CBJ ranked 8th place in SEC

[chattavol420]

It's exactly what I've said about Butch. And I got totally blasted on here for it. He turned into a scared little girl as soon as he got the lead in those games. And no great coach does that. Look at ole miss win over bama last year (and I'm not saying Hugh is a great coach but) they kept their foot on the gas the whole way. And it turned out they needed every single pout they scored.
Butch heard the criticism loud and clear and down the stretch definitely kept the heat in teams. But it's easy to do that when your favored to win and it's not a rival team. It'll be interesting to see if he has the guts to stay aggressive against bama, uf, or Uga (if we get a sizable late lead against either).
Imo the Oklahoma game was one of the worst coaching performances I've ever seen.

 

[KBVol]

But in the end CBJ DID close that game out because Randolph DID make a play, something the D failed to do in the UO and UF games.

Guess I see "closing out a game" manifesting itself a little differently. To me, jmo, closing that game out means keeping Georgia much, much closer to their goaline, especially since they started inside their own 1, and playing good enough defense that Georgia's last offensive drive ends in a turnover on downs or just an outright turnover altogether.

Think about our last drive vs Alabama last year....Bama's defense, and by extension Saban, "closed that game out" IMO. We never had the same chance to score vs Bama on our last drive like Georgia did against us. Hope that makes sense. To me, closing out a game isn't holding on until the last second like we did vs Georgia...it's shutting it down and winning/ending the game with authority. Again, jmo.

 

[KBVol]

So when we win a close game all credit to the players and none for the coaches?

When we lose a close game all blame on coaches and none on the players?

No. It's never been my intention, at all, yo have said anything derogatory about Butch and the Georgia win last year. He did a phenomenal job holding the team together and leading the comeback. I'm just arguing that I wouldn't exactly call our last defensive possession "closing out a game". We held on for dear life and were fortunate that Randolph made a play.

 

[RockyTop85]

Here is the link to the article:


SEC Coaching Rankings - #8 Butch Jones - Today's U

Les Miles #2
Gus Malzahn #3?
Dan Mullen #4
Freeze #5
Bielema #6
McElwain #7

Not trying to be a homer but a lot of the arguments he made against Butch apply equally to these other guys. I think it's probably a fair ranking but the justification is suspect when you look at everybody else.

Freeze just had his equivalent of a "no excuses" season and lost to Memphis. Weren't there some other games last year where he took blame for losing the game?

Malzahn is about to get fired.

Mullen's results have been 5-7, 9-4, 7-6, 8-5, 7-6, 10-3, and 9-4. Historically that's phenomenal for MSU but the last two seasons with Dak look more like outliers than the norm. Not sure how MSU in 2009 compares to UT in 2013.

I haven't paid attention to Bielema but I imagine he and Butch look pretty similar right now.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

Guess I see "closing out a game" manifesting itself a little differently. To me, jmo, closing that game out means keeping Georgia much, much closer to their goaline, especially since they started inside their own 1, and playing good enough defense that Georgia's last offensive drive ends in a turnover on downs or just an outright turnover altogether.

Think about our last drive vs Alabama last year....Bama's defense, and by extension Saban, "closed that game out" IMO. We never had the same chance to score vs Bama on our last drive like Georgia did against us. Hope that makes sense. To me, closing out a game isn't holding on until the last second like we did vs Georgia...it's shutting it down and winning/ending the game with authority. Again, jmo.

Bama had an OL that provided better protection at the end of the game, and a QB that could make the vertical throw consistently.

 

[Defaultuser]

Bama had an OL that provided better protection at the end of the game, and a QB that could make the vertical throw consistently.

UT got the ball back with like 1:30 left in the game. The Bama had nothing to do with the offense. The defense let them drive straight down the field at the end of the game,just like UF,UGA, and OU.

 

[KBVol]

Bama had an OL that provided better protection at the end of the game, and a QB that could make the vertical throw consistently.

I was talking about how Alabama's defense closed out the game vs our offense....they weren't dominant and didn't let us walk down the field and nearly score like our defense did vs Georgia. That's the comparison I was making.

Agree with your other points comparing our offenses. When it came time to win the game, Bama made plays and we didn't.

 

[chargervol]

I think it is a little low, 1 or 2 places.
A few in place teams and already built programs so slightly apples to oranges.
Realistically though, I saw many end of game calls I questioned AND good calls with poor execution.
I felt we could have picked up a game or 2 with the better coaching calls but at the same time, we have won the exact number I and many others, called preseason.
Anytime you get close to winning, you will always focus more on that loss. Still hard to argue making the expected number.
Either way, the usual suspects started griping day one while others said "let him build the program and decide from there". He has done outstanding on that front and I'm ok with the win total being the decider from here on out.

Basically, no reason for "excuses" from now on.
Unlike those that used that word to describe reality for the last couple of years.

 

[MFL]

spot on article

 

[Crazy Ivan]

I was talking about how Alabama's defense closed out the game vs our offense....they weren't dominant and didn't let us walk down the field and nearly score like our defense did vs Georgia. That's the comparison I was making.

Agree with your other points comparing our offenses. When it came time to win the game, Bama made plays and we didn't.

