A Thought

#1
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VolinBoro

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#1
Tennessee may have some of the best "athletes" out there, but we don't have football players this year. We may recruit really well on the skill positions, but we apparently forgot that none of the skill positions matter if you don't have a group of linemen that can open up holes in the defense for the back to run through and to block while the QB reads the field for the open reciever.

While I don't like placing the blame on any one man, alot of it has to go on Dave Clawson. This year we have been unable to run the ball or pass block. This is a direct reflection of Clawson who thought he had to come in and change something that was working. Not only do the players have to learn the new schemes, our O line coach has to teach schemes that he probably knew good and well wouldn't work, but had to.

Furthermore, this just proves you cannot be successful in college football today without a solid quarterback that not only won't get you beat, but one that can make plays when you need them to. This is the first time in my lifetime I think that the Vols don't have a qb that can make the throws.

Final point: You can't coach sucky players into great players. Either you have the ability to play or not.
 
#2
#2
VolinBoro said:
Tennessee may have some of the best "athletes" out there, but we don't have football players this year. We may recruit really well on the skill positions, but we apparently forgot that none of the skill positions matter if you don't have a group of linemen that can open up holes in the defense for the back to run through and to block while the QB reads the field for the open reciever.

While I don't like placing the blame on any one man, alot of it has to go on Dave Clawson. This year we have been unable to run the ball or pass block. This is a direct reflection of Clawson who thought he had to come in and change something that was working. Not only do the players have to learn the new schemes, our O line coach has to teach schemes that he probably knew good and well wouldn't work, but had to.

Furthermore, this just proves you cannot be successful in college football today without a solid quarterback that not only won't get you beat, but one that can make plays when you need them to. This is the first time in my lifetime I think that the Vols don't have a qb that can make the throws.

Final point: You can't coach sucky players into great players. Either you have the ability to play or not.
Click to expand...


How about"You can't win games when your coach hasn't changed his style or gameplan in 17 years". Opposing coaches figured Fulmer out years ago and he was so stubborn and outdated/oldfashioned that he refused to change anything except the things that actually were working like punt protection and pass blocking.Only Fulmer's bunch would go to a spread formation for punt protection whenever they had not had a punt blocked in years, if at all under the old formation. I guess he thought it looked cute or something. Just like when we ran that stupid trick play against Wisconsin in the bowl game last year after we tallied 10 yds/play on that drive. The announcers both said something like this:"Why on earth would you try to get cute by running a trick play when they haven't been able to even slow you down so far on this drive"?

I remember us starting that drive at about our 20 yd line and moving the ball at will before we called that crap. Only Fulmer would try something different than the plays that the other team has yet to stop.On the other hand, he is so stubborn that he won't change whenever we are getting stopped. This attitude seems to have infected most if not all of our staff. Chavis and Slade are pros at this technique. If we played UCLA tomorrow, Chavis and Slade would both recommend that our DB"s line up 15 yards off the line of scrimmage.That is unless UCLA had the ball on our 1 yard line in which he would make the change to only line up 10 yards off the line because he would figure that they would be out of the back of the endzone if he didn't move them up a few yard. The inability to make adjustments and the lack of
confidence that Fulmer showed in his players when we needed a big play in tight spots are good enough reasons alone to get rid of Phil. Conservative isn't even a strong enough word to describe Fulmers gutless style. Heck, with his job on the line in the Auburn game, we had a 4th down on their 40 something yard line with 4 minutes left in the game needing only a fieldgoal to win and he punted the ball away. Now that's confidence! Would you want to play for a guy like this? He wasn't even smart enough to realize that the new 40 second clock would eat up half the clock itself even if we did stop them. Of course, we used our timeout, Auburn proceeded to get a first down, and we never saw the ball again. Everyone in the country knew that we would never get another chance if he was stubborn enough to actually punt it.If Fulmer would have gotten his chance at another year as coach, he would have been ran out of town by the end of September and fans would have vomited in their mouth for years everytime his name was mentioned.

I agree with some of your points like the Line being bad and the terrible QB play but I think that if Nick Saban would have inherited this team in time to go through spring drills, we would be sitting at 8-2 or 9-1. Fla and Bama would have been the loss or losses.With a little luck under Saban, we might be undefeated.Teams like Auburn and UCLA would have been blowouts in our favor. Fla and Bama would have been close games with the winner having a 3 to 5 point advantage when it was over. Coaching is more important than alot of folks know. It's not hard to see what happened to Fulmer after his teams became less talented each year.Also, when you do the exact same things for 15 years in a row without throwing in some wrinkles and changes in style and philosophy, people figure you out and manipulate your entire gameplan. I've never in my life seen a team in more need of a change at the head coaching position and people actually had the nerve to say that we were making a mistake.This change should have happened years ago before Fulmer lulled us into the position we are in.
 
