Recruiting Forum Football Talk [RIP 9.3.2019]

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#148,752
#148,752
I remember the 2016 game against South Carolina and the unexpected loss. Dobbs said he didn’t have his best game because he had stayed up until 2 in the morning working on a school project. Look, I can appreciate that for himself there’s no question Dobbs made the right decision, not by telling us what happened, but by having his personal priorities correct. And even though I know that, it still is unsettling to me that it seems apparent we’re not really doing everything we can to win football games, whether it’s the players or the coaches.

In the Tony Barnhart article, and I couldn’t care less about anything Tony might have to say, Pruitt said something that struck me as very disappointing. He lamented that he was probably less focused on his team at times last year than he was focused on getting the program set up for the way he wants it to be in the future. Someone here interpreted some of his comments in that article as him saying he lost the team at the end of last year. He didn’t use those words but he did suggest that he hadn’t provided something to believe in for his players.

It doesn’t bug me that he has an exceptional capacity for candor because after the last guy that’s a bit refreshing. What bugged me was that he wouldn’t be laser-like focused on doing everything possible to win as many games as possible in the first place. I mean he’s throwing his players under the bus about not playing the right way in the Alabama game. How does he get away with not doing his job the right way, unless it’s just a given that winning is not all that important in the BUSINESS of football?

I remember after the West Virginia game last year, he talked about what they did during the hour and a half rain delay. They were coaching the players. We had actually managed to stay in the game for the first half. After the slow start we were only down by 6 at the half but the first thing that popped into my mind after hearing of his rain delay seminar is the guys returned to the field mentally exhausted. They proceeded to give up 20 points in the 3rd quarter. It was intuitive to me that you don’t do that and I found some other coaches that said the same thing but he said he didn’t see anything wrong with it.

I’ve been in leadership roles since I was a 19-year old platoon leader in boot camp for the Navy. I was a shift supervisor on a submarine and both a work center supervisor and shift supervisor on an aircraft carrier. I had an almost 40 year career in project management organizations in industry. The number one key I utilized to ensure my success was to provide the maximum support I could to the guys doing the work. If I could do everything possible to help them be successful I would be successful by default.

You’d be surprised at how many people in leadership roles prefer to be and act like the boss rather than the leader. It is the leader’s primary duty to stay focused on the mission and to have the vision to see not just the here and now but the immediate future as well. Without vision there is no leadership. A leader must anticipate obstacles and be positioned to lead when challenges are encountered.

I remember in the Dooley days telling by brother (who has now given up his 8 season tickets) that Dooley was too much of a boss for the job he had. I thought Jones was a fast talking salesman that was so insecure in his own competence that he was forever trying to educate those around him. He was the consummate preemptive excuse-maker. I actually genuinely supported all these guys. I liked Dooley until he got frazzled; I never liked Jones’ personality. I just have never liked salesmen so it wasn’t personal; I still wanted him to be successful. Of course I would have rather had someone whose personality was more to my liking and in particular someone who I thought I could trust what they were saying and someone who I thought would go into every game with a commitment to doing everything possible to come away with a win.

Of all the guys we’ve had as our head coach, Pruitt is my most favorite since Johnny Majors. I think he has a lot of football smarts and he loves the game but you can bet if he was working for me I would have been chewing is ass out over the West Virginia seminar and not focusing on his team enough at different times over the course of last year. We only get 12 opportunities a year and if you are not doing everything within your power to ensure our best effort in each of those precious opportunities then you and I are going to have words.

I understand he’s a rookie head coach. I understand he came to Tennessee to be mentored by one of our hall of fame former head coaches so he can add that to his resume for when and if Saban ever bites the dust. Obviously that will be a big credibility booster but if we want the guy to grow and mature as a head coach then I don’t think we’re serving him well if we’re going to be making excuses for him every time he pulls a head scratcher.

I still like Jeremy and I haven’t lost any faith in him. I still believe he is committed to being an elite head coach. I just think we’re going to have to provide more supervision and training that I was hoping would be required. The first step in correcting your mistakes is identifying the mistake in the first place, preferably before it is compounded by even more mistakes. I take a measure of comfort in not only Pruitt’s ability to do that but also his willingness to admit it to the interested parties (players, fans, media, his boss, etc.). That’s actually a good sign of growing into a leadership role and that is to his credit much unlike his predecessor.

A couple weeks ago Freak and I were chatting and he said he doesn’t get as emotional as he once did in regards to the performance of our football team. I confessed that I’m probably never going to be so blessed as to achieve a similar state. I just try to take a bit of time to cool down before I talk to anyone about how I really feel.

If Pruitt was working for me I would tell him overall I think he’s doing a good job and I continue to have high hopes for him. I appreciate his accepting responsibility for his occasional mistakes and I don’t want to see those mistakes again. Now go beat Florida and I mean, go BEAT Florida. Okay? Are we good?
 
