The CheckerBoard

I think everyone became a little disheartened after the Florida loss and some become panicky. Cetainly, we saw some very positive things against the gators for 2/3 of the game. Everyone believed that the Vols would win but unfortunately, history repeated itself. From what I have read this week concerning the mindset of the Vols, everything has been pretty positive. I think that maybe they got toughened up after seeing the collapse. Only time will tell, and it won't be this week, although if they come out and thoroughly trounce the Zips, I think everyone will feel a little better. But this team is talented and we all knew coming into the season that the D would struggle before it got better with the new 3-4 base. Keep doing what you do and that is believing and cheering for our beloved Vols. We got 9(or hopefully 10) more games to make this season a success. We can't let one game define the season. GO VOLS!

I dont think there should be as much panic around Vol Nation as there is. Yes it was deflating to lose AGAIN to Florida, and it was disappointing because it seemed as if we had the momentum all game leading up to the midway point in the 3rd. We had many mistakes in the end of 3rd/4th but the thing to take away from those mistakes is that they are all correctable. We werent out athleted, we didnt really run out of gas. We had breakdowns in formation/containment/alignment etc and mentally caught off gaurd. Those things can be fixed. Losing bc of talent is what has happened the last few years, we lost to Florida bc the D was misaligned...big difference and correctable mistakes

we are who we are.

we are not going to win against the good SEC teams with our defense. kids are trying to learn a new scheme and frankly, we have too many kids on that side not SEC level talent or ready to play at SEC level. Gonna get a lot of busts versus good teams.

we are not going to win against the good SEC teams with our kicking game. nothing else needs to be said about the kicking game.

we are not going to win against the good SEC teams with our running game. We don't have SEC level runningbacks. got a bunch of good running backs but none are going to make All SEC at the position.

the above are all issues we as fans knew we had before the season started. they have been talked about all spring and summer.

to win, and I think it is certainly possible, versus good SEC teams, our passing game as to play perfect football. Had we not thrown interceptions and had dropped passes versus Florida, we very likely could have won that game. we need to run enough, and did versus Florida, to keep defenses honest and give the passing game a chance. then TB and his receivers have to execute. We can beat other teams, unlikely Bama is one of them because be hard to be perfect against that bunch, on this schedule if we can do that.

this is who we are. all discussions about this team for the last 8 months has been positives on the passing game and questions about other aspects. Florida just proved what we feared. Need to focus on what we do well and try to be PERFECT at it.

We can perhaps get better as year moves along at the other aspects and maybe they can help the team win some games. I think what we have seen is kind of what we expected all along..

Ahhh, the voice of reason. Good post. +1 GO VOLS!