Nothing too controversial to note, other than the fact they say we'll have a much harder time executing a similar scheme against their better athletes (which isn't wrong).
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That was actually very insightful. They didn't pick up on why the OL changed from first half to second half but it was a fair analysis.
That may have been the most level headed comment by a Vols football fan I've ever read. Good catch.
VolNation is a pretty reasonable board. I remember a lot of the talk there after the '09 Chick-fil-a Bowl was that we were a legit top 15 team and they honestly weren't at our level, rather than the typical SEC homerism bullshit and temper tantrums.
Well, there's also the difference that Butch Jones has been their coach for three years, meaning his system should be 100% installed by now, and Justin Fuente had never coached a live down of regular season football for VT prior to Saturday...
I bet this team might disagree.
Not to mention Boise State, BYU, USF and San Diego State
Noticed that. App St. is better than a number of P5 schools, but they are no where close to Houston.
Houston is going to ride that victory right into a BIG 12 invite.
Too soon
This gif is fantastic haha that little fact that you don't know where it's coming from and the little smile she gives in the end is hilarious
They address this further down in the comments and he admits to the mistake.
BYU is independent fwiw
Still G5, like ND is P5.
theyre both independent
Correct but ND is power 5 level school while BYU is G5 level school.
If you mean in terms of talent, yes. But independent is independent. Neither school is P5 or G5, because they're not actually in any of those conferences.
Isn't Notre Dame specifically mentioned as being considered a P5 program in the CFP selection rules?
This is absolutely correct.
ND is given higher standing over BYU, Army, and UMass.
what rules? i'm not trying to be an ass, i'm genuinely curious because my understanding is that they have always used guidelines, and the closest i could find to rules are here
or
my understanding is ND is treated like a P5 because they play against and typically beat P5 teams, BYU for that matter has a schedule similar to most P5 teams
that's simply an opinion, as i think many people would argue they're closer to a P5 level
group of 5 refers to a defined list of conferences and the teams within them, so saying byu is a better group of 5 team is inaccurate based on the fact that byu is independent (and very well may end up in a P5 league in the near future)
Yeah that one had me wondering.
Appy is certainly a good test, and certainly a lot better than Liberty, but they're not THAT good. Tennessee should have walked all over them and they got taken to OT. There's no way to dismiss that as acceptable. App would struggle to remain bowl eligible in a conference like the American, let alone a Power 5 conference.
I'm just going off the top of my head here, but didn't we pretty much destroy Appy St. last time we played them. But that must have been an "off year" for them, I guess....haha. Also, I think Liberty may be a stronger team than people give them credit for.
Excuses, excuses, excuses......neither team played up to their potential, but that's to be expected in Week 1.
To be fair, they were still FCS when we played them.
We beat them in 2011 66-13. Since then they have moved up to FBC in 2014 I believe and went 11-2 last year with a defense ranked in the top 15. Yes they play crappy competition but they are a very solid football team that returned most of their defensive starters.
You are 100% correct about UT should have had no trouble with that game and most fans realize it. If you'll look at a lot of other threads on Volnation, you'll see that most fans are aware of that. I'm not on the same panic level as some of them are, but there are some questions that need to be answered Saturday, mainly o-line play.
And I think Houston has the claim to be the best G5 team in America until proven otherwise.
shhhh
That "best G5 team in America" lost their 2014 homecoming game to the cupcake:
http://www.espn.com/college-football/boxscore?gameId=400548423
2014 was App's first year as a FBS school. Still weren't even bowl eligible that year if I remember correctly. They have come a LONG way since 2014.
One good way to pad wins is to play football in the Sun Belt. Really is the perfect conference for them to wade in the kiddy section of the FBS pool while getting acclimated to the temperature.
Careful there, buddy. Otherwise, you're liable to make them hot, hot, hot under their little Mountaineer collars.
if you're referring to what I think you're referring to, it's a thing of beauty, and likely what inspires their great play
A level headed, reasonable Tennessee fan? I think we found a orange and white unicorn right here.
It's refreshing to see a thought out and honest breakdown of our matchup from their perspective. Thanks for sharing!
How good is Appy St supposed to be? I thought they were pretty sorry the last few years
they recently moved up to fbs so they had some rough years, but last year they won 10 or 11 games i believe
They won 11 games last year, but let's remember the context. I guess they are a Sunbelt team now.
But Appy St literally couldn't throw the ball. At all. I know UT has a great secondary, but ASU just had to run it, even when they knew they needed to pass to put the game away. Liberty and ASU were similar in one thing: they both threw the ball with about the same efficacy.
