In no particular order:

• “Too traditional offense” – Let’s be honest; the “3-yds and a cloud of dust”, run first plan is not a glamourous offensive scheme. It’s difficult to attract top notch QBs, WRs, and receiving TEs when they’re not going to be throwing/catching the ball. WR’s go to school where they’ll be a Receiver...not a Blocker. (Note the last several years have been a pass-first offense brought about by both ability and necessity. Also, it’ll be interesting to see what Coach Claw displays this fall.)

• Regional Stereotypes - It’s East Tennessee…home of the redneck, hillbilly, beer-drankin’, shine-brewin’ mountain folk, right? Who wants to play for THAT fan base when you can attend a southern Californian school and schmooze with pop-culture celebrities and become famous for hanging out with famous people who became famous for being famous?

• Orange – I’ll be honest, the color doesn’t look great on everybody. From my personal experience, it’s a bit of an acquired taste…can be scary for those without a sense of adventure!

• Typically Deep Position Rosters - With few exceptions, an incoming freshman has to “earn” playing time by riding the bench for a year or two or even 3. Big shots out of HS have typically started for all 4 years. Some won’t even consider a school unless there is an opprotunity to play immediately.

• Removed from a Football “Hotbed” – The E TN, W NC, SE KY, and N GA region is not particularly known for churning out 4 and 5 star recruits like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and California are known to do. As such, many recruits would have to moving a significant distance from friends, family, and everything else familiar to play ball in Knoxville. That’s not always an easy thing for an 18 yr old to do.

“the University of Tennessee is a mediocre public school, where the faculty and Knoxville citizens value sports more than academics.”

Not sure where you came up with this notion, lets look at some numbers.
Football Graduation Rate
UT – 49%
Cal – 47%
Overall Student Athlete Graduation Rate
UT – 71%
Cal – 73%

Looks like our respective schools faculty value academics and athletics about equally.

As far as the tidbit about Knoxville citizens there are no statistics about what civilians value the most but I think its a little unfair to confuse passion and pride with priority.

While UT may not have the prestige of the universities you listed, it ranks in the top 40 among public schools. Average incoming freshmen GPA is a 3.6. # 2 Supply Chain Management Program according to Supply Chain Review. Top 10 Public MBA according to Forbes.

While you may call it mediocre, I don’t think a UT degree is anything to scoff at.

This coming from a Pennsylvanian who came to Knoxville for academics and not athletics.

Thanks for your input, ROYB667. While I agree with several of your points, and respectfully disagree with others, we need to be frank with respect to academics—highly talented/recruited football players at most major schools are not in it for the education. Seriously, when was the last time you heard a VHT make a statement to the effect of:

“You know, I’ve been working real hard at my vector calculus and differential equations this summer. My understanding of the theoretical concepts involved is really improving. I can’t wait to get into Astrophysics 310 this fall!”

Football players come to Tennessee to play football. Nothing more. Nothing less. The same is true for many other major programs. If a recruit were more interested in academics, he would most likely not worry about the quality of the football program and would be seeking an academic scholarship and not athletic. You’re obviously entitled to your opinion of the academic standing/prestige of MY University of Tennessee, and we welcome it, but please realize that at this particular institution, academics and athletics are worlds apart and have minimal avenues for interface.

Also, we’ll gladly do some Bear-Thumping this fall. Go Vols!

Should read some of if not sorry.