OK. I said in Feb. that I would wait until later in the year to post again

[-MDVOL]

as there were a couple of folks here who didn't like the fact that I am a Tennessee guy.

So, recruiting wise, you are where you finished last year with 21 recruits of about the same ranking. Any expectations of landing any "Big Fish" late this year?

You don't play OSU or Michigan, what's the optimism on a 9 win or better year?

I know that you play Nebraska and Wisky on the road. Tough to go there and beat them.

The rest look winnable

What say ye Hawkeyes?

 

[Hawk_4shur]

First of all, if only a couple of folks don't like you here you are considered "popular".

Beyond that we've got a lot of players back from a team that got smoked by the Vols, except for some of our best OL's and DL's.

And, finally, winnable games are the ones that scare us the most.

So, yeah, we're pretty pumped up for '15.

 

[LeonRussell]

Welcome back! To answer your questions:

-Hard to tell with recruiting. I'm not in the know as much as most of the other guys around here, but it looks like we're landing some players that bring a fair amount of athleticism to our skill positions. These are probably developmental guys, but the athleticism appears to be there. We'll see. Athleticism...I think that's one of the main reasons your Vols handed it to us the way they did last year. Tennessee had much more.

-I think most Iowa fans are in the 6-6 to 8-4 realm of record predictions for 2015.

-Always tough sledding against Nebraska and Wisky, but they also have some questions to answer in terms of replacing talent (Gordon, Gregory, etc). They both have new coaches as well, so I'd call these a toss up.

-I'd say the biggest question marks on our team pertain to our O-line (replacing both tackles), our linebackers (young), our wide receivers (absolutely need a playmaker or two to step up), and our punting.

My gut feeling tells me Tennessee and Arkansas will make some noise in the SEC this year. What's everyone's pulse down there?

 

[NevadaHawk]

I believe we will have a 9 win season if the defense is improved over last year. Still a big if until the season gets underway.

 

[-MDVOL]

Areas that I noted lacking in the Bowl game by Iowa.

A.Speed
B.Speed
C.And Speed.

RB Speed was lacking lining up 2 Fullbacks in the I and trying to run with a deep hand off or go wide

LB Speed that saw them trying to tackle RBs and TEs from the side or behind because the opponents had blown by them


W/R Speed lacking that forced short throws as the Safeties knew the W/Rs lacked the speed to get behind them allowing the Safeties to play tight to the LOS and helping to stop the running game as well.


How's the Iowa Track team? Back when we were good, we had several Olympic sprinters and Hurdlers who played football as well. Makes a difference.

There's a kid down in Virginia who wants to run track and play football in college. Name's Grant Holloway.

He set a new H/S National Record this winter in New York in the 55 meter hurdles. Last year they timed him in a camp in Knoxville at 4.26 in the 40.
He also has a personal best at 7'1" in the High Jump

He's a bit rough as far as running routes and catching the football. But somebody will strike gold landing him returning punts and kick offs and lining him up wide, throwing little 5 yard passes and letting him make one guy miss and taking it to the house.

 

[And1Hawk]

Areas that I noted lacking in the Bowl game by Iowa.

A.Speed
B.Speed
C.And Speed.

RB Speed was lacking lining up 2 Fullbacks in the I and trying to run with a deep hand off or go wide

LB Speed that saw them trying to tackle RBs and TEs from the side or behind because the opponents had blown by them


W/R Speed lacking that forced short throws as the Safeties knew the W/Rs lacked the speed to get behind them allowing the Safeties to play tight to the LOS and helping to stop the running game as well.


How's the Iowa Track team? Back when we were good, we had several Olympic sprinters and Hurdlers who played football as well. Makes a difference.

There's a kid down in Virginia who wants to run track and play football in college. Name's Grant Holloway.

He set a new H/S National Record this winter in New York in the 55 meter hurdles. Last year they timed him in a camp in Knoxville at 4.26 in the 40.
He also has a personal best at 7'1" in the High Jump

He's a bit rough as far as running routes and catching the football. But somebody will strike gold landing him returning punts and kick offs and lining him up wide, throwing little 5 yard passes and letting him make one guy miss and taking it to the house.

Look you need to get over yourself. You beat us down but what you fail to realize is that even though that bowl game might have been your national title game it was a huge let down for us following a disappointing season with back-to-back disappointing losses to two rivals. Typically Iowa fans travel in large numbers but you must not have noticed that very, very few went this time. That was a first for us but an indication of where the Iowa programs motivation level was sitting at that point. We could have been playing a D-III school that day and lost.

