We knew this was coming

[Titan&Volfan4life]

I never expected to compete with the big boys this season or next year either because I see our roster for what it really is and we simply do NOT have many solid SEC type players as starters and basically no depth worth talking about at all.

What disappoints me the most is our O line.

We're supposed to have 1 of the best O lines in the country so I expected us to be able to play old style Tennessee smashmouth football and knock the other teams D line on their butts and run the ball consistently but I did NOT even see much of that against our first 2 opponents and that's a huge concern for me.

If our guys on the O line expect to play in the NFL then right NOW is the time to start proving themselves and get our running game going like a great O line should be able to do consistently.

If the box is stacked against the run then our O line should be able to pass block long enough to get consistent 5 to 7 yard pass plays completed to keep the chains moving.

I've said all along that we're a 6 Win team and should be back in a bowl game this year and getting a good SEC upset along the way is a big bonus if we can make it happen.

We're 4 or 5 years away from even thinking about a SEC Championship and that's only if bUTch can keep getting alot of top players coming to Tennessee and that's VERY hard to do when we lose consistently.

I think we finally have the right Head Coach to get this total rebuilding job done but we must learn to be patient no matter how damn hard that is for all of us.

It would sure be sweet to stun the world and get the 1st big upset in the swamp and be having gator burgers for dinner!

#BrickbyBrick...VFL...GBO!!!

 

[ERvolsfan]

I'm ok with the losses for this year against highly ranked teams, but I'm upset about effort and play. Our QB couldn't hit water falling out of boat. Our Oline are merely bumping into dlinemen instead of mauling them. We need to be more aggressive on offense. Worley may be the best at the moment but we all know he's not the answer. We're gonna struggle anyway might as well use year one with a freshman and let him gain some experience my biggest fear is next fall comes around and same QB problem with less talented Oline and losses on defense. You might as well build now for future. I understand not starting freshmen during swamp, if Worley has another bad performance don't be suprised if ferguson takes over and finishes the season out at some point similar to how Tyler bray and Simms situation.

 

[JACK8254]

Stop pretending like we should have expected the biggest loss since 1910. No one expected us to be of Oregon's caliber. Most of this board expected a 6-7 win football team. But if you expected us to not even put up a fight or field a team that looked remotely competent, then congrats. But why even bother watching that?

Exactly- anyone with half a brain knew that we couldn't beat the Ducks. But , once again , it was the way we lost. This staff was expected to get the most mileage from our under-powered team by out smarting the other guys a little and being uber-organized. We saw no such thing- another outing by a poorly prepared team is what I saw. It was not encouraging. When you look at this coldly, we have won at Fla 2 times since 1990. 2 effing times, Casey Clausen won both games. How did UT become the Gators bitxx to this extent. This goes back to the early Fulmer years when we had good players and it is a disgrace. I cant explain it- the Gators have had down turns ( not many) since 1990 and we have won 2 games ? There is a stench of losing on the Vols that seems to have a life of its own. How did this happen?

 

[VolDomination]

I agree that our fan base is irrational and many have unrealistic expectations. Only the truly delusional thought we really had a chance to beat Oregon.

That being said, I think most were hoping for a "moral victory" (I hate that term BTW). The fact that we absolutely got demolished on national TV was a real downer for the positive momentum that Butch has had since he was first hired.

It was definitely a wake-up call about how much of a gap there is between our talent/depth compared to the elite teams.

IMO the most embarrassing aspect of that game is that they were able to put in their 2nd/3rd string at the beginning of the 4th quarter (maybe before?)

All the rampant optimism and homerism of the preseason has now been replaced by the sad reality of our suckiness.

Oh well, GBO!!

You nailed it. It wasn't just a beating. We got beat in every aspect of the game. They looked terrible. Could they have one this game probably not but they need to put this group in the best possible position to compete and I don't think that happened at Oregon.

