Your Officially Official season prediction thread

I'd be okay with it if it wasn't at the sacrifice of winning those games, especially since he can play 4 and still redshirt. I'm just not sure we are in a position to waste any drives and still be in a position to win any of those games.

 

Amazingly, I am fine with wild quarterack experimentation over the next few weeks. Figure out who is the most dangerous for south carolina.

But for the love of God, throw on 1st or 2nd down sometimes.

 

I'm not sure how you will tell the difference between a wasted drive and a "biggest game of the season" drive.

 

If I'm Pruitt, I lock Friend and Helton in a room with game film of 09 Auburn, 09 UGA and 09 USCe.

 

Physically, he's the best qb on the team, supposedly. He doesn't have it down mentally yet, though

 

We'll finish 3-9.

We will lose by historic margins to Bama and UGA. We've already chalked up a historic loss to a horrible Florida team... why not add all our rivals to the list? We're a hell of a lot closer to Florida than we are UGA/Bama or even Kentucky at this point.

Bama will put in their 3rd string by the 2nd half and still beat Oregon's 35-point margin for the biggest home loss in UT history. I'm legitimately calling something around 56-10. Tua will put up 300 and 3 TDs before the half.

We will limp through October and win an uninspired game against Charlotte only to have Kentucky come into Neyland and win by 21.

We will finish the season breaking every shitty record that Dooley and his clowns set. The 2018 team had the talent for 7-5 but we will accept 3-9 as UT finds a way to set new lows because our OC thinks that run-run-pass is a legit strategy and the entire team is mentally and physically weak.

That's my prediction, I hope I'm wrong. I only see wiggle room against Vandy/Mizzou. There is no way we beat Kentucky/USC unless things change dramatically.

 

If Mizzou is the team we saw play UGa this weekend there’s no way UT wins that game either. 4 wins max, probably 3-9 though. I hate it but it is what it is. It’s going to be this way for a lot of next year too. Maybe by 2020 we can field a halfway competitive squad but even if we don’t and Pruitt is a complete dud (which I don’t believe he is, btw) I just don’t think anybody in power around UT has the stomach for yet another coaching search.

 

There's no way we beat mizzou unless something changes either. And with vandy, we need them to be beaten up.

We have to get a lot better, period. And a lot of the problem seems to be related to the level of aggression and focus. If one guy isn't focused on a play, it's a sack or drop or tackle for little gain. It wasn't always the same guy, it was a general problem that was present as much on a 2 yard run as in a fumble through the end zone.

Need more intensity. More focus. Desire isn't enough. It ain't shit at all, actually, every person in the country who suits up must have some level of desire at this level, with all the energy and effort that goes into playing the sport. I hope someone explains that to them. You want it? Cool, that's step zero, like being literate in college.

 

Whoa now, hold up.

You mean rolling a mentally deficient QB to one side, cutting the field in half and making reads easier as well as shoring up deficiencies on the OL in pass-blocking is a good strategy?

That's damn near crazy talk. RUN-RUN-PASS is how we do things here.

 

Given how they are using the QB, Im not sure they are sacrificing much.

We don't block well enough for extended routes or throwing 35 times a game but that running game needs some balance. The OL is not very good at either phase of blocking but tipping your hand to either is setting yourself up for failure with the way the line is blocking.

 

There was some shitty offensive games to start 09 too. UCLA was miserable, Ohio was bad. UF was a hurry up and get out of here with a respectable loss game. Things didn't start clicking until the 3rd quarter against Auburn. I don't like the way the offense was called Saturday, but there's 8 games left. Let's see if they actually attempt to do something different.

 

Play calling on offense has been Larry Scott level bad.

 

I get that.

Smart's first year at UGA got off to a pretty damned rough start also. I'm not saying it is impossible that Pruitt turns this team around and finds lightning in a bottle, but with 3 back-to-back-to-back losses with what will likely be historic numbers being put up against us, I simply don't see the same mentally unfit team finding their feet in November.

We'll be lucky to get out of this year with a 5-7 record and a Top 15 recruiting class. Very lucky.

 

You mean Butch

 

I think we can crack the top 15 recruiting wise only because Pruitt will be able to sell immediate playing time to potential signees. At this point, 5 wins would be a Herculean effort. Charlotte SHOULD be an easy win and depending on how Vandy shakes out as the season wears on we could be in position to win that one too. All of the other games look like guaranteed losses from today’s perspective.

 

I'm betting the recruiting class sticks fairly well. This is not optimism, it's how Pruitt has approached these recruits in this class

 

Not worried about recruiting. First classes can usualyget by with poor on field results.

 

Just quit beating ourselves first and foremost. That is A, #1.

There are other issues, I get it, but 6 turnovers and dumb penalties ain't gonna beat anyone in the SEC and many many FBS opponents would have beaten us Saturday night.

 

Just bad. Even botch was usually capable of scheming a drive or two to move the ball to start a game. I haven’t seen anything yet that instills any confidence. I get the ol is bad, but consistently run on 1st, runs are telegraphed, yada yada. They look unprepared. We’re not Alabama, yet we’re inconceivably playing into our weaknesses and the results show. The first few possessions were embarrassing. It’s been that way all year.

 

Wild best-case scenario prediction:

We end up with something of a 2010 Vols but with a much better overall staff on hand and a much better recruiting class in the books.

We opened up with a historic program worst loss against Oregon and an uninspired 14-point loss to what ended up being an 8-5 Florida team.

We then got completely blown out by UGA and Bama and South Carolina to round out October.

Matt Simms was used as the sacrificial lamb through a brutal October while Jim Chaney, who has evolved into an excellent playcaller, was finding his feet.

Justin Wilcox's defense had a rough start allowing 161 points to Oregon, Bama, Florida and Georgia... losing those games by a combined 107 points.

Bray was given the reigns at halftime in the USC game and it was a different team from that point forward. They won out through November and made a bowl game.


Yes, I'm ignoring the fact that Mizzou/Vandy/Kentucky were a combined 12-25 and are worlds worse than the current teams. If this team finishes 3-1 or better in November, regardless of what happens in October, I will be extremely impressed and will be much more optimistic for the future than I am currently.