Recruiting Forum Football Talk LVII

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#3,476
#3,476
LaagerVol said:
Serious question, which players get a free pass because of poor coaching and which ones don’t? In my mind, it’s a completely clean slate and we won’t have any real evidence until the actual season starts. I’m not basing my opinion on any players off the Butch Jones era nor am I putting much stock in what the media has to say.
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i think they all probably some sort of clean slate, in the coache' eyes.

as fans, i think you can probably say for some players, it's a combination.

it's not a secret Byrd has been very unproductive.

what is debatable is why.....and there's a lot that could be discussed on that....
 
#3,478
#3,478
Ron Swanson said:
- Hubbs
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I would be very shocked if an all American corner in high school doesn’t stick and gets moved back to offense, while a running back who has never played corner previously, sticks.

Not saying it won’t happen. Just saying I’d be shocked.

Personally I’m hoping Byrd shows out at corner. We need talent there more than at receiver, where there have been several reports of receivers playing above expectations. Murphy and Latrell specifically.
 
#3,480
#3,480
HoleInTheRoof said:
I would be very shocked if an all American corner in high school doesn’t stick and gets moved back to offense, while a running back who has never played corner previously, sticks.

Not saying it won’t happen. Just saying I’d be shocked.

Personally I’m hoping Byrd shows out at corner. We need talent there more than at receiver, where there have been several reports of receivers playing above expectations. Murphy and Latrell specifically.
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Byrd is lazy.
 
#3,481
#3,481
jakez4ut said:
i think they all probably some sort of clean slate, in the coache' eyes.

as fans, i think you can probably say for some players, it's a combination.

it's not a secret Byrd has been very unproductive.

what is debatable is why.....and there's a lot that could be discussed on that....
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Agreed
 
#3,482
#3,482
It's not a stretch to think this receiving corps could be pretty good.

Tennessee's wide receivers were a liability last season. The wideouts by no means were the biggest reason the Vols were so inept on offense in 2017, but the position wasn't good. A questionable position coach hire, the injury to Jauan Jennings and a young group not ready to step up were the main culprits of the struggles.

Fast forward to this spring, and the situation appears to be much better even though the Vols are entirely unproven beyond the trio of the returning Jennings and juniors Marquez Callaway and Brandon Johnson.

Both of those players are leading the line and are playing smoothly in practice, while the other players have flashed at various times.

Oft-injured Latrell Williams looks fast and healthy after dealing with health problems his first two seasons, and Jacquez Jones, who's coming off an ACL injury, also has shown signs he could help.

Freshman Alontae Taylor appears to be grinding through a leg injury that has him conversing with a trainer at times in practice. These reps are too invaluable for the early enrollee, and he's not about to miss them. Taylor clearly looks like an SEC-caliber athlete, and he still has room to develop as a wide receiver given he didn't play it much in high school.

Of course, it's spring practice. The aforementioned group (plus Josh Palmer and Jordan Murphy) hasn't done anything of note at the SEC level. Them stepping up and producing is entirely hypothetical at this point.

But the Vols have made a serious upgrade at receivers coach in David Johnson. In the defense of predecessor Kevin Beard, it's not his fault Butch Jones hired him. Johnson was on Pruitt's radar two years before he actually met (and then hired) him.

Tennessee will have Jennings back, too, provided he can keep on the straight and narrow, so if some of the early-spring trends can continue, the wide receiver position quietly could be better than expected for Tennessee.
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- 247 (P. Brown)
 
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#3,483
#3,483
Tennessee's three most intense coaches are on either side of the line of scrimmage.

It's probably not been fun to be an outside linebacker for Tennessee the past two weeks.

Position coach Chris Rumph isn't messing around as he appears to be trying to break his players in with an intense, demanding style of coaching.

As Pruitt noted last week, the primary responsibility for the edge defenders in Tennessee's new-look scheme is rushing the passer. That's certainly an area where the Vols have room to be better in 2018. Tennessee has some options there with Darrell Taylor, Deandre Johnson, Austin Smith, Ryan Thaxton and newcomer Jordan Allen.

Some of those guys are having a more torrid time meetings Rumph's expectations than others, and the result is them having to up-downs or push-ups to atone for mistakes or bad technique or lacking intensity.

