I don’t know if there’s any truth to this Banks-Hooker fight rumor. But any players on that defense with the audacity to pick a fight with Hooker can pack their shit and leave. He carried them for 2 years. It took nearly every one of those 52 points to finally end the Bama streak.
3rd and 11, incomplete pass, ref calls defensive holding. Literally a stop taken away. Same drive, big sack for 8 yards to put them in 2nd and 18. Another defensive holding. Down 11, so a stop means a field goal and a 14 point game. 3rd and goal from the 8. Incomplete. Illegal hands to the face penalty. No replay. Literally a stop taken away. Then we force them into ANOTHER 3rd down on the same drive. DPI. You can’t get a stop when the refs won’t allow it. And again, we got them to 4th and 1 early in the game, and the only reason they were able to go for it is because of the kickoff return. That’s a stop, in my mind.
In the end, with Hooker blowing out his knee and fumbling, the refs probably aren’t the difference in the game. And yeah, the defense was bad regardless. But they got [uck fay]ed over a few times, which turned a bad night into a historically bad night.
The way to stop this offense is out there. Hold our receivers. DPI on every play and make the refs call it. They will every once in a while, but you’ll get away with it more often than not. And it slows us down and throws us off rhythm.
That’s what Kirby Smart openly admitted his plan was. They called 4 or 5 of them out of the 20 they committed.
Bama goes to the Sugar, we go to the Orange. Unless LSU loses to A&M and beats Georgia. Or, you know, we lose to Vandy.
We're about to fall to citrus boys. LSU/Bama to Sugar and lower to orange. Committee has shown they don't punish teams for dropping the title games, only reward.
With hooker out and Vandy seeming to figure out how to play we might be at Outback or worse. What an epic bed-shitting. I should have expected nothing less from Tennessee.
Vandy beats us next week. We can’t stop anybody and defense finally got us beat like we saw coming all year.
The Sugar Bowl gets the top ranked SEC team not in the playoff. After that it's an at large selection for one of the remaining NY6 spots for the highest rated teams remaining. I think Alabama will get the Sugar at this point. Our bowl destination IMO is largely going to hinge on where LSU ends up after the dust settles......and assuming we can actually beat Vandy next week.
If we fall to the Citrus…honestly whatever. The NY6 was a consolation prize after we were top five with two weeks left in the season. That said, hard for me to pick a 10-3 LSU that got housed by Tennessee over a 10-2 Tennessee. Not unless they play Georgia much closer than we did and make the eye test case. Beat Vandy and win ten games. Get to a good bowl and get Milton some run against a good defense. All that is better than we could’ve dreamed in preseason, even if it’s a disappointment now.
Georgia in CFP LSU/Bama is sugar Lower in orange *if* we can stay above Oregon and Penn state in rankings then maybe cotton.
If LSU/Georgia is a thriller that Georgia wins, agreed. If LSU wins, loses by 30, or loses to both A&M and Georgia, we’re in the Orange with a win IMO.
I've been trying to think of how to articulate my feelings without just coming across as a whining [itch bay] like I do in the Game Day Chat. Here's my best effort..... I guess even those that aren't all that religious still know the story of Jesus walking on the water. There are several accounts in the Bible. One of them have him walking on water and then entering the boat and the waters calm and they get to shore without issue. Tennessee this year HAS been a miracle. It's been a great ride. They were so close to the promise land and that's why this loss stings so much. So Tennessee had navigated the rough sea the entire year and we were two steps from stepping on the boat. That's when a 200 foot tsunami hit us from behind and flung our carcass against a friggin skyscraper. I know when we get to a 12 team playoff it should make it easier for us to get to the dance. But this year was RIGHT in front of us and they just blew it in the most spectacular fashion possible. You can't let opportunities like this slip away when you are Tennessee. You have that luxury if you are a team like UGA, Clemson, OSU, Bama. But not when you are Tennessee. When a rug gets pulled out from under a team in this kind of spectacular fashion it's really hard to recover from. Banks and Martinez both need to be fired immediately. I would assume that we could lure a good DC here pairing them up with a brilliant offense. And I would assume after a wildly successful year that Danny White would stroke a check that would try to ensure more great seasons in the near future. I also feel like this coming game against Vanderbilt will show what kind of coach Heupel is. It won't be a complete picture but a snapshot of how he gets a team to handle adversity and play hard knowing they are now not even playing for anything higher than a Citrus Bowl more than likely. If they come out and get drilled by Vanderbilt and continue to dig into the bedrock I'll have some serious concerns going forward. But even IF that happens next week I will still give Heupel the benefit of the doubt if he does the right things in the offseason to bring in a competent DC and get some defensive help - especially DB help - in the portal.
The crazy part about yesterday was the combo of no calls on them with the ones they DID call on us. That offensive PI on the pick play was the definition of fishing.
