It's not as bad as it seems

[mtvols]

Long post...

Everyday I read on this site and other web sites about how bad our football team is going to be this year. Some are predicting the worst season ever. Well I don’t see it that way. If you look at it by position we are just as good as we were at this same time last spring.

QB: With Stephens departure we are probably better off. We have a juco QB with game experience and a freshman with loads of potential. What did we have last year? Two QB’s that would throw lots of INT’s and had game management issues. We are better off this spring than at this time last year.

RB: Sure Hardesty had a great season, but last spring he was a back that had little experience and was injury prone. Who says that Tauren Poole can’t rush for 1,000 yards this season? Behind him we still have some talent. This is still a good position for us.

OL: Last spring we only had three returning starters and one of them was fighting a knee problem. We ended up playing a TE on the line and a couple walkon’s. And our line ended up fine. At least this year we have more talent. They just need game experience. The coaches are praising D. Thomas. J. James and Schofield will be good players for us. Shaw has experience. The only concern to me is at center and depth.

TE: Stocker is an all SEC type player. We are in great shape at TE. We just need a backup.

WR: At this time last year, we didn’t even know who our receivers were. And right before fall practice, we lost Rogers then Moore and Jones were hurt. This year we know who are starters are. Teague has a full year playing receiver and M. Milton will be a surprise. There is lots of talent coming in this fall. We will be fine at WR. We will have more talent going into fall camp than last year.

DE: This is a strong position for us. We go four deep with Walker, Martin, Bohannon, and G. Williams plus have a couple talented freshman already on campus in J. Smith and Miller. We are better off right now than at any time last spring.

DT: Sure Dan Williams had a great year, but at this time last spring he wasn’t even assured of a starting spot. We know that our starters at DT are Walls and Hughes. We just need to find some backups.

LB: We don’t have any McCoys, Mayos, or Simons playing LB, but we have about 6 players with experience due to all the injuries last year. Last spring we had one player, McCoy who we knew would start and the other two positions were up for grabs. Now due to all the injuries we have lots of experience with Reviez, Thompson, Frazier, Lathers, Mitchell-Thorton and G. King. Watch Austin Johnson here. He will be our surprise player. We have lots of bodies at LB and experience.

DB: Other than Berry and Rogan, most every position was up for grabs last year. This year we have a star in the making with J. Jackson and Myers will be a good safety for us. The CB position isn’t as bad as it seems. We have lots of experience returning. Watch Gordon and our juco signee D. Clark.

Kicking game: Last spring we had concerns about who would punt and our kicking game lost us probably two games last year. This spring we have our punter returning and Palardy coming in. Palardy will be a significant upgrade over Lincoln in FG’s and kickoffs. Finally someone to kick the ball to the end zone!

Coaching: Some doubt Dooley’s coaching ability and recruiting. Everyone was so excited about CLK’s staff. But really how many of us had even heard of Chaney, Garza, Cregg, Wilson, and D. Reaves a year and a half ago? Dooley coached for Nick Saban for 7 years. If he is good enough for Saban then he can coach. Regarding recruiting, in a few weeks he got us good players like J. Stone, Neal, J. Hunter, and D. Rogers. We wouldn’t have gotten those players otherwise.

Schedule: Sure it’s tough, but when is it not? At least this year we have Florida, Alabama, and Ole Miss coming to Knoxville including Oregon also. We whipped Georgia and South Carolina last year. I don’t know how many games we win, but I like our chances with UT Martin, UAB, Georgia, South Carolina, Memphis, Ole Miss, Vandy, and Kentucky. Maybe we can steal a game or two somewhere else.

I think everyone is just focused on the fact that we have to replace our entire OL and that we’ve lost players like Brown, Stephens, and Douglas this spring. So what? Last spring, we lost 12 players from the team. I want players that want to play for the VOLS! We had two walkon’s and basically a TE playing in the OL last year, so why can’t we replace them. This may not be a great year, but I see no reason why we can’t win enough games to go to a bowl game. At least this spring, we know who are starters will be at most every position. We couldn’t say that last spring. They may not be stars, but players like Hardesty, D. Williams, Crompton, etc. all stepped up and played well last year. Players on this team will step up and be good players for us this fall.

[LazhilUT]

I'm so glad someone wrote that.
Things indeed are not as bad!

[BJSforVols]

You got me buying in. I'm fired up now and ready for kickoff.

