Chris Donald story on Scout

#1
Lord Vader

Lord Vader

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#1
There is a VERY good story on Scout today about Chris Donald called "Discovering Donald." Here's a little bit of it...

So, heading into 2009, Donald was all but forgotten.
Then a funny thing happened ... he got remembered. When first-year UT head coach Lane Kiffin opened up all of the linebacker jobs during the spring, he gave Donald a bunch of practice reps – just to see what the former High School All-American could do.

“He really did not have a bunch of snaps coming into camp,” Kiffin recalled, “so we had to give him a chance.”

“He can really run,” Kiffin noted of Donald, “but learning the system takes a little bit of time. If he continues to learn it, he's going to improve more and more. He's got all of the tools.”
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If you have a subscription to Scout, you should definitely check it out. Maybe we will still see big things out of Donald before it's all said and done...
Scout.com: Discovering Donald
 
#2
#2
That would be awesome. Actually getting production out of five star high school AA's, that's amazing. Oh, wait. Everyone does that except for Fulmer.
 
#3
#3
I really hope he makes the 2 deep. In game reps will help him out a bunch. I also expect CLT to really help him. He is one of the best LB coaches in the country.
 
#4
#4
Yeah, If he gets some in game reps and gets some expirience then he could definitely see himself become a starter by next year.
 
#5
#5
volguy0992 said:
That would be awesome. Actually getting production out of five star high school AA's, that's amazing. Oh, wait. Everyone does that except for Fulmer.
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Really? He did pretty well with Berry I think
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#6
#6
Berry is Berry though. It doesn't matter if Fulmer was like the coach on Waterboy (the one that can't talk) berry would excel.
 
#7
#7
volguy0992 said:
That would be awesome. Actually getting production out of five star high school AA's, that's amazing. Oh, wait. Everyone does that except for Fulmer.
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this is a little harsh...you act like Fulmer didn't accomplish anything.
 
#8
#8
volguy0992 said:
Berry is Berry though. It doesn't matter if Fulmer was like the coach on Waterboy (the one that can't talk) berry would excel.
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So if I read your post correctly we should give all the credit to the player and the blame only to the coaches? Wow, sucks to be a coach in your world
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#9
#9
Maybe your right. The past couple years all he did was eat on the buffet. I loved Fulmer. Funny story on how I met him. It's just this program was way not what tennessee football should be and showed no signs of improvement. However, if you look at most five starts fulmer has recruited.... a lot (not all) haven't lived up too potential. and this is talking of the past couple classes. Remember, I am only sixteen. However, I respect him (sorda) and love that he loves the big orange.
 
#10
#10
No man but would you not agree that berry would be special no matter who or what system he played for. There are a lot of recruits that don't live up to potential because of that. However, there are so many players that won't if they aren't used correctly
 
#11
#11
If you judge potential of stars from Rivals then you're doing it wrong. Plenty of high ranked recruits don't make it but there are a few dozen players in the NFL that somehow became a player despite his coaching. Amazing how they all did that

And I would be interested to see all this wasted talent you've seen in the last few years
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#12
#12
Your misreading me. Or maybe I'm mistyping. haha. I'm talking about big named recruits coming out of high school. Fulmer has had his share of so called diamonds in the rough(even though most of recruiting is evaluation anyways) and we will very well benefit from some this year. Ex: montori hughs. However, All I'm saying is some BIG NAME HIGH SCHOOL PLAYERS don't live up to potential because of coaching. Not saying they don't have a good college career, but the so called potential they had.
 
#13
#13
Thanks once again Vader. I have been anxiously awaiting the emergence of Donald. We "stole" him from Notre Dame, and since Daniel Brooks wasn't the next Al Wilson, I really had hope for him. We need help at LB and it is time for Donald to step up.
 
#17
#17
I am really surprised that Donald hasn't been on the field to date. The only reason I say that is because in high school he was absolutely incredible.

I saw him play a few times, and even when he was a freshman/sophomore in high school he was better than everyone else.

Hopefully the staff will find a way for him to fit in.
 
#18
#18
utvolpj said:
And I would be interested to see all this wasted talent you've seen in the last few years
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Click to expand...

Since 2002, Fulmer recruited 15 5 star players. Look at the list and let me know how many of them you think was NOT wasted. I understand that there are numerous circumstances to why these players did not suceed, but there are ALOT of players who never did much. This may be more of a reflection on the type of player Fulmer recruited rather than how he coached...

