Anyone else worried about

#26
#26
901 Orange said:
What else did u expect the team to play like over the last 2 years when everyone on the planet knows we were in full rebuild mode?? Not only did we have to rebuild the roster but we had to play a ton of freshmen who would have redshirted at all the top SEC schools. On top of that we had a complete scheme change with a brand new coaching staff. Oh yeah i almost forgot that we were coming off the worse season in school history. Its a miracle that we won a bowl game in year 2. Now we have a roster full of JR's & Soph's that have had a chance to develope and play a ton of games in the SEC. The last 2 yrs are irrelevant to this year bc its a totally different situation.
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What I would expect is that during the first third of the season that the team play in line with their talent level (middle of the pack of the SEC) rather than being the worst SEC team in back to back Septembers. If you cant see that this team/coaching staff has struggled to start seasons, games, halves , I just dont know what to tell you. Other than the 2 games where the team quit in 2018 (Mizzou, Vandy), the team played slightly above its talent level the last 2/3 of each season...
 
#27
#27
I expect to see overall lower quality football played from everyone due to the disruption of normal practice activities. More penalties. More busted coverage. More missed blocks and bad routes.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some odd games just due to one team may have had better habits/success in practice before the season starts.
 
#29
#29
TheDeeble said:
I expect to see overall lower quality football played from everyone due to the disruption of normal practice activities. More penalties. More busted coverage. More missed blocks and bad routes.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some odd games just due to one team may have had better habits/success in practice before the season starts.
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This could be a real fun season to watch. Except for our receivers, our offense should be beyond some of these mistakes. UGA is going to be breaking in a new QB. And we are sandwiched in between Auburn and Alabama for them. That's the game to keep an eye on.
 
#30
#30
TheDeeble said:
I expect to see overall lower quality football played from everyone due to the disruption of normal practice activities. More penalties. More busted coverage. More missed blocks and bad routes.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see some odd games just due to one team may have had better habits/success in practice before the season starts.
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Given the number of starters we return, especially at key spots, this SHOULD be to our advantage. We have HC and coordinator continuity, which is key. If we arent sharper than USCe or Mizzou the first two weeks, that would be really worrisome.
 
#31
#31
LeBleu said:
If it wasn't for the rain delay, we would've beat WV, they were getting really tired on D. Also there was a thread on here about Marquez Callaway being interviewed or quoted that they didn't want to play Pruitt's way and eventually decided that Butches way wasn't getting them any wins, and started listening to committing to the coaching staff. Which is supposed to be some of what the team meeting was about after the Florida game last year. So I would put one of these * to the loses as they didn't seem to be a matter of of simply not able to win early. Just a thought
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#32
#32
BigOrangeMojo said:
What I would expect is that during the first third of the season that the team play in line with their talent level (middle of the pack of the SEC) rather than being the worst SEC team in back to back Septembers. If you cant see that this team/coaching staff has struggled to start seasons, games, halves , I just dont know what to tell you. Other than the 2 games where the team quit in 2018 (Mizzou, Vandy), the team played slightly above its talent level the last 2/3 of each season...
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But we werent a middle of the pack team at that point. We were a bottom of the league team at that the time. We came out and played like a bottom of the league team bc thats what we were. Did u forget that we had just went winless in the SEC?? We went from winless to 2-6, to 5-3 in SEC play over the last 3 yrs. Yeah we added more talent but those guys still had to develope and that doesnt happen over night in football. They still had to learn how to win and thats a process. When u field a team as young as we did the last 2 yrs they are more likely to get better as the season goes then to come out guns blazing from the jump. U are being unrealistic to expect anything more then that. Now the next 2 yrs they should start out much better bc they are an older team but those last 2yrs went exactly like it should have based off were we where as a program. Even NFL teams take time to rebuild after a coaching change, why would u expect anything different from a college program especially when u cant rebuild an entire roster with proven talent in 1 offseason like u can in the NFL. Pruitt is right on schedule with were we should be at this point. They have taken a couple steps forward in each of his seasons.
 
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#33
#33
901 Orange said:
But we werent a middle of the pack team at that point. We were a bottom of the league team at that the time. We came out and played like a bottom of the league team bc thats what we were. Did u forget that we had just went winless in the SEC?? We went from winless to 2-6, to 5-3 in SEC play over the last 3 yrs. Yeah we added more talent but those guys still had to develope and that doesnt happen over night in football. They still had to learn how to win and thats a process. When u field a team as young as we did the last 2 yrs they are more likely to get better as the season goes then to come out guns blazing from the jump. U are being unrealistic to expect anything more then that. Now the next 2 yrs they should start out much better bc they are an older team but those last 2yrs went exactly like it should have based off were we where as a program. Even NFL teams take time to rebuild after a coaching change, why would u expect anything different from a college program especially when u cant rebuild an entire roster with proven talent in 1 offseason like u can in the NFL. Pruitt is right on schedule with were we should be at this point. They have taken a couple steps forward in each of his seasons.
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Florida won 4 games just like us in 2017 and we were tied with them 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the swamp. If we are going to use the same logic....

