News Article: Vols favored in every game this year by ESPN

I don't know all the qb's in the SEC east, but I don't see Dobbs as the best qb in the east simply because he's not that good. He's a good runner but his arm is average at best. The Vols will have a good but not great defense. Jalen Heard (sp?) is one of the best rb's in the country. My guess is the Vols lose to Georgia and Bama.

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92tide said:

they have a pretty wicked 4 game stretch (florida at home, uga and t a and m on the road and us at home) in the middle of their season. plus they have to deal with all of the emotional baggage of playing at a nascar stadium this year.

i also don't think the uga game is going to bode well for them. i think kirby will have that one circled

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If KS turns out to be even half the coach we think he'll be, he will own the vols and the barn. Richt had been the barn's daddy for years.
The lizards I don't know about - that's a different rivalry (one he knows well), and I think short term he may own them as well.

OK so let me ask the 64,000 dollar question because I really don't know: how "deep" are they?
Somebody is gonna get hurt (inevitable) and I'm not sure how many backups they have with any real experience...?
Seems like a couple of key injuries and they might lose more than a couple; if they endure a rash of them, what happens?

Go Bama said:

I don't know all the qb's in the SEC east, but I don't see Dobbs as the best qb in the east simply because he's not that good. He's a good runner but his arm is average at best. The Vols will have a good but not great defense. Jalen Heard (sp?) is one of the best rb's in the country. My guess is the Vols lose to Georgia and Bama.

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UF- Del Rio- never started a game
UGA- There are people actually talking about a true freshman starting over what they got, so what is that tell you
UK-Drew Barker- never started a game
MZ-Lowary, Lock, or who knows
Vandy-Shurmur

Compared to the rest of their eastern rivals, Tennessee has the best situation at qb.

81usaf92 said:

UF- Del Rio- never started a game
UGA- There are people actually talking about a true freshman starting over what they got, so what is that tell you
UK-Drew Barker- never started a game
MZ-Lowary, Lock, or who knows
Vandy-Shrumer- he is ok

Compared to the rest of their eastern rivals, Tennessee has the best situation at qb.

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OK, I'll give you they have the best qb in the east. Even so, IMO he's not a very good qb. I'll be surprised if at the end of the season Dobbs is seen as the best qb in the east.

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Go Bama said:

OK, I'll give you they have the best qb in the east. Even so, IMO he's not a very good qb. I'll be surprised if at the end of the season Dobbs is seen as the best qb in the east.

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Maybe, and maybe not. I could care less if Tennessee wins the East as long as we beat them twice, but Dobbs should give every Bama fan some cause to worry. Aside from 2013, both 2014 and 2015 Dobbs was the key reason they were on the field with us going into to 4th quarter. In 2014 we went up 20 to 0 against their starter in the first, and when Dobbs entered they scored 20 points to make the game closer than what it should've been. Do I need to go on about how last year was a Prilosec game. Dobbs is neither a world beater nor a chump, but my point is aside from Trevor Knight (which he is highly debatable), no many team in the SEC (especially the east) are in as good of shape at qb as Tennessee starting out. That may very well change as time goes on, but again Dobbs isn't a qb to take lightly.

81usaf92 said:

First off... I hate the Vols more than I hate Auburn, and it pains me deeply to give those scumbags any such credit whatsoever. But I think the Vol talk is a lot more credible than Auburn's the last two years.

Auburn's talk centered around their offense, and people love offense. But no one looked at the amount of teams they played with a credible defense and Auburn's lack of. Then last year, everyone thought Johnson was going to flourish in Malzhan's offense, but failed to see he was a different QB than what a Malzhan offense required.

Tennessee catches 2 teams changing coaches (UGA and USCe), 1 team in a rebuilding year (UF), and draws a lower end west opponent (aTm). Their schedule sets up nicely with them having the most experienced team in the East coming back.

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Oh I agree with you....but at this time last year, they were all talking about Gus' unstoppable offense, combined with hiring coach "Boom" on defense, that the barn would be in the 2015 playoffs...

and Alabama's reign had ended! Lol!!

I agree that things are stacked in UT's favor this year (or so it appears), but as stated above BJ has shown he can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

We shall see this fall!

Bamabuzzard said:

All I can say is "I'll believe it when I see it." Tennessee was supposed have arrived a few times and has yet to deliver. Unless Tennessee develops a running game and a defense like Alabama 2015 then they are ultimately going to live and die by Josh Dobbs. By which my money is on him not being able to carry that type load resulting in them losing more than just two regular season games.

