DiderotsGhost
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The scoreboard was ugly, but we fought hard. I do have hope that we can pull off a few wins down the stretch and may have a shot next week against Miss State. Here are my takeaways.
Quarterbacks
Maurer's potential. When we recruited Maurer, I argued he was the most underrated QB in the 2019 class. He has similar attributes to Josh Dobbs IMO. He had a 3-star rating primarily because (a) he played for a bad team and (b) didn't have a huge breakout season till his Senior year. He's starting to show more signs that he can be the dynamic playmaker he was in high school.
Maurer's play. He looked spectacular during the 1st half. Struggled in the 2nd half. Overall, however, he's improving rapidly. Even compared to 2-3 weeks ago when he was struggling with the speed of the game, it looks like he's adapting quickly. Remember in the spring game and against Chattanooga, he often took off to run way too soon; feels like he's getting a much better handle on when to run and when to pass. Against Florida, he made a lot of bad passes (underestimating the speed of DBs or the height of the D-line), but here, there were only a few.
Offense runs much more smoothly. Biggest argument for Maurer right now (beyond his performance in the 1st half) is that the offense just looks much more in sync with him on the field. I think he's a good leader and has a personality better suited for running the offense than JG. He seems to get the communication aspect of being a QB very well.
Stat line. Maurer's stat line was pretty good for a Freshman QB playing against an elite D. 14 for 28 for 259 yards, 9.3 ypa, 2 TDs, 1 INT, and 2 turnovers. His accuracy could still use some improvement and he needs to turn the ball over less, but overall, given the quality of the competition, this was a good performance.
JG. JG has struggled throwing the ball this season, but absolutely no one should question his toughness or his team-first attitude. Dude is a VFL and one of the biggest class acts to ever play QB as a Tennessee Vol. He was the first person out there to make sure Maurer was alright. I really hate that people have made criticism of his poor play so personal. I do hope he sticks around another year and we look at him as a WR. (he's faster than people realize; he only looks slow because he doesn't read the field quickly as a QB). Though, I'd fully understand if he decided to transfer and play one final year as QB.
The future. I suspect Maurer will continue to have some ups and downs as the season goes along, as he's still a Freshman QB. Felt like he was playing on pure adrenaline in that 1st half and ran out of it in the 2nd half. But he'll continue to improve; there just may be a lot of bumps in the road.
3 out of 5. I think Maurer gives us a shot at winning 3 out of the last 5 games. That would show some progress. If this offense plays like it did in the 1st half, we'll have a shot at Miss State next week, as well; albeit, I'm growing more concern about how thin we are on defense.
The O-line
Pass blocking is good. We've seen major improvement on pass blocking this season. We did have the one terrible play where Maurer was blind-sided after one our guys (I think Morris) missed the block, but overall, the O-line looks much improved from last season on pass blocking.
Run blocking is improving rapidly. Run blocking is not as strong as pass blocking, but it seems to be improving rapidly. The stat line doesn't look impressive (29 runs for 70 yards, 2.4 ypc), but it's misleading. Most of those losses came on a few plays where Maurer was sacked and lost a lot of yards. Get rid of Maurer's run stats, and we had 22 runs for 99 yards, for about 4.5 ypc. That's reasonable against one of the top run defenses in the nation. Still lots of room for improvement, but things are looking up on the O-line.
Penalties, penalties, penalties. The one area where the OL has been disappointing has been penalties. We've been eaten alive by OL penalties and they've destroyed a lot of drives. This definitely needs to be a point of emphasis, because the O-line has otherwise improved much more rapidly than I anticipated at the beginning of the season. Without all the penalties, I'd say the OL deserved a "B" for the season, but with the penalties, it's still a "C-". If we clean that up and continue to improve, this OL could be elite by 2021.
Did the OL wear down? Normally we talk about the DL wearing down, but seems like most of the OL mistakes came in the 2nd half. I don't remember too many big OL mistakes in the 1st. We still may be struggling a little bit with depth and endurance.
WRs
Jennings. If Jennings doesn't get drafted after this season, NFL teams are missing out. Don't care if he doesn't have the perfect measurables; dude works harder than anyone on the field and is the ultimate competitor. He finished with 7 recs for 114 yards.
Callaway. Callaway finally had a big game this year; not that it was his fault that it took this long. For whatever reason, JG has struggled to get the ball to Callaway; but Maurer did not. Callaway got 3 recs for 105 yards. Callaway also should be an NFL pick IMO.
RBs
Jordan. The transfer rumor appears to have been false; or at least he decided against it. Jordan is still playing for us and had his best game of the season, 9 carries for 47 yards and 5.2 ypc against a stout defense.
Chandler. Played well, but Georgia did a good job containing him; bend-don't-break.
Grey. Had a bad game. Just a reminder that Freshmen sometimes look like Freshmen.
Defense
Depth on the Front 7 is bad. D-line depth was a big concern even before the season started. Now LB depth is also a concern, after we lost 3 LBs in a 2 week period (Reid and Ignont transferred; Banks was kicked off the team). Aubrey Solomon, arguably our best DL, was also injured in the 2nd half. We're going to continue to struggle in the 2nd half as our D simply gets worn down.
We didn't stand a chance against Georgia. Hate to say it, but until we get the depth issue fixed, we don't stand a chance against elite teams like Georgia, Florida, and Bama. Our guys were obviously worn out in the 2nd half. I thought we played reasonably well considering, but it is what it is. We can't compete with the top of the SEC without going 2-3 deep in the front 7.
To'o To'o. Dude is the best Freshman LB I can ever remember seeing here. We all expected him to be good, but maybe not this quickly.
Crouch circle around. My favorite play of the game was Crouch taking "the long path" around the Georgia O-line to make a big play. I continue to be impressed with Crouch.
Solomon status. Haven't heard it, but if he's out beyond this week, that's a huge blow to this defense. We can't afford to have more losses on that DL.
Bryce Thompson. Played very well. Pruitt left the DBs out there 1 on 1 a lot because the lack of pass rush, but Thompson played great.
Nigel Warrior. He's been the object of criticism for some on here, but I thought he played his best game this week. He really just needs to be more consistent.
D-Taylor struggling. Hoping to see him have some better performances down the stretch, but definitely feels like he's been struggling the 1st half of the season.
No pass rush. Lack of pass rush yesterday was a huge deal, but it's open question as to whether the problem is we don't have good pass rushers or if the problem is that we have such terrible depth, that we really can't get a good pass rush without wearing out our starters early in the game.
Looking ahead
Miss State. This will be a tough game, but at least it's in Neyland. Offense with Maurer is looking better and Miss State's offense has struggled this year, but our depth issues on defense will make it difficult to beat many good opponent this season. This could go either way.
Alabama. No chance.
South Carolina. A winnable game and a very interesting game. This one is in Knoxville and I'd circle on the calendar if I'm Jeremy Pruitt.
UAB. No one wants to hear this but: UAB is good. Like they legitimately could beat us and have a shot at winning Conference USA this season. We've got to treat this game just like an SEC game as UAB is likely better a team like Vanderbilt. We should be the better team, but we can't look past anyone right now.
The Future
Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Pruitt's players are playing very well, Our main issue right now is that there simply aren't enough of them. In spite of our struggles this season, Pruitt must take control of narrative and continue to land to top players. If he does that, we'll have more depth in 2020 and 2021 and be competitive. Right now, depth is the big problem on this team.
We're improving even if the record sucks. I think we've gotten better every week this season; but we've also been playing tougher competition. If we hadn't blown the first 2 games, I feel like there would be a lot of optimism, though, because the team is rapidly improving.
That's all for this week.
GBO!
Quarterbacks
Maurer's potential. When we recruited Maurer, I argued he was the most underrated QB in the 2019 class. He has similar attributes to Josh Dobbs IMO. He had a 3-star rating primarily because (a) he played for a bad team and (b) didn't have a huge breakout season till his Senior year. He's starting to show more signs that he can be the dynamic playmaker he was in high school.
Maurer's play. He looked spectacular during the 1st half. Struggled in the 2nd half. Overall, however, he's improving rapidly. Even compared to 2-3 weeks ago when he was struggling with the speed of the game, it looks like he's adapting quickly. Remember in the spring game and against Chattanooga, he often took off to run way too soon; feels like he's getting a much better handle on when to run and when to pass. Against Florida, he made a lot of bad passes (underestimating the speed of DBs or the height of the D-line), but here, there were only a few.
Offense runs much more smoothly. Biggest argument for Maurer right now (beyond his performance in the 1st half) is that the offense just looks much more in sync with him on the field. I think he's a good leader and has a personality better suited for running the offense than JG. He seems to get the communication aspect of being a QB very well.
Stat line. Maurer's stat line was pretty good for a Freshman QB playing against an elite D. 14 for 28 for 259 yards, 9.3 ypa, 2 TDs, 1 INT, and 2 turnovers. His accuracy could still use some improvement and he needs to turn the ball over less, but overall, given the quality of the competition, this was a good performance.
JG. JG has struggled throwing the ball this season, but absolutely no one should question his toughness or his team-first attitude. Dude is a VFL and one of the biggest class acts to ever play QB as a Tennessee Vol. He was the first person out there to make sure Maurer was alright. I really hate that people have made criticism of his poor play so personal. I do hope he sticks around another year and we look at him as a WR. (he's faster than people realize; he only looks slow because he doesn't read the field quickly as a QB). Though, I'd fully understand if he decided to transfer and play one final year as QB.
The future. I suspect Maurer will continue to have some ups and downs as the season goes along, as he's still a Freshman QB. Felt like he was playing on pure adrenaline in that 1st half and ran out of it in the 2nd half. But he'll continue to improve; there just may be a lot of bumps in the road.
3 out of 5. I think Maurer gives us a shot at winning 3 out of the last 5 games. That would show some progress. If this offense plays like it did in the 1st half, we'll have a shot at Miss State next week, as well; albeit, I'm growing more concern about how thin we are on defense.
