DiderotsGhost
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Time for another edition of this. I have a confession to make: beating Florida makes me feel better about everything else in life. All is right in the world for the next week!
THE BIG PICTURE
4-0. First time since 2003. Even during the Fulmer years, 4-0 starts were rare due to our front-loaded schedules.
Can a duck pull a truck? A Tennessee duck can, quack quack!
Glad Lee Corso picked the Gators. I felt better about our prospects when Lee Corso put that Gator head on. Corso picking us is bad luck!
This is a truly a team. You can see it in the way these guys celebrate, communicate, and everything else they do. I love watching them celebrate after a TD, because pretty much everyone is there to share congratulations. Theres no one pouting about roles or complaining about not getting the pass. It just feels like they are all working together towards a common goal, and thats not always the case when you throw 11 egos together on a field.
Give Butch credit. If there has ever a week where Ive been frustrated with the NegaVols, its this one. Butch Jones has done an outstanding job as Head Coach, but theres always a portion of the fanbase that demands absolute perfection in a profession where its simply unachievable. Look people, Butch took over a 5-7 program that was in shambles. He took the 2014 squad, which had the worst O-line in the SEC (due to Dooleys lack of recruiting), to a bowl game. He followed that up with a 9-4 season that, while we lost a few close devastating games, was nevertheless a significant improvement from where we had been. Now, we finally got that big win over Florida. Butch isnt perfect; nor are his assistants, nor the players. But lets keep things in perspective --- Butch has turned a trainwreck into a blooming garden. Its taken awhile for the seeds to blossom, but weve made excellent progress. Whether all the "right pieces" are in place can be debated, but I fully believe that Butch is the right Captain for the ship.
#12 in Sagarin. We are now ranked #12 in Sagarin. Georgia is ranked #53, which is the lowest I can ever remember seeing them. Bama is #2 and Texas A&M is #6.
Happy happy joy joy. Heres to hoping we have at least one week here on VolNation where people can be happy for once! The streak is over!
THE GAME
1st Half Mistakes. Re-watching the 1st Half of the game, Im not convinced that our offense played poorly per se, so much as we had a lot of mistakes. Way too many dropped passes. The Dobbs interception was bad. Aside from that, our offense looked pretty good even in the first two quarters If it werent for mistakes, we may have put up anywhere from 10 24 points, rather than 3 points. The mistakes are killing us this year! We've got to fix them to become a truly elite team. Without the mistakes, however, this may have been a 55 - 28 blowout.
We missed Sutton, DK Jr, and JRM. Pretty brutal playing without 3 of our best 4 defensive players. Suttons absence, in particular, was notable.
Trevor Daniel. We have a great punter! Not exactly an amazing insight, but certainly reminded of it yesterday with the number of punts he put inside the 10 yard line.
Crowd Noise. Made a noticeable difference. Quite a few Florida pre-snap snafus were likely caused by crowd noise.
OFFENSE
Josh Dobbs. Dobbs remains a bit of an enigma, but he won this game for us. He made a few mistakes in the 1st Half, but he came on fire in the 2nd Half. That pass to Josh Malone for the TD was absolutely beautiful. Not only did Dobbs look poised throwing the ball, but he also made excellent reads on the defense, tucking it and running at the right time at several key points in the game. Without the one interception (the 2nd one was more forgivable as Dobbs' arm got hit on the throw) and a few other mistakes, Dobbs would've looked like a Heisman contender.
Wide Receiver U. Our much vaunted WR corps finally seems to be finding its form. We all worried about it last year, but I would say the WRs have been a strength again this year. Were starting to live up to the Wide Receiver U moniker again. If these guys could hold on to the ball just a bit more, they could be elite.
Tyler Byrd. 3 catches for 40 yards. Looked very good out there. Hes a true Freshman. Im definitely excited about potentially having 3.67 more seasons with Tyler Byrd in Knoxville.
