The Week In College Football: Tennessee Is Going 3-9

It was another thrilling weekend of football… unless you’re a Tennessee fan. Hell, let’s just start there.

Florida Dominated Tennessee And Demonstrated The Vols Aren’t Close To Competency

I wrote a lot about this game on Saturday, but suffice to say, it was an complete and total embarrassment. To get absolutely manhandled at home in every facet of the game by what is a really average Florida team just goes to show how bad this program is right now and how far away they are from even being 6-6. We’re talking about an extended stretch of mediocrity and ineptitude at Tennessee, the worst decade plus in school history. Since Doug Dickey arrived as the head coach in 1964 and scrapped the single wing offense in favor of the more modern T Formation, the only truly poor stretch of Vol football was a six year run from 1975-1980 where they played in only one bowl game, didn’t win more than 7 games in any season, and finished .500 or below three times.  Their modern run of disappointment/not living up to expectations is now on Year 11, with no end in sight, and its mind boggling to me that this program has been in a funk for this long. In the 27 years from 1981-2007, the Vols were at least competitive in the SEC every season except 1988, when they started out 0-6, and 2005, when they unexpectedly stumbled to 5-6. Even the 1982 team that finished 6-5-1 beat #2 Alabama.  That almost three decade stretch of success included a National Championship, five SEC Championships, five SEC Championship Game appearances, eighteen seasons with 9 wins or more, a 45-5 stretch from 1995-98, 25 bowl eligible seasons, and a 14-12-1 record against Alabama. How can that level of prowess, which wasn’t that long ago, feel completely unattainable only a decade later? They didn’t even look like they had SEC-level players on Saturday. What happened to all of Butch Jones’s fantastic recruiting classes? A ton of those highly thought of guys are still on this team. Were they not “coached up”? Or did Butch just land all of the overrated guys coming out of high school? There’s no way that’s the case. Or has Pruitt not done a good enough job of getting everyone to buy in? Or is the entire team so rattled by getting their teeth kicked in or blowing it in every big spot the last few years that they’ll need every Butch guy to graduate before they can start to field a competent team?

Here’s the thing, and Pruitt seems like a fine man, but at the end of the day, presiding over a successful football team that competes week to week isn't rocket science if you’re a competent coach, particularly when you’re at a program like Tennessee that has the resources and an administration that is all in on football. I’ve written this a million times, and I’ll write it here again; since the implementation of the SEC Championship Game in 1992, every coach that has won the SEC had at least nine victories in a year by his second season at his school. That’s 25 years of evidence of that no matter how bad the situation you inherit is, if you’re going to work out as a coach, you should be able to get it turned around quickly. Pruitt is off to quite possibly the worst start by a Tennessee coach ever, and what should be bothersome to him and all of Rocky Top is that the Vols look worse in every area than they did last season, when they finished 4-8 and completely tuned out Butch and the coaching staff. They block worse than last year, the tackling has completely regressed, and even the energy level they play with has completely evaporated. Butch took what is virtually the same Vol team to Gainesville last year, and the only reason they lost was because he committed coaching malpractice even though Tennessee clearly had the better team. This Gators team isn’t significantly better than the 2017 version, and yet, they were able to come to Knoxville and easily lay the smack down for three and a half hours.

Final note: I’m not sure this rock bottom. Saturday at Georgia is going to be much worse. And even when they lose 65-0, I’m not even sure that will be rock bottom because they’ll still have a game at Neyland against Alabama, which has a great chance to be the largest margin of victory by either team in this rivalry. The Crimson Tide shut out the Vols 51-0 in 1906; their meeting this year could easily be 67-0. There’s no end in sight to this ineptitude.

Oregon Butch’d The Stanford Game

The Ducks outgained the Cardinal 524-398, picked up 27 first downs to Stanford’s 17, won the time of possession 35:42 to 24:18, and had a ten point lead with four minutes to go. How the hell did they not win? Turnovers. Oregon fumbled twice in the red zone, including a scoop and score touchdown by the Cardinal when the Ducks were driving for what looked like the put away touchdown and 31-7 lead. And with a 3 point lead, the clock under a minute to go, and with Stanford having only one timeout, Oregon’s CJ Verdell tried to stretch out the ball for the game-ending first down, but instead had it punched out and recovered by Stanford. The Cardinal quickly got in field goal range, tied it up, and then won in overtime.

Here’s my question; why the hell are you running the ball in that situation at all? It’s not like Stanford had all three timeouts. Why risk it? Why not just take a knee three times and try to run the clock out that way? And even if you can’t completely get it to triple zeros, all you have to do is punt the ball back to them and make them go the length of the field with 15 seconds or less. How likely is it that they’ll be able to do that? Like .0001%? Mario Cristobal went full Butch Jones here; I wouldn’t be shocked if he said something about brick by brick after the game and then talked about how they just hadn’t figured out how to win yet.

