Pointless Question

[murfvol]

If we overlooked Georgia State and BYU to focus on UF, what does our performance last Saturday say?

Were the plans good, but the team dispirited, or what? I dunno.

[PirateVOL]

If we overlooked Georgia State and BYU to focus on UF, what does our performance last Saturday say?

Were the plans good, but the team dispirited, or what? I dunno.

I'll go with my first thought I posted Saturday afternoon:  We fizzleing SUCK!

[Creek Walker]

The talent level isn't much different. You could see it at times. Think about it this way: If the ball doesn't go through Jauan Jennings' hands in the end zone for an INT, if JG doesn't overthrow a wide-open DWA, if Florida is stopped about six inches shorter on the final play of the half (I actually thought his knee was down but it's hard to tell conclusively from the replay), Tennessee could've very easily been ahead at halftime. After that, who knows what happens.

I'll chalk up a lot of it to inexperience, and I'll allow that culture is part of it. But I think an undeniable part of it is that we're just not a very well coached football team right now. No one will convince me otherwise. I don't think Pruitt is the answer, and I think it's only a matter of time before we're playing the same stupid coaching-search game once again. Bottom line is we just got blown out, our rear ends absolutely whipped, by a Florida team that is not very good. The final win-loss results will prove that UF is overrated. It's about to get very, very ugly. I fully expect UGA to pick up its largest margin of victory in the history of this series next week.

[VinnieVOL]

I just don't understand how we can be this much worse than we were a year ago.  More expensive coaches...  coordinators/assistants we were all giddy about getting.  All of our offensive weapons returned, and two 5 stars to add to the OL.  It seems like some of the veterans have regressed that, though may not be the ultimate answer, the coaches hoped would bridge the gap and buy time for the youngsters to get up to speed.. JG and Warrior are who come to mind. 

Things are just too hard on offense and that starts with JG obviously.  Our D has no chance with an offense like this.

[SmokeyJoe]

I just don't understand how we can be this much worse than we were a year ago.  More expensive coaches...  coordinators/assistants we were all giddy about getting.  All of our offensive weapons returned, and two 5 stars to add to the OL.  It seems like some of the veterans have regressed that, though may not be the ultimate answer, the coaches hoped would bridge the gap and buy time for the youngsters to get up to speed.. JG and Warrior are who come to mind. 

Things are just too hard on offense and that starts with JG obviously.  Our D has no chance with an offense like this.

While not entirely JGs fault it is primarily his fault. I hate to see such a good young man fail like this. Sad.

[Creek Walker]

While not entirely JGs fault it is primarily his fault. I hate to see such a good young man fail like this. Sad.

I would say JG is part of the problem...a significant part. But it's not primarily his fault. Have you seen our defense play? There's plenty of blame to go around.

[PirateVOL]

I would say JG is part of the problem...a significant part. But it's not primarily his fault. Have you seen our defense play? There's plenty of blame to go around.

There is a vast area of the field known as the middle that the first time a Tennessee defender defends it, will be the first time this year
Part of it is our LBs are biting continuously on play action and not getting into their drops.  Part of it seems like the safeties are lining up in  Siberia.  Part of it seems to be scheme (see my game report Saturday)

Bottom line is that since the beginning of the 2nd half against GaSt that has been exploited by 3 of the teams we have played (the other was just too bad to exploit it).
One would think that the two (2) defensive geniuses on staff would figure out a way to counter that ...

As for JG, need to go back and spoon feed him the plays, take most of his decision making at the LOS away and make it as simple as possible

[murfvol]

Though Pirate's original succinct summation is accurate, Vinnie states my thoughrs well. After being in the program two years, why have upperclassmen regressed?

I'm encouraged young guys seem to be playing relatively well, but the dearth of junior and senior contribution is odd. Perhaps new coordinators brought unique terminology that has hindered communication.

[VinnieVOL]

And as for the defense, it would seem to me that the lack of any kind of pass rush has forced us to play more zone that Pruitt would like to do... and maybe something we didn't practice as much in fall camp? 

[PirateVOL]

And as for the defense, it would seem to me that the lack of any kind of pass rush has forced us to play more zone that Pruitt would like to do... and maybe something we didn't practice as much in fall camp? 

