From our friends at Rocky Top Talk

[Clockwork Orange]

They're on #8 in "10 Questions for 2012," a series I just discovered this morning. #8 may as well be in the top 3, because it's a huge question that has gone unanswered the last half a decade with 3 different head coaches. We are now moving on to our 4th defensive coordinator in that timeframe . . . Does Sunseri have the answer?

Just some discussion fodder. Any thoughts?

#8 - Can the Vols get more pressure on the QB?

#9 - Special Teams

#10: New Wide Receivers

Fun fact: the returning starter with the most sacks last season was Prentiss Waggner. A defensive back. With two sacks.

I think sometimes we feel like we haven't had a good kicker since Jeff Hall - you take the 2007 and 2010 versions of Daniel Lincoln with a smile, I'd like to point out - but with Palardy, it's been incredibly frustrating. He's been hurt. He's nailed a 52 yarder at Alabama. He's made just two-thirds of his kicks (14 of 21) - you think that doesn't sound so bad, but consider last year he was next-to-last among those in the SEC with enough kicks to qualify at 64.3% (9 of 14). Half the kickers in this league made over 72% of their kicks last season. Eight kickers did the same in 2010. Ten did in 2009.

Unless Zach Rogers or Jacob Carter gives us something real, we're going to have to have at least two of these newcomers be productive right away. Which two and how productive? We're about to find out...but for a program that just pulled in the best group of wide receivers in the country in February, Tennessee now has the weapons in the starting lineup, the quarterback to get it done, and the potential down the depth chart to make Wide Receiver U a present reality in 2012.

One note on that quote from # 9 . . . was Jeff Hall really that good? He was clutch in that 1998 season, and clutch kicking really does matter . . . but Palardy's 64.3% is not so different than Hall's career percentage heading into the 1998 season (44/67 or 65.7%). Even when you include his stronger senior season, Hall's career percentage was only 68.8%. Statistically, Alex Walls and James Wilhoit were better kickers, and Hall is about on par with Daniel Lincoln. I think his big kicks in 1998 gave us a much more favorable memory of him than his career performance would merit.

[BanditVol]

One note on that quote from # 9 . . . was Jeff Hall really that good? He was clutch in that 1998 season, and clutch kicking really does matter . . . but Palardy's 64.3% is not so different than Hall's career percentage heading into the 1998 season (44/67 or 65.7%). Even when you include his stronger senior season, Hall's career percentage was only 68.8%. Statistically, Alex Walls and James Wilhoit were better kickers, and Hall is about on par with Daniel Lincoln. I think his big kicks in 1998 gave us a much more favorable memory of him than his career performance would merit.

Palardy does seem to have a worse rep than he deserves, but I think two things contribute to that.  One, he has misses from closer than he should.  If his distance stats are available, I suspect he might have missed more inside the 40 and even 30 than his peers or Jeff Hall.  Two, he has had some U-G-L-Y misses, particularly at close range, and they have occasionally came at bad times in the game, where we were hanging with a superior opponent and still had hope.

In short I suspect his percentage as a function of range suxes and then there is the "how he missed" part, but even factoring that in I don't think he is as bad as most seem to think he is, and I have hope that he has a great year this season (assuming he is stil the starter, lol).

[BanditVol]

Okay, I got motivated enough to look it up.  Here are the details:

                      XPM XPA XP% FGM FGA FG% 1-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+  LNG  PTS
Michael Palardy   25   26  96.2   9    14   64.3 0/0   5/5      1/2    2/5   1/2  52  52

So I see two things...one he missed a freaking EXTRA POINT, which should never happen.  While I don't recall the details, I think that almost cost us the Vandy game?  I can't recall when he missed it, but I know it mattered big time in the game.

Two, he was only 4/9 from outside 30 yards, including an abysmal 2/5 from 40-49.

Granted, I don't know how long those 40-49 yarders he missed were....if they were mostly 48-49 yarders maybe it's not that big a deal.

Overall, he did at least go 5-5 inside 30, and I thought he had missed at least one of those.   I would say looking at the details, he just needs to be more consistent and work on extending his range a bit and he will be fine.