5 Stars
2002- James Banks, Mondre Dickerson, Brandon Jeffries, Jonathon Mapu, Gerald Riggs Jr.
2003- Robert Meachem
2004- Jesse Mahelona, Albert Toeaina
2005- Demetrice Morley
2006- Walter Fisher
2007- Eric Berry, Chris Donald, Kenny O'Neal, Brent Vinson, Ben Martin

Here are some 4 star players who were wasted:
Cody Douglas, Chris Hannon, LaRon Harris, Greg Jones, Aaron Kirkland, David Ligon, Ruben Mayes, Rob Smith, Daniel Brooks, Steven Jones, Brent Schaefer, LaMarcus Coker, Andre Mathis, Todd Cox, Jon Crompton, Raymond Henderson, Malcolm Rawls, Slick Shelley, Gerald Williams, Ramone Johnson, Darius Myers, BJ Coleman, Lennon Creer, Donald Langley, Rolando Melancon, Ahmad Paige, Darris Sawtelle, EJ Abrams-Ward...
 
#19
#19
Lord Vader said:
Since 2002, Fulmer recruited 15 5 star players. Look at the list and let me know how many of them you think was NOT wasted. I understand that there are numerous circumstances to why these players did not suceed, but there are ALOT of players who never did much. This may be more of a reflection on the type of player Fulmer recruited rather than how he coached...

5 Stars
2002- James Banks, Mondre Dickerson, Brandon Jeffries, Jonathon Mapu, Gerald Riggs Jr.
2003- Robert Meachem
2004- Jesse Mahelona, Albert Toeaina
2005- Demetrice Morley
2006- Walter Fisher
2007- Eric Berry, Chris Donald, Kenny O'Neal, Brent Vinson, Ben Martin

Here are some 4 star players who were wasted:
Cody Douglas, Chris Hannon, LaRon Harris, Greg Jones, Aaron Kirkland, David Ligon, Ruben Mayes, Rob Smith, Daniel Brooks, Steven Jones, Brent Schaefer, LaMarcus Coker, Andre Mathis, Todd Cox, Jon Crompton, Raymond Henderson, Malcolm Rawls, Slick Shelley, Gerald Williams, Ramone Johnson, Darius Myers, BJ Coleman, Lennon Creer, Donald Langley, Rolando Melancon, Ahmad Paige, Darris Sawtelle, EJ Abrams-Ward...
Click to expand...


that's a little depressing!
 
#20
#20
utvolpj said:
Coach Cut's paycheck disagrees with this post ;)
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If a paycheck was always a measure of one's job performance, then I guess the CEO's of GM, Chrysler, Ford, Lehman Brothers, etc...did one heck of a job the last few years.:eek:hmy:
 
#21
#21
Lord Vader said:
Since 2002, Fulmer recruited 15 5 star players. Look at the list and let me know how many of them you think was NOT wasted. I understand that there are numerous circumstances to why these players did not suceed, but there are ALOT of players who never did much. This may be more of a reflection on the type of player Fulmer recruited rather than how he coached...

5 Stars
2002- James Banks, Mondre Dickerson, Brandon Jeffries, Jonathon Mapu, Gerald Riggs Jr.
2003- Robert Meachem
2004- Jesse Mahelona, Albert Toeaina
2005- Demetrice Morley
2006- Walter Fisher
2007- Eric Berry, Chris Donald, Kenny O'Neal, Brent Vinson, Ben Martin

Here are some 4 star players who were wasted:
Cody Douglas, Chris Hannon, LaRon Harris, Greg Jones, Aaron Kirkland, David Ligon, Ruben Mayes, Rob Smith, Daniel Brooks, Steven Jones, Brent Schaefer, LaMarcus Coker, Andre Mathis, Todd Cox, Jon Crompton, Raymond Henderson, Malcolm Rawls, Slick Shelley, Gerald Williams, Ramone Johnson, Darius Myers, BJ Coleman, Lennon Creer, Donald Langley, Rolando Melancon, Ahmad Paige, Darris Sawtelle, EJ Abrams-Ward...
Click to expand...

That list is atrocious. The majority of those guys weren't wasted. You need to remove anyone that's about to be a sophomore, all the screw ups, guys we got production from, and the guys who were just flat-out overrated.
 
#22
#22
That is a lot of talent gone down the toilet. Such a waste
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#23
#23
kptvol said:
That list is atrocious. The majority of those guys weren't wasted. You need to remove anyone that's about to be a sophomore, all the screw ups, guys we got production from, and the guys who were just flat-out overrated.
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I kept Donald on there cuz I wanted to list all 5 stars. Paige... Meh...

I knew someone would talk about the screw-ups, that's why I said it may be more of a reflection on the type of player Fulmer recruited rather than the way he coached them...

I wanted to list all 5 star players. Outside of those, I don't see anyone UT has got any production from on that list...

Flat out overrated? Wasn't it Fulmer's job as a recruiter to check out who was overrated and who wasn't? I'm just simply stating what they were rated on Rivals and that they signed a LOI to attend the University of Tennessee...
 
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#25
#25
k-sny-vol said:
Wow after looking at that list I noticed Fulmer did WASTE ALOT of talent..
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That is why he is no longer the coach. Not that shocking really, I think his evaluating talent and the assistant coaches he hired and kept on to develop the talent were his major downfalls and why we have such problems at the more difficult positions to evaluate like O-line and D-line.
 
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