The O-line
Pass blocking is good. We've seen major improvement on pass blocking this season. We did have the one terrible play where Maurer was blind-sided after one our guys (I think Morris) missed the block, but overall, the O-line looks much improved from last season on pass blocking.
Run blocking is improving rapidly. Run blocking is not as strong as pass blocking, but it seems to be improving rapidly. The stat line doesn't look impressive (29 runs for 70 yards, 2.4 ypc), but it's misleading. Most of those losses came on a few plays where Maurer was sacked and lost a lot of yards. Get rid of Maurer's run stats, and we had 22 runs for 99 yards, for about 4.5 ypc. That's reasonable against one of the top run defenses in the nation. Still lots of room for improvement, but things are looking up on the O-line.
Penalties, penalties, penalties. The one area where the OL has been disappointing has been penalties. We've been eaten alive by OL penalties and they've destroyed a lot of drives. This definitely needs to be a point of emphasis, because the O-line has otherwise improved much more rapidly than I anticipated at the beginning of the season. Without all the penalties, I'd say the OL deserved a "B" for the season, but with the penalties, it's still a "C-". If we clean that up and continue to improve, this OL could be elite by 2021.
Did the OL wear down? Normally we talk about the DL wearing down, but seems like most of the OL mistakes came in the 2nd half. I don't remember too many big OL mistakes in the 1st. We still may be struggling a little bit with depth and endurance.
WRs
Jennings. If Jennings doesn't get drafted after this season, NFL teams are missing out. Don't care if he doesn't have the perfect measurables; dude works harder than anyone on the field and is the ultimate competitor. He finished with 7 recs for 114 yards.
Callaway. Callaway finally had a big game this year; not that it was his fault that it took this long. For whatever reason, JG has struggled to get the ball to Callaway; but Maurer did not. Callaway got 3 recs for 105 yards. Callaway also should be an NFL pick IMO.
RBs
Jordan. The transfer rumor appears to have been false; or at least he decided against it. Jordan is still playing for us and had his best game of the season, 9 carries for 47 yards and 5.2 ypc against a stout defense.
Chandler. Played well, but Georgia did a good job containing him; bend-don't-break.
Grey. Had a bad game. Just a reminder that Freshmen sometimes look like Freshmen.
Defense
Depth on the Front 7 is bad. D-line depth was a big concern even before the season started. Now LB depth is also a concern, after we lost 3 LBs in a 2 week period (Reid and Ignont transferred; Banks was kicked off the team). Aubrey Solomon, arguably our best DL, was also injured in the 2nd half. We're going to continue to struggle in the 2nd half as our D simply gets worn down.
We didn't stand a chance against Georgia. Hate to say it, but until we get the depth issue fixed, we don't stand a chance against elite teams like Georgia, Florida, and Bama. Our guys were obviously worn out in the 2nd half. I thought we played reasonably well considering, but it is what it is. We can't compete with the top of the SEC without going 2-3 deep in the front 7.
To'o To'o. Dude is the best Freshman LB I can ever remember seeing here. We all expected him to be good, but maybe not this quickly.
Crouch circle around. My favorite play of the game was Crouch taking "the long path" around the Georgia O-line to make a big play. I continue to be impressed with Crouch.
Solomon status. Haven't heard it, but if he's out beyond this week, that's a huge blow to this defense. We can't afford to have more losses on that DL.
Bryce Thompson. Played very well. Pruitt left the DBs out there 1 on 1 a lot because the lack of pass rush, but Thompson played great.
Nigel Warrior. He's been the object of criticism for some on here, but I thought he played his best game this week. He really just needs to be more consistent.
D-Taylor struggling. Hoping to see him have some better performances down the stretch, but definitely feels like he's been struggling the 1st half of the season.
No pass rush. Lack of pass rush yesterday was a huge deal, but it's open question as to whether the problem is we don't have good pass rushers or if the problem is that we have such terrible depth, that we really can't get a good pass rush without wearing out our starters early in the game.
Looking ahead
Miss State. This will be a tough game, but at least it's in Neyland. Offense with Maurer is looking better and Miss State's offense has struggled this year, but our depth issues on defense will make it difficult to beat many good opponent this season. This could go either way.
Alabama. No chance.
South Carolina. A winnable game and a very interesting game. This one is in Knoxville and I'd circle on the calendar if I'm Jeremy Pruitt.
UAB. No one wants to hear this but: UAB is good. Like they legitimately could beat us and have a shot at winning Conference USA this season. We've got to treat this game just like an SEC game as UAB is likely better a team like Vanderbilt. We should be the better team, but we can't look past anyone right now.
The Future
Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. Pruitt's players are playing very well, Our main issue right now is that there simply aren't enough of them. In spite of our struggles this season, Pruitt must take control of narrative and continue to land to top players. If he does that, we'll have more depth in 2020 and 2021 and be competitive. Right now, depth is the big problem on this team.
We're improving even if the record sucks. I think we've gotten better every week this season; but we've also been playing tougher competition. If we hadn't blown the first 2 games, I feel like there would be a lot of optimism, though, because the team is rapidly improving.
That's all for this week.
GBO!