Yes, we were 0-8 in 2017 but we didnt have 0-8 talent. We had an idiot head coach that the team totally quit on after the UF game.

Again, you are trying to deflect away from the GSU and BYU games as well as the UF curbstompings. I'm not even saying that we should have beaten UF but there was no excuse for how non-competitive those games were as well as our sloppiness/preparation.

IMO, the slow-start season issue is an issue until it isnt. Given USC and Mizzou's situations, if we have those issues this year, they may never get fixed.
 
#34
#34
UTK said:
We wouldn't of beaten WVU if there weren't a rain delay. That's so silly. People said the same about Oregon 2010. Both games we were by far the weaker team. It's that simple.
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we would have beat both of those teams and we did beat OU and UF in 2015
 
#37
#37
Count me as at least keeping an eye on it. Not ready to chalk the game up as a loss. But if you came from the future and told us TN lost to USC I would definitely blame the slow starts.
 
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#38
#38
Away games? With limited fans I don't think playing at their field will have as.much impact as normal. Playing at home is always somewhat an advantage but won't be as big this year.
 
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#39
#39
Thats not
BigOrangeMojo said:
Florida won 4 games just like us in 2017 and we were tied with them 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the swamp. If we are going to use the same logic....

Yes, we were 0-8 in 2017 but we didnt have 0-8 talent. We had an idiot head coach that the team totally quit on after the UF game.

Again, you are trying to deflect away from the GSU and BYU games as well as the UF curbstompings. I'm not even saying that we should have beaten UF but there was no excuse for how non-competitive those games were as well as our sloppiness/preparation.

IMO, the slow-start season issue is an issue until it isnt. Given USC and Mizzou's situations, if we have those issues this year, they may never get fixed.
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Thats not a good comparison. Fla didnt have to rebuild the just needed a new captain of the ship. They also werent the youngest team in the league they had upperclassmen playing.They were smart enough to save themselves before it was too late. We had a total rebuild. Our team didnt even look like an SEC team. We had 13 guys that weighed 300lbs smh. Fla didnt have that problem.On top of that just about all of our guys were on the Dr's table. Our losing streak didnt start in 2017 it started in 2016 after a 5-0 start to the season so our players actually quit on botch a year and a half before he got bounced. This year's team is on the level of Mullens 1st fla team not the previous 2 UT teams.
 
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#40
#40
The fact that we haven't had as many practices and proper scrimmages does concern me. I just hope Pruitt and company can put these last 2 weeks to good use.
If practices and scrimmages continue to get screwed with... then we might have serious trouble this season.
I do have hope, though. We have alot of talent.
 
#41
#41
BigOrangeMojo said:
Florida won 4 games just like us in 2017 and we were tied with them 20-20 with 10 seconds to go in the swamp. If we are going to use the same logic....

Yes, we were 0-8 in 2017 but we didnt have 0-8 talent. We had an idiot head coach that the team totally quit on after the UF game.

Again, you are trying to deflect away from the GSU and BYU games as well as the UF curbstompings. I'm not even saying that we should have beaten UF but there was no excuse for how non-competitive those games were as well as our sloppiness/preparation.

IMO, the slow-start season issue is an issue until it isnt. Given USC and Mizzou's situations, if we have those issues this year, they may never get fixed.
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Looking at how bad we have been, with the talent we have had, compared to the talent teams like Mizzou, or like how well UVA did last year, it really highlights how bad our coaching has been.

However, I attribute the slow-start issue almost entirely on the QB position. I understand it gets tiresome to always bring that up, but I just can't see any other primary reason for the slow starts.

Last year our defense started slow, but we also had no Bituli and no Bryce Thompson. Two extremely important players last year as we immediately improved upon their return. A lot of our struggles can be explained away by that. Plus JG playing absolutely atrocious. I kinda can't blame the coaches for thinking he was the guy when all you had were a couple of freshman and everything in practice indicated that he was actually good. Those are legitimate excuses for the coaches and I think Pruitt and company proved over the course of the year that they can coach. Players developed and the defense became one of the best in the conference. Best defense since the Fulmer days by far. It is normal for teams to be a little sloppy out of the gates. Almost everybody starts worse than they end up and we improved tremendously in all phases except QB.

