'12 CA OL Matt Cochran (Cal commit)

It's amazing how much criticism is placed on our offensive line. No one considers how the offensive coaches changed the blocking schemes for passing prior to the season. After the injuries, we franctically changed gears to a more run focussed style which meant relearning new schemes. These kids are freshman and sophomores who didn't allow many sacks and considering their inexperience, lack of depth, and matchups against some top ranked teams, they did better than could be expected.

C'mon folks. Let's not demonize CDD or get into a blame game. Let's call this past season for what it really is...TN is still rebuilding and while we are getting better, we are still not at that level we want. Give it time and let the coaches do their job.

Excellent post. However, look at 2010, they were run blocking better, but Simms was getting sacked frequently. When Bray became the starter, the focus was to protect him...as fresmen and even sophomores, they are not doing both well. No offense to our rbs, but if I have to choose between better run blocking and high sack count with Bray as qb or minimal run game and fewer Bray sacks...it is a no brainer, you protect Bray all the way. Now that we have 1 senior and 4 juniors with backups that are juniors, sophs, rs frehmen...now we have depth and experience. I believe that there will be much better run blocking without sacrificing quality of pass blocking. Cochran is a take. Bullard, Crowder,and Cochran...now we have player depth at every line position. GBO!
 
IMO the recruitment of Cochran is a waste of a schollie unless they play to convert him to another position. We already have Bullard and Crowder, with both Gooch and Stone as back-ups in a pinch. A center needs some good mobility, which I just do not see in him. It would be an insult to Crowder since they were rated about the same coming out of HS and with him being an orange blooded TN boy. But I guess CDD has made dumber moves. I would use all available schollies on DT, RB, DE, and WR in that order.

That fact that you are mentioning Gooch at all tells me that this position is indeed a need.
 
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If UT has Bullard, Crowder and Cochran, then teach the non-starters how to deep snap!

Our current deep snappers are 6'3" 230 lbs and 5'10" 210!!!!! No wonder there are up the middle blitze blocks of our punts and field goals...get a decent size deep snapper and mt cody does not walk into a low field goal!!!
 
Excellent post. However, look at 2010, they were run blocking better, but Simms was getting sacked frequently. When Bray became the starter, the focus was to protect him...as fresmen and even sophomores, they are not doing both well. No offense to our rbs, but if I have to choose between better run blocking and high sack count with Bray as qb or minimal run game and fewer Bray sacks...it is a no brainer, you protect Bray all the way. Now that we have 1 senior and 4 juniors with backups that are juniors, sophs, rs frehmen...now we have depth and experience. I believe that there will be much better run blocking without sacrificing quality of pass blocking. Cochran is a take. Bullard, Crowder,and Cochran...now we have player depth at every line position. GBO!

I agree. We need those boys to be chained in the weight room and fed an IV of milk / steak.
 
No, I'm not Cochran's handler (he doesn't have one) and I don't work in the Cal athletic department. His high school coach posts on the Cal message board (He's a former Cal player)

Translation:He's pushing Cochran to go to Cal. Doesn't mean he wants or has to. I'm not even saying that he won't end up at Cal. But instead of prefacing your post with IMO for example, it makes you come off as another "insider" that has little to nothing to base what his ultimate decision will be.
 
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If UT has Bullard, Crowder and Cochran, then teach the non-starters how to deep snap!

Our current deep snappers are 6'3" 230 lbs and 5'10" 210!!!!! No wonder there are up the middle blitze blocks of our punts and field goals...get a decent size deep snapper and mt cody does not walk into a low field goal!!!

Cochran could also be moved to a OG position as well if Crowder pans out.
 
Cochran is a player and we'd be crazy not to take him if he did happen to choose UT. He's mobile enough to play DT actually though I'm sure OL is where he's being recruited for.
 
Translation:He's pushing Cochran to go to Cal. Doesn't mean he wants or has to. I'm not even saying that he want end up at Cal. But instead of prefacing your post with IMO for example, it makes you come off as another "insider" that has little to nothing to base what his ultimate decision will be.

That's fine. You're always welcome to believe what you will and I'm not certainly here to tell you what to think.
 
It's amazing how much criticism is placed on our offensive line. No one considers how the offensive coaches changed the blocking schemes for passing prior to the season. After the injuries, we franctically changed gears to a more run focussed style which meant relearning new schemes. These kids are freshman and sophomores who didn't allow many sacks and considering their inexperience, lack of depth, and matchups against some top ranked teams, they did better than could be expected.

C'mon folks. Let's not demonize CDD or get into a blame game. Let's call this past season for what it really is...TN is still rebuilding and while we are getting better, we are still not at that level we want. Give it time and let the coaches do their job.

I have been and still am a CDD supporter, I hope he can turn it around and prorve the doubters wrong, but that does not change my opinion of the O-Line's play this past year. They could of and should of had a better run game, (that is my opinion)

Even had the O-line been perfect, I would still take every quality O-lineman every time we can get one. Games are won and lost in the trenches.. again JMHO
 
You must have missed the last week or last few months. OCI is f.o.s.

