DowntownVol
Stylin' and Profilin'
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Hello all - lifelong Knoxville resident, Vol fan and downtown denizen here.... first time poster, long-time lurker...
Just throwing a couple of things out there: first of all, the team we beat today by "only" seven points is a team who's staring down the barrel of an 8-3 record and a trip to, oh, I don't know, the Music City Bowl or the Alamo Bowl or something. A good team. The UAB team we saw today (well, yesterday) would have handily beaten, say, Vandy, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi St., sez me. Well-coached, terrific quarterback, a tenacious defense (if not the most physical) with some good schemes and packages that they executed well. My hat is absolutely off to them - they could have easily rolled over and died after falling behind 10-0 six minutes into the game in front of a hostile crowd of 107,000, but they kept their cool, stuck to their game plan, executed it well, and came a little too close for comfort to pulling out the W. Kudos to Watson Brown, absolutely, for having his team ready to play.
That being said, I'm not an apologist. I'm fully aware that at times, Randy Sanders has taken some serious heat from members of this board, and I'm no exception: you can give me all the rhetoric about "holding things back" for Florida and LSU, but honestly, throughout most of the second half UT looked like a team playing "not to lose" instead of a team playing "to win." That did, in fact, garner us a narrow victory over a physically outmatched UAB team, but in my opinion, that's NOT going to cut the mustard against teams like Florida, LSU, Georgia (who looked terrific today, I have to admit), Alabama, even Notre Dame. The play calling is predictable as ever. I was also surprised by the conservativism of John Chavis' calls on defense; what happened to that famous never-say-die relentless blitzing and pressure that Chavis is known for?
Finally, if I'm CPF, Clausen absolutely gets the start against Florida, without question. I wouldn't even really think about bringing Ainge in unless Clausen has a horrible game, or unless UT falls behind by more than 10 points. Clearly, Clausen's style of quarterbacking is much better suited to protecting a lead than coming from behind with big plays. We can ill afford turnovers and badly overthrown balls to wide-open receivers against a team of Florida's caliber. What was up with all the dropped passes, though? I didn't see much of that last year.
Sorry for the lengthy posts.. I've been enjoying reading this board for quite some time now; very educated and well thought out opinions here.
Cheers to all, and Go Vols!
Just throwing a couple of things out there: first of all, the team we beat today by "only" seven points is a team who's staring down the barrel of an 8-3 record and a trip to, oh, I don't know, the Music City Bowl or the Alamo Bowl or something. A good team. The UAB team we saw today (well, yesterday) would have handily beaten, say, Vandy, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi St., sez me. Well-coached, terrific quarterback, a tenacious defense (if not the most physical) with some good schemes and packages that they executed well. My hat is absolutely off to them - they could have easily rolled over and died after falling behind 10-0 six minutes into the game in front of a hostile crowd of 107,000, but they kept their cool, stuck to their game plan, executed it well, and came a little too close for comfort to pulling out the W. Kudos to Watson Brown, absolutely, for having his team ready to play.
That being said, I'm not an apologist. I'm fully aware that at times, Randy Sanders has taken some serious heat from members of this board, and I'm no exception: you can give me all the rhetoric about "holding things back" for Florida and LSU, but honestly, throughout most of the second half UT looked like a team playing "not to lose" instead of a team playing "to win." That did, in fact, garner us a narrow victory over a physically outmatched UAB team, but in my opinion, that's NOT going to cut the mustard against teams like Florida, LSU, Georgia (who looked terrific today, I have to admit), Alabama, even Notre Dame. The play calling is predictable as ever. I was also surprised by the conservativism of John Chavis' calls on defense; what happened to that famous never-say-die relentless blitzing and pressure that Chavis is known for?
Finally, if I'm CPF, Clausen absolutely gets the start against Florida, without question. I wouldn't even really think about bringing Ainge in unless Clausen has a horrible game, or unless UT falls behind by more than 10 points. Clearly, Clausen's style of quarterbacking is much better suited to protecting a lead than coming from behind with big plays. We can ill afford turnovers and badly overthrown balls to wide-open receivers against a team of Florida's caliber. What was up with all the dropped passes, though? I didn't see much of that last year.
Sorry for the lengthy posts.. I've been enjoying reading this board for quite some time now; very educated and well thought out opinions here.
Cheers to all, and Go Vols!
eace2:
