Neyland was sold out for Georgia, and the official attendance was 102,455. Their lowest attendance this year was 90k for buffalo
You are absolutely correct, Humdinger. Thanks for the retrospective and I give you rep points for your fine post.
Always concerned whenever we play that the team is prepared, no turnovers, no injuries, and that we win the game if it is 1-0 i am happy. 14 games where we have more points than the other team at the end. Focus on one game at a time and in the words of Elvis TCB
Coming late into this topic, but any game against a traditional SEC tier 1 program should worry every Tiger fan. Otherwise, it wouldn't be SEC football.
I'm not old enough to remember Hank Lauricella as a player, but he was my state senator when I lived in Metairie during the 1970's. I was three when he was an All American at Tennessee in 1951 on a national championship team. I remember seeing Lauricella's LSU contemporary, Y.A. Tittle, when he played for the 49'ers and the Giants. I just read a recap of that 1959 upset by Tennessee. At the half, they introduced the coach and players from their 1914 conference champs. Now that's going back in time.
Man, that's a lot of words. Anyway, Justin Hunter was absolutely NOT their #2 receiver. He was the best player on their team after the dismissal of Janzen Jackson...and was most certainly their #1 receiver. Not sure where you're getting that. Tauren Poole is NOT a good running back. TN averages -15 yards rushing per SEC game this year. Tauren Poole is likely to be benched in favor of Marlon Lane. But anyway... TN sucks pretty bad this year. Poor Dooley is getting blasted in the local media (I've been in Knoxville since May). His momma has to drive to local radio stations to defend him. I think these knuckleheads saying he's on a hot seat are crazy, considering the dumpster fire he inherited, but still...quit trying to make this look like a contest. It ain't. Their good offensive stats came against the likes of Montana and friggin Buffalo...not the BILLS, either. And the stadium won't even be full. They can't even sell out their STUDENT SECTION for this game. I have people I work with here in Knoxville (UT fans) with sets of season tickets who aren't going to the game. I know, because I got their tix!
One other thing...I didn't notice anything in all those words about their defense. Hmmm...maybe that's because they are also terrible. They returned nobody, and without Janzen Jackson, they're even worse than I thought they'd be prior to the season on defense. Oh, and they have ZERO depth. None. TN is two years away from competing for anything other than some 6-6 or 7-5 bowl game. In fact, they better count their lucky stars if they go 6-6 this year. As it stands, they have to make sure they beat KY and Vandy, as well as someone they most certainly SHOULDN'T beat (LSU, Bama, USCe) to go better than 6-6.
Hunter had 16 catches in the first two games before he got hurt, Da'Rick Rogers had 15. Last year, Hunter only had 5 more catches than Rogers. So it's splitting hairs over who was #1 and who was #2. Both are elite WRs. Had Tauren Poole entered the draft last year, he would have been drafted. He ran for over 1,000 yards last season with four freshman and one sophomore on his O-line. That's pretty impressive. He averaged 5.07 ypc last season, which was #2 in the SEC for RBs with over 200 carries (Kniles Davis was #1)... that was better than Marcus Lattimore (4.81) and Stevan Ridley (4.61). That's pretty impressive. Now yeah, Tennessee's RBs got stuffed vs both FL and GA this year. Against Florida, Tenn used two RBs: Poole and Martin, and they got held to 27 yards on 14 carries (1.9 ypc). Against Georgia, they used three RBs: Poole, Martin, and Neal and they got held to 22 yards on 16 carries (1.4 ypc). Pretty horrible, but that's a small sample size of only 30 carries against SEC teams this year. They return all five starters from their OL last year, and look how they did with them last year: 159 yards rushing versus Alabama, 182 yards rushing versus Oregon, 96 yards rushing versus LSU, etc, etc. So if they could do it then, I don't see why they can't do it again this year when they return all their starters on the OL and well as both their #1 and #2 RBs from last year (and they added a very good freshman in Martin Lane). Keep in mind that Dooley has played LSU tough the last two times we've faced him. Last year, we only beat Dooley 16-14, and he had a 6-7 team that year (and we were 17 point favorites that year). They year before that, when Dooley was at La Tech, we only beat him 24-16, and Dooley had a 4-8 team that year. Remember, Dooley coached at LSU for 5 years, so just like our players get up for Chavis when he plays Tennessee, Dooley's players get up for him when he plays LSU. Neyland will be rocking for #1 LSU coming to town. The most popular games are always those against the best opponents. Look at LSU in the 90's, under Curly Hallman. In 1994 (which was our 6 straight straight losing season in a row), we only got to 51K to 63K to show up to watch the four unranked teams we played at Tiger Stadium. But for the two ranked teams we played at Tiger Stadium (versus #15 and #6), we got 76K for both of them (Tiger Stadium held about 80K back then). Being that Neyland sold out for unranked Georgia, you better believe it's going to sell out for #1 LSU. As for the people with season tickets who gave you their tickets, I have friends that do that for both LSU and the Saints, and it doesn't mean Tiger Stadium or the Dome isn't going to sell out. Tennessee's defense is lead by one of the best DCs in the country in Justin Wilcox. He's in his second year at Tennessee, after being the DC for Boise State for four years (2006 to 2009), during which time Boise State went 49-4 (including 13-0 in 2006 and 14-0 in 2009) Currently, Tennessee has the #28 scoring D in the nation, and the #33 total D in the nation. According to Pete Fiutak's preseason preview of Tennessee, two of the best players on their team are on their defense, he has DL Malik Jackson (Sr.) as the best player on their team, and FS Prentiss Waggner (Jr.) as the 3rd best player on their team (for 2nd best player he had RB Tauren Poole) DT Malik Jackson (6-5, 270) is a transfer from Southern Cal, and he's currently projected as a 3rd/4th Round pick. He was AP All-SEC Second Team last season after having 5 sacks, 11 tackles for loss, five QB hurries, 48 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 INT, and 4 passes broken up. S Prentiss Waggner (6-2, 185) is a from a small town north of Baton Rouge by the Mississippi border, where he played for a little 2A high school. He's projected as a 3rd/4th Round pick. He was a Scout.com Second Team All-America and AP All-SEC Second Team last season after having 8 take-aways last year (5 INTs and 3 fumble recoveries), and he returned three of those INTs for TDs. as for the rest of their current starters, you have: DE Ben Martin (6-4, 265), a senior. Coming out of high school, he was a Rivals 5-star, #2 DE, #20 on the Rivals 100, Scout 5-star, #3 DE, a Parade All-American, etc. He had offers to Florida, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, West Virginia, etc. DT Daniel Hood (6-4, 293), a soph. Coming out of high school, he had offers to Florida State, Auburn, South Carolina, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, UCLA, etc DE Jacques Smith (6-2, 255), a soph. He was named Coaches Freshman All-SEC last year. Coming out of high school he was Rivals 100 (#6 weakside DE), Scout #9 DE and had offers to LSU, Alabama, Georgia, UNC, etc LB Curt Maggitt (6-3, 215), a freshman. He was Rivals 200, ESPN 100 (#3 OLB) and had offers to LSU, Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, South Carolina, Auburn, Iowa, UNC, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Wisconsin, etc LB A.J. Johnson (6-3, 245), a freshman. He was Rivals 150, ESPN 150 (#5 MLB) and had offers to Alabama, Florida, Southern Cal, Georgia, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Miami, Georgia Tech, Illinois, UNC, etc (still need to check scout and everything else other than rivals LB Austin Johnson (6-2, 240), a senior. Had offers to Alabama, South Carolina, etc CB Izauea Lanier (6-1, 190), a junior. Had offers to Florida, Auburn, etc CB Marsalis Teague (5-10, 185), a junior. Had offers to Alabama, Florida, Clemson, Michigan, Georgia Tech, etc S Brent Brewer (6-1, 215), a soph. Had offers to Florida State, Georgia, Clemson, Illinois, etc The problem is they are a young team. They only have like 12 seniors on scholarship and 15 juniors, while like 26 sophomores. They have depth, it's just young depth. But we are a young team, too. But just like us, Tennessee has recruited well. Here are their rankings via Rivals/ESPN/Scout over the last 5 years: 2007 -- #3/#4/#5 2008 -- #35/#35/NA 2009 -- #8/#10/#15 2010 -- #9/#9/#16 2011 -- #13/#13/#13 it's not like they have ULL talent
