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An Embarrassing End to a Disappointing Season · Champions of Life

welcome to the champions of life podcast where 3 orangeblooded Tennessee alums discuss how there's always next year Hey y'all.
Welcome back.
I don't know why that was so chipper.
This is the Champions of Life podcast.
You got three separate five star hearts that are here.
These are v FFLs, battered and bruised.
But we're also RNS employees.
And, you know, we can handle your logistics needs a lot better than the pressure of winning an SEC game.
At your home stadium.
So we're here to break down Vandy week and all the disappointment that came with that season recap.
What are we thinking guys? When we were up by seven, what is that? Was it 27? No, 28.
21.
It was like 2114.
2114.
Yeah.
Did you feel like we had it? Because I did.
Felt good.
I felt good at that point, meaning minutes before the half.
I did not because you still felt bad at that point.
'cause all season we've only played for two quarters.
That's true.
And historically, all season, the two quarters, I'm a champion of life.
That got sucked in the two quarters we played in.
We're the first half, second half.
We don't make any adjustments.
We come out, we don't adjust, or we go backwards.
If nothing else, we don't even say constant with what we did in the first half, second half.
The other team always adjusts and we end up losing it.
And so I was not.
I thought we were gonna lose anyway, going into it.
Right.
You called it.
So at that time I was like, this is what we've seen.
I'll season.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Good for you.,
I mean, I didn't wanna be rock.
I thought this is like the Tennessee fan.
Uh, I thought this time would be different.
I'm like, surely we're not gonna lose.
In my mind, there's no way you lose to Vanderbilt.
Right.
There's no way they come.
I don't care how good their quarterback is.
You contain him.
You have two QBI spies on that.
We had none.
There was nobody spying the qb No.
All over And we had what? How many intercepted two in the first.
Yeah.
That's why again, I'm like, oh, this guy's overrated.
We've got him, we got his number.
We studied film.
We're on him.
We know what he likes to do.
Yeah.
I was super confident and then that penalty, I was like, oh, here we go.
Now it's tied.
Of course, they're gonna go in and score after that penalty.
Mm-hmm.
And then it felt like the Georgia game at that point where they're gonna, they're gonna score, go for the two point conversion, get it, tie it up, convert, and we're gonna lose.
Mm-hmm.
That, and the same thing with Alabama is the turning point.
That one play, which means we're not mentally tough.
Yeah.
One little thing happens and then we fall apart.
Why would you think? No, I mean, you hit the nail on the head.
It went from, I wanna win every game that we play to.
I'm in this weird mental state where I am rooting to be the spoiler for Vanderbilt season, whereas Vandy has been that for us since the existence of Vanderbilt.
And it was weird that I wanted to win that game so they wouldn't go to the playoffs.
And then I was like, man, I just don't want this.
This quarterback.
I don't want him come in here and talk all this smack and then come in here and do exactly what he, okay.
He's starting two picks.
We're good.
We Right.
This is classic Tennessee.
He ran his mouth and he is falling on his face.
Yep.
And then he didn't, I mean, to win the turnover margin in the first half and then to still get smoked by three scores.
It, their offense had their way with our defense.
I'm screaming at the TV for the vast majority of the game.
Where is the spy? Why is no one, you know, you can make the injury claim all you want for this team, which is valid, but the linebacker depth was exposed.
You didn't have guys that could cover.
He was out running linebackers, some of the angles we were taking, I felt like I was going back to watching butch coach teams taking some of these awful angles or dooleys.
Yeah.
And you know, it's like swarm the ball.
Cut off the outside and then spy somebody.
And then honestly, Joe, it looked like people were afraid to hit.
It's, it was like, why we're arm tackling and like we're kind of doing the matador thing as they're going into the end zone.
We're not standing anybody up.
No, no.
And Bobby in basketball, you know, when you're playing defense, your coach always is scream at you.
Don't get fooled by the head fake.
Mm-hmm.
Don't get fooled by the, by the.
The po, like the fake shot, and then they're gonna go around.
You never do that.