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#148,756
#148,756
Rob Lewis said that Cone has a daughter and that distance would be a factor. Blacksburg, VA is about 3 and half hours closer to where Cone is from than what Knoxville is.
 
#148,757
#148,757
ChattaTNVol said:
I remember the 2016 game against South Carolina and the unexpected loss. Dobbs said he didn’t have his best game because he had stayed up until 2 in the morning working on a school project. Look, I can appreciate that for himself there’s no question Dobbs made the right decision, not by telling us what happened, but by having his personal priorities correct. And even though I know that, it still is unsettling to me that it seems apparent we’re not really doing everything we can to win football games, whether it’s the players or the coaches.

In the Tony Barnhart article, and I couldn’t care less about anything Tony might have to say, Pruitt said something that struck me as very disappointing. He lamented that he was probably less focused on his team at times last year than he was focused on getting the program set up for the way he wants it to be in the future. Someone here interpreted some of his comments in that article as him saying he lost the team at the end of last year. He didn’t use those words but he did suggest that he hadn’t provided something to believe in for his players.

It doesn’t bug me that he has an exceptional capacity for candor because after the last guy that’s a bit refreshing. What bugged me was that he wouldn’t be laser-like focused on doing everything possible to win as many games as possible in the first place. I mean he’s throwing his players under the bus about not playing the right way in the Alabama game. How does he get away with not doing his job the right way, unless it’s just a given that winning is not all that important in the BUSINESS of football?

I remember after the West Virginia game last year, he talked about what they did during the hour and a half rain delay. They were coaching the players. We had actually managed to stay in the game for the first half. After the slow start we were only down by 6 at the half but the first thing that popped into my mind after hearing of his rain delay seminar is the guys returned to the field mentally exhausted. They proceeded to give up 20 points in the 3rd quarter. It was intuitive to me that you don’t do that and I found some other coaches that said the same thing but he said he didn’t see anything wrong with it.

I’ve been in leadership roles since I was a 19-year old platoon leader in boot camp for the Navy. I was a shift supervisor on a submarine and both a work center supervisor and shift supervisor on an aircraft carrier. I had an almost 40 year career in project management organizations in industry. The number one key I utilized to ensure my success was to provide the maximum support I could to the guys doing the work. If I could do everything possible to help them be successful I would be successful by default.

You’d be surprised at how many people in leadership roles prefer to be and act like the boss rather than the leader. It is the leader’s primary duty to stay focused on the mission and to have the vision to see not just the here and now but the immediate future as well. Without vision there is no leadership. A leader must anticipate obstacles and be positioned to lead when challenges are encountered.

I remember in the Dooley days telling by brother (who has now given up his 8 season tickets) that Dooley was too much of a boss for the job he had. I thought Jones was a fast talking salesman that was so insecure in his own competence that he was forever trying to educate those around him. He was the consummate preemptive excuse-maker. I actually genuinely supported all these guys. I liked Dooley until he got frazzled; I never liked Jones’ personality. I just have never liked salesmen so it wasn’t personal; I still wanted him to be successful. Of course I would have rather had someone whose personality was more to my liking and in particular someone who I thought I could trust what they were saying and someone who I thought would go into every game with a commitment to doing everything possible to come away with a win.

Of all the guys we’ve had as our head coach, Pruitt is my most favorite since Johnny Majors. I think he has a lot of football smarts and he loves the game but you can bet if he was working for me I would have been chewing is ass out over the West Virginia seminar and not focusing on his team enough at different times over the course of last year. We only get 12 opportunities a year and if you are not doing everything within your power to ensure our best effort in each of those precious opportunities then you and I are going to have words.

I understand he’s a rookie head coach. I understand he came to Tennessee to be mentored by one of our hall of fame former head coaches so he can add that to his resume for when and if Saban ever bites the dust. Obviously that will be a big credibility booster but if we want the guy to grow and mature as a head coach then I don’t think we’re serving him well if we’re going to be making excuses for him every time he pulls a head scratcher.

I still like Jeremy and I haven’t lost any faith in him. I still believe he is committed to being an elite head coach. I just think we’re going to have to provide more supervision and training that I was hoping would be required. The first step in correcting your mistakes is identifying the mistake in the first place, preferably before it is compounded by even more mistakes. I take a measure of comfort in not only Pruitt’s ability to do that but also his willingness to admit it to the interested parties (players, fans, media, his boss, etc.). That’s actually a good sign of growing into a leadership role and that is to his credit much unlike his predecessor.

A couple weeks ago Freak and I were chatting and he said he doesn’t get as emotional as he once did in regards to the performance of our football team. I confessed that I’m probably never going to be so blessed as to achieve a similar state. I just try to take a bit of time to cool down before I talk to anyone about how I really feel.

