UK has faced some truly awful offenses this year.  Below is the national rank of each offense, followed by how the difference between the scoring average of the team and what Kentucky allowed them in parenthesis:



Ohio       109th      (-18)
Vandy     101st      (-12)
ULM       120th       (-5)

Above is the worst group....all in the bottom 22.  Notice that Kentucky held them below their typical average.

Mizzou     70th        (+9)
UF           62nd       (+5)
LSU         57th       (+10)

This is the middling group...notice that Kentucky allowed all to score above what they normally score

USC jr       24th    (+2)
MSU         12th     (+5)
Uga            7th     (+20)

The above average or good group.  

So whenever Kentucky has played an average or good offence, all SEC teams, they have allowed the team to score more than they normally do.  

I think with Dobbs, we are an at least average offense and wa are likelyill be able to score pretty well.  

They have also not played as well on the road and showed signs of fatigue last week vs. Uga.

Bottom line...we should be able to score on these guys.  But it's interesting that their defensive stats have been padded against some truly horrible offenses...which by the way, UF was until Harris became the starter.  
  

 

Vols 37 Mildcats 24

This includes a plus up for Dobbs...if I am off on that it may be 3-4 points closer, but I feel good about this one. 

I like the Price Brothers (Campbell County head coach Justin and DC Matt) very much and they have done a terrific job in taking a totally irrelevant program in terms of state wide relevance and made them it to a top 10 type program in just a few short years.  Their QB, Ethan Jeffers, is an outstanding high school quarterback and will play college football, likely at the D2 or 1-AA level.  He has some really good skills, and a great leadership quality about him. 

That said, when I watch them on film and in talking with CC coaches, the one thing they worry about is being able to keep up with South-Doyle's speed.  The Cherokees definitely have the edge there.  The big question will be if Matt Price can come up with a defensive scheme to counter that speed edge by South-Doyle. 

Should be a very good football game. 

 

Back when it was just Doyle, there really wasn't that much speed.  Quite the opposite in fact.  The addition of South Young (shortened to South) has made a big difference there.  The funny thing is, when I was in HS I always thought that was the missing ingredient Doyle needed was speed and that basically that was all South had, and it would be great if they got together. I guess if finally happened with a good coach.   

Not by me.  Their early schedule was a joke.  Literally four of the lowest 20 offenses in the country in their first five games made their D look much better than it is.  Which uga again proved yesterday, in Lexington.

I am looking forward to this weekend's game.   

What are their prospects for beating Campbell County?  Good, I hope.

I could do without number 4 ( ), but otherwise good stuff.   

I mean it's not like the NCAA can come after tyndall. They have proven they won't do that with Calipari.

GO V OLS!!! 

 

If only it really worked that way....

Did you know that before he was commish of the Mac (I think, but some conference in the midwest), Slive's job was to defend schools being investigated by the NCAA?

Thus, my opinion is that he has become the biggest enabler of recruiting cheating in SEC history, allowing Calipari and Satan to cheat blatantly and thus build their teams into powerhouses.

Of course, someone who likes Slive might argue that he just knows where the loopholes are, but seriously...KY in bball and bammer in football are LITERALLY recruiting better than any school has in either sport in history, and doing it every year.  Coincidence?  Almost certainly not.

Who knows what we get after Slive, but I seriously wonder what will happen to KY and bammer without him around....

Bama is about to win the SEC and be the SEC team in the playoffs.

IMO....Miss. State loses to Bama and Ole Miss in Oxford. If Bama loses another game the SEC might not have a team in the playoffs.....which I cold care less if it's not Miss State or us.

Yeah, but I have faith in MSU.

I'll say this...had LSU held on last night, I think bammer would have lost big to MSU and maybe Auburn (or lose to Auburn at any rate).  Satan seems to dial it in if he's not playing for all the marbles.

But whatever....Go Bulldogs! 

Idiot squib kick reminded me of Fulmer's bloop kick against uga in 2001.

Why do these coaches get cute on kickoffs at the end of the game?  Your D and special teams have been playing GREAT all night.  Just kick the dam ball Les!   

Grrrrr.....

