tOfficial '2015 Tennessee Volunteers' Football Thread

Freshman wide receiver Jocquez Brucewas to blueshirt this season for the Tennessee Volunteers. Instead, he will be looking for somewhere else to play his college football. Bruce released a statement saying he will no longer be attending the university and is parting ways following a mutual agreement with Tennessee head coach Butch Jones.

“I would like to announce that I will no longer be attending the University of Tennessee,” Bruce’s statement to the Knoxville News Sentinel said. “Coach Jones and I have talked and have together decided that this is what is best for me at this time. I still plan to attend college, as well as play football, and I look forward to working with Coach Jones, and the University of Tennessee, as they help me find an appropriate fit.”

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The FPI look at teams through data such as returning starters, efficiency in all three phases of the game from the prior season, recruiting rankings, attrition and more. You may recall the Vols were ranked 14th in the FPI back in February and finished No. 34 in last year’s final FPI.

ESPN’s recently updated FPI has the Vols at 13th, up one spot, and gives Tennessee a 13.4% chance to win the conference – that’s a better percentage than Alabama (12.9%) and behind only Georgia (25.5%) and LSU (14.4%).

Also of interest, the FPI, which is based on 10,000 simulations of the season, has Tennessee favored, though narrowly in several cases, in 11 of 12 games in 2015.

Tennessee’s schedule, with games against No. 2 Alabama, No. 6 Georgia, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 26 Missouri, No. 23 Florida and No. 40 South Carolina, ranks 19th nationally per the FPI.

Though the FPI has the Vols favored in 11 games, it only gives them a .3% chance to go undefeated thanks, in large part, to the aforementioned narrow margins. Full season projections have the Vols averaging 8.6 wins and 3.7 losses – basically this formula says the Vols should go 9-3 or 8-4 in 2015 and that would mark significant improvement for a program that’s just 64-61 over the last decade.

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While we had one 2015 signee (unofficially) joining a new Power Five football program Thursday, we have another (unofficially) departing one.

GoVols247.com is reporting that Kyle Oliver is leaving the Vols football team and will transfer to another, undetermined program. Citing a source with knowledge of the situation, Oliver “is leaving… because of unspecified off-field issues.”

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Tin Man said:

@WestEndVol, do you know what colors UTK will be wearing for the opener in Nashburg?

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Tin Man said:

@WestEndVol, do you know what colors UTK will be wearing for the opener in Nashburg?

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Tin Man said:

Remembering that fateful time a new Florida Head Coach brought his team to Neyland...

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Justin Tyme said:

@Tin Man
Should we take this video to the Ice Haus and show it to GR? I have a few fivers left seaux we can have a round or two while watching it.

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Tin Man said:

I sense the FN expat in you... Your avi name is not familiar... You used a different one on FN, n'est pas?

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Justin Tyme said:

Justin Tyme(J "T") is a new moniker for this site. Had to change it a little for this site.
How ya doing Tin Man? Good to hear from you again. I have seen a couple of other FN people on here. Have you heard from any of the others?

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