We may take a step back next year simply because of the schedule and away games, but damn. This is so sweet after the last 15 years
It was a great year but more than the record, this has been my favorite Vol team. Player’s playing above their heads. Amazing plays. Great moments. And some players that have retired their numbers in my mind. I love Heupel saying best is yet to come but for now, I just loved this team. I wish ALL of them tremendous success
I don't know that I recall ever collecting so many meaningful scalps in one season. Even UK was regarded highly at the time of play.
Y'all realize we had a Heisman candidate quarterback, lost him to injury, and then beat a top 10 team anyway? That is not a normal sequence. At all. Not only developing a Heisman candidate, but reloading at qb when he went down. Holy shit.
One thing that really stands out to me is player development. Guys are getting better the longer they’re around. That hasn’t really happened here in a long long time.
Hell I say take a week or two if you want, coach. You’ve earned a few days of relaxation. Besides everyone knows you are the real OC anyways.
So far he’s also done a great job managing the new transfer portal era of the sport. 2020 transfer portal disaster wasn’t his fault at all. I hope the guys we are transferring in keep up the recent trend under JH of being an improvement over anyone transferring out
We're still a bit in the needing to plug holes due to attrition from the Gump fallout, but it's more manageable now. We need better athletes in the secondary, especially at corner, and probably more depth at OL. However, we are right on the brink of making this sort of a regular thing. I look at 2024 being the year in which we hit full stabilization.
That would make bowl games more interesting. If you win a conference championship then lose your bowl game, the team that beat you takes ownership of your conference championship trophy.
Schedule isn’t even that much tougher. Virginia in Nashville is easier than at Pitt. Locations flip for Bama and Georgia. LSU away trades for A&M at home. Florida and A&M are the real wild cards—they’re hitting the portal so hard that they could implode or come together and be really good. And obviously Florida being away is a challenge we haven’t met since Clausen.
Honestly how many teams even play the last four national champs in the same season, let alone beat three of them?
Beat Florida and A&M and we could gather the momentum like we did this year even with a loss at Alabama(tbh, until I see some life from their passing game post Bryce Young, that's a toss up.) I think we get South Carolina back but Kentucky and especially Mizzou could be land mines at the end of the season. The absolute powder keg we would be if we got to UGA undefeated, though...
