Tim Banks comments on defensive performance vs UF (2022)

[DaddyChad]

I think the strategy was to play zone, put a spy on AR, and make him prove the can win with his arm.

It was and it was a good strategy if we had talent at DB. He floated some passes that could’ve been picked off. When we sent pressure from the secondary on a blitz it was usually the right call but the defender fell down at the qb’s feet. The run was pretty much shot down which made all the offense run through AR and he delivered but that was probably the best plan we could’ve used. Reality is we don’t have the athleticism or speed that we need.

 

[Franklin_Vol09]

He’s not going to throw the players under the bus.

 

[Madscientistvol]

I was incredibly furious with our defense on Saturday, but on reflection I have to say that UF went for it 6 times on 4th down, we made 6 third down stops that normally either get the other team off the field or force a field goal. Napier rolled the dice and came up lucky, if he punted or field goaled on all of those, we win by 30.

 

[Other_Guy]

LOL............

Imagine having a coach who keeps a guy who downplays how bad his defense is try to compete with Alabama and Georgia. There's your LOL

 

[JCHateSteve]

I'm not sold on Banks. But, what was he gonna say? The best plan was to contain AR and Florida's run game, forcing Richardson to beat them through the air. It worked, but looked bad because Tennessee's secondary isn't great and UF's pass game looked way better than we'd like.

This is year 2, the 1st recruiting class was shot and there were a ton of transfers. Fixing the secondary is going to take some time/recruiting/transfers. Banks may not be the man for the job. But expecting him to crucify himself or his players isn't realistic, fair, or helpful.

 

[007Racer]

I know that Pry was the DC and Banks was an assistant to him. I recommend emailing James Franklin to see if he'll share the answers to your questions. James Franklin's email may be public record, since he's a state employee. Maybe this will help you get to the bottom of this. But, Banks was not the DC at Penn St and hasn't been a DC for 15 years now anywhere. Please report correct information.

Who Freaking Cares??? He's our defensive guy!!! Go Vols!!

 

[Shirleyudontmeanthat]

We stopped them 6 times on 3rd down … SIX.

 

[kingkisses]

He’s not going to throw the players under the bus.

Exactly- calling someone out, especially a group of young men running on high testosterone is rarely productive and often damaging

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I was incredibly furious with our defense on Saturday, but on reflection I have to say that UF went for it 6 times on 4th down, we made 6 third down stops that normally either get the other team off the field or force a field goal. Napier rolled the dice and came up lucky, if he punted or field goaled on all of those, we win by 30.

Hence the blueprint for opposing offenses later in the season. Our defensive coaches need to be aware that LSU is going to try to do the same thing, And Bama, etc. Hopefully, we can scheme our way to better outcomes on fourth downs.

 

[DaddyChad]

Exactly- calling someone out, especially a group of young men running on high testosterone is rarely productive and often damaging

Oh they’ll get called out if it’s lack of effort or preparedness , you just don’t do it to the media.

 

[Stevo1]

Every game the strategy will change. I wouldve liked to have seen more pressure, but maybe the zone and keeping AR contained was the right call. As others have said, under normal circumstances, those 6 4th down plays would'nt have happened, and the score, and stats, probably would have looked much different. Give Ole Billy credit, the strategy to keep UT off the field almost worked out. I understand you can't coach speed, but you can coach taking the right angle, which we have a problem with, and you can't coach talent, but you can coach fundamentals such as tackling.
Our D won the Pitt game, IMO, but they were also playing with a QB that could barely run. 4 games in, and it's clear, our secondary is our biggest weakness.
I like Banks, and I think the issue is lack of talent, experience and quality depth, all of which I think will take time to fix.

 

[Big Cheese Offspring]

Yes we won and that’s the most important thing. Stats don’t tell the story??? Yes they absolutely do. The stats tell us that our defense is bad. Banks benefits from one of college footballs best offenses. The offense can usually offset the bad defense. But against really good teams, that won’t work.

I am not sold on Banks at all. I really hope he massively improves and quickly.

While I agree for the most part, I don't think our defense absolutely benefits from our offense. Of course, us being able to score quickly is nice but it also means our defense is on the field more often and in return will have more opportunity to be exposed...not to mention be more exhausted. We have more depth than last year but we are still fairly thin with proven commodities especially in the DB position. We need to have a couple of heavy/star studded D recruiting classes for us to see the benefit of quality depth. After that if we don't see vast improvement then I believe Banks isn't the answer.

 

[volroadwarrior]

I don't worry about what a coach says. It is usually about motivating the players and not us fans. Most of the players in the secondary are left overs from the old regime and are not talented enough-or they are young and inexperienced. We need to allow time for the staff to work their plan and not knee jerk call for firings until they can. The last thing the program needs now is to let the Chicken Littles to run coaches off and create instability. Coach Banks is having to compete with the hand he was dealt. I choose to trust Heupel on this and not the fickle fans.

 

[LowKey]

They see what we see. The secondary needs work. They will address it, and I expect the LSU game to be much improved. Some of those passes Richardson was dropping in there were undefendable though.

 

[Matt2496]

I’ve never been more mixed about a DC. On the one hand, I’ve seen improvement on the DL WRT getting pressure on the QB and our ability to stop the run. However, our secondary play has been atrocious and needs massive improvement if we’re ever going to be a serious contender.

