DG's Thoughts on Saturday's Trainwreck

[Gatorsec]

Can we stop comparing anything our coaches do to what Saban did. The guy already has a title when he lost that game, he had some proof that was a fluke and he could coach. Pruitt has three really bad losses in his last three games. Y'all are crazy for comparing the two.

People bring up the bad loss Saban had and say Pruitt needs more time, he has been the coach at UT for 634 Days, yes that many days.
He spend the first what 2 months being paid by UT and coaching at Bama and the fans thought he was showing great character tying to win a title at the biggest rival by still getting paid by UT.
Instead of recruiting at UT he was coaching at bama and got a pass for that

 

[beamerman]

Why?

How much worse can it get?

We can lose to BYU and barely beat Chattanooga worse.

 

[Memphisvol87]

I'm sorry guys we just gotta hunker down at this point and hope this coach can be the one to bring actual football players who want to play. We cannot fire a coach in year 2.

If Saturday wasn’t a fluke, which we will know saturday with BYU, then he deserves to be fired in year 2. That was worse than any game butch or Dooley coached. Not just because of the outcome, but every detail down to effort by both the players and coaches was the worst Tennessee has witnessed in the modern era.

 

[Johnnyreb#VFL]

I feel better after reading that.

Especially with your sec poor performances section. Didn’t even know mizzou got beat

 

[Fooseball19]

Please forgive me. I'm from the outside looking in.
A few thoughts here: you are just coming out of a stretch where you had Lane Kiffin, Butch Jones and Derrick Dooley for coaches (with Lane being one and done). From my perspective, I don't care who your coach was this season or last the previous three brought in little to no talent (at least not SEC talent, anyway). JP may very well not be the answer in the long haul but if you fire him after year two or three then you effectively kill your program for years (and that would not be good for the SEC because the SEC is a lot better when UT challenges for the SEC East/Conference titles) because no coach worth his salt would come to a program that needs to be rebuilt basically from the ground up knowing that they would likely have such a short leash.
Regardless of whether you keep JP or not the administration is going to have to recommit itself to making football the premier program again. I really think the administration whiffed on this last coaching hire. You can dog JP all you want be he was like choice # 5 or something like that? The administration allowed a bunch of people to run Schiano off without any proof whatsoever that he did or had any knowledge of any wrongdoing and then someone submarined the attempted Mike Leach hire so you had to keep moving down the list.
Y'all love your program and that is a good thing. But instead of blaming the head coach and players at this time you really need to be demanding answers from higher up as to why a program as rich in tradition as UT is couldn't/wouldn't go out and simply make an offer too good for a big name coach to turn down.

 

[sechamp2012]

My assessment we have Very Good coaching staff and Pruitt is just not a HC its that simple . Some people are just not what they dream of being. The leadership starts at the top and I believe there a lot I mean a lot of the assistant coaches that secretly disdain working under CJP.
Bituli & JJ as players need to lead this team to at least a Bowl game and under the current HC leadership we will still be treading water for years.
These coaches havent forgotten how to coach something is going on. To lose to a 26 Dog it has to have been going on all summer.
At the end of the day these coaches will still all be millionaires with a little less cred no matter the W or L and we Fans will have a mediocre program.

 

[GetYouSomeofThat]

We can lose to BYU and barely beat Chattanooga worse.

What did you see Saturday that makes you think that isnt going to happen? Outside of nearly ancient history and blind hope how can anyone expect this bunch of coaches to lead these players to a win over BYU after the last 3 games? Even with the off-season to improve, it appears this is a simple continuation of last year.

 

[99gator]

I don’t know how one could argue the offense was ok.

First of all, the last TD was meaningless. Game was over.

Secondly, they went almost 3 quarters without a TD and when they had to put drives together in the 4th quarter is when most of the pressure, sacks and turnovers occurred.

The unit was not “ok” even if only in comparison to last year

 

[Memphisvol87]

Like the post, look forward to it each game.

I’m leaning to the camp that this was a fluke. Not acceptable for any coach, any year, any game at Tennessee but still a fluke. If not, we will find out with BYU because you don’t fix abysmal that quick against a better team.

If we have this all time apocalypse of a season somehow then...

A. Unless you have a proven head coach signed sealed and delivered ...
B. Cut Pruitt out, leave the rest of the staff intact for finance reasons, maybe a couple can go, and let Chaney run on interim contract until he either proves himself or you get THE MAN from somewhere else.

