VTTW Board Index

#11 has to start catching the football. It wouldn't have counted, but still.

Less juking by Milton would be good.

The stuff at the bottom of the screen is too large.  :mad:

It's Johnny Majors day, so we've GOT to do a quick kick at some point, right?

I think we've taken more shots downfield in the first 8 minutes of this game than we did all last season.

Milton can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Sure would be nice if we could actually complete one, though. :dunno:

Preach

Like the play calling

That team is s-l-o-w. No excuse not to win this game.

What cleats are we using? Lotta slipping.

Slipping seemed to contribute to #97 losing contain.

Just get the 3. Please.

Whew. Great kick.

That clown show in the red zone looked very familiar. At least we got 3 out of it.

We've had a missed wide open seam route for a TD, and a 2nd and Goal at the 3. Cumulatively those possessions garnered six points.

Should have 21 right now. Grr.

 :dielaughing:

Was that a strip sack?

Nice stand by the D.

Very nice indeed Bandit. Listening to Pitt broadcast and they said Hooker is warming up. We shall see.

So Hooker looks....not great.

How bad is Harrison Bailey anyway? :banghead:

Lord hammercy. Not sure we recover. Hope we do  :powert:

This is a valid question. We may all get to find out.

Wow. After that garbage half I'll take it.

Hopefully the stafff can instill some composer and Martinez can figure the middle of the field that the Chief never could

Amazing how many receivers we had open in deep routes in the 1st qt.

The good news is I trust Heupel to get points assuming Milton isn't at QB. The bad news is Pitt's QB is unconscious.

Our D is about as bad as we thought, unfortunately

Hooker shaky on first series, then settled into it a bit. Lets see how he does. Hope Small is back  :powert:

So about Harrison Bailey...

Bad fizzleing call on the return

Let it be noted I love the hustle of Banks. He may mess up at times, but he's always ballin'.

Please keep fighting. That's all I ask.

Excellent uncalled run for Hooker

The missed FG returned for a TD?  I thought that was a good call on block in the back and the block was key in freeing the runner.  It was not a bad attempt by the blocker, he just barely missed gettting on the front side of the would be tackler.

However these BULLshizzle holding calls are killing us.  I don't think they have flagged PITT once for holding, and hell, they actually have holding in their freaking gameplan. :bird:

What is this “tight end”??

Have they said why Brooks isn’t kicking off?
Wilson doesn’t have the leg for it

Tackling went to crap that drive

Im afraid the D is running outta GAS.  Too thin a squad.  Gotta dig deep.

Great fight. Think Wright was in on 2nd down, but I'll take it.

Can’t with 2 catches and Warrwn with 3 fans a TD) in the 2nd half

How did the fizzleing right line judge miss the 2nd down TD run????  And of course ESPfizzleWADS don't have a clear view of the play.  These refs are pretty fizzleing biased in the calls on the field. 

We desperately need non affiliated conference officiating in non conference games.  This conference rivalry BS has gone too far, apparently.

the HL NEVER signaled TD, ever
But when it was Pitt his hand were up literally before he crossed the line

Bullshizzle spot! :bird:

Clearly he got inside the 2, and the shizzlehead spotted it outside the 2.  MOTHER fizzleER

BUNCHA CHEATING MOTHER fizzleERS

Well that sucked

That spot was horrible

Why did they move the ball to the center of the field before they measured it? They should have spotted it right where he was tackled.

ACC Crew

Call it sour grapes if you want but Pitt got a lot of help to win that game. Sure, there were plenty of things UT did bad (for starters, just get under center and sneak it on fourth and inches!!!) but when you’re the underdog you can’t overcome garbage calls like we saw all day long.

https://twitter.com/UnnecRoughness/status/1436778953407074309?s=20

I'll complain a bit later, but I'm proud of the team for not quitting. Also, shout-out to Milton for being engaged even after coming out of the game.

I thought the team played pretty well.  I even liked how Milton ran the offense - it was, of course, that he just could not get the throw to work right for him.  It was kinda mind boggling for sure - he threw amazingly consistent - consistently overthrew by 3-5 yards on just about 80% of his throws.  Even when you could tell he was trying to throw it easy, it came outta there like a cannon.  Just a fizzleing head scratcher.  Hooker threw some great passes, but it just seemed to me he ran things a little more awkwardly.  But yeah, Hooker definitely produced some yardage and some good drives.  I wouldn't quite give up on Milton yet, despite the downright dismall throwing performance.  If he can get over that hump, he will be great.  I thought the D was pretty good, just TOO DAMN THIN!  Jeez, we really need more bodies out there. 

I am liking the coaching so far.  and special teams.... wow!  How bout that?!?!?!?!?!