I understand your point, but in the end, UT did close the game out defensively. In the bigger picture it doesn't really matter if it was on the first series of the drive or inside the UT redzone. When it was on the line it was a UT defensive player making a play to win the UGA game same as it was a Bama player making a play to win the UT game. For those among VN that don't trust Butch/Debord offensively late in a game, then that should be a plus. By not stuffing UGA early in that last UGA drive and allowing time to run off the clock, then there was not time left for UT's offense to come back out on the field and cause any unnecessary angst for that VN crowd. I joke...sort of.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

UT got the ball back with like 1:30 left in the game. The Bama had nothing to do with the offense. The defense let them drive straight down the field at the end of the game,just like UF,UGA, and OU.

It's pretty simple. We weren't a very good defense in the 4th quarter against capable QBs who had solid OLs protecting them. Not to mention that Jancek did not make good defensive calls late in games.

But my point about Coker was that on the last Bama drive he made 2 critical 20+ yd throws to keep that drive moving. And in both situations the Bama receivers were pretty well-covered; Coker simply made precision back-shoulder throws that gave his WRs the advantage over the DBs. That precision is something Dobbs has been lacking but that we need from him going forward for UT to be an elite contender.

 

[KBVol]

I understand your point, but in the end, UT did close the game out defensively. In the bigger picture it doesn't really matter if it was on the first series of the drive or inside the UT redzone. When it was on the line it was a UT defensive player making a play to win the UGA game same as it was a Bama player making a play to win the UT game. For those among VN that don't trust Butch/Debord offensively late in a game, then that should be a plus. By not stuffing UGA early in that last UGA drive and allowing time to run off the clock, then there was not time left for UT's offense to come back out on the field and cause any unnecessary angst for that VN crowd. I joke...sort of.

I get your point. At the end of the day, we won because one of our defensive players did indeed make a play to keep UGA out of the endzone.

 

[Crazy Ivan]

I get your point. At the end of the day, we won because one of our defensive players did indeed make a play to keep UGA out of the endzone.

Exactly. Just as we lost the UO, UF and UA games...because our defensive players didn't make a play to keep those offenses out of the EZ.

 

[Neyland Law Vol]

I bet Butch hates being this low in the pecking order. He has his faults, but one thing you can't knock him on is drive. I really like that we have a coach that won't be outworked.

 

[KBVol]

Exactly. Just as we lost the UO, UF and UA games...because our defensive players didn't make a play to keep those offenses out of the EZ.

I hope our defense is much better this year. Certainly to the point that rather than letting a UGA team with a bad QB and missing their top RB walk down the field off their own goal line to the tune of 72 yards on 12 plays in 1:42.

I heard Shoop say a couple things in an interview recently with Doug Mathews that sounded great to me...

1. He said he doesn't believe in a "bend but don't break" defense

2. He brings pressure with his defenses to get off the field ASAP because when you play defense to make offenses have to go the "length of the field", they score about 80% of the time in that scenario.

 

[Neyland Law Vol]

I hope our defense is much better this year. Certainly to the point that rather than letting a UGA team with a bad QB and missing their top RB walk down the field off their own goal line to the tune of 72 yards on 12 plays in 1:42.

I heard Shoop say a couple things in an interview recently with Doug Mathews that sounded great to me...

1. He said he doesn't believe in a "bend but don't break" defense

2. He brings pressure with his defenses to get off the field ASAP because when you play defense to make offenses have to go the "length of the field", they score about 80% of the time in that scenario.

Agreed. I guess we can expect to give up a few more big plays when we gamble and the other team calls it, but the trade off will be an increase in turnovers, and TFL.

 

[TUSKtimes]

I hope our defense is much better this year. Certainly to the point that rather than letting a UGA team with a bad QB and missing their top RB walk down the field off their own goal line to the tune of 72 yards on 12 plays in 1:42.

I heard Shoop say a couple things in an interview recently with Doug Mathews that sounded great to me...

1. He said he doesn't believe in a "bend but don't break" defense

2. He brings pressure with his defenses to get off the field ASAP because when you play defense to make offenses have to go the "length of the field", they score about 80% of the time in that scenario.

Given the pace of play and number of snaps, you have to get off the field. The defensive coordinators who still have this bend but don't break mentality are getting their backside beat off.


Top defensive coordinators in the SEC, with at least 3 years running the defense, who are limiting teams to six plays or less.

Even though most have been at different schools, you can see the mentality.

National rank and % indicates six plays or less:

David Aranda - LSU#3 (66.5%)
Jeremy Pruitt - Alabama #4 (64.9%)
Bob Shoop - Tennessee #8 (61.7%)
Dave Womack - Ole Miss #20 (59.1%)
Demonte Cross- Missouri #26 (58.4%)
John Chavis - Texas a&m #34 (57.7%)
Dereck Mason - Vandy #39 (57.4%)
Jeff Collins - Florida #41 (57.2%)
Rob Smith - Arkansas #67 (53.6%)
Kevin Steele - the barn #86 (52.1%)
DJ Elliot - Kentucky #113 (49.2%)

Who just made the top 3 hires at defensive coordinator in the SEC?

 

[Crazy Ivan]

I bet Butch hates being this low in the pecking order. He has his faults, but one thing you can't knock him on is drive. I really like that we have a coach that won't be outworked.

I believe it was about this time last year that a similar ranking had Butch at #12, so he made a decent jump based off last season despite the close losses. If the win totals continue to increase he will continue to rise up the pecking order. If he can get to Atlanta he will rise even faster.

 

[jbr82]

I bet Butch hates being this low in the pecking order. He has his faults, but one thing you can't knock him on is drive. I really like that we have a coach that won't be outworked.

Just need him not to get outcoached much if TN is going to be elite again