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Im not saying that I believe that they are this extraordinary team that is destined to win the SEC, but they have the same setup as MSU had 2014 in which they have a better than average qb, overall team, easy path, most experienced team, and there are teams in the league with far more problems than them. You can knock Dobbs all you want, but the guy only threw 5 picks all year and won 9 games. Had Butch Jones not goofed in 3 games they would've been in the SECCG Don't believe me, then look at the Oklahoma, Florida, and even our game. They were the only team besides Ole Miss and Clemson that was in position to win against us in the fourth quarter. Im telling you right now, that Butch is not going to lose to Florida this year even with his ineptness. So that leaves UGA,aTm,UA,UK, and USCe in which you are trusting Sumlin,Muschamp, and Stoops to come through in which they have worse records of coming through than Jones with far worse teams this year. I can see Smart winning despite the uncertainty at qb, but the only almost for sure loss I can see is to us. other than that an 8-4 only seems likely if Mizzou or VT come back from the dead. I still see 9-3 as the low end.

Con said:

That one has to sting the vol faithful.

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Not nearly as much I suspect as losing twice in one year to Mike DuBose must sting the ol' Ball Coach!

bama61 said:

Not nearly as much I suspect as losing twice in one year to Mike DuBose must sting the ol' Ball Coach!

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Yeah looking back, ole Dumbose from Opp, didn't do really that bad considering everything going on at the time...beat Spurious (what I used to call "the ole ball coach" in the day, before I grew to have a little bit of respect for him)...twice in the same season, during the heyday of the "fun-n-gun" offense that was "cutting edge" like the HUNH, tempo offenses of today.... Securing yet another SEC championship for the good guys!

I still remember though, the horrendous coaching flops, that cost us games we could have won (Butch Jones reminds me of Dubose......just a secretary affair shy of achieving his status!!)....I still remember Freddie Kitchens' last Iron Bowl.....it went to the wire, and the barn was to kick a FG to go up, late in the 4th......they had an awesome kicker that year, and the FG, was basically a routine, automatic score......Dubose thought it would be smart, to burn our time outs, to "ice" him....they made the FG.......We got the ball back, and Freddie led a drive that, IMHO, was one of the greatest of his career at Bama....we just ran out of time in the end, and had to attempt a Loooooong FG.....it was straight up the middle, but fell short of the posts......too bad we didn't have a time out or two to stop the clock to run another play or two.....oh! I forgot, we did! But used them, icing the kicker that kicked the winning field goal!!.....[emoji19]

Of course I believe, Bruce Arians lost his job over calling the pass play to Scissum (who fumbled on the 3rd down play when all we needed to do was run clock).....I thought it was a good play call. You can't fault the coach for lack of execution....and Sh.. happens......but even then, we had a chance, but put a rookie kicker on the field, in the iron bowl, to make a 50+yd FG, when we could have had a couple time outs left to get closer, or score, and I think ole Mike should have lost his job that season......but...I digress...

danb said:

Yeah looking back, ole Dumbose from Opp, didn't do really that bad considering everything going on at the time...beat Spurious (what I used to call "the ole ball coach" in the day, before I grew to have a little bit of respect for him)...twice in the same season, during the heyday of the "fun-n-gun" offense that was "cutting edge" like the HUNH, tempo offenses of today.... Securing yet another SEC championship for the good guys!

I still remember though, the horrendous coaching flops, that cost us games we could have won (Butch Jones reminds me of Dubose......just a secretary affair shy of achieving his status!!)....I still remember Freddie Kitchens' last Iron Bowl.....it went to the wire, and the barn was to kick a FG to go up, late in the 4th......they had an awesome kicker that year, and the FG, was basically a routine, automatic score......Dubose thought it would be smart, to burn our time outs, to "ice" him....they made the FG.......We got the ball back, and Freddie led a drive that, IMHO, was one of the greatest of his career at Bama....we just ran out of time in the end, and had to attempt a Loooooong FG.....it was straight up the middle, but fell short of the posts......too bad we didn't have a time out or two to stop the clock to run another play or two.....oh! I forgot, we did! But used them, icing the kicker that kicked the winning field goal!!.....[emoji19]

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Probably one of dubose's dumbest calls actually saved his job. In the game at the swamp Florida was leading and we had a 4th and short at mid field with like 3 minutes left with 1 or no time outs with Shaun Alexander. Dubose decides to punt. We must have had auburn's shamrock that day because their returner fumbled inside the 20 and we recovered. The only call that was even close to that was the one that got Arians fired, but you can semi make an argument for that one.

