Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

[JAllen18]

"Jarrett Guarantano is wearing a bulky brace on his injured left knee but looked pretty normal otherwise. "

Good news, but I fear a few blindside hits from UGA's defense may take a toll.

 

[SSVol]

We saw different games. I saw a tightly conservative called game with tight players who got dominated in their heads right out of the gate.

I would hardly call the early onside kick and 4th down attempts conservative. As for wrinkles and trick plays, don't know, haven't seen anything to confirm that we have those. Did see a tight team though, like what tends to happen when everyone is worried about 'special' games.

Pruitt's whiteboard felt the importance though.

 

[jordan4vols]

I’ve had my problems with JG holding the ball too long but my gosh that kid is one tough S.O.B.

 

[JAllen18]

Pruitt spent both open periods on Tuesday on the offensive field. He swung by tight-end drills before spending nearly a full period watching the offensive line work and then went over to where the quarterbacks and wide receivers were working on various formations and route combinations. It certainly is notable a defensive coach like Pruitt spent so much time on the offensive side of the ball when he's almost always working with the defense.

Pruitt spending his time coaching offense this week.

 

[Smokey123]

8 turnovers in 4 games. Feels like we have progressively gotten worse on offense.

We went from 0 the first two games, to 2 and 6. I really thought we woulda corrected the mistakes from Utep, that’s why I wasn’t worried about the score. Boy was I wrong lol

 

[Smokey123]

On the Mullen vs Pruitt tenures to this point..

Neither team looks any better than they did last year imo

Take that however you want it

Ehh, I kinda agree. However I’d say Franks probably looks better and so does our defense

 

[Catbone]

Good news, but I fear a few blindside hits from UGA's defense may take a toll.

UGA doesnt have that great of a pass rush actually. Regardless JG almost 100% will have a serious injury over the next 3 games. Feel bad for him being a tackling dummy out there.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

It’ll never work until you get elite athletes that you develop. Which will probably be around year 4. The next 3 years will be miserable if they don’t adjust and adapt, like every other great coach

I'm not arguing against the necessity of elite athletes but Kentucky is playing with a first year 3 star JUCO QB, a RS FR low 3 star at LT, a true SO at center, and a 2 star RG. Of course they do have Benny Snell but what else?

I think the key to Kentucky's offensive success so far this year may be because this is the 3rd year for long time OC Eddie Gran as the OC for the cats. His first couple years he got a lot of criticism.

This from last year:

“I don’t read a blog. If I hear something bad about me it’s coming from the street or something like that,” Gran said last week. “Somebody might flip me off or whatever. I don’t know, whatever. I don’t worry about that. I really don’t. We can score 50 and we didn’t run the ball enough. We could score 30 and we didn’t pass the ball enough.”

This season hasn’t been as smooth offensively with offensive line attrition and less production in the running back room, but the Cats have offset a portion of the ground game with an improved passing attack.

That adaptability might be Gran’s strength as an offensive coordinator. And it changes from week to week. Johnson attempted a career-high 36 passes against Missouri, and just 15 against Tennessee on Saturday. The Cats thought they could run on the Vols and it worked.

Gran was criticized for his conservative play calling at the beginning of the season. Kentucky debuted a few new formations against Tennessee and ran two trick plays. No one’s calling him conservative anymore.

 

[Smokey123]

Wow. That 2013 schedule we played was unreal. Oregon was #2, UF 19, Uga 6, Scar 11, bama 1, Mizzou 10, Auburn 9. Oregon finished #9, Scar and Mizzou 4 and 5, Auburn 2, Bama 7, Vandy 24.

 

[SugarCC]

Ok, but good teams don’t do that. Stop making excuses

What do you mean, stop making excuses?

You said do whatever to win, and I can't disagree with that, even though I believe we have to stick with who we want to be; it seems we are going to take it on the chin this year by doing so, but the identity/culture has the be established NOW, no matter what. We just have to endure until Wanya and Jackson and Melvin and Chris, and hopefully Darnell can get here; also, until what we do have here can spend more time with Craig Fitzgerald.

But, back to excuses...
1. You don't agree that "whatever" will be greatly affected by 6 TO's?

Also...

2. You don't agree that those TO's was the absolute biggest reason for the turnout the other night?

 

[Smokey123]

I'm not arguing against the necessity of elite athletes but Kentucky is playing with a first year 3 star JUCO QB, a RS FR low 3 star at LT, a true SO at center, and a 2 star RG. Of course they do have Benny Snell but what else?

I think the key to Kentucky's offensive success so far this year may be because this is the 3rd year for long time OC Eddie Gran as the OC for the cats. His first couple years he got a lot of criticism.

This from last year:

Yea, I should have clarified. I meant our current Offense won’t work until we develop the players, I think we won’t be able to reach where we want to be without elite athletes.

Yea Kentucky’s Offense seems to be doing really well, I’ve been surprised. Gran broke plenty of records at Cincy

 

[Catbone]

I'm not arguing against the necessity of elite athletes but Kentucky is playing with a first year 3 star JUCO QB, a RS FR low 3 star at LT, a true SO at center, and a 2 star RG. Of course they do have Benny Snell but what else?

I think the key to Kentucky's offensive success so far this year may be because this is the 3rd year for long time OC Eddie Gran as the OC for the cats. His first couple years he got a lot of criticism.

This from last year:

Stability. Something we have not had in 10 years. New Coordinators every year cant help. Actually does anyone know if we had more position/strength coaching changes than a normal SEC team? I feel like nothing was ever stable under Butch.