How many times did he fake throw it or like juke somebody? And he is not even that fast.
And we were being, it was crazy.
But that's not, sorry.
Rick Barnes needed to go out there.
He sh he would've been a better defensive coordinator Yep.
On Saturday than what we had.
Yep.
But that wasn't a surprise.
Right.
Everybody knows that's how he plays.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, okay, this is how confident I was from the get go that we were gonna lose normally.
And this sounds ridiculous, I understand.
But when I'm not in the stadium, I'm standing up at home watching the game, I can't sit down.
Hmm.
And if it's a really intense game, I mean, I'm pacing, I'm, you know, all the things.
Crazy.
Um, I was sitting down from the get go and I was working on my, I was doing like, work on my computer, so I was even like half focused on the game because I just knew what was coming.
That's bad.
Um, and I, that's the only game that's been like that all season that I was so confident that we were gonna lose.
It's a sad state.
And what, okay, so some of the same questions we've had all season.
Why did we get away from Deshaun Bishop? In the second half.
Second half is bad.
There's no reason He was great the first half.
Absolutely.
He was dominating.
No reason why that happened.
I think he had six or eight carries in the second half.
Yeah, I mean we can talk about, oh, the defensive junk all day long that was there.
That wasn't there.
But still like, it's not just the defensive issues, it's the play calling.
I don't understand.
We got stagnant fast.
Um, and when the defense is getting.
Just ripped, and then you're going three and out, or you're going six plays and then you're punting seven plays when you're punt, uh, whatever it, those are just killers that, and there was no rhythm, there was no consistency after half.
It was kind of just kind of felt like we were just taking it and there was no initiative to get out there and we weren't attacking, uh, which.
Vanderbilt, great game plan.
You know, you get beat on a deep ball to Brazel, just tackle him.
I mean, that was, um, yeah, take that penalty every single time.
Yeah.
'cause he's gonna catch it.
But like, we went away from it, the run game and Joey did what he did, but he didn't have a great game either.
And I don't know, I think some of the lingering questions that come from this is where do we go from here? So.
Couple thoughts.
One, this is your worst home loss, right? Mm-hmm.
Arguably, and it's arguably heel's worst loss.
You could go back to South Carolina, but knowing what we know now about that and the cheating that was happening, mm-hmm.
You have to say, this is heel's worst loss.
We got progressively worse as the season went.
Take out the chump teams.
Right.
Our best win is at Florida.
Um, against, the only reason it's our best win is 'cause it's at Florida, you're playing against a completely, completely decimated team.
But outside of that, this season was just ridiculous.
We beat the teams that you're supposed to beat, but we did not beat them handedly.
Florida, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Kentucky's really the only one game that you come out and, you know, I'm using air quotes, dominate.
Mississippi State, we could've lost really easily.
We probably should.
We should've.
We could've lost any of those three.
Yeah.
Mississippi State, Arkansas or Florida.
I mean Florida we kind of dominated, but we gave up in the second half, which is fine.
There again.
But that was that an excuse that we're just letting the, I mean, maybe we weren't that good.
It's weird.
It's weird that we're not.
You look at the first half of Georgia and you go, where has this team been? Mm-hmm.
The entire season.
Yep.
And I don't know what happened.
I don't know if that's a coaching malpractice or a systemic strategy that's changed or what, but you look at Georgia, I've watched Georgia kind of passively the entire season.
I'm like, we should have beat them.
Yep.
They the, okay.
Georgia and Alabama have had multiple games where they should not have one, correct? Mm-hmm.
And it's because the coaches now breaks certainly go, yeah.
Go their ways.
And sometimes the referees have some things to do with that.
Um, I watch a little bit of Iron Bowl and it's like that left tackle and the right tackle, depending on which way the play's going, is holding every single time.
They never call it anyways.
It's not, that's not what we're here for.
I don't know where we go from here.
I don't even wanna watch our bowl game.
That's, yeah.
I don't Cheez-It Bowl.
Yeah.
It'll be fun where we're going.
Probably Music City.
Gosh.
