What Buck Fitzgerald said

#226
#226
tvolsfan said:
A veteran line? Weren't there two returning starters? And regardless, it's the offensive line. You don't want any weak spots, let alone having multiple walk ons. It's not like you can just average out the talent of all the players and say it's a good line. Having glaring holes means that are going to be a weakness on every play. I would have hated to see Hiestand try to deal with that.



True, but Auburn was a lot better in 2009, especially on offense.


Sure, when they were dealing with the likes of Mississippi State and Vanderbilt.
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There were two returning starters, but the Sullins bros still were in the program for over 4 years. They weren't great or anything, but they weren't awful. They also knew what to do and at least had strength.

Auburn still wasn't very good, they lost to UK and Arkansas. They were very average.

The 08 UT team had 3 turnovers and a punt return td against UF

UT had 3 turnover against USCjr

UT had 2 turnover against UCLA
 
#227
#227
tvolsfan said:
You forget we smashed Georgia and South Carolina teams, and I'm not at all sure we were better than either of them. Auburn was better than Tennessee, too.
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UT had 6 draft picks including arguably the best player in college football. Thats not including Luke Stocker and Denarius Moore. None of those other schools had that number.
 
#228
#228
StlCardinals2618 said:
UT had 6 draft picks including arguably the best player in college football. Thats not including Luke Stocker and Denarius Moore. None of those other schools had that number.
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Draft picks don't make up for holes. When you have to basically use your best defensive back as a linebacker, you know your roster is a dumpster fire.

And anyways, it's not like all those guys were going to be draft picks if not for Kiffin and his staff stepping in.
 
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#229
#229
StlCardinals2618 said:
UT had 6 draft picks including arguably the best player in college football. Thats not including Luke Stocker and Denarius Moore. None of those other schools had that number.
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That Auburn team plus Cam Newton was a 14-0 team. If Tennessee returned everyone for 2010 and added Cam Newton, it's not nearly on that level.
 
#230
#230
tvolsfan said:
Draft picks don't make up for holes. When you have to basically use your best defensive back as a linebacker, you know your roster is a dumpster fire.

And anyways, it's not like all those guys were going to be draft picks if not for Kiffin and his staff stepping in.
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I never said they did, but the defensive backfield was great before they took over. Dennis Rogan and Brent Vinson were good corners. Monte likes using his safeties in the box more, he has always done that.

The only person who wouldnt have been drafted was Crompton.

Dan Williams had 3 tackles in every game in 08 and had 8 tfls.

Eric Berry is Eric Berry

Chris Scott had started in every game in 07 when UT went to the SEC championship.

Jacques Mcclendon started in 6 games in 07 and 08, played in every game since his freshmen year.

Hardesty was good, he was just injury prone.
 
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#231
#231
tvolsfan said:
That Auburn team plus Cam Newton was a 14-0 team. If Tennessee returned everyone for 2010 and added Cam Newton, it's not nearly on that level.
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Auburn won because of Micheal Dyer, Cam Newton, and Nick Fairley. They had a couple of other decent players, but Cam Newton and Micheal Dyer were the main reasons. Cam Newton would have dominated everyone on the 09 team.
 
#232
#232
That's not the point. I'm saying that even with all those guys and the entire 2009 team returning, Tennessee would have had no shot at running the table in 2010.
 
#233
#233
tvolsfan said:
That's not the point. I'm saying that even with all those guys, the 2009 team wouldn't have been nearly good enough to run the table.
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You had a great secondary in 09, solid linebackers (depth was an issue here), and a solid defensive line.

You have a good possession reciever in Gerald Jones, a playmaking reciever in Denarius Moore, and great safety valve in Luke Stocker, a great runningback to get you yards, and an average line.

Cam would have done great with Denarius, Stocker, Jones, and Hardesty. Auburn's defense was absolutely terrible in 09, it was their offense that won them games.
 
#234
#234
StlCardinals2618 said:
You had a great secondary in 09, solid linebackers (depth was an issue here), and a solid defensive line.

You have a good possession reciever in Gerald Jones, a playmaking reciever in Denarius Moore, and great safety valve in Luke Stocker, a great runningback to get you yards, and an average line.

Cam would have done great with Denarius, Stocker, Jones, and Hardesty. Auburn's defense was absolutely terrible in 09, it was their offense that won them games.
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They were solid on the lines with a huge playmaker in Fairley. That's more than Tennessee could say.
 
#235
#235
If people are going to pretend the 2009 roster Kiffin inherited was good based on about 8 players who got drafted, have at it. That being said, I find it unlikely you guys bought into that at the time.
 
#237
#237
tvolsfan said:
If people are going to pretend the 2009 roster Kiffin inherited was good based on about 8 players who got drafted, have at it. That being said, I find it unlikely you guys bought into that at the time.
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Its not just who got drafted. Wes Brown, Chris Walker, Rico Mccoy, Gerald Jones, Dennis Rogan, and Aaron Douglas were good players.

Just because Fulmer's staff dropped a complete bomb in 2008 doesn't change the fact that Kiffin had a solid roster when he coached here. Your going by what the team did in 08, remember in 05 when Tennessee went 5-6? The next year they went 9-3 in the regular season.
 
#239
#239
StlCardinals2618 said:
Its not just who got drafted. Wes Brown, Chris Walker, Rico Mccoy, Gerald Jones, Dennis Rogan, and Aaron Douglas were good players.

Just because Fulmer's staff dropped a complete bomb in 2008 doesn't change the fact that Kiffin had a solid roster when he coached here. Your going by what the team did in 08, remember in 05 when Tennessee went 5-6? The next year they went 9-3 in the regular season.
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Tennessee still had a horrible quarterback, a mediocre offensive line (in spite of what people try to convince themselves), and a mess at linebacker. Surely you've realized by now how detrimental the lack of depth can be. That team had no depth. The glaring weak spots on the team killed any chance it had of being successful, regardless of the fact that some of the players actually didn't suck.
 
#240
#240
tvolsfan said:
Tennessee still had a horrible quarterback, a mediocre offensive line (in spite of what people try to convince themselves), and a mess at linebacker. Surely you've realized by now how detrimental the lack of depth can be. That team had no depth. The glaring weak spots on the team killed any chance it had of being successful, regardless of the fact that some of the players actually didn't suck.
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Crompton wasn't terrible, he had 4 different offensive coordinators in 4 years. That is tough to overcome, especially for a college quarterback. Crompton was talented, and Kiffin and Chaney knew how to fix and help him.

Depth is very important, but it is much easier to play young talented players in limited roles, than having to start them. Linebacker and Oline were the only real bad depth positions.
 
#241
#241
Crompton was a headcase at best. He was awful almost his entire career here.


And the depth, and roster as a whole, was horrific.
 
#242
#242
Spartacavolus said:
I don't even know what that means. But yeah, you are obsessed. You made comments about momma Dooley all of last year as well, especially after she had some radio comments and you have brought her up at least twice in the past 2 weeks.
Do your own post search history if you can't recall your own bull****.
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I haven't been on VN in the past two weeks
 
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#247
#247
If the question is "Did Kiffin inherit a deep, talented team?" The answer is no. If the question is "Did Kiffin inherit a deeper, more talented, more experienced team than Dooley in either of his first two years?" The answer is yes. Neither inherited a good situation and the result for the last three seasons reflect that.

Fulmer pretty much ran the roster into the ground with poor recruiting, bad evals, and terrible program discipline. Kiffin was going to do better with the first two and improve the roster by shear volumes of talented guys... there was going to be high attrition however. Dooley has had good in program discipline and relatively low attrition. We will soon see if the talent is there to pay off on the field.
 
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