DiderotsGhost
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I'm back. After a few weeks without full internet access, here are my takeaways from the ugliest game of this season.
One Game Does Not a Season Make. It was an awful loss, but let's keep things in perspective. Some of the best Tennessee teams of the past 30 years have suffered at least one big loss. The '97 Vols got destroyed by Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The '95 Vols that went 11-1 got hammered by Florida. You can't judge a season based on one game.
2004 Tennessee. This team sort of has the same feeling as the 2004 team to me. That team got blown out by Auburn and looked extremely outmatched in that game. Nevertheless, it finished the season ranked #13, played Auburn much closer in the SEC Championship Game, and ended with a Cotton Bowl victory.
Scheduling Gods. I also think we might have to cut the team some slack. Remember last year that Alabama struggled with us partly because they were at the tail end of a brutal stretch of games. This year, we were the team with a brutal stretch of 7 consecutive games against good and even great teams (Texas A&M). We haven't played a single cupcake game all season. There are virtually no other teams in college football that have had to endure that sort of grind.
#2 Strength of Schedule We have the 2nd strongest SOS in the US according to Sagarin.
DEFENSE
Bob Shoop = C? How do you grade Shoop's performance? The immediate impulse by many fans is to say we gave up 49 points, therefore, Shoop deserves an F. I can't really agree with that. Here's the thing: the defense played well for the majority of plays. There were times were our D looked spectacular against Alabama's offense. Alabama's 49 points were mostly the result of lapses on several big plays.
Injuries. We can question Shoop's performance, but he was dealt an awful hand. The defensive side of the ball has been obliterated by injuries. We've lost 3 out of our 4 best defensive players. And it keeps getting worse. Cortez McDowell and Quarte Sapp are out, so we are extremely thin at LB. The Malik Foreman injury and Danny O'Brien injury / dismissal made things even more difficult.
DK Jr and JRM. This is the game where DK Jr and JRM's absenses were felt the hardest. I seriously believe that with both of those guys on the field, Alabama would've scored at least 2 less touchdowns. Jalen Hurts absolutely destroyed us up the middle of the field. This is the type of game where the leadership and awareness of those two guys was critical.
Derek Barnett = A+. Any NFL scout who watched this game and doesn't think Derek Barnett is worth a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft isn't watching closely enough. In spite of the blowout loss, Barnett's performance was one of the best I've ever seen by a D-linemen. This guy is trying to carry the entire team on his back and he single-handedly kept us in the game during the 1st Half.
Todd Kelly Jr. Led the team in tackles. Elliott Berry was 2nd.
Incomplete. It's very difficult to evaluate the performance of the defense overall in this game given all the injuries and issues. Did Shoop really do a poor job, or would anyone have struggled in this spot? I'm willing to give Shoop the benefit of the doubt here, as it's difficult for even the best coach in the country to succeed with all those injuries, at the tail end of such a brutal stretch of games.
OFFENSE
Mike DeBord = F. I've never been an anti-DeBord guy. I've always thought he deserved a chance to prove himself, and he's been brilliant at various points during his two seasons here. DeBord's game plan for 2015 Florida was excellent and I thought he did a great job against Florida this year as well (with most of our problems coming from execution in the 1st Half; not the gameplan). DeBord, however, was completely lost in this game. This did not feel like "execution problems" to me. This felt like DeBord got throughly outcoached by Nick Saban and Jeremy Pruitt.
No Adaptation. Bob Shoop has been excellent at making adjustments this season. DeBord did not adjust at all to Alabama's game plan. He just kept trying the same thing that didn't work in the 1st Quarter and the 2nd Quarter.
Deep Ball? Am I the only one who noticed that Alabama was playing almost its entire defense up close to the line of scrimmage? They did not respect the deep ball at all. Admittedly, their pass rush was making it difficult to pass, but surely we could've had more success throwing the ball on deep passes. Inside runs and short passes simply were not working against Bama; they were committed to stopping those types of plays. DeBord never veered away from this.
Kamara + Kelly. Felt like Kamara was underutilized once again. Nothing against Jalen Hurd, but I felt like we should've moved away from him more in this game. Alabama was committed to stopping the inside run and Hurd never really stood much of a chance. But the OC has to realize this and start utilizing other weapons. Kamara and Kelly were underutilized.
10 Points is Inexcusable. We have a few injured O-linemen, true, but it should not have caused the entire offense to look like this. I expected our defense to struggle with several key injuries against a Bama offense that has been outstanding this season. I did not expect our offense to put up a paltry 10 points, and even 7 of those points were probably more the result of the defense than the offense.
594 vs 163. No excuse for such a huge disparity in yards. We have one of the most talented offenses in the country. We have a QB that looked like a Heisman winner last week. We have several RBs that other teams would kill to have. We have some WRs that have made spectacular plays this season. No excuse. This was the worst offensive performance of the past two seasons.
MOVING FORWARD AND MISCELLANY
Power T Awards.
(1) Derek Barnett
(2) Evan Berry
Off Week. We need it badly. Great time to regroup and get things back on track; also get some guys healthy.
Missouri. Not till November, but I think this game will be tougher than it looked at the beginning of the season. Missouri's offense is looking improved this year. Probably the most difficult game remaining on the schedule.
Vanderbilt. Not a pushover. Just beat the most perplexing and inconsistent Georgia team of the past two decades.
Georgia. Seriously, wtf is up with this team? They played well against UNC and looked like world-beaters against us, but nearly lost to a terrible I-AA school and just got beat by Vanderbilt at home. Easily the most perplexing team in the SEC this season.
Finish the Season. If we finish strong, we have a shot at 10-2, which would still be our best season since 2004.