That game from our perspective was about getting the season over as quickly as possible, especially at the first sign of adversity so if you are basing your program's prowess on this game you may be in for a big surprise down the road.

 

[ChrisVarick]

What And1Hawk is trying to say is that it was the Vols Super Bowl.

 

[Letsgohawks411]

What And1Hawk is trying to say is that it was the Vols Super Bowl.

The Vols beat us in every phase of the game. At many times it looked like men against boys and they were playing about 15 true freshmen. I know that according to this board stars don't matter, but their 4* freshman were faster and looked stronger than our 2 and 3* upperclassmen. UT would have beaten us 8 out of 10 times last year and 10 out of 10 this year.

 

[codflyer]

Areas that I noted lacking in the Bowl game by Iowa.

A.Speed
B.Speed
C.And Speed.

RB Speed was lacking lining up 2 Fullbacks in the I and trying to run with a deep hand off or go wide

LB Speed that saw them trying to tackle RBs and TEs from the side or behind because the opponents had blown by them


W/R Speed lacking that forced short throws as the Safeties knew the W/Rs lacked the speed to get behind them allowing the Safeties to play tight to the LOS and helping to stop the running game as well.


How's the Iowa Track team? Back when we were good, we had several Olympic sprinters and Hurdlers who played football as well. Makes a difference.

There's a kid down in Virginia who wants to run track and play football in college. Name's Grant Holloway.

He set a new H/S National Record this winter in New York in the 55 meter hurdles. Last year they timed him in a camp in Knoxville at 4.26 in the 40.
He also has a personal best at 7'1" in the High Jump

He's a bit rough as far as running routes and catching the football. But somebody will strike gold landing him returning punts and kick offs and lining him up wide, throwing little 5 yard passes and letting him make one guy miss and taking it to the house.

We are certainly not a team with a lot of burners on it, but I don't think that speed was really the issue (at least as far as the LB's were concerned). It was mostly youth, missing keys, getting out of position, taking bad angles, and then when the game started getting away you could see them just sort of start mailing it in. They were totally demoralized after a long season of disappointing play, not just Tennessee taking it to them in that one game. And, lets give a little credit to your Vols...they were motivated, well coached, and athletic. You guys are definitely moving back in the right direction down there.

Also, on the offensive side of the ball, our QB situation was in complete disarray. The alternating QB deal was asinine, neither one could get in a rhythm, and by the time we went exclusively to Beathard, based on how badly our defense was getting shredded, the game was essentially over. Honestly, and this is not meant to take anything away from Tennessee, we lost that game before we even stepped onto the field. It really didn't much matter who was lining up against us. That being said, the Vols would have been a lot to handle even if the team was not a collective head case.

Based on what I saw, I think Tennessee is still a year or so away from really making noise in the SEC, but you guys are building a great foundation, and who knows, if that QB can progress quickly enough, big things might be in store sooner rather than later.

 

[-MDVOL]

Regarding Arky and Tennessee.

Arkansas would make a great Big 10 team. Huge powerful OL, Two big bruising 1000 yard running backs. Solid defense.

And why not, they have Bret Beliema as their H/C


Problem is, they play in the toughest division of the toughest Conference in America, the SECW.
They have to play Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M, LSU, Miss. State(who have a Heisman candidate at Q/.B,) and Ole Miss. The latter two programs both hitting their once in a decade two-three years of actually being good.

PLUS
They have to go on the road and play Tennessee in Knoxville where they have exactly ONE win in history and it was by one point 23 years ago..

That straight ahead style of power football won Bear Bryant a lot of games and several N/Cs back in the 1960's and 1970's. But the SEC went to the psycho speed deal back in the early - Mid 1990's when Steve Spurrier went to Florida and brought in all those super fast W/Rs and RBs and the rest of the league had to catch up.
Now you see 300 + lb Offensive linemen run sub 5 second 40 times routinely and 260 lb DEs run a 4.5 second 40 time.

As for UT, we play Oklahoma, Georgia and Arkansas at home this season. Hope that makes a difference. Have to go to Tuskaloosa and play Alabama. That's kind of like the Light Brigade heading into the valley of death and facing the Cossack's Cannons.
We had the youngest team in all of D-1 football last season.24 True Freshmen and 7 RS/ Freshmen having to play out of necessity. They will still be one of the youngest this season as we have only 12 seniors on the roster. Young players make mistakes.

