Quotes From Doug Matthews

#26
#26
BigOrangeTailgate said:
You'll notice I said "some" of the credit in the post you quoted. But I think I agree with you that he gets credit for those two hires and he also gets the blame for the negative things. That's where the buck stops god and bad.
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I totally agree. Buck stops with the coaches, and in particular the head coach. May not be fair, but leadership is not fair.
 
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#28
#28
How much of the problem is caused by switching to the 3-4? Would we have been better off staying with a standard 4-3 or not? It reminds me of Coach Fulmer's last year with OC Clawson bringing in a whole new system at maybe the very worst time. I think our offense has obviously gotten better and actually plays well enough to win. It's so frustrating to watch the Vols give up so many yards and points, I know. But if we stay the course, will it get better? I don't know. Just asking those who might.
 
#29
#29
joshc said:
Not sure you can give the credit to new oline coach and rb coach and not Dooley, while putting blame on Dooley for defense, when we have all new D coaches as well. Not sure you can have it both ways.
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I absolutely give credit to Dooley for good hires in Graham and Pittman.

However, running a football team is more than just 2 good hires. You can't afford 2 bad hires when you have 8 position/coordinator spots.

But chiefly the decision to move to the 3-4, not hiring an proven 3-4 or even 4-3 DC but instead a perinneal position coach to install, coordinate and playcall for it all the while knowing we have only brought in:

2 ****
3 ***
1 **

linebacker recruits in 3 years. To run a 3-4 defense. That's barely depth even good depth for a Nickel set, much less a 3-4. Even blaming Kiffin for the first year will only net Dooley 4 LB recruits in 2 years. You can't blame Kiffin or Fulmer or anyone but Dooley for those classes.

Want to know how many WR recruits we've brought in in that time-frame?
 
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#30
#30
Vol Karma said:
I kind of agree with you, but I blame Dooley for stuff like timeouts, players not being managed correctly, attitude of the team, etc. Dooley just can't handle the position in a way that it needs to be handled.
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I'm a Tennessee supporter, and that means that I want whoever can help us win coaching (as long as they are not some moral sleezeball, like Petrino). Personally, I would probably give Dooley one more year to turn it around.
1.) because I think the job he was given was a colossal rebuild, in a ridiculously tough conference, and he's improved the talent level significantly

2.) I really don't think we would land the home run hire, and why start all over again with a Kirby Smart or someone of his ilk.
 
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#31
#31
DC Vol said:
I absolutely give credit to Dooley for good hires in Graham and Pittman.

However, running a football team is more than just 2 good hires. You can't afford 2 bad hires when you have 8 position/coordinator spots.

But chiefly the decision to move to the 3-4, not hiring an proven 3-4 or even 4-3 DC but instead a perinneal position coach to install, coordinate and playcall for it all the while knowing we have only brought in:

2 ****
3 ***
1 **

linebacker recruits in 3 years. To run a 3-4 defense. That's barely depth even good depth for a Nickel set, much less a 3-4. Even blaming Kiffin for the first year will only net Dooley 4 LB recruits in 2 years. You can't blame Kiffin or Fulmer or anyone but Dooley for those classes.

Want to know how many WR recruits we've brought in in that time-frame?
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Thanks.This makes for a good discussion. I think you have some good points.
But, I think they were probably trying to imitate the best (Bama). So, he hires a Bama guy, who was due a promotion. If you remember at the time, just about all the "experts" thought Sal was a good hire. He knows Smart's defense, and maybe, given time he could be a good coordinator. Lots of teams struggle the first year of change to 3-4.
Also, there have been some extenuating circumstances in the last couple of years in linebacker recruiting. Santos and Peters switched on us last second, hurting potential depth. Also, we lost Christian Harris to a knee injury and Bynum for the year as well, not to mention Maggitt has been a shell of himself, since the turf toe injury in the NC State game.
The buck stops with the coaches, but they have had some challenges to deal with in the 3-4 change this year.
On the flip side, the argument could be made, that there are always challenges, and the best coaches find ways to motivate their players to rise to the occasion.
 
#32
#32
joshc said:
Thanks.This makes for a good discussion. I think you have some good points.
But, I think they were probably trying to imitate the best (Bama). So, he hires a Bama guy, who was due a promotion. If you remember at the time, just about all the "experts" thought Sal was a good hire. He knows Smart's defense, and maybe, given time he could be a good coordinator. Lots of teams struggle the first year of change to 3-4.
Also, there have been some extenuating circumstances in the last couple of years in linebacker recruiting. Santos and Peters switched on us last second, hurting potential depth. Also, we lost Christian Harris to a knee injury and Bynum for the year as well, not to mention Maggitt has been a shell of himself, since the turf toe injury in the NC State game.
The buck stops with the coaches, but they have had some challenges to deal with in the 3-4 change this year.
On the flip side, the argument could be made, that there are always challenges, and the best coaches find ways to motivate their players to rise to the occasion.
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You can't imitate Ferrari by buying a Pontiac Fiero and a body kit.

