VTTW Board Index

Butch coaches differently in big games, and not for the better IMO.  He might consider growing a .....

I think over the next 7-10 days the staff needs to evaluate the team and not be afraid to try different players at certain positions.  Might evaluate staff performances as well ...

BTW, you have a weapon at TE, you might consider using him ...

Medley kicked very, very well tonight, perhaps one kick too many

The crowd was in the game start to finish.  Loudest Neyland has been in a long, long time (114db at one point they said).  It affected OU

TK is a warrior and needs to play a lot regardless of McNeil's condition IMO.  Perhaps rotate the three safeties to help keep them fresh

Speaking of rotations, other than WR and DE we didn't rotate much tonight, really impacted the team play as the game continued.

Agreed...The fact that no UT team had ever lost at Neyland when leading by 17 points proves his a$$ puckered up in the 2nd half..There are too many offensive weapons that never saw the ball in the 2nd half..What's sad is I said to myself late in the 3rd qtr that they were going to let them come back and score and go into ot and find a way to blow it...Too many bad memories..This was his chance to change that and he and his staff totally blew it

Piss poor offensive game plan...Period...Dot.

When Butch kicked the FG on 4th and 2 feet he told his offense....you're not good enough.

Just a bad...bad coached game. Butch lost me tonight.....his excuses are out the window with me. Show me....or get gone!

I thought the same thing..They had the ball at the one yard line and TWO downs to get it in on that 1st series and I thought to myself,this is two down territory and the announcer even said the same thing...You have to set a precedence right there that you believe in your players to get it done and even if they don't get in, you have OU backed up 99 yards but when Jones wussed out for the field goal,that close to the end zone,I knew it would come back to bite him

pretty much quotes from TRO and I at the time.

I think everything said in this thread rings true, but I'd say the biggest factor in the game was depth.  Key parts of both the defensive and offensive units just ran out of gas.  Toward the end of the game, they were just hanging on for dear life.  I give them a lot of credit for hanging tough, but playing tired resulted in a lot of errors - missed tackles (like on the QB!), painful penalties, horrible pass protection, etc...

We're certainly getting better, but we have a ways to go.

it was very apparent that despite all the glowing accounts from the staff about the increased depth during fall camp they have no faith in their ability to play.  In other words, perhaps Striker was correct and they were blowing a lot of hot air ...

Offensive ineptitude. Defense ran out of gas. Can't really blame it on depth, 4th qtr stats tell the story. Can't keep putting defense out there all night so frequently

I only saw McKenzie in once, and that was for about 3 snaps. It's possible I missed earlier contributions.

he was in at least two different times
The first time he lined up in a 3 technique, with vickers in the 1 :confused:

I felt like Jones could have or should have tried the 4th and goal at the 2 foot line, but at the end of the day I can see both sides of that one.  I don't think that's why we lost.    We went on to score 14 more points, but we just inexplicably got complacent.

About the middle of the 2nd quarter, I think after they scored the FG, we came out and the body language of the offense was just different, and the first play from srimmage just looked...for want of a better word, "half-assed".  Its a very intangible thing but it was like the team lost focus and intensity. 

That does reflect on the leadership, because teams take cues like that from their coaches. I actually started feeling uneasy at that point, and it only got worse when we had a great chance to score to end the half when our last drive penetrated fairly deep into their territory but then we moved backwards.   Then we came out and did exactly the same thing at the start of the second half.  :banghead:

The O looked very confused in the second half, a couple of times Howard lined up in the wrong place and went the wrong way. Blackledge who we all know and love, said that made Dobbs look (his words) "discombobulated"