2016 is actually the year I believe that Tennessee will come of age. Jones has flipped the roster, bringing in six 5* recruits and twenty nine 4* in the 2014 and 2015 classes and he has seven 4* commits so far this season. Upgraded all across the board.
And that is with a combined record in the last 3 years of 17-20. He's gotten the recruits, players and fans to believe that progress is being made and that the years of eating dirt and getting kicked in the guts are about to be over.

10 long years of misery, ridicule, humiliation and pain have filled the Great Orange `Beast with a terrible wrath and a mighty resolve.

 

[Bigfann1966]

Areas that I noted lacking in the Bowl game by Iowa.

A.Speed
B.Speed
C.And Speed.

RB Speed was lacking lining up 2 Fullbacks in the I and trying to run with a deep hand off or go wide

LB Speed that saw them trying to tackle RBs and TEs from the side or behind because the opponents had blown by them


W/R Speed lacking that forced short throws as the Safeties knew the W/Rs lacked the speed to get behind them allowing the Safeties to play tight to the LOS and helping to stop the running game as well.


How's the Iowa Track team? Back when we were good, we had several Olympic sprinters and Hurdlers who played football as well. Makes a difference.

There's a kid down in Virginia who wants to run track and play football in college. Name's Grant Holloway.

He set a new H/S National Record this winter in New York in the 55 meter hurdles. Last year they timed him in a camp in Knoxville at 4.26 in the 40.
He also has a personal best at 7'1" in the High Jump

He's a bit rough as far as running routes and catching the football. But somebody will strike gold landing him returning punts and kick offs and lining him up wide, throwing little 5 yard passes and letting him make one guy miss and taking it to the house.

I will get hammered for this, but I really don't think it was all about speed. We have speed on the team...KF has been experimenting with the FB at RB for a couple years now. It works great against average to poor teams....not so well against better defensive opponents.

Our QB has struggled since he started, he is not good in our system. Hit him a couple times and he starts playing scared. Will see how CJ does this year and should have a better idea of why the offense struggles.

SEC being great is your opinion, I don't think it's any better than the BIG. Head to head competition against the SEC we do just fine. Iowa got spanked, but the other teams played
well. The sports pundits like to blow air up your butts, but with the new format they cannot rig it for the SEC anymore! Will see how many NC you guys get with the new format.

Lastly, our LB's were young, small, out of position, and I thought they were slow...some on here will tell you different. That would not have mattered, our offense is just pathetic!! In the past our Defense could bail us out...not as of late.

Hope you guys make some noise this year!

 

[-MDVOL]

I will get hammered for this, but I really don't think it was all about speed. We have speed on the team...KF has been experimenting with the FB at RB for a couple years now. It works great against average to poor teams....not so well against better defensive opponents.

Our QB has struggled since he started, he is not good in our system. Hit him a couple times and he starts playing scared. Will see how CJ does this year and should have a better idea of why the offense struggles.

SEC being great is your opinion, I don't think it's any better than the BIG. Head to head competition against the SEC we do just fine. Iowa got spanked, but the other teams played
well. The sports pundits like to blow air up your butts, but with the new format they cannot rig it for the SEC anymore! Will see how many NC you guys get with the new format.

Lastly, our LB's were young, small, out of position, and I thought they were slow...some on here will tell you different. That would not have mattered, our offense is just pathetic!! In the past our Defense could bail us out...not as of late.

Hope you guys make some noise this year!

My observation about Iowa is only based on watching that one game. One really can't give a real evaluation based upon that.

Few teams can ever bounce back from being down 28-0 . When that happens, the play-book goes out the window and all one can do is throw and hope for the best.


I want somebody to win the Big 10+ other than Ohio State, PSU or Michigan. I have them in my Voodoo Doll collection right along with USC, Alafrigginbama and Florida.

So once again, I will be rooting for Iowa. Go Hawkeyes. Don't think you can hear me on gameday, but I will be shouting it for whatever good it might do.

 

[Bigfann1966]

My observation about Iowa is only based on watching that one game. One really can't give a real evaluation based upon that.

Few teams can ever bounce back from being down 28-0 . When that happens, the play-book goes out the window and all one can do is throw and hope for the best.


I want somebody to win the Big 10+ other than Ohio State, PSU or Michigan. I have them in my Voodoo Doll collection right along with USC, Alafrigginbama and Florida.