Jauan Jennings. 3 receptions for 111 yards. The TD catch makes the highlight reel, but the catch over the top of the Florida defender in the 3rd Quarter was an even better play.
Josh Malone. 4 catches, 91 yards. Hes becoming a top WR in the SEC. Great to finally see Malone fulfilling his great potential this season.
Ethan Wolf TD catch. Few drops earlier, but the TD catch was a very good one. He had to stretch for it. Strangely, it seems like we dropped some of the easier passes, but made the tougher catches.
O-line. Not perfect, but improving every week. Florida is the toughest defense weve played this year, and outside of the 1st Quarter, I thought the O-line did a good job in pass protection. It broke down a few times, but Dobbs managed to make up for it. We struggled with the run game in the 1st Half, which was more worrying, but seems like we started to control the line more in the 2nd Half, which is what I really like to see.
DEFENSE
1st Half. Once again, the defense struggled quite a bit in the 1st Half, but made adjustments, and played excellent in the 2nd Half. Nevertheless, I would like to see our D played great an entire game for once.
Missing Key Player. Brutal playing without Cam Sutton and DK Jr; as well as a limited JRM. The impact was obvious on our defense.
Struggled Against Deep Ball. This is where Cam Sutton was missed the most. Floridas biggest success on offense came with the deep ball. They beat up on Justin Martin, and Baylen Buchanan also got beat on one deep pass.
3rd & 1 Stop in 3rd Quarter. Absolutely pivotal for swinging the game.
D-line thrived in 2nd Half. A+ play by the D-line in the 2nd Half. Without this D-line, we would not have won the game.
Derek Barnett. MVP of the game. He took control.
Todd Kelly Jr. Breakout game for him.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Brutal Stretch. 1 down, 3 more to go for one of the most brutal stretches in college football for any team this season. Right now, Georgia is looking much more vulnerable than they did pre-season, while Texas A&M is looking much tougher.
Georgia. Looked reasonably good the first week against North Carolina. They followed that up with a horrendous performance and near-loss versus I-AA cellar dweller Nicholls State, which Sagarin rates as the #211 Division I team. To put this in perspective, East Tennessee State is rated as #217. At first, I was willing to consider that the Nicholls State game was an aberration, but after barely squeaking by Missouri, and then getting crushed by Ole Miss, Im starting to think that maybe the UNC game was the real aberration.
Athens. Even if UGA looks down, this has effectively become a rivalry game, and the Georgia players will be hungry for redemption after an ugly loss to Ole Miss. The Bulldogs will be fired up for this game after such a devastating loss to Ole Miss.
Texas A&M. A real threat to win the entire SEC at this point. This is a very good football team and that game is going to be extremely tough to win on the road, especially without Cam Sutton.
Alabama. As dominant as Alabama has been during the Saban Era, this years team has looked like one of the best yet. They have been virtually flawless. Unfortunately, however, they faced a cupcake in Kent State this weekend, and they face Kentucky next weekend, so we wont get to see how they fare against strong competition again until two more weeks when they play Arkansas in Fayetteville.
AWARDS & MISCELLANY
Power T Awards.
(1) Derek Barnett
(2) Josh Dobbs
(3) Todd Kelly Jr
(4) Jauan Jennings
(5) Josh Malone
Virginia Tech. Might be a lot better than we realized. VT is now 3-1 and has looked impressive versus Boston College and East Carolina. Against East Carolina, Jerod Evans was 13-20 with 282 yards and 3 TDs passing, and had 10 carries for 97 yards and 1 TD rushing. Its becoming very clear why he was the top rated JUCO QB recruit in the nation. Our defense did a better job containing him than those that have followed.
App State. Scored 45 points in a win against Akron. Jalin Moore had 39 runs for 257 yards! App State may not be Alabama, but remember VolNation, App State knows how to run the ball. Our defense played excellent against them. Our offense is what struggled during that game.
Beat the Dawgs! Atlanta sports talk radio is just so much more fun to listen to when the Vols beat the Bulldogs.
