Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

[ionaVOL]

yeah, none of those are predictions. just guys that would likely have a chance at really standing out this season if all goes well.

i do think there's more opportunities on the defense than the offense presently. DWA has the physical tools NFL GM's would want. he gets better around the LOS and proves to be able to be a signficant contributor to the offense....how is he on 3rd down attempts? in the red zone? run blocking, pass blocking? he may be the best NFL prospect on the offense....today.

i still think there's reason to be optimistic about this year, as far as seeing improvement over the last two seasons.

but when you start the coversation of being competitive at the top of the conf....we got a ways to go on that front.

Definitely agree. Need some older, more experienced guys like Palmer, Chandler, Kennedy etc, to step up and hopefully put themselves in a position to join that draft conversation as well.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

You know that NFL teams are loving the bargain bin shopping for UT players though. The school gets bashed on by the media & drives down the value of players in the draft.

Jets signed Phillips
Titans signed Sapp
Vikings signed Abernathy
Saints signed Tuttle

I think that only leaves Kongbo & Alexis from the 6 available for this draft not signed with a chance to make a roster, and no team had to use a draft pick to grab them.

 

[HankHill]

You know that NFL teams are loving the bargain bin shopping for UT players though. The school gets bashed on by the media & drives down the value of players in the draft.

Jets signed Phillips
Titans signed Sapp
Vikings signed Abernathy
Saints signed Tuttle

I think that only leaves Kongbo & Alexis from the 6 available for this draft not signed with a chance to make a roster, and no team had to use a draft pick to grab them.

I think Kyle makes our roster. We have a void at sub package versatile DL.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

Spoiler: GOT

if there were no sex and nudity I would give it a shot. As it is, no thanks. Lol at big newt if he read this!

You can cover your eyes during those naughty parts.

 

[jakez4ut]

Pruitt needs at least 4 years. Consistently getting better, but he needs 4 years. We can not afford another coaching change any time soon. We need stability in a bad way.

well, we've needed stability for the last 10 years. but you can't just have it for the sake of having it. firing dooley was the right thing to do, firing jones was the right thing to do. and if pruitt winds up being of that ilk (i don't think he will) then it'd be right to fire him too.

 

[Rishvol]

I think Kyle makes our roster. We have a void at all positions.

Fyp

 

[ChismsHeadband]

Anyone have a summary of the last few days here? I've been out of pocket since Thursday.

I see where Rakim Jarrett committed to LSU, which sucks, but whatever.

 

[HankHill]

Fyp

Chill

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I think Kyle makes our roster. We have a void at sub package versatile DL.

I agree, I think Tuttle & Sapp are battling health more than anything else. Both when 100% healthy are NFL level guys, I think Sapp should have returned for one more year but he's like just made six figures with a chance to go after 7 so I can't blame him too much.

Pruitt has 2 top 25 classes under his belt, and a fairly favorable year 2 schedule. Florida replaces 4 starters on the o-line I think, MSU replaces most of their defense and their leading rusher/passer and Kentucky as well as Vanderbilt both lost 50% or so of their teams.

Should be 7 win minimum this season, and if he does that prior to a bowl he'll be slightly ahead of schedule. One thing Pruitt has already establish Butch & Dooley both didn't is the "next level" of talent is on roster and will be ready to step in when the time comes. JG will be the starter, but both the guys behind him will be ready next year if not sooner and Bailey coming in will be in the competition there as well.

 

[chargervol]

Anyone have a summary of the last few days here? I've been out of pocket since Thursday.

I see where Rakim Jarrett committed to LSU, which sucks, but whatever.

About covers it. Been dead on the recruiting front, just movie, draft and tv talk.

 

[Nash_Vol97]

Dang fellas, I hate that for ya. One of the reasons I didn’t post anything earlier.

But for Pete’s sake... I literally labeled it Endgame Spoiler, lol

It wasn’t your fault. I was just in a GOT frenzy and went clicking like crazy without looking at who wrote it or what the label said. Oh well. At least I noticed quick and only really read the first line; even though it was a doozy.

 

[HankHill]

I agree, I think Tuttle & Sapp are battling health more than anything else. Both when 100% healthy are NFL level guys, I think Sapp should have returned for one more year but he's like just made six figures with a chance to go after 7 so I can't blame him too much.

Pruitt has 2 top 25 classes under his belt, and a fairly favorable year 2 schedule. Florida replaces 4 starters on the o-line I think, MSU replaces most of their defense and their leading rusher/passer and Kentucky as well as Vanderbilt both lost 50% or so of their teams.

Should be 7 win minimum this season, and if he does that prior to a bowl he'll be slightly ahead of schedule. One thing Pruitt has already establish Butch & Dooley both didn't is the "next level" of talent is on roster and will be ready to step in when the time comes. JG will be the starter, but both the guys behind him will be ready next year if not sooner and Bailey coming in will be in the competition there as well.

