Well, in this edition of the Rearview, we take a look ahead to the upcoming football season. Since the basketball season has ended, we are now beginning to focus squarely on the task at hand, being how does Tennessee win an SEC title in football too? And it’s never too early for that, right?
First, it could use some high profile recruits coming to Knoxville like Scott Hopson. Before I digress in to the football minutia, that was a great get for Pearl and the Vols. Hopefully this is just another sign of this program being a factor for the long term and not a flash in the pan. Great championship season Tennessee, and a good start to next season already with the recruitment of West and Hopson thus far. I think itss safe to say, that if Tyler Smith decides to return (and I won’t blame him if he doesn’t), next season could be just as great, if not more so.
On to football..As Lex said in Guitar shots this week about the basketball team being a roller coaster, the same could be said about the football team last season. I don’t think anyone, self included, thought that after the Alabama game we would realistically be playing for an SEC title last season. And not to re hash all of last season, but there were some pivotal games last year that we’ll all look back on, for the good and the bad.
So in looking at this year’s schedule, where are the land mines? Or, as we say in my line of work, where are the opportunities? I’ve selected 5 of the 12 to discuss here. Obviously, there are others that are going to matter and be important, but the teams I’ve left off are teams that we, quite frankly, should just be better than. These 5 (in no particular order), to me represent the opportunity to make or break our season:
1. UCLA: unlike the Cal game last year, this Bruin squad is not returning a ton of talent. New head coach and new offensive coordinator have many Bruin faithful thinking immediate dividends will be paid. But, they will have issues in the secondary, and the offensive line is not going to be “great”, which is bad news for the two qb’s returning as they didn’ light it up last year. The good news for us is, with our issues on the D line, this may be a good place to build some confidence against a rather week O line. Plus, against a re tooled secondary, I like our talent at WR. Overall, UCLA’s defense will be down. I expect us to go to the Left Coast and be able to do what we want offensively and defensively out man them up front. A loss here would be detrimental to my psyche about the 08 Vols.
2. Florid: like it or not, this is a must win for CPF. Match ups aside, this is the game that has to be won if you really think you are a contender in this league. In the interest of being relevant throughout the season, getting out of September controlling our destiny in the SEC East would be a good place to start. The bad news about all this is the Gators are stacked. The big question is does the defense getting older make them better, or just older mediocre players? I think we have enough talent offensively to exploit some weaknesses in the Gator D, especially over the top. They should be the strongest up front, but this is where we find out if our experienced offensive line and running backs can take a game over. Man for man, Florida has more talent than we do. Their offense will cause our front as many problems as they have the past 3 years. But we have enough talent in the right spots that we should be able to give them all they want in Neyland Stadium. Simply, this is a game we can’t lose. No pressure coach.
3. Georgia: OK, here’s the deal, I think Georgia is going to be very good. They should be. I expect Moreno to be what we all think he can be. They will be pretty darn good on the O line. Defensively, they lose some talent, but not enough for there to be a HUGE drop off. The big issue as I see it is who will catch the ball? And will Stafford develop in to that All SEC type qb that can lead them to a championship? And do it in a year when many will expect them to? Georgia’s not had the target on their chest like they will this year. It will be interesting to see how they handle that. I think for us, this game falls at the wrong time, and vice versa, Georgia gets a week off prior to and us in Athens. And if there is a team in the SEC that should have a bad taste in their mouth about the Tennessee Volunteers, it should be Mark Richt’s Bulldogs. This is one of the more difficult games on our schedule, and I won’t be surprised if we lose this one.
4. Auburn: actually, Auburn is in kind of the same boat we are. They too have a new offensive coordinator, they too will have a new quarter back, and they too have issues on the def. line. They also have a new defensive coordinator. Auburn has enough talent though that if a few things broke the right way (sound familiar?) they can make some noise. I don’t like this game on the schedule for us, for one it’s on the road, and two itâ’s right after the Florida game. Win or lose the Florida game, we could be spent heading to the plains. Plus it’s another spread offense, and until I see otherwise, we just don’t stop those type teams all that well. Defensively, while Auburn loses two good def. linemen, they do have some skill to fill in. They should still provide a challenge for our offense.
5. Alabama: Ugh. I’m still having visions of John Parker Wilson looking like Joe Montana. Alabama is breaking in a new Offensive Coordinator, a less ballyhooed guy from Fresno St. They lose their two best/experienced WR’s, but the running game should be pretty good, and defensively, they’re still young in spots, but as we all saw this past February, the Tide is getting an overall talent upgrade. This team overall may be more talented this season, just unproven. By this time in the schedule, getting them at home, and after last year’s performance, I expect the offensive line and RB’s to pound at Bama’s defense. Likewise, I expect our secondary to really challenge the young WR’s and JPW. This is definitely a game we are more than capable of winning, and much like the FL game, is pretty much a must win in order to get wha’s left of the bad taste from last year out of our mouth.
So those are the 5 games I chose. And I think we go 3-2 against them. As stated earlier, I think we will just be better than the rest of the teams we play, though you can find reasons to call a couple of others land mine games (USC, KY, MSU). You can call that arrogant or fool hearty if you like, but I will only say this: If we are a program that talks about expectations and fancies itself as part of the elite, then these are the type of minimum expectations we should have. Can we lose more than this? Sure we can. We know where our shortcomings are, and the level of talent we will play this season will challenge us, especially for our front 7. And I haven’t even mentioned the kicking game yet, hopefully I won’t have to. If the defense is just better than I expect and the qb situation doesn’t prove to be a detriment, this team can win now. Final prediction: 10-2, making a return trip to the SEC Title game to play LSU again. And maybe this time we make the play we have to…