Put Jacob Eason on His @#$. That's the key to the game.
GO BIG ORANGE!
THE BIG PICTURE
4-0. First time since 2003. Even during the Fulmer years, 4-0 starts were rare due to our front-loaded schedules.
Can a duck pull a truck? A Tennessee duck can, quack quack!
Glad Lee Corso picked the Gators. I felt better about our prospects when Lee Corso put that Gator head on. Corso picking us is bad luck!
This is a truly a team. You can see it in the way these guys celebrate, communicate, and everything else they do. I love watching them celebrate after a TD, because pretty much everyone is there to share congratulations. Theres no one pouting about roles or complaining about not getting the pass. It just feels like they are all working together towards a common goal, and thats not always the case when you throw 11 egos together on a field.
Give Butch credit. If there has ever a week where Ive been frustrated with the NegaVols, its this one. Butch Jones has done an outstanding job as Head Coach, but theres always a portion of the fanbase that demands absolute perfection in a profession where its simply unachievable. Look people, Butch took over a 5-7 program that was in shambles. He took the 2014 squad, which had the worst O-line in the SEC (due to Dooleys lack of recruiting), to a bowl game. He followed that up with a 9-4 season that, while we lost a few close devastating games, was nevertheless a significant improvement from where we had been. Now, we finally got that big win over Florida. Butch isnt perfect; nor are his assistants, nor the players. But lets keep things in perspective --- Butch has turned a trainwreck into a blooming garden. Its taken awhile for the seeds to blossom, but weve made excellent progress. Whether all the "right pieces" are in place can be debated, but I fully believe that Butch is the right Captain for the ship.
#12 in Sagarin. We are now ranked #12 in Sagarin. Georgia is ranked #53, which is the lowest I can ever remember seeing them. Bama is #2 and Texas A&M is #6.
Happy happy joy joy. Heres to hoping we have at least one week here on VolNation where people can be happy for once! The streak is over!
THE GAME
1st Half Mistakes. Re-watching the 1st Half of the game, Im not convinced that our offense played poorly per se, so much as we had a lot of mistakes. Way too many dropped passes. The Dobbs interception was bad. Aside from that, our offense looked pretty good even in the first two quarters If it werent for mistakes, we may have put up anywhere from 10 24 points, rather than 3 points. The mistakes are killing us this year! We've got to fix them to become a truly elite team. Without the mistakes, however, this may have been a 55 - 28 blowout.
We missed Sutton, DK Jr, and JRM. Pretty brutal playing without 3 of our best 4 defensive players. Suttons absence, in particular, was notable.
Trevor Daniel. We have a great punter! Not exactly an amazing insight, but certainly reminded of it yesterday with the number of punts he put inside the 10 yard line.
Crowd Noise. Made a noticeable difference. Quite a few Florida pre-snap snafus were likely caused by crowd noise.
OFFENSE
Josh Dobbs. Dobbs remains a bit of an enigma, but he won this game for us. He made a few mistakes in the 1st Half, but he came on fire in the 2nd Half. That pass to Josh Malone for the TD was absolutely beautiful. Not only did Dobbs look poised throwing the ball, but he also made excellent reads on the defense, tucking it and running at the right time at several key points in the game. Without the one interception (the 2nd one was more forgivable as Dobbs' arm got hit on the throw) and a few other mistakes, Dobbs would've looked like a Heisman contender.
Wide Receiver U. Our much vaunted WR corps finally seems to be finding its form. We all worried about it last year, but I would say the WRs have been a strength again this year. Were starting to live up to the Wide Receiver U moniker again. If these guys could hold on to the ball just a bit more, they could be elite.
Tyler Byrd. 3 catches for 40 yards. Looked very good out there. Hes a true Freshman. Im definitely excited about potentially having 3.67 more seasons with Tyler Byrd in Knoxville.
Jauan Jennings. 3 receptions for 111 yards. The TD catch makes the highlight reel, but the catch over the top of the Florida defender in the 3rd Quarter was an even better play.
