VTTW Board Index

I have no problem with Butch listing a large part of the student body on the depth chart. However, I am intrigued by the OL portion of it. If it's remotely close to accurate, more shakeups are occurring than anticipated.

After the Crowder news, I'm even more confused about the OL. Weisman clearly didn't think he was starting, or he wouldn't have pondered transferring, and apparently Mack was blindsided by the chart. Throw in Kendrick possibly getting promoted by teammates, and it seems people management may not be optimal there.

Lesser talent that believes everyone gets a fair shake, can be serviceable. Ticked lesser talent is awful. I'm wondering if we have poor talent and poor management on the OL. I dunno. I'm still fired up about the season, but there's too much smoke in our area of concern.

That having been said, it appears our best five may be starting.

we won't know shizzle till game time

I think you're reading way too much into practice reports, murf.

But I crave practice reports, no matter how incomplete

The problem is that media get to see very little of practice and even less for team periods.

I note that, other than the open practice, the scrimmages were completely closed this year.  Even when you see a scrimmage it is so tightly scripted it is difficult to really get a feel for individual or unit performance.

I have little interest in watching the O&W game because it has turned into a football equivalent of the Rocky top league

One thing I've noted is the staff has really worked to dampen enthusiasm for the two DTs but has done little to reign in similar gushing with JJ and Phillips.

I've typed this much so, IMO:
Unless the ROT position becomes a liability I think Coleman is your starting Center going forward (look at tape of last years games as to why)
I think Jack Jones starts at ORG sooner rather than later.  If he hadn't got nicked up I think he would have started Sat.
I think as a result of the above the OL will be better than last year.  How much better is difficult to say but whether it is coach speak or reality the vibe out of the staff has changed the last week, roughly correlating to point 1

Defensively I think if Foreman performs adequately we will be OK.  If not then as soon as Martin is ready we'll see Cam move to nickel
Unless injured or ill I see TK at safety along side Randolph.  He really improved last year once he had a chance to play after the ill fated start at OU.  He seems very instinctive but needed to get his playbook and reads down. 
I think Mike will be improved from last year.  AJ improved last year, some areas significantly.  However, he was out of place in a Jancek defense.  In the passing game he remained a liability for the most part.  While the current top 2 at Mike are smaller, the increase in DT size compensates for that as well as the increase in overall speed and ability to range from sideline to sideline.  A key unknown is their tackling ability, if it is remotely as good as AJs ability we will be more than adequate there.

One thing more, without the two DB injuries I think we would have spent a considerable amount of time in dime Saturday.  While the talent level is better than last year we are back to a numbers issue.

My guess is Preston Williams had been practicing cutting for some time before his "breakout" this week. I know he wasn't cleared before an official ACT, but he didn't just start being impressive.

Also, I'm very high on TK, Jr. He seems to have very good ball skills.

Any thoughts on Charles Moseley? I'm optimistic he gets some time as a backup.

I think he absolutely will be in the rotation at guard. It'll be interesting to see what we do with all these guards going forward, as it seems the staff is pretty high on Robertson, Thomas, Wiesman, Jones, Mosley, and even Boulware. I would say expect Mosley to start sooner rather than later but he's got to get past Robertson or Jones for that to happen.

I just hope we have enough quality depth to rotate guys in for a series or two this year.  Keep the starter fresh and gain experience for the younger guys.

I think we have that at guard. I just hope Hall and Richmond can get a little PT at tackle without getting a QB killed.

Not to make too fine a point, but they are already much, much better than at this point last year.  At the beginning of last season the O line was about the weakest it's ever been at the University of Tennessee, and of course statistically they were near the bottom of the NCAA in almost every category.

The question is how much better are they than what we saw at the end of the year?  I am discounting the bowl game because I am not sure how enthused Iowa was, Iowa is a particularly slow B10 team, and bowl games do not have a history of providing an accurate gauge of the next season.

I am more concerned about how we ended the regular season with 6 sacks vs Mizzou and 3 at vandy, even with a season to improve and Dobbs at QB.

This season is pretty much all on the OL.