Here’s the other thing; How the hell is Oregon, who is on their third different coach in three years, capable of hanging with one of the top ten teams in the country, while Tennessee, which is only on its second coach in six years, look like they don't even belong in the same conference with what is probably going to be a 6-6 or 7-5 Florida team? Sure, Justin Herbert is a great QB, but the Ducks somehow have way more talent all over the field than a Tennessee team that’s assuredly had the better overall recruiting classes the last couple of years.

Did Everyone Write Off Michigan Too Quickly?

Since the Wolverines sucked on offense in Week 1 against Notre Dame, they’ve scored 49, 45, and 56 points in their last three games, and the ass beating they put on Nebraska on Saturday had them looking like one of the ten best teams in the country. Sure, the Cornhuskers are awful, but Michigan completely controlled the game from start to finish in what was their best performance since their demolition of Florida in the 2017 opening weekend. The anti-Harbaugh narrative is a fun one, because he’s a loud and outlandish personality that carries himself like he’s Nick Saban even though he’s far from him accomplishment-wise, but if Shea Patterson can continue his strong play, they’re completely capable of beating everyone on the schedule, especially with the talent they have on defense. The schedule is going to be the problem though, because here’s their next five games: at Northwestern, home against Maryland (the Terps are an unknown week to week), home against Wisconsin, at Michigan State, and home for Penn State. They could play outstanding and still going 3-2, eliminating them from both the playoff race and a potential conference championship. And even if they go 4-1, they’ll still have to travel to Ohio State for the last game of the year, which will probably be a loss. Meaning they’re at best a 9-3 or 8-4 team again. How does that land with Michigan people? I wouldn't think well.

Kentucky Beat Up Mississippi State And Is Ranked For The First Time In The Mark Stoops Era

I’ve made fun of the Wildcats a number of times in this space due to their complete and utter lack of self-awareness about where their football team is historically inside the SEC (look no further than them proudly displaying a national championship trophy from 1950, a year that none of the major polls declared them champs), but Mark Stoops has something working there in what is now his sixth year on the job. Benny Snell Jr. might be the most underrated player in the nation (165 rushing yards, 4 TDs on Saturday), and the ‘Cats are 4-0 and well on the way to one of their best seasons in school history, thanks to this win against a Top 15 Mississippi State team and their victory over Florida two weeks ago, which snapped their 31 game losing streak to the Gators. By no means do I think Kentucky is a serious challenger to Georgia in the East (though they do host the ‘Dawgs on November 3), but there’s no doubt in my mind they’ll beat Tennessee for the second straight year when they play in November, something that hasn’t happened since 1977. Can’t wait for that one!

Georgia Went Into Mizzou And Left With A Two Touchdown Victory

The score made the game look closer than it actually was; Missouri scored a late touchdown and also blocked a Georgia field goal deep in the fourth quarter. But from the time the Bulldogs ran back a fumble for a touchdown on Mizzou's first drive, it felt like they were completely in control of the game, and I never thought they were going to lose for a single second. They shouldn’t struggle with either Tennessee or Vanderbilt the next two weeks, and there’s a great shot both they and LSU will be 6-0 when they meet in Baton Rouge on October 13.

Virginia Tech lost as a 29 point favorite to Old Dominion, the biggest upset against an ACC Team in 40 years

ODU was 0-3 coming into this one, and yet, put up 632 yards of offense and scored 49 points against Bud Foster’s defense. Here’s my question; you’re Virginia Tech, a big boy program, so why the hell are you playing this game at ODU? And how in the world do you dominate Florida State on national television with what looked like one of the best defenses in the country, and then all the sudden lose the ability to do anything on that end against a squad in ODU that has nowhere near the same level of athletes as you do? The lesson, as always: Football is a week to week, quarter to quarter, and play to play game, and you’ve got to bring your best effort every single week.  

My College Football Playoff Top 4

Alabama

The Tide dominated Texas A&M and Saban remained undefeated against his former assistants. Their 22 point victory on Saturday was somehow their smallest margin of victory this season. Here’s their next 4 games: home for Louisiana-Lafayette, at Arkansas, home for Mizzou, at Tennessee. Sounds like 4 more wins easily, and an 8-0 record when they head to Baton Rouge for a showdown with LSU on November 3.

Georgia

The ‘Dawgs have scored more than 40 points in every game this season and have already won two conference road games. They’ll get four of their final six conference games at home, and a berth in the SEC Championship Game seems highly probable.

Ohio State

The Buckeyes roll into Penn State this weekend in what could be a matchup between the two best teams in the division. The winner will be in my Top 4 next week and we’ll have the inside track to the playoff.

LSU

The Tigers make their first appearance in my Top 4 after I bumped Oklahoma due to them needing overtime to beat Army. LSU has two wins against top ten teams away from home, a feat no one else can claim so far this season.