Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#4,128
#4,128
KNOXVILLE – Tennessee junior linebacker Daniel Bituli has been through some stuff, and that’s not a reference to eight losses in eight SEC games in 2017.

It’s not about a 45-7 loss at Alabama, a 41-0 home loss to Georgia or 42 points allowed in a second straight loss to Vandy. It has nothing to do with the fact that the guy who sold him on Tennessee and brought him to Knoxville lost his job in an extended cloud of public ridicule last fall, or that the same guy strangely sat Bituli for stretches when the Vols defense seemed to miss his playmaking ability.

When your earliest memories are of fleeing war, after your mother’s life was threatened because of the way she looks, and subsequent memories revolve around your African family carving out an existence in the United States, you will have football in perspective. That Bituli does. He also has an exuberance about him, which flashed Sunday at the Vols’ fan event at Neyland Stadium and must have been hard to avoid with a father like Patrice Bituli.

“This is a privilege for us, coming from such a situation, you come to the United States and you appreciate what you have,” Patrice said. “You come from nothing, you didn’t have anything and you come here, and now you have something. Your children do good in school, that’s big, and the only word that comes to mind is grateful. And then your son plays football and you watch him on TV – that’s an experience.”

Patrice works for the state as a caretaker for the developmentally disabled. His wife and the mother of his five children, Nikki, teaches preschool at Nashville Christian School, where all of their children attended. The family arrived in Nashville in August 2000, after fleeing from war in Congo and spending eight months in a refugee camp in Cameroon. Patrice and Nikki had four children then, including an infant daughter, and Daniel was four months from his 3rd birthday.

“Staying in like a tent. No AC, no anything, and it was hot,” Daniel said of his memories of Cameroon. “Snakes and stuff like that, real muddy. … I’m real humble to be where I am.”


More of the story here:
UT Vols: In Daniel Bituli, Tennessee has a playmaker and perspective giver
 
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#4,131
#4,131
HankHill said:
It’s a two way street. Alex smith has won a lot of games and played some good QB. You can also make stupid throws downfield too. It gets cam, Flacco, etc in trouble a lot.

I also think pat maholmes comparison to JG is a bit far fetched. That dude literally has a bazooka attached to his shoulder.
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For sure but there’s a reason he’s gone. Reid, the organization, and fan base were clearly frustrated with him. Feel like Chryst was the same thing at Stanford.

And obviously JG doesn’t have the same arm. KC doesn’t have the same arm as smith either. That’s why I said it was the college version of the Chiefs
 
#4,135
#4,135
Sleegro said:
Except most reports say jg has looked good. Some just don't wanna believe it.
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The reality is, the same media said those things of Dormady last year. We really need JG to provide game results and there's nothing wrong with posters being skeptical of our media's fb evaluation skills.

I don't get into the back and forth where some slam the "other QB", while refusing to accept even the tiniest critique of their guy. I want JG to be the guy.
1. Because of time left to play.
2. Because he chose UT the first time, automatically making me a fan.

But we need JG to look great in games and we need Chryst to look almost as good just in case. Unfortunately, it's been those fans constantly down playing Chryst that diminishes JGs accomplishment of beating him out. Sort of a poetic justice (or injustice in this case)
 
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#4,137
#4,137
scvolfan7 said:
For sure but there’s a reason he’s gone. Reid, the organization, and fan base were clearly frustrated with him. Feel like Chryst was the same thing at Stanford.

And obviously JG doesn’t have the same arm. KC doesn’t have the same arm as smith either. That’s why I said it was the college version of the Chiefs
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I also think the fans may regret being so impatient and basically crappy towards a QB like smith. He had some very very solid years there.

Maholmes will have to put in a lot of work to be better a better qb than smith.
 
#4,141
#4,141
Keller Chryst had his moments (a corner route throw to Brandon Johnson was his best pass of the day), it was quite clear who the top quarterback on the field was Sunday. Jarrett Guarantano threw strikes in both pass-skeleton work, 7-on-7 and 11-on-11s. Compared to a year ago, JG was much better with his footwork and decision-making. He didn’t hold onto the ball for forever and he routinely found his check-downs quickly. He had one really poor throw (was baited by Alontae Taylor) but he responded with a bomb for a score on his very next attempt. That’s growth. He didn’t hang his head after a poor pass. He got right back in the huddle and made a play.

Chryst clearly knows the playbook, but he struggles on intermediate and deep throws to the hash. The arm strength simply isn’t there. OC Tyson Helton got on him about his progressions several times and Chryst also displayed some of the same accuracy issues that plagued him at Stanford.
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The two wideouts who stood out the most, IMO, were sophomore Jordan Murphy and freshman Cedric Tillman. Murphy has become a better route runner. He had a big touchdown grab from JG, too.

Tillman, at 6-3, 210, is a physical presence on the outside. He gave Baylen Buchanan fits a few times. He had a couple great grabs, including an excellent back-shoulder catch from Chryst.
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(Alontae)Taylor doesn’t have the natural ball-skills of fellow freshmen Trevon Flowers (who flashed at safety — working at times with many projected starters) or Bryce Thompson (another rookie standout with a big INT Sunday, moss'ing Jauan Jennings on a 50-50 ball), but he’s still a playmaker in the secondary.
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  • Daniel Bituli played all three linebacker spots Sunday
  • JUCO corner Kenneth George received a lot of 1-on-1 attention from the head coach. George got plenty of work with the 2s.
  • Tennessee’s RBs all had their moments Sunday. Tim Jordan got the most work, while Ty Chandler is clearly the most explosive of the bunch.
  • Austin Pope made some plays as a H-back, fullback. His athleticism almost seems to surprise his defensive counterparts.
  • Kirkland Jr. isn’t showing any ill-effects from his offseason knee procedure.
  • Todd Kelly Jr. was moving better than he has in close to two years.
  • punting could be a real problem in 2018. There weren't any real shanks Sunday, but none of the punters had great hang-time or distance on their kicks.
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  • -- Simonton





 
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#4,149
#4,149
Power T-Rev said:
I feel like TK's future is at LB. Not sure if he'll get any playing time though, since there's a proverbial log jam at that position
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I’ve said that for a while. He could play an undersized LB like Eric Reid did for the 49ers this year but i don’t think he likes contact enough to do that. It takes a different breed to play LB undersized.
 
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