Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#10,351
#10,351
SugarCC said:
Have you seen any practices, DS? You may have, idk, I'm just curious? If you have, then I admit, you know better than I about what they actually look like...
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I haven’t seen any practices, but I’ve watched all our returning DL play for years now. If the staff somehow got all of them to play out of their minds after one offseason, it would be an unprecedented turnaround.

Remember, most of these guys are 2-3 years behind where they should be because of a combination of how badly their level of coaching and S&C fell behind in 2016 and 2017 as well as injuries for a few of them.

I’m not trying to say we can’t or won’t Ben improved or anything. I’m certain we’ll see better DL play this year if we stay healthy. But expecting all of our guys up front to look like totally new players 10 months removed from getting their tails kicked by Vandy is probably asking too much.

I’m also not sure enough people are considering how thin we are at our 3 DL spots right now. We’ve basically only got Tuttle, Phillips, Alexis Johnson, and Gooden to depend on right now. We’re going to have to develop some depth (mostly from freshman, if the reports we’re hearing are to be believed) throughout the first few games of the year if we want to get the kind of rotation that will really allow us to keep our best guys fresh and able to play at a high level.


The WVU matchup just comes at a bad time for us, IMO. I think the defense will probably come together more as the season goes on and the coaches get a better sense of which guys they can count on on Saturdays and all the players get some experience running the new scheme against guys not wearing orange and white.

I think we should keep the game competitive for most of it, but everybody discounting their OL as undersized and bad and acting like they’ve never seen a front 7 anything like what we’ll put on the field reeks of last years whole TheyGonLearn nonsense.
 
#10,352
#10,352
I see WVU a lot like our 2016 Vols. Had some success the year before with injuries causing some late year issues. Lots of hype with a great returning QB. Also, a lot of pressure to succeed. I wonder if WVU has been reading their own press clippings like we did. Will they stumble against us like we did against App state?
 
#10,353
#10,353
Volnukem said:
I see WVU a lot like our 2016 Vols. Had some success the year before with injuries causing some late year issues. Lots of hype with a great returning QB. Also, a lot of pressure to succeed. I wonder if WVU has been reading their own press clippings like we did. Will they stumble against us like we did against App state?
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Big difference mentally between preparing for Appy state and Tenn imo
 
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#10,354
#10,354
BruinVol said:
Big difference mentally between preparing for Appy state and Tenn imo
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Yes and no. Any other program of their caliber and I would whole heartedly agree. They are the giant killers though. There is a different stigma around them. We won 4 games last year. I doubt WVU is giving us much more credit than we gave App state.
 
#10,355
#10,355
Darth_Shiveman said:
I haven’t seen any practices, but I’ve watched all our returning DL play for years now. If the staff somehow got all of them to play out of their minds after one offseason, it would be an unprecedented turnaround.

Remember, most of these guys are 2-3 years behind where they should be because of a combination of how badly their level of coaching and S&C fell behind in 2016 and 2017 as well as injuries for a few of them.

I’m not trying to say we can’t or won’t Ben improved or anything. I’m certain we’ll see better DL play this year if we stay healthy. But expecting all of our guys up front to look like totally new players 10 months removed from getting their tails kicked by Vandy is probably asking too much.

I’m also not sure enough people are considering how thin we are at our 3 DL spots right now. We’ve basically only got Tuttle, Phillips, Alexis Johnson, and Gooden to depend on right now. We’re going to have to develop some depth (mostly from freshman, if the reports we’re hearing are to be believed) throughout the first few games of the year if we want to get the kind of rotation that will really allow us to keep our best guys fresh and able to play at a high level.


The WVU matchup just comes at a bad time for us, IMO. I think the defense will probably come together more as the season goes on and the coaches get a better sense of which guys they can count on on Saturdays and all the players get some experience running the new scheme against guys not wearing orange and white.