I think If Kyle had one more year in a 3-4 he would’ve had another year of solid tape and that would’ve put him in the 4th-5th round. His pro day helped a ton, sadly only about 1/3 of the leagues JV crew was there to see it.

I am putting my expectations at 6 wins (regular season) next year. I think it’s extremely important to make a bowl game.

6 wins - took care of business
7 wins - good year
8 wins - great year
9+ wins - Pruitt is coach of the year.

 

[HankHill]

Fyp

We have a franchise QB so that alone will put us above half the league from here on out i hope

 

[ChattaTNVol]

I was looking at the Missouri thread in the FF and I think there's a lot of people writing off that game. I'm not discounting the development that Odom has done with his roster but I'm yet to be convinced that Bryant is their answer this year. There was a reason Dabo benched him in the early part of the 2018 season. He had seen his performance all during the 2017 year and it didn't look much better in 2018.

 

[Big Gucci Sosa]

Anyone have a summary of the last few days here? I've been out of pocket since Thursday.

I see where Rakim Jarrett committed to LSU, which sucks, but whatever.

Jack chit

 

[zhangliao04]

well, we've needed stability for the last 10 years. but you can't just have it for the sake of having it. firing dooley was the right thing to do, firing jones was the right thing to do. and if pruitt winds up being of that ilk (i don't think he will) then it'd be right to fire him too.

My post wasn't in opposition of what you were saying, just more or less talking about those who think Pruitt is done after this year if *blank* doesn't happen. Not many of them out there, but there are a number of rabid fans in our fanbase that speak quite loudly on things they shouldn't. If by year 4 Pruitt is looking like Dooley or Butch then yes we should find a new coach. Just would suck tremendously as it would be another new coach for UT. Should be better players though, but still. We need consistency at the HC position longer than 4 years and the same with assistants.

 

[jakez4ut]

My post wasn't in opposition of what you were saying, just more or less talking about those who think Pruitt is done after this year if *blank* doesn't happen. Not many of them out there, but there are a number of rabid fans in our fanbase that speak quite loudly on things they shouldn't. If by year 4 Pruitt is looking like Dooley or Butch then yes we should find a new coach. Just would suck tremendously as it would be another new coach for UT. Should be better players though, but still. We need consistency at the HC position longer than 4 years and the same with assistants.

Agree.

 

[drvenner]

I was looking at the Missouri thread in the FF and I think there's a lot of people writing off that game. I'm not discounting the development that Odom has done with his roster but I'm yet to be convinced that Bryant is their answer this year. There was a reason Dabo benched him in the early part of the 2018 season. He had seen his performance all during the 2017 year and it didn't look much better in 2018.

View attachment 203795

People act like they won't miss a beat with Drew Lock leaving, but I am far from sold on Bryant.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

i'm not even going to hazard a guess for next year's draft. so much will depend on what happens with certain players this year on the field....but i would think guys like Taylor, BItuli, Gooden, Warrior are going to have big opportunities to turn some heads this season.

offensively....DWA and Jennings will have a chance.

i mean if things go well, and these guys are productive and can get on the radar screen....maybe 4-6 guys have a shot at it?

which would be huge for validating Pruitt and this staff...so i hope it happens obviously.

as for what he walked in to...well, i think a lot of us knew it was pretty bad...and i'm sure he knew a lot more than we did having game planned against many of these players, scouted them.......and also knowing he didn't actively try to recruit many of them either....that probably told him A LOT. just go up and down the roster and realize that half of these kids "i didn't go after"....

probably very telling, if the truth was told.

Speaking of Jennings:

I could be off base on this but here goes anyway. I know almost everyone says that our WR corps is our strongest returning position group but, and I don’t want to offend anyone, I’ve not been all that impressed with our guys. I think maybe the reason we’ve emphasized high pointing the football is that is almost the only way our receivers can get separation on defenders. I mean it’s a good thing we can high point the ball and at least in that regard we really improved in 2018 vs the prior year.

Without even looking at the stats it was my sense that Jauan Jennings and Ty Chandler were our best two receivers. There are of course others who catch the ball well enough but Jennings and Chandler have some ability to get separation and they dominate our receiving corps in yards after catch. For the most part much of the time with the other guys they’re stopped as soon as they catch the ball or they go out of bounds. CFB Film room used to track this and through the first 8 games last year before they stopped, both Jennings and Chandler compared favorably with other receivers at the top of the SEC with respect to yards after catch; the other guys were at the bottom of the stack. It could be just the way the plays were drawn up last year but I miss having receivers that could run after catch like Justin Hunter (pre-injury) or Josh Malone.

