I'm starting to come around to the idea that Dobbs is the man, at least for 2015. If you look at the stats he struggled in just two games this year-- Mizzou and Vandy-- and played very well in the other four. He was just a true soph and didn't get a ton of help from an inconsistent and oft injured WR corp.

Let's not forget that the Vandy game we had all our receiving corp out plus Hurd got injured in the first quarter.  Let's also not forget that Dobbs has never had a full season of work knowing that he would be the guy.  He was going to RS his Freshman year and was going to RS this year.  The preparation is different when you know you are going to start vs knowing you are going to RS.  He looked alot better with a healthy Pearson/Hurd/Pig and several weeks of practice to go through plays.  Think about when he was inserted into the starting line-up.  You have no time to really practice.  It is mostly game prep and situational things. 

I would be very surprised if Dobbs and the receivers aren't together all spring and summer working on timing and throws, etc.  Also, a fully healthy receiving corp and our Offense could be great next year.  He brings an added element to the run game we need and have never had.  He can gain yards when things break down and he runs so smoothly.  You get a healthy Hurd and him and a healthy Pig, North, Pearson, Malone, Scott, and Wolf.  That offense could be special.

Coming from the NFL and a Jeff Fisher scheme of 17 - 14 type games....I don't know.  Where else did he coach before the Rams?

Granny...we got hot from the 3 point line in the second half!

They need so much help I would think you would roll the dice with Zach and see what you have the next couple of years.  They aren't going to be good for a few years so why not?  They need so much help.  I heard ESPN guy's saying they don't know if the Oregon QB would be a good fit in the NFL but I honestly don't know.  They think Jameis has all the tools to be great but can he keep himself out of troulbe....highly doubt that he can.  I would trade down and get some draft picks and use them to help in other areas and let Zach have a couple of years.

An ugly road win is still a road win.

The Vols are going to have a tough time with only nine players. Especially playing pressure defense and fouling so much. They fouled out three tonight.

But for tonight, a win is a win.

Some of those fouls were questionable at best!  There was one play where the UT player never touched the guy on a lay-up attempt but the ref still called a foul.  I will never understand a ref thinking something is going to happen and blowing the whistle when nothing does happen.

I would like to see Bama and the Ducks.   I wouldn't have a problem with the ducks winning it.  I do think they would put pressure on Bama to score lots of points.

[after]

That's what Michigan will pay Harbaugh.

And they say that there is no money for players. And......they want to make money off of the players even after they no longer play college sports.

This has become insane. I'm all for paying people what they're worth and I understand paying what the market demands.

But this is crazy. It won't be long until a college football coach is paid 10 million a year.

For Power 5 teams, the money does probably exist, but you have already seen a program like UAB shut down because of no money.  Imagine if every D-1 player was to be paid, you would see many teams fold.  Also, how do you go about paying players?  Is the stud RB and QB making more than the starting o-line or how about the 4th string QB/Lineman?  If you pay football players, do you have to pay all athletes due to Title IX?  They are alot of worms that are opened if you start paying players.  If you start paying players, could you be fired because of lack of performance like normally jobs?  And I could even go futher as saying they are already getting paid.  They are getting a free education.  They aren't coming out of school in debt and have student loans, etc.

In all fairness to Dobbs, against Vandy he was without his top 4 receivers and the receivers we had on the field didn't get first team reps.  I don't claim he is the second coming of Peyton, but here are his stats:

Against Bama - 19 of 32 (59.4%) for 192 yards
Against South Carolina - 20 of 32 (62.5%) for 347 yards
Against Kentucky - 19 of 27 (70.4%) for 297 yards
Against Missouri - 24 of 37 (64.9%) for 195 yards
Against Vandy - 11 of 20 (55%) for 92 yards

Like I said, I don't consider him the second coming of Peyton, but our receiving corps take a huge hit this year due to health reasons.  Let's see what he can do when we have North, Malone, Pig, and Pearson along with Wolf so teams have to scheme to take our weapons away. 

Not talking about financially.  Talking specifically about being piss poor from a competitive standpoint.  They are "our" Titans, but the Titans are an awful franchise from the top to the bottom.  There is nothing appealing about them.  I simply don't see Manning getting involved simply because they have the word "Tennessee" in their title.  He is way too competitive in his thinking, in my opinion. 