That's right.
Music City.
We get the most fans.
We'll play Iowa or something.
Yep.
I mean, here's also a sad reality that we said at the beginning was we'll probably not see McCoy.
Yeah.
Gerard never came back.
Yeah.
Don't blame him.
Yeah.
And obviously once we're out of the playoffs, now he's not gonna come back.
But that was a killer.
Yep.
Too, in this season, I think if Hepo, well y'all know how I feel.
Y'all know, I don't wanna, I don't want, there's nobody else to get.
Okay.
I just want Happle to really do some soul searching in the season and come back next season.
Have a little bit more of the killer instinct that I wish he had.
Yep.
Get a little bit more riled up, like in his interviews with his, like, I want to see him on the sidelines riled up.
Yeah.
Because his players are gonna mirror that, like Luke Clark Lee.
Mm-hmm.
How he coaches his players and his players are a mirror of that.
Mm-hmm.
Um, ugh.
I just.
I just don't know that he's ever gonna be that.
Let's give it two years and we'll get Kiffin.
He'll be bored at LSU and he'll be looking to come.
Goldish.
We'll get goldish.
Yes.
Bobby, you were right on that last week.
We said.
I said he'd stay.
You said LSU.
I said Florida.
Bobby got it.
Don't like to be right either, but I said offline.
If you took this team and didn't watch any of the games and just look at the, you're losing.
On paper, you're gonna lose two starting first, potential first round draft pick cornerbacks on your defense, your defensive line's gonna be banged at, which is true for most teams, but we had not as much depth as we've had in previous years.
Then you're replacing the SEC offensive player of the year with a great running back into Sean Bishop, but he is a preferred walk.
You are not getting a five star guy in there.
He played great all season long and he was top three in the SEC in most Russian categories.
So he's done a great job.
And then you lose your starting quarterback, your five star multimillion dollar quarterback to, you know, this guy that's basically out of the sport.
And then he comes in.
And so you look at all that before the season starts and you're like, okay, this can't be a national championship com.
Like we're maybe playoffs if the cards fall the right way.
Maybe you go 10 and two.
I think this is a realistic outcome as to where we started, if you didn't, but having watched all the games, the ways in which we lost the games.
Is concerning.
The Georgia game is a huge concern from coaching standpoint, execution standpoint.
Alabama had all of its issues predominantly bit you, right? At halftime, you just dug your hole too deep and then Oklahoma was just a myriad of miscues and again, just non discipline.
I still don't know how that guy got the fumble and scored.
I don't understand how that happened.
It should have never have happened.
Wow.
Um, and then obviously Vandy is just an absolute, if that's not a wake up call, I don't know what else is, but the ways in which we lost to us, I think it feels very preventable.
It could have been better schemed, better coach, better executed.
And so you hear some of Joey's comments post-game.
I don't think he was taking shots at anybody, but he was like, Hey, we gotta come back in.
We gotta be prepared and we gotta practice with intentionality, and you gotta practice like you want to play.
And so.
I just wonder how much of, to your point Laney, is that missing the fire, the energy, the discipline? You saw saving coach teams and they're up by 40 in the fourth quarter and the third stringer messes up.
He's wearing him out because the standard is the standard, right.
And I just don't, I don't know.
I'm not in, it is just a guy watching from the couch, you know, a couple hours a weekend.
I don't know that's there with this coaching staff.
Go ahead.
I was just gonna say, take Rick Barnes, you bring him up a lot.
Right.
His coaching style.
He is on his players.
Yep.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
But they wanna come, they wanna play for him because they know he is gonna coach him hard.
Right.
But he's also got their back.
Right.
And Hoppel I'm sure has his players back.
I mean, he had too much with Boo Carter.
Right.
Yeah.
That's a big issue.
Yeah.
But it's that hard.
The push, the forceful, you know, you are going to uphold this standard here.
You know, I obviously, we don't know what goes on behind the scenes, but just watching Happel on that, he's just so mild mannered.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and I think the people that got hurt, you know, you look at out, remember Ohio State, they won the national championship with their third string quarterback that one year.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
The overall point is that Alabama, Georgia.
