He claimed that he was around in 1998, but I don't recall him until a couple years ago.   Maybe he was inactive for a long time?

Yeah, he's been here and back a few times. He's had a few variations on that name-- volsboy in south dakota, and another location I'm not recalling-- but I remember him from way back.

Here's a snapshot from the Wayback Machine that shows a post from him in 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010208094202/http://vttw.net/vttw/

Nah.  Completely different style of posting. That can be faked, but joevols doesn't strike me as the type who would sneak around, he would just come in as himself, and whatever his faults, he was a true Vol fan.

If it's a past prolific poster with an axe to grind, my guess would be BP. 

volsboy is volsboy. He's been around for a long time off and on, and as far as I know he's never been anyone else. That's why it's so stunning that he still doesn't get the culture of this board.

Great news on both fronts. Just hope whoever is in for Cam plays well.   

Baylen Buchanan will be a player. He may not start but he's going to be in there and they'll go after him. Hopefully he's ready.

Chance Hall news is huge. That guy's a big upgrade over what we've been trotting out there.

Refuse to worry for even a second about what we're wearing. My guess is the team wanted to wear them, the player staff communicated such, and Butch said OK.

Works for me.

The consensus rankings Ken Massey puts together has UMass #113, Kentucky #93, and North Texas #127. So they've played three really bad teams.

But I'd feel a lot better if we hadn't struggled against Appy St and Ohio. At least UF put those crap opponents away.

I'm not saying Ohio won't give us any trouble, but they're not nearly as good as Appy State. Their 16 point win at Kansas isn't much different from their 2 point home loss to Texas State.

I suspect their QB will make a play or two and we win in the neighborhood of 44-17.

Tough crowd here. It no fun to poke you bears if you won't play back.

I thought you would have learned by now that the "bears" on this board simply don't want to be "poked." That's not how this board works.

Honestly, I expect our level of play will improve drastically in the up coming weeks.

Me too. I fully expect us to have an easier time with VT this week than with App. State last week. But I'm a homer with orange-colored glasses.

I can't see nothin', Pirate.

I'll definitely be out of town, so I'll be missing it too.   

I am a pro-Fulmer guy. I like him very much. But he is absolutely not a fit for AD at UT. That position is much more than it used to be and we have to hire smarter than that.

My hope is that it's Blackburn and he keeps Fulmer as close to the program as possible, for fundraising and PR purposes.

I am always amused

What amuses me is how an "n" so often sneaks into "Dormady."

Advanced stats say they were pretty good in 2015 for what they are-- a solid mid major.

Fremeau Efficiency Index: 44th (40th offense, 19th defense, 52nd special teams)

S&P+: 43rd (46th offense, 41st defense)

As to the specific comment on their OL, they were 28th in adjusted line yards, 86th in power success rate, 65th in stuff rate, and 26th in adjusted sack rate. So . . . not terrible but not great. Also they return 64 starts on the OL, which is middle of the pack in the nation in experience.

Bottom line: I'm not seeing their OL being of particular concern.

I hear you. Obviously he wasn't the only one on the Woodson train or he wouldn't have won. I didn't realize he was so pro-Woodson. On the other hand, Woodson has had a HOF career in the NFL. I don't recall, did Mich win a shared NC that year?

Yeah, Woodson is a very good player. Michigan won the AP and Nebraska won the coaches' title. It was a best-player-on-the-best-team kind of year for the Moving Target Heisman.

I'm petty for still holding that against Saunders but it's just not something I was able to shake loose.

If I recall correctly he was driving the Charles Woodson train in 1997, so I never found myself able to care for his work after that. Yes, I'm that Vol fan.

Still, sad for someone to pass and leave loved ones behind.

The Rat Bastards didn't offer both of them.  They offered the better of the twins, Breyon, but not Brandon. 

If that's what it took to get much needed depth in the interior DL I'm okay with it . . . the smaller brother looks pretty athletic for his size anyway. He may be able to develop at one of a few positions and for the first time in awhile we have some depth to give him time to do that.

The fact that Barnett got the fewest votes of any first team DL (and was only 4 votes away from second team) is a joke.  I can't remember any great UT player who got less respect than DB.

They look at Lawson and Garrett and they see guys who are freak athletes, and people love to jump all over that. At least Garrett has produced.

Barnett just gets it done without all the insane measurables. Just not sexy, I guess.

Also Carl Lawson: 1st team. LMAO. Anybody looked at his stats? He also got more votes than Barnett, which is really, truly hilarious.

Lawson: 37 tackles, 10.5 for loss, 5 sacks in 18 games
Barnett: 142 tackles, 33 for loss, 19 sacks in 26 games

It's nice to have 9 names on that list and be able to legitimately complain about not being properly represented.

 

And as much as I detest the rat bastard tiglets, I would rather see him there than at Bama, or UGA, or UF and have to play against him every year. 

Oh there is zero doubt about this. If we're going to miss on top targets, let them go to Clemson or USC or FSU or wherever and keep them the hell off of our schedule.

I still hope Tee gets the chance to OV and change his mind though.

Interesting that they were so quick to settle after the judge (re)issued the gag order and they were no longer able to try the case in the media. 

Ideally, we would have fought this and won.  But I'm glad it's over.  This thing was a huge shadow looming over our most anticipated football season in years (and probably next season, too), so now there will hopefully be no distractions.  Also, look for our recruiting class to pick up some steam now.  I'm sure we were getting beaten over the head with this by rival coaches, and now that's a card they can no longer play.

The direct cost of continuing to fight would be considerable. The indirect costs were prohibitive. I think the settlement was probably the best option for a variety of reasons.

I will disagree on the negative recruiting though. Opposing coaches will be able to get mileage out of this for awhile despite the settlement.

I've seen a lot of excuses about UT not really that high on Tee and that Tee is over rated.  Maybe, maybe not, but the fact is that he is a kid who literally everybody in the country that is a who's who of college football not just wanted, but coveted.  His upside is incredible.  Is every coach in America who has a clue wrong?. 

Who is saying this? I haven't seen such sour grapes but I'm sure some people will spin things that way.

I don't know if Higgins is done or not but Butch clearly has a lot of work to do with a lot of important prospects.

I'm pretty patient with recruiting, and we're a long way from things being over with Higgins. I will say that if Butch doesn't bring him back in then it's a major failure and this loaded in-state class isn't looking nearly as good for us at this stage as I would have expected.

I do think Azzanni and the WR performance are problems in recruiting and I can't for the life of me understand what's happening there.

Good luck to them. Honestly this is good news as it gives us an extra scholly to give someone deserving.

Blair is one of the bigger busts in recent memory. Raulerson was a reach from the start. I wish them both well as I know they've given their all for Tennessee, but yeah . . . frees up a couple of 2016s schollies for walkons and Raulerson frees one up in the next recruiting class.