Rumph might be pushing his group the hardest, but he's got quality competition for that pseudo-title from offensive line coach Will Friend and defensive line coach Tracy Rocker.

Friend is your typical raspy-voiced, colorful-talking offensive line coach. He gives his players little time to catch their breath and appears to hate wasting one moment or failing to maximize every second of practice. Freshman Ollie Lane probably has Friend's voice echoing in his head when he goes to bed at night.

Rocker isn't messing around either as he pushes Tennessee's defensive line.

The Vols certainly have to hope their styles ultimately generate improvement they badly need to make along the trenches.
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- 247 (P. Brown)
 
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#3,484
#3,484
The search for answers in the secondary could go on for a while.

At no position on Tennessee's team is the standard higher than the secondary, where Pruitt is heavily involved.

"If you’re out there a whole lot," Pruitt said after Saturday's practice, "you figure out it takes a lot to make me proud."

The Vols very clearly have a ways to go at cornerback, which isn't a surprise.

As telling as it was how hard Tennessee pursued some top cornerback prospects back in December, January and February, it's perhaps more telling that since signing day the Vols have hosted a graduate-transfer cornerback (Stanford's Terrence Alexander) on a visit and taken the commitment of junior college transfer Kenneth George.

The safety position is far less of a concern simply because of the presence of Nigel Warrior, who along with Quart'e Sapp at linebacker has been one of Tennessee's better performers this spring, though the position next to him appears to be entirely up for grabs despite the Vols having some veterans there.

The cornerback position hasn't entirely been a Derek Dooley/sack-of-potatoes situation. Baylen Buchanan has had a nice start to spring practice and Fils-aime has had a couple of good moments as well. The Vols would like to see more from Shawn Shamburger.

Like many players on this roster, Tennessee's cornerbacks are adjusting to an entirely new way of playing the position, and it's going be a process there with Pruitt taking a hands-on approach in trying to patch together an undesirable situation.
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- 247 (P. Brown)
 
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#3,486
#3,486
Signs of hope from the offensive line.

After Saturday's practice, Pruitt noted that he'd seen improvement from Tennessee's offensive line this spring.

Given all the warranted gnashing of teeth surrounding the position, that update has to qualify as very positive for Tennessee.

Tennessee continues to roll with a first group of left tackle Drew Richmond, left guard Devante Brooks, center Ryan Johnson, right guard Riley Locklear and right tackle Marcus Tatum, and freshmen Lane and Jerome Carvin also are getting plenty of work.

The Vols are adjusting to a new scheme, and Friend clearly is trying to get his group to play with an edge.

Trey Smith ultimately may play this season or he may not, but this spring the Vols simply have to approach it as if he won't be back.

Getting the team's best player back obviously would be a huge boost. For now, though, baby steps like the head coach saying he's seeing improvement through two weeks of spring practice unquestionably is a positive development. Where the offensive line goes from here is the next question.
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- 247 (P. Brown)
 
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#3,488
#3,488
LaagerVol said:
Serious question, which players get a free pass because of poor coaching and which ones don’t? In my mind, it’s a completely clean slate and we won’t have any real evidence until the actual season starts. I’m not basing my opinion on any players off the Butch Jones era nor am I putting much stock in what the media has to say.
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Here's an interesting tidbit. Football outsiders ranked Georgia's defensive efficiency at #85 in the nation the year before Pruitt took over. His first year he got them up to #24 and up to #12 his second year. Florida State wasn't as much of a challenge. He inherited a #15 Defensive efficiency ranking and in one year got them to #1. Alabama is always #1 or #2 and that remained so while he was there even with their rash of injuries last year.

Competent leadership makes all the difference in the world to those who must follow. Think US Army II Corps before Patton took over. We're about to go through teams like **** through a goose. :)

Although the French eventually contributed nearly ten divisions to the Allied effort, in the process taking 23,500 dead and 95,000 wounded between the Tunisian campaign of 1943 and the surrender of Germany in May 1945, they languished in a chasm of Allied contempt for the remainder of the war. Insults among Allies, real and imagined, too numerous to chronicle, were to characterize the remainder of the campaign and pursue the three Western allies into Italy. Eisenhower's way of dealing with incidents of inter-Allied friction was to force miscreants to apologize, while allowing Alexander to relegate U.S. forces to demeaning auxiliary tasks. This so incensed Marshall that he intervened to force Eisenhower to allocate Second Corps a greater role in the final conquest of Tunisia.

