ESPN's Scott Van Pelt takes on Tennessee haters in Twitter debate
Tennessee routed Northwestern 45-6 in the Outback Bowl on Friday, so you’d think the Vols haters would be quiet for a day.
You’d be wrong though.
Haters never sleep and the Vols needed some defense.
Who came to their aid?
None other than top ESPN personality Scott Van Pelt:
@slmandel why are people doing this? They lost 4 games this year by 7,1,4 & 5. Maybe they're actually just pretty good?
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
So he pretty much took down Fox Sports writer Stewart Mandel with one Tweet, but he wasn’t done with his Vols defense.
@slmandel if they had better luck/clock management, they could have been in playoff discussion. Just don't see them as overrated candidate
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@kkeithhogs @BarrettSallee @slmandel not really. Teams get smoked. Tennessee didn't. Neither did you.
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@Andrew263 @slmandel they lead in your place late & lost to ou in a game they should have easily won. That's half the playoff, buddy
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@Andrew263 team this close to winning a bunch of games with ton of returning talent being described as a candidate to be overrated is dumb
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@MochaTruck beat the snot outta you last year. They're good.
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@MochaTruck they blew big lead to OU & lost in ot. Lead Bama in Ttown with 3:00 to play. That's half the playoff. Not even mentioning UF
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
@MochaTruck with some luck, they'd have been trendy team. They lost the games. They could be good next year. That's it.
— Scott Van Pelt (@notthefakeSVP) January 1, 2016
Obviously, Van Pelt’s brave defense of their team pleased Vols fans:
I would like to propose that @notthefakeSVP receive honorary VFL status after today. We shall vote on it.
— Houston Kress (@VolRumorMill) January 1, 2016
He’s right. We lost some games we never should have lost. But those were some really good teams. We blowout a vaunted defense by putting 45 on them and we get called overrated? Crazy.
Agree with SVP. The Viles will be the favorites in the East next year. Our streak is going to be tested as well.
Even as a Bama fan, I recognize Tennessee was close to being great this past year. I don’t know why fans can’t be honest about the sport.
My SEC championship game prediction is Bama and Tennessee. That worries me more because we play them twice.
ESPN loves Tennessee.
I don’t think its love yet.. but you can definitely see the chemistry is there…
Scott Van Pelt is not ESPN, he is one guy. His statement really is silly. If, if, if, if Bama had not had 5 turnovers they would have been undefeated, if AAuburn had a coach instead of a players buddy they would win more, if Tennessee had scored more points they would have won, if a bullfrog had wings it wouldn’t bumps it ass every time it jumped. Van Pelts agruments were non sense but he committed to them and had to stay with them. Mandel is a certified pinhead and I really hate to remotely give him credit for anything but he is more than likely correct. Just as this years preseason picks were close to 90% incorrect. So as much as these prognosticators think they know the game unless they have played the game they are totally ignorant in their predictions. Bob Costa is another perfect example. He is book smart but he is not experience smart. You know, a know it all idiot.
That’s McElroy!
The reality is you are giving your opinion like everyone else I think UT will be pretty good next year especially in the SEC East they will have the best QB and they are returning talent but the games are still played on the field
What a douchebag. You should leave the football analysis–and anything else requiring the use of brain function–to people like Van Pelt.
Pretty obvious he knows what he’s talking about while you sound like a freaking moron.
I think we all knew Tenn would run away with this one. If Dobbs can become a better passer then he might be better than Chad Kelly next year
He won’t be a better passer than Chad Kelly. But depending on how effective of a passer he becomes, he could look better than Dak Prescott did this year. Obviously, Dak will still be the better overall QB. Won’t matter much unless our WRs step up as well.
I think he meant as an overall QB. I’m not sure Dobbs can take you any further.
Mythic, I think you’re seeing the best of Dobbs now, which is pretty good. Works great with the talent Tenn has put together. However, he is not elite nor can he come close to What Dak did at MSU.
I honestly think that Dobbs was a better QB last year–before he got “coached up”–by DeBord. I became worried when I heard Dobbs in Spring Camp talking about how they would” get it together soon” when he was questioned about his accuracy. “Coach DeBord has been working with me on my footwork and other mechanics and it will kick in soon.”
I knew the minute I heard that we were screwed; Butch Jones figured DeBord was a proven commodity and could be trusted to work with Dobbs and continue to develop his skills but it became quite clear to anyone who watched the game that Dobbs had regressed from previous seasons. (He had better rushing statistics but that could easily be attributed to the emergence of Jalen Hurd.)