So once again, I will be rooting for Iowa. Go Hawkeyes. Don't think you can hear me on gameday, but I will be shouting it for whatever good it might do.

OSU is just ligh years ahead of most of the BIG. Mich State and Wisconsin have been a breathe of fresh air lately. Likewise I hope the Vols do good...I always enjoyed watching them in the old days.

We are not built to overcome that kind of deficit...and you guys were hitting on all 8 that day! We needed that loss to wake up our staff and hopefully some of the fans. We were exposed...

 

[ChrisVarick]

I will get hammered for this, but I really don't think it was all about speed. We have speed on the team...KF has been experimenting with the FB at RB for a couple years now. It works great against average to poor teams....not so well against better defensive opponents.

Our QB has struggled since he started, he is not good in our system. Hit him a couple times and he starts playing scared. Will see how CJ does this year and should have a better idea of why the offense struggles.

SEC being great is your opinion, I don't think it's any better than the BIG. Head to head competition against the SEC we do just fine. Iowa got spanked, but the other teams played
well. The sports pundits like to blow air up your butts, but with the new format they cannot rig it for the SEC anymore! Will see how many NC you guys get with the new format.

Lastly, our LB's were young, small, out of position, and I thought they were slow...some on here will tell you different. That would not have mattered, our offense is just pathetic!! In the past our Defense could bail us out...not as of late.

Hope you guys make some noise this year!

We didn't have anything like the speed and athleticism that the Vols put on the field. They were probably more athletic at every position outside of maybe Tevaun Smith and Brandon Scherff. That's about it. Please spare me the Ruduck is not a good fit in our system. We've never seen a QB that is a good fit in this KF bastardization of the GDGD offense. Put a KF/GD/Parker led team on the field against a D1 team with a winning record and they lose about 70% of the time. That is a fact.

 

[Bigfann1966]

We didn't have anything like the speed and athleticism that the Vols put on the field. They were probably more athletic at every position outside of maybe Tevaun Smith and Brandon Scherff. That's about it. Please spare me the Ruduck is not a good fit in our system. We've never seen a QB that is a good fit in this KF bastardization of the GDGD offense. Put a KF/GD/Parker led team on the field against a D1 team with a winning record and they lose about 70% of the time. That is a fact.

I agree, just don't want to deal with the KF apologist. He pulled GD out of the retirement home and we have paid for it from day one. We are the only team in the country that needs years to adjust to coaching changes....its a joke!
I'm hoping Phil can get the defense back to where it was, but considering the amount of players leaving I am concerned there is something going on internally?

 

[GolfHacker1]

Tennessee was ready to play and pumped. Iowa was. Kind of. Up until after the second series. Iowa quit. Plain out quit. I sat almost directly behind the Iowa bench, and it was obvious. Tennessee manhandled Iowa. Tennessee was better, but not better as much as the final score indicated. But the final score is all that counted, and if part of the strategy is getting Iowa to quit, it worked, very, very well.

Iowa will be a better team this year. I'm not certain the win/losses will reflect this, but they will be better as a team.

Everyone, including both IOwa and Tennessee play games for a reason, so we'll find out fairly soon about what both bring.

FWIW, I've never seen opposing fans at a bowl game like Tennessee brought. This is what Iowa usually brings. The difference in level of energy was dramatic. I basically settled in mid first quarter, and tried to watch for Iowa players that were still playing, and retuning for this season.

 

[BUCKSNDUCKS]

Bigfan1966 - going to have to disagree with you - we have NO speed on this team, when you compare to the elite schools around the nation, or watch the elite jan 1 bowl games. We have cement in our shoes - in all phases and positions! Speed can be recruited and needs to be addressed!

 

[Bigfann1966]

Bigfan1966 - going to have to disagree with you - we have NO speed on this team, when you compare to the elite schools around the nation, or watch the elite jan 1 bowl games. We have cement in our shoes - in all phases and positions! Speed can be recruited and needs to be addressed!

On the offensive side there was plenty of speed....Willes, Smith, Parker, Hillyer ,Vandeberg, Powell, Canzeri, Wadley...I'm missing someone! These guys are as fast as any skill position players in the BIG. That being said, I think our LB and secondary are lacking speed. GD could not find a way to get these guys the ball on a regular basis. We lost Willes but Scheel is going to be special if given the chance and stays healthy. You upgrade the QB play and the offense should do better. You have to throw the ball more than 10 yards and it cannot always be an outlet pass to the RB.