Azzani's coaching ability

[LittleVol]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good but what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All of this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson, the new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good put what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson then new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

Ima wichu on this.

 

[BigOrange15]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good put what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson then new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

Good post.

 

[KBVol]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good put what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson then new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

Wow. Talk about a glass half full.....

 

[titansvolsfaninga]

All you have to do is look at Pig Howard. Look at Josh Smith before the injury. Those that are complaining, are the ones that always complain. That is why they are on my ignore list.

 

[tobybeast]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good put what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson then new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

Great post! I agree this should be a breakout year for UT!!! :thumbsup:

 

[VFL-82-JP]

I like your analysis, Little. Look forward to (*fingers crossed*) a less injury-addled year for the WR squad. I think they and an improved Josh Dobbs are gonna put up some inspiring numbers and a lot of highlight reel visits. Go Vols!

 

[FïreBall]

I like your analysis, Little. Look forward to (*fingers crossed*) a less injury-addled year for the WR squad. I think they and an improved Josh Dobbs are gonna put up some inspiring numbers and a lot of highlight reel visits. Go Vols!

...and if that happens.. just think of how big this could be for Hurd & Kamara. It will be hard for a defense to key on a mobile QB like Dobbs and a good WR squad and also good RBs.. Having all that should also take tons of pressure off the OLine IMO. I think healthy WRs having a decent year would be great, but if they play to their potential.. Oh man!!

 

[UT-Rex]

"A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine."

 

[Cosmo]

The complaint that I had last year was more on the routes that they ran, but I think that was more on the OC. The WR were always in traffic. Seems like Pig was the only receiver that could get YAC (and he fought for them all). Maybe it was do to poor QB decisions or the line collapsing.

 

[ItsAllVols]

It seems a lot of us are divided on him. Yeah he sounds good put what has his product done on the field? Well, let's look at that.

His first year he had a ton of freshman WR's (Croom, Smith, North)
He turned North into one of the most clutch WR's in the conference. Not dynamic but clutch! Turned Croom into an actual WR and not a TE. Coached up our little Knoxville 3 star into a very viable mid-range threat despite drops (broken hand probably has something to do with that).
A true sophomore in 5'8" Pig Howard who became our best threat offensively. All this with inconsistent QB play.

2nd year.
-North was off to a great start! then got injured...
-Josh Smith was looking like a veteran. Great start, then he got injured...
- Von Pearson then new talented JUCO was already starting to show his ability, then... HE GOT INJURED.
Still... Pig Howard continued to be the leading WR, Jason Croom continued to be a great blocker and 3rd down option, Josh Malone -who was injured- showed promise.
And all of this with one of the worst O-line and Offensive Coordiantors in UT history.

Year 1= extreme youth
year 2= extreme setbacks

Year3?= I would imagine he finally catches a break as position coach.

What if Coach Martinez lost Cam Sutton last year? And Justin Coleman and Emmanuel Mosley?

I see the individual strides the WR's are making despite perceived lack of production. I'm telling you Azzani is still one of the best. A lot of things will start to make sense this year I imagine.

Great article, one thing I disagree with is worst Offensive Coordinator because of what you said about injuries . You would have problems with teams stacking the line for the run, (poor O-Line gets the brunt of the burden) with nothing to fear for the DB they are coming at you hard.

Having the ability to balance the attack will make any O-Coach look good and hopefully with depth we could get to there, now wait and see who comes up with the recipe to beat us.

 

[LittleVol]

Wow. Talk about a glass half full.....

I'll be the first to acknowledge a 1/2 empty glass. Because it is only 1/2 full if it is. It is what it is...

It's hard to put numbers as a wr, when your trigger man is on his back, or you're on the sideline injured.


Play calling, injury and inconsistent QB play has hampered them big time. This is part of the game. Guess what? So is being healthy and productive. That has evaded us for two years. I think this year, with a deeper more expereinced O-line, a Qb with wheels and a better play caller, our WR unit will be in the top of the conference.

