UT beats Pitt if we simply hand it off to Dee Beckwith on that 4th down inside the 5 yard line. Instead we do a slow developing read option with a 200 lb RB and it gets stuffed.
By and large, you have to like what Huepel has done with this team. They play with great effort and strain. They bring it- constant energy and pressure. They have sustained intensity. Heupel is willing to sacrifice talent in place of overall team giving the right amount of effort IN HIS MIND.
If I were to guess..Dee Beckwith isn't practicing with the same amount of effort. I didn't say he was lazy. I'm saying he's not playing with the level the coaches require.
That's the only thing it could be...and the coaches have a zero tolerance for it.
-Not always a good thing.
The kid has been running the football all through high school. Great over all natural athlete. He's not some novice to running the football. His pad level is fine. He showed it last year and this spring. All of a sudden he just can't play RB??? No...
The fact that Milton was still in the conversation as starting QB up until this week...is a spotlight on coaching stubborn behavior. Heupel was WRONG about Milton. As was I.
But it shouldn't have taken 3 games AFTER Pitt to admit that... Coaching stubborness
Jalin Hyatt drops one ball in the end zone and gets injured. Hasn't been seen since. He's the only WR Milton couldnt out throw. Yet only one targeted deep ball in 3 games since???? Has Hyatt all of sudden forgotten how to play WR? No...
Payton and Jones are shining.
T Evans is shining. because they are getting fed reps and they are good players.
It starts in practice. And coaches absolutely OVER value practice sometimes . We should all be intimately aware of this from the past 4 years...
Heupel for all his numbers offensively, is not all that creative haha. It's about sustained effort and outworking the opponent with him. Yet, when he went against Mullen, you saw the difference in coaching.
We absolutely out worked them and still lost by 24 points...
Mullen himself said that was a different UT team. Effort and heart. yet...he still beat them.
On the field our coaching X's and O's has failed the team in critical moments. We should be 4-1 with a real chance to be 5-0 had we been more aggressive and creative offensively in the 2nd QTR against Florida. When Richardson takes the reigns for them, finally...you can forget it.
I do believe Heupel can get Tennessee to 9-3 or 10-2 type seasons with time, because the East is so bad. But right now, he hasn't shown the awareness or coaching touch of the more elite names. He's just a hardworking, positive dude. He's a Butch Jones with an actual personality. But he does seemed to have assembled a pretty decent staff...