We are not the only fan base tired of losing!!!!

[RDU VOL#14]

Maybe if the great VOL vans let Neyland look like that for a couple games maybe someone will take notice.

Yeah recruits will take notice...
But Yeah let’s hope the “Great” Vol fans don’t show up to support our team. Smfh

 

[05_never_again]

let's get real here, how long has FSU been having a little trouble? It pales in comparison to everything we have gone through for the last TWELVE years. Go sell all the lemonade you want.

Yeah, FSU thinking they're in the same realm of suck as us is cute.

They won a title in 2013 and had a 10-win season/top 10 finish as recently as 2016. They've only sucked since Jimbo's last season; that isn't a long time ago. We have close to a full decade lead on them with 3 bad coaching hires, an embarrassing near-hire that also involved the firing of the AD, etc. It ain't even close.

 

[VolMarine1371]

Yeah recruits will take notice...
But Yeah let’s hope the “Great” Vol fans don’t show up to support our team. Smfh

Well how has it worked out putting 100,000 fans in the stands every weekend. Hasn’t worked out to well lately now has it. Can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Well how has it worked out putting 100,000 fans in the stands every weekend. Hasn’t worked out to well lately now has it. Can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results

I get what you’re saying, but I’m not in favor of short changing the players who are currently there working their ass off. If people don’t show up then they don’t show up, but I certainly don’t agree with encouraging fans not to show up.

 

[VolMarine1371]

I get what you’re saying, but I’m not in favor of short changing the players who are currently there working their ass off. If people don’t show up then they don’t show up, but I certainly don’t agree with encouraging fans not to show up.

Again you acted like they showed up the 1st two games of the season. Our Vols should be 3-0 at this point nothing less.

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Again you acted like they showed up the 1st two games of the season. Our Vols should be 3-0 at this point nothing less.

We should be 3-0, I’m not disputing that. I just won’t be onboard with people going out of their way to encourage fans not to show up. So we’ll just agree to disagree.

 

[volmanbill]

Oregon is still blowing out that sigh of relief.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

I know I've said it for years and I've seen others make the comparision on here but I think us and Nebraska are VERY close together on program status. Both are traditional football schools with multiple past national championships, both have huge fan followings, both play in elite conferences and both have been thru a long drought.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

A friend who is a rival fan told me that Tennessee might be the most difficult job in the nation when considering competition on the field and in recruiting coupled with expectations and our past history of administrative incompetence.

I honestly can’t think of a more difficult situation than Tennessee currently.

Another football power lost in the wilderness. Off the top of my head here are the teams struggling to gain traction:

Tennessee
UCLA
Nebraska
Florida State

FSU has had recent success so it’s not such a big deal but the rest have been down for decades.

FSU- Has had recent national title but has also had some very bad seasons since the natty.
UCLA- Will NEVER be a "football" school.
Nebraska & Tennessee- Almost exact same programs

 

[DaddyChad]

FSU- Has had recent national title but has also had some very bad seasons since the natty.
UCLA- Will NEVER be a "football" school.
Nebraska & Tennessee- Almost exact same programs

UCLA and FSU have much better instate recruiting right off. Nebraska doesn’t play in the SEC but it is a very difficult job imo as well.

 

[Tennesseefan2019]

Georgia Tech fans are starting to turn on Geoff Collins who acts like Butch Jones 2.0 but with seemingly less coaching ability.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

UCLA and FSU have much better instate recruiting right off. Nebraska doesn’t play in the SEC but it is a very difficult job imo as well.

UCLA has a talent rich state for recruiting but kids in Cali don't wanna play football at UCLA. They wanna go to USC, Oregon, Washington and the SEC/Texas & Oklahoma

FSU has a better chance recruiting than UCLA even though they have to compete with Florida, Miami and pretty much every Power 5 conference. FSU is still a big name brand and probably always will be regardless of their success.

Nebraska has a tough time recruiting despite a great history and unreal fan base. Kids think of Nebraska and they think of farms and not a fun "college atmosphere". Factor that in with recruiting battles with the likes of Wisconsin, Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Michigan.