Bammer got away with blatant PI on both of LSU's last two plays in OT.  Of course.

Yup.  What a joke....

Oh well, GO MSU!!!!

Dumb a$$ LSU player gets a personal foul.

That was an awful call, is what that was.  LSU might have scored a TD there...

UK is clearly an improved team. Mizzou is not as good as last year. I like our chances in both games. I don’t want to read too much into a single win but we’re seeing some promising things from this team. They are starting to look as if they are putting things together offensively and as you point out, they’re playing with a lot mental toughness and fire (they’ve done so all season long). These next two games will tell the story of whether or not this team is really turning the corner. IMO, they are games we should reasonably expect to win. 

Yup

Thanks for clearing that up for us.

Well, it wasn't for you, it was for Pirate.  But glad to be of assistance anyway.  Anytime....

It never ceases to amaze me what some believe about Curry that the facts do not support. Bill Curry talks a good game, with "talk" being key. And no he wasn't a "pretty good" coach. See his record and dismissal from Kentucky for reference.

Curry was part of a movement by the then-President of bammer (and no, I don't recall his name) to make it "not all about football anymore". Thus the great unwashed masses of half-sentient knukle-dragging yard apes ran them both off, and Curry had a brick through his window for good measure.

See record of most anyone at Kentucky...meaningless.     Curry was a good coach IMO.  No bammer will ever say he was, and that won't change, so we can just agree to disagree.

Curry was one of the few brave souls that tried to bring some desperately needed class to bammer, and failed miserably.   

 

Well, Gary "Hollingsworth", a three star QB recruited as an afterthought to two five star QB's-Billy Ray and Jeff Dunn. He started far earlier than the Auburn game, in fact took over in the second game as Dunn went down in the Kentucky game with a knee injury, and from that point Hollingsworth led them to a 10-0 record going into the Auburn game.

That's actually what I was saying.  I think there was also another guy with the last name of "Lee" ahead of him, but who knows, it was a long time ago.  I am not sure exactly when he emerged, but it was early that season and not in the preseason.  The others had to stink it up pretty bad first.

T

One other point, the SECn apparently thinks we lost the game against Ky last year as they keep saying it was Butch's first SEC victory

Yes I noticed that.  They are just being sloppy.  They mean "First SEC win this year".  It bugged me too, till I thought about it.

Try to use your head for something besides a hat rack, okay?   

They kept motioning Cooper to the slot, knowing our weakest cover guy covered slot.  Watching the replay, when Coleman reacted he covered reasonably well.  Not all of Cooper's catches were against Coleman either, there were at least two catches against the zone. 

Most of the night when in man Coleman seemed to believe that Cooper was going inside but most often Cooper would fake in, Coleman would go inside and then Cooper would move back outside or up, with no one covering him.  On the fly, Cooper just flat beat Coleman, it happens.  My question is why did the safety act the way he did.  We were in single safety.  I don't now which one it was but I suspect it was McNeil as typically that down and distance we were walking Randolph up (see my GR-D post).  In any case, the safety reacted away from Cooper, leaving Coleman with no help over the top.

They clearly out schemed us.  You can believe Schtoops will be watching that film, and talking to the OBC (OldBallsNCock  )

One last thing on this...."Gary Higgenboom".  That was the QB for bammer in the late 80s that was FOURTH STRING, that had to patiently wait while they cycled through a whole bunch of highly rated duds.  When he finally started, they were 10-0 going into the first Iron Bowl at Auburn in late 1989, and at that point were very much in the running for the MNC.

In spite of being run oft from Tuskaloser, Curry was a pretty good coach who did well at GaTech and actually did pretty well at bammer but got run oft by the boosters who hated him for supporting academics and being from GaTech.

Why did he not figure out Higgenboom was the guy in preseason practice?  The answer is, you really don't know what you have until the young man is tested in battle conditions. 

My opinion is that the mental and intangibles are just as important, if not more important, than the physical ability.  The only way to truly test that is in a game.  But if you test it prematurely....see Peterman last year.

fought too hard to place the entire outcome of the game on a play that is difficult to convert....kick the EP and let's continue to battle, I think it worked out pretty good.        

