Maybe, but our D doesn't play their D. Our D plays their O and so on and so forth. I get that we are statistically better on D, but I am not sure the competition has been similar. Honestly, I haven't looked at it and don't care enough to.
Similar enough when you account for how completely Bama dominated them. UT's OOC schedule was better than theirs. UT competed with UF until mistakes caught up with the Vols. Ole Miss was dominated from the start by Bama... who UF was able to push. Arkansas is a good team. They played neck and neck. MU and USCe aren't as good... but UT did blow them out.
Of course UT's D doesn't play theirs. But the O's are very similar in production and capabilities... even style in a lot of ways. So if you have two roughly equal O's a one D is better than the other....
Fair enough, and no worries. You know I don't get worked up about being wrong.
No offence intended. I really like the banter. I've been wrong plenty but try to be informed even in error... try to look at as many angles as possible. If I were approaching Ole Miss as a DC then I'm worried about as much about Corral breaking the pocket as I am about him throwing. Drummond is a good WR. Sanders may have a day... but I'm not as worried about him. He doesn't seem to reliably get open. Mingo is out... and was their 2nd best WR if not #1.
Sanders and Drummond combined for just 4 catches vs Ark... both had long TD's on blown coverages. Sanders had another deep ball for 59. Drummond, their #1 guy, had one more catch for 11 yds. Corral only had 287 yds in a game like that. Both O's just flat ran over the opposing D running the ball.
If UT has a strength on D... it is probably defending the run.
I think the "thin" issue has more to do with the unknowns more than reality. We just aren't entirely sure what kind of depth we may or may not have. Take Turnage as an example. I had no idea how he would play when forced into action. He looked great. We still don't know if that will be consistent. One game is not enough data. But he did look good so no reason to believe that he isn't capable. The same goes with the O-line. They looked suspect earlier, and especially the 2s and 3s. Some of those guys are playing a lot better. Still, the second half of the SC game showed some potential depth issues. There were more mistakes once we started subbing more and the level dropped off, and it did appear that the O-line and D-line groups got sluggish. Maybe to be expected, but still.
IMO it goes back to all the "lost players". That became a narrative for the UT media. It didn't matter who has been developed or who was brought in who has helped... UT must be thin because they lost X players. Again... not many seemed to take the time to look at what UT still had instead of focusing on what they lost.
Now this could play into Heupel's favor. They set the bar pretty low. According to 247's team talent composite, UT has more talent than UK or Ole Miss. That's whole team talent according to their rankings. So it really shouldn't be all that surprising when a guy like Turnage kind of "shows up" after being coached up for about 10 weeks now.
Also, for the record, I never said we were untalented compared to anybody. I actually like the talent level right now with the first team. I think we could improve here and there, but overall, I think we are on par with a lot of teams in the SEC and better than quite a few. With regards to Ole Miss, I think we match up with them pretty well at the skill positions. I just don't know enough about their O-line though.
They're similar across the board on O. QB's are close but Corral is a little better. I think UT has a fairly significant advantage at RB if everyone is healthy. Neither OL is dominant but both coaches scheme in a way that takes pressure off the OL. Heupel even mentioned that today. Both teams throw quick passes wide to help open run lanes and to force teams away from loading the box.
I'll reiterate though, that the factor that seems important here to me is that Ole Miss played a tough game to the wire, while we coasted along. This sets up to be a great opportunity to get a win against a ranked opponent.
It is a good opportunity. I think the teams are close and similar in a lot of ways. I think a full Neyland makes a pretty big difference since they depend on communication and snap cadence as much as UT does. Getting or not getting Ealy back could be a big deal for them.[/quote]
