The BYU game didn't bother me, really. That loss falls on the shoulders of a terrible quarterback. Guarantano cost Tennessee a minimum of 6 points, a maximum of 14 in the 2nd half.
who did we lose in recruiting due to the G St game? Reality is these kids see, play in a lot of games and see losses every week, and have moved on from G St, if they even remember it was this year.
I guess I'm there too. Granted I'm not a recruiting junkie but I've not seen or heard anywhere that this game killed us.
yes. how do you know any of these guys are thinking about GSU, and not Florida, uga, bama, etc.? In other words, do you think kids pick schools based on the peaks or the valleys? I'm guessing more of the peaks.
We have to kroot these guys for a long time. You have too deep of a valley and they drop out of touch with you. We lost sight of several highly rated guys not too long after Ga State. You can still sell the building stuff when you lose on the road to a top ten Florida team.
I think you can feel both ends of the spectrum. Pruitt completely [uck fay]ed up the season with those first two games. We should be 9-3 and in a NY6 bowl game. That said, the Vols haven't been "this" kind of football team in a decade. I'm excited to see what he can do.
I'd call that a great [uck fay]ing start and more than the last 3-4 [uck fay]ing years. Do some of you not realize how bad this thing got?
We had absolutely no business beating Kentucky and Auburn last year, and the Missouri game that Pruitt gets so much flak for was a total mismatch where we really never had a shot. We should’ve been competitive with Vandy and possibly beaten them, and that one was a failure by the staff, but I’d say they had more successes than failures last year. To me, this year looks more like appropriate progress than an astounding success, but I’ll take it.
It is certainly moving in the right direction and something to build on. I don't think anyone is arguing otherwise.
1. We’re talking in circles. Beginning bad. Ending pretty dang good. Pruitt saved locker room-credit after sharting the bed-debit. Everyone is encouraged at varying degrees. 2. Need to recruit and avoid Ga St collapses. 3. Gotta like the physicality. I mean that may be best part. Now stop splitting hairs. Now as far as the worst loss, I personally suffered after the Memphis St loss. I had just moved to Memphis. Some tiger fan left a fuse from Carquest in my seat at work. For you youngsters, there used to be a Carquest Bowl. The 90’s Tennessee did not frequent such bowls. We had Peyton. But Ga St is a lesser program. Sorry Ga St was a bigger program loss. I’m right so eat it. Sure we aren’t 90’s level but come on. GaSt? But no loss will EVER hurt more than LSU in 2001 SEC Champ game. Period. I would say Dooley at KY in year 2 was pretty close. And 95 FL sucked HARD! Have a drink and chill. PS: this was a poor post...like all of mine
The greatest moment in the season was when Pruitt used all 3 timeouts to ice Alabama's kicker before half time and it worked.
I choose to focus more on the 6-1 finish over the abysmal start. Some of the first half of the season seemed like carryover from the way 2018 finished. Afterwards, it felt like these guys actually came together as Pruitt’s team once they were given up for dead by everyone. I’m hoping to see the progress continue. Avoiding a total collapse after the beginning of the year was a hell of a job in any case. It’s something to build on, finally.
C'mon bro ... you know damn well those timeouts didn't cause the bammer kicker to miss a kick. That mf'er ain't hit a kick all year.
Not counting the first 2 games, we took a huge step in the right direction in accomplishing what would be objective #1 for any coach that took this job and that is to start beating all teams we should be beating on a regular basis, something the 2 previous guys couldn't do. I thought all along that the this was the first part of the process...get us back to where there are only 3 real games on the schedule, Bammer, UF and UGA. I think we're pretty close to accomplishing this objective, had we won the first 2, I'd say we're there with no questions asked. But I still think we're close. And, by no means, am I excusing those first 2, that can't happen moving forward. Objective 2 is to start being competitive with and beating "the 3" on a regular basis. Hopefully that starts next year, I think this is where recruiting will really become important. I've loved seeing the staff develop players and hopefully that continues. At some point we need to start landing some studs to go with that in order to be able to consistently accomplish this second objective. Overall, the start of the season was terrible. But as it's been said many times, the job by the staff to keep the team together, and the "buy in" by the players has been terrific, and I'm glad we finished the season strong as opposed to folding up like last year. Something clicked with this team after the UF game, and really started learning how to win when they put the game away against MSU. 8-4 is the floor next year. Anything less will be alarming. No reason to lose any of the conference games we won this year and if the upward trajectory continues, we should win at least 1 if not 2 of the 4 real games we have next year. All JMO of course.