'12 JUCO DE Denico Autry (MSU signee)

[The Breakerboy]

I'm not concerned yet. There are no perfect coaches. Even guys like Saban, Miles, and the almighty Urban Meyer make boneheaded mistakes quite often. The difference is they have (or had) the luxury of a margin of error. WE HAVE NO MARGIN FOR ERROR. ZERO, ZILCH, NADA.

I don't think any of those guys would have done any better wearing Dooley's headset this year. OK, MAYBE one or two of them would have won the Kentucky game but you're kidding yourself if you think our season would have turned out any better if we had an "elite" coach. Don't forget that one of the reasons we had trouble getting the plays in is because for many of those plays we had a VERY GREEN FRESHMAN QB under center, or we had other personnel issues where VERY GREEN players were on the field.

See, I can paint in broad generalities too.

Now I'm one of Dooley's biggest supporters but some of the stuff on the sidelines run me crazy. You may hate Kiffin and he would have had us on probation but his team was better coached and tougher to me. Yeah Berry and others had something to do with it but certain things fall on the coach. You can tell we were soft by the lack of ability to run the ball. There's absolutely no reason for that with the talent we had on the O-line. Our offense had absolutely no flow to it at times.

 

[FightingScott]

Do you think the coaching this year was acceptable?

I don't know if the coaching was acceptable or not; I've never coached a college fb team, nor was I on the sideline at UT. I can only judge by the product on the field, and at this point, I can only blame the poor output on the lack of talent/depth. When Dooley has a roster of mostly his players, we can start talking about coaching.

 

[ORANGE & WHITE]

I agree with BB. The flow of the offense looked terrible at times. IMO, it was also pretty easy to guess plays by formation and personnel on the field. Hopefully, the roster upgrades with experience can help cover some of these things up. One thing is for certain though, I am glad they hired JG to coach the RB's. Hopefully his coaching and input will lead to a lot of improvement.

 

[Montrell Hardy]

Now I'm one of Dooley's biggest supporters but some of the stuff on the sidelines run me crazy. You may hate Kiffin and he would have had us on probation but his team was better coached and tougher to me. Yeah Berry and others had something to do with it but certain things fall on the coach. You can tell we were soft by the lack of ability to run the ball. There's absolutely no reason for that with the talent we had on the O-line. Our offense had absolutely no flow to it at times.

Good post. I have to agree with everything you said there.

 

[Defaultuser]

I don't know if the coaching was acceptable or not; I've never coached a college fb team, nor was I on the sideline at UT. I can only judge by the product on the field, and at this point, I can only blame the poor output on the lack of talent/depth. When Dooley has a roster of mostly his players, we can start talking about coaching.

Guess you never watched a football game before this year.

 

[LynxVol]

+1. I dont know how anyone cant be at least a little concerned with the coaching aspect of things. I fully understand the talent issue as well but man there were some major issues from a coaching standpoint. Nothing more glaring than the constant issues of getting the play called in from the sidelines on time.

So, logically, let's just put all the blame on CDD. I mean, he coaches every single player 1 on 1, everyday. I say, let the man do his job and work it out. It's been two years in which he's had a depleted roster with sub-par talent. There were times when coaching was suspect, but these guys (Wilcox, Chaney for the most part) are not idiots. They are doing what they're doing for a reason. In terms of the big picture, coaching had very little to do with our problems. People need to get over the KY loss.

 

[chavisut]

We returned every OL from starters to scout teamers, minus Cody Pope, plus the added freshman and Bullard. Somehow, the unit regressed. How is that not on coaching?

 

[VFL1274]

The talk about CDD thread is in the football forum.

Take it over there

 

[tvols75]

We returned every OL from starters to scout teamers, minus Cody Pope, plus the added freshman and Bullard. Somehow, the unit regressed. How is that not on coaching?

They regressed in one aspect of the game (run blocking) but they improved greatly in pass blocking. Also, the running game looked completely different with Simms in the game. That tells me two things 1. Bray needs to do a better job at managing the running game and 2. Chaney needs to have a better run scheme with Bray in the game.

 

[LynxVol]

We returned every OL from starters to scout teamers, minus Cody Pope, plus the added freshman and Bullard. Somehow, the unit regressed. How is that not on coaching?

So how did the OL regress? I think the poor running game is blinding your thought process. IMHO, Poole was the problem, not the OL. The one point of credit I'll give you is snapping the ball. A C does it every freaking day in practice. Mistakes like that shouldn't have happened as often as they did.

 

[JAEvans24]

The talk about CDD thread is in the football forum.

Take it over there

Glad someone said it.