If he’d left Dobbs footwork and mechanics alone and simply focused on the Xs and Os, this team would likely have finished 11-2 or better. I won’t dispute the Alabama loss or the Arkansas game either (though we are clearly a better team than the Hogs) but this team needed the production from Dobbs as a passer in the OU and Florida games, and it was clear that Dobbs had lost what mojo he’d been able to muster in the previous season. It scares me that this man has been given the keys to the Ferrari and he’s used to driving Volkswagens.
SVP is right but Tennessee lost all those games with time management, bad in game decision making, and play not to lose. In thr game today, Jones and company kept their foot on the gas which I loved to see. That 4th down Jones chose touchdown over field goal which he shoulda down all year long. Tennessee needs a great QB coach and OC to teach and develop QBs which I dont think they have. Dobbs plays by pure athletic ability, basically backyard football. If he had a good QB coach skies the limit. Not gonna get on the hype train again. Gonna wait to they are 5 games into next season. Northwestern was waaaaay overrated. They had no offense.
I don’t think any serious college football fan thought Northwestern was any competition for the Vols. certainly, they are peaking at the right time, while the Gators struggle. So I think the Vols will be the team to beat in the East next year. Just home Mizzou can improve enough with the changes to compete.
I hope FL doesn’t fall flat after a year that was going in the right direction for the most part, but yeah, TN should have been in SEC championship.
no they shouldn’t have… Fla won the game fair and square… Florida not looking like a championship team at the end of the year was caused by Grier’s indiscretions. I am sure Harris is a fine football player, just not at QB…
Floridas problem is they lost their QB. Harris is a runner and cant pass at all. Grier could do both. Once Grier was suspended the whole team changed.
He’s not wrong, though. Tennessee looked like the best team in the East most of this season. Look forward to playing them twice next year. Roll Tide.
I like how think… how about we split the wins… Bama can have the first one…
I like how you think… how about we split the wins… Bama can have the first one…
I got a better idea. You take the rivalry game and Alabama’s token loss, the Tide will move on to the playoffs (again) and the Vols can go on to humiliate Baylor in the Sugar Bowl like Ole Miss is doing to Oklahoma State.
I’m not sure how I feel about the argument. There are a lot of teams you can say this for. If this and if that. Tennessee is on the way up, but let’s not overhype a win over Northwestern. They could win the East next year. Or lose 4 games again. Who knows. I am glad we aren’t playing them next year though.
I don’t understand.. He didn’t say they were going to win a national championship or anything (although.. That honestly may not be too far fetched next season). He simply said they are good, perhaps better than they’re record suggests and that they should be better next year. Everything he said sounds completely realistic to me… I hate Tennessee but i can admit Tennessee was honestly a very good team this year. That’s all. What’s with the refusal to acknowledge that?
We’ll see how good they are in Athens next year with Kirby Smart and Jacob Eason calling the shots.
Jacob Eason hasn’t played one game of college football he won’t be better than Dobbs
I imagine they’ll probably feel pretty good with an all of that returning talent, going up against a 1st year HC with no previous HC experience, and a true freshmen at QB.
Probably as good orbetter than they have been in the last couple of years in Athens when we’ve pushed GA to the limit with way less talented teams….not to mention complete talent advantage now and head coaching advantage. Pray Kirby smart isn’t the second coming of Sal Sunseri as d coordinator for TN. Wouldn’t surprise me any. You people should have kept your fantastic coach in Mark Richt who had like one crappy season in his 15 years or whatever. You’d think folks would look at what Tennessee went through and have 2nd thoughts about firing a legacy coach…..but fuller stopped recruiting had multiple losing seasons so at least it was semi justified…not so with richt.
At the end of the day, it’s still the “what if” argument. Tennessee did lose 4 games this year, and no matter how close the losses were, they were still losses.
Leave it to Vandy to know all about and define losses.
There’s a reason they were chanting “purple vandy” yesterday.
I just don’t understand how my sorry ass, chubbless dawgs nearly beat them. Hell we haven’t scored that many points since then.
Maybe you could try starting with the uncalled block in the back resulting in a touchdown that everyone including the announcers howled at.
All this if-if-if is mental masturbation. We all know some average teams that were only a few plays away from a great season and some that were a few plays away from a terrible season.
UT did a fine job in the bowl and makes the SEC proud.
Van Pelt is right. Overrated (synonym for teams with talent but suck) simply isn’t a word that describes Tennessee this year. You push teams like Alabama or Oklahoma or even Arkansas to the limit if you suck. You certainly don’t put yourself in position to win those games in the 4th quarter if you suck against those caliber teams.
A lot of people are missing the point. SVP is not defending the 4 losses or asking “what if’s”, as much as he is refuting that TN is overrated.