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_B5GFHX0AEUXo9?format=jpg&name=small)

It's inexplicable.  Totally inept and fairly biased.  It's very likely that Pitt would scored at the end, perhaps, but the fizzleing refs help steal a TD from us there at the end... no doubt.  Hell, they tried to steal another TD from us on our previous drive.  Total unmitigated BULL SHIITE.    :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird: :bird:

Some crummy calls for sure. Crap happens.

So many penalties.  So many opportunities we didn't capitalize on.

But, for once it absolutely never felt like we were out of it.  Heckuva effort.

Good fight.......But. At some point you have to make plays to win games. Had it down on the 4 and NADA points.....Then took it over on their 30 and throw a INT. Winners go win games in those situations.

100%

You can blame the officials all you want, but our staff should have challenged that spot. The side judge was in no position to make that spot. Someone in the coaching box had to be reviewing that and CJH should have challenged it. There was plenty of time - that cannot be an excuse - because there was an official timeout for the measurement.

Yep. Also, Wright was likely in on 2nd down on the previous (?) possession.

In fairness, the officials may have never seen an American football game before today.

 :confused:

thinking timing on long routes is correctable. Also worth noting that Milton only started five games at UM in a weird pandemic year with no spring or summer camps.  I am okay with Hooker, for the most part he did well, and more optimistic about Milton than before

To this point, Milton has been almost exactly want UM fans said he would be. I'm still hopeful that CJH and staff can transform him.

Didnt you think he played better today?

With the exception of long routes, of course 😂

Yeah, he throws a terrible deep ball. If he could just complete 1-2 a game it would open up a lot of things underneath. He's actually serviceable on the short/medium stuff.

I thought Milton played worse today than last week, to be honest. Pitt couldn’t cover our guys deep in the first half and we just failed to cash in while we had the momentum. Though to be fair the one to Hyatt in the end zone is a ball he has to come down with if he’s going to be the receiver he claims to be. He may be the most over hyped player on the roster based on his performance the first two games.

I thought Hooker looked okay. Not great, but he gave me more to feel better about than Milton.

Heupel was calling for the challenge. I’m not sure why he didn’t take the time out and challenge it himself. Unless he was thinking he just had 1 time out left and was confident in his ability to get the 6 inches on 4th down. Clearly he should’ve challenged it. But there’s also zero excuse for it not to be automatically reviewed. The guys in the booth had how long to review it and didn’t? Just an inexplicable turn of events.

I don't know. I definitely don't think he played well. We should have been up 28-0 with the receivers that we had open on deep routes imo. So, I want really impressed.

If he can't compete the deep open routes I don't think he can play in this offense. He doesn't run as well as Hooker either imo.

I just think that you must burn that last TO in that situation. Force the review. We should have had coaches in the press box telling him that Hooker had made the line to gain.

That said, blaming the 4th down failure on a lack of communication in your line is a weak response to not going under center on that 4th down. I'm always in favor of under center there.

Milton seems to be able to operate the offense much more rapidly.

Hooker is a better runner.

Hooker is a better passer.

I just don’t get it. I hope we aren’t seeing a redoux of Butch Jones and his infallible offense. My gut says that Heup has way more P5 experience and his offense will work way better. But the reluctance to go under center in crucial down snd inches situations looked painfully familiar.

I gotta say though that for the most part I’m loving the creativity on offense. If we had a QB who could throw accurate balls we would be having fun right now.

Heupel is not Butch. He's mentally stable, and a solid coach. That having been said, if he sticks with Milton his fate will be the same.

I'll also say this. If Hooker had played at least a quarter last week 5,000 more tickets would have been sold. No one wants to see Milton.

I agree. With our lack of depth on D, I'm not so sure that a tad bit slower is a such bad thing.

It's a refreshing change to feel like we have an offense that can potentially put points on the board. We just need adequate QB play. We don't need great, we just need adequate imo.

What I'm getting at is that last week Milton was said to have "uncorrectable" issues, like not seeing wide open WRs.  He did seem to find the open guys this week, just overthrew on long routes.  That has to be correctable. If it's not, nothing is.  Underthrowing might indicate not having the arm. Overthrowing would seem to be a simple correction in timing.

So yeah, he overthrew badly and cost us definitely one, and maybe as any as three long TDs, but he didn't seem to have a lot of the issues he had last game.

Overall agree that Hooker outplayed him and IMO should be the starter for now, but Milton IMO was overall better in this game. 

I guess we will see going forward.  For all the negativity on Milton, he has played less than most realize.  He started less than half the pandemic season at UM after having a shortened spring camp and no summer camp. I think he has some upside.

We will find out I suppose.