 

[FlyFishnVol]

Depth, Depth, Depth.....not only did injuries impact players, some of them played injured (Malone=hamstring). Pig was really the only WR that maintained his health and speed. I believe we will see more consistency and XXX your fingers less injuries solely because Azzani has a great stable to work with this year. I don't think it is fair to compare Worley to Dobbs........they are two differently types of QBs, as for the OL, I will concede that they took time to understand their roles, but all of this will be improved in 2015. I am not worried about the 1s, its the 2s and 3s that will have to step up and play a role.

Go Vols!!

 

[LittleVol]

I like your analysis, Little. Look forward to (*fingers crossed*) a less injury-addled year for the WR squad. I think they and an improved Josh Dobbs are gonna put up some inspiring numbers and a lot of highlight reel visits. Go Vols!

I think we'll have one of the more balanced offenses in the SEC. Dobbs is about as accurate as Worley was. Plus he could run.

The O-line now has had a whole off-season to jell with Dobbs and how he works in the pocket. It just cannot happen that our wr's get injured like that again.

So you have a healthy North. (6'4" 220 4.5 ) with great hands and agility.
Josh Smith (6'1" 200 4.5) with good hands and agility.

Alton Howard with very good speed and explosion and
good strong hands. Strong runner as well.

Johnathan Johnson! A kid that just makes the most of his limited opportunities. Very quick and good hands

Jason Croom will continue to not live up to our outrageous expectations, but he will continue to also be a red-zone threat, and great perimeter blocker. Imo he is not a true WR. He's a gifted "pass-catcher"...I'll keep it at that.

Josh Malone and Preston Williams have the ability to take our offense to the stratosphere!! This year.
And Azzani will get them there...

 

[photovol]

Azzani hasn't hit his weight quite yet, but he better get his act together this year or he may indeed be traded.

 

[Cosmo]

Johnathan Johnson! A kid that just makes the most of his limited opportunities. Very quick and good hands

JJ has a knack for getting open. He may not be the most athletic guy at the position, but he definitely does something right. Hard worker too.

 

[HoptownVol]

Azzanni is a great coach. I dont get the criticism, he'll be more appreciated when he's gone.

 

[KBVol]

I'll be the first to acknowledge a 1/2 empty glass. Because it is only 1/2 full if it is. It is what it is...

It's hard to put numbers as a wr, when your trigger man is on his back, or you're on the sideline injured.


Play calling, injury and inconsistent QB play has hampered them big time. This is part of the game. Guess what? So is being healthy and productive. That has evaded us for two years. I think this year, with a deeper more expereinced O-line, a Qb with wheels and a better play caller, our WR unit will be in the top of the conference.

Yours was a pretty fair post. The WRs underperformed last year and injuries were certainly a major factor. I'll just say this....I listen to Swain a lot, a former excellent wr at UT who's still very close to the program. Dude is certainly much more credible than either of us in terms of evaluating the WR group. He's stated his frustration with the group on several occasions, has been very critical of how they've performed to date overall and recently said that he knows for a fact that Coach Z is under a lot of internal pressure to get the WRs performing up to expectations this year.....as in if he doesn't his job could be in question despite his recent title upgrade. Tifwiw.

 

[TGVol]

The biggest risk for Azzanni may be Dobbs - if he continues to stare down receivers the way he has so far he will continue to make them and Azzanni look bad.
By the way, Butch has as much to prove as far as coaching (not recruiting) as Azzanni does. Remember that this staff has won exactly 1 game vs top 25 teams in their entire careers - so there is plenty to prove for all of them. But we should be excited because it was more difficult to imagine them recruiting at this level in SEC than eventually winning once they do have the talent. This is the year all of this will become much more clear.

 

[Vol logic]

The biggest risk for Azzanni may be Dobbs - if he continues to stare down receivers the way he has so far he will continue to make them and Azzanni look bad.
By the way, Butch has as much to prove as far as coaching (not recruiting) as Azzanni does. Remember that this staff has won exactly 1 game vs top 25 teams in their entire careers - so there is plenty to prove for all of them. But we should be excited because it was more difficult to imagine them recruiting at this level in SEC than eventually winning once they do have the talent. This is the year all of this will become much more clear.