Ohio State.
They have like, what? Yeah, we lose people, but we should be, we should have such good depth, it doesn't matter.
And that goes back to the coach.
Mm-hmm.
Like where is our depth? Like are we that thin every year that if one or two guys our whole season's over, it shouldn't be that way.
Yeah.
Where's the pipeline? It's been like that with the offensive line for years and years.
Yeah.
And you don't have the sanctions anymore.
You've got scholarships back.
Right.
And you've got a transfer portal and you've got one of the best revenue producing programs in the entire country.
We've got money to spend.
Yeah.
Here's the other thing Bobby and I talked about this morning too, was uh, Ethan Davis.
Ethan Davis looks amazing.
Yeah.
The only reason he is playing is because kitman get gets hurt.
Right now, Kitman was great.
There were times where he had some flashes.
Yeah.
But for the most part, why has Ethan Davis Right.
Not been getting more playing time? Yep.
And I know he was hurt for a time.
So, you know, that's probably some of it.
But I don't think we've seen, we would see the same numbers with Davis.
Obviously if Zelman hadn't gotten hurt in this last couple games, even decisions like that, I just don't, I just don't get it.
I think hip's loyal to a fault sometimes.
So then I wonder if Goldish made him look really, this is what we said in our fir before the first game of the season.
Mm-hmm.
Maybe goldish made him look really good for a couple years.
Yeah, there's a period of the vanity game where it was still within reach.
It felt like we were still in the game to some of us at least, but there was a portion where we're getting six, seven yard runs.
We're getting up, snapping the ball, and we're throwing timing passes that are accurate and on time, and I'm like, okay, this is, where has this been? All season long.
Instead, it's been, you remember the years, the first handful of years, every game you watch, there was that statistic that said, you know, average time from Snap is like 2.3
seconds after the play.
And it's like, we haven't seen any of that.
And the whole strategies is spread the field and throw the ball and, and pull the, the fenders back.
So they have to guard so that you can run.
And it feels like we've gone away from that.
You've got three receiver sets out there the whole time.
So instead of playing Kitman and Davis, you've just got Kitman out there, right? It's like, man, you're not moving towards the strengths of your team.
You're not adapting to the way that we need to now.
I think the three receivers that we've had have had a great year, statistically a great year.
Um, yeah.
Where was Staley though? On Saturday, he had two or three good catches and that was about it.
And he was hardly.
You wonder why tired of it all? What did you see there that made you go away from that? Yeah, I don't know.
I feel like Vanderbilt got more outta their defense than they, they should not.
We were bigger and stronger in some of these cases, these matchup, these one-on-one matchups.
Why we couldn't move the ball as frustrating.
Yeah.
I don't know what you do on defense, but something needs to be done and I don't know, I think we wanna see hypo.
Succeed here.
And you know, I don't think that there's just an obvious clear answer to just say, okay, well, you know, we need to get rid of the guy and we'll bring in this other guy.
Um, I don't think that's the answer, but I would like to see some hard conversations.
Either a willingness to change personnel within the staff or philosophy or something that says we're not gonna do.
We learned our lesson.
We're not gonna do this again.
I think.
Most people are saying right now, Vanderbilt's been the kiss of death.
If you lose that game, your time here is limited.
From a coaching perspective, I think it's true.
If you lose that game and you don't do anything with it, if you don't change or grow, you wanna stay stubborn to your system, right? That's where you're gonna have issues.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when Danny White is reviewing this year with him to see what he says.
'cause he doesn't, he won't tolerate it.
For years, it's, you roll out a football team and they got a tee on the helmet.
You're gonna sell out most of the games.
You're gonna sell merchandise, you're gonna sell beer, you're gonna sell popcorn, you're gonna sell tickets.
People wanna be at the games.
And I think a lot of our athletic directors just said, yeah, we can roll whatever we want out there and people will still come.
I.
Danny has done a great job of running this like a business with the entertainment district coming and the talent fee.
