I hated last nights game and the getting knocked out of the CFP. I hate the injury to Hooker and his shot at a Heisman. I look forward to seeing Milton against Vandy and in a Bowl to get a feel for what we can expect next year.
Losing the game sucks. Probably one of the worst losses in my years of fandom. But I'm way more sad about Hooker going down. Kid was everything you could ever hope for in a college QB/school ambassador. He's done everything we could've ever asked of him and more, and that's not just talking about his QB play. I hope his recovery is swift and he gets his shot in the league, because he absolutely deserves it.
People talking about this being the worst loss... Georgia state? Wyoming? Memphis? This sucks but it is a bowl eligible SEC team on the road.
For me it is because of where we were and what we had in front of us and what the USCjr team had done just a week before. It replaces the Memphis St game in my mind as the worst loss in my living memory of UT football. The Wyoming loss can be explained away with the firing of Fulmer, and the Georgia state game, well, that might be up there, but I didn't see it live as I was camping with the Scouts and came up to a complete shock. But we looked like a high school team on defense out there and was complete shit.
I think the worst thing is how it severely knee-caps the trajectory of the season. It wasn't even a competitive loss or one that was fluky where we outplayed USC... kinda like Ole Miss' loss to Arkansas. We got absolutely railed. We were already struggling to get a Top 10 class even sitting in the Top 5... I fear with social media how this will impact our recruiting and undo all of the gains we got early in the year.
Recruiting for the ‘23 class is pretty much wrapped up anyway. I don’t think this has any impact on how we finish down the stretch with this class.
There are, but they’re not realistically changing their decision because of a loss to South Carolina. Only would I could see that affecting is Mazeo Bennett, because he’s from SC and was down to Tennessee and South Carolina before committing. A lot of people in his ear about going to Columbia…but even him, I doubt it changes anything.
For me this isn't really a let down or failing to meet expectations, it was a glimpse of a potential future that ended.
It’s so hard to process… On the one hand, we never should have been in the Playoff picture. Thinking back to August, how wildly improbable and insane it would be to think that we could be this deep into November, practically controlling our playoff destiny. This never should have been an option… Yet, on the other hand, here we were. A playoff spot all but guaranteed. Nothing in our path but two unranked opponents who we’d be favored to beat by 20+. No one in America had an easier path in the final few weeks…it was ours… The whole situation is just another, in a long long line, of giant Tennessee football mind[uck fay]s.
It's the way we lost for me. And that we had proven we weren't just some flash in the pan for a couple games. So maybe not objectively the worst overall, but it's hurt the worst of any I can remember. 1996, I was 10 and had just moved from Canada. My brother was in HS and immediately loved UT. I had no idea what college football was. As the younger, annoying brother I just picked whichever team they were playing to get under his skin, so that Memphis State game doesn't sting as much for me. Wyoming, you could feel it coming. Fulmer was a dead man walking and the players had zero fire the entire game. Georgia State was an awful loss, but it was early in the season. It hurt less as the season went along and we saw who Pruitt was as a coach. 63 points and a 25 point L to a team like that, this late in the season with a playoff spot on the line hurts worse than anything I can remember.
It's a credit and a curse that Heupel has us where we are this quickly. That loss doesn't hurt nearly as badly if Butch is coaching a 6-4 team hoping for a MCB birth. I guess the best way to explain it would be to delineate between most embarrassing loss and "worst" loss. Like you said, losing on the road to a bowl bound team isn't the most embarrassing (that definitely goes to one of the aforementioned three), but as a fan this one hurts the worst by far, making it the worst loss for me.
Playing a meaningless game in the Swamp is a lot different from playing a Top 5 team at home with a chance to ruin their hopes of making the playoff. It's not surprising to me at all that they showed up against us after no-showing in Gainesville.
The part that hurts worst for me is who we lost to. Beamer, that is. Though I did like the comment someone made about how this likely helps to keep him in that job long term. Seems like a positive, long term.
Win this week. Have a good run on early signing day - no bad surprises at the least. Win the bowl, and start looking to 2023 season. That's what's left. The august versions of ourselves would probably have jumped at the offer to be 9-2 heading into the Vandy game after beating UF and bammer. Saturday sucked, but it will not be the end of the world. I'm choosing to wait until at least after the bowl season to worry about staffing changes. Martinez was a known liability when he walked through the door. Looking at his resume and considering NIL, I have to wonder just how valuable a bag man is these days.