What it has done a lot is force a lot of corner blitzes, which leaves the slow safeties exposed as well as the youthful corners

A lot of moving parts but till we get a couple of elite pass rushing ends or OLBs we are screwed in this defense

[VinnieVOL]

There must still be some internal trouble/infighting amongst the team... about all I can figure.

[murfvol]

I like to think our problems are fixable. Doug Mathews said man teams don't play zone well, and vice versa.

It seems FS and QB are the root of many ills.

[BanditVol]

If we overlooked Georgia State and BYU to focus on UF, what does our performance last Saturday say?

Were the plans good, but the team dispirited, or what? I dunno.

I don't think there was any overlooking for Florida.  I don't think there was an overlooking vs BYU at all.   I do think Georgia State was criminally overlooked, though a better word might be underestimated, or taken for granted.  And for that there is no excuse, and no forgiveness.  Pruitt's leash is now considerably shorter as a result.

I am on record as saying Pruitt gets a mulligan for Georgia State.  That doesn't mean I excuse or accept the loss, it does mean I personally choose to overlook it as an error an early second year coach might make, and provided he learns from it, can ultimately be written off as part of the learning process and returning our team to winning.  It's a hard one to swallow for sure, but my view in this case is the half full one.

[Tnphil]

Very good posts here and agree. I have seen nothing in 1 year and 4 games that makes me believe Pruitt is qualified to be a head coach right now. Where our program was and what Butch had done to it...no way...no how did we need a Pruitt type hire who's learning on the job to be a HC. Pruitt might be a good HC down the road but will be shocked if that happens here. We aren't a well coached team right now and haven't been for most of the 16 games he's been the HC. You can take a bad talented team and have that team look well coached...How many times over many years has teams come into Neyland undermanned to the hilt but said afterwards that was a well coached team?!! I've seen and said it many times....No way and no how should we be 1-3 right now and not sure that Dooley or Butch wouldn't have us 3-1 or at least 2-2 right now.

The defense concerns me as much as the offense....When you don't have at least a average SEC QB you are in trouble. Gitmo would have to improve a lot to get to average. But the defense is just a mystery. We have DB's and safeties that aren't within 10-15 yards of the WR's when they catch a ball time after time and game after game? As Pirate said we have linebackers biting on play fakes on 3rd and 12-15 yards leaving the middle more open than you'll ever see. It just blows my mind that the mistakes we make and continue to make are high school level mistakes. No way we should lose to Ga State....one stop to beat BYU and no way should we have been throttled by 31 to FL. It's mind numbing.

We are in a bad place right now and I don't see a way out of it at the moment and I don't think Pruitt has a answer because he's never been in this spot...He's been places where a 4-5 star isn't getting the job done you just plug in another 4-5 star...Prutt has never built a program and is failing so far at attempting to build one. Our only hope is the staff can hold on to some recruits and recruit better than the bottom half of the SEC because that's not going to cut it short or long range.

[SmokeyJoe]

No way, no how. We got left in the dust. Pitiful. A comedy of errors. There is no quick fix. We need a hot shot alum coach to come along. We don't even have that.

[SmokeyJoe]

I will just say that part of Fulmers charge at the time was to get that mess wrapped up quickly. I honestly don't know what all happened with the Currie debacle, and doubt many do. It's just a shame. I lived in KY for many years, and they always claimed their boosters would step in and pay whatever for buyouts, etc. I find that hard to believe. They got lucky in that Tubby jumped ship. No buyout. And I doubt they paid much of anything when Gillespie left. Calipari was available. They got lucky. The time to strike was when Kiffin left. Sad state of affairs.

[SmokeyJoe]

Probably similar with Bama. Stallings retired. Fifthchoicionne split, or got fired with cause. Dubose probably didn't make a whole bunch, nor Shula.... but our administrative ineptitude is quite obvious. Many an executive has crashed their company. No different.

[BanditVol]

Probably similar with Bama. Stallings retired. Fifthchoicionne split, or got fired with cause. Dubose probably didn't make a whole bunch, nor Shula.... but our administrative ineptitude is quite obvious. Many an executive has crashed their company. No different.