 

[hotcypress]

Looks like Kelly Bryant may transfer and count this as a redshirt as well. Anyone interested?

 

[therickbol]

I think most people thought this year would be a struggle. As far as beating Florida, hard to blame Pruitt's coaching for 6 Turnovers.

Certainly not much of anything to paint as a rosy picture from Saturday. Very little you can point to and say that it looked good. However, the TO's are not a direct cause-and-effect of how they are being coached. And the 6 TO's are HUGELY responsible for the apparent size of the gap between UF and UT right now. The scoreboard is not an indication of that gap. Very skewed. That is not to really call to light anything positive for us. We have a LONG ways to go. Trench play on offense is abysmal. But UF is not nearly that far ahead. We GAVE them points. They had no sustained drives until game was over and we had essentially given up. Franks' numbers were terrible. Their run game was not good. DB's were very suspect outside of Henderson. But their LB's and DL definitely owned our OL.

 

[volfanCLT]

Looks like Kelly Bryant may transfer and count this as a redshirt as well. Anyone interested?

Sure. We need mobile QBs to run away from the pass rushers our line let’s through untouched

 

[Nashvegas31]

Tyrel Dodson transferring?

Wouldn't this that be kind of funny if Pruitts rights all butchs wrongs by having them all transfer here for last yrs lol... Dodson and McClesky.

 

[mccrackb]

UGA doesnt have that great of a pass rush actually. Regardless JG almost 100% will have a serious injury over the next 3 games. Feel bad for him being a tackling dummy out there.

Kid needs to learn the offense and anticipate the lack of blocking. I Got no confidence in this tough humbre.

 

[bignewt]

I would hardly call the early onside kick and 4th down attempts conservative. As for wrinkles and trick plays, don't know, haven't seen anything to confirm that we have those. Did see a tight team though, like what tends to happen when everyone is worried about 'special' games.

Pruitt's whiteboard felt the importance though.

Those decisions were reactionary...big difference. We were not attacking, not proactively going balls out and taking the fight to them from the opening play. That is the problem i saw.

 

[Orange Studs]

Those decisions were reactionary...big difference. We were not attacking, not proactively going balls out and taking the fight to them from the opening play. That is the problem i saw.

Being a license expert in the Volnation RF form, I have the mail ordered certificate hanging on my wall, I agree with this statement and gave you a "like" I know this makes your day and your welcome.

 

[KPT_VFL]

I would welcome Kelly Bryant to our football team with open arms.

 

[Vols4us]

Those decisions were reactionary...big difference. We were not attacking, not proactively going balls out and taking the fight to them from the opening play. That is the problem i saw.

I agree. So what caused it? Thinking too much, too tight, don't care much...? Maybe all plus some depending on the player?

 

[scvolfan7]

Left wing just refers to liberal, meaning a "liberal" interpretation or over regulation. It doesn't refer to a political stance on a topic. It absolutely makes sense.

There’s a difference in using the word liberal and using the political term “left wing”. whether it was intentional or not he made it political by using that phrase.

On top of that anyone that knows anything about politics knows self-proclaimed liberals aren’t really leftists lol. Not today at least.

 

[OrangenSC]

Yes, I agree to a point. As others have said in the past though, you can tell in the first two years just based off how the team plays. At some point, a coach has to win a toss up game.
That's why I thought Butch was going to be solid with the team's win against USC and performance against UGA in 2013. He outperformed. 2015 was ok,, and then the end of 2016 just fell apart. But, Pruitt has to beat a couple of Vandy, UK, Mizzou, SC the next two years to show he can coach.

So. you just disproved your own point. How we played the first 2 years under Jones gave reason believe he wouldn't get it done.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

8 turnovers in 4 games. Feels like we have progressively gotten worse on offense.

I don't think we've gotten worse per se. I think we're playing out of control and it started after the ETSU game because we were trying to get more aggressive especially when starting out the game. The first 2 games we were stuck in park during the 1st quarters so we were trying to correct that by playing "harder". Playing out of control is often easily recognized on the basketball court but seldom applied to football but I think it's the same principle. We need to find our speed and stay in control especially with regards to protecting the football. It could also apply to penalties. We're forcing our play and it is counterproductive. Playing harder and staying in control are not mutually exclusive so we just have to find a way be smarter about it. jmo.

 

[Skizer41]

I don’t think anyone is “out” on him because of it, but it set any good will he had built back to zero. Just my opinion.

I'm definitely not out on Pruitt. I'm a little concerned about offensive strategy by Will Friend and Tyson Helton or whomever is taking ownership of directing our offense.

Do I think Pruitt will win us a national championship? Probably not but can't say for sure. Here's what I see as the truth. We lack talent significantly on this roster. Whether it's a roster full of undeveloped talent or a roster full of overrated players or really doesn't matter. Our roster is probably between the 11th-14th best roster in the SEC. So the first thing we need to get is talent.

The second/third thing's were need are continuity and trust. Continuity needs to come from the coaching staff. But they are still learning their way around Knoxville to be honest. Not saying we as fans need to but in 100% but we need to give them time to form continuity among the staff which will then translate to the players.

And the players need to build trust. You think JG trusts his line? You think the front seven trusts the secondary to cover until they can apply pressure? You think the secondary trusts the front seven to ever get pressure? No. There is no trust among these players that the guy next to them will do their job. Which I think creates a mentality that they individually have to be the one to make the play.

Better and brighter days will come to The Hill. Just not as soon as anyone of us want them to. Go Vols!