The problem could only be solved once Eisenhower convinced the Americans in his command that "this is not a child's game." Alexander's well-meaning but patronizing attempts to establish "battle schools" where British officers trained U.S. units, to assign British liaison officers to American command posts, and to send detailed instructions to U.S. units about how to conduct operations were deeply resented by the Americans. Clearly, the United States Army would have to get its act together on its own. General Leonard Gerow, training infantry replacements in Scotland, was told by his longtime friend Eisenhower to "ruthlessly weed out" inadequate officers. Eisenhower's most dramatic gesture was temporarily to transfer General George Patton from organizing the Seventh Army in Morocco "long enough to kick II Corps in the butt and lead it into its initial battles as a corps."

"Kicking butt" was the activity of choice for the autocratic, flamboyant, frequently coarse, pistol-packing Patton.
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:)
 
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#3,489
#3,489
If i had to bet on for sure spots:

Safeties- Warrior and Ab
Jack- Darrel taylor
Nose- Shy
End- Kongbo

Buchanan and Osborne at CBs?
 
#3,490
#3,490
ChattaTNVol said:
Here's an interesting tidbit. Football outsiders ranked Georgia's defensive efficiency at #85 in the nation the year before Pruitt took over. His first year he got them up to #24 and up to #12 his second year. Florida State wasn't as much of a challenge. He inherited a #15 Defensive efficiency ranking and in one year got them to #1. Alabama is always #1 or #2 and that remained so while he was there even with their rash of injuries last year.

Competent leadership makes all the difference in the world to those who must follow. Think US Army II Corps before Patton took over. We're about to go through teams like **** through a goose. :)



:)
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WWII football metaphor, are you Dooley. :) JK. Nice post. Liked.
 
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#3,491
#3,491
HankHill said:
If i had to bet on for sure spots:

Safeties- Warrior and Ab
Jack- Darrel taylor
Nose- Shy
End- Kongbo

Buchanan and Osborne at CBs?
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Interesting. What’s your take on Byrd? I’ve thought he’d be surefire but sounds like he hasn’t settled in yet. Is it the learning curve or a bigger issue around work ethic / ability? Or simply too soon to tell?
 
#3,492
#3,492
vol2002 said:
Interesting. What’s your take on Byrd? I’ve thought he’d be surefire but sounds like he hasn’t settled in yet. Is it the learning curve or a bigger issue around work ethic / ability? Or simply too soon to tell?
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coaches' comments have been complimentary and positive to this point in the spring. i think it's probably more too early to tell, but i'd be hard pressed to imagine that you won't see him at Safety on the field this season.
 
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#3,494
#3,494
LaagerVol said:
Serious question, which players get a free pass because of poor coaching and which ones don’t? In my mind, it’s a completely clean slate and we won’t have any real evidence until the actual season starts. I’m not basing my opinion on any players off the Butch Jones era nor am I putting much stock in what the media has to say.
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Oh I definitely think we will see some guys emerge out of nowhere. Byrd could definitely be one of those. But I’m not buying that he didn’t make an impact because he was misused. He didn’t make an impact cause he didn’t make an impact.
 
#3,495
#3,495
BigZiti09 said:
Oh I definitely think we will see some guys emerge out of nowhere. Byrd could definitely be one of those. But I’m not buying that he didn’t make an impact because he was misused. He didn’t make an impact cause he didn’t make an impact.
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can't it be a little of both?
 
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#3,496
#3,496
BigZiti09 said:
Oh I definitely think we will see some guys emerge out of nowhere. Byrd could definitely be one of those. But I’m not buying that he didn’t make an impact because he was misused. He didn’t make an impact cause he didn’t make an impact.
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Emerson, L. Williams,and Shamburger are guys who i think are going to “come out of no where”
 
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#3,500
#3,500
I like Rumph pushing the LB corp--- anyone have anything on Ignont so far in practice? I just have to believe with the right coach, Kirkland, Smith, Sapp, Bituli, and Ignont, we should be pretty good in that area...
 
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