I think they're somewhere between "pretty good" and "as good as Tennessee fans are now making them out to be". :-) We'll know more after the play da U in a couple weeks.
with their schedule they will probably win 10-11 games again. They are a very solid opening week opponent.
Appalachian State: You're Not Back Until You Play Us!
for the love of all things good and holy, stop using "Appy State." "App State" is perfectly acceptable and even requires fewer syllables. "Appy State" is as offensive to them as "Vah-Tech" is to us. I don't know how this got started, but it needs to be killed with fire.
G5?
Very fair analysis!
Fair analysis, will be interesting how the game goes.
I cant get over how tame that comments section was either. I mean there was some gentle ribbing of the VT fan commenter, but nothing out of good fun
That particular thread is where all the level-headed ones were. Look on the rest of their forum to find the stereotypes.
Good Analysis, although this is probably wrong right here:
The best way to beat Foster is big plays and break the defense, not pound them into submission. The best blue print to beat Foster's D with a physical team would be Stanford in the 2011 Orange Bowl. They wore VT down, but it was the big plays early that got VT on their heals, and then a lot of big plays late.
Agree with most of what you said except the first part of that. IMOP Foster's crew (which was having a bit of a "down season" stats and ranking wise) was the only unit that kept us in the game, mid way through the 3rd qtr. I felt they did a very excellent job limiting the big plays until mid 3rd.
if you have the OLine our defenses have shown we can be pounded into submission. Miami and Pittsburgh have done it too us over the last several years.
Last couple of years.
Pitt did not pound VT into submission last year, and Miami wasn't a world-beater either. VT's D gave up 276 total yards (166 rushing) to Pitt and 395 total yards (99 rushing). Anemic offense were the main culprits: Against Pitt, 3 INTs and 100 yards of total offense. Against Miami, 3 INTs, 3/10 on 3rd down.
The last time I remember someone running us to death was Alabama in '09. They just hammered us in the run game, especially Ingram late in the game.
forgot this game?
Miami Rushing
CAR
YDS
AVG
TD
LONG
Duke Johnson Jr. 29 249 8.6 1 29
Gus Edwards 20 115 5.8 2 38
Stacy Coley 1 2 2.0 0 2
Brad Kaaya 1 0 0.0 0 0
TEAM 53 364 6.9 3 38
http://scores.espn.com/ncf/boxscore?gameId=400547791
That was unfortunately the game I chose to attend that year. Similar to the 2012 UNC game where Gio burned us big time.
I don't think that was Ingram late, I think it was Roy Upchurch. But yes, they pummeled us late
I didnt hate anything he said.
Stop trying to make me like you, Tennessee.
Believe it or not but App State got more credit in the Coaches poll than VT did.
I imagine Tenn dropped out of top 10?
Sort of OT but here are latest bowl projections based off week two polls and week on showings: http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/17476494/college-footbal...
Don't jinx it (you know, unless you're jinxing it for other teams)!
If you ever wondered whether the AP poll liked bandwagons, check out Texas and Wisky at 10 & 11 after being unranked.
I mean, yeah, you should probably rank them somewhere with wins over pre-season top-ten teams, but how about giving it a couple weeks working up the chart to prove they or their opponents were that good before putting them right into the championship conversation?
Nope.
This is another example how inaccurate pre-season polls are, and also of how the media in general is a poor source for just about any breaking story. Gotta get out there with the most exclamation points before your competition uses them all.
I actually like how aggressively they have changed the rankings. Although given the way they moved other teams around keeping Clemson 2 seems a little inconsistent with the rest of the movements, but they probably deserve to stay 2 and Dabo would would raise hell about them being disrespected.
In the past Tennessee probably would have moved up just because they won and those below them lost. Also Texas is definitely a bandwagon but they looked good against what is likely a solid ND team. If nothing else, Kizer is a really good QB. Wisconsin's ranking will even out when they inevitably lose.
I don't think I see VT getting the same bump had it been us knocking off top ten (unless maybe a Houston style stomping).
The primary example would have to be Ohio State still ahead of us after we beat them in the Horseshoe.
17 Ap
14 Coach's
Spent all of last weekend in Knoxville for a wedding. Tried to wear my hokies gear anytime I wasn't in a tux. Got a good snapshot of Vol fans reactions after App St. game and heading into Bristol next week. It was a good warm up to what we'll have to listen to this weekend. Nothing earth shattering, just my takeaway from what I heard first hand:
Last weekend definitely got me fired up for Battle of Bristol, and glad I made the decision to go now, even if I won't be able to see anything. Looking forward to the matchup, the festivities, and roaming through VT tailgates. And hopefully giving it to my in-laws a little bit after we come away with a 34-28 victory over UT.
