DiderotsGhost
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Been a long time since I posted but thought it was time to check in. That was an incredible win last night! It felt doubly good given that there was a bit 'trash-talk' by some NC State players and fans.
Just some quick notes:
Our defense outscored NC State's offense. Don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but out defense scored a touchdown on a pick-6 last night. Meanwhile, our defense effectively gave up 0 points. Yes, NC State technically scored 10, but 7 came off a pick-6 and the other 3 also came off a turnover that put NC State on our side of the field. Keeping them to 3 was a W there. So by my count, our defense scored 7 points and their offense scored 0 (or 3 if you want to count the FG off the offensive turnover). Either way, that's a crazy stat - you might expect to see that against a lower-division opponent, but not against a P5 school.
Best defense since the Fulmer years. I legitimately think this is our best D since the Fulmer years. The amount of depth and talent we have right now is insane. Take a look at the box score and see how many players had a tackle! It's unreal! And we had 13 TFLs! Some weaknesses and we have a young secondary, but that was one of the best defenses performances I can remember in my 3+ decades of watching Vol football.
Will Brooks Pick-6 a great moment. Always fun to see a walk-on earn time and make a huge play like that.
Sampson quietly may be one of the best offensive players in the SEC. Nico and some other players may get the headlines, but Sampson is quietly moving up the very deep list of all-time great Vols RBs. 20 carries for 132 yards last night against a pretty good defense. That was 6.6 ypc. You can gloss over the 124 yards on 12 carries he did against UTC, but this was a legit defense and Sampson looked great.
Nico's game was mixed. Tbf, NC State's defense was very focused on preventing the deep pass and containing Nico. But we saw 2 "Freshman mistakes" from Nico with the INTs. Both passes were deflected, but still poor awareness. That said, this was Nico's 3rd start and he's still very young. His scrambling and improvisation was incredible. He did connect on a few great passes to Squirrel and Kitselman. He'll improve as the season goes along.
Need a 2nd deep threat to emerge. I think Herbstreit may have said it, but I agree -- we really need someone else to emerge as a deep threat other than Squirrel. Thornton, Brazzell, McCoy ... but at some point, we're going to need another deep threat against some of these elite SEC defenses.
Playcalling was excellent. Very happy with the playcalling last night. It became apparent early on that NC State was going to go all-in on preventing the 'big passing play' as overloaded deep and the edges of the field. The 3-3-5 defense is very much designed to stop an offense like ours. Our coaching staff did a great job responding and attacking the middle of the field, using the running game, and using those shovel passes. We may have went 'to the well' one too many times on the shovel, but still ... that's a good example of 'keep doing it until they prove they can stop it'. As soon as NC State started adjusting, that's when we took the air. Overall, very good playcalling last night and I think it says a lot about Nico that he was able to command such a diverse offensive attack.
Darkhorse national title contender. This is the most optimistic I've been about a UT season pre / early season in a long time, but I feel like the national media is significantly underestimating the defense and the offense will get better as the year goes on. While I'm not a huge fan of the 12-team playoff, it does benefit a team like ours this year. I fully expect us to drop a game or two with our brutal schedule (Gerogia, Bama, Oklahoma), but we could be a legit top 5 team by the end of the season.
That's all I got for now. I'm just going to enjoy this season. It's great to see some of the fruits of Heupel's year of building the program back up.
GBO!
Just some quick notes:
Our defense outscored NC State's offense. Don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but out defense scored a touchdown on a pick-6 last night. Meanwhile, our defense effectively gave up 0 points. Yes, NC State technically scored 10, but 7 came off a pick-6 and the other 3 also came off a turnover that put NC State on our side of the field. Keeping them to 3 was a W there. So by my count, our defense scored 7 points and their offense scored 0 (or 3 if you want to count the FG off the offensive turnover). Either way, that's a crazy stat - you might expect to see that against a lower-division opponent, but not against a P5 school.
Best defense since the Fulmer years. I legitimately think this is our best D since the Fulmer years. The amount of depth and talent we have right now is insane. Take a look at the box score and see how many players had a tackle! It's unreal! And we had 13 TFLs! Some weaknesses and we have a young secondary, but that was one of the best defenses performances I can remember in my 3+ decades of watching Vol football.
Will Brooks Pick-6 a great moment. Always fun to see a walk-on earn time and make a huge play like that.
Sampson quietly may be one of the best offensive players in the SEC. Nico and some other players may get the headlines, but Sampson is quietly moving up the very deep list of all-time great Vols RBs. 20 carries for 132 yards last night against a pretty good defense. That was 6.6 ypc. You can gloss over the 124 yards on 12 carries he did against UTC, but this was a legit defense and Sampson looked great.
Nico's game was mixed. Tbf, NC State's defense was very focused on preventing the deep pass and containing Nico. But we saw 2 "Freshman mistakes" from Nico with the INTs. Both passes were deflected, but still poor awareness. That said, this was Nico's 3rd start and he's still very young. His scrambling and improvisation was incredible. He did connect on a few great passes to Squirrel and Kitselman. He'll improve as the season goes along.
Need a 2nd deep threat to emerge. I think Herbstreit may have said it, but I agree -- we really need someone else to emerge as a deep threat other than Squirrel. Thornton, Brazzell, McCoy ... but at some point, we're going to need another deep threat against some of these elite SEC defenses.
Playcalling was excellent. Very happy with the playcalling last night. It became apparent early on that NC State was going to go all-in on preventing the 'big passing play' as overloaded deep and the edges of the field. The 3-3-5 defense is very much designed to stop an offense like ours. Our coaching staff did a great job responding and attacking the middle of the field, using the running game, and using those shovel passes. We may have went 'to the well' one too many times on the shovel, but still ... that's a good example of 'keep doing it until they prove they can stop it'. As soon as NC State started adjusting, that's when we took the air. Overall, very good playcalling last night and I think it says a lot about Nico that he was able to command such a diverse offensive attack.
Darkhorse national title contender. This is the most optimistic I've been about a UT season pre / early season in a long time, but I feel like the national media is significantly underestimating the defense and the offense will get better as the year goes on. While I'm not a huge fan of the 12-team playoff, it does benefit a team like ours this year. I fully expect us to drop a game or two with our brutal schedule (Gerogia, Bama, Oklahoma), but we could be a legit top 5 team by the end of the season.
That's all I got for now. I'm just going to enjoy this season. It's great to see some of the fruits of Heupel's year of building the program back up.
GBO!
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