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#3
#3
Its an all around Debacle fellas. Rocky Top has went upside down this year. No one can wash their hands of this mess, well except for ERIC BERRY! I don't know of anything else that young man could do.
 
#4
#4
DeepSpringsVol said:
Its an all around Debacle fellas. Rocky Top has went upside down this year. No one can wash their hands of this mess, well except for ERIC BERRY! I don't know of anything else that young man could do.
Click to expand...

Did he play any offense Saturday? I didn't get to watch the game!
 
#5
#5
Guys in football its all about discipline and we have none. The coaches don't preach it. Saban probably would have us at a better record because he is hard nosed and teaches discipline. As fear as the O-line goes, its the same line as last year. Did they forget how to block, no. I believe there is desintion in the ranks and for what ever reason its showing up in their play. Bottom line we have to get a hard nosed discipline teaching coach that is more concerned with teaching young men about football and life rather than being their friend. I don't know if thats the case here thats just a personnel assesment.
 
#6
#6
To the person that started the thread... the running game and line play were no better the previous 2 seasons under Cutcliffe, either. So lets not just blame Clawson. The only thing Cutciffe did was mask how sucky the line was last year bt having Ainge get rid of the ball quickly...
 
#7
#7
VolinBoro said:
Tennessee may have some of the best "athletes" out there, but we don't have football players this year. We may recruit really well on the skill positions, but we apparently forgot that none of the skill positions matter if you don't have a group of linemen that can open up holes in the defense for the back to run through and to block while the QB reads the field for the open reciever.

While I don't like placing the blame on any one man, alot of it has to go on Dave Clawson. This year we have been unable to run the ball or pass block. This is a direct reflection of Clawson who thought he had to come in and change something that was working. Not only do the players have to learn the new schemes, our O line coach has to teach schemes that he probably knew good and well wouldn't work, but had to.

Furthermore, this just proves you cannot be successful in college football today without a solid quarterback that not only won't get you beat, but one that can make plays when you need them to. This is the first time in my lifetime I think that the Vols don't have a qb that can make the throws.

Final point: You can't coach sucky players into great players. Either you have the ability to play or not.
Click to expand...


As they said about the Titanic...there is plenty of blame to go around. I don't necessarily agree with you that the players or one coach is the problem with this team. IMO some coaches could have done a better job in preparing some players that could have produced a better product on the field. Without discipline and poise this was a very forgettable year.
 
#8
#8
Hotrodpinto said:
How about"You can't win games when your coach hasn't changed his style or gameplan in 17 years". Opposing coaches figured Fulmer out years ago and he was so stubborn and outdated/oldfashioned that he refused to change anything except the things that actually were working like punt protection and pass blocking.Only Fulmer's bunch would go to a spread formation for punt protection whenever they had not had a punt blocked in years, if at all under the old formation. I guess he thought it looked cute or something. Just like when we ran that stupid trick play against Wisconsin in the bowl game last year after we tallied 10 yds/play on that drive. The announcers both said something like this:"Why on earth would you try to get cute by running a trick play when they haven't been able to even slow you down so far on this drive"?

I remember us starting that drive at about our 20 yd line and moving the ball at will before we called that crap. Only Fulmer would try something different than the plays that the other team has yet to stop.On the other hand, he is so stubborn that he won't change whenever we are getting stopped. This attitude seems to have infected most if not all of our staff. Chavis and Slade are pros at this technique. If we played UCLA tomorrow, Chavis and Slade would both recommend that our DB"s line up 15 yards off the line of scrimmage.That is unless UCLA had the ball on our 1 yard line in which he would make the change to only line up 10 yards off the line because he would figure that they would be out of the back of the endzone if he didn't move them up a few yard. The inability to make adjustments and the lack of
confidence that Fulmer showed in his players when we needed a big play in tight spots are good enough reasons alone to get rid of Phil. Conservative isn't even a strong enough word to describe Fulmers gutless style. Heck, with his job on the line in the Auburn game, we had a 4th down on their 40 something yard line with 4 minutes left in the game needing only a fieldgoal to win and he punted the ball away. Now that's confidence! Would you want to play for a guy like this? He wasn't even smart enough to realize that the new 40 second clock would eat up half the clock itself even if we did stop them. Of course, we used our timeout, Auburn proceeded to get a first down, and we never saw the ball again. Everyone in the country knew that we would never get another chance if he was stubborn enough to actually punt it.If Fulmer would have gotten his chance at another year as coach, he would have been ran out of town by the end of September and fans would have vomited in their mouth for years everytime his name was mentioned.

