Recruiting Forum Football Talk V

[InVOLuntary]

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[rjd970]

Yeah I think that comment may have been overly harsh.

Calculus I is actually easier than Pre-Calculus and possibly College Algebra in most curriculum. At my undergraduate, Calculus I had a pass rate of like 95%. Calculus II had a pass rate of like 70% or maybe even lower. The reason being, Calc I is a concept class. Calc II is an algebra class on steroids..

I think it's a silly requirement on their end. If you are going to mandate one math class, it should be a prob + stats class. A business major will never need to know anything about Calculus.

This is true. Algebra was harder to learn for me then Calc I. Calc II was a monster course. Calc III was maybe the easiest math course I had to take for my engineering degree.

Stats is a very useful course for everyday business.

 

[volbeast33]

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Nice, here are my seats!!!

Here are my seats….. players coming to the band to celebrate.

 

[Jimmy Football]

I’ll own up to it..I was one of those people but have never been so glad to be wrong.

Don’t beat yourself up about it. A LOT of people on here were very underwhelmed by the hire, initially.

Neyland Rising’s “Mehupel” post got over 300 likes (mine amongst them).

 

[Devo182]

someone should be fired for letting him go up there looking like that lol

He's 40. He's a man. He can handle it.

 

[thomaseusin]

There’s seemingly a lot of angst about our defensive performance in the game. It’s all over the web especially in the various forums where Vol fans gather. Obviously it’s in this thread too.

Our run defense did good but the concern is really still our pass defense. I think we had at least 13 pressures on Richardson. There’s a number of fans discounting any concerns or chalking it up to their lower expectations. The typical reasons are proposed that thwart any accountability. It is what it is.

I think our guys in the back end need to learn how to tackle. Hadden missed a lot of fall camp and so that’s a rational explanation why his tackling sometimes seems middle-schoolish. Still he led the team in tackles. He wasn’t alone in tackling deficiency. I think the whole backend played poorly. We might have given up 200 fewer yards if we had tackled better. We had a few opportunities to take Richardson to the ground behind the LOS but the effort on those plays by our blitzing DBs didn’t seem very convincing to me.

PFF grades for the game:

CB Christian Charles — 62.1 (81 plays)
CB Kamal Hadden — 60.3 (89 plays)
S Jaylen McCollough — 56.9 (90 plays)
S Trevon Flowers — 54.5 (90 plays)
STAR Tarmarion McDonald — 44.8 (74 plays)

I think everybody is glad to get the win but I think a number of people are lowering expectations based solely on the performance of our pass defense in the game. We were last in the country last year in pass defense for all of football, at any level, including pop warner. The disappointment after Saturday is that it looks like we’re even worse this year. We could make a pop warner QB a legitimate contender for the Heisman. We might even be able to get every 7-year old QB in the country nominated for the honor. lol

Heupel was critical of the pass defense in his postgame remarks. A lot of people in the stadium, probably including prospective recruits, at the end of the game were wondering whether or not we were going to choke the game away after such a brilliant offensive performance. Yes, Florida, regardless of what they say, went home with a moral victory. Who cares, right? Anyone who was referenced in the Tradition video narrated by David Keith several years ago. That’s who. Vol fans don’t want to just beat our rivals; we want them humiliated. That’s partly why the win to some is a bit less satisfying than it would have been if we could have delivered on Nico’s forecast of a 3 TD winning margin.

Heupel said we needed to be tighter in our coverage. After they watch the film I’m sure they’ll see that after missing a world record number of tackles that is something our secondary guys will also need to work on during the bye week.

SBV said after the Pitt game that “perhaps” Hooker had peaked in his performance last year. Listening to Hendon in the postgame that week I was disappointed in the way he addressed some legitimate concerns. That didn't happen this week. Hendon had a career performance against Florida and in the postgame both he and McCoy sitting side by side came across as guys I thought could compete for championships. They were down to earth and talked about preparation, work, and the job that they have the opportunity to do. Maybe the guys heard the noise and as I said at the time, “got their heads on straight.”

I think the same dynamic can work to improve our pass defense. I reject the idea that we don’t have the talent. I said last week we’d probably be okay without Tillman. We have a lot of talent on this roster and have had. The QBs, RBs, and WRs are playing championship level football. So is the DL and from what I can see so too are the LBs. I think the OL is good enough. I think at TE we're lacking a bit but the biggest weakness on our team I think is our secondary. I’m not convinced it’s the guys as much as I think it’s the way they’re playing. We need our coaches to coach them up and put them in the best position for them to be successful. It’s mostly about fundamentals and we have a bye week to work on it.