I do think this year's team is better than last year's team, and I also think it will be a better coached team. But, I think this season's schedule is 10 times tougher than last season. If last year's team was playing this season's schedule, we would not have gone bowling last season. Your motivational speech has me believing the team can get to a bowl this year though.

[VolLove1]

Thank you for the positive post! I like your perspective a lot better than the doom and gloom often read about on here!
Go Vols!

[futureVOL9]

And don't forget we still have james stone, Fulton, and pair coming in for the oline. We also have palardy for the kicking game. This is only the spring we have the fall to prepare even more!!
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[Incipient]

I've been thinking of typing this post for a while. There really aren't many positions where we're noticeably worse than last year. O-line is down in experience but up in talent. DB is definitely worse. TE and WR are better, as is DE.

The thing is that last year we had a few very pleasant surprises: Crompton, Hardesty, Stocker, Douglas, Williams. I'm not counting Walker because he was a pleasant surprise in spring ball, so we kinda knew what we had. Stocker will be back, but we need another pleasant surprise in those other four places. Either people are forgetting that you can expect a couple people to break out or they're assuming that last year's number of breakout players was anomalous. But if we can repeat some of last year's surprises (mostly a good QB and a half-way serviceable O-line), I think that another 7-5 record is well within the realm of possibility.

[bosgap]

oh just cause we play oregon our scedual is 10 times harder how do you arrive at that ,are they ten times better than the whole of the sec cause i think our scedual is eaiser since we got bama,flordia,ole miss at homethat is 3 of the toughest 5 games

[fickalicious]

I like the post, makes some good points. I am scared about the offensive line just like everyone else. But I think if dooley is a smart coach he will put them in positions to succeed. Three step drops for the QB's, intermediate routes for our amazing group of receivers (which I can't decide who all I want on the field because I like them all), and getting Poole the ball in space. This team can win games, it all is just gonna come back to if we can get some decent blocking from the trench men!

[Volfootball55]

This is a good post, we have the players to make a bowl game and the coaching is going to be fine. Let's just hope the injury bug doesn't bite to hard. All the doom and gloom needs to stop until we actually play a few games.

[Champ22]

Someone is looking through orange colored glasses.

[tim]

Good post dude. I've caught myself buying into the negativity but I agree with everything you said. GBO
Posted via VolNation Mobile

[USCGVOL]

I love this post! I hope your right. I would like to see some more commits but this gets me really excited for fall! Go Vols!

[VolFromNashville]

Good post. I think that we just need to lower our expectations for what this young team can do this season. The OL will be good in 2 - 3 years because they can learn together and grow with each other. I am glad you pointed out the comparisons from LAST Spring. We didn't know what was going to happen. Crompton, for all we knew, was going to be AWFUL. I know I didn't forsee a complete turnaround. Let's all just wait and see what happens. T- minus 6 days until the Orange & White game.

[RedStickVOL]

Originally Posted by bosgap

oh just cause we play oregon our scedual is 10 times harder how do you arrive at that ,are they ten times better than the whole of the sec cause i think our scedual is eaiser since we got bama,flordia,ole miss at homethat is 3 of the toughest 5 games

Agree with the content just not the grammar, spelling, syntax, punctuation, etc.

Here's a look at our schedule last year vs. this year.
2009-2010
W. Ky-UTMartin - We can call this a wash.
UCLA-Oregon - Would have been much tougher but Oregon lost their starting QB.
@FL-FL - Should be easier b/c it's at home and they don't have Tebow plus a host of other's that were Srs. or declared early.
Ohio-UAB - We can call this a wash too.
AU-@LSU - LSU is a tough place to play especially if this is a night game and they figure out their offense.
GA-@GA - Made harder b/c it's away, but made easier b/c they too are replacing a Sr. QB.
@ALA-ALA - Made easier b/c it's at home and they lost Areanas, Cody, and McLain.
SCAR-@SCAR - What can you say, it's South Carolina.
UM-@UM - What can you say, it's Memphis.
@Miss-Miss - Made easier with the departure of McCluster and Snead. It's also at home.
VAN-@VAN - What can you say, it's Vanderbilt.
@UK-UK - Made easier b/c it's at home.

All in all, LSU will probably be harder than Auburn, but the rest of the are a wash or are easier.

Thoughts...

[VolFromNashville]

Look, I never take any game for granted after the Wyoming Incident. I think we will win one we are not supposed to and lose one we are supposed to win. Just MHO.