I disagree
He did see the field a bit better but has ZERO accuracy on throws longer than 10-15 yards
He flat holds onto the ball forever and then seems to load up to compensate
Hooker hit two passes to the TEs that Milton would have overthrown bigly IMO
Those seam routes were there all day, one of our QBs didn't see them very often

I really hope that Milton turns out to be a good QB. He's got a cannon arm and did air out out to some open receivers today. So far I'm not really impressed, though.

I read somewhere the other day: "If you need Milton to throw it 50 yards, he can throw it 50 yards. If you need him to throw it 40 yards, he can throw it 50 yards."

Very much agree with JeffCo's thoughts that adequate QB play would get us a long way

I agree 100% that this is the problem, and don't want to understate it, as it's a serious issue. It was very frustrating to watch today, especially the last one in the second quarter to (I think) Hyatt that almost made it.

But from what I could see, it was his only problem today.  He was accurate on shorter routes, held the ball less time, and made better decisions (though still a few questionable ones). 

I mostly liked what I saw from Hooker.  There were a lot of people saying Hooker is a better runner than Milton and I was skeptical, but they were right.  Of course, I hadn't really seen Hooker play at Va Tech, other than maybe a few minutes here and there channel surfing.  Haven't watched an entire Va Tech game since the game in Bristol.

Speaking of which, I hope we do that again some time.  Didn't make the first one.

Is Huepel the offensive guru we think he is or has he just been lucky to have had good Qb's to begin with at his other gigs. Anyone would look like an offensive guru if the QB is already talented. Andy Reid was not called an offensive guru until he got Mahomes. Hopefully Heupel is as advertised and the QB play improves immensley.

I, for one, would make a motion that your argumentative ass be banned if you start the our-coach-sucks nonsense two games in.

Do I have a second?   :dielaughing:

Seconded, send BamaPerry packing

Very few vol fans can hold out for three years. The landscape of college football has changed so much. I remember giving Johnny a wide latitude in his results. I have not seen patience in the vols nation since then. Here is what I'm going to do... I'm going to be happy if they compete. They obviously did yesterday since you guys went from criticizing the coaching to criticizing the officiating. I will never be the first person to call for a coach's resignation. I don't have the stomach to continue to go through what we have been.

I think that most sane people (those who are not trolls and the like) would normally be satisfied with just a few things from our staff: (1) a team that competes and doesn’t give up, (2) visible team progress from game to game, (3) sound coaching and player development, and (4) honesty. I’m sure there may be other items, but if this staff can deliver just those four things I think that most fans would be satisfied. Everything else would likely take care of itself.

Having watched these two games there are some signs of hope. We lost a lot of talent to the portal and had four starters out for yesterday’s game, we had an abundance of penalty yardage, we got a terrible spot on a crucial 3rd down play, we lost the turnover battle 3-0, but this team still competed to the end with a decent Pitt team. I, personally, am a little more than cautiously optimistic that CJH and staff can move this program forward.

it is painfully obvious that Hooker is the better QB.  I just think Milton has a lot more upside.  I would love to see what Bailey could do, but I guess he just can't be anywhere near a run threat as the other two are.

While I agree with you what worries me is the inconsistency with Hooker
He can look deer in the headlights, confused or all world
1st series he was not ready it seemed
2nd series he looked all world
another series he looked confused the entirety of the series
The pick was simply a JG type throw, stare down the receiver, throw late and throw to the wrong spot - a trifecta that JG patented

As an aside, the Milton throw to Hyatt that knocked him out of the game (literally) was similar - Way, way freaking late (Hyatt had 10+ yards on the defender at the 20 - if Milton throws the ball on time he hits Hyatt around the 10 for an uncontested catch), behind him (similar to a LOT of JG throws) and the fact that Hyatt managed to twist his body around to get his hands on it was amazing
Also, Milton throws everything on a cloths line, if he puts some air under the throws yesterday it gives time for the OPEN receivers to get there, and more time to adjust - he has a cannon for an arm but doesn't have a clue how to use the cannon

Agree completely on Hooker in first series. Had the look of a guy who expected to ride the pine all season and had not prepared as well as he could. Did improve a lot as the game wore on though.

As for the int, if it helps he only threw 4 in two years at VaTech. Yesterday was a bad one, hopefully it was an anomaly.

Agree on both points.

Good point about Hooker's VT track record. That makes me feel better, as does his ability to take off on uncalled runs if the situation warrants.

Yeah, I keep hearing that "Hooker is a better runner than Milton" and was skeptical, but I am a true believer now, for sure.   :patriot: :powert:

Just asking a legit question there snowflake. I think Huepel will be okay if he can get the recruits.