I understand that sentiment and I think many in his position would have done that. Heupel is different though and he seems to value relationships and continuity much more than most everyone else in his profession. That may end up being detrimental to his success but the man inherited a collection of losers and misfits when he arrived and made them winners.
Mistakes have been made. Heupel's trump card is his ability to get QBs playing to the best of their ability and putting them in a system where they can excel. (Spurrier was the original). In that respect, there are only about 3-4 like Heupel in the country. It doesn't work to have an OC who can do that because he will just leave you. Over the long run, that ability is about the best thing you can have in a head coach. You take the bad with the good.
Joe Milton is never less than reason number 3 for a loss. He's horribly inefficient and unaware and limits what Heupel can do with him.
Fair enough. I do think going forward, it’s a better time to adjust with the availability of the portal. It isn’t always who you can add but maybe who you put in a better position elsewhere. I don’t want Heupel to be a lying D bag but loyalty isn’t necessarily putting people in a position to fail because a change might be uncomfortable.
I appreciate Milton’s loyalty and service but year 1 of Heupel should have prevented this year’s gamble
We deserved to lose this game, but I 100% agree. I don’t give a [uck fay] if we fumbled or not, I thought the rule was that it had to be called before the snap. Oh, and [uck fay] CBS.
I know, but that doesn't change what I said. His first carry was with a minute to go in the 3rd quarter. It's unacceptable that we played almost 3 quarters of football without him getting a touch, especially when the offense was struggling and he's shown that he is one of our more dynamic players. Maybe there is a reason for not utilizing one of our better offensive players, but it seems like poor management of the RB rotation.
You don’t think 8-4 this year followed by another 8-4 next year loses a decent chunk of the fan base and has the rest of it at least questioning whether last year’s resounding success was just a fluke?
Questioning going into 2025? Sure. But I don’t think his back is against the wall next year barring a 2021 Dan Mullen type of year.
This concerns me as well. It is like this particular game has no interest for him and he is playing pokemon on the sidelines or something.
The simple answer for last night was: 1. They completely dominated us at the line of scrimmage, and 2. We couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down. I couldn’t believe how much they were praising that RB without acknowledging the mile-wide holes he was running through. The 3rd down issue is based on a lot of things. Not sure I could point to all of them without rewatching.
I guess we are differing on what “back against the wall” means. I’m not saying they’ll fire him. I’m just saying he will have used up all the good will he bought with last year’s performance and will be well on the way to losing the fan base. And once you’ve lost the fan base here, it’s only a matter of time. Though I do think he’s a genuinely likable guy and good football coach, which will make him much harder to hate than Butch and Dooley.
I still have plenty of good will. This team is not that good and he’s about to win 8/9 games with them. Everyone here is familiar with my stance on Milton. He needs to fix the Oline. The defense should be loaded with younger talent next year. Id move on from Banks, but he knows more about that situation than I do. They need to play more aggressive, but when you may only put up 7 points a game it’s hard to get too risky. Easier to pin your ears back when you know your offense is going to give you 30+ a game.
Against every team with a pulse, we have had to play pretty flawlessly to win. No fumbles. This team can't recover from pick sixes or fumbles.. We had both. Football is a low sample size sport. We all know this is not an efficient team. There is not room for error or for plays/possessions off against ranked teams. It is what it is. See what can be done next week, then beat Vandy, then go to a bowl. Maybe next year will be better. Any talk about getting rid of Heupel or even putting on the pressure is silly. If we go 9-4, that will be tied for the best season at Tennessee since 2007. Last year was great, but the stars aligning for one year doesn't just fix everything. We're closer now than we were in Year 1. We have a freshman QB who could be the guy. @Indy my thoughts.
Butch went 9-4 twice. I don’t think the pressure should be on now. But 9-4 this season followed by 9-4 next season will have me asking questions. And to @Volsdude ’s point above, I’d ask at what point does “the team is not that good” fall on Heupel? Rebuilding a team isn’t the super slow process it once was, with the portal.
