Florida Game Thoughts

[Sudden Impact]

Please Provide Input about thoughts on the game. Here are mine.
Refs -- No change from last season. Still miss calls, horse caller, TD on goal line and holding by Florida several times never called.
Richardson -- Good QB not great. I find it amazing how they corrected his footwork in one week.
Florida Defense -- subpar well below their standards.
Florida had a great game plan with the 4th down and keeping the ball out of our hands.

Hooker -- we know he is a player but he is a great player.
Offense -- still has the MOJO.
WR -- Deeper than I expected
Clock Mgt -- still bad late in games.
Defense -- Lack of Leadership, depth, play calling, tackling, decent run defense, waited to late to put pressure on the QB, we serious lack a DB that can press cover. Some things can be fixed but our defense has some holes.
Bru McCoy is a stud.

I think we played well enough to win (tentative) and that almost bit us in the A$$.

We got a ton of positive information yesterday about Tennessee Football with the Gameday segament. Should help with recruiting (3 hours of Pre Game promo + the game Atmosphere + The Game itself + CJH as an Ambassador)
I think we played well enough to win (tentative) and that almost bit us in the A$$.

Time to fix before LSU Game.

Your thoughts?

 

[Eastknox865]

For me personally I don't care what needs to be fixed we just beat Florida. I will let someone else worry about our deficiencies but me I'm just going to enjoy the W

 

[Sudden Impact]

For me personally I don't care what needs to be fixed we just beat Florida. I will let someone else worry about our deficiencies but me I'm just going to enjoy the W

Don't think for a minute I am not enjoying the win! We have some deficiencies, we have 2 weeks to prepare for the Grind of our schedule. Looking forward and will be interesting to see what adjustments the Coaching Staff makes during this period.

 

[terrypedigo]

We won on to LSU,

 

[Orangeblooded615]

What I think is most scary is the offense hasn't been fully clicking yet. A fumble. A pass behind the wr on a wide open 3rd down. Little things we missed to get in our own way or we coulda put 50 up on them. They literally couldn't stop us, or showed any signs of being able to.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

We still need to improve our Special Team play. It almost again beat us in the 4th quarter. We also need to spent a lot of the by week on learning how to tackle. just grabbing with the hands and block tackling will get us beat of we do not improve open field tackling. I did see improvement on protecting the QB by our RBs. The off week will help us a lot. Injuries will get healthy, freshmen players will get better, and we will again score a lot of points. The defense has to make sure we do not get outscored. Tennessee win in 2 weeks in a good close ballgame.

 

[MSME Vol]

What we needed this season was marginal defensive improvement over last. Our ability to play man on man is still laughable - probably worse this year without Taylor. Overall the corners are the weakest link. The linebackers still struggle in coverage over the middle but it's somewhat improved over last year. We give up 75% of plays there now instead of 90% or so it seems. Linebackers hitting holes and stopping most traditional run plays is greatly improved which leads the defensive line. They're probably the most improved overall. They may not hit home all the time, but they are at least in the realm of being labeled disruptive for the majority now. Last season we had to throw the kitchen sink to have a shot. Now Young and Baron are on fire every play. That and a lot of the holding the gaps by the linebackers is due to Omari Thomas and company taking on double teams and folding the pocket. In my opinion CRG has earned his paycheck this year. Is our perfect... no, not even close. But we went from having a D defense to maybe a C that on good days can get up to a B+.

Hopefully we made enough of an impression on the recruits visiting to bring the horses into the stable to get us to an A by 2024.

 

[VOLfrombama]

i was impressed the most with the WRs. Everyone stepped up big. Heupfully Tillman is ready in 2 weeks at LSU

I thought the RBs ran hard and the OL looked solid again. Although Cooper Mays was really struggling to block #7. He was having a field day.

Hooker. What more do I have to say? He may be the best Hooker of all time.

The D. Oh boy the D. If they could figure out how to get more pressure up front and cover just a little bit closer to their man, they could be so much better. Im not sure how you fix that and agree that you have to dial up more blitzes until you can.