I said I'll believe OCi over a guy who makes up a story to rationalize what he doesn't know. I Didn't say OCI is the end all, be all of info. I read this site for entertainment not as a news source. Some people take it waaaaay too seriously. For example, that escape robot bender guy got all pissy because he didn't get a joke and claimed I was "getting mad". Too seriously. Another example, people calling a poster names for being wrong. Taken too seriously. I love how the people who are calling out a poster think they are the next Sherlock Holmes because they sniffed through the "BS". That's like being proud of not believing the national enquirer.
 
It's interesting that you call people that listen to OCI as retarded yet you were the one who posted LWS said Sentimore would not answer the staff's phone calls on signing day. What insider information does LWS have? Does this make you a retard for following LWS?
One has a pretty good history, the other is proven wrong quite often. I have no ill will for OCI, I view his information skeptically though because he doesn't have a long standing history. Just the same, recruiting changes in the blink of an eye. If anything a lot of the information that has come out from LWS and some of the recruits quotes lines up with what OCI believed to be true. I think part of the problem is the definitiveness of some of OCI's posts.
 
If he can snap the ball he will start day one.

Cochran will be able to run block probably as well or better than anyone on our O-line just due to his massive size which is unbelievable for a center. Not to mention that no one on our O-line last year was able to run-block, much to the discredit of H Hiestand.

But there is a lot more to playing center than just the blocking -- he is the QB of the line and has to know the blocking schemes down pat and be able to call all the adjustments. Center is the most cerebral of all the O-line positions which is why our staff wanted Stone to work out there.

If the kid is smart and can learn those details by opening day, he will be our starting center. Another possibility is for the staff to adjust by letting someone else make those calls -- easy to say, but hard to implement.

Still, this is a kid worth going all out for -- we very much want him.

mlsoft
 
That's fine. You're always welcome to believe what you will and I'm not certainly here to tell you what to think.

Thank you for confirming what I'm allowed to do. Now explain why a Cal fan is on a UT message board?
 
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Where is Droski? He used to be the resident Cal poster when we had our one and one a couple of years ago...
 
Thank you for confirming what I'm allowed to do. Now explain why a Cal fan is on a UT message board?

You're clearly new to this message board idea.

It where EVERYONE can exchange knowledge, smack talk, and be a dumb ass without people knowing who you are.

Yes this is a Vol board. But why the hell would you want only Vol fans here? You are the type of person that makes people say Tennessee fans are jackasses because you can't be tolerant of someone when they have better knowledge of a recruit/situation than you or anyone on this board does.
 
You're clearly new to this message board idea.

It where EVERYONE can exchange knowledge, smack talk, and be a dumb ass without people knowing who you are.

Yes this is a Vol board. But why the hell would you want only Vol fans here? You are the type of person that makes people say Tennessee fans are jackasses because you can't be tolerant of someone when they have better knowledge of a recruit/situation than you or anyone on this board does.

Define Irony.

New to the message board coming from a guy with 90 posts.

Being able to smack talk, which is what I'm clearly doing to a rival fan who is claiming a committment based on sketchy information at best.

Don't necessarily only want Vol fans. But at least be informed about what you are talking about.

I could really careless what others think about me, including you.

Quite honestly you should have just typed that post to yourself and saved us both a lot of time.
 
One has a pretty good history, the other is proven wrong quite often. I have no ill will for OCI, I view his information skeptically though because he doesn't have a long standing history. Just the same, recruiting changes in the blink of an eye. If anything a lot of the information that has come out from LWS and some of the recruits quotes lines up with what OCI believed to be true. I think part of the problem is the definitiveness of some of OCI's posts.

Very well said
 
I have been and still am a CDD supporter, I hope he can turn it around and prorve the doubters wrong, but that does not change my opinion of the O-Line's play this past year. They could of and should of had a better run game, (that is my opinion)

Even had the O-line been perfect, I would still take every quality O-lineman every time we can get one. Games are won and lost in the trenches.. again JMHO


If you think about it, we have become so focused on pass protection that it seems as though we lost some focus on running the ball. We can speculate why later.

I think that the o line in 12' will do much better. They will have more experience and should have 2 years of conditioning. Hoepfully this spring the run is heavily focused upon but we shall see. I imagine that the coaches will look at what players they have after NSD and start making some more concrete decisions. I think that they already know where they are heading as far as schemes and packages.

I dont know if I could go as far to say that we should have had a better this or that...especially with all the injuries and inexperience. I think we were just fortunate to have made the best with what we had available.

After the UGA game, it is rumored that Dooley pulled his coaches into a room and basically said that they were going to scheme with whatever personel they had on a very basic level. At that point we were bailing water out of the USS Tennessee.

If we had won Kentucky and playing in a bowl, then perspectives would have been much different but the issues would have remained the same. For now, yes, we need to push the message of support for TN, their coaches, and the players.
 
Lol. That last line is a winner.

Define Irony.

New to the message board coming from a guy with 90 posts.

Being able to smack talk, which is what I'm clearly doing to a rival fan who is claiming a committment based on sketchy information at best.

Don't necessarily only want Vol fans. But at least be informed about what you are talking about.

I could really careless what others think about me, including you.

Quite honestly you should have just typed that post to yourself and saved us both a lot of time.
 
What happened to Mack 'Truck' Crowder? It wasn't to long ago that he seemed to be the heir apparent to the center job.. Some on here were ready to hand the job to him almost as soon as he stepped on campus... Now it's "if Cochran can snap the ball, he will start"........... Is/has Crowder been recruited over or has he become much needed 'depth'?..
 

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