I think we should keep the game competitive for most of it, but everybody discounting their OL as undersized and bad and acting like they’ve never seen a front 7 anything like what we’ll put on the field reeks of last years whole TheyGonLearn nonsense.
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I don't think it's all that unprecedented for the big kids on the line to show improvement their junior and senior year. They don't all need to be all world. But if most show improvement we as a whole can show great improvement. Sum of the parts deal. And it used to be you didn't expect linemen to really do much before their 3rd or 4th year. It is pretty normal for the big guys to not be ready until they're juniors and seniors. I would actually be more surprised if our group of upper class DL wasn't vastly improved even with marginally better coaching. And I think we can all agree that the coaches are far more than marginally better. I bet we're at least upper middle of the sec in sacks this season based on having an older more experienced DL alone.

Edit: and I'm including our OLB here with both kongbo and Taylor being experienced upper classmen.
 
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#10,356
#10,356
Darth_Shiveman said:
I haven’t seen any practices, but I’ve watched all our returning DL play for years now. If the staff somehow got all of them to play out of their minds after one offseason, it would be an unprecedented turnaround.

Remember, most of these guys are 2-3 years behind where they should be because of a combination of how badly their level of coaching and S&C fell behind in 2016 and 2017 as well as injuries for a few of them.

I’m not trying to say we can’t or won’t Ben improved or anything. I’m certain we’ll see better DL play this year if we stay healthy. But expecting all of our guys up front to look like totally new players 10 months removed from getting their tails kicked by Vandy is probably asking too much.

I’m also not sure enough people are considering how thin we are at our 3 DL spots right now. We’ve basically only got Tuttle, Phillips, Alexis Johnson, and Gooden to depend on right now. We’re going to have to develop some depth (mostly from freshman, if the reports we’re hearing are to be believed) throughout the first few games of the year if we want to get the kind of rotation that will really allow us to keep our best guys fresh and able to play at a high level.


The WVU matchup just comes at a bad time for us, IMO. I think the defense will probably come together more as the season goes on and the coaches get a better sense of which guys they can count on on Saturdays and all the players get some experience running the new scheme against guys not wearing orange and white.

I think we should keep the game competitive for most of it, but everybody discounting their OL as undersized and bad and acting like they’ve never seen a front 7 anything like what we’ll put on the field reeks of last years whole TheyGonLearn nonsense.
Click to expand...
Yep. The d line will be a glaring weakness IMO. I'm gonna say we'll get there, but I'm starting to really think it's going to be tough sledding getting to a bowl. Especially if we don't beat one of WVU or UF. That's almost a must IMO. I think folks look at the names on this staff and think they're just gonna come in here, wave a magic wand, and totally change things in one off season. It takes more than one off season to remove the suck from this team. Yes, we were poorly coached, but we also just didn't have a good football team last year as well. We're going 6-6.
 
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#10,357
#10,357
Chief Vol 13 said:
Yep. The d line will be a glaring weakness IMO. I'm gonna say we'll get there, but I'm starting to really think it's going to be tough sledding getting to a bowl. Especially if we don't beat one of WVU or UF. That's almost a must IMO. I think folks look at the names on this staff and think they're just gonna come in here, wave a magic wand, and totally change things in one off season. It takes more than one off season to remove the suck from this team. Yes, we were poorly coached, but we also just didn't have a good football team last year as well. We're going 6-6.
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E-brake
 
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#10,360
#10,360
Volnukem said:
I see WVU a lot like our 2016 Vols. Had some success the year before with injuries causing some late year issues. Lots of hype with a great returning QB. Also, a lot of pressure to succeed. I wonder if WVU has been reading their own press clippings like we did. Will they stumble against us like we did against App state?
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Please don't ever make us app state in an analogy again.
 
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#10,364
#10,364
Volnukem said:
Yes and no. Any other program of their caliber and I would whole heartedly agree. They are the giant killers though. There is a different stigma around them. We won 4 games last year. I doubt WVU is giving us much more credit than we gave App state.
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In 2016 our guys were looking forward to Bristol and VT.