*** Edit***
It was 3 minutes left, and not two minutes, but the fact remains we had the best running back in the country who is averaging near 4 yards a carry with a 4th and short. Also Zow was on fire, so Florida couldn't exactly stack the line either. Again, luck saved Dubose's job from his own stupidity.

81usaf92 said:

Probably one of dubose's dumbest calls actually saved his job. In the game at the swamp Florida was leading and we had a 4th and short at mid field with like 2 minutes left with 1 or no time outs with Shaun Alexander. Dubose decides to punt. We must have had auburn's shamrock that day because their returner fumbled inside the 20 and we recovered. The only call that was even close to that was the one that got Arians fired, but you can semi make an argument for that one.

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Yes , I remember that game as well....(and I edited my above post to reflect Arians demise!!)

And also, Shaun Alexander, was a youngster and was taking bench duty and would probably rode the bench longer, had Curtis Alexander not got hurt, and he got his number called......(and the Bama Nation wondered...."where did this dude come from? And why was he not starting??")

danb said:

Yes , I remember that game as well....(and I edited my above post to reflect Arians demise!!)

And also, Shaun Alexander, was a youngster and was taking bench duty and would probably rode the bench longer, had Curtis Alexander not got hurt, and he got his number called......(and the Bama Nation wondered...."where did this dude come from? And why was he not starting??")

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Im not as hacked off about the Arians call mainly due to how Auburn always seems to take advantage of our ultra conservatism down there with improbable plays and having refs in the back pocket. I think the only Iron Bowls that we played down there that we have lost with no shenanigans are 97,03,05,and 07.

FWIW: the Dubose call in the Swamp is 18:10 mark. I still cringe when I see our Punter going out on the field. I cant decide between punt or the horrible field goals by both teams in overtime as to which was the most shocking times in the game. But overall it is the typical Dubose game in which we have a good team that is playing against both the other team and Dubose at the same time.

81usaf92 said:

Im not saying that I believe that they are this extraordinary team that is destined to win the SEC

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Yet, you are defending them in this thread like you are a VFL.

They have five games that are basically gimmees. This team should easily get to 8 wins. Stretch goal should be 10. However, we've heard the same thing (Vols are back!) for the past two seasons and their coach has proven pretty inept at managing a tight game in crunch time.

I have to go with the Ric Flair philosophy on this one . . . If you wanna be the man, you gotta beat the man; and whether you like it or not, that's just the way it is! Until they actually do it, they're just talkin' the talk.

trenda said:

Yet, you are defending them in this thread like you are a VFL.

They have five games that are basically gimmees. This team should easily get to 8 wins. Stretch goal should be 10. However, we've heard the same thing (Vols are back!) for the past two seasons and their coach has proven pretty inept at managing a tight game in crunch time.

.

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Not defending them, just saying I believe that they should be a 9 win at the very least regular season team. They are like MSU in 2014, in which everybody called me crazy on that prediction thread when I said they would be 10-2, in which their schedule favors them and could hide some of their weaknesses. No Im not saying Dobbs is in the same zip code as Dak, but Tennessee gets both UGA and UF early and could probably catch them trying to break in a qb. UGA also has a trip to Oxford before Tennessee, so who knows in what physical and mental state they are in at that point.

As far as the Vols are back... Ive never got why people always assume that they will be a good team for a long stretch in this era of football. Tennessee is in the same situation that Nebraska is. They are a name team that has no real in state talent, and has to depend on recruiting nationally to succeed. Tennessee will be good in spots, but never to the degree they were in the 90s, but then again that was because Alabama,Auburn,Georgia, and LSU were all inconsistent, and it helped that Manning was there .

81usaf92 said:

Im not as hacked off about the Arians call mainly due to how Auburn always seems to take advantage of our ultra conservatism down there with improbable plays and having refs in the back pocket. I think the only Iron Bowls that we played down there that we have lost with no shenanigans are 97,03,05,and 07.

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The bolded part sounds barner-ish. Refs are incompetent not paid off.

DzynKingRTR said:

The bolded part sounds barner-ish. Refs are incompetent not paid off.

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paid off or incompetent there always seems like some referee shenanigans happens down there when we play.Then you have the miracle plays.

Can we stop talking about Dubose? I had to live through that as an undergrad and would prefer to mis-remember. Of course it was better than the year I had to watch...erm... let's just not talk about these years... K... Thanks...

Every time I see this thread title I have to get used to the idea of UT being the favorite when they play Bama.
:biggrin:
I think it's a silly idea.