who gets us to a bowl game?

what contributes most to a bowl appearance?

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#26
#26
What gets us in a bowl game? The performance of the teams that we play!!!! Should we catch Florida, UGA, USC, etc. on an off day and pull off some wins that we are not favored to win, then we get in.

We need upset wins and that all depends on how our opponent performs.
 
#27
#27
I'm from the "winning starts with defense" camp so I went with an improved secondary.
If an improved pass rush had been an option I would've gone with that. Our inability to get off the field last year was the sole reason for several of our losses; Vandy and UGA being the most obvious examples.
 
#28
#28
Simply put, it comes down to line play, specifically our OL.

If our OL can open holes up for our stable of RBs to get good yardage and keep Worley protected long enough to find someone and we'll be fine.

Give Worley 3 seconds and one of these guys (assuming RB, TE, 3 WR set):

North, Croom, Pearson/Malone/Pig, Wolf/Helm, Lane/Hurd/Scott

will be open. We should have a pretty nasty rotation of WRs this year.
 
#29
#29
Worley can stay healthy, but that doesn't necessarily equate to a solid offensive line. What if he is healthy but doesn't improve? What if he regresses?

Our RB's may post Neal-esque numbers, but did Rajion win us games last season? Don't get me wrong. I am a fan of Neal and believe he helped out our offense last season.

I'm just as concerned about our secondary preventing 15 yard plays turning into 40 yard plays as I am in a "no-fly zone". I believe that Butch has recruited guys with speed and ability to contain opposing offenses.

Our LB's will be the cornerstone of our defense this season. AJ needs to improve his ability to cover the pass and, more importantly, his sideline-to-sideline mobility. Not giving up more than 2 games of 100 yard rushing would be very impressive. However, that begs the question that what if our defense will instead simply be torched by the passing game.

The O-Line must be an improvement, and I believe that it will be. Our likelihood of going bowling depends on the 5 OL's
 
#34
#34
O line + Jalen Hurd. Having the line + RB who can break it long will make defenses respect the run, hence opening up Vols passing game.
 
#36
#36
The big IF word, but if the OL can play decent we just might be the surprise team this year like there is every year, not meaning 9 or 10, I would take 7 wins and feel like we won the EAST, then a small bowl win at the end that would set us up great for RECRUITING, we would be telling 4 stars to look elsewhere because we would not have any spots for them.
 
#38
#38
I think if we can stop the run we will be ok. Not too worried about secondary. Worley should be serviceable IF the OL plays well.
 
#42
#42
OL.. a good OL can make any RB look good and can give any QB the time they need to find an open WR. Lord knows with the WR group we have someone will be open on every play.
 
#43
#43
While I agree it starts up front, we had a good OL last year (most who will play on Sunday this year) and did not make a bowl. Our last 2 bowl appearances came when we had walk-ons or mostly freshmen on the OL

I think the current crew will do fine. But we need the leadership at QB and hopefully Worley will stay healthy and provide that this year. It's going to take a total team effort on both sides of the ball to get 6 wins tho
 
#45
#45
Butch Jones. He gets the credit if UT makes a bowl game this year. He would have taken young talent, some holdovers whose talent he developed, and beaten teams with less talent but some have longer tenured coaches and more experience.

Six wins will be promising... seven or more would indicate that Jones may be an elite coach.
 
#46
#46
nash101 said:
While I agree it starts up front, we had a good OL last year (most who will play on Sunday this year) and did not make a bowl. Our last 2 bowl appearances came when we had walk-ons or mostly freshmen on the OL

I think the current crew will do fine. But we need the leadership at QB and hopefully Worley will stay healthy and provide that this year. It's going to take a total team effort on both sides of the ball to get 6 wins tho
Click to expand...

You must not have watched many games last season. Our O-Line was overhyped and more than likely, only 2 of them will play on Sunday this season.
 
#48
#48
What would make us a bowl game is UT athletic dept not scheduling us hellacious out of conference opponents!!!! Come on!!! We down on our tails low and they schedule us Oregon? Without that we would have gone bowling last year!! Now it's Oklahoma!! How about a break for crying out loud !! Isn't the sec hard enough to get wins?? We are not elite enough to casually schedule top10 opponents to be our out of conference cupcakes !!!
 
#50
#50
Butch Jones says it's a line of scrimmage league so I'll go with that! Both the OL and DL!
 
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