DiderotsGhost
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Life has been good, but very busy lately, so I won't have many detailed write-ups this year.
That said think I may have lost 10 years off my life last night, but at least we won! My thoughts on Florida and our Vols after 4 games:
Heupel knows offense. We've seen it since early last season, but nothing has changed my mind. Heupel is an offensive guru on the level of a Steve Spurrier or Mike Leach. Most of our issues on offense have been execution related (dropped passes, overthrown balls, etc), but I'm 99%+ satisfied with what Heupel is doing on offense.
D-line looks good. They don't have a lot of sacks to their name, but they have dramatically altered games with the pass rush this season. They've been better than expected.
Deepest WR Corps in long time. I'm not saying this is an all-time unit, but it could eventually be in the conversation. Tillman, Hyatt, McCoy, Keyton, Merrill, Squirrel White, Holliday. To have your #1 WR go out in a key game and still put up 350 yards passing is pretty insane. Not to mention, Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant, our TEs, have also been picking up some yardage as well.
Team is happy. This is just the happiest I've seen our guys in a long time. Seems like they are having fun. This isn't the Nick Saban school of football. Heupel is more of a Pete Carroll type of coach and it's working.
Milton looks better. He didn't play last night, but I've been very impressed with Milton so far. Remember, I was one of his biggest critics last season and I still trust Hooker much more, but I could see Milton winning the starting job next year and doing pretty well.
Hooker is a gamer. He's not been perfect. He's had some overthrows here and there, makes a few mistakes, but reminds me a lot of Josh Dobbs. He's a gamer. When the game is on the line, he comes through. He makes the right decisions. 349 yards passing, 112 rushing.
Jabari Small. Quietly put up 90 yards on 17 carries. Very good performance that got overlooked a bit.
Secondary was awful. I have a lot of great things to say about the team, but the secondary has not been good this year. Gave up 453 yards against a mediocre QB last night, Struggled mightily against Pitt. Too many coverage busts. Wide open receivers. Generally feel like the defense is playing better, but secondary is struggling a lot. Don't think we can be an elite team with the problems on pass defense and we still haven't faced an A-level passing attack.
Hate the "run out the clock sequence" by Heupel. This is a constant criticism from me not only of Heupel, but a lot of coaches ... stop trying to win the game on defense when your offense is clobbering the other team. Florida had 2 timeouts. They had plenty of time to score. So don't do 3 predictable runs. Just play normal. Run the clock when you can, but continue putting pressure in the passing game. It's particularly effective when they are crowding the line to stop the run. Win the game on offense. They couldn't stop us, so why gamble with giving them the ball back. Just play for 1st downs until you can run it out.
Too many penalties. We didn't make nearly as many mistakes yesterday as we did against Pitt, but still picking up too many penalties. Seems like a consistent theme on Heupel's team, but would like to see it improve. Get rid of unnecessary penalties and this offense is even more unstoppable. And feel like when the offense doesn't work, it's normally us "stopping ourselves" more so than the defense.
LSU is going to be tough. Having an off-week will be great and we're going to need it. This LSU game, along with the Kentucky game, are IMO the 2 most pivotal games remaining on the schedule. Both are winnable, but neither will be easy. Feel like we know nothing about LSU right now. They struggled Week 1, but that's not uncommon. They clobbered Miss State. Other 2 games were cupcakes. We'll see how they handle Auburn this weekend. Feels a lot like that Texas A&M game in 2016 to me though.
Gary Danielson is the worst. Ugh, I never get as mad listening to other announcers as I do with Danielson. He's awful; absolute worst. Not only does his Florida homer-ism shine through the entire game, but he's the least knowledgeable announcer on the planet. Constantly misunderstands plays. Yesterday, when Florida was offsides and our Center hiked it and Hooker wasn't ready, he went on-and-on about how Tennessee got lucky that Florida was offsides. NO WE DIDN'T!!! The Center is coached to hike in that situation; Hooker just didn't expect it. The Center doesn't hike the ball there if the Florida player isn't offsides. Danielson somehow doesn't know that. But that's just one example. His lack of knowledge comes through the entire game.
We beat Florida! At the end of the day, we beat the Gators. Not as cleanly as I would've liked it to be, but we got the W. They always give us their best and yesterday was no exception, but we survived!
That's all for now. Enjoying everyone else's write-ups lately, but thought I'd pump a quick one out this week. Let's enjoy the stress-free bye week before our trip to Baton Rouge!
