I hate Bama as much as anybody, but I have to admit, that winning drive was kick ass!

It was a Chavis special....

Alabama will still overpower Georgia in the SECCG and Oregon in the BCSCG.Georgia and Oregon are soft

As for Oregon, I truly don't believe bammer will come anywhere near overpowering them.  Oregon held it's own against Auburn in their game.  You might suggest Auburn of 2009 was not as good as bammer this year, but I think the jury is out on that one.  I would argue that Auburn faced a much tougher schedule in 2009 than bammer's this year.

If it does come down to Oregon vs. bammer...I will be looking forward to seeing it.  My opinion of Saban's comments on the spread is below somewhere.  Short version...he just don't wanna face it.   

Buck fama anyway.....

Alabama will still overpower Georgia in the SECCG and Oregon in the BCSCG.Georgia and Oregon are soft

They have to get past Tamu first.  I expect the Aggies to give them a game. They are, by far, the second best team on bammer's schedule this year.

Tamu has only lost to UF and LSU, and by less than a TD to both....

You know, one where you under perform but pull it out.  Because that usually happens to MNC teams.

Horse manure!   They got EXPOSED by LSU.  LSU is one of the better teams in the country, true, but the drop off from there on bama's schedule is tremendous.  Michigan is at best above average.  I think their most impressive win was MSU, but we all know that MSU was greatly overated, a point just driven home by Tamu yesterday.  From there take your pick of Ole MIss or Tennessee as the next toughest, and that says it all.

Prior to playing LSU, here is their SEC "schedule"  Arkansas, Ole Miss, Tennessee, MSU and Missouri.  What a freaking JOKE.  They managed to avoid USCe, uga and Florida, easily the three "tough" teams in the East.   I am almost positive that Slive is slanting the schedule to ensure an SEC team in the BCS, but what can you do.

"you have to have a game like that". Horse crap!   I think Tamu is going to give them all they can handle.  Unfortunately they will almost certainly face UGA in the SECCG and UGA will be a big dog (no pun intended).

Which is why I hope Oregon wins out, and I will definitely be rooting for them if it comes down to it.  Just this morning on ESPN radio, a huge bammer fan admitted that Oregon scared him.  Which is truly amazing....

Screw this "pull for the SEC" crap.  Hate bammer!  Hate bammer!  Hate bammer!  

.

There is one characteristic of I'd say >90% of the long runs are when AJ gets blocked.  He tends to be very slow getting off of blocks (see at least two of the draw plays yesterday, including a TD).  Lathers has been better at blitzes from the middle, much more so than AJ. 

I'd say it's worse than you think.  I re-wound some of their draw plays with AJ yesterday.  On all of the ones I checked, at least three, he not only apparently thought it was a pass play but he ran right at the fullback or whoever it was that was supposed to block him. It was really odd. It's as if he saw the blocker and ran right at him.  I dunno, maybe he thought the guy had the ball?     That's  a joke, but I'm really not laughing.  It was bad,  He got sucked into the line on every single draw.  You might think he would learn....

As for Waggner and Teague... my guess is that the the thought process is play the young guys and move on.  But they probably gave up on the experienced guys too soon.  It's one thing to bench Teague from being a starter...another thing if he never sees the field.  As bad as we have played back there, I'd like to see both Teague and Waggner get more snaps.  They can't .... POSSIBLY...do any worse.   

I know, most folks would say...NONE! And they'd be more right than wrong.
  Sal initally installed the 3-4, and that's been the excuse some have used for our lack of ahhh "stellar play". However, it appears to me that we've not been running the 3-4 in the last few games. It may be a hybrid of the 3-4 or something but it looks more like a "4-3 cover 2" most of the time. Heck, sometimes it looked like a single safety. I know you don't use one defenseive alignment all the time, but a team has a general D they run with adjustments off of it. Let me say to that I don't record the games, this is just an impression from watching.
  Correct me if I'm wrong here but could we be running more a cover 2 man and/or zone, where the lbs take away the curl, the dig routes, the flats, etc? The corner sits out 5 to maybe 7 yards and watches the receiver and takes away slants, and is supposed to jam the crap out of the receiver if he's on a streak to disrupt the pattern and make it even easier for the safety to shut him down. Which brings up a major gripe of mine, why aren't our corners jamming, do they even know what a jam is? So anyway, what do you guys think we're running?

