Quote:
Originally Posted by trion23 View Post
Fine - so here's the breakdown of UT's starters at Oklahoma (the first of in series I'm comparing):
Tennessee starting lineup (at time of Oklahoma game):
Freshmen - 5
Sophomores - 6 (1 redshirt Sophomore)
Juniors - 6
Seniors - 5
You have to consider that there are underclassmen that are more talented, or have more potential as starters than the upperclassmen who started.. The problem is, a coach can't just throw all those said freshman in based off more potential in an environment like that, fresh out of high school.
So we may have had a decent amount of upperclassmen starting, but only because the alternative isn't really an option. You can't just start a bunch of freshman and throw them in the fire like that.. regardless of how promising they are.
Georgia starting lineup:
Freshmen - 4 (1 redshirt Freshman)
Sophomores - 5 (1 redshirt Sophomore)
Juniors - 4
Seniors - 9
Seriously, is this really THAT large of a disparity??
Barnett has more SACS and TFL's that 2 or 3 typical Seniors combined. Medley has kicked as well as most Seniors. Hurd has run, caught and blocked as productive as many Seniors. Robertson was the only true Freshman on the OL (or maybe not ?), but had 4-5 upper classmen around him on the Line. TJKr had several INT's early on and has played quite well/ as well as many Seniors (I think?). Evan Berry can return kicks better / is more prolific than Senior D. Young, and fans are crying for him to be use MORE. Helm has avg 6.2 ypc, but maybe hasn't been used as much as initially publicly planned by the Staff. Etc.
I may be totally incorrect, but it seems our Freshmen have been fairly productive overall...
And Special Teams has likely played multiple Freshmen, but we