 

[VolDomination]

I'm ok with the losses for this year against highly ranked teams, but I'm upset about effort and play. Our QB couldn't hit water falling out of boat. Our Oline are merely bumping into dlinemen instead of mauling them. We need to be more aggressive on offense. Worley may be the best at the moment but we all know he's not the answer. We're gonna struggle anyway might as well use year one with a freshman and let him gain some experience my biggest fear is next fall comes around and same QB problem with less talented Oline and losses on defense. You might as well build now for future. I understand not starting freshmen during swamp, if Worley has another bad performance don't be suprised if ferguson takes over and finishes the season out at some point similar to how Tyler bray and Simms situation.

Please stop knocking the o-line. Think about it... You are snapping it to a QB 4 yards deep that is not the fleetest of foot and he never keeps it, hands it off to a side stepping back what do you expect. The line can't keep guys in check forever. Now if they get in an I and bust it up the gut and the get nowhere that's a different story. But this offense with current talent don't play to the offensive lines strengths.

 

[Capt Straight]

What sux is that I am stuck here in MS, 45 minutes from Oxford. The black rebellious landsharks, or whatever they are look pretty good this year.

Is there a radio station that I can stream online that will carry the game? I am in Ireland until Wednesday.

We just got home from from a hunting trip Ireland Wednesday afternoon. I listened to the Western Kentucky and first half of the Oregon game on my IPhone logged on to UTsports.com and them click multimedia while there and it worked fine. You can do it on a laptop, notepad or computer.

 

[rcvol]

The Oregon loss was so demoralizing that I fully expect it to carry over to today's game. After today's beat-down I'm not sure if we will be able to beat anyone else this year as morale will be at an all time low. Florida 34, UT 10. If Florida had a better offense it would be uglier. I hope I'm wrong, but this UT team is the absolute worst in history. I still believe in Butch though.
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[rcvol]

Please stop knocking the o-line. Think about it... You are snapping it to a QB 4 yards deep that is not the fleetest of foot and he never keeps it, hands it off to a side stepping back what do you expect. The line can't keep guys in check forever. Now if they get in an I and bust it up the gut and the get nowhere that's a different story. But this offense with current talent don't play to the offensive lines strengths.

I think our O-line is better at pass protection. They are extremely mediocre run blocking. They got no push against a small Oregon D.
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[zidanefan]

Stop pretending like we should have expected the biggest loss since 1910. No one expected us to be of Oregon's caliber. Most of this board expected a 6-7 win football team. But if you expected us to not even put up a fight or field a team that looked remotely competent, then congrats. But why even bother watching that?

I expected exactly what I saw

Hmmm... now who's the bigger waste of space on this board? Anyone have a coin?

 

[zidanefan]

The Oregon loss was so demoralizing that I fully expect it to carry over to today's game. After today's beat-down I'm not sure if we will be able to beat anyone else this year as morale will be at an all time low. Florida 34, UT 10. If Florida had a better offense it would be uglier. I hope I'm wrong, but this UT team is the absolute worst in history. I still believe in Butch though.
Posted via VolNation Mobile

So many choices...

 

[Remy]

I can't understand why so many people are questioning Butch and this team. Not one publication picked us to be good, most picked us not to make a bowl game. As fans its hard to sit and watch us lose but everyone knows we don't have the talent level as these top teams. Right now I trust Butch and his staff to get us back to where we are relevant, until then everyone grab a bottle of Jack and be patient

I'm going to support CBJ & da Vols, but after that Duck game, Jack won't do it for my patience ... I'm moving to the crack pipe for the rest of the 2013 season. If we make a bowl, I'll move back down to Jack.

 

[sjt18]

Oregon's speed and pace are definitely X factors that could have made things "look" worse than they actually are. UT will not face anything on that level again this year. UGA and Bama have very good O's... but they aren't in the same category as Oregon.

It is very possible that UT's D will perform much better vs lesser O's.... again.... another test of coaching.

 

[billbattle]

I even said so.

I expected Oregon's offense to go up and down the field at will.

I expected tennessee's offense to have problems.

It's exactly what I expected. The numbers are just details

Nostradamus, is that you?