 

[Montrell Hardy]

So, logically, let's just put all the blame on CDD. I mean, he coaches every single player 1 on 1, everyday. I say, let the man do his job and work it out. It's been two years in which he's had a depleted roster with sub-par talent. There were times when coaching was suspect, but these guys (Wilcox, Chaney for the most part) are not idiots. They are doing what they're doing for a reason. In terms of the big picture, coaching had very little to do with our problems. People need to get over the KY loss.

I disagree. Sure he deserves at least one more year. I have no issue with that. And nobody is calling these guys idiots either.

But losing to Kentucky is absolutely inexcusable. I dont think people realize how bad of a loss that really was. Kentucky flat out sucks. And not only did Tennessee have far more talent than they did but Kentucky had a WR playing QB. That was as bad a loss as Tennessee has ever had, period. I know Bray wasn't 100% and all that but my god if you can't run the ball even halfway effectively on that team you have serious problems.

I am witholding judgement on this coaching staff until next season, whether they deserve to stay or they deserve to go. Anything less than 8 wins next year and I dont see how he's around for a 4th year. At some point you have to start to show significant improving and the youth argument will no long hold water. I understand what they inherited. But some of the consistent trends I saw this year are somewhat concerning to me. I still cant get over how laughable and pathetic this team truly was in the run game.

 

[Montrell Hardy]

So how did the OL regress? I think the poor running game is blinding your thought process. IMHO, Poole was the problem, not the OL. The one point of credit I'll give you is snapping the ball. A C does it every freaking day in practice. Mistakes like that shouldn't have happened as often as they did.

Poole was a major problem. I'll give you that. He was a MAC level talent that never should have been playing at this level. That said, how do you explain the OLine being so horrible in goal line and short yardage situations? Even on QB sneaks they couldnt' convert? Why? Because the Oline was being pushed into the offensive backfield almost every time. They were soft, period.

 

[Montrell Hardy]

They regressed in one aspect of the game (run blocking) but they improved greatly in pass blocking. Also, the running game looked completely different with Simms in the game. That tells me two things 1. Bray needs to do a better job at managing the running game and 2. Chaney needs to have a better run scheme with Bray in the game.

So they were fine running the ball because Simms was the QB. Has it occurred to you that maybe the Oline appeared to be better in pass blocking this year because Bray was the QB and he gets rid of the ball when Simms last year did not? I really didn't see this "great improvement" in pass blocking that some of you did. The biggest difference I saw from the 2010 season to this year was Bray getting rid of the football when under pressure. In 2010 Simms didn't and took a bunch more sacks.

Watching the Florida and Geogia games again Bray was under constant pressure. He just did a great job of making quick decisions and /or throwing the ball away.

 

[The Breakerboy]

Poole was a major problem. I'll give you that. He was a MAC level talent that never should have been playing at this level. That said, how do you explain the OLine being so horrible in goal line and short yardage situations? Even on QB sneaks they couldnt' convert? Why? Because the Oline was being pushed into the offensive backfield almost every time. They were soft, period.

I called Poole a MAC back two years ago people moaned and groaned. Now they see what was what. Linemen hate blocking for a guy who isn't that good. But our line couldn't line straight up on Montana and say we're just better than you so we're going to run the ball on you.

 

[RTGA]

Now I'm one of Dooley's biggest supporters but some of the stuff on the sidelines run me crazy. You may hate Kiffin and he would have had us on probation but his team was better coached and tougher to me. Yeah Berry and others had something to do with it but certain things fall on the coach. You can tell we were soft by the lack of ability to run the ball. There's absolutely no reason for that with the talent we had on the O-line. Our offense had absolutely no flow to it at times.

Kiffin BLEW the Auburn and UCLA games, and basically gave the team the month off in preparation for the Chick Fil A bowl, and I hated him (before he left) for that reason.

I think there are a multitude of reasons why we couldn't run well this year, the primary being that we built our offense around Bray, Hunter, and Da'Rick (zone blocking, etc...). So you can blame the coaches for not having a good fallback plan there, as that oversight proved to be a disaster, but when we had those guys all healthy, our offense was pretty much unstoppable. There are teams that somehow survive an entire season with no injuries to key players, and then there's the Tennessee Vols, and we PAY for it.

With that said, I agree that Dooley made some very strange/questionable decisions when it came to clock management, particularly at the end of the half, but that's not the sole reason we lost 7 games.

 

[The Breakerboy]

So they were fine running the ball because Simms was the QB. Has it occurred to you that maybe the Oline appeared to be better in pass blocking this year because Bray was the QB and he gets rid of the ball when Simms last year did not? I really didn't see this "great improvement" in pass blocking that some of you did. The biggest difference I saw from the 2010 season to this year was Bray getting rid of the football when under pressure. In 2010 Simms didn't and took a bunch more sacks.

