Steve Kiner discusses Tennessee's team leadership

[West Vol]

Maurer or Bailey are available.

And by our own coach’s admission, he’s spent almost zero time preparing them to play this season.

 

[USMC-TNVOL]

JG did what they asked him to do yesterday - to have a clean game and given what happened recently that was reasonable ask. If the defense did not play so poorely we also would have had more posessions and he probably could have done more. One more issue (which is on coaches for sure) is that Palmer is the only legit receiver on this team - all the other upper classmen and simply over their head playing aginst this type of competition - makes it much harder for QB when you only have one option (since we also don't use TE's at all in passing game). I think the focus right now needs to be getting as many of the freshman receivers ready to play vs Arky, and to fix the defense in terms of stopping big plays (those two things are at least as important as debate about who should be the QB going forward).

Right. JG didn’t make any poor throws whatsoever. The 54% completion is all on the WRs. Managing the game would be not throwing off his back foot, making throws on time, moving in the pocket, and running when he can instead of waiting until the pocket collapses. And of course the game looks better overall for him when they ran more than they passed.

The QB position definitely trumps any of the other positions as far as hindering this team. What defense has held Alabama down yet this year?

 

[TGVol]

I sure wish not beating Saban was our only problem. How about even being COMPETITIVE with Kentucky at home? The same Kentucky team that Mizzou handled yesterday. How about not being run out of the gym by Georgia? How about just playing inspired football period?

I agree - Kentucky was completely unacceptible. However, let's remember we should have been up at least 10-0 in the first half before Kentucky even had 1 first down (in which case we probably would have blown them out). So I still believe that UK game was a one off and result of lettdown from the previous game at UGA. Also, we did beat that same Mizzou team that beat UK, (and USCjr) without playing all that great. So it's not like suddenly we became the worst team in the world over the period of 2 weeks. This is what needs to be taken into account in these emotional conversations after bad losses - do we just throw out coaches every couple of years and start from the ground up or have some more patience (I know it's not easy to ask for patience after 15 years of misery but that's sadly what is needed right now). I still think Pruitt is a good football coach (not snake oil salesman like Butch) - it was brutal to listen to his post game yesterday, but he did come across as sincere and seriously disturbed by what's going on and I think he will do everything possible to fix it (as long as he can keep recruiting at high level, and if we win most of the remaining games this year I'm still sticking with him).

 

[jkleno]

Typical Vol fans who think we close the gap with UGA and Bama in 2 1/4 years.

 

[G8rh8r]

The lack of leadership on the sidelines and on the field is troubling at best. I think HT might be stepping up some on defense, but in my opinion, if it’s not an upperclassman, that’s a worrisome sign. Where are our senior and junior leaders? Especially JG. If he is in fact our only QB option, he is not leading the offense at all.
That said, I don’t think it’s all on the players. Leadership at the coaching level is nonexistent. No fire. No discipline. The dumb penalties we have seen time and time again have not been met with stern reproaches from the coaching staff. The most jarring example was when the GA player was kicked during the last game. Inexcusable, dumb move that should have had a coach or two in his face on the bench.

 

[Old Man Kelsey’s Vols]

Tennessee will not be a good football program for the foreseeable future. So far, Pruitt is no better than the 2 stiffs before him that we fired. When the admin gets serious about hiring a big time football coach, we will win again. Until then, nothing really changes

I agree; I hope we are wrong though. Until the University matches the commitment that the alumni and fans have, this is what we will get.

 

[Boston Vol]

Typical Vol fans who think we close the gap with UGA and Bama in 2 1/4 years.

Why shouldn’t we have closed the gap in 2 1/4 years? Again if your head coach doesn’t have your program rolling by year three it’s not going to happen.

 

[onthehill71]

Loved watching him play. A vol great.

He was a total beast. Played pick up bball with him a few times after he was on Cowboys. Took a charge from him..... once. All 6ft 130lbs of me. Was a life altering experience.

 

[OrangeTsar]

So please name a few big time coaches (who are not retired) who you are pretty sure would beat Saban.

Les Miles has proven he CAN do it. That was who I wanted to go after when Jones was canned. Thought Fulmer would give him a serious look but don’t think he ever did. Miles had trouble keeping up with Modern offenses as well, but I think he knows the SEC, can hire great staff, and could have given the program several seasons of well managed stability in which to rebuild. At least it would have not been another gamble on an unproven HC

 

[UTK]

I think Pruitt has questionable leadership at best.

Hard to step up and lead with the head guy yelling what everyone else is doing wrong. And he continues to roll with guys that aren’t getting it done at several positions.

Then he fires a coach, takes over his position group and that group gets worse instantly.

