Volosaurus rex
Doctorate in Volology
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- Dec 2, 2009
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I believe that Eric Striker vs. Jalen Hurd constitutes one of the most intriguing individual matchups in the forthcoming game. I fully expect Striker to play well. I certainly would not go so far as to suggest that we will neutralize him but I do not anticipate him having nearly as dominant a performance as last year. And I say that for three reasons:
(1) For all of the courage that he demonstrated under fire, Justin Worley provided a stationary target against which Striker and his teammates could repeatedly launch missile-like strikes. If there is one thing that we as Tennessee and Oklahoma fans can agree upon, it is that immobile is the last word that should be used to describe Josh Dobbs. Flushing Dobbs out of the pocket often proves counterproductive to opposing defenses objectives.
(2) There is no question that our offensive line was embarrassingly porous against Oklahoma and most other opponents during the first half of last year. Although part of this can be attributed to Worleys immobility, much of it was due to the fact that we had no returning starters in the offensive line and, out of necessity, were forced to start multiple freshmen, which usually is a recipe for disaster. Early returns indicate that the offensive line has improved, but the obvious question remains how much? Oklahoma will provide an excellent measuring stick to further assess their improvement. In any event, I do not anticipate the utter and absolute mismatch that transpired last year between Oklahomas defensive line and Tennessees offensive line.
(3) Last year, Jalen Hurd had a fine game running the ball against Oklahoma, accounting for 97 yards on 14 carries. Like so many freshmen running backs, the nuances of pass protection took longer to master. By all accounts, he is now an excellent pass blocker. And this years version of Jalen is considerably stronger, weighing in at roughly 15-18 pounds more than his playing weight last year.
I believe that these three factors will mitigate the damage that Striker inflicts and I really look forward to seeing how the one-on-one matchups between Striker and Hurd play out.
(1) For all of the courage that he demonstrated under fire, Justin Worley provided a stationary target against which Striker and his teammates could repeatedly launch missile-like strikes. If there is one thing that we as Tennessee and Oklahoma fans can agree upon, it is that immobile is the last word that should be used to describe Josh Dobbs. Flushing Dobbs out of the pocket often proves counterproductive to opposing defenses objectives.
(2) There is no question that our offensive line was embarrassingly porous against Oklahoma and most other opponents during the first half of last year. Although part of this can be attributed to Worleys immobility, much of it was due to the fact that we had no returning starters in the offensive line and, out of necessity, were forced to start multiple freshmen, which usually is a recipe for disaster. Early returns indicate that the offensive line has improved, but the obvious question remains how much? Oklahoma will provide an excellent measuring stick to further assess their improvement. In any event, I do not anticipate the utter and absolute mismatch that transpired last year between Oklahomas defensive line and Tennessees offensive line.
(3) Last year, Jalen Hurd had a fine game running the ball against Oklahoma, accounting for 97 yards on 14 carries. Like so many freshmen running backs, the nuances of pass protection took longer to master. By all accounts, he is now an excellent pass blocker. And this years version of Jalen is considerably stronger, weighing in at roughly 15-18 pounds more than his playing weight last year.
I believe that these three factors will mitigate the damage that Striker inflicts and I really look forward to seeing how the one-on-one matchups between Striker and Hurd play out.