Fifthchoicioni split, no buyout.  Price was fired for cause, no buyout.  Big buyout with DuBose, but was over when saban was hired.  Huge buyout for Shula, but a big group of boosters got together to both buyout Shula and hire saban for the then-unheard of sum of, I think around $4 million.  They called it the "war chest", an alum told me about it at the time, and then stated that there was even money left over after buying out Shula and paying for saban, some of which went into improving facilities.  No word on where the balance went, but I think I know.   

[volsboy]

Fifthchoicioni split, no buyout.  Price was fired for cause, no buyout.  Big buyout with DuBose, but was over when saban was hired.  Huge buyout for Shula, but a big group of boosters got together to both buyout Shula and hire saban for the then-unheard of sum of, I think around $4 million.  They called it the "war chest", an alum told me about it at the time, and then stated that there was even money left over after buying out Shula and paying for saban, some of which went into improving facilities.  No word on where the balance went, but I think I know.   

5 championships in 10 years.  Seems the money was well spent, no matter how the Gumps spent the balance. Look at all the money we have wasted. Life is just not fair. You'd think we would accidentally have one of these last 4 coaches be successful.

[BanditVol]

5 championships in 10 years.  Seems the money was well spent, no matter how the Gumps spent the balance. Look at all the money we have wasted. Life is just not fair. You'd think we would accidentally have one of these last 4 coaches be successful.

Well Kiffin was a bad choice, period, but had he stayed, who knows.  Maybe we would have had some measure of success but ended up on probation.  Dooley was a criminally bad hire.  Had a losing record at La Tech, and the season we hired him was 4-8! 4-8!!! Why in the HELL did Hamilton hire him?  Butch Jones did corect some of the damage Doolley did, but unfortunatley he underachieved, did not permanently fix the damage, and was definitely not the long term solution.  Pruitt so far is looking worse than Jones. I am not ready to say worse than Dooley yet, because that would be epically bad, but am worried that he might be.

Bottom line, we made 2 awful hires (Kiffin and Dooley), one sub-optimal one (Jones), and one that so far is not looking good at all. But there is time to salvage Pruitt.  Odds may be against it, but there is time.

[Tnphil]

Dooley was a pretty dang good coach....couldn't recruit worth a crap but was a decent coach. He was odd bird.

[PirateVOL]

Dooley was a pretty dang good coach....couldn't recruit worth a crap but was a decent coach. He was odd bird.

Wonder if he ever found Rommel 

[murfvol]

I agree to some degree with Phil. Dooley's first year was pretty solid, due largely to a quality staff.

[BanditVol]

I agree to some degree with Phil. Dooley's first year was pretty solid, due largely to a quality staff.

The year we went 6-6?  What are y'all smoking?  Did you forget how he blew the game at LSU?  LSU was ranked 12th, down in red stick, we had them on the ropes down to one play, he decided to replace the entire DL on a goal line stand, LSU fumbled the snap and time ran out.  Except...we got flagged for too many players.  And to make it worse, there were THIRTEEN!  Then there was bammer.  Trailing by seven early in the second half, five minutes into it to be exact, we got a bad spot at our own thirty-two on third and one.  Dooley got mad, decided to go for it, got stuffed, bammer threw a TD on the next play and we ended up getting stomped 41-10.  And how could anyone forget the epic choke job in the Music City Bowl against UNC? 

I don't see anything good about any of that.  However, if you are saying we may have showed flashes at times, for instance, nearly beating LSU and hanging with bammer for half the game, etc., well there is a simple explanation for that.  Dooley still had a lot of leftover Fulmer/Kiffin players who had both talent and coaching.  By his last year, that was all gone.

Still and yet, our offense did do very well in his third year.  Had he hired someone other than Sunseri, maybe we go 8-4.  But had we done so, the SOB would have survived, so I guess it's for the best.  But to get to my point, he did pretty well with the offense.  I'd say it was mostly Chaney, but he seems to be doing okay at Mizzou, so maybe he's a good OC/bad HC.

[Creek Walker]

If Justin Wilcox hadn't left, Derek Dooley would still be the head coach at Tennessee. The more time passes, the clearer hindsight becomes: Dooley wasn't as bad as we all thought he was. IMO, he was a better coach than Butch hands down. Not even close. He just wasn't a very good recruiter.