Chaney has been around football forever, did just fine in his interim role for us when Kiffin left, and we have Tee and some other great coaches. But if this thing goes like ga state, I don’t see how you let Pruitt do it for another year. And we can’t take another project hire, this is the 4th time since 09 we’ve tried it (definition of insanity )

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Please forgive me. I'm from the outside looking in.
A few thoughts here: you are just coming out of a stretch where you had Lane Kiffin, Butch Jones and Derrick Dooley for coaches (with Lane being one and done). From my perspective, I don't care who your coach was this season or last the previous three brought in little to no talent (at least not SEC talent, anyway). JP may very well not be the answer in the long haul but if you fire him after year two or three then you effectively kill your program for years (and that would not be good for the SEC because the SEC is a lot better when UT challenges for the SEC East/Conference titles) because no coach worth his salt would come to a program that needs to be rebuilt basically from the ground up knowing that they would likely have such a short leash.
Regardless of whether you keep JP or not the administration is going to have to recommit itself to making football the premier program again. I really think the administration whiffed on this last coaching hire. You can dog JP all you want be he was like choice # 5 or something like that? The administration allowed a bunch of people to run Schiano off without any proof whatsoever that he did or had any knowledge of any wrongdoing and then someone submarined the attempted Mike Leach hire so you had to keep moving down the list.
Y'all love your program and that is a good thing. But instead of blaming the head coach and players at this time you really need to be demanding answers from higher up as to why a program as rich in tradition as UT is couldn't/wouldn't go out and simply make an offer too good for a big name coach to turn down.

Good post, but you’ll lose people bringing up Schiano. He is out of football for personal reasons, so essentially we would’ve started over anyways. Whether people want to admit it or not there is too much coaching talent to blow it up and start from scratch. Which leads one to wonder what the hell is actually going on behind closed doors? Because this just doesn’t add up on paper.

 

[Woke]

I agree that Bo Nix played as bad as JG. I thought he may have played worse. HOWEVER, JG is a third year SEC starting quarterback. Not to even see a DB blitz with an empty set was unbelievably bad miss by a third year qb. Zero passion or leadership shown.

Comparing a winner like Bo Nix who can make the clutch throws and rally his team to a huge W with Captain Checkdown JG who exhibits 0 vertical game and 0 leadership skills is an insult to D1 QBs everywhere.

JG had 9 months of offseason prep with TWO NC WINNING QBs Martin and Weinke, he’s had Peyton Manning offering coaching advice, as well as Chaney the proven QB Whisperer as his new OC and this is what we get?

The strength of our O is in our experienced WR corps yet JG can’t see the field or get the ball to them in space. He had plenty of time to throw and we had WRs open all over the place on almost every play.

Quit wet nursing JG. It’s beyond obvious by now he can’t get it done. Time to cut bait and invest in the future by starting true Frosh Maurer who btw did the Elite QB Camp with Nix and actually graded out higher in the vertical game.

Starting Maurer won’t eliminate mistakes but his mistakes will be different we’ll play a more aggressive vertical game and hopefully bring some fire and passion back to our team and fan base.

 

[Power T-Rev]

Please. For the love of God. Stop comparing this loss to Bama losing to Lousiana Monroe. Not even in the same stratosphere. Plus it's been beaten to death over the last umpteen years. That was Saban's first year. He went 12-2 in his second year

 

[Power T-Rev]

I don’t know how one could argue the offense was ok.

First of all, the last TD was meaningless. Game was over.

Secondly, they went almost 3 quarters without a TD and when they had to put drives together in the 4th quarter is when most of the pressure, sacks and turnovers occurred.

The unit was not “ok” even if only in comparison to last year

No offense, but can you please GTFO of here. No one wants a gator fan's opinion on our dumpster fire

 

[FLVOL_79]

We can lose to BYU and barely beat Chattanooga worse.

Mocs were 6-5 last year..gonna be a tough win

 

[Woke]

If Saturday wasn’t a fluke, which we will know saturday with BYU, then he deserves to be fired in year 2. That was worse than any game butch or Dooley coached. Not just because of the outcome, but every detail down to effort by both the players and coaches was the worst Tennessee has witnessed in the modern era.

Getting curb stomped by Sunbelt State in our HOME OPENER ain’t a fluke, it’s the WORST LOSS in Vol history and one of the worst in D1 history no matter what happens from here vs BYU or anybody else.

Sure I hope we win them all from here. I also hope I win the lotto. I’m not holding my breath in either case. Aight?

Here’s my issue: no fire, no passion and ZERO accountability for an UNACCEPTABLE performance and loss. Not from our faux starting QB, not from our HC or staff, not from anybody. As long as we sit back and let these guys run our storied program into the ditch by simply hitting reset and focusing on the next pending performance debacle we aren’t getting anywhere fast.

Major changes need to be made starting with replacing the guy under center who touches the bell every play.

 

[Memphisvol87]

Getting curb stomped by Sunbelt State in our HOME OPENER ain’t a fluke, it’s the WORST LOSS in Vol history and one of the worst in D1 history no matter what happens from here vs BYU or anybody else.

Sure I hope we win them all from here. I also hope I win the lotto. I’m not holding my breath in either case. Aight?

Here’s my issue: no fire, no passion and ZERO accountability for an UNACCEPTABLE performance and loss. Not from our faux starting QB, not from our HC or staff, not from anybody. As long as we sit back and let these guys run our storied program into the ditch by simply hitting reset and focusing on the next pending performance debacle we aren’t getting anywhere fast.