Pruitt’s credibility is very low right now. He is pointing fingers everywhere & it’s him that has to look in the damn mirror.

The kids see this everyday, Won’t have leaders step up for a coach that blames everyone else for problems.

Dline has sucked all year

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

Article is just BS and platitudes from one of Fulmer's buddies.

He did everything to tow the company line except assure the fans everything is fine a half dozen times.

It is damning that we have defensive players two weeks in a row airing concerns in social media.

Cornbread needs to sort this out in the locker room with the players, not the players second guessing on Instagram.

Or maybe he missed that section under Saban where you almost never see their players sniping publicly.

 

[TGVol]

Freeze has already done it twice. Malzahn could be available soon.

There are plenty of lesser know guys out there. We have done an astonishingly bad job of identifying them.

Freeze apparently had to cheat (recruiting) to get the talent to beat Saban. Are you suggesting that's what we should do?
Malzahn will be available because he is not good enough for Auburn any longer - why should he be a great hire for us in that case?
Statement that there are plenty of lesser known guys out there (without naming them) that would beat the greatest coach who ever coached in CF is another generic statement. Please name few of those lesser known guys who would beat Saban. As bad as we have been during last 15 years, with the exception of Butch everyone else we hired seemed reasonable lesser known name (some better known that others (Kiffin), some from Saban coaching tree like Dooley, Pruitt, and even Sunseri) - but the constant (not only at UT) is that hardly anyone ever beats Saban.

 

[JonGrudensAgent]

Dang. If only there was some way to have brought in a good quarterback. Too bad the lotto just randomly assigned us Keller Chryst and JT Shrout types.

Well...they did sign Bailey.

But apparently can't even get him ready to take snaps in mop up duty in a blowout loss yesterday.

 

[malibuvol]

Why shouldn’t we have closed the gap in 2 1/4 years? Again if your head coach doesn’t have your program rolling by year three it’s not going to happen.

Hard to close the gap when Bama and UGA bring in 5 or 6 5* players every year...There aren't many teams in the SEC besides LSU closing that gap either. Florida and Texas A&M might make up some ground, but it's difficult to steadily close the gap with the way Bama and UGA is recruiting...

 

[Boston Vol]

Freeze apparently had to cheat (recruiting) to get the talent to beat Saban. Are you suggesting that's what we should do?
Malzahn will be available because he is not good enough for Auburn any longer - why should he be a great hire for us in that case?
Statement that there are plenty of lesser known guys out there (without naming them) that would beat the greatest coach who ever coached in CF is another generic statement. Please name few of those lesser known guys who would beat Saban. As bad as we have been during last 15 years, with the exception of Butch everyone else we hired seemed reasonable lesser known name (some better known that others (Kiffin), some from Saban coaching tree like Dooley, Pruitt, and even Sunseri) - but the constant (not only at UT) is that hardly anyone ever beats Saban.

Are you suggesting that Tennessee isn’t cheating now? Everyone is handing out goodies to recruits. Maybe we just need to pony up some more.

 

[TGVol]

Les Miles has proven he CAN do it. That was who I wanted to go after when Jones was canned. Thought Fulmer would give him a serious look but don’t think he ever did. Miles had trouble keeping up with Modern offenses as well, but I think he knows the SEC, can hire great staff, and could have given the program several seasons of well managed stability in which to rebuild. At least it would have not been another gamble on an unproven HC

I have nothing against Les Miles but hiring Les Miles at this point (or even when Butch was being replaced) would be almost the same as hiring Fulmer back (he also proved he could win in the SEC, and even including NC - I hope we can all agree on that). The question about Les Miles was given all the talent he had available at LSU why he was not able to be even more competitive with Saban (that's why they eventually fired him). And the funny thing is that the same coach who could not win at Ole Miss (Orgeron) ended up winning NC once he had access to all that talent at LSU. This is why I think no matter who we would bring in until the talent level is closer to what Bama has nobody will be able to really compete with them unless they close that talent gap which takes years to accomplish (Kirby Smart is closing the gap with Bama, and I think Pruitt is as well but clearly several years behind Kirby at this point).

 

[Seattle Hillbilly]

Archie who?

If I remember correctly that one kinda backfired. Regardless, Kiner and “Hacksaw” were a pair to draw to.

 

[TGVol]

Are you suggesting that Tennessee isn’t cheating now? Everyone is handing out goodies to recruits. Maybe we just need to pony up some more.

Everyone is cheating but to varying degrees - they do have less reason to go after you and catch you unless you are succesfull.

 

[Volsonyourface]

Typical Vol fans who think we close the gap with UGA and Bama in 2 1/4 years.

Butch Jones lost to Alabama 19-14 in year 3. Had he been competent at coaching we likely would have beat them. At a school like Tennessee, it only takes 3 years to recruit a competitive team.

