We're up two spots in the AP, DROPPED two spots in coaches poll.*

[Black Diamond Vol]

 

[FLVOL]

Called it last night

[Black Diamond Vol]

Called it last night

Well, we can't really complain.  We only got passed by Wisconsin and Iowa, who both had HUGE wins over those juggernauts Akron and Iowa State.

[BanditVol]

(shrug)

If When we beat Florida, then it will start mattering.   

[Tnphil]

If we don't improve our offense a lot....and if we don't improve our OL a WHOLE lot......by Halloween we won't be in the top 25.

[BanditVol]

If we don't improve our offense a lot....and if we don't improve our OL a WHOLE lot......by Halloween we won't be in the top 25.

Against va tech the offense overall returned to late last season form. We only used for 132 against appy state but managed 239 against vatech. Dobbs had -12 against appy state but over 100 vs vatech. So I think the offense is headed in the right direction.

Oline needs hall back, and yes to continue improving

[PirateVOL]

Against va tech the offense overall returned to late last season form.

Not even close

[Creek Walker]

I'll be honest. Right now this is a 9-3 team AT BEST and probably an 8-4 team. There's much, much work to be done. And I don't understand why it hasn't been done.

[Tnphil]

Not even close

You sir...are correct.

[Tnphil]

I'll be honest. Right now this is a 9-3 team AT BEST and probably an 8-4 team. There's much, much work to be done. And I don't understand why it hasn't been done.

Real head scratcher for me......OL looks like they are made up of red-shirt freshman that hasn't played a game before. Got 5 guys up there playing separately and not close to a unit. Makes no sense at all. We can't hit screens.....flare passes look like something outof a Keystone Cops movie.....Giving the ball to Hurd between the tackles with 8 defenders within 5 yards of the LOS..

[BanditVol]

Not even close

What about 239 yards rushing and 45 points is different than anything we did late last season.  We had a lot of turnovers given to us, but but had a bunch from NW also, and that game was close till early 4th quarter.  This one was arguably over by halftime.

Not only that, but in our last five games in the regular season we played Missouri, USC jr, Vandy, Kentucky, N Texas.  How many of those teams are comparable to Va Tech?  Maybe Missouri?.  I'd favor Va Tech against any of the others (though USC jr might be a good game).

I don't have the stats right in front of me, but I would say our effort in running the ball against Va Tech is as good as any of those games above, and arguably against a better team.

And we struggled offensively, relatively speaking, against USC jr and only scored one TD on Mizzou in spite of having good field position all night.

All of which is to say, don't read too much into my saying "late last season form", because frankly, that was padded by an easy schedule.  In other words, in my opinion we were not where we wanted to be late last season offensively either, but we were better than the first half the season and certainly better than Appy State.

Some of you are looking at "late last season" through orange colored glasses apparently, because we still had a very inconsistent pass attack and strong running attack, which is exactly what we had Saturday.  

[BanditVol]

Real head scratcher for me......OL looks like they are made up of red-shirt freshman that hasn't played a game before. Got 5 guys up there playing separately and not close to a unit. Makes no sense at all. We can't hit screens.....flare passes look like something out a Keystone Cops move.....Giving the ball to Hurd between the tackles with 8 defenders within 5 yards of the LOS..

But is that really that different than USC jr last year, or, heaven forbid, N Texas State?  Now there's a game we won 24-0 but the offense looked very flat.

[tshadow]

This game is no indicator. How many games will you have where a good team gifts you five possessions (or however many there were)? They clearly have their own issues which were only partly due to our play. I couldn't honestly say that we would have won that game without the gifts. I can say this... the game did show this team can be reigned in and brought under discipline. There is nothing that I have seen that cannot be fixed.

[BanditVol]

This game is no indicator. How many games will you have where a good team gifts you five possessions (or however many there were)? They clearly have their own issues which were only partly due to our play. I couldn't honestly say that we would have won that game without the gifts. I can say this... the game did show this team can be reigned in and brought under discipline. There is nothing that I have seen that cannot be fixed.

I completely agree.  I work with a VT grad, and I told him this morning that at the very least, without the turnovers it's a really close game and it's very possible we lose.

Having said that, the fact that we had 239 yards rushing is very encouraging, regardless of style points.  239 yards against a P5 defense with a good DC is impressive, I don't care who you are.  I will even allow that VT had an uncharacteristically soft run D last year, and still count it as a positive.

And that's important, because IMO the identity of this team is running the ball.

[Tnphil]

Here's the deal for me.....This is the 4th year of this Butch Botchbone offense...and it looks just as discombobulated as it did the first time I saw it. I see many teams running this type or close to our type offense and it can look like a well oiled machine. For some reason our version looks like ( I'm gonna keep it nice and as clean as I can here) a monkey trying to make love to a fire hydrant. Butch hired a guy (Debord aka Deboring) that hasn't coached this type offense in his life and that comes from the same school that Fulmer came from....Can you see Fulmer trying to coach this Butch Botchbone offense? Think about that for a minute.

I really thought when Butch hired Debord that...well, just maybe Butch will let Debord install some of his Michigan I-formation stuff since we have a 5 STAR POWER BACK that's made for running downhill and NOT taking the ball 7-8 yards deep behind the LOS standing still!!! But I was wrong and should have known better because the day Butch was introduced to VOL nation and his team Butch said...."My system is infallible and will work in the SEC." Butch better find a OC that can get this offense looking close to a well oiled machine or the keys he gave to Debored to run a offense he knew very little about will also be the keys to the car that will drive Butch out of Knoxville. He got a topnotch DC....he better do the same on the offensive side. Unless VOL fans are happy with 7-8 and maybe 9 win seasons as the norm it needs to happen. It has to happen to compete for championships.

JMHO

[BanditVol]

I don't disagree with the general "discombolutaedness" of the offense. Above I indicate it can definitely be better.  I am just contrasting the second game with the first, and pointing out that, statistically, the second game was right in line with our last 6 games last year (including the bowl).

And whatever you think of Debord, we averaged 35 points a game last year against a really tough schedule. I'll take that over a lot of other things out there.

It's also possible, though I am not sure how likely, that Debord is now going to "get by" with the old Butch offense because he finally realizes that Dobbs is not going to be a drop back passer (but only for this season).  It seems to me that in the Appy State game, and for much of the first half in the bowl, Dobbs was under wraps from running.  It's possible, but again not sure how likely, that when Dobbs moves on after this season we will see a more traditional offense.

And again, who cares about "discombobuluated" when you get 239 yards rushing against a decent D?  45 points against a Foster D is truly impressive, but I have to acknowledge that at least 1417 of those probably don't occur without all the turnovers.

You can say Debord is not perfect, and the offense is ugly, and I will agree.  But I am not ready to declare it DOA just yet and give up on the season.  Not when going back the last 8 games (all wins by the way), we were over 200 yards rushing in all but Appy State.  And again, I think that was a conscious decision of the coaches to leash Dobbs from running,and it was a mistake.

Debord may well switch or be allowed to switch to more of a drop back passing attack next year, IDK.  On the other hand, Saban routinely destroys pro style offenses and struggles against the read option, so maybe I don't want that anyway.