re: Importance of Tennessee vs. LSU

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LSU is the program on the up.

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A severe case of kennel blindness - 2022 variety. Happens every year about this time. LSU fans think all the other teams are stagnant. They’re not. Everybody is sharpening their knives. Lots of prognosticators are picking TN to pee in a lot of Cornflakes this year.

While optimism always runs high in the offseason, this season will represent the lowest expectation level for the LSU fanbase in over 20 years. It's not that LSU fans don't think this team could be good or that they don't believe in Brian Kelly. It's that given the results of the past two seasons LSU fans don't go into this season EXPECTING LSU to realistically compete for an SEC or national title. For almost 20 years from (appx.) 2004 - 2020, that was generally the expectation level. If anything, LSU fans look at this season as the closet thing to a "rebuilding" year the program has faced since 2000 (Saban's first season at LSU).

No reasonable LSU fan is looking at the Tennessee game as some sort of "program defining" game. From the LSU perspective, the worst case scenario is in a rebuilding year LSU loses to an improving Tennessee program. Best case scenario, LSU wins, in a rebuilding year, reaffirming the program is still ahead of Tennessee in the SEC/national hierarchy.

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With the talent difference between the two programs, if Tennessee fans want to actually look at the Vols as a national player then they in their up-swing have to be able to beat a team like LSU on a down-swing. Because if not now, when ever?

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From the UT perspective that is probably right. If you can't beat a program like LSU when they are "down", then it starts to suggest maybe UT will never regain the stature they had for decades. Four coaches since Fulmer was let go...same, at best, mediocre results.

As for Kelly, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many LSU fans who were truly disappointed in the hire. From an objective wins/loss perspective, I'm not sure anyone besides Saban, Urban Meyer, and maybe Dabo, could have been a better hire. Considering Saban and Dabo weren't leaving, and Meyer may not be in demand right now, it is hard to look at things today (not with the benefit of hindsight in a few years) and think LSU didn't make the best possible hire they could have made.

To the contrary. LSU fans see a program that is the ONLY program in the BCS/CFP era that has hired 3 straight coaches who ALL won national championships within 4 years of being hired. Given the pedigree (or lack thereof) of all of those coaches prior to taking the LSU job (yes, including a Michigan St. coach who hovered around .500 prior to his final year at the school), the perspective of LSU fans is "if Miles and Orgeron could win championships here, what can the guy who probably has the best track record of prior success LSU has ever hired do here?"

Tennessee looks to be a program on the up and up. Since the end of the 2017 season they've displayed spasms of being a good team. I think in 3 years the Vols will challenge Georgia and Florida for supremacy in the East.

This year they catch LSU at a good time-- a bye-week advantage, while LSU has a bruising game at Auburn during Tennessee's bye week.

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I think in 3 years the Vols will challenge Georgia and Florida for supremacy in the East.

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I dont think Tennessee will ever be the elite program they were back in the day.

A wonderful memory from LSU vs UT

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hired their 5th option of head coach.

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False.

I hope you don’t take things you read on the SECRant as gospel.

You want to talk about coaching searches? Your school actually hired Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, Jeremy Pruitt, and a guy who’s somehow fatter than Fulmer. Your idiot Twitter warrior fan base sabotaged the hire of what could have been a decent coach and ended up with a bumfrick of a coach that passed out money in McDonalds bags and put your school on probation. You have absolutely no business coming over to try and troll about a “5th option”.

ETA: I didn’t even mention your trash fans stopping a game because you were throwing golf balls and mustard bottles at an opposing coach, and student athletes.

5th option seems like a home run hire. So far

Every game is a big game. How many times has the better team lost because they didn't believe it was a big game?

I think even if Lsu and UT are undefeated it will be a night game. Bama/A&M are guaranteed CBS night game and I believe CBS will choose the rivalry of UGA and Auburn over our game. Remember the schedule is set 2 weeks in advance so even when we beat Auburn that game with UGA will already be set with CBS.

20-10-3.
Looks like it’s been dominated historically by 1 team. Aside from the last 5 games Tennessee had dominated the series up till 2006.