You know, he's generating revenue, but this is where when you push the fan base to this point, they aren't gonna put up with a really bad product and Right.
And Saturday was a really bad product.
Yeah.
I think he'll start next season on the hot seat for sure.
If it's another bad one.
I don't see him lasting another year.
Yeah.
If he doesn't make changes.
So we gotta wrap this one up.
Here's the question on the way out.
Granted, we don't know the bowl game.
We don't know our opponent.
We dunno the outcome.
But given the way this season has finished, would you have rather had this season's ending or last seasons where we make it to the playoffs and then we get absolutely tainted and embarrassed? At Ohio State and ending in a way where people are questioning, okay, why was Tennessee even in the playoffs? I think I would rather be in the playoffs than out.
Yeah.
But I, it was rough, but it was at their house.
It was a lot going on in that game.
It was freezing.
They wanted Ryan to be fired.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Like the week before, like Yeah, like 70 hours before we played.
They wanted him, they were, I think they were selling tickets in hopes that we would come in and beat them so they could justify his Yes.
And it's like he's a national championship anyways, so there was a lot going on behind the scenes.
And I think to any other team that would've, if that was Tennessee and Ohio State, we probably would've caught our butts whooped and correct.
They would, but they flipped it on the other side and they took it.
So yeah, I would say there was only whatever it was, 12 teams last year.
Yeah.
Or less.
Uh, eight, oh, oh gosh, what was it? Yeah, it expanded this year.
I think it was eight.
Yeah, something like that.
10.
There's six or 10.
Six.
Six or 10 teams.
We were one of 'em.
And so like I would take that 99% of the time, you gotta have a ticket to win the lottery.
And so we got in there and.
Ole Miss didn't do that.
Alabama didn't do that.
LSU didn't do that.
So I would take that any given day.
And I think we can get back, I don't think like you have a bad recruiting class or this negatively impact, like I don't think that these kids today care a ton about us going eight and 4, 7 5 or nine and three.
I think they care about are they gonna get paid? Am I gonna get my face on the billboard? Right.
And are you gonna get me to the league? Yep.
Actually.
I might make more here than I would in the league.
Right.
You know, uh, the Texas quarterback from last year, he would've made more had he transferred than going to the Dolphins.
That's what's the Kai Ziegler's after.
So I don't think it hurts recruiting class.
I don't think it's gonna like tank.
You know, the fan buy in, if you can come and turn this thing around and then you just, you gotta reload.
So you gotta be aggressive in the portal.
Not every kid is gonna wanna come to Tennessee, but like.
I do think that this is an attractive option.
And so if you've got the money and you've got the desire, you go, it is so easy to reload and bring people back.
And if you're a receiver, if you are an offensive lineman, if you're a tied in, if you're a running back, this is a place where I think you'd want to be in a situation where you can put up numbers.
Yep.
So I don't think it's farfetched to think that our now, our schedule's gonna be a lot harder next year.
Our schedule is much harder.
If we'd have played nine SEC games this year, we wouldn't have been four and four.
We, I mean, goodness, apple might have been gone this year, just like half the other SEC teams, but I think if you'd flipped it around, if we had a and m or ole misses schedule, oh, I think we're easily 10 and two.
Yeah, potentially.
I'll say it's seven, but were candies and nuts.
There you go.
All I'll say is I wish we had.
Last year's defense and this year's offense, if we could just put the two together one year, can we just do that? Is not asking too much.
Yep.
What I'm a little sad about is like, I love Hinden Hooker.
He would've easily won the Heisman if he played this year and he had the same stats from 22.
A hundred percent.
Yep.
It's a shame.
Yep.
Indiana, it's a shame Indiana guy's gonna get it.
Yeah.
You don't even know his name.
No, I don't.
Fernan.
Fernando something.
Fernan something.
Fernando.
All right.
That's it for this one.
Basketball season, baby.
Here we go.
And then baseball's right behind it.
Don't disappoint us.
Champion's the live podcast.
Go ball.
Go Balls.
Balls.