Georgia then UF back to back doesnt bode well for them. Is Bryant healthy? Does he mail it in for NFL aspirations? They can't go bowling. It'll definitely be interesting to see what they do.
They can still go bowling. Unless I’m dumb, they have five wins and three games left on the schedule.
Mizzous last 4 headed into UT Vandy - 21 - 14 L UK - 29 - 7 L UGA - (without Bryant) 27 - 0 L UF - ( with Bryant) probably another L UT has won 4 out of 5. And coming off a much needed bye. Been awhile since a game just fell like it set up well for UT. Almost too well.
Solid thread title. I wasn't immediately filled with anxiety and dread, though I had doubts about the color of the sky since this is a Card thread.
I think the ideal is either Florida beats them so badly that they’re just done for the season or they beat Florida so that we don’t get too overconfident on the back of wins against some SEC bottom-feeders going into a place where we’ve never played well. Also, in the latter case, because I like seeing Florida lose. Competitive Florida win does nothing for me.
I'd like to see what our record (% wise) is in games over the last 20 seasons coming off a bye. I'm thinkin it's a pretty bad win %.
Why does the last 20 seasons matter? Was this staff coaching? Were these players playing? I like this staff's ability to game plan with extra time and our team should be fresh physically.
Looking at W/L with such a small sample size with significantly varied quality of competition is a bit weird, but I went back at least to 2013. 2019: brought a 1-3 team against a top 5 Georgia. Led at halftime but ultimately lost in a blowout. 2018: went into Auburn as a double-digit underdog, won 30-24 2017: Vols ultimately went 0-8 in SEC play. This was one of them, 15-9 to South Carolina. 2016: the beginning of the end for Butch, with the Vols on track for a division title, they suffered a 24-21 upset loss to South Carolina 2015: A three-loss Tennessee team went on the road to Tuscaloosa to face #1 Alabama. The Tide won 19-14 2014: A mediocre Tennessee team went to Athens to face a top fifteen Georgia team. Starter Justin Worley was knocked out, and Nathan Peterman fumbled a way a chance to close the gap in what was ultimately a 35-32 loss. In the second bye of the year, the Vols torched Kentucky at home 50-16. 2013: After being totally uncompetitive against Florida and Oregon, Tennessee faced a South Carolina team that would finish the year in the top five. The Vols jumped out to a 17-7 lead and used a fabulous catch by Marquez North to overcome the late Gamecocks surge and squeak out a 23-21 upset. In the second bye of the year, Tennessee faced James Franklin and Vanderbilt with likely bowl eligibility on the line. The offense couldn’t do a thing all game, and the Vols lost 14-10 Overall, that’s five games against vastly superior teams, in which Tennessee went 2-3, but only this year’s Georgia loss came by more than five points. There’s two home games that were expected to be very close, and both of them were ugly, slugfest losses, by an average score of 15-10. And there’s two games in which we were heavy favorites, one blowout win and one upset loss. Overall, that’s 3-6, 1-1 under Pruitt and 2-5 under Butch. Not sure it’s a big enough sample to see much except that the bye week seems to help a hell of a lot more when we’re underdogs.
Seems to me according to my memory over the years we don’t seem to play well after a bye, as if we cool down and lose our edge. As to the sample size of 20 seasons being too small, I’m not a stat head just seemed like a reasonable window, opinions vary I guess.
This only has since 2003, but we’re 19-15 off a bye since then. https://www.teamrankings.com/colleg...s_after_bye?range=yearly_since_2003&group=229
