OL: Their best performance of the year, without a doubt. They opened holes in the rush game, they protected the best they had all year. Was the performance to VOL standards, no either the opponent was very bad or they are improving, I chose the latter. We had several individual breakdowns, especially early. Gilliam was abused a couple of times. Each of the OGs had a false start. For the first time all year the LT was not a headline, in a bad way. Crowder had his best game of the year. One interesting factoid (to me) is that we ran right a lot more than we have all year. Almost all of Hurd's runs were zone or gaps to the right.
RB: Hurd is a beast, with speed. His little dump and run for a TD on 4th down was a thing of beauty. There are at least two SC defenders still trying to figure out how he did it. He appeared fast all night and was much more decisive and delivered the hit at the end. Looks like Lane's injury could be the end of his career except for perhaps a bowl game. It loked like they were working on his left ankle but I think it telling that they did not fit him with crutches but took him to the locker room on a cart.
WR/TE: What happened to North and Wolf. Both were not playing in the 2nd half. Helm and Ellis had good games. In the first half Dobbs and wolf were just "off" for the most part but he is going to be a weapon. Pig had a darn good game. His running was more decisive than all year (and showed his speed and individual effort on the 1st TD) and he flat can get open. He had some KEY receptions on the last couple of drives. Without him, we lose. Pearson is not "back" fully yet but he is getting there - his blocking needs to improve. Dobbs ability to extend plays allowed Croom to get open for the tying TD. Malone was not a factor all night. Ryan Jenkins made an appearance (I went, who is #5?). Helm seemed to be a bit more comfortable, seemed to understand the concept of sitting down in the zone. Ellis has improved significantly, with some good blocking.
QB:
Best performance by a VOL QB in a long time. Was he perfect? Hell no but I'll take it. He still makes bad decisions, especially in the pass game but, similar to Crompton (against Auburn), he appeared to grow up a bit when he had to throw in the 4th. He made several bad decisions in the passing game, throwing into double coverage at least three times, resulting in the pick. He seemed to have difficulty seeing/reading the safety. His TD run at the end of the first half, when all we were really trying to do was get the ball in FG range, was a thing of beauty, complete with a jock clean up on isle 17. On the zone reads he mostly made good decisions though from the cheap seats he seemed to want to keep it a bit too much. He also showed good patience on the outside reads. On one play going South he pulled the ball from Hurd, seemed to wait almost a count to allow the LDE to fully crash inside and then took off for a good gain. 85 yards in just over a minute?
He now has two weeks to build on this game and fully implement "his" offense.
Coaching: I noted early that Jake was a bit wild with his play calling early (the reverse for the 1st TD a prime example). He opened up the play book more this game with Dobbs. I think we started like our 100th different combination on OL but they are improving. Not up to VOL standards yet but they ARE improving. We had a good game plan going in, the players were prepared and we adapted, could not ask for more.