One Game Does Not a Season Make. It was an awful loss, but let's keep things in perspective. Some of the best Tennessee teams of the past 30 years have suffered at least one big loss. The '97 Vols got destroyed by Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. The '95 Vols that went 11-1 got hammered by Florida. You can't judge a season based on one game.
2004 Tennessee. This team sort of has the same feeling as the 2004 team to me. That team got blown out by Auburn and looked extremely outmatched in that game. Nevertheless, it finished the season ranked #13, played Auburn much closer in the SEC Championship Game, and ended with a Cotton Bowl victory.
Scheduling Gods. I also think we might have to cut the team some slack. Remember last year that Alabama struggled with us partly because they were at the tail end of a brutal stretch of games. This year, we were the team with a brutal stretch of 7 consecutive games against good and even great teams (Texas A&M). We haven't played a single cupcake game all season. There are virtually no other teams in college football that have had to endure that sort of grind.
#2 Strength of Schedule We have the 2nd strongest SOS in the US according to Sagarin.
DEFENSE
Bob Shoop = C? How do you grade Shoop's performance? The immediate impulse by many fans is to say we gave up 49 points, therefore, Shoop deserves an F. I can't really agree with that. Here's the thing: the defense played well for the majority of plays. There were times were our D looked spectacular against Alabama's offense. Alabama's 49 points were mostly the result of lapses on several big plays.
Injuries. We can question Shoop's performance, but he was dealt an awful hand. The defensive side of the ball has been obliterated by injuries. We've lost 3 out of our 4 best defensive players. And it keeps getting worse. Cortez McDowell and Quarte Sapp are out, so we are extremely thin at LB. The Malik Foreman injury and Danny O'Brien injury / dismissal made things even more difficult.
DK Jr and JRM. This is the game where DK Jr and JRM's absenses were felt the hardest. I seriously believe that with both of those guys on the field, Alabama would've scored at least 2 less touchdowns. Jalen Hurts absolutely destroyed us up the middle of the field. This is the type of game where the leadership and awareness of those two guys was critical.
Derek Barnett = A+. Any NFL scout who watched this game and doesn't think Derek Barnett is worth a top 10 pick in the NFL Draft isn't watching closely enough. In spite of the blowout loss, Barnett's performance was one of the best I've ever seen by a D-linemen. This guy is trying to carry the entire team on his back and he single-handedly kept us in the game during the 1st Half.
Todd Kelly Jr. Led the team in tackles. Elliott Berry was 2nd.
Incomplete. It's very difficult to evaluate the performance of the defense overall in this game given all the injuries and issues. Did Shoop really do a poor job, or would anyone have struggled in this spot? I'm willing to give Shoop the benefit of the doubt here, as it's difficult for even the best coach in the country to succeed with all those injuries, at the tail end of such a brutal stretch of games.
OFFENSE
Mike DeBord = F. I've never been an anti-DeBord guy. I've always thought he deserved a chance to prove himself, and he's been brilliant at various points during his two seasons here. DeBord's game plan for 2015 Florida was excellent and I thought he did a great job against Florida this year as well (with most of our problems coming from execution in the 1st Half; not the gameplan). DeBord, however, was completely lost in this game. This did not feel like "execution problems" to me. This felt like DeBord got throughly outcoached by Nick Saban and Jeremy Pruitt.
No Adaptation. Bob Shoop has been excellent at making adjustments this season. DeBord did not adjust at all to Alabama's game plan. He just kept trying the same thing that didn't work in the 1st Quarter and the 2nd Quarter.
Deep Ball? Am I the only one who noticed that Alabama was playing almost its entire defense up close to the line of scrimmage? They did not respect the deep ball at all. Admittedly, their pass rush was making it difficult to pass, but surely we could've had more success throwing the ball on deep passes. Inside runs and short passes simply were not working against Bama; they were committed to stopping those types of plays. DeBord never veered away from this.
Kamara + Kelly. Felt like Kamara was underutilized once again. Nothing against Jalen Hurd, but I felt like we should've moved away from him more in this game. Alabama was committed to stopping the inside run and Hurd never really stood much of a chance. But the OC has to realize this and start utilizing other weapons. Kamara and Kelly were underutilized.
10 Points is Inexcusable. We have a few injured O-linemen, true, but it should not have caused the entire offense to look like this. I expected our defense to struggle with several key injuries against a Bama offense that has been outstanding this season. I did not expect our offense to put up a paltry 10 points, and even 7 of those points were probably more the result of the defense than the offense.
594 vs 163. No excuse for such a huge disparity in yards. We have one of the most talented offenses in the country. We have a QB that looked like a Heisman winner last week. We have several RBs that other teams would kill to have. We have some WRs that have made spectacular plays this season. No excuse. This was the worst offensive performance of the past two seasons.
MOVING FORWARD AND MISCELLANY
Power T Awards.
(1) Derek Barnett
(2) Evan Berry
Off Week. We need it badly. Great time to regroup and get things back on track; also get some guys healthy.
Missouri. Not till November, but I think this game will be tougher than it looked at the beginning of the season. Missouri's offense is looking improved this year. Probably the most difficult game remaining on the schedule.
Vanderbilt. Not a pushover. Just beat the most perplexing and inconsistent Georgia team of the past two decades.
Georgia. Seriously, wtf is up with this team? They played well against UNC and looked like world-beaters against us, but nearly lost to a terrible I-AA school and just got beat by Vanderbilt at home. Easily the most perplexing team in the SEC this season.
Finish the Season. If we finish strong, we have a shot at 10-2, which would still be our best season since 2004.