GBO!
That said think I may have lost 10 years off my life last night, but at least we won! My thoughts on Florida and our Vols after 4 games:
Heupel knows offense. We've seen it since early last season, but nothing has changed my mind. Heupel is an offensive guru on the level of a Steve Spurrier or Mike Leach. Most of our issues on offense have been execution related (dropped passes, overthrown balls, etc), but I'm 99%+ satisfied with what Heupel is doing on offense.
D-line looks good. They don't have a lot of sacks to their name, but they have dramatically altered games with the pass rush this season. They've been better than expected.
Deepest WR Corps in long time. I'm not saying this is an all-time unit, but it could eventually be in the conversation. Tillman, Hyatt, McCoy, Keyton, Merrill, Squirrel White, Holliday. To have your #1 WR go out in a key game and still put up 350 yards passing is pretty insane. Not to mention, Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant, our TEs, have also been picking up some yardage as well.
Team is happy. This is just the happiest I've seen our guys in a long time. Seems like they are having fun. This isn't the Nick Saban school of football. Heupel is more of a Pete Carroll type of coach and it's working.
Milton looks better. He didn't play last night, but I've been very impressed with Milton so far. Remember, I was one of his biggest critics last season and I still trust Hooker much more, but I could see Milton winning the starting job next year and doing pretty well.
Hooker is a gamer. He's not been perfect. He's had some overthrows here and there, makes a few mistakes, but reminds me a lot of Josh Dobbs. He's a gamer. When the game is on the line, he comes through. He makes the right decisions. 349 yards passing, 112 rushing.
Jabari Small. Quietly put up 90 yards on 17 carries. Very good performance that got overlooked a bit.
Secondary was awful. I have a lot of great things to say about the team, but the secondary has not been good this year. Gave up 453 yards against a mediocre QB last night, Struggled mightily against Pitt. Too many coverage busts. Wide open receivers. Generally feel like the defense is playing better, but secondary is struggling a lot. Don't think we can be an elite team with the problems on pass defense and we still haven't faced an A-level passing attack.
Hate the "run out the clock sequence" by Heupel. This is a constant criticism from me not only of Heupel, but a lot of coaches ... stop trying to win the game on defense when your offense is clobbering the other team. Florida had 2 timeouts. They had plenty of time to score. So don't do 3 predictable runs. Just play normal. Run the clock when you can, but continue putting pressure in the passing game. It's particularly effective when they are crowding the line to stop the run. Win the game on offense. They couldn't stop us, so why gamble with giving them the ball back. Just play for 1st downs until you can run it out.
Too many penalties. We didn't make nearly as many mistakes yesterday as we did against Pitt, but still picking up too many penalties. Seems like a consistent theme on Heupel's team, but would like to see it improve. Get rid of unnecessary penalties and this offense is even more unstoppable. And feel like when the offense doesn't work, it's normally us "stopping ourselves" more so than the defense.
LSU is going to be tough. Having an off-week will be great and we're going to need it. This LSU game, along with the Kentucky game, are IMO the 2 most pivotal games remaining on the schedule. Both are winnable, but neither will be easy. Feel like we know nothing about LSU right now. They struggled Week 1, but that's not uncommon. They clobbered Miss State. Other 2 games were cupcakes. We'll see how they handle Auburn this weekend. Feels a lot like that Texas A&M game in 2016 to me though.
Gary Danielson is the worst. Ugh, I never get as mad listening to other announcers as I do with Danielson. He's awful; absolute worst. Not only does his Florida homer-ism shine through the entire game, but he's the least knowledgeable announcer on the planet. Constantly misunderstands plays. Yesterday, when Florida was offsides and our Center hiked it and Hooker wasn't ready, he went on-and-on about how Tennessee got lucky that Florida was offsides. NO WE DIDN'T!!! The Center is coached to hike in that situation; Hooker just didn't expect it. The Center doesn't hike the ball there if the Florida player isn't offsides. Danielson somehow doesn't know that. But that's just one example. His lack of knowledge comes through the entire game.
We beat Florida! At the end of the day, we beat the Gators. Not as cleanly as I would've liked it to be, but we got the W. They always give us their best and yesterday was no exception, but we survived!
That's all for now. Enjoying everyone else's write-ups lately, but thought I'd pump a quick one out this week. Let's enjoy the stress-free bye week before our trip to Baton Rouge!
GBO!