I wouldn't be to quick to discredit this.  Remember, he loves the state.  He almost signed with the titans when he chose Denver.  His wife is from Memphis and their family is a very successful and wealthy in real estate.  I guarantee you her family knows Fred Smith personally.  Also, Peyton and his wife bought a minor stake in the Memphis Griz when they opened up miniority ownership in the team.  It was a small %, but they still did it.  Also, with the popularity of Nashville and the money that is pouring into that city, if you get the correct ownership in there, it would be a cash cow.  They have already proven that when good, the city and surrounding areas will support it.  They have also proven that with the right ownership and GM, they can be competitive.  Yes, the titans are a dumpster fire right now, but with the correct pieces, they can be competitive.

Boy, our dysfunctional men's basketball program really has lulled us to sleep, hasn't it? 

I said a few weeks ago that the Tyndall NCAA scrutiny had robbed me of any interest in this season but I watched a couple of games on the tube and got lured in. Went to TBA today for the first time since the win over UVA last season and watched UT cell back from a 12-pt second half deficit to beat #15 Butler by 12. Great effort and great win. Tyndall is winning me over with the way his team plays. Love the hustle and tenacity. These guys are tenacious. If they had a true PG they could be very dangerous in the SEC.

I think we can be dangerous in the sec as is. Outside of UK and uf, what else is there?

I still don't understand how they can never find a good QB down there

they did. TCU didn't win its own conference, I thought it was weak seeing the coach in the locker room seemingly trying to convince the committee that they were "co-champions"....how do you declare yourself co-champions with the team that beat you head-to-head??? Even the BIG 12 wouldn't declare a champion. TCU drilled a 2-10 team, so what....OSU (of which I an no fan btw, hate 'em consider them one of the media darlings), with a 3RD STRING QB, beat Wisconsin, who had a top 10 D and one of the best rushing attacks in the country, 59 to ZERO....even I had to give them cudos for that accomplishment. I couldn't have voted TCU over OSU given those facts. I think the BIG 12 may have a championship game next year, you want your last victory before the selection committee makes its selection to be against a good team, not some 2-10 flunky.   

Would you have said the same thing had it been Texas or Oklahoma that got bypassed by Ohio State?  I don't think the committee would have jumped a big name program like that. 

This is why I don't like the playoff. It cheapens the regular season, while failing to solve anything. I predicted that it wouldn't be long before people were crying foul over some team that didn't make the top four teams and there would be a call to expand the field to eight. Here we are in year one, and that's already happening. Well, guess what? Expanding it to eight teams isn't going to satisfy everyone, either...not in the long run. Heck, the basketball tournament was at 64 teams and they recently expanded it to 68 to keep "deserving" teams from being left out. And every time the playoff field is expanded, it cheapens the regular season just a little bit more.

I have heard people talk about doing Power 5 champions and then 3 at-large but I agree that people would be arguing about the 3 at-large teams.  My solution is to do a 6 team playoff with the top 2 seeds getting a bye (like the NFL).  The 6 teams would be the champions of the 1)SEC, 2) ACC, 3) Big 10, 4) Big 12, 5) PAC 12, and 6) MWC/American/C-USA with which ever team is ranked higher.  Or an 8 team playoff with the champions of all the before mentioned teams.  That way, the regular season means something and winning your conference means something.

I agree with the poster above.  They shouldn't have released weekly rankings.  They had TCU third on Tuesday and TCU went out and beat their oppt by 52 points and they drop 3 spots.  That is just insane.  Also, they said on Tuesday that head to head against Baylor didn't mean anything and that basically TCU was ahead of Baylor in the rankings because they were a better football team and had played a tough non-conference schedule.  But then at the end, they drop TCU behind Baylor...just doesn't make sense!

With that said, I said last night that this may be the only time I ever root for Bama just so OSU loses to another SEC team.  I honestly think that OSU will get buried by Bama.  I watched several of OSU's last games and they were trailing Indiana in the 4th and scored 2 TD's at the end to make it look better.  they struggled against Michigan and another team I watched.  They can't do that against Bama.  I just don't see them scoring that much against bama and I expect bama to kill them with Cooper and then ground control with Yeldon and Henry.