 

[JohnWardForever]

It's easy to make this generic statement that sounds good, but can you be specific and name a few big time coaches who would actually beat Saban? Because results on the field clearly show he is the best who ever coached college football (has not lost a game to anyone in SEC East for 10 years - even though we sucked over that period UF and UGA were pretty good at times could still not beat him). Actually, over the years he has been at Bama other than few games against Auburn and LSU Saban has pretty much dominated everyone (and Malzahn who is one of the few who actually does have some success against Saban is on the hot seat himself). Also, while I like Kiffin and Leach, looking at their records right now it does not seem they would be any more successful (Kiffin did have a good game against Bama but overall Ole Miss is even worse than us). And UK which seemed to be on the rise just lost to Mizzou. Also, the one big time hire in the SEC (NC winning coach now at A&M) has also been dominated by Saban. You even have coaches with great NFL credentials who have not been successful in college football (see Michigan as perfect example, and they don't even play the tough SEC schedule).

You think all the Criticism is about Losing to Bama? Then you don't see the Big picture at all. The big picture is Tenn is headed for a 4-6 record in year 3 of a new Coach's tenure, and that's when the HC is supposed to show big improvement. Well, he "AINT". We didn't expect to beat bama. We DID expect to beat Kentucky! We DID expect to go 7-3 , 6-4 at worst. We "AINT".

 

[Volsonyourface]

I have nothing against Les Miles but hiring Les Miles at this point (or even when Butch was being replaced) would be almost the same as hiring Fulmer back (he also proved he could win in the SEC, and even including NC - I hope we can all agree on that). The question about Les Miles was given all the talent he had available at LSU why he was not able to be even more competitive with Saban (that's why they eventually fired him). And the funny thing is that the same coach who could not win at Ole Miss (Orgeron) ended up winning NC once he had access to all that talent at LSU. This is why I think no matter who we would bring in until the talent level is closer to what Bama has nobody will be able to really compete with them unless they close that talent gap which takes years to accomplish (Kirby Smart is closing the gap with Bama, and I think Pruitt is as well but clearly several years behind Kirby at this point).

I wouldn’t put Miles in the same boat as Fulmer. Fulmer had two losing seasons in four years. Miles’ worst season at LSU he still won 8 games.

 

[TGVol]

Butch Jones lost to Alabama 19-14 in year 3. Had he been competent at coaching we likely would have beat them. At a school like Tennessee, it only takes 3 years to recruit a competitive team.

Sure - and Kiffin was even closer in year 1. Also, we were actually competitive under Pruitt in year 2 against Bama until JG fumble at their goal line. Still, one thing that distinguishes teams that are almost good enough (in terms of being competitive) and actually winning is huge. I remember back in the 90's when we were great - there were many times when teams came close and almost beat us but we would always prevail (because we had very solid and talented teams top to bottom - consistency is the key and all great coaches keep saying this to everyone who wants to listen - sadly that is the last thing emotional fan bases want to hear after strings of embarrasing losses).

 

[CAVPUT]

It's easy to make this generic statement that sounds good, but can you be specific and name a few big time coaches who would actually beat Saban? Because results on the field clearly show he is the best who ever coached college football (has not lost a game to anyone in SEC East for 10 years - even though we sucked over that period UF and UGA were pretty good at times could still not beat him). Actually, over the years he has been at Bama other than few games against Auburn and LSU Saban has pretty much dominated everyone (and Malzahn who is one of the few who actually does have some success against Saban is on the hot seat himself). Also, while I like Kiffin and Leach, looking at their records right now it does not seem they would be any more successful (Kiffin did have a good game against Bama but overall Ole Miss is even worse than us). And UK which seemed to be on the rise just lost to Mizzou. Also, the one big time hire in the SEC (NC winning coach now at A&M) has also been dominated by Saban. You even have coaches with great NFL credentials who have not been successful in college football (see Michigan as perfect example, and they don't even play the tough SEC schedule).

Freeze seems to know the formula.

 

[TGVol]

I wouldn’t put Miles in the same boat as Fulmer. Fulmer had two losing seasons in four years. Miles’ worst season at LSU he still won 8 games.

I think Fulmer was a much better HC than Les Miles (taken into account their full careers). But if I had to compare Les Miles to someone (big name coach who had SEC success and NC next to their name) Les Miles was somewhat similar to Fulmer (also in the sense no big program was interested in him after he was fired at LSU - same as Fulmer after UT fired him).

 

[chas]

Lane Kiffin does not have the talent tha tennessee has and play them a lot tougher than tennessee did and in 2009 should have beateb saban and would have if kicker did not have a groin pull.