If Pruitt was working for me I would tell him overall I think he’s doing a good job and I continue to have high hopes for him. I appreciate his accepting responsibility for his occasional mistakes and I don’t want to see those mistakes again. Now go beat Florida and I mean, go BEAT Florida. Okay? Are we good?
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Don't remember if JP ever said he felt the WV delay should have been handed differently.

People are different. I think, he personally, benefits more from the relentless focus until he feels something is resolved, while the majority benefit from taking a break, regrouping and starting fresh.
It can be hard to practice a style of teaching when it's the opposite of what works best for you.

I'm curious to see if any similar circumstances are handled differently in the future. The "never stop focusing" mentality seems to be in line with all the stories of him sleeping at the office etc.. Guessing taking time for everyone to mentally regroup, will be foriegn for him.

He's relentless and any whiteboard that gets in the way, be damned. He may need a prescription for that haha.
 
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#148,758
#148,758
Here's a look at 10 games during SEC play that will potentially determine how the East and West divisions are won, which in turn helps shape the College Football Playoff picture within the nation's most competitive league:
10. Georgia at Tennessee (Oct. 5)

247Sports projected opening line: Georgia by 7.5

Why it matters: They may not have been particularly memorable thanks to Tennessee's late-season swoon, but Jeremy Pruitt and the Vols upset two Top 15 teams last fall — Auburn and Kentucky. It's not out of the question to think Tennessee could do it again with better depth and a year of maturation under the new regime's rebuild. The two-time defending SEC East champion Bulldogs have outscored the Vols by 67 points over the past two meetings, but this one figures to be the toughest of the three with both squads coming off an open week. And imagine the hype for this game at Neyland Stadium if Tennessee can beat Florida on the road to open SEC play the previous game and start the season 4-0?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

The SEC's 10 biggest swing games in 2019
 
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#148,764
#148,764
GoBigOrange86 said:
The plot is driving the characters instead of the other way around. That's what the issue seems to be for me, anyway.
Click to expand...

the constant plot twists and questionable play calling for dramatic purposes in previous 7 or 8 seasons have led to a forced close.

honestly, we could have had an entire three-four episodes of White Walker War to finish that plot off.

Not a big fan of where they're headed with Dany and Jon, then again. I've not beena gigantic GoT fan since day 1. It's fantasy for ADHD sufferers.
 
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#148,768
#148,768
@ChattaTNVol I read it all, the whole thing and in one setting. No pee break needed. I always enjoy your insights. I think Pruitt has a level of humility that will ultimately lead to his success as a head coach. Arguably what was the biggest issue the team had last year? Offense. We can contribute it to poor line play if we want, but if you have a really good OC they hide your issues, not highlight them. Felt like Helton wasn't a great OC. Seeing him as -the- guy and hearing that Pruitt had to be more involved seems to tell me he made a poor choice with that hire.

Pruitt will likely never come out and say that or blame Helton in anyway, but I feel he took that lesson to heart and that's why Jim Chaney is our new OC. I actually think Fulmer gave Pruitt as much time as he needed to make the hire, I don't think UT was hung up on paying Chaney in the least. I believe (especially now) that it was about Pruitt interviewing candidates and getting comfortable with whoever he decided to try and hire. That's why it drug out as long as it did, no one will ever admit that probably. Seems like with how fast Fulmer paid Barnes and how fast he locked down Harper it's unlikely Chaney's pay was the hold up.

I bet they had a heart to heart. I'm sure of it in fact, because Pruitt is a very down to earth humble guy. He probably spoke to those he trusted and got the same advice from all of them. "There's no reason to rush and make the hire, get to know the candidates as much as you can first."
 
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#148,770
#148,770
HankHill said:
Best episode in a long time last night.
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I liked it because we got to see Sansa show what she had learned from Littlefinger when she betrayed Jon by breaking her oath by telling Tyrion Jon's secret. I believe she knew that Tyrion would tell Varys, and who knows where it would go from there. We all knew the final season would be filled with big battles, but the court intrigue and 'behind the curtain' manipulation, the so-called 'game of thrones', is what always made this show so awesome, so it is fun to see Sansa doing her best Littlefinger and set the wheels in motion to get Jon on the Iron Throne, which Sansa fully realizes is the North's best chance at independence from the Iron Throne.
 
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#148,774
#148,774
jackcrevol said:
the constant plot twists and questionable play calling for dramatic purposes in previous 7 or 8 seasons have led to a forced close.

honestly, we could have had an entire three-four episodes of White Walker War to finish that plot off.

Not a big fan of where they're headed with Dany and Jon, then again. I've not beena gigantic GoT fan since day 1. It's fantasy for ADHD sufferers.
Click to expand...

Now I agree with this. Everything is a bit rushed.
 
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