Donna has improved on this as of the Spring game. I don't know if this is a reflection of the Debord hire or what but there has been improvement as of late.

dobbs, oops.

 

[LittleVol]

Yours was a pretty fair post. The WRs underperformed last year and injuries were certainly a major factor. I'll just say this....I listen to Swain a lot, a former excellent wr at UT who's still very close to the program. Dude is certainly much more credible than either of us in terms of evaluating the WR group. He's stated his frustration with the group on several occasions, has been very critical of how they've performed to date overall and recently said that he knows for a fact that Coach Z is under a lot of internal pressure to get the WRs performing up to expectations this year.....as in if he doesn't his job could be in question despite his recent title upgrade. Tifwiw.

Croom is passive
Malone is passive
Smith is injury prone
North is inconsistent in his aggression.
The wrs themselves have some deficiencies for sure.

You can compare your own observations against Swains at your leisure. But I will say that just because a person played the position doesn't make them an expert at it. Coaching is a different aesthetic from playing...

The criticism should exist for the wrs. They have to step up. I was just pointing out the many reasons to not judge Azzani just yet as a failure.

 

[KBVol]

Croom is passive
Malone is passive
Smith is injury prone
North is inconsistent in his aggression.
The wrs themselves have some deficiencies for sure.

You can compare your own observations against Swains at your leisure. But I will say that just because a person played the position doesn't make them an expert at it. Coaching is a different aesthetic from playing...

The criticism should exist for the wrs. They have to step up. I was just pointing out the many reasons to not judge Azzani just yet as a failure.

I would point out that a guy who lived and breathed the position for many years who played very successfully at a level as high as the SEC will have a much better eye and the ability to judge how well the WRs are performing. Certainly much better than you and me.

Also, it's Azzani's job to develop the players he helped get on campus. He'll be judged on whether his guys toughen up or gain more consistency over time. If he does he'll get a raise, perhaps another title, perhaps a look from another school to be their HC. If he doesn't, as Swain suggested, he may be looking for a different job altogether.

Finally, I'm not suggesting Azzani's been a failure...too strong a word IMO. But I do think he's overseen a very talented group of WRs who haven't performed near their billing/physical abilities the last 2 years, injuries notwithstanding. Like Butch, we'll know a lot of about Azzani after the 2015 season.

 

[KBVol]

The biggest risk for Azzanni may be Dobbs - if he continues to stare down receivers the way he has so far he will continue to make them and Azzanni look bad.
By the way, Butch has as much to prove as far as coaching (not recruiting) as Azzanni does. Remember that this staff has won exactly 1 game vs top 25 teams in their entire careers - so there is plenty to prove for all of them. But we should be excited because it was more difficult to imagine them recruiting at this level in SEC than eventually winning once they do have the talent. This is the year all of this will become much more clear.

Lol. Your first paragraph is ridiculous.

 

[A-RodWiLks]

Who is down on CZA?? He's proven to be a great recruiter and kids love him. I don't doubt his coaching abilities at all...I think our offensive scheme in general limits outside wideouts like North. Hopefully this has truly been due to our poor olines these last 2 years, but we should find out this year. Most of our throws go to the slot or bubble screen. No need to throw a screen pass to a WR as big as North or Croom. I'm not gonna knock on Dobbs but he definitely did check down to some minimal gains when he had wide open guys down field last year. Rewatch the South Carolina game...but he should be much more confident this year.

 

[08Vol]

This will be year 2 that our WR corps come into the SEC with all star potential. The last year they didn't do much of anything with it. Maybe it has to do with the players under achieving, maybe it's a scheme issue, maybe all the injuries are due to bad luck and not them being put in bad situations. Personally I would never have Croom, North, or Malone touch the ball before 10 yards. Great place to have LBs and D-linemen get easy shots. Also need to have the safeties and corners back peddling or trying to catch up to a receiver so you don't end up with a hit like Cam's in the OU game.
I'll believe CZA is a good WR's coach when he finally has a WR go over 1,000 yards and 8 TDs in one season