I’m pretty sure the staff and players will hear the noise. I hope they do. FPI after week 3 gave us a 50.6% probability of beating LSU. After the Florida game that shifted to a 59.1% chance of LSU beating us. We fell 4 spots in FPI and 3 spots in the Sagarin ratings. I think SP+ dropped us one spot. This is all based on the data from the game relative to pregame expectations by the computers. It’s not that important but it does align with the idea some fans have that even with the win we underperformed, especially in the closing moments of the game.

Hooker said in his postgame remarks the team’s goal this year is to get to Atlanta. That’s probably the staff’s goal too and the same for most fans. In order for that to happen we’re almost certainly going to have to improve the performance of our pass defense. No excuses. Let’s do this. jmo.

Love your posts. Reality is probably somewhere in between. We all knew AR15 shot blanks but can bulldoze his way to get first downs, so we forced him to make plays he has not been comfortable making - with his arm.

Credit to him, he made plays.

As bad as it looked for us, he also threw 44 times with a 54% completion rate, and as a team ran for 3.35 YPC (lowest this season). This season, when they pass more than 30 times, they lose. When they are kept contained under 5 YPC, they lose.

We still need more horses in the secondary. I just think this was more of a sensible defensive plan job than “we are just are just terrible at defense” situation.

For those asking for Coach Willie and Coach Banks’ head, don’t forget that Alontae and Theo was on nobody’s radar prior to getting drafted last year. Just sayin’.

 

[letsgoUT29]

weird comparison to make. but fine, i'll play.

two totally different games. that 98 FL team was a whole lot better than the FL team we played Saturday. and for us, our defense in 98 was what our offense is in 22. the other side of the ball, on both of these teams, struggled at times, and also made HUGE plays at times. but when you pull up your favorite gifs and pics from that game.....almost every one of them are a defensive highlight. as will be the case with this game saturday...i'm betting that HH 44 yard run and Keyton's catch are the new "al wilson sack" gif.

but to say one is more impressive than the other? if you make me pick, i'd say 98. first year w/out Peyton, huge questions on the QB and offense in general, and we had to ride the backs of that defense early on. and we played florida in week 2, there were a top 3 team, and a favorite for a national title. and the TN game was the only game they lost that year. and we went on to win the conf and national title.

i mean....if you want to say the offense was waaay better, cool. i agree. but 98 was more important and impressive, all things considered.

and that doesn't take a thing away from this game Saturday. but i think seeing how the season plays out, will help dictate how important/impressive this game was. for now, it was absolutely a necessary step this program had to take.

No doubt. Beating UF in 98 would be like us beating UGA or Bama this year.

 

[KptVFL]

There's a reason that the coaches have 6 DB's in this class and are still pursuing more. They know what NFL talent looks like, and it's just not there in the DB room yet. The soft zone against the gators was to keep AR from beating us with his legs and provide support in the run game. The strategy was to force them to have make long drives to score with AR passing. From what you had seen from previous games is that he would make a couple of costly throws. That didn't happen. He played the game of his life. If you play that game 10 times, he plays like that once. We got that one game yesterday, and we still won. Was it really a surprise that a Florida QB would play the best game of their career against us?

There's really nothing else that needs to be said!

 

[jakez4ut]

And on the other end I guarantee you teams are scared of us. Dangerous team Heupel’s fielding right now. Enough can’t be said for where he has the program in short order.

yeah, i think that can't be overstated at this point. both FL and Pitt got ahead, played really well, and still lost. now Pitt and FL are not Bama and Georgia. but if we can ever get a team to punt, or make them pay for going on 4th, that's how we take the next step. that's how we would be able to string together scores and put the opponent in a bad spot.

 

[Devo182]

Don’t beat yourself up about it. A LOT of people on here were very underwhelmed by the hire, initially.

Neyland Rising’s “Mehupel” post got over 300 likes (mine amongst them).

Mehupel was very funny.

But I went back and looked at those posts a few weeks or months ago (and posted some of the hottest takes ) but credit the RF, at least half of us went:

"Wait, what? Idk about this"

:everyone takes 15 mins and researches his team and offensive stats:

"Ok dang. Didn't know that. Let's ride!"

