat them. To have a chance we would need them to play a C game while we played our A game. And even then they could still win at Columbus. We would need a home game in addition to them not playing their A game to have a shot against a roster that much more talented than ours.

If we wanna win national championships we'll need to recruit a lot better so that we can take on an Ohio State who is playing their A game and still come out with the victory like Georgia did in 2022.
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We’re not going to out recruit the Ohio states and Georgia’s of the world.
 
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#29
#29
It's distasteful but the next step up is money. The big spenders are winning the recruiting battles and the portal battles for the very top talent.

Doing more with less used to work but you can look around and see that several of the QBs still in the hunt for the trophy aren't at their original school. Once they got recognition, the teams that build winners were there to offer them elite teammates.

We're a top 10 team and it feels good but until the money is better, we've found a ceiling. I'd say we'll need the $20M the school can provide + about $30M, maybe $40M / yr, by 2030 and at some point, without a multi-billionaire angel, I'm not certain other teams can keep up with Knight or Ellison or Texas oilmen money.
 
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#30
#30
Berry4Heisman14 said:
We’re not going to out recruit the Ohio states and Georgia’s of the world.
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We don't need to outrecruit them. We just need to recruit close to their level. Right now we're not on their level. Teams like Texas and Oregon have recruited on their level recently which is why they've been more competitive against Georgia and Ohio State than we have. We need to raise our talent profile from 17th in the nation (which we were heading into this year) into the top 5-6 range like Oregon and Texas.

If we can land a couple of top 5 recruiting classes we should be able to compete with Georgia and Ohio State even if they play their best. Right now we have no shot against them if they show up.
 
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#31
#31
DaddyChad said:
Bama about to have things turn against them as well.
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Wrong. #2 in recruiting. Look at ANY school and if they have over 50% blue chips they're going to be good just by the Jimmy's and Joe's unless the coach is a complete idiot or are weak at the QB spot. Every team blowed out the first round had <50% blue chips by teams that had >50% blue chips. Ryan day is not a good coach but he has a load of talent
 
#32
#32
Dobbs 4 Heisman said:
We're not willing to shell out the big bucks like Oregon and Texas. Both teams don't have the recent success of Georgia, Alabama, and Ohio State yet they've been recruiting in the top 3-5 the last few years. And that's because they are willing to spend the big bucks needed to compete at the highest level.

If we wanna win a national title we're gonna need to start recruiting in the top 5 rather than the 10-15 range.
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We had a plan in place to shell out 8 million dollars to a kid before he hit his 18th birthday and had never taken a college snap. Wtf are you actually talking about?
 
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#33
#33
GAV4L said:
247sports.com

2025 Recruit Football Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
247sports.com 247sports.com
View attachment 708719
Here's a bit of a hint at why we are where we are
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We need to consistently recruit at a top 10 level at minimum and occasionally sign a top 5-7 class and develop those players incredibly well just to have a chance at making a legitimate championship run
 
#34
#34
Berry4Heisman14 said:
We’re not going to out recruit the Ohio states and Georgia’s of the world.
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Perhaps not on a consistent basis, but recruiting is only part of the equation. Ask Florida State and USC (the real USC, lol). The coaching staff has to properly develop players, come up with a game plan and in-game adjustments that gives the players the best opportunity to win, and continue to develop depth by giving backups meaningful snaps during games.

Spending huge amounts (salaries, NIL, facilities, etc.) doesn't always work out. What does Texas A&M have to show for its recent free-spending ways -- other than a $75M+ buyout of Jimbo Fisher's contract? Oregon State spent $161M on its stadium remodel -- just in time to see the Pac 12 to disintegrate and its coach leave for Michigan State. Nebraska has spent millions buying out contracts of former head coaches Mike Riley and Scott Frost -- after zero CCG appearances and multiple losing seasons.

Tennessee won a NC in 1998. There is no reason I can think of why the Volunteers (or Nebraska for that matter) can't compete for/win another national championship with the right coaching staff and support. Obviously, it's not going to be easy, but it shouldn't be.
 
#35
#35
GAV4L said:
247sports.com

2025 Recruit Football Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
247sports.com 247sports.com
View attachment 708719
Here's a bit of a hint at why we are where we are
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"Oh look another stargazer."

"All our guys are diamonds in the rough that only we're smart enough to find""

"coach fill in the blank finds guys that fit our system/fills our needs"

Have I missed any excuses? I've been saying since the latter days of Fulmer, you can't out-scheme or out-coach more talented teams on a week to week basis. I don't care who the coach is.

If you're going to consistently recruit classes that are 8th best in your conference, a really good coach and developer of talent could make a team the 3rd/4th/ 5th best team in the conference but they can't win the conference.
 
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#36
#36
So long as we are consistently recruiting outside the top 5, yes. You're going to lose players to the portal. You're going to gain players in the portal. But the portal isn't going to be a long term solution to fixing problems.
 
#37
#37
Someone… please correct me if I’m wrong about this… but, we did just go 10 - 2 and make the playoffs?? In just 4 short years after Pruitt led us to the worst season record ever in our program, almost got us destroyed by the NCAA & there was mass exodus of players to the portal… Right?!?!?!
 
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#38
#38
TheVolunteer002 said:
We had a plan in place to shell out 8 million dollars to a kid before he hit his 18th birthday and had never taken a college snap. Wtf are you actually talking about?
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Well the top schools aren't just dishing out that money for one kid. They're doing it for several kids which is why they recruit better than us. We did what we needed to do to land guys like Nico and David Sanders. Now we need to start landing 4-5 consensus five stars per class rather than just 1 if we want to compete with the Georgia's and Ohio State's of the world.
 
#40
#40
MurphyVol said:
"Oh look another stargazer."

"All our guys are diamonds in the rough that only we're smart enough to find""

"coach fill in the blank finds guys that fit our system/fills our needs"
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There are some truth to these points, as someone who is harping on having recruiting better I'll admit those guys aren't all wrong when they say those things, but there's a reason why teams like Ohio State are always in the CFP championship discussion year after year and they also routinely finish in the top 5 of recruiting classes.

Same with UGA, Bama, and now Texas is joining the conversation.
 
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#41
#41
Dobbs 4 Heisman said:
We were #7 in the last CFP poll. And #6 in both the AP and Coaches Poll. We're a top 10 program right now. What we ain't is a top 3 national title contender like Ohio State and Georgia. Those two teams outclassed us because they have more talent. We need to start recruiting at a top 5 level annually if we wanna compete with them. If we don't then we'll continue to be what we were this year. Good enough to make the playoffs but not good enough to actually compete with those that can win it all.
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Not top 10. Sorry. We are Not as good as smu or Indiana. Scoreboard.... What Tennessee was this year was a fraud top 10. Remove the blinders.....
 
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#44
#44
alleyvalley said:
or in a good year maybe top 10? Don't understand it but just not in the cards to be a consistent powerhouse year after year like georgia, alabama etcetera...
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We are a second-tier program right now. Not elite or a championship program. This is not gonna change unless Heup changes himself and his approach to building a championship program from the ground up, as I see it.
 
#45
#45
I live in Texas now. You can't compete with how much money the Horns have. Not just in NIL for athletics. Thanks to their oil endowments they now offer free tuition to any students who's family makes less than 100k AGI. They have more money than they know what to do with. Building medical schools all over the state.
 
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#47
#47
GAV4L said:
247sports.com

2025 Recruit Football Team Rankings

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.
247sports.com 247sports.com
View attachment 708719
Here's a bit of a hint at why we are where we are
Click to expand...
This is so ridiculous.

You are suggesting that this is proof that we aren't recruiting well, right?

That is so profoundly stupid. You people only get wrapped up in numerical rankings, as if there is some big damn deal between the #6 and #12 teams .... Typically, there isn't.
 
#49
#49
BowlBrother85 said:
This is so ridiculous.

You are suggesting that this is proof that we aren't recruiting well, right?

That is so profoundly stupid. You people only get wrapped up in numerical rankings, as if there is some big damn deal between the #6 and #12 teams .... Typically, there isn't.
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This 100 percent. Ohio state has been stacking top 10 classes for years now.

We've only recently been able to add quality depth the last couple years.
 
#50
#50
AstonRoyal said:
We can keep making the money excuse but heupel hasn’t remotely proven he can recruit with the best of them. Even when it comes to the portal
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To add to that, Heupel has also mismanaged his NIL portal free agent adds. He has not been good at properly identifying talent to fit his offensive system.

In the NFL, this is the job of a General Manager. The NFL went through a period where it was popular to let the coach act as general manager too and that didnt end well for most coaches.
 
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