We gambled on a change to the 3-4 and had poor depth and nowhere near the talent at LB to run it. We did it anyway. You know what our WR recruiting was in that 3 year stretch? 8 **** and 1 *****. That's 9 WRs for 6 LBs and 8 4* against 2. The depth wasn't there. The talent wasn't there. Now Dooley is paying the price as well he should. The HFC is ultimately responsible for the actions and production of the group for which he's in charge of.

CEOs/Operations Managers/etc are faced with a litany of circumstances that they can't control. Why do they get paid the big bucks? For adapting.

That's just life. Nobody can f(#* up royally like that (constantly being outperformed by your peers, etc) at their jobs and expect to keep getting paid, can they?

In those circumstances it won't matter how well you speak or how clever your colloquialisms are. You're bad at your job, you made bad decisions and you're fired.

It's that simple.
 
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#34
#34
cascade11 said:
Not sure if serious... If so look at the offensive line/running game. Im not on either side of the Dooley fence, I just want to win, but the offensive line/running game is days better than it was the past couple years.
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therickbol said:
I see a blind emotional opinion. Or. I don't see any intelligence or critical thinking skills. Its one or the other.
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VolsByNature said:
So you're not even watching the games, come on here and whine? Typical VolNation
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joshc said:
Well, we are scoring in the second half this year, the running game is better, and we have Dan McCullers.
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sjt18 said:
Seriously? There have been improvements. Without the validation of a "big" win, I don't think it is enough. But there have been pretty significant improvements in the program and roster.
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With a healthy Hunter, the 2010 Vols were better than the 2011 Vols. Worst defense to ever wear the orange.
 
#35
#35
Vol Catdaddy said:
Look! At the money we were offering. Only Cut and dooley wanted the job. We would have done way better if we'd hire Cut.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
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I wouldn't have liked the Cut hire but I kinda agree.

However, Duke's 5-2 record looks nice now but I'd be surprised if they win more than 1 game for the rest of the season.
 
#36
#36
DC Vol said:
You can't imitate Ferrari by buying a Pontiac Fiero and a body kit.

We gambled on a change to the 3-4 and had poor depth and nowhere near the talent at LB to run it. We did it anyway. You know what our WR recruiting was in that 3 year stretch? 8 **** and 1 *****. That's 9 WRs for 6 LBs and 8 4* against 2. The depth wasn't there. The talent wasn't there. Now Dooley is paying the price as well he should. The HFC is ultimately responsible for the actions and production of the group for which he's in charge of.

CEOs/Operations Managers/etc are faced with a litany of circumstances that they can't control. Why do they get paid the big bucks? For adapting.

That's just life. Nobody can f(#* up royally like that (constantly being outperformed by your peers, etc) at their jobs and expect to keep getting paid, can they?

In those circumstances it won't matter how well you speak or how clever your colloquialisms are. You're bad at your job, you made bad decisions and you're fired.

It's that simple.
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I agree to some degree.

I do think Aj Johnson, a healthy Maggitt, and a healthy Lathers are a good strong Sec corps. Jaques Smith has been showing up in the rush as of late as well. But, we didn't have the depth yet.
Not to mention, I think our Dline is a better 4-3 line. Mo Couch is much better on the interior in my opinion.
We should have probably coached to what our roster was this year and tried to switch as we built the depth on D.
 
#37
#37
joshc said:
I agree to some degree.

I do think Aj Johnson, a healthy Maggitt, and a healthy Lathers are a good strong Sec corps. Jaques Smith has been showing up in the rush as of late as well. But, we didn't have the depth yet.
Not to mention, I think our Dline is a better 4-3 line. Mo Couch is much better on the interior in my opinion.
We should have probably coached to what our roster was this year and tried to switch as we built the depth on D.
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Watch Bama on D and see how often they rotate players out. You can't run the 3-4 without quality depth at LB. We don't have anywhere near quality depth at LB.

Regardless it looks like we play more 4-3 or Nickel than 3-4 anyway. I honestly think that Sunseri is just not coordinator material and his resume backs that up. Guy has never had an NFL/FBS/Div-1 DC job in his 30 year career.
 
#38
#38
DC Vol said:
Okay, this is BS.

Dallas Thomas, Ju'Wuan James, Antonio Richardson, CP, Hunter, Bray, AJ, McCullers aren't NFL caliber? Pretty much every scout will disagree with you. Then again, they don't hang their fandom on a school being tied to unequivocal support for what is pretty plain to see a coaching staff that has drastically under-utilized the talent on the roster.

The excuses have to stop. Just because we don't have the coaches to utilize talent doesn't mean we don't have it. This was how it was with Fulmer and Clawson.