 

[Rizzo924]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but on the 4th down try at the end of the game when Fant was dropped short, Bru was running wide open 10 yards behind him. Would have been an easy score.

Yes! We sit in the people's end zone. That was right in front of me. I told a guy yesterday that my only issue with the clock management at end of game was the play calling on the run plays into the gut on 1st & 2nd down. I said but really they DID throw on 4th down & surely the issue on that play was execution. Not sure if Fant broke off route too soon but Bru was open for at least a first down. I would've left the stadium feeling a lot better if we hadn't had to endure that 2nd onside kick.

 

[thomaseusin]

I sorta disagree with ya on the part of CH taking his foot off the gas pedal. At one point we were up 17 with like 5 mins left. Then our D let them drive 70 yards in one min. This game didn't end like a normal game usually does when a team is up by 17 or 11. What are the odds on successful onside kicks? I seriously don't know but I am sure it is super low. That onside kick had a perfect bounce that went high for their tall wr that made a one handed grab. If CH passes like usual and they are incomplete it stops the clock. I really think he thought like the rest of us that UF didn't not have enough time. But again there is nothing usual about this game when we play UF. lol I'm just saying, the way this game went isn't the norm. lol It should have been over on the onside kick. They beat the odds on that onside kick.

I thought end of game we needed to milk the clock like we did, but just running around getting set with 5 seconds on the play clock is no bueno.

 

[jakez4ut]

No doubt. Beating UF in 98 would be like us beating UGA or Bama this year.

maybe, but to me it would feel more like beating Auburn in 85. i'm aging myself there.....but situationally, and in terms of where we are in developing the program, i think that fits better. the 98 game, we were top 5 in the country and while we had questions, we were still very much on the list of contenders to start the season.

 

[BigSteve09]

 

[vols2345]

H

He's 40. He's a man. He can handle it.

he didn't look like he was handling anything lol

 

[Devo182]

While it likely won't last, especially since we all have to play each other eventually, it's pretty wild to see 3 East teams in the top 8. And not even a UF in sight.

REALLY weird.

 

[VolGee4]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but on the 4th down try at the end of the game when Fant was dropped short, Bru was running wide open 10 yards behind him. Would have been an easy score.

Great catch. My guess is Fant was the first option and HH thought he had enough to get the first down. Another well designed play by our coaches.

 

[vols2345]

While it likely won't last, especially since we all have to play each other eventually, it's pretty wild to see 3 East teams in the top 8. And not even a UF in sight.

REALLY weird.

This is a great point. At least for now the east is looking really strong

 

[Nash_Vol97]

I thought end of game we needed to milk the clock like we did, but just running around getting set with 5 seconds on the play clock is no bueno.

I have no issue with running down the play clock and milking the game clock.. it was the right thing to do. Was a bit messy though for sure on execution. To also be perfectly fair, I liked going for it on 4th down, but I didn’t like the play call in the moment. Looking back at the replay now though.. that play call had 2 people open. If HH hits Bru, it’s a long gain. If Fant runs his route a yard or two deeper like I think he was supposed to, it’s a first down. So after reflection the play call was a good one too. If we get that play than that milking of the clock and the drive would have been perfect and we win by 11 points.

 

[smokeyhuntsgators]

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I didn’t notice that in actual time.

 

[SpringBokVol]

I hope former Vol commits (and current Gators) Trey Dean and Kamar Wilcoxson enjoyed their L.

Hahahaha at Wilcoxson - that guy deserved the L

 

[tennesseefan31]

How different does everyone feel if we pick up that 4th and short in the 4th quarter and run out the clock?

Obviously doesn’t discount the poor defense in the last 2 minutes.

 

[volinokc]

I told myself I would take the high road today, but after years of passive-aggressive texts and comments from my Sooner colleagues, I couldn’t help myself when I walked into work…

 

[Chuckie]

The thing that I keep thinking about is Keyton's catch. It's been a lot of years of watching football where I've seen receivers make catches like that and thought to myself, "Just once, I'd like to see a Tennessee receiver make a catch like that." Well, now I have. Hang it in the Louvre!

 

[Jimmy Football]

How different does everyone feel if we pick up that 4th and short in the 4th quarter and run out the clock?

Obviously doesn’t discount the poor defense in the last 2 minutes.

I’m actually glad things worked out how they did. We needed to exorcise all the demons in this series, including the end-of-game wackiness that always seems to bite us.