I agree with some of your points like the Line being bad and the terrible QB play but I think that if Nick Saban would have inherited this team in time to go through spring drills, we would be sitting at 8-2 or 9-1. Fla and Bama would have been the loss or losses.With a little luck under Saban, we might be undefeated.Teams like Auburn and UCLA would have been blowouts in our favor. Fla and Bama would have been close games with the winner having a 3 to 5 point advantage when it was over. Coaching is more important than alot of folks know. It's not hard to see what happened to Fulmer after his teams became less talented each year.Also, when you do the exact same things for 15 years in a row without throwing in some wrinkles and changes in style and philosophy, people figure you out and manipulate your entire gameplan. I've never in my life seen a team in more need of a change at the head coaching position and people actually had the nerve to say that we were making a mistake.This change should have happened years ago before Fulmer lulled us into the position we are in.
Click to expand...

Nice Book
 
#9
#9
Hotrodpinto said:
How about"You can't win games when your coach hasn't changed his style or gameplan in 17 years". Opposing coaches figured Fulmer out years ago and he was so stubborn and outdated/oldfashioned that he refused to change anything except the things that actually were working like punt protection and pass blocking.Only Fulmer's bunch would go to a spread formation for punt protection whenever they had not had a punt blocked in years, if at all under the old formation. I guess he thought it looked cute or something. Just like when we ran that stupid trick play against Wisconsin in the bowl game last year after we tallied 10 yds/play on that drive. The announcers both said something like this:"Why on earth would you try to get cute by running a trick play when they haven't been able to even slow you down so far on this drive"?

I remember us starting that drive at about our 20 yd line and moving the ball at will before we called that crap. Only Fulmer would try something different than the plays that the other team has yet to stop.On the other hand, he is so stubborn that he won't change whenever we are getting stopped. This attitude seems to have infected most if not all of our staff. Chavis and Slade are pros at this technique. If we played UCLA tomorrow, Chavis and Slade would both recommend that our DB"s line up 15 yards off the line of scrimmage.That is unless UCLA had the ball on our 1 yard line in which he would make the change to only line up 10 yards off the line because he would figure that they would be out of the back of the endzone if he didn't move them up a few yard. The inability to make adjustments and the lack of
confidence that Fulmer showed in his players when we needed a big play in tight spots are good enough reasons alone to get rid of Phil. Conservative isn't even a strong enough word to describe Fulmers gutless style. Heck, with his job on the line in the Auburn game, we had a 4th down on their 40 something yard line with 4 minutes left in the game needing only a fieldgoal to win and he punted the ball away. Now that's confidence! Would you want to play for a guy like this? He wasn't even smart enough to realize that the new 40 second clock would eat up half the clock itself even if we did stop them. Of course, we used our timeout, Auburn proceeded to get a first down, and we never saw the ball again. Everyone in the country knew that we would never get another chance if he was stubborn enough to actually punt it.If Fulmer would have gotten his chance at another year as coach, he would have been ran out of town by the end of September and fans would have vomited in their mouth for years everytime his name was mentioned.

I agree with some of your points like the Line being bad and the terrible QB play but I think that if Nick Saban would have inherited this team in time to go through spring drills, we would be sitting at 8-2 or 9-1. Fla and Bama would have been the loss or losses.With a little luck under Saban, we might be undefeated.Teams like Auburn and UCLA would have been blowouts in our favor. Fla and Bama would have been close games with the winner having a 3 to 5 point advantage when it was over. Coaching is more important than alot of folks know. It's not hard to see what happened to Fulmer after his teams became less talented each year.Also, when you do the exact same things for 15 years in a row without throwing in some wrinkles and changes in style and philosophy, people figure you out and manipulate your entire gameplan. I've never in my life seen a team in more need of a change at the head coaching position and people actually had the nerve to say that we were making a mistake.This change should have happened years ago before Fulmer lulled us into the position we are in.
Click to expand...
good thing he's leaving, reading a novel is hard on my eyes
 
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