The refs were atrocious yesterday. Their OL was bear hugging our guys and nothing. The head ref looked like that was his first game on the mic.

 

[vols2345]

the defense held strong and made the game altering plays with the force fumble and gm ending int. Life of a db is rough and they will have better games. Tons of learning and improvement can come in the next 2 weeks

 

[Sudden Impact]

What we needed this season was marginal defensive improvement over last. Our ability to play man on man is still laughable - probably worse this year without Taylor. Overall the corners are the weakest link. The linebackers still struggle in coverage over the middle but it's somewhat improved over last year. We give up 75% of plays there now instead of 90% or so it seems. Linebackers hitting holes and stopping most traditional run plays is greatly improved which leads the defensive line. They're probably the most improved overall. They may not hit home all the time, but they are at least in the realm of being labeled disruptive for the majority now. Last season we had to throw the kitchen sink to have a shot. Now Young and Baron are on fire every play. That and a lot of the holding the gaps by the linebackers is due to Omari Thomas and company taking on double teams and folding the pocket. In my opinion CRG has earned his paycheck this year. Is our perfect... no, not even close. But we went from having a D defense to maybe a C that on good days can get up to a B+.

Hopefully we made enough of an impression on the recruits visiting to bring the horses into the stable to get us to an A by 2024.

Recruiting --- should be interesting, if I played defense I would come here we need more depth and leadership on that side of the ball.

 

[jvol1]

The play of the d kind of won the game for us. In the second half they stopped flo several times which got us the lead and the win. Flo got lucky at the which made it close and brought out the critics, but teams with talent are going to make some plays. Could've been better statistically, but they played well enough to give a shot at winning most games.

 

[DC_Vol]

What we needed this season was marginal defensive improvement over last. Our ability to play man on man is still laughable - probably worse this year without Taylor. Overall the corners are the weakest link. The linebackers still struggle in coverage over the middle but it's somewhat improved over last year. We give up 75% of plays there now instead of 90% or so it seems. Linebackers hitting holes and stopping most traditional run plays is greatly improved which leads the defensive line. They're probably the most improved overall. They may not hit home all the time, but they are at least in the realm of being labeled disruptive for the majority now. Last season we had to throw the kitchen sink to have a shot. Now Young and Baron are on fire every play. That and a lot of the holding the gaps by the linebackers is due to Omari Thomas and company taking on double teams and folding the pocket. In my opinion CRG has earned his paycheck this year. Is our perfect... no, not even close. But we went from having a D defense to maybe a C that on good days can get up to a B+.

Hopefully we made enough of an impression on the recruits visiting to bring the horses into the stable to get us to an A by 2024.

It’s difficult to recognize this because there are still so many deficiencies in the defense, but it is improved over last year.

Early on this season, most of us knew that teams like Florida and Bama and Georgia were going to feast on our secondary. We will have to score consistently and play cleaner football than any semi decent opponent to win the game.

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

Tackling still needs some work in the secondary. Too many missed tackles. Some looked like bad angles by the new DB's and some were our secondary thinking they could tackle Richardson high. Got 2 weeks to work on it.

 

[Namorto1]

So happy to be 4-0 and think LSU is beatable if we can control their QB. We had adversity and overcame it but clock management and playing conservatively towards the end almost cost us. We can’t let off the gas ever offensively. Keyton was amazing yesterday not just with the layout catch but a huge juke to get a first down conversion as well.

We can beat a lot of teams on our schedule with our explosive and efficient offense, but until our pass defense improves this squad is going to continue to give us heart attacks. That may take a few more recruiting classes or dips in the transfer portal. Our DBs can’t cover or tackle well including two seniors at safety which is sad to say given the level of experience they have. Coaching must take some responsibility. Our zone coverage is laughable often with 2 guys covering the same area no where near opposing receivers.

Our LBs and Star positions also can’t cover. Joseph and Pearce need more playing time on the edge because our upper classman couldn’t produce much of a pass rush by themselves. Run defense was stout yesterday for the most part despite a few breakdowns. Our return special teams play is average. Younger players need to get more run.