 

[PowerT83]

Oregon is a good team. Keyword "good" they are not great. They couldn't beat a single pro team as someone said they would beat a few pro teams. They wouldn't even beat Uga, LSU or Bama. Hell Florida could beat them by running the ball and playing good D.

Things aren't ever quite as bad as they seem or near as good, last weekend UT looked like they had no idea how to play the game. Everyone can chalk it up to Oregon being the best team in the world, but I'm gonna lay quite a bit of that performance on the coaches at Tennessee

 

[cd12]

Same talent on D. Same results.

 

[TNnative]

Name me one fanbase of any major college program who would not be upset after witnessing their team look like ours did last Saturday.

Any of the pansy teams that get paid 6 figures to give the other team an easy home win.

Of course, not every team had the coaching hire errors Tennessee had over the past few years, the half hearted attempts at recruiting, and the game mismanagement in that time period that has led to the depletion of the talent level and confidence of the team.

However change has begun. In the time since the slide began, Tennessee have changed the coaching staff, the athletic director, upgraded facilities, and broke out shiny new uniforms. Top level recruits are committed, and more are yet to be announced. If only we could replace some of the more ignorant members of the fan base as easily.

 

[rcvol]

Change has begun? That's what we said about Kiffen, Dooley, etc. Yet the team we saw last week gave up at halftime, couldn't tackle, and couldn't score against a mediocre defense. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. Currently this is the worst team we've ever fielded. Let's hope Butch "gets" something other than a fat paycheck!
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[RiseToTheTop]

Change has begun? That's what we said about Kiffen, Dooley, etc. Yet the team we saw last week gave up at halftime, couldn't tackle, and couldn't score against a mediocre defense. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. Currently this is the worst team we've ever fielded. Let's hope Butch "gets" something other than a fat paycheck!
Posted via VolNation Mobile

i dont think they gave up. they just got hammered by a team that would hammer just about anyone else in the country except a handful of teams. you have no idea what youre talking about.

 

[rcvol]

As you can tell, I've transitioned from hope and disappointment to sheer anger. I'm so pissed off at the University of Tennessee for letting this dumpster fire rage since the mid 2000s.
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[rcvol]

i dont think they gave up. they just got hammered by a team that would hammer just about anyone else in the country except a handful of teams. you have no idea what youre talking about.

Apparently we watched different games.
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[sjt18]

Apparently we watched different games.
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Hopefully this was an aberration and not a sign of things to come. But too many here want to deny that the game was poorly coached. I'm not condemning or making final judgment... but it wasn't good. I think I saw the same game you did.

PS- And NO, it has nothing to do with Dooley making losers out of the players. WAY too many examples of lesser players being turned around in a year by a new coach to make that argument remotely valid. The right coach... makes an immediate impact.

 

[RiseToTheTop]

Apparently we watched different games.
Posted via VolNation Mobile

poorly coached or not. they had no chance to come within 4-5 td's...thats my point.

 

[rcvol]

Hopefully this was an aberration and not a sign of things to come. But too many here want to deny that the game was poorly coached. I'm not condemning or making final judgment... but it wasn't good. I think I saw the same game you did.

PS- And NO, it has nothing to do with Dooley making losers out of the players. WAY too many examples of lesser players being turned around in a year by a new coach to make that argument remotely valid. The right coach... makes an immediate impact.

Definitely poorly coached. If this becomes a trend I may go over the edge. As an aside, I'm a really good NCAA player on PS3. I would like to think I could call plays that would work better than what we've been doing. I'm not completely serious, but I'm not completely kidding either.
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[ThePriceofGas]

Trust me I believe in Coach Jones, but lets stop pretending that an underdog never upsets anyone or at least puts up a tremendous fight. I think that is all the majority of folks are wanting to see. A competitive game against some good competition. Again folks need to stop acting like teams never step it up and give someone a great game that may be overlooking them. When was the last time we have done that?

 

[Vols-in-Fla]

I expected my Vols to get beat last week and I don't have expectation of a 10-2 season what I do expect is improvment week after week and I think
that's what we will get so every week ill watch the games and cheer for the Vols like I've done for 48 years.