I really didn’t see it with them we played earlier this year. That was the third weekend of league play. Tennessee came in having lost two of three at Alabama (who we swept in Athens the next weekend) and then won a home series against Ole Miss.
We run-ruled the Vols on Friday night. They beat us Saturday, but I thought that was a game where we did more to beat ourselves than they did to beat us. Very winnable game for us. Sunday that outplayed us and definitely deserved to win that one.
Leaving there I thought that that Tennessee was nowhere near as good as they were in 2022 or 2023. Maybe I was underselling us too a bit. But I really thought that was a 15-15 type of team.
In any case, and unlike in 2022, the Vols just seemed to get better every week. The times I saw them later on this year, they played with a lot of confidence and composure too.
They have dialed their antics down over the last two years and Vitello should be credited for that too I suppose (one can argue he never should have acted and allowed others to act that way in the first place).
You have to tip your cap. They’ve easily been the best team in the league since Covid, and they probably got robbed in that Covid season more than we did.
Maybe they follow the trend of the last three national champs and sharply regress next year.
We run-ruled the Vols on Friday night. They beat us Saturday, but I thought that was a game where we did more to beat ourselves than they did to beat us. Very winnable game for us. Sunday that outplayed us and definitely deserved to win that one.
Leaving there I thought that that Tennessee was nowhere near as good as they were in 2022 or 2023. Maybe I was underselling us too a bit. But I really thought that was a 15-15 type of team.
In any case, and unlike in 2022, the Vols just seemed to get better every week. The times I saw them later on this year, they played with a lot of confidence and composure too.
They have dialed their antics down over the last two years and Vitello should be credited for that too I suppose (one can argue he never should have acted and allowed others to act that way in the first place).
You have to tip your cap. They’ve easily been the best team in the league since Covid, and they probably got robbed in that Covid season more than we did.
Maybe they follow the trend of the last three national champs and sharply regress next year.
