jakez4ut
Patience... It's what's for dinner
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- Jul 7, 2005
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howdy. long time no talk to. i'm sure plenty of you were wondering all year what i thought....
....so here goes.
the 1st half of the season was mixed reviews. i liked the way the team competed against many of the bigger names on the schedule, and chocked up the 2nd half collapses to lack of depth and talent behind the starters. which i pretty much expected going in to the season.
never thought Matt Simms was all that great, liked his toughness, hated his throwing motion. and a bit cocky if you ask me for his talent level.
Obviously the LSU game would have been a nice feather in the cap for the season, but let's face it, LSU was bad that day, we weren't exactly great. but it would have been nice to take advantage and get that marquee win we never got.
by teh South Carolina game i was getting inrcreasingly frustrated with the coaching. at that point in the season we weren't competing for anything and i couldn't help but wonder why are we continuing to do the same things with the personnel we have? why not throw caution to the wind and go nuts the rest of the way? we weren't going to line up and 'beat' anybody.
and i saw signs of that changing in the USC game, unfortunately, mistakes kept us from winning that game. but i pegged that game as the game that would change the season.
after that, i figured here's the part of the schedule where we can finally make some hay. i'm not going to be naive enough to get excited about beating Memphis, Ole Miss and Vandy as some great accomplishment, but for this team momentum and confidence was what the doctor ordered. the prescription worked.
that said, i did finally see the coaching staff change the philosophy and start doing things outside their comfort zone. plugged in Bray, and let him sling it all over the place. fake punts, end arounds, flea flickers, double reverses etc, etc, etc.....and it worked.
the credit i will give Dooley is simply this: he recognized what this group of players did well and and he changed the philosophy to maximize that. all the while knowing that he had to manufacture points and opportunities to give us a chance to win any game. i was fearful of the "we do what we do" mentality and was pleasantly suprised that it changed to "we will do what we do well" mentality.
and he also didn't lead us in to any delusions of grandeur either. when we were lucky he called it. when we played inferior competition he called it. for that i do give him credit, at least he has perspective and it's realistic.
lastly, was scared to death of the KY game. the lone feather in this season's cap is that it's 26 and counting.
so, good to see them end on a postive note, good for the seniors to have some decent memories and a bowl game to go out on. and good for Dooley for not falling in to the "we do what we do because that's what we do" grind.
i'm still not sure Dooley is a guy that's going to go toe to toe year in and year out against Saban or Meyer, but i didn't see anything that makes me want to cut bait either. still very much a work in progress, and parts of the future that i saw did look pretty good. but we still have some glaring deficiencies that have to be fixed before we get anywhere near the top of the SEC again.
the 2010 season....a bad movie with a decent ending.
Go Vols.
....so here goes.the 1st half of the season was mixed reviews. i liked the way the team competed against many of the bigger names on the schedule, and chocked up the 2nd half collapses to lack of depth and talent behind the starters. which i pretty much expected going in to the season.
never thought Matt Simms was all that great, liked his toughness, hated his throwing motion. and a bit cocky if you ask me for his talent level.
Obviously the LSU game would have been a nice feather in the cap for the season, but let's face it, LSU was bad that day, we weren't exactly great. but it would have been nice to take advantage and get that marquee win we never got.
by teh South Carolina game i was getting inrcreasingly frustrated with the coaching. at that point in the season we weren't competing for anything and i couldn't help but wonder why are we continuing to do the same things with the personnel we have? why not throw caution to the wind and go nuts the rest of the way? we weren't going to line up and 'beat' anybody.
and i saw signs of that changing in the USC game, unfortunately, mistakes kept us from winning that game. but i pegged that game as the game that would change the season.
after that, i figured here's the part of the schedule where we can finally make some hay. i'm not going to be naive enough to get excited about beating Memphis, Ole Miss and Vandy as some great accomplishment, but for this team momentum and confidence was what the doctor ordered. the prescription worked.
that said, i did finally see the coaching staff change the philosophy and start doing things outside their comfort zone. plugged in Bray, and let him sling it all over the place. fake punts, end arounds, flea flickers, double reverses etc, etc, etc.....and it worked.
the credit i will give Dooley is simply this: he recognized what this group of players did well and and he changed the philosophy to maximize that. all the while knowing that he had to manufacture points and opportunities to give us a chance to win any game. i was fearful of the "we do what we do" mentality and was pleasantly suprised that it changed to "we will do what we do well" mentality.
and he also didn't lead us in to any delusions of grandeur either. when we were lucky he called it. when we played inferior competition he called it. for that i do give him credit, at least he has perspective and it's realistic.
lastly, was scared to death of the KY game. the lone feather in this season's cap is that it's 26 and counting.
so, good to see them end on a postive note, good for the seniors to have some decent memories and a bowl game to go out on. and good for Dooley for not falling in to the "we do what we do because that's what we do" grind.
i'm still not sure Dooley is a guy that's going to go toe to toe year in and year out against Saban or Meyer, but i didn't see anything that makes me want to cut bait either. still very much a work in progress, and parts of the future that i saw did look pretty good. but we still have some glaring deficiencies that have to be fixed before we get anywhere near the top of the SEC again.
the 2010 season....a bad movie with a decent ending.
Go Vols.