Major changes need to be made starting with replacing the guy under center who touches the bell every play.

I agree it’s the worst loss, I agree about JG not being a leader, and I was distraught nobody seemed to snap out of it Saturday to just go win the game. But again, it’s game one, clearly they overlooked any gameplan whatsoever. So if this isn’t a fluke, we need to get Pruitt out and will have to live with Chaney or an interim for a year or two. Our program is already ruined if Saturday is the new reality. So why rush into another Pruitt, or butch or Dooley. We have to stop the cycle.

 

[CAVPUT]

It also was Year 1 for Saban, not Year 2.

Plus, While you might see a fire lit under the players for BYU (and I have my doubts), I fully expect more of the same effort for the rest of the season. This is Butch’s last year all over again.

Likely because our most experience players are Butch's recruits. This team has young talent, but it really needs "experienced" talent and that can't be rushed. I'm no apologist for Pruitt or any coach for that matter, but I suspect things will look radically different once Butch's players cycle off this roster. If not and we're seeing garbage like this, I'll be the first one calling for his butt to be canned.

 

[james_govols]

It's easy to have a high completion percentage when 85% of your throws are within one yard of the LOS.

At first I thought this was play calling, but after 3 OCs I now realize it's JG.

Just my opinion, but I think JG is afraid to throw a 50/50 ball.

He goes through one read, and if that guy isn't completely open he dumps it off to his safety net.

If he feels any pressure he dumps it off.

Just like last season, teams will load the box and play press coverage and shut us down.

 

[VolsFan-TX]

I agree that Bo Nix played as bad as JG. I thought he may have played worse. HOWEVER, JG is a third year SEC starting quarterback. Not to even see a DB blitz with an empty set was unbelievably bad miss by a third year qb. Zero passion or leadership shown.

I agree. Two other key differences:

1. Nix was playing against a power 5 and ranked opponent. JG was playing against GA St
2. Auburn won the game. TN was a 25 point or so favorite and lost by 8. That’s a 33 point swing.

 

[VolsFan-TX]

It's easy to have a high completion percentage when 85% of your throws are within one yard of the LOS.

At first I thought this was play calling, but after 3 OCs I now realize it's JG.

Just my opinion, but I think JG is afraid to throw a 50/50 ball.

He goes through one read, and if that guy isn't completely open he dumps it off to his safety net.

If he feels any pressure he dumps it off.

Just like last season, teams will load the box and play press coverage and shut us down.

I agree with your statement regarding one read. He zeroed in many times and stared down receivers. If he does the same against league opponents, he will throw a lot of INTs this year.

 

[VolsFan-TX]

I feel better after reading that.

Especially with your sec poor performances section. Didn’t even know mizzou got beat

What other teams did Saturday doesn’t make me feel better at all. It reminds me when my kids would bring home a C on a test and say, “but everyone else did worse.” I don’t care what the other schools do. If my team doesn’t play with heart and desire, I will be pissed.

 

[Woke]

I agree it’s the worst loss, I agree about JG not being a leader, and I was distraught nobody seemed to snap out of it Saturday to just go win the game. But again, it’s game one, clearly they overlooked any gameplan whatsoever. So if this isn’t a fluke, we need to get Pruitt out and will have to live with Chaney or an interim for a year or two. Our program is already ruined if Saturday is the new reality. So why rush into another Pruitt, or butch or Dooley. We have to stop the cycle.

It’s not about firing Pruitt atp it’s about putting pressure on him to bench JG and play for our future atp. He needs to get the CLEAR message from us that we are Tennessee and we’ve hit our breaking point and he’s coaching for his job in EVERY GAME from here on out. Bc the crapshow he put on the field the past 3 games is U N A C C E P T A B L E here at Tennessee. Play the best players at every position who actually want to be here and who give us the best chance to win. Stop coddling and wet nursing JG.

 

[Power T-Rev]

It’s not about firing Pruitt atp it’s about putting pressure on him to bench JG and play for our future atp. He needs to get the CLEAR message from us that we are Tennessee and we’ve hit our breaking point and he’s coaching for his job in EVERY GAME from here on out. Bc the crapshow he put on the field the past 3 games is U N A C C E P T A B L E here at Tennessee. Play the best players at every position who actually want to be here and who give us the best chance to win. Stop coddling and wet nursing JG.

We've got way more problems than the QB.

 

[esarmstrong]

I really do get tired of people invoking the 1979 Rutgers loss as one of the worst in school history (I was there BTW as a Freshman at UT). It was an upset, but remember that Rutgers team went 8-3. We were 7-5 with the bowl loss. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programing...

 

[Woke]

We've got way more problems than the QB.

It all begins and ends with the QB. He’s the only guy who touches the ball every play and can score points and keep our D off the field. Our D is mediocre but made WORSE by the guy under center. It’s a domino chain effect. Look it up.