Recruiting Forum Football Talk LVII

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#4,778
#4,778
Darth_Shiveman said:
Like 10 days ago?

I’m set to the max number of posts per page and it’s on page 48 of this thread for me.



I just don’t think this roster is so bad that even a good coach shouldn’t get 6 wins. We’re bad at two positions, basically. We have potential at most.

I just keep thinking back to 2013 and how much worse our 2 deep was on paper than it will be this year, how much tougher our schedule was than it will be this year, and how that team was 2 Pig Howard mistakes from being 7-5 despite it all.


If Pruitt is a good coach, he won’t fail to make a bowl game. If he can’t make one this year, we’ll know he’s not cut out to be a HC yet.
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i agree with this. the problem is that one of them is O line. and i'll be honest, i'm starting to feel better about the top of the depth chart at Corner.

the other challenge this year's team has is just that everything is new. everything.

it's a big ask to have everything that needs to happen in order this year to be better than anyone expects, to actually happen.

i'm in the 6-7 win camp. i think that's certainly doable. and unfortunately, in those kind of years, transition years, the kind of mistakes you referenced above, will probably happen, and will probably be the difference in a W or an L. there's going to be a sort of 'take your lumps' in year one type mentality for me. cause it will happen.

all that said, i think one of the things this staff and head coach can do, that CBJ was not very good at, is TRUST YOUR PLAYERS. he talked about leadership issues on Saturday, and what it may take to develop it, he talked about body language and the mental make up of this team right now.

well, there are going to be situations during the season where he can change that by trusting the players to go make a play vs. doing what the chart says to do. Now, i'm not saying he should throw caution in the wind....but there are specific situations that he can use to build this team up. and he needs to take advantage of those as they present themselves, especially early.
 
#4,779
#4,779
Explanation for 4-8 season:
  • Bad leadership (AD, head coach, etc.)
  • Bad strength & conditioning program
  • Ridiculous #s of injuries (yet again)
  • Bad/inexperienced coaching
  • APATHY by coaches and players

Have I missed anything? I'm sure there are other reasons, but these were the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Have these reasons for failure been addressed? Obviously, this doesn't have anything to do with players and talent. But if we took the same team from last year and solved several of these problems before the season, would we not expect better than 4-8?

I think we could easily see a 2-3 game improvement, if not better, based on the corrections already made. But that will have to be proven, and I look forward to it.
 
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#4,781
#4,781
WarMachine said:
Explanation for 4-8 season:
  • Bad leadership (AD, head coach, etc.)
  • Bad strength & conditioning program
  • Ridiculous #s of injuries (yet again)
  • Bad/inexperienced coaching
  • APATHY by coaches and players

Have I missed anything? I'm sure there are other reasons, but these were the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Have these reasons for failure been addressed? Obviously, this doesn't have anything to do with players and talent. But if we took the same team from last year and solved several of these problems before the season, would we not expect better than 4-8?

I think we could easily see a 2-3 game improvement, if not better, based on the corrections already made. But that will have to be proven, and I look forward to it.
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dunno how much any/all of that played in to it, but safe to say that any of it, especially the apathy part toward the end, probably played a role.

i'm with those that say last year's team was not a 4 win team on paper. they weren't. it was an extraordinary set of circumstances that played a role in that, especially the last month of the season.

i thought last year's team was a 6-7 win team, and i think the same of this year's team. for a lot of the same reasons.
 
#4,784
#4,784
6-6 is where I am right now.

If Pruitt wins 7 and a bowl game, we are on a good trajectory. Eye test will be big for most fans this year.
 
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#4,785
#4,785
volfanngatorland said:
6-6 is where I am right now.

If Pruitt wins 7 and a bowl game, we are on a good trajectory. Eye test will be big for most fans this year.
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i think you could look at this year's team a lot like you look at that 14 team. there was talent on that roster, just young. we got to a bowl, won it, and signed that great class.

now we're not AS young as that team was, but roster/talent wise, coaching wise, there are some similarities.

and we might find ourselves at the end of this season, feeling about the same as we did after that Tax Slayer bowl. optimistic about the future.:thumbsup:
 
#4,786
#4,786
LaagerVol said:
You may be right, but still too early in Pruitt’s tenure to tell imo.
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May be. I hate to see a guy with a 4.29 40 with proven athleticism and instincts as a high schooler blow his opportunity. But it happens. Hope the light comes on. He was under coached and developed as a WR. Maybe Johnson can get something out of him.
 
#4,788
#4,788
Don’t care what the win total is this year.

We are rebuilding. It sucks.

What I am looking for is a different mindset, approach, development, in game adjustments, strength and attitude.

That and recruiting will tell me where we are headed.

If we can get that and then start bringing in the top flight recruits then we will see a shift in the win column and our expectations can be back to where they should be - playing and competing for
Championships
 
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#4,790
#4,790
volfanngatorland said:
6-6 is where I am right now.

If Pruitt wins 7 and a bowl game, we are on a good trajectory. Eye test will be big for most fans this year.
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I agree. We need the bowl for extra practice and emphasis for recruiting purposes. If we see the upward trend and bigger athletes competing hard, all will be well going forward.
 
#4,791
#4,791
Ron Swanson said:
Exactly. The talent is there for Pruitt to win 7+ this fall.
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It can't be said enough how bad coaching and development of players makes great talent look good and good talent look mediocre and mediocre talent look bad. I do believe that this coaching staffs track record is developing players in a positive direction. Butch and most of his staff couldn't develop these guys. A majority of the time a guy remained what he was when he arrived.

7+ is definitely within reach with proper coaching, 8 wins should have been the minimum we had last year with proper coaching. I believe that this staff is the right mix of x's and o's and player development to help Tennessee thrive in the next few years.
 
#4,792
#4,792
I understand how we've gotten to this point with real fans struggling to hope for a better program, but winning and recruiting will bring us all back around.
 
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#4,795
#4,795
Nashvegas31 said:
Agree with others talent wise we should have won 6-8 last yr. it was coached to an apathetic 4 wins.
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Agree, staff sucked, but there comes a time when the players need to face up and take some of the blame. Players play, and they did not play up to expectations. If the previous staff displayed a poor culture, the players are the ones that allowed that culture to infest among themselves. Man up and change the culture! JMO

This staff/team hopefully will change the culture and attitude.
 
#4,799
#4,799
SpringBokVol said:
Don’t care what the win total is this year.

We are rebuilding. It sucks.

What I am looking for is a different mindset, approach, development, in game adjustments, strength and attitude.

That and recruiting will tell me where we are headed.

If we can get that and then start bringing in the top flight recruits then we will see a shift in the win column and our expectations can be back to where they should be - playing and competing for
Championships
Click to expand...

I agree with what you are saying, and my expectations for this year are low. Like many on here, if we win six plus a bowl game, I think I'll be feeling pretty good.

Having given it some thought, though, I think that if we see improvement in the areas bolded, it will certainly result in more wins. In other words, if the collective attitude, mindset, strength/conditioning, and in-game coaching are better, I don't see how 3-4 of our losses from last year won't turn in to wins this year.

I just don't think that if we bring the fight to teams like Missouri, USCe, Vandy and Kentucky, we will lose those games (I can't imagine a post-game story after any of those games having a line like, "The Volunteers played a full four quarters of hard-nosed, disciplined football today but lost a hard-fought game to __________.")
 
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