With the poster that said our schedule peters out at the end.  OSU played Indiana and Michigan to end the regular season so I don't think that will have anything to do with it if we can get back into the national scene.  Playing in the SEC, you are going to get the benefit of the doubt.

So, which school - Michigan in the BigHoweverManySchoolsThereAreInThatLeagueNow or Tennessee in the SEC - would you have the better opportunity to consistently be at the top of the conference?

At Michigan, you have Ohio State and Michigan State and then everybody else.

At Tennessee, you are bottom third trying to climb in the toughest college football league in America. 

Why would he go to Michigan?  I think there are a lot of good reasons, but there are a lot of good reasons to stay at UT, as well.

Point being - staying at UT over Michigan isn't the slam dunk that many UT fans believe it to be. 

And like it or not, Michigan could pay a coach twice what UT can should it come down to money. 

I agree with you that Michigan can pay more than UT and I agree with you sort of that it is easier to win in the Big 10 than the SEC.  However, my point was that where Michigan is now, they aren't close to competing and it would be a complete rebuilding job to get it back to where you are competing against Ohio St and Michigan State.  And many of us have stated that it is getting harder to recruit at places like Michigan because of 1) weather and 2) the population base is declining.  When you look at UT, you have spent the past 2 1/2 years rebuilding the talent base and you have it about where you are going to start competing again with the big boys.  Why would you want to give that  to someone else and not achieve the glory and instead go to a program that you will have to rebuild from scratch again?  It is about to get fun again at UT where Michigan still has some tough years ahead.

Also, if you look at how the Big 10 is structured now, you have Ohio State and Michigan State in your same division, not to mention Wisconsin and Nebraska in the other side.  if Franklin can turn Penn State back around, which you have gone on record as saying the Franklin is a heck of a coach, so there is no reason to think he won't turn it around.  So you have 4 teams competing for that division.  You You look at UT, and yes, UF and UGa will probably always be fighting it out with us, but you basically have a 4 team race in this division too with the added bonus of recruiting in Nashville, the Carolinas, and atlanta.

I agree that Michigan has the tradition and is seen as a top school, but if you are Butch, Why would you want to go there?  He would have to start over and completely rebuild there.  While at UT, he has recruited his butt off the past 2 years and has UT where they are going to be competitive again.  Why would you let another coach come to UT and have success with what you did vs rebuild another program?  Also, Michigan is in a section of  the US where it is going to be harder  and harder to recruit to.  Yes, they have tradition but Michigan isn't spitting out the top level kids anymore because their major Metro areas up there are decling in population and most kids that are hot up and comers are coming from the south.  In fact, Nashville is projected to spit out more D1 talent in the next several years and when you add Atlanta, the carolinas, etc UT is in a better recruiting area than Michigan. 

The fact is, it just doesn't make sense for Butch to go to Michigan.  The only reason people say that is  because he is from that state.  He has no ties to the school and didn't even attend Michigan.

This is why I have always said that paying college players is going to make these little schools shut down because they are barely making it the way it is.  When you start paying players, then you start having programs that have to shut down.  Also, if you pay football players, something tells me you are going to have to pay more athletes because of title IX issues.  It is ok for the Power 5 conferences because they have the TV money that will help, but don't expect UAB to be the last college program to shut down football. 

I love coaching searches!  Everyone has "sources".  A report last week said "sources" were told Freeze had been offered and what the salary was.  Today, another story comes out that says "sources" say the McElwain is the top choice and the AD and him have been in contact over the weekend. 

No one's saying he isn't an improvement over Worley- he is.  But he's not the All American people were making him out to be after two games.  Not yet, anyway.  He's made some mistakes the past two weeks.  That's most likely what Butch was seeing in practice, and a major contributing factor in the decision to redshirt him.  And even if he WAS perfect in practice, I still maintain that we would've been better off saving him for 2017, when there will likely be much more at stake than there was this year.

I disagree with you here.  We HAD to get to a bowl this year for several reasons.  1) To keep the recruiting class intact.  If we don't make a bowl, those guys might start loooking elsewhere., 2) For the fans, in order to not put Butch on the hot seat.  Peterman wasn't getting you to a bowl, so I think you had to play Dobbs.

I was there on Saturday and it was UGLY.  The offense was not fluid at all.  Now I realize that alot happens when Hurd goes out.  Hurd and Dobbs can make you pay back time.  However, it was killing me that we only handed off the jet sweep one time.  That one time, it went for 8 - 9 yards.  It also kills me that we weren't throwing downfield.  I know the OL can't block, but how about some short slants or outs or something down field to losen the D up.  Where did our TE's go?  I also realize that we were missing our top 3 receivers, but there has to be plays called past the LOS.

I disagree with you.  If  it continues to happen and keeps  costing us, then o.k. I get your point but to come out and call a player out I think is a little over the line.  Against USC, it didn't cost us and the coaches said in interviews that they told him he  couldn't do what he did.  Against Missouri it did cost us, but I can't recall him being flagged continuously this year for the same thing.  In sports, you have to figure out what the refs are going to call and what they aren't and play within that.  It is like in basketball, you figure out in the first 10 mins of the game how close the refs are going to call it and then you adjust.  Some refs will call everything and some will let you bang and bang and bang. 

Also, if you want to point fingers at players about making mistakes, you have to be fair and call everyone out that  made mistakes.  How about the one Malone let him hit him in the chest and bounce up for the int?  At worst, we kick a FG to tie it there at 16 - 16 or at best, we score a TD and take the lead.  Who knows what happens after that.  You can play the what-if game all you want.

No offense but that it isn't much of a bet. 

Miss State has Vandy this week and Ole Miss next week.  Ole Miss is without their best WR and actually only WR worth anything. 

Bama has Western Carolinda this week and the Iron Bowl.  Auburn won't come within 10 points of them.  After their loss to A&M, they folded.  You could tell against UGA.

Also UGA won't stand a chance against Bama in the SEC Championship game without a vertical passing game.

I don't think anyone will beat Alabama. I guess what we were told about the Bama dynasty being over was a little premature...again. Maybe Phyllis from Mulga was right. 

I am not show sure about that.  This isn't the same Bama as previous years.  They play great at  home but away from home they are a different team.  They should have lost at Arkansas and at LSU...but they didn't.  My wife (bama grad) went to the game last weekend and said Kiffin called a horrible game.  She said that if it wasn't for Sims running twice for first downs when it was 3rd and 10 in the second half, they would have lost.  Don't forget that state made it a game late.  It wouldn't surprise me that bama doesn't lose until the playoffs.  Oregon may slip through and win the national championship this year or I could see FSU's defense giving Bama fits or a rematch against Miss State could be interesting too.

Also, I will say this.  Everybody talks about how Florida is a hot bed for recruiting and it is.  However, it hurts UF when Miami and FSU are doing well.  Let's hope Miami gets it turned around soon too.  Don't forget that when Urban was King down there, both FSU and Miami were awful so UF got everyone they wanted.

I can only hope for another disastrous hire, but there are too many easy options. Foley can snag Petrino, Gary Patterson, Freeze, or even Cutcliffe. No way he messes this up, but I'm hoping.

I disagree with you.  Why would Cutcliffe leave Duke?  Especially at his age.  He knows what the SEC is like.  Why would he leave Duke when they are winning 8 - 10 games a year and he has it easy in the ACC?  Same with Gary Patterson.  That guy has had his option to leave many times and hasn't.  Why would you leave TCU when you are in the Top 10 and are doing well in the Big 12 to go to a UF team that will be rebuilding?  They don't have the offensive pieces in place so it is going to take 2 years at least to get to where they can run a good offense.

LOL, I would be happy if they got Mike Gundy.  If he can't coach in the Big 12...he wouldn't be that good in the SEC in my opinion.  I know UT was close to getting him.

That UF list is funny to say the least....why would Chip Kelly leave the NFL when he has his team in 1st place in his division?  Why would Andy Reid leave the NFL since he has been in the NFL for the past 15 years or so??  Same goes for Jeff Fisher.