I have no idea.  My observation from being at games and watching tape is that we play the pass better when we are tight in coverage.  Playing off and letting the safety come over doesn't seem to work for us.  That's about the limit of my observations.

Well, however our game with Vandy goes, I don't think they will shut us out at least.   

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/apr/19/contracts-for-ut-football-assistants-include/


When I read that article previously, I thought Chaney had the only 3-year contract.  I was wrong.  It's Sunseri 

Whatever you think about Wilcox leaving, there is no justification for Sunseri to have the highest salary with the longest tenure.  None at all.   Talk about an EPIC FAIL....

A related question...why two coaches for the DBs?  This might be common in the NFL, but seems almost unheard of in college.  I am mostly going by how it's been at Tennessee and a few other schools, so I truly don't know, but it seems unusual.  It also seems like a good way to have the db's be uncoordinated, but WDIK.   

Coach ..................... Position ......................................... 2012 salary ....... Contract end date

Sal Sunseri ............. Defensive coordinator .................... $750,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2015 - 1

Jim Chaney ............. Offensive coordinator .................... $550,000 ........... Dec. 31, 2013 - 2

Sam Pittman ........... Offensive line ................................. $275,000 .......... Feb. 28, 2014

John Palermo .......... Defensive line ................................ $275,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2014

Charlie Coiner ........ Tight ends/special teams ............... $275,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2013 - 3

Darin Hinshaw ........ Receviers/recruiting coordinator .... $225,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2014

Jay Graham ............. Running backs ............................... $225,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2014

Derrick Ansley ........ Cornerbacks .................................. $200,000 ............ Feb. 28, 2014

Josh Conklin ........... Safeties ...........................................$200,000 ........... Feb. 28, 2014

1 - Sunseri was the only new assistant to receive a three-year deal.

2 - The most recent signed contract for Chaney is from last summer

Not quite....the scholarship reductions start next year.

And no Barkley.  Who, BTW, came back because Luck and Griffin were in the draft, not out of any true desire to stay in college one more year.

I've thought all along that Kiffin was just going to spiral down at USCw.   I know some were impressed with Kiffin's one year here.  I was not.   The team may have been more disciplined and consistent, but his most impressive win was over a 6-7 uga team and IMO it was nullified by the jokes against Ole Miss and in the bowl.  I also thought that between UCLA and Auburn, we should have beat at least one of them.  And I will never forgive him for pissing away a chance to beat bammer when no one gave us a chance, and mess up their MNC.   

But yeah, he's pretty much screwed next year.

With an average D, we're 8-1 and talking about a possible BCS bowl right now.

7-2 mybe but yeah

That's about the same number of Vol fans that showed up for bammer.  The difference is, Troy didn't bring 30,000 50,000 of their own fans to fill it up.  

No need to exagerate

College Football News thinks Tennessee will play West Virginia in the Music City Bowl

NORTH CAROLINA in the MCB.  We owe those little shizzles.

Then again, with this year's D....shudder.

CBS Sportsline has Tennessee picked to play Central Florida in the Liberty Bowl. I would go to that if I could

I like Memphis and have family there, so I would go.

At this point I would take Monte Kiffin as Defensive Coordinator

After he gave up 61?

But yeah, I'd take anyone with a pulse over sunseri 

You have to realize that everyone is still pissed at the Kiffins.  But seriously, the mastermind of the Tampa 2, one of the greatest minds in the NFL defensive history, supposedly, should not give up 61 to anyone.

It's that new-fangled spread, I guess. 

nm

Very true, but I hate me some Kiffin.   

LOL.  I feel just slightly better knowing that the Kiffins gave up13 more points than us on one of the worst days ever for the UT defense.

