tennesseeduke
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Imo is the conservative way he manages games. You have to be aggressive to some extent to be successful at anything in life. Football is no exception. When I think of the good Florida teams under urban Meyer, that's the one charastic that sticks out to me the most. They were always aggressively attacking. Once they got a lead they put their foot on your throat. Remember several years ago while playing them at Neyland we scored in the third quarter to make it a one possession game and had all the momentum. On the next possession we force a three and out... Only they weren't out. They converted a fake fg from their own 35! They went on to score on that possession and put the game away . compare that to us playing Florida this year. Late in the first half we had a fourth and 2 from the Florida 36. I knew what was coming. We kicked the ball into the endzone for a net gain of 16 yards. That was our best drive of the day to that point and our defense had only allowed about 40 yards so far. That play sucked the life out of the team and the stadium. When you go for it whether you convert or not you're letting the players know you believe in them and we're going to take the necessary risks to win.
What made me think of this and fell the need to post is earlier today I heard a clip of saban talking regarding the team. He said the word aggressive about 10 times in a 2 minute recording. He said that the team can't play to not lose... Because that's exactly what will happen. I understand that saban isn't known to be an aggressive play caller, but similar to the good urban Meyer teams... Saban's good teams of past have always had that killer instinct. Once the get a lead they pour it on.
We almost seem to stop trying to score as soon as we get a lead. This year we've done it against uga and Uf. Last year we did it against usc and Vandy. Of course we still ended up beating usc but not without allowing them to come all the way back and take the lead late.
I'm not saying Butch isn't the guy for the job. Being conservative is something that he could decide to change at any time. Hes obviously aggressive in many other ways. He'd never be as successful of a recruiter as he is without aggressively pursuing the kids. He just needs to take that attitude to the field on Saturdays.
Volnation!
:thud:
Tennesseeduke