 

[Hoosier_Vol]

Georgia Tech fans are starting to turn on Geoff Collins who acts like Butch Jones 2.0 but with seemingly less coaching ability.

GT roster is a mess to say the least right now. I'm not sure ANYONE could be successful with that current roster and trying to completely change the offense.

 

[Tennesseefan2019]

GT roster is a mess to say the least right now. I'm not sure ANYONE could be successful with that current roster and trying to completely change the offense.

There is talk going around that if GT goes 1-11 this season and doesn't do any better in 2020 that GT would be forced take the buyout money loss and fire Geoff Collins.

 

[05_never_again]

I know I've said it for years and I've seen others make the comparision on here but I think us and Nebraska are VERY close together on program status. Both are traditional football schools with multiple past national championships, both have huge fan followings, both play in elite conferences and both have been thru a long drought.

Agree 100% about Nebraska. This might be orange-colored glasses showing, but I think their conference fit (or lack thereof) in addition to having absolutely zero in-state talent will always be a challenge for them. They were such a better fit in the Big 12. Kids in Texas don't want to play in the Big Ten, and kids in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. don't want to go to Nebraska. I think they have a steeper hill to climb in terms of recruiting, steeper than Tennessee. They are in the much easier West division though - they don't deal with Ohio St/Penn St/Michigan/Michigan St every year.

I think another school we can compare ourselves to is Auburn. I don't know why we can't be the Auburn of the East. We have some similarities to them in terms of recruiting - they have to go out of state to get a lot of their talent (Bama gets who they want, and they have to go against Georgia for the ATL kids). They don't have some of the natural recruiting advantages some of their rivals do (LSU and Georgia in particular). However, they still occasionally win the East and occasionally win the SEC. They've played for 2 national titles (won one), and 3 SEC titles (won 2) since Saban arrived at Alabama. It would be really easy for Auburn to have pulled at Tennessee and gone AWOL with Saban at their in-state rival, but they have not. They also historically have been an inconsistent program, but I'd take inconsistency with high highs and low lows rather than this crap we've had for the last decade. If we "need" to go 3-9 one year to have good/great teams for a few years after that, I'd do it. Wouldn't y'all?

 

[05_never_again]

There is talk going around that if GT goes 1-11 this season and doesn't do any better in 2020 that GT would be forced take the buyout money loss and fire Geoff Collins.

If they don't give him at least 3 years to re-make the roster and install a conventional offense, that'd be pretty dumb, IMO. Surely Tech will give him time - they aren't a big football school. What he's trying to do there is in some ways more daunting than what Pruitt has to do here, minus the bigger spotlight/expectations.

If you think Butch's recruits have tuned out here, just imagine how much Paul Johnson's triple option recruits have tuned out Collins. I mean, talk about not getting what you signed up for.

 

[Lawrence Wright]

But nothing to show for it

Half a national title since 1948?

 

[05_never_again]

Another football power lost in the wilderness. Off the top of my head here are the teams struggling to gain traction:

Tennessee
UCLA
Nebraska
Florida State

FSU has had recent success so it’s not such a big deal but the rest have been down for decades.

UCLA is a big name, but the historical success of their football program pales in comparison to the other 3 in the list. UCLA has only one national title in their history and it was in 1954. From 1990 until the present, they've finished a season ranked just 7 times. Tennessee by comparison has done this 17 times, and that's with the last decade being basically a black hole. We've actually finished ranked more times than they have since 2007 (3 to 2).

UCLA is actually not a historically dominant program but is located in a part of the country where you think there "should be" a good program. Kind of like Texas A&M, except with not as much money dedicated to football. They are firmly USC's little brother.

 

[Jack Burton]

FSU- Has had recent national title but has also had some very bad seasons since the natty.
UCLA- Will NEVER be a "football" school.
Nebraska & Tennessee- Almost exact same programs

UCLA may not be a traditional football powerhouse but they handled us just fine the last two times we played them. What does that say?

I listed them because they are still a big brand that’s trying to climb out of a similar hole.

