This game magnifies Heupel’s deficiencies

[Sea Ray]

Why didn’t we run our hurry up offense in this game? That puzzles me. If we can’t run that on the road what good is it? That is the way to confuse a defense and create mismatches. Frankly it’s central to Heupel’s offense

 

[Tnphil]

This is all moot, but we would've been up 24-23 because we would've kicked the extra point on our first TD of the 2nd half instead of chasing points by going for two.

Correct...and going for 2 so early in the game got us down 3 scores instead of 2.

 

[Tnphil]

And why in hell were we going for two in that spot so early in the second half instead of kicking the xp to make it 23-14? STOP CHASING POINTS! Let the game come to you and take what the other team gives you! I swear to God, modern coaching decisions frustrate me sometimes! You are needlessly killing your own momentum by taking these risks that are unnecessary!

Still scratching my head over that....Butch must have left his chart and Heupel found it in a drawer..

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Still scratching my head over that....Butch must have left his chart and Heupel found it in a drawer..

Next to the trowel.

 

[BreatheUT]

Correct...and going for 2 so early in the game got us down 3 scores instead of 2.

Imo the points chasing on the TD in the 3rd quarter didn't make sense at the time not because he was trying to get within 8 points but because it was high risk and we would need to do it twice.

 

[IUGradVol]

The clock management and play calling in SEC play have been head scratching to this point to say the least.

Also clearly need to go after defensive playmakers and quality depth on defense in the portal as we seem to have neither.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Its obvious that analytics have infected college football full-throatedly! Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Chat GPT is putting together game plans for these multi-millionaire coaches now!

 

[C-south]

And why in hell were we going for two in that spot so early in the second half instead of kicking the xp to make it 23-14? STOP CHASING POINTS! Let the game come to you and take what the other team gives you! I swear to God, modern coaching decisions frustrate me sometimes! You are needlessly killing your own momentum by taking these risks that are unnecessary!

Because it would have made it a one score game. If you don’t get it or kick the extra point you’re still down two scores. There are plenty of bone headed decisions to point out but that isn’t one.

 

[C-south]

Why didn’t we run our hurry up offense in this game? That puzzles me. If we can’t run that on the road what good is it? That is the way to confuse a defense and create mismatches. Frankly it’s central to Heupel’s offense

Because every time we get 7 yards and hurry we rush to the line and get a 5 yard penalty. We may as well huddle with a snap count at this point if they can’t do simple things right.

 

[DaltonVol2298]

I don’t understand for the life of me why we didn’t come out run heavy. And when we do…we have Thomas running straight in the gut. He isn’t a power back. And I hardly saw any blitz packages. Wtf?!?

This is a good point. Why not go more run-heavy? This is not the Saban era, Georgia’s top RB had a lot of yards on them and Missouri acted like they gave up on that too despite only being down three much of the second half last week.

 

[AthensVol2007]

My neighbor is a long suffering Vandy fan. He can hardly wait for Vandy’s game in Knoxville. I am afraid he is right. Vandy plays with discipline and focus. If you check the 247 talent rankings, they are 16th in the conference, yet they gave Bama a much tougher game than we did. Watching this team come out and play sloppy football week after week is extremely frustrating. This team has enough talent to be unbeaten, but it is wasted because of its lack of discipline and poor game management. That is on the coaching staff.

I would disagree they gave them a tougher game. Similar outcomes score wise and we moved the ball at will on Bama when we didn’t crap our pants on our own.

 

[PalmettoStateVol]

The deficiency is in the roster. Turpentine and Telander can't be the starters on a championship level defensive team. We need athletes. High level talent to really complement the defensive line. We aren't good enough.

Right before half, Aguilar should have thrown the ball away and let us kick at a field goal. Ultimately blame the head coach but also understand what went on.

While I agree that he should have thrown it away, I disagree with kicking the FG.

There should've been no decision to make. If you didn't take the time during that previous timeout to pound it in your offensive line and RB's heads that we're not going to be stopped inside the 2 yard line. We're going to man the **** up, put it in the RB's belly, and put it in the endzone. If they stop you, then you didn't deserve the score anyway. The O line had been playing well for the most part. If they go out there, score the TD before half, you've got all the momentum and the offense has renewed confidence in imposing their will on that Bama D.

 

[Tnphil]

Because every time we get 7 yards and hurry we rush to the line and get a 5 yard penalty. We may as well huddle with a snap count at this point if they can’t do simple things right.