 

[Jpcisco]

My biggest takeaway, Florida played the entire game like they had nothing to lose. Napier knew we were the better team, evident by him gambling so much, and knew it was going to take a miracle to win. For once Tennessee looked like the superior team and the score reflected that.

 

[AdoptedVOL]

I have never given up on Tennessee football, even during two decades of very average teams. Being a Vol fan has not been easy at times. Thankfully, this has changed with Huep.

I commented to my son midway through this game that Tennessee football was fun to watch again. The offense can march the ball down the field with a dependable running game and short passes. The O also has players who can make explosive plays with long gains through the air or on the ground.

On the negative side of the game, I don't like that the staff took the foot off the pedal on offense. Trying to shorten the game almost cost us the game. Also, the D is in obvious need of improvement. Some of the same ol' problems are not getting fixed (weak coverage and bad tackling). I also think we should have put pressure on Richardson more often.

As for recruiting, I'm not sure who was in the stands yesterday but they've got to be Huep'd over what they saw on the field and from the Neyland crowd (who stayed not only through the game but after to enjoy the win with the team... WOW).

The game should have been a 10 - 13 point win for TN easily. I have no doubt Huep and staff with get issues fixed as the season progresses.

Go Vols!

 

[wmcovol]

Florida had a long winning streak vs Tenn. Alabama has a long winning streak vs Tenn. Never do you hear their fans say “yeah but it’s against some of the worst Tennessee teams in their history”. They celebrate every “f—king”one of them.

Tennessee fans shouldn’t say “but this isn’t a good Florida team”. It’s not Tennessee’s job to build Florida’s program.

 

[MSME Vol]

Florida had a long winning streak vs Tenn. Alabama has a long winning streak vs Tenn. Never do you hear their fans say “yeah but it’s against some of the worst Tennessee teams in their history”. They celebrate every “f—king”one of them.

Tennessee fans shouldn’t say “but this isn’t a good Florida team”. It’s not Tennessee’s job to build Florida’s program.

It's our job to demolish it...

 

[Dr H Lecter]

Florida had a long winning streak vs Tenn. Alabama has a long winning streak vs Tenn. Never do you hear their fans say “yeah but it’s against some of the worst Tennessee teams in their history”. They celebrate every “f—king”one of them.

Tennessee fans shouldn’t say “but this isn’t a good Florida team”. It’s not Tennessee’s job to build Florida’s program.

I think UF may be a little better than they showed in their second and third game. AR is a good QB and if he builds on yesterday, they could have a good season. Don’t let them tell you that our long passes were blown coverage- our coaches had designed plays that put UF in those situations. Huepel has a great offensive mind, and his staff are in step with his designs.

 

[wmcovol]

I think UF may be a little better than they showed in their second and third game. AR is a good QB and if he builds on yesterday, they could have a good season. Don’t let them tell you that our long passes were blown coverage- our coaches had designed plays that put UF in those situations. Huepel has a great offensive mind, and his staff are in step with his designs.

Heupel gets two or 3 “wide a$$ open” plays a game. Every game vs everybody. Yeah it’s blown coverage cause the DBs get confused. SOS ran pick plays (never were called) and he was a genius.

 

[VOLtaism]

I think its clear how good this team is after 4 games. Florida is not really a ranked team. Looks like UT is even better on offense than last year with a slightly improved defense. It will be a slugfest in most SEC games due to the defense but hell, all you can do is score every time you get the ball and see what happens. I would hate to be a 17 point favorite on the road against this team.

 

[ScornedPapaVol]

It’s difficult to recognize this because there are still so many deficiencies in the defense, but it is improved over last year.

Early on this season, most of us knew that teams like Florida and Bama and Georgia were going to feast on our secondary. We will have to score consistently and play cleaner football than any semi decent opponent to win the game.

Not much change in one season. But there is some. Rosters are built over time. We don't have the corners or safeties or outside linebackers on scholarship that we need. That is what recruiting is for. And there is our next big step to take. Upper echelon recruiting. Like battling the big boys for national prospects. Not that coaching 'em up nonsense.