Tennessees Defense Fast and Athletic

[Special Ed]

I'd say about this much _________________.

 

[Volunteer_Kirby]

The best part is we are only going to get better with Butch in charge. He is bringing in the players we need to win in the SEC. We will be back on top of the SEC before too long. Good chance we will win the SEC east next year.

Good chance? Maybe. Oline and Dline are going to need some time to establish themselves, as well as our young rushing attack. Losing AJ will show. Best chance in a long time, yes. But I think 2016 is the year everything lines up nicely for the Vols, at least in terms of our roster health and depth.

 

[Biopsyman]

So sick of this already. Everyone does some version of it.

The ladies like to shake their Fannie's to it...So please continue it

 

[VolsnRavens]

The ladies like to shake their Fannie's to it...So please continue it

Fannie's? 1960 called. They want you back. j/k

 

[VOLorNuttin]

Third down for what?!!!!!!!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyMI0huRK1s[/youtube]

 

[Crazy Ivan]

The guy on ESPN with Mark May thinks so(not Lou). He said we have improved in speed and other areas such as hard hitting safeties. My question is how much more improved do you think our defense, in both categories (run and pass) , is compared to the 2013 defense??

I like our young defense, but UGA is going to be the first team to seriously test the interior of our front 7 on a continued basis. The dawgs love to pound the inside, which causes a defenses edge players to lose discipline and start edging inside, which of course opens up the edge for those toss sweeps to Gurley & Co., as well as the play action if our safeties creep up.

It helps greatly having Sauls back in the DT rotation, if he can give us some quality time, but the dawgs are going to seriously stress the interior of the DL. It remains to be seen if the front 7 can hold up w/o walking a safety up and exposing us to the play action. And the DEs and OLBs are going to have to be very disciplined and not lose their assignments. The D also is going to have to be very sharp with its tackling to keep Gurley's 4-5 yd runs from going to the house.

It is unrealistic to think we can shut down UGA's rushing attack, which is as good as anyone's in the nation, with our relatively young and inexperienced D. But if we can limit the explosive runs, and avoid having to walk a safety up and not getting beat with the play action, we can keep this game relatively close going into the 4th qtr.

On the flip side, the million dollar question is how much improvement will we see in the OL over the last 2 weeks? If we fail to have any sort of ground game this game won't be close in the 4th quarter. And I'm not sure Worley can continue to take a pounding and survive. I do think over the bye week the OL will have worked out some of the communications issues, which is helped by staying with the same 5 guys, but there is no getting around the youth and inexperience across the OL.

I'm also concerned about rain in Athens for the game, which I believe will be a big advantage to UGA and its running attack.

I think the young Vols can hang in this game until the 4th qtr, and if so, anything is possible. But I also believe that this game could get out of hand quickly if our offense cannot get out of the gate quickly, as has been the case the first 3 games. We were able to recover against USU and ASU, but got in the hole in the 1st against OU. If we do it against UGA and the get the crowd in the game, it will be a long game.

 

[ItsAllVols]

A stat that can not be overlooked is 1st in SEC and 2nd in the nation to get off the field on 3rd down....now we just have to compete better on 1st and 2nd

 

[TAF]

We need BOTH of these two to have CAREER GAMES!

 

[HARTUPM]

Only 4 weeks in and like most, I see an improvement with the back 7. IMO, the speed has improved but isn't quite there yet. I'm really diggin the LB unit and with all the talk about the front 4 drop off at the beginning of the season, I am impressed so far with the freshmen. I honestly think UT's defense will be one of the nastier units in the SEC in next year and beyond. Butch Jones is bringing in the talent and hopefully more will line up to compliment what's here already and those on deck.

This week will be the 2nd consecutive week that Jones will have the same lineup in the OL. If I am correct, three games so far has seen three different combos in the OL. IF he has settled that this will be the starting 5 from here on out then the continuity of playing together as a unit will only produce better play from this point on. They'll practice as a unit and learn as a unit...I think they'll be ok by mid season, hopefully with the week bye, we'll see noticeable improvements vs. Georgia. I am liking what I see from Worley. When he has time, he is pretty damn solid. UT just needs to get them running lanes open and when that happens, UT will be dangerous.

on a side note, the dude in our avi needs to hit the gym

 

[ntxVOL]

I like our young defense, but UGA is going to be the first team to seriously test the interior of our front 7 on a continued basis. The dawgs love to pound the inside, which causes a defenses edge players to lose discipline and start edging inside, which of course opens up the edge for those toss sweeps to Gurley & Co., as well as the play action if our safeties creep up.

It helps greatly having Sauls back in the DT rotation, if he can give us some quality time, but the dawgs are going to seriously stress the interior of the DL. It remains to be seen if the front 7 can hold up w/o walking a safety up and exposing us to the play action. And the DEs and OLBs are going to have to be very disciplined and not lose their assignments. The D also is going to have to be very sharp with its tackling to keep Gurley's 4-5 yd runs from going to the house.

It is unrealistic to think we can shut down UGA's rushing attack, which is as good as anyone's in the nation, with our relatively young and inexperienced D. But if we can limit the explosive runs, and avoid having to walk a safety up and not getting beat with the play action, we can keep this game relatively close going into the 4th qtr.

On the flip side, the million dollar question is how much improvement will we see in the OL over the last 2 weeks? If we fail to have any sort of ground game this game won't be close in the 4th quarter. And I'm not sure Worley can continue to take a pounding and survive. I do think over the bye week the OL will have worked out some of the communications issues, which is helped by staying with the same 5 guys, but there is no getting around the youth and inexperience across the OL.

I'm also concerned about rain in Athens for the game, which I believe will be a big advantage to UGA and its running attack.

I think the young Vols can hang in this game until the 4th qtr, and if so, anything is possible. But I also believe that this game could get out of hand quickly if our offense cannot get out of the gate quickly, as has been the case the first 3 games. We were able to recover against USU and ASU, but got in the hole in the 1st against OU. If we do it against UGA and the get the crowd in the game, it will be a long game.

This may be the greatest challenge, Gurley is very good at cutting back. The D will have to stay disciplined to take that away.