I've been saying for a longtime...We try to fool the other team going warp speed when infact we make fools of ourselves. Bama wasn't fazed in the least with us going fast.

 

[EastTNVol6240]

Our defense and DC are pure trash. Has nothing to to with the offensive side of the ball. Defense screwed us all night, again.

Doesn’t help when the HC couldn’t manage himself out of a wet paper bag.

 

[C-south]

I've been saying for a longtime...We try to fool the other team going warp speed when infact we make fools of ourselves. Bama wasn't fazed in the least with us going fast.

I’ll add we go warp speed and rush to the line then have the line sit there frozen for 10 seconds instead of calling a play and running it. Or here’s a crazy idea, maybe run the same play twice.

 

[EastTNVol6240]

My neighbor is a long suffering Vandy fan. He can hardly wait for Vandy’s game in Knoxville. I am afraid he is right. Vandy plays with discipline and focus. If you check the 247 talent rankings, they are 16th in the conference, yet they gave Bama a much tougher game than we did. Watching this team come out and play sloppy football week after week is extremely frustrating. This team has enough talent to be unbeaten, but it is wasted because of its lack of discipline and poor game management. That is on the coaching staff.

Like them or not their play and moxy reflects good coaching, discipline, and confidence. Something we’ve never had under Heupel.

 

[cgrish]

There is no reason to call play action when there is no threat of the run. There is especially no reason to call play action when the other team calls timeout to make sure everyone knows there is no threat of the run.

Penalties galore in every game. We drop more passes than anyone in the country. Heupel beats himself, and his teams beat themselves. If he could get out of his own way, he could be very good. But this was unacceptable and inexcusable in year 5 against a beatable Bama team.

Actually we should have never been in the position at the end of 2nd qtr to have to pass on that play. Poor clock management again caused this. Momentum has a very lot to do with how your team performs and the last play of 2nd qtr completely shifted the momentum

 

[cgrish]

There was nothing wrong with the clock management there. We have 2nd and goal from the 1 yard line with 9 seconds left. You could in theory run 2 plays in that amount of time. Bad play call imo, but that's a different issue.

We wasted at least 20 second on the clock during this series of play. I was watching the game with friends and we were yelling get the play off or call time out

 

[Brave Volunteer]

Because it would have made it a one score game. If you don’t get it or kick the extra point you’re still down two scores. There are plenty of bone headed decisions to point out but that isn’t one.

It was far too early in the game to be thinking about that, though. And I'm not sure if the risk is worth the reward there because its a momentum killer! I dont agree with the call in THAT spot at all! You kick that can down the road and you attempt the 2 point conversion when you absolutely have to! It wasnt necessary there early in the 3rd quarter.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

After a night to sleep on it, I think we could lose 5 games. Heupel’s flaws are so glaringly apparent in every game now that I can’t possibly see them winning out and making the playoff.

 

[BreatheUT]

Because it would have made it a one score game. If you don’t get it or kick the extra point you’re still down two scores. There are plenty of bone headed decisions to point out but that isn’t one.

It was low probability and it was early. Then you have to make it twice. If you are banking on 2 two point conversions then you're probably already cooked.

 

[C-south]

It was far too early in the game to be thinking about that, though. And I'm not sure if the risk is worth the reward there because its a momentum killer! I dont agree with the call in THAT spot at all! You kick that can down the road and you attempt the 2 point conversion when you absolutely have to! It wasnt necessary there early in the 3rd quarter.

How was it a momentum killer? You get it you’re down one possession. You kick the extra point you’re down a td and a fg. You don’t convert on the two you’re down a td and a fg. Doing that early is why it made sense.

 

[Mccage]

There is no reason to call play action when there is no threat of the run. There is especially no reason to call play action when the other team calls timeout to make sure everyone knows there is no threat of the run.

Penalties galore in every game. We drop more passes than anyone in the country. Heupel beats himself, and his teams beat themselves. If he could get out of his own way, he could be very good. But this was unacceptable and inexcusable in year 5 against a beatable Bama team.

One yard line and we been running it down their throat and theres no threat? I underestimated you!

 

[C-south]

It was low probability and it was early. Then you have to make it twice. If you are banking on 2 two point conversions then you're probably already cooked.

You have to make what twice? If you don’t convert you’re down 9 or 10. That’s a td and a fg either way.

 

[chad954ut]

No. He screwed up by not taking the timeout with 25 seconds and proceeded to line up and run for the first down instead. That screwed us. We lost out on at least 1 more play and limited what we could call.

Spot on