Competition hasn't been the greatest, but national defensive rankings are pretty solid. Total defense-28th Yards per play-7th pass efficiency-36th rush defense-45th red zone-36th sacks-3rd tackles for loss-3rd 3rd down %-49th
I’m here for my crow. D-line looked dominant from what I saw. Think I caught a few coverage sacks as well which i didn’t think was possible for us. Ok do I remember heupel saying something about Golesh keeping him committed to the run last season when he wanted to just sling it more often than not? Because it feels like we have decided to lean back into the run game more than we did to start the season. That may just be a byproduct of figuring out what we have on O more than a philosophy correction, but it was something I wondered about with Golesh leaving after the first few weeks.
Yesterday was the first game of the year I got up to Knoxville to see in person. The way that stadium never ceases to make me feel some type of way emotionally is why I’ll always keep coming back until my dying days. The place was a buzzsaw last night minus the Bru sadness. Everything about our home setup is the essence of college football. Also imo the south endzone is where you want to find yourself sitting at if you are in need of a Tennessee Vol/Tennessee mountain damn redneck religious experience. It is so much fun down there on that end despite not being the “best view” of the field
Ordinary people don’t understand. Last week my son wanted to take his friend Sathyia. He’s an Indian kid with strict parents. The kid does chores all Saturday just so he can come over here and watch nfl with my son later today. Kid loves football. Jake invited him to go last Saturday. Leave 8 am. Back midnight. He was excited. His dad said no as “that’s a waste of a whole day.” I was sad for him.
And no matter how fancy we make Neyland in the future I demand that the horse trough urinals always be a thing just because
Such a shame. Inviting buddies to tag along with us to Neyland is how I converted many of my great childhood friends into Vols over the years. My freshman year roommate/best friend was raised in a Buckeye household as a kid and was brainwashed to hate the Vols. Now he’s as big of a UT nut as me
Pissing in a horse trough in General Neyland’s house is a rite of passage for any born Tennesseean. Blinders on or not
The kids learned early on when they were tall enough that waiting on the shitter at Neyland to pee ain’t worth it once you make it in there. Just hit the trough, keep your head down and gtfo.
My grandkids never waited on the shitter to pee. When they were too short, I stood them up on the edge of the trough. The trough neighbors gave them a wide berth. A 4-5 year old is just as liable to pizz left or right as straight. Safest place was behind them holding them up. Edit: the year one of them thought he was old enuff and still had to pee up in the air and over the lip was a hoot. Dudes were scattering (and laffing).
Watching the game last night with my old man (.. not sure how many more years of that I'll have, unfortunately), we knew SC's OL was trash and they didn't bring much to the table, but he and I both didn't start getting comfortable with it until we got up 31-10... and then of course, the SC RB housed the next one, and I wasn't comfortable again until we scored our final TD. I get unnaturally nervous when we play the likes of Sakerlina, Arky, and MissStank --- regardless of their coaching staff and regardless of their roster. This team still leaves me with many questions, and the fact that we can't get consistent, quality play from our QB1 still makes me think 7-6 is a very real possibility.
We have a very good shot to go into the Bama game 5-1. A&M plays Bama this weekend and we have a bye. That’s a huge advantage for us.
The way I see it we have 2 more easy games: uconn and vandy. That gets us 6. We ought to be able to get 2 more out of Tamu, UK, and mizzou. So 8 is my expectation. I don't think winning out is necessarily impossible either.
6-6 would be a disaster but is not out of the question 11-1 would be a dream and is probably out of the question but none of the individual results to get there would actually be that crazy—it would just require us to sustain improvement over the season. Right now, I think we’re a top 20ish team with three games against top 10-15ish teams (two at home) and two more against borderline top 25 (both away). 2-3 is probably the most likely result, but the range of possibilities is wide. I think the defense may have room for consistent improvement if we can figure out the secondary scheme and some young linebackers step up. I’m afraid the offense is what it is, because Milton has no feel for when to improvise. (Yes, I’m grouping A&M with Bama/Georgia and not with Kentucky and Missouri. I’m sorry Kentucky and Missouri, but y’all don’t have the same horses).