"Arian Foster isn't an SEC type/Future NFL player."

Bad coaches will under-utilize talent. That's what Clawson/Fulmer did. That's what Dooley/Chaney/Sunseri are all doing. They have the talent. They are just not getting much out of it.
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I'll sure be glad when you and some others learn how to read correctly my friend.

The KEY word on my statement was "enough" good SEC type/future NFL players.

By the way, Arian Foster was NOT drafted at all by any NFL team.

The Texans were very short on RB's for training camp so they gave him a chance and he ran with the opportunity and not they're both very happy they did.

Nice list of names you mentioned and I agree but I'm stunned that you could leave our big James Stone that CDD talked into dropping his commit to alaBubba and coming to UT instead.

We play in the SEC and in order to compete against the best of the SEC you must have a 2 DEEP gameday rotation like ALL the SEC top teams have.

We barely have a 1 deep much less a 2 deep rotation YET but we are getting there.

I might also add that I believe Brian Randolph, Croom, Pig and some others in the ONLY 2 recruiting classes that CDD brought in will also learn and become NFL players by the time they graduate.

Look at the last 2 recruiting classes and add them up and I think you'll see that most of our future NFL players will mostly be kids that CDD brought in my friend.

Try to think and post with a calmness and a clear eye to what CDD has really accomplished with only 2 recruiting classes rather than only hot emotions based on where you thought this team should have been this season.

I want to Win them all too but that's not reality in the SEC as bad as our player roster was when CDD took over a total disaster.

VFL...GBO!!!

VFL...GBO!!!
 
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#40
#40
BigOrangeTailgate said:
I've seen improvements in OL play and in the run game but we have a new line coach and new RB coach so some of the credit may need to go to those guys. OTOH, I haven't seen any improvement in concentration and on the field discipline. We continue to make boneheaded mistakes and penalties. Additionally our defense seems to have regressed tenfold. I would say that our STs are slightly better if only because we aren't muffing every single punt. So all in all I would say that we have taken one step forward and two steps back.

What worries me more though is not whether we have improved slightly it's that I don't see the gap between us and the top tier of the SEC narrowing next year either. Admittedly, I'm no expert.
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Yet you took the time to inform us of your difference of opinion with a former SEC defensive coordinator. Thanks.

:birgits_giggle:
 
#43
#43
VolMax said:
Yet you took the time to inform us of your difference of opinion with a former SEC defensive coordinator. Thanks.

:birgits_giggle:
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Sorry man, it's been a long day. Not sure which former SEC defensive coordinator you are referring to but if VN mandated that only experts could offer opinions I'm afraid there wouldn't be a lot of material on this site.
 
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#44
#44
Titan&Volfan4life said:
He says the same thing I've been saying all along.

We simply don't have enough SEC type/Future NFL players on our roster...YET!

Look closely at the ONLY 2 real CDD recruiting classes and you will see alot more SEC type/future NFL players on our team so we ARE getting better and this WAS a projected 4 to 5 YEAR total rebuilding job that CDD took over and ONLY 2 recruiting classes aren't going to guarantee that UT gets a Win over top SEC teams that are all ranked in the top 15 Nationally.

Not many Sophs and Freshmen play alot in the SEC unless they're true 4* and 5* studs and they can learn the playbook fast.

I think Brian Randolph and the Croomster can become gamechangers but they're gone for the season.

Maggitt has been injured with a bad turf toe all season and that slows him down alot and he loses the push off ability to seperate from a blocker so he can make more tackles faster.

We're close to competing but changing to a 3-4 D takes NFL teams 2 YEARS to get it all down pat and we've only played 6 games.

In that article a former UT coach said he DID see our D getting better as the game went along.

We lost a fumble at the worst time and if that drive kept going and scored we still might have beaten MSU on their turf.

I see improvements and I know we're going to see more Wins and next season this team could be standing tall against the best the SEC can throw against us.

VFL...GBO!!!
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once i calm down and look at it i think i agree with this. we are recruiting better, but, until we land those top tier, 5 star, game changing type players, every year, its gonna be a struggle in this league to win 8 games.
 
#46
#46
Yankee_Vol said:
I don't see any improvements
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If we would had won that game you still would find something to ***** about. They didn't bust any big runs on us, tackling was a bit better, and as coach Matthews said we just don't have the talent in the secondary right now and ain't **** we can do about it till feb on signing day. Oh and we are running the football a whole lot better!!
 
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#47
#47
17Vols said:
once i calm down and look at it i think i agree with this. we are recruiting better, but, until we land those top tier, 5 star, game changing type players, every year, its gonna be a struggle in this league to win 8 games.
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We absolutely have our fair share of those type players right now (Bray, Hunter, Patterson). They are going to waste because Dooley can't put together an average defense with a bunch of 4 * athletes.
 
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