nitro_z17":3igqfw4i said:
we lost to vandy
that lost to mizzou
that lost to mtsu
that lost to texts-san antonio...my god I'm a vol fan lifer but what does is it take for fans to stop proping up this bozo?
VANDY!!!!!!!!!!! in his 4th year(best team) :bash:
So because Vandy lost to MO who had some bad losses they couldn't be a decent team?
Vandy drilled MTSU itself, drilled Ole Miss, beat GA in Athens, lost to SC by 3, and lost to the East Conf. champ Gators by 7.
None of this points to Vandy as being a powerhouse, but they were a decent, well-coached team in 2016. Too many Vol "fans" live in yester-year where TN could name the score it wanted to lay on Vandy. The gap is nowhere as large today.
TN was atrocious on defense at the end of the year. While some of that certainly rests on on Jones and his coaches, it has been proven often over the years that you don't win much in the SEC without decent line play on defense. When you lose all of your interior defensive line starters to injury or kicking one off the team for "rules" violations, you probably are going to suck on defense and the Vols certainly did.
There is no doubt that 2016 was Butch's best team to start the year. He also started 5-0 before losing to A&M in overtime. In the process, they lost a bunch of starters. I think it was 20 plus that lost significant playing time, including five of their most important on defense. Losing Evan Berry, a pre-season all american at kick returner for the latter part of the season was also significant. And, they played a schedule that the NCAA rated at the end of the year as the #1 toughest schedule in all of college football. To have a winning record against that schedule with the players they lost to injuries doesn't make it the disaster year that some Vol "fans" try to claim.
I think some Vol "fans" must have started their history with the Vols during one of their two historically best runs. Yes, it was fun during a lot of Fulmer's best years. 45-5 in the SEC is a Vol mark that may never be repeated by our Vols. But, such "fans" ought to take a minute and go back and look at the record outside of the glory years to understand that the Vols are not a 10-2 team year in and year out. Take a look at the struggles favorite son Johnny Majors had when he came to TN after winning a NC and being named national coach of the year. Even with rules that allowed him to turn over his roster much quicker, it took him 5 years to have any success. Think how much fun it was to sit in Neyland to watch the Vols lose to North Texas State.
I'm under no delusion that Butch is the second coming of the General, or will ever be at Fulmer's level. But, to call him a Bozo shows a total lack of understanding of the job he has done in rebuilding the Vols from the Dooley debacle.
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