Josh Malone. 4 catches, 91 yards. Hes becoming a top WR in the SEC. Great to finally see Malone fulfilling his great potential this season.
Ethan Wolf TD catch. Few drops earlier, but the TD catch was a very good one. He had to stretch for it. Strangely, it seems like we dropped some of the easier passes, but made the tougher catches.
O-line. Not perfect, but improving every week. Florida is the toughest defense weve played this year, and outside of the 1st Quarter, I thought the O-line did a good job in pass protection. It broke down a few times, but Dobbs managed to make up for it. We struggled with the run game in the 1st Half, which was more worrying, but seems like we started to control the line more in the 2nd Half, which is what I really like to see.
DEFENSE
1st Half. Once again, the defense struggled quite a bit in the 1st Half, but made adjustments, and played excellent in the 2nd Half. Nevertheless, I would like to see our D played great an entire game for once.
Missing Key Player. Brutal playing without Cam Sutton and DK Jr; as well as a limited JRM. The impact was obvious on our defense.
Struggled Against Deep Ball. This is where Cam Sutton was missed the most. Floridas biggest success on offense came with the deep ball. They beat up on Justin Martin, and Baylen Buchanan also got beat on one deep pass.
3rd & 1 Stop in 3rd Quarter. Absolutely pivotal for swinging the game.
D-line thrived in 2nd Half. A+ play by the D-line in the 2nd Half. Without this D-line, we would not have won the game.
Derek Barnett. MVP of the game. He took control.
Todd Kelly Jr. Breakout game for him.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Brutal Stretch. 1 down, 3 more to go for one of the most brutal stretches in college football for any team this season. Right now, Georgia is looking much more vulnerable than they did pre-season, while Texas A&M is looking much tougher.
Georgia. Looked reasonably good the first week against North Carolina. They followed that up with a horrendous performance and near-loss versus I-AA cellar dweller Nicholls State, which Sagarin rates as the #211 Division I team. To put this in perspective, East Tennessee State is rated as #217. At first, I was willing to consider that the Nicholls State game was an aberration, but after barely squeaking by Missouri, and then getting crushed by Ole Miss, Im starting to think that maybe the UNC game was the real aberration.
Athens. Even if UGA looks down, this has effectively become a rivalry game, and the Georgia players will be hungry for redemption after an ugly loss to Ole Miss. The Bulldogs will be fired up for this game after such a devastating loss to Ole Miss.
Texas A&M. A real threat to win the entire SEC at this point. This is a very good football team and that game is going to be extremely tough to win on the road, especially without Cam Sutton.
Alabama. As dominant as Alabama has been during the Saban Era, this years team has looked like one of the best yet. They have been virtually flawless. Unfortunately, however, they faced a cupcake in Kent State this weekend, and they face Kentucky next weekend, so we wont get to see how they fare against strong competition again until two more weeks when they play Arkansas in Fayetteville.
AWARDS & MISCELLANY
Power T Awards.
(1) Derek Barnett
(2) Josh Dobbs
(3) Todd Kelly Jr
(4) Jauan Jennings
(5) Josh Malone
Virginia Tech. Might be a lot better than we realized. VT is now 3-1 and has looked impressive versus Boston College and East Carolina. Against East Carolina, Jerod Evans was 13-20 with 282 yards and 3 TDs passing, and had 10 carries for 97 yards and 1 TD rushing. Its becoming very clear why he was the top rated JUCO QB recruit in the nation. Our defense did a better job containing him than those that have followed.
App State. Scored 45 points in a win against Akron. Jalin Moore had 39 runs for 257 yards! App State may not be Alabama, but remember VolNation, App State knows how to run the ball. Our defense played excellent against them. Our offense is what struggled during that game.
Beat the Dawgs! Atlanta sports talk radio is just so much more fun to listen to when the Vols beat the Bulldogs.
Put Jacob Eason on His @#$. That's the key to the game.
GO BIG ORANGE!