My goodness Lester is crazy. I like the guy, but his thought processes are, uh, nonexistent? Fake fg from makeable distance, timeout on last drive followed by an attempted long fg. Yeah, it's bizarre. Oh, and LSU still has no QB.

Lester is crazy, I will grant you that.  I mean, he literally eats grass.

But LSU has no QB???? Mettenberger played a great game.  Not sure where you get that.   

Have patience grasshopper.

If Dooley is fired the week before Kentucky and we end up losing, I'm going to be very pissed. 

If he's fired, then I say after the last game.

A new coach, if there is one, will be better off having a bowl game to prepare for IMO.  So you might as well hope we win out....

prevent the win

I know.  I love the guy, but I don't really want him in the booth at the end of a close game.   He needs to hire a specialist to call plays the last 2 minutes of a close game. 

Miles cost LSU that game when he went for it on 4th and they got stuffed instead of kicking the field goal.  Can't say I'm too upset though, Brent Mussedupburger was already sailvating over Kansas St and Notre Dame in the championship.

Yeah, but they might have missed it anyway.  Might also explain the stupid fake in the first half.

In retrospect, with Danielson pointing out that the LSU kicker would be setting a personal record at 45 yards, Miles should have gone for it on 4th and 6th.  Granted it hadn't worked all night, but Mettenberger was hot and one more pass seals the deal.

Too bad.  LSU was so close.

Sigh, do you honestly think I'm just making stuff up?

I do not believe everything I read,fyi.  But when some people speak, like well respected contributors on Volquest's pay site.. It carries more weight than if you or I just threw it out there. 

I never questioned what your UW alum friend said.    But it's a fact Dooley and Wilcox didn't jive.

I don't doubt that it's true that Dooley and Wilcox did not see eye to eye.  There were stories about that all along.  To what extent it was true, I dont know.  All I am saying is that until recently I didn't realize that Wilcox got a much better offer from UW.  That changes the way I view it.

Probably they were not getting along that great.  But if I personally am not happy with my job, and I get a much better offer, I probably take it.  If there is no other offer, maybe I suck it up and stay.  Just saying.....

Dooley didn't want him and Wilcox wasn't keen on working for Dooley anymore.

I followed the situation up till the point that Wilcox and all the other coaches bailed, then tuned it all out. It was just too ridiculously bad.  After losing to UK, we turn over 70% of our staff...which can't be good.  It just can't be.  I didn't even want to think about it anymore.

I don't recall it being very clear at the time what happened with Wilcox.  It seemed it could be either Wilcox got mad and left, Dooley ran him off, or a little of both.

My Washington friend said that UDub fans were all excited to get Wilcox.  He has ties in the area and apparently they wanted him even before he came to UT.

That was an element I had previously been unaware of.

What I know for fact, an actual fact, is that Wilcox is definitely getting a lot more than he made at UT.   Those facts can be looked up.

Dooley did make noises about wanting a more aggressive D after Wilcox left.  Was that true or was he just spinning the fact that he couldn't hold on to Wilcox? 

Someone also posted below that Dooley gave Wilcox a bad eval at the end of the year and Wilcox got mad and left.

All that stuff is just speculation, as far as I am concerned.  I certainly didn't sit in on Justin's eval with Dooley or hear what Hart was saying to Dooley or ..... whatever.

I DO know that Wilcox is getting paid  a lot more...something I didn't know before last week.  As far as I am concerned, everything else is speculation.

Sorry...more than 140 characters.  

bama seems to get a lot of calls.  They actually called holding on bama in the first half, believe it or not     Shocked.  I am shocked.

Exactly, a lot of these folks were saying that Sunseri was an upgrade. Wilcox is one of the brightest young coaches in the game, and out brilliant head coach ran him off.

Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't.  I heard from a Washington alum that they wanted Wilcox really bad and offered him more money.

Dooley and/or Hart refused to bid to get him back.  Dooley well have not wanted to keep him, but then again, how do you outbid someone for an assistant coach after going 5-7?   

We beat Troy! Rejoice! 

Beats the hizzle out of losing to them...or Wyoming...or Kentucky...