 

[05_never_again]

UCLA may not be a traditional football powerhouse but they handled us just fine the last two times we played them. What does that say?

I listed them because they are still a big brand that’s trying to climb out of a similar hole.

It means that on those two particular days they were the better team. Their program historically is still nowhere near as storied as the others in the list though.

UCLA is a "big brand" despite a lack of historical success, not because of it. Very similar to Texas A&M. Check out their list of all-time seasons relative to others in the list:
List of UCLA Bruins football seasons - Wikipedia
List of Tennessee Volunteers football seasons - Wikipedia
List of Florida State Seminoles football seasons - Wikipedia
List of Nebraska Cornhuskers football seasons - Wikipedia

 

[kyvol98]

I don’t think Dinardo is a very good comparison. He sucked at Vandy and basically had done nothing to earn the LSU job. Taggart took over a garbage Western Kentucky program and had a winning season in each of his last two years in bowling green. He then went to USF and turned that around that program after the Jim Leavitt debacle. I think Taggart is more like John L Smith, who did a good job at two lower level programs, then fell flat on his face when he got a P5 job.

Fair assessment.

 

[LouderVol]

UCLA may not be a traditional football powerhouse but they handled us just fine the last two times we played them. What does that say?

I listed them because they are still a big brand that’s trying to climb out of a similar hole.

We whooped Nebraska in a bowl game recently didnt we?
What does that say about them?

 

[05_never_again]

I don’t think Dinardo is a very good comparison. He sucked at Vandy and basically had done nothing to earn the LSU job. Taggart took over a garbage Western Kentucky program and had a winning season in each of his last two years in bowling green. He then went to USF and turned that around that program after the Jim Leavitt debacle. I think Taggart is more like John L Smith, who did a good job at two lower level programs, then fell flat on his face when he got a P5 job.

Yeah. People are very dismissive of what he did at Western Kentucky and South Florida ("...but he had a losing record at both places!") but he left both programs in great shape and even set up for future success. Western had lost 20 games in a row when he took that job.

I wasn't surprised at all Taggart got a P5 job after South Florida. What was kind of surprising was particular the job he got (Oregon, a place out on the West Coast he had no ties to, recruiting or otherwise) and then how he was able to go to FSU after just one year at Oregon.

 

[zooguy]

We (Texas A&M) were tired of losing and bad coaching. We spent $$ and got the best available coach who had won a national championship.

Tennessee needs to do the same. This isn’t a school for someone to “learn on the job”, which is what Pruitt is doing right now. He may eventually be a good coach. Tennessee needs a great coach.

The jury is still out on Fisher - but so far, the results are promising. Our run defense isn’t a joke, and recruiting is out of this world.

So far, so good.

And, Taggart is a bad gameday coach. FSU reached a bit on him. Bad hire, IMHO.

 

[05_never_again]

We (Texas A&M) were tired of losing and bad coaching. We spent $$ and got the best available coach who had won a national championship.

Tennessee needs to do the same. This isn’t a school for someone to “learn on the job”, which is what Pruitt is doing right now. He may eventually be a good coach. Tennessee needs a great coach.

The jury is still out on Fisher - but so far, the results are promising. Our run defense isn’t a joke, and recruiting is out of this world.

So far, so good.

The problem for Tennessee is that the job isn't currently attractive enough to bring in a coach of Fisher's caliber. Kevin Sumlin wasn't a great coach, but he (and other coaches before him) didn't really rub any sheen off your program. Tennessee has displayed gross administrative incompetence for the better part of 12-15 years, not just in the athletic department but at the highest reaches of the University. After Kiffin, Tennessee hasn't really been a position to spend big on a coach because big time coaches aren't interested in the job. The people running things behind the scenes are idiots, and prospective candidates know this. To use the racing analogy Tennessee's program is a great performing car but with an idiot behind the wheel that limits its potential. The alternatives just look better by comparison.

It's not about a lack of a willingness to pay people. Pruitt's staff is one of the highest paid in the country. If Tennessee offered Jimbo a guaranteed $75m at the same time A&M did, Jimbo still goes to A&M.