I don't call the UF game last year a curbstomping. The coaches had them set up to be competitive, but some inexplicable things happened. First drive we had a bogus personal foul call on us that killed it. Jennings dropped a touchdown. JG with the worst throw in the history of football over Dom, which would have been a touchdown and then he threw the second worst pass ever to a gator. An entirely different game without those ridiculous things happening. We were in field goal range with a little rhythm until the bs personal foul. That is at least 3 points with Cimaglia. Jennings drop was unbelievable. JG shut down mentally and threw balls all over the place. The biggest issue I had was how when Maurer got thrown out there we had him throw the ball 11 straight times.

It just takes a while to build a winning culture. It is extra hard when your QB fools you on the practice field and falls apart on gameday. In spite of the QB problems our staff has done great.

Once we have good QB play we are golden.
 
#42
#42
Consistent practice with a consistent roster is going to be tough. UTK is not handling covid-19 very well. Expecting a "two-week" break to be announced before long.

As of today, all food services are take out only. You cannot use recreation facilities. You can't even enter a residence other than your own. Everyone in Massey is forced to move out because they need the dorm for more quarantine beds. In-person classes remain in place for now, but I doubt they will for much longer.
 
#44
#44
PlanetVolunteer said:
Looking at how bad we have been, with the talent we have had, compared to the talent teams like Mizzou, or like how well UVA did last year, it really highlights how bad our coaching has been.

However, I attribute the slow-start issue almost entirely on the QB position. I understand it gets tiresome to always bring that up, but I just can't see any other primary reason for the slow starts.

Last year our defense started slow, but we also had no Bituli and no Bryce Thompson. Two extremely important players last year as we immediately improved upon their return. A lot of our struggles can be explained away by that. Plus JG playing absolutely atrocious. I kinda can't blame the coaches for thinking he was the guy when all you had were a couple of freshman and everything in practice indicated that he was actually good. Those are legitimate excuses for the coaches and I think Pruitt and company proved over the course of the year that they can coach. Players developed and the defense became one of the best in the conference. Best defense since the Fulmer days by far. It is normal for teams to be a little sloppy out of the gates. Almost everybody starts worse than they end up and we improved tremendously in all phases except QB.

I don't call the UF game last year a curbstomping. The coaches had them set up to be competitive, but some inexplicable things happened. First drive we had a bogus personal foul call on us that killed it. Jennings dropped a touchdown. JG with the worst throw in the history of football over Dom, which would have been a touchdown and then he threw the second worst pass ever to a gator. An entirely different game without those ridiculous things happening. We were in field goal range with a little rhythm until the bs personal foul. That is at least 3 points with Cimaglia. Jennings drop was unbelievable. JG shut down mentally and threw balls all over the place. The biggest issue I had was how when Maurer got thrown out there we had him throw the ball 11 straight times.

It just takes a while to build a winning culture. It is extra hard when your QB fools you on the practice field and falls apart on gameday. In spite of the QB problems our staff has done great.

Once we have good QB play we are golden.
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The 1st 2games last year were lost because Bituli and McCollough did not play. Too’Too was a true freshman in his 1st 2 starts.
 
#46
#46
tnutater said:
Our lack of practices and CJP's record of not doing well in opening games?
Away games in the SEC are tough.
And here I was thinking that we were finished being beaten by SC.
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This sounds a lot like "Battered Butch Syndrome!"

SCAR is also a slow starter.

We return more starters than SCAR.

This will be one of the better OLs that SCAR has had in a while but ours is still better. We should be better on DL too, especially when considering depth.

Honestly, I don't know of any position group that we aren't as good or better than SCAR unless they have a really good TE.

We recruited way better than SCAR the last 3 years.

I think we have a significantly better coaching staff too.

Continuity of staff is a push. We have 3 new coaches on Defense and one on Offense. SCAR has a new OC and at least a new DL coach.

We will get through this tough game with a 7-10 point margin of victory....pull away in 3rd quarter.
 
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#47
#47
tennesseeduke said:
The 1st 2games last year were lost because Bituli and McCollough did not play. Too’Too was a true freshman in his 1st 2 starts.
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tnutater said:
We lost because we were not ready to play.
Three players do not make a difference against that level of competition.
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With Bituli and Bryce Thompson, we would have won both of those games. Trey Smith wasn't ready yet either.

Also, for whatever reason, JG was not ready. All indications are that he is ready this season. Last season he wasn't and I think that was evident in fall camp.
 
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#48
#48
HuntlandVolinColo said:
With Bituli and Bryce Thompson, we would have won both of those games. Trey Smith wasn't ready yet either.

Also, for whatever reason, JG was not ready. All indications are that he is ready this season. Last season he wasn't and I think that was evident in fall camp.
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JG ready?
I will have a double of what you are having.
 
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