DiderotsGhost
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Is it time to start wearing paper bags over our heads?
Butch is done. On one hand, I dont expect him to get sacked until after Bama. On the other hand, the writing is pretty much on the wall at this point; the only question is timing. Does he get fired this week or next week? Or is Currie a "wait till the end of the season" guy? It really doesnt make much of a difference IMO, except that I think us fans want the resolution.
Worst UT offense Ive seen in a long time. This might be worse than 2013. That says something pretty bad about our offensive coaches. The 2013 roster was thin on talent at the skill positions and yet it was probably playing slightly better than this offense. We did hang 52 on Western Kentucky and 31 on South Alabama in 2013. Compare that to the 17 point s#$%show against UMass; and that UMass team is much worse than WKU and USA in 2013.
10 Quarters without a Touchdown. Thats a seriously depressing factoid.
Defense is playing well. Other than the whole wearing-down-because-they-are-constantly-forced-to-be-on-the-field bit, the defense has been playing pretty well recently. We held SC down to 3 points for most of the game. Then Jake Bentley led a drive with several near perfect passes to score a TD. That drive wouldve been tough for even the best D in the nation to stop. We probably only gave up the last TD due to exhaustion. Overall, not a bad day for the defense, but it helps when you have an offense that can score more than 9 points and doesnt constantly go 3-and-out.
Shoops job going unnoticed. It often takes good DCs two years to fully get their system to work. Sort of sad to see it wasted, but I feel like Bob Shoop has been doing a pretty good job this season. Its going unnoticed because the trainwreck on offense. Defense has improved every game thus far. Defense was the only reason we were even in this game.
Georgia Tech = High Point of Season. This is another depressing thought given that we were quite fortunate to have won that game. It's still easily the best game we've played this year. Butch's record with over 3 weeks to prepare for an opponent is pretty good; Butch's record with 1 or 2 weeks to prepare --- not so much.
Its not the individual elements of the offense. This is the weirdest thing to me about this season. I continue to look at our players and think a lot of these guys look very good, but that the coaches just cant figure out how to manage the talent or make them work together. It's definitely not the players IMO.
JG shows promise. I can see a ton of talent in JG (and in Dormady, as well, for that matter). JG was not a world-beater, but he mostly played within himself and didnt make too many huge mistakes. He showed a lot of promise during the game; I could potentially see a bright future for him here with improved coaching. When you have a bad scheme, bad coaching, bad playcalling, and wide receivers that dont get open, it doesnt really matter much, though, does it?
The Riverboat Gambler vs By the Book Butch. Any of yall remember watching Ole Miss games back in the 90s when Tommy Tuberville was head coach? Tuberville was in the broadcast booth for the game, which draws an interesting contrast. Tuberville was known as the Mississippi Riverboat Gambler when he coached Ole Miss, because he liked making adventurous moves. Butch Jones is almost the opposite in that he seems to believe theres a book on how to do things and you never deviate from it. Im not saying Tubervilles style is right or that Butchs is wrong, so much as I find it beyond bizarre that even with his job on the line, Butch is still coaching like hes protecting a 28 point lead. Play-calling was insanely conservative for a guy who knows hes fired unless he figures something out soon.
Ty Chander Still Underutilized. We underutilized Kamara in 2015 and 2016. Were underutilizing Chandler now. Sure, John Kelly is one of the best RBs in the SEC, but its 2017, and you can use multiple backs. Id like to see Chandler utilized more in the running game and the passing game. Id like to see both RBs on the field more and for the defense not to know which one were going to use every single play. I dont think its a coincidence that Chandler had a massive yard per carry average as opposing defenses have mostly been very focused on stopping John Kelly.
Dont focus on the small mistakes; focus on the big ones. JG made a mistake not spiking the ball on the 1st down at the end, but new QBs are gonna make mistakes. Some are complaining that we didn't run with John Kelly at the end of the game, but that's a tough move given the clock situation and no timeouts. I don't think we should focus too much on the end of game details. That's not why we lost. Im more concerned about the big picture, which is that at no point during this game did our offensive coaches seem to have any f@#$ing idea what they were doing.
Recruiting class doesnt matter anymore. Recruiting class is falling apart, which is the biggest sign that the writing is on the wall for Butch. Well likely have a weak recruiting class regardless of what happens at this point.
"I can't watch this!" I don't know how I'm going to sit through the Bama game. I might turn it off after the 2nd Quarter when we're down 24-0.
Ugh. That was depressing. It's painful being a Vols fan, but my blood still runs orange.