Momentum was all Vol at that point.   

The factor you're not considering is how many hours the top students bring to college already these days. Dobbs probably went straight to differential equations and had credit for English, foreign language, etc. already. He probably brought in at least 30 credit hours. The limiting factor is the prereq/coreq sequencing, but an engineering student who goes in the summer can get out in 3 years in some cases-- and Dobbs will be taking classes every summer. So while it's hard to get out on time in Engineering, much less early, Dobbs can do it and doesn't even have to take a heavy course load to do so. By credit hours I'd be shocked if he isn't already a junior.

I agree with the rest of your post though. This hindsight business with Dobbs is foolish.

Often there are not a lot of Engineering classes offered in summer, though it can be a great time to catch up on Humanities electives.  Perhaps that's what Dobbs is doig.

Bad missed call, but if he had not been whining like a little girl all night he might have got the call.

That's what I thought also.

The color guy, Jon Stinchcomb (aka John Walton  ) said that Vols were trying for the strip.  I agree, which for you posters above obviously settles the issue.   

he was playing against USCe's defense. I still remember his performances from last year. I reserve judgement until he faces a real D again. He may come out this week and look like Jim Bob Cooter. That being said, I can't remember a better, more exciting performance by a Vol since.......ever. I don't understand how he could not be on the field game 1. Makes me doubt Jones evaluation ability.

Here you managed to get two shots in undermining Vol fan's confidence in their team.  I smell a poser.

You are correct that USCe D is weak.  But UK D is overated, so it's all good. 

As for last year, a year of development can do wonders.

We will find out soon enough.  Either way, Dobbs is clearly a huge improvement over Worley, and as to why he hasn't played earlier, Worley played just fine the first three games of the season and really didn't give away the UF game until well into it. 

Why on God's green Earth would Jones put Dobbs in for Worley while leading 9-0?   And the fact is, Worley was moving the chains on our last drive right up until the int and we only needed a FG anyway.

The only thing Jones might face criticism for is why Peterman was no. 2....but so what?  The first time it really mattered, Dobbs played and it paid off.

Or do you really think we beat Ole Miss if Dobbs comes in instead of Peterman?  Maybe what happens instead is a meltdown like what happened to Peterman last year.  Instead, against bammer Peterman was announced as the starter but Jones also said Dobbs would play.

I'd say it worked PRETTY DAMN WELL SO FAR!!!! 

Again volsboy...you sound like a bammer or other opposing team fan that just wants to come here and run down everything orange.  Just calling it like I see it.

As to your specific points, NE is playing well right and it was in fact cold in the Bahston area.  But you know what? It gets cold in Denver also. Yeah, NE won this one. So what.  If there is any karma or justice in the world, that fizzleing deuchbag slob Bellichek and his little prissy girlie man Brady will get theirs from the Broncos in the playoffs.  Other than helping perhaps decide home field position, this game means almost nothing.  It will be real in December or January though.

But while i am at it, the refs really let NE get away with quite a bit of PI, and I am pretty sure that 4 games in, when the NE defense magically improved, Bellisuck figured out how to steal signals again. 

The Patriots with Bellisuck and Brady have a great legacy...but one that is tarnished to just about anyone other than Patriot fans.   

One reason I thought you guys were better than apparently some Vols. Last week, I think a few didn't either appreciate, or fully understand, just how tough the opposition has been. This team is much more physically tougher than last season and that says someone has been coaching them up. Impressed with the mental toughness demonstrated against USCe by coming back late in the game with two touchdowns.

BG

Yeah BG...anyone who does not see a difference in this year's team and last in terms of mental toughness, fire, and competitiveness is pretty blind, especially if you look at our November games last year.  I still don't think we should have lost to Vandy and Mizzou probably should have been more competitive.   

Having said that, we still have a ways to go...our D lately has me concerned and offense still has plenty of room for improvement. 

Somewhere far below I posted a blog that said it takes two good recruiting classes to start turning a team around.  Well this is the first year of "all Butch" recruits, so we are basically still a year away but I still like what I see so far.  Here's hoping we give you some better games in the future....