What the hell is Miami doing playing in Boone?
Vols fans probably right about winning by 2 TD's, they are favored by 10-12....so two scores is expected.
Probably also right about VT struggling with Hurd/Kamara. That's a tough matchup for anyone and big backs like Hurd have been a problem the last couple of years. Best defense for that may be Fuente's offense forcing the game into Dobbs' hands.
What the hell are we doing playing ECU til 3037?
This cannot be given enough legs, can I give it as many turkey legs as the number of match-ups we have with ECU? Or would that break the turkey leg counter?
I thought the same thing when they mentioned it. Apparently this will be the first time App St. hosts a P5 school, and will play in Miami in 2021.
Sauces: Miami Herald - Hurricanes to Play at App St
I know it may seem a bit unlikely, but if we can break out to a 14-0 start or better, I feel like it may shift their game plan away from the run to the air, and could do exactly what you said.
Also, I may put too much hope in our defensive front and not enough respect for their OL, but I think we have a good chance at containing their run game enough to force them to pass. If we miss assignments or struggle to bring down Hurd/Kamara/Dobbs and they start gashing us, it's going to be a long night.
Gosh don't they know that you're supposed to schedule your head scratcher OOC opponents for home and homes 30 years at a time?
My biggest concern for the defense is missed tackles on these guys but I wouldn't go as far as saying VT will have no answer. App State held them to 131 yards on 34 carries with a long run of 13 yards. Maybe that's not exactly shutting them down but I think that would give VT a good chance to win, especially if we can keep them from breaking any big plays. I also point this out because I think the bear alignment could be an effective way to slow down UT's running game. OL seems to be a weak spot so exploit it by putting defenders in the box, create confusion on where the pressure is coming from, and attack the line of scrimmage to quickly get into the backfield.
What position does Braxton Miller play in their offense? Oh.
I forgot all about Darrell Taylor being at Tennessee. Will be interesting to see if he plays and if so how well he does.
Very impressed with the level headed comments from the UT fan base. A bit different from the delusional comments on the Eleven Warriors site the past 2 years!
http://www.volnation.com/forum/tennessee-vols-football/260753-vt-look-al... ---- from lurking on their site I found this.
HAH! Even I had to chuckle and grin a little bit at that. Not too bad. Sidenote: if only I had a gif or vid clip of Prince John from Men in Tights slapping the table and shouting "FUNNY".
some of those were great! I LOL'd at Wyatt Teller
Those are pretty funny. I guess they have to do that kind of stuff with Dobbs at qb.
I lmao at the Motu one... those r good
Haha damn many of those are real funny. Some are not too creative.
Zach Hoyt and Napoleon Dynamite gets my vote as by far the worst
Less humorous than I was expecting, but I guess if the roles were flipped. I liked the California Raisins ones.
OT: don't like forum format that includes the .gif in the reply, seems like it would clutter things up quite a bit. I guess if the reply came right after the comment (see: TKP) that wouldn't be necessary.
Laughed out loud at Sam Rogers one.
The Vols won't be laughing...
Edit: Joey Slye also a good one
Crazy that the vols dropped from 10 to 17 in the polls!
God I hate early season polls. Five winless teams in the top 25. First media polls should come out after week 4, just to give an opportunity for things to settle.
I agree but then they wouldn't be able to hype up early season games as well as they do now.
Oh, no, I think preseason polls are fine. That's purely speculative and everyone accepts them as such. But the polls in weeks 1-3 are a weird combination of carryover from preseason speculation mixed with on-field results. Like with Notre Dame, 0-1, so it's absurd to see them ranked, except that the preseason speculation that they are good is overriding the fact that they lost a close game away from home. Then you've got Tennessee, who won but plummeted seven spots, because taking a Sun Belt team to overtime has pollsters seriously second-guessing their initial impression of the team.
TL;DR. Keep the preseason polls to hype week 1 matchups. Don't update the polls until week 4, to allow a feeling-out period to adjust polls based on actual game results.
But if you don't update the polls until week 4, you could potentially have an 0-4 LSU team ranked in the top 5.
Well, yes, if you pretend the preseason poll is still applicable after the season starts, i suppose you'd have that problem...
Uh, not that there's anything wrong with that, but is that granny or gramps?
This analysis has got nothing on French
Agreed.
Never said it was a good analysis :)
This is a universally true statement.