There are a couple of things that are puzzling about this. First, Callaway is a dynamic open field runner so I guess I don’t understand why we don’t try more often to get the ball to him in space. I’m going to blame that on Helton and expect to see something different from Chaney. The second thing is we only involved Chandler in the passing game against 4 opponents last year, all in the heart of our schedule, (UGA, AU, UA, & USC). He scored a TD in 3 of those games (UGA, AU, & UA) and ended the season tied with Jennings for the lead on the team for receiving TDs.

In one of the spring interviews, Chandler said he was excited about the offense that Chaney is installing and it might not just be player speak. Last year at Georgia Chaney got the ball to Swift in space almost twice as often as we did with Chandler. Swift only score 3 times so if we can double up the number of times for Chandler I figure that’s at least twice as many TDs. I wonder if receivers get embarrassed when a RB is the leading scorer in the passing game sort of like when the QB is the leading rusher and your RB just ups and decides to quit in the middle of the season.

Chaney, although it could be coach speak, has lauded the experience we have returning at the receiver position so I’m hoping he and Tee will be able to figure out a way to unlock more of their potential in the receiving game than perhaps his predecessor was able to do. I think having Jennings coming out of the slot is going to be a huge boost just by itself. Finding a way to get the ball to the perimeter guys so they can keep running and getting the ball to Chandler in space more often I think could go a long ways to helping us be more productive. Last year we were ranked #111 in pass attempts per game. We were #97 in passing yards per game and #34 in yards per attempt. We were #100 in passing TDs and 7th best in the nation with the fewest interceptions thrown.

While I think last year we saw a lot of Pruitt in the offensive philosophy in regards to running the ball, I think this year we may see a lot of Chaney in the offensive philosophy in regards to passing the ball and given our efficiency with regards to production vs attempts last year I’m inclined to think that this year that’s going to be fun to watch. jmo.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Also great episode of GoT last night, oddly enough I've yet to have Endgame spoiled right in my face....GoT went off and I saw FB post within 2-3 minutes ruining it. People really are attention seeking a$$holes, and social media gives them a safe space platform to let it out.

To be yellow are games we should win. Get USC & Vanderbilt here, and Kentucky (who we beat badly last year) lost too much for it to be a real difficult road game imo. BYU is a bit of a wildcard game for me, that team usually plays pretty stout early in the season so I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'll feel pretty good about the season if we're going into Florida 3-0 though. Red are toss ups that could go either way.

 

[LA Vol]

Six wins and a bowl was the expectation last year. Not reaching a prior year's expectation doesn't mean you can kick it forward to the next year. The expectation this year should be higher than it was last year-- so a floor of seven wins, with eight wins being encouraging and six wins being less so.

Some people don't want to quantify success, but when winning games and competing for championships is the measuring stick, then that's exactly how coaches, teams and programs are judged. None of which, in any way, indicates staff changes are warranted in Year 2.

 

[zhangliao04]

Also great episode of GoT last night, oddly enough I've yet to have Endgame spoiled right in my face....GoT went off and I saw FB post within 2-3 minutes ruining it. People really are attention seeking a$$holes, and social media gives them a safe space platform to let it out.

To be yellow are games we should win. Get USC & Vanderbilt here, and Kentucky (who we beat badly last year) lost too much for it to be a real difficult road game imo. BYU is a bit of a wildcard game for me, that team usually plays pretty stout early in the season so I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'll feel pretty good about the season if we're going into Florida 3-0 though. Red are toss ups that could go either way.
View attachment 203796

I think we get BYU. I saw a writer of theirs completely think that, even with a half-filled Neyland that BYU will get routed.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

It's pretty rare for teams to improve by more than 2 games in a season. So 5-7 to 7-5 seems the most obvious, with a bowl win that'd be 8-5 and honestly a pretty solid season, I'd be happy with that assuming the 5 losses aren't us getting routed like we did with Missouri. I hate tough losses, but a last second FG in the swamp to hand us a L I can stomach better than losing by 30+


I am trying to keep my expectations reasonable, mainly because we still aren't sure of what we'll have from either line come Fall. Chaney & Tee will help the passing game and the WRs have better success, but without passing protection that can't happen. I want to believe in Friend, and I know O-Line is the slowest area to really develop. But we need something, they only lost Drew Richmond from last year's line.

 

[butchna]

It was really anticlimactic....You build it up for 7 seasons and just like that. That person barely got away from a dozen or so wights in the library, but magically teleports past 1,000s wights and general white walkers...
I don’t care anymore about the show

Just in time.

 

[HankHill]

People act like they won't miss a beat with Drew Lock leaving, but I am far from sold on Bryant.

The only individual player that will be missed more than lock in the SEC is Kyle shurmer.