GBO!
Butch is done. On one hand, I dont expect him to get sacked until after Bama. On the other hand, the writing is pretty much on the wall at this point; the only question is timing. Does he get fired this week or next week? Or is Currie a "wait till the end of the season" guy? It really doesnt make much of a difference IMO, except that I think us fans want the resolution.
Worst UT offense Ive seen in a long time. This might be worse than 2013. That says something pretty bad about our offensive coaches. The 2013 roster was thin on talent at the skill positions and yet it was probably playing slightly better than this offense. We did hang 52 on Western Kentucky and 31 on South Alabama in 2013. Compare that to the 17 point s#$%show against UMass; and that UMass team is much worse than WKU and USA in 2013.
10 Quarters without a Touchdown. Thats a seriously depressing factoid.
Defense is playing well. Other than the whole wearing-down-because-they-are-constantly-forced-to-be-on-the-field bit, the defense has been playing pretty well recently. We held SC down to 3 points for most of the game. Then Jake Bentley led a drive with several near perfect passes to score a TD. That drive wouldve been tough for even the best D in the nation to stop. We probably only gave up the last TD due to exhaustion. Overall, not a bad day for the defense, but it helps when you have an offense that can score more than 9 points and doesnt constantly go 3-and-out.
Shoops job going unnoticed. It often takes good DCs two years to fully get their system to work. Sort of sad to see it wasted, but I feel like Bob Shoop has been doing a pretty good job this season. Its going unnoticed because the trainwreck on offense. Defense has improved every game thus far. Defense was the only reason we were even in this game.
Georgia Tech = High Point of Season. This is another depressing thought given that we were quite fortunate to have won that game. It's still easily the best game we've played this year. Butch's record with over 3 weeks to prepare for an opponent is pretty good; Butch's record with 1 or 2 weeks to prepare --- not so much.
Its not the individual elements of the offense. This is the weirdest thing to me about this season. I continue to look at our players and think a lot of these guys look very good, but that the coaches just cant figure out how to manage the talent or make them work together. It's definitely not the players IMO.
JG shows promise. I can see a ton of talent in JG (and in Dormady, as well, for that matter). JG was not a world-beater, but he mostly played within himself and didnt make too many huge mistakes. He showed a lot of promise during the game; I could potentially see a bright future for him here with improved coaching. When you have a bad scheme, bad coaching, bad playcalling, and wide receivers that dont get open, it doesnt really matter much, though, does it?
The Riverboat Gambler vs By the Book Butch. Any of yall remember watching Ole Miss games back in the 90s when Tommy Tuberville was head coach? Tuberville was in the broadcast booth for the game, which draws an interesting contrast. Tuberville was known as the Mississippi Riverboat Gambler when he coached Ole Miss, because he liked making adventurous moves. Butch Jones is almost the opposite in that he seems to believe theres a book on how to do things and you never deviate from it. Im not saying Tubervilles style is right or that Butchs is wrong, so much as I find it beyond bizarre that even with his job on the line, Butch is still coaching like hes protecting a 28 point lead. Play-calling was insanely conservative for a guy who knows hes fired unless he figures something out soon.
Ty Chander Still Underutilized. We underutilized Kamara in 2015 and 2016. Were underutilizing Chandler now. Sure, John Kelly is one of the best RBs in the SEC, but its 2017, and you can use multiple backs. Id like to see Chandler utilized more in the running game and the passing game. Id like to see both RBs on the field more and for the defense not to know which one were going to use every single play. I dont think its a coincidence that Chandler had a massive yard per carry average as opposing defenses have mostly been very focused on stopping John Kelly.
Dont focus on the small mistakes; focus on the big ones. JG made a mistake not spiking the ball on the 1st down at the end, but new QBs are gonna make mistakes. Some are complaining that we didn't run with John Kelly at the end of the game, but that's a tough move given the clock situation and no timeouts. I don't think we should focus too much on the end of game details. That's not why we lost. Im more concerned about the big picture, which is that at no point during this game did our offensive coaches seem to have any f@#$ing idea what they were doing.
Recruiting class doesnt matter anymore. Recruiting class is falling apart, which is the biggest sign that the writing is on the wall for Butch. Well likely have a weak recruiting class regardless of what happens at this point.
"I can't watch this!" I don't know how I'm going to sit through the Bama game. I might turn it off after the 2nd Quarter when we're down 24-0.
Ugh. That was depressing. It's painful being a Vols fan, but my blood still runs orange.
GBO!