Watching the Florida and Geogia games again Bray was under constant pressure. He just did a great job of making quick decisions and /or throwing the ball away.

What I thought too. Georgia really got in a lot. And that was without the man-child Jones on the edge.

 

[volmaniac18]

And back in the world of Autry.... :rtfm:

 

[The Breakerboy]

Kiffin BLEW the Auburn and UCLA games, and basically gave the team the month off in preparation for the Chick Fil A bowl, and I hated him (before he left) for that reason.

I think there are a multitude of reasons why we couldn't run well this year, the primary being that we built our offense around Bray, Hunter, and Da'Rick (zone blocking, etc...). So you can blame the coaches for not having a good fallback plan there, as that oversight proved to be a disaster, but when we had those guys all healthy, our offense was pretty much unstoppable. There are teams that somehow survive an entire season with no injuries to key players, and then there's the Tennessee Vols, and we PAY for it.

With that said, I agree that Dooley made some very strange/questionable decisions when it came to clock management, particularly at the end of the half, but that's not the sole reason we lost 7 games.

The UCLA game was on Crompton, the Aubbie game we had drops and then we got going. He smashed South Carolina and took Bama to the brink. And he was using someone else's players. Yeah you hate Kiffin but he can coach. And we need to get to the point of being a physical football team period. I want big hits on defense and some punching a defense in the teeth style of running attack.

 

[BeecherVol]

So they were fine running the ball because Simms was the QB. Has it occurred to you that maybe the Oline appeared to be better in pass blocking this year because Bray was the QB and he gets rid of the ball when Simms last year did not? I really didn't see this "great improvement" in pass blocking that some of you did. The biggest difference I saw from the 2010 season to this year was Bray getting rid of the football when under pressure. In 2010 Simms didn't and took a bunch more sacks.

Watching the Florida and Geogia games again Bray was under constant pressure. He just did a great job of making quick decisions and /or throwing the ball away.

Solid take.

 

[LynxVol]

Poole was a major problem. I'll give you that. He was a MAC level talent that never should have been playing at this level. That said, how do you explain the OLine being so horrible in goal line and short yardage situations? Even on QB sneaks they couldnt' convert? Why? Because the Oline was being pushed into the offensive backfield almost every time. They were soft, period.

Poole is not a good RB.

Bray is all of 190lbs.

The OL was bad at some points, but my God, to expect perfection out of them 100% of the time is unreasonable. The OL was the least of the problems on offense this past season. JMO.

 

[LynxVol]

I disagree. Sure he deserves at least one more year. I have no issue with that. And nobody is calling these guys idiots either.

But losing to Kentucky is absolutely inexcusable. I dont think people realize how bad of a loss that really was. Kentucky flat out sucks. And not only did Tennessee have far more talent than they did but Kentucky had a WR playing QB. That was as bad a loss as Tennessee has ever had, period. I know Bray wasn't 100% and all that but my god if you can't run the ball even halfway effectively on that team you have serious problems.

I am witholding judgement on this coaching staff until next season, whether they deserve to stay or they deserve to go. Anything less than 8 wins next year and I dont see how he's around for a 4th year. At some point you have to start to show significant improving and the youth argument will no long hold water. I understand what they inherited. But some of the consistent trends I saw this year are somewhat concerning to me. I still cant get over how laughable and pathetic this team truly was in the run game.

We beat Vandy. We lost to KY. Given the inconsistency of the team, in general, we were bound to either create an upset or be upset. You're going to have to get over the loss. I don't care how bad KY was. UT wasn't good either. This entire discussion began because people are putting the blame on Dooley, which I think is stupid.

If you go back and look at some of the games, we ran the ball effectively on Bama and LSU, in the first half. Those are the best DLs you'll find. But at the end of the day, when you're playing a true freshmen coming off of a busted knee, and a guy named Poole, you aren't going to succeed in the run game. The run game isn't the excuse for the loss against KY. My point, stop blaming everything on the OL and CDD. It's pointless and unjustified. The team, as a whole, was just bad. Players have to make plays. Coaches coach, and I know the guys on staff can coach.

 

[SamRebel35]

Explain why we are talking about the offensive line in a thread about a Juco defensive end? Also, when is Autry making a decision?

 

[Ulysees E. McGill]

Agreed. Ron Zook could recruit like a beast.

Ron Zook is a disorganised idiot. If you have listened to Dooley speak for 2 minutes you can tell the difference. Zook is a idiot, the only stupid thing Derek has done is take this job about 3 years too early. The man is smart, smart people figure it out.

 

[volssam]

Dooley had a couple historic losses, but yes, I hope he continues to recruit well.

Ky was the only loss he was suposed to win is what I mean

If by historic you mean point diff against bama and Oregon and so on. He was bringing a nerf gun to a gun fight