 

[Tman44]

The ? is why leave PSU, and why didn't Franklin try to keep him, IF banks is all that? Lateral move at best, so the question has to be asked. I could handle the awful DB performance, IF Banks at least addressed it and Took OWNERSHIP and gave solutions.

Preaching to the choir bro

 

[BoroVol93]

UT ranks 96 / 131 on Total D (YPG) but that doesn’t tell the story just as Mr. Banks said. We also rank 127 / 131 in T.O.P…. So it’s not hard to see how we get there especially when you look at strategy which to me has focused on stopping the run.

24 / 131 - Rush YPG Allowed - not bad considering how much they’re on the field.

23 / 131 - 3rd Down D efficiency!!

T15 / 131 - Red Zone D efficiency - not bad, huh?

34 / 131 - Scoring D (PPG Allowed) - That’s not bad considering the Pass YPG Allowed and TOP - these guys are on the field a lot. I’m guessing that solid Red Zone and 3rd Down D has much to do with this

So everyone is looking at pass defense I suppose. What I’ve been seeing is a stellar front 7 and a game plan to load boxes - especially against AR which left many DBs on an island. Yes, the DBs need improvement but I think Banks’ unit has actually been impressive in most other areas.

Good to see we do have some sense on VN lol… the defense absolutely won us The Pitt game as well how soon people forget…

 

[VFL1953]

Sounds like a lot of excuses.

If this is Heupels defensive philosophy he won't last long here.

This post will age well........

 

[Volinnooga]

I've noticed Tim Banks seems to have been on a very short leash with VN posters since day one. Is there a backstory with Banks and UT Vols, or something? I completely understand wanting better performance but I feel like he's been on the outs even before the first snap last year.

What gives?

I agree with this. CJH was in a short leash too but the offensive display has lenghthend that leash. The problem on the D side is that great O adds pressure to the D. Not complaining, just explaining my view. That’s why defensive stats matter less on this team than others. Just win baby.

 

[OffTackleVol]

Imagine having a coach who keeps a guy who downplays how bad his defense is try to compete with Alabama and Georgia. There's your LOL

LMAO.........

 

[Orange Death]

I mean, winning is important yea I get that. But if our offense had just 1 more 3 and out, we would have lost. Is that really something to hang your hat on as a defensive coordinator? I guarantee you this game will be AR15s best game he will play this year. I hate to think that this historic offense will be wasted by a crappy defense but hopefully we see some improvement when we play LSU.

Welcome to Volnation! Where even when we win, we lose.

 

[DD4ME]

Protecting his guys IMO. Good on him, and let us not forget they won us the Pitt game.

 

[hUTch2002]

Valid point. Obviously results matter, but to make real improvements I think plays have to be reviewed in a vacuum to determine if they were correct for the situation.

If a play didn’t work out, was that because it was the wrong play or was there something that was not executed correctly? Either result is possible. Conversely, plays that were probably not the best could have had a good result because of something unusual and might fail the majority of the time.

There’s an old saying, I forget from where: “It’s better to be lucky than good.” In the short term this true, but as every good poker player knows, success over the long term involves making good decisions consistently.

Totally agree. I’m certainly no expert but it seems to me our defense has more often than not been in the right places and simply not made the plays. Sometimes we have scheme issues but I think our defensive struggles are more about lack of talent than scheme. Obviously, both are a factor to some degree.

 

[Defcon5]

Yes we won and that’s the most important thing. Stats don’t tell the story??? Yes they absolutely do. The stats tell us that our defense is bad. Banks benefits from one of college footballs best offenses. The offense can usually offset the bad defense. But against really good teams, that won’t work.

I am not sold on Banks at all. I really hope he massively improves and quickly.

Like Banks, but this defense is bad. How Pruitt recruited so poorly on D is amassing. Can’t continue to give up 600 yds on opponents offense & win. LSU will have a field day with us. Banks & Martinez need to go.

 

[BigBadVol]

I don’t think he actually believes everything is fine. I mean, I can’t read minds, but I’m pretty sure that even if he did think so there are other coaches on the team who would tell him otherwise. I suspect he didn’t want to criticize particular players or groups publicly, which is good.

The way he did so was maybe not the way to do it. Just all of the negative reactions we see in this thread sort of point to why. If he believes nothing is wrong, that’s super problematic and worrisome, and if he doesn’t it’s dishonest.

He should have said there were many things we did well, that we shut down the run, mostly contained the quarterback, etc. That the defense was able to execute in key situations. Then he could have said that clearly we gave up more yards than we would like to and have to keep getting better.

If asked about what needed to improve he could have spoken about technique issues at a high level without singling out anyone. If they tried to pin him down about the secondary or specific players he could have mentioned that said person or people did a lot of things correctly and were important to winning the game, that he likes them, how they prepare, and that they work hard and continue to do the things asked of them. That of course there are things that must be done better, and that the expectation is that those things will improve.

The difference is doing it this way protects your players but is also honest and takes ownership. That said, I do think overall even if I don’t like how he answered here, that several things are more important than getting the press conference right.

Most importantly, are we getting better? The answer I think is yes. We’ve seen clear improvement in most aspects of the defense. So I think I like the coach, but he could make the fans who are nervous and half expecting disaster less likely to have heart attacks by sounding better.

Even non fans are going to pick up the coach saying 600 yards given up doesn’t matter and will form opinions. It’s certainly not the most important thing, and the sky isn’t falling, but I don’t think he did himself any favors.

Good post!