Vols a 3 point underdog to MSU...

[japanvol]

In college football home field advantage is generally thought to be worth about 3 points with regards to the point spread. That would mean Vegas thinks that MSU and UT are essentially equal teams. I think the Vols probably have more talent, but less experience winning, both for the players and coaches. MSU on the other hand hasn't been in a close game all year. Hopefully Sat will be the game where UT can hang on and get a signature win. In other interesting lines:

Florida -7.5 @ Vandy
LSU -2.5 vs South Carolina
Ole Miss -4 vs Auburn

[Stogie Vol]

A signature win over MSU....now I'm really depressed.

[VinnieVOL]

A signature win over MSU....now I'm really depressed.

THIS.

[BanditVol]

In college football home field advantage is generally thought to be worth about 3 points with regards to the point spread. That would mean Vegas thinks that MSU and UT are essentially equal teams. I think the Vols probably have more talent, but less experience winning, both for the players and coaches. MSU on the other hand hasn't been in a close game all year. Hopefully Sat will be the game where UT can hang on and get a signature win. In other interesting lines:

Florida -7.5 @ Vandy
LSU -2.5 vs South Carolina
Ole Miss -4 vs Auburn

Not a bad assessment.  I definitely think we can take them.

[Inspector Vol]

A signature win over MSU....now I'm really depressed.

Was thinking the same thing.   

[tnflower]

A signature win over MSU....now I'm really depressed.

Who would have ever thought it would come to this??? 

[Inspector Vol]

Not a bad assessment.  I definitely think we can take them.

I agree with you too.   

[BanditVol]

A signature win over MSU....now I'm really depressed.

I would agree it's not a "signature win", but it would be a solid win on our way back, one we probably dont win last two years. 

A "signature win" would have to come against bammer or USC, there are no ranked highly ranked teams on our schedule.  It's unlikely, but we should have beaten bammer in 2009 and as wretched as we were last year we played them to a tie so who knows.

Just curious, but were either of you really expecting a big signature win after last year?  Is it even reasonable to expect that?  I see it as a bonus.

I see this year as what last year should have been without all the injuries - a solid rebuilding year and a stepping stone to a much better season next year. 

[Black Diamond Vol]

Just curious, but were either of you really expecting a big signature win after last year?  Is it even reasonable to expect that? 
 

You weren't talking to me, but my answer is yes.  Absolutely.

[VinnieVOL]

You weren't talking to me, but my answer is yes.  Absolutely.

Year 3, absolutely was expecting it.

UF was my make or break game for DD.  I gave up on him after that.

[BanditVol]

Well we're not too far apart.  I have basically given him an extra year due to the injury situation last year.  An SEC elite team needs to have depth to cover injuries, but it was unrealistic to expect that last year.

Let me be clear - I also think that DD overused the injury/depth argument last year, to the point of absurdity,  made some bad decisions to make it worse, and completelly mismanaged the UK game.  And yeah, losing 80% of his staff didn't make me feel better about things either.   In fact I almost completely ignored football for 8 months when that happened.

In spite of that, our performance so far this year  - in terms of wins and losses - is about where I expected it to be, and there are even some pleasant surprises (OL play and run game).

The D...well I don't need to tell you they are struggling.  The staff has had two weeks to fix some glaring fundamental issues.  Hope they do. If Sunseri has any pride or competive spirit at all, we should be seeing a better product Saturday.

[Black Diamond Vol]

Year 3, absolutely was expecting it.

UF was my make or break game for DD.  I gave up on him after that.

IMO, we need to stop pointing to "signature wins" and look at the big picture- is Dooley the guy that can get us back to the level we were in 90s?  We can blame Kiffin and make excuses as to why we're not winning all day long- but at some point, you have to overcome that adversity.  Next year is year four of the DD regime (if he returns).  He'll have a full roster of his recruits.  But we'll also probably lose at least 2-3 underclassmen to the NFL, and we have games at Oregon and at UF back to back.  So the apologists will have some ready-made excuses next year, too.  ANYONE can stumble their way to one "signature win".  Hell, Ron Zook had 4-5 of them in his time at UF.  But to succeed at the level our fans demand, you need 3-4 "signature wins" per SEASON (maybe more).  You also can't lose to teams like Kentucky.  At some point, Dooley is going to win a big game, by luck or otherwise (he almost did it at LSU in his first season).  But even when that happens, we need to ask ourselves, "Forget this one game- Is this the guy who can lead us back to national relevance?".  If the answer is yes, then by all means, we should keep him.  If it's no, well, you know the answer.  

I just want to get back to the days when there were no excuses.  When we could say, "We're losing Peyton Manning, Leonard Little, Marcus Nash, and Jonathan Brown.  So what?  Let's win the whole damn thing anyway."

[BanditVol]

BDV - good points.  Agree that signature wins are overated.  Let's say we did manage to beat uga 54-51.  Would that be a signature win?  Or would we feel like we barely survived and still had major problems to address.

I have a different take on w/l than most.  I think some years, like 2004, you can win a bunch of close games with some luck and then get exposed like we did in 2005, when the close games all went the other way.

So even winning by itself is not everything.  You have to win for the right reasons (ie not luck) and keep improving even as you win.

Agree Dooley might not be the guy to lead us all the way back, but if he is putting together his best recruiting class (which may or may not be true), can get us to 8-4 and can improve this lousy D we have (complicted by a completely new defensive staff  ), then we can come back and compete next year IMO.

We still will not have all the talent we need on D, but we can keep building it and hope for the best.

BTW, Todd McShay of ESPN doesn't even have Bray in his top five draft choices for 2013.   And does anyone think Hunter is a 1st rounder yet?  CP can probably go pro on talent alone, but he'd better hold on to some of those long passes. 

I have a hunch we  don't lose as much as anyone thinks.

Finally, the payout for Dooley is huge this year, and that is a factor as well.  If there are wealthy alumni willing to throw ~$10 million at the program to get rid of Dooley and bring in someon of the caliber of Pete Carroll (if such is even possible), then go for it.

But from an overall program POV, going 8-4 is good for this year IMO. 

Here's some persepective.  8-4 would be our best record since 2007.  Better than anything Kiffin did in spite of his ridiculous blustering and way better than anything Dooley has done so far.

I want that 8-4.  It looks so much better than 5-7.  SO much better.  And if we win the bowl game, it's our highest win total since 2006.  That's progress.

Is it where any of us want to be?  Of course not!  It's a huge improvement though, for sure.

[Stogie Vol]

From my perspective, sadly, a win over MSU is a signature win for Dooley. That's what depresses me. It should NOT, however, be a signature win for Tennessee.

[japanvol]

Agreed.  A win over MSU should never have to be a "Signature" win for UT as a school or its coach. Unfortunately, I think this is where UT is a program now. I'm also thinking it would be a "Signature" win in terms of turning the corner in the minds of the players and coaches finally believing and actually winning a game against an even/better opponent. Not so much a "Signature" win in terms of national prestige.