Who does WVU have week 2? If it’s an OOC cupcake I doubt they’ll be overlooking us. A win against an SEC team is something they’d love to have regardless of our record last year.
 
#10,365
#10,365
Sleegro said:
I don't think it's all that unprecedented for the big kids on the line to show improvement their junior and senior year. They don't all need to be all world. But if most show improvement we as a whole can show great improvement. Sum of the parts deal. And it used to be you didn't expect linemen to really do much before their 3rd or 4th year. It is pretty normal for the big guys to not be ready until they're juniors and seniors. I would actually be more surprised if our group of upper class DL wasn't vastly improved even with marginally better coaching. And I think we can all agree that the coaches are far more than marginally better. I bet we're at least upper middle of the sec in sacks this season based on having an older more experienced DL alone.

Edit: and I'm including our OLB here with both kongbo and Taylor being experienced upper classmen.
Click to expand...

I get the upperclassmen thing, but you usually see a big jump from upperclassmen who’ve had a couple years of consistent development. Our guys haven’t had that. And there just haven’t been enough flashes from those guys up front as a whole to assume they’ll look like a whole new unit this season. I’m sure we’ll see somebody take a big step, but I just don’t see them all making a huge leap.

They were not impressive in the spring game going against an OL that had 2-3 guys who will be second string for us this year. None of our guys were particularly impressive in 2016 or 2017. Many have histories of injuries. And depth, at least going into week 1, is a huge question mark


I just think people who are assuming 9-10 months of coaching will result in everyone of those guys maximizing their full potential week one are setting themselves up for disappointment. They still haven’t played one game with our new staff. It’s still a process and they’re not gonna get where we need them to be until they’ve been through a couple weeks of games and game prep with the new staff, IMO.
 
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#10,368
#10,368
Chief Vol 13 said:
Yep. The d line will be a glaring weakness IMO. I'm gonna say we'll get there, but I'm starting to really think it's going to be tough sledding getting to a bowl. Especially if we don't beat one of WVU or UF. That's almost a must IMO. I think folks look at the names on this staff and think they're just gonna come in here, wave a magic wand, and totally change things in one off season. It takes more than one off season to remove the suck from this team. Yes, we were poorly coached, but we also just didn't have a good football team last year as well. We're going 6-6.
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The thing is....we don't know. People are assuming we're not going to improve very much or we're going to improve leaps and bounds. I think we improve a good deal, but I don't know. Too many variables. We do know that this staff knows how to teach football, on the defensive side of the ball, at least. I think it is overblown as to what kind of adjustment it will be changing to a different scheme. I think that our scheme will be much simpler than Shoop's and our players will be taught it much better. They may not be as talented as some of their recruiting ranking suggested when they signed, but there is talent there. They will add more wrinkles to the scheme as the season progresses, I think, just to keep some opponents off balance. The problem is that everyone bases their opinion on what happened last year. This is a new year and a new staff. We will be better. It remains to be seen how much better.
 
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#10,371
#10,371
butchna said:
When we kick the ever loving shizz out of WVa, then we’ll get the full story on how it’s not really that big of a deal cuz they they totally suck and stuff. 😏
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I don't think it loving shizz at all. I think it will putrid and dying after we kick it out of them.
 
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#10,372
#10,372
UTProf said:
It's gotta be either a series of really bad things where you just lose all perspective and have a death wish or one of those moments where you're feeling like you can do anything and take a risk while damning the consequences. As scary as meth is I tend to think that if you choose to do it now (with all the information that's out there on it) it's because your life really has gone to hell and you just don't care anymore. That drug scares me and I tend to think we make far too much hoopla about most drugs.
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This ^
 
#10,375
#10,375
Ahhhh Gameday is back... talking about new coaches at major programs and not even a sniff of Pruitt and TN.... my, my how far we've fallen... Even big deal on Frost and Moorhead at MsSt... Saying long term Taggart has the best chance at success... well, F gameday boys!
 
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