Wanna see what a weak schedule can do?

#1
volgrad500

volgrad500

The Oracle of Orange
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#1
Look at South Carolina. They opened the season beating North Carolina (who opened the season going 1-5-their only win coming against MTSU). USC then loses their next game to Georgia, making them 1-1.

THey then proceed to beat Vandy, Central Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, and then they lose to Tennessee.

They beat an admittedly good Missouri team, then a bad Mississippi State team. 7-2.

I'm not complaining, you play who is in front of you. But they've essentially beaten one good team (Mizzou) and one decent team (UCF), and ridden that to a top 10 ranking.
 
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#2
#2
volgrad500 said:
Look at South Carolina. They opened the season beating North Carolina (who opened the season going 1-5-their only win coming against MTSU). USC then loses their next game to Georgia, making them 1-1.

THey then proceed to beat Vandy, Central Florida, Kentucky, Arkansas, and then they lose to Tennessee.

They beat an admittedly good Missouri team, then a bad Mississippi State team. 7-2.

I'm not complaining, you play who is in front of you. But they've essentially beaten one good team (Mizzou) and one decent team (UCF), and ridden that to a top 10 ranking.
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UNC instead of Oregon.

Miss State instead of bubba.

Arkansas instead of Auburn.

We would have a pretty good season going with that schedule for sure.
 
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#4
#4
Mizzou and UCF are better than you're making them sound. They played at Mizzou, and handed them their only loss by coming from 17 points down. Also, if you're making the argument that they are overrated, then you are diminishing out win versus them.
 
#5
#5
I agree, solid post.

I think a lot of Tennessee's problem is at this point they are emotionally and physically beat up after the tremendous toll the schedule has taken as well as being used to disappointment and losing.

It's gross to watch them give up 900 + yards in 3 games, but take into account the youth on the roster, the attrition we're going through and your Senior leadership is learning yet another system after being a 3-4 team last year and I can have empathy.

It's certainly much harder for a team to build confidence and momentum going through the schedule Tennessee has as opposed to the schedule South Carolina has. I don't think South Carolina is over rated I'm just saying it's a lot easier to get your feet under you when you're not getting run over by playing a top 10 team every week.
 
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#7
#7
Before the season started, we thought our schedule would be easier compared to the last few years. Nobody knew Missouri or Auburn would be as improved as they have been. Last year Miss. St. was better than we thought.

There's really not a lot you can do about it, save schedule 4 creampuffs for OOC games.
 
#8
#8
Some of our fandom demands a yearly game with Bama. Bama no longer recognizes this game as a rivalry. They look at Auburn and LSU as their main rivalry games now. You must win or play a team reasonably close to have a genuine rivalry. In the past, we have had rivalries with Bama, Auburn, Florida. I'm sure that Vandy and Kentucky looked at our games as rivalry games for them, but they weren't really much for us.

If we can ever change our Florida game to a later date in the season, it would be advantageous. If we can ever play Bama on a rotating basis instead of an annual game, it would be advantageous. It doesn't seem like there is much glory to having the hardest schedule in the nation for our fandom. As has been on clear exhibition throughout this season, they want wins and don't like losses of any kind. Especially blowouts.
 
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#10
#10
MustafaRasta said:
I agree, solid post.

I think a lot of Tennessee's problem is at this point they are emotionally and physically beat up after the tremendous toll the schedule has taken as well as being used to disappointment and losing.

It's gross to watch them give up 900 + yards in 3 games, but take into account the youth on the roster, the attrition we're going through and your Senior leadership is learning yet another system after being a 3-4 team last year and I can have empathy.

It's certainly much harder for a team to build confidence and momentum going through the schedule Tennessee has as opposed to the schedule South Carolina has. I don't think South Carolina is over rated I'm just saying it's a lot easier to get your feet under you when you're not getting run over by playing a top 10 team every week.
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Exactly. If our SEC schedule had been more front loaded we could be looking at a much more positive season, even with the exact record.
 
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#11
#11
volgrad500 said:
Exactly. If our SEC schedule had been more front loaded we could be looking at a much more positive season, even with the exact record.
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Perception is reality unless you're the BCS. We could swap Austin Peay, WKU, and USA for Baylor, Stanford, and Ohio State, be 1-9, and no one would care about our schedule. They would just see the 1-9 record.

Conversely, we could swap Oregon, Bama, and Auburn for an Sun Belt team and Arkansas and Miss St, and CBJ is looking like a coach of the year candidate.
 
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#12
#12
fade route said:
Mizzou and UCF are better than you're making them sound. They played at Mizzou, and handed them their only loss by coming from 17 points down. Also, if you're making the argument that they are overrated, then you are diminishing out win versus them.
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Okay, but their schedule still in no way even begins to compare to ours, right?
 
#14
#14
utvolpj said:
I'll never understand why people continue to post this. Have you even looked at the series history?
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uh-huh. Have you even looked at the comments following this year's game with Bama? Let's just make Auburn a permanent opponent too. The more the merrier. Oregon can maybe be tacked on as a permanent non-conference foe. It's all good.
 
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#15
#15
LibertyVolance said:
uh-huh. Have you even looked at the comments following this year's game with Bama? Let's just make Auburn a permanent opponent too. The more the merrier. Oregon can maybe be tacked on as a permanent non-conference foe. It's all good.
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actually Auburn was a rival prior to the divisions. Florida is now a forced rival.

Were you calling for an end to the bama game while UT was running off 7 in a row? Were bama fans wanting to end it? Learn your history
 
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#17
#17
utvolpj said:
actually Auburn was a rival prior to the divisions. Florida is now a forced rival.

Were you calling for an end to the bama game while UT was running off 7 in a row? Were bama fans wanting to end it? Learn your history
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I majored in history. During the course of my learning, I discovered you were dumb. :)
 
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#18
#18
Hart should have already cancelled or postponed the Oklahoma series, maybe Utah State as well. We need to load up on cupcakes because conference wins are going to be hard to get for awhile and we have to have improvement in the win column to sustain the recruiting momentum beyond the 2014 class.
 
#21
#21
patriot-vol said:
Ohio State knows all about weak schedules
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Agree! Some they can't help. Purdue is down. Iowa and Wisconsin played them tough. It's just ugly to play those teams including Indiana and Illinois. UGLY!! We might be 8-0 every year in November if we played them every year.
 
#22
#22
Good chance South Carolina is 5-5 right now with our schedule. 6-4 at best, if they beat Auburn. Losses to us, UGA, Bama, and Oregon at the very least.
 
#24
#24
SecondYearVol said:
We don't back down from anybody. We schedule the best because we want to be the best.
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That's a tremendous sentiment...

I would agree with it too if we had recruited and coached up a team to compete against a schedule like this over the past 4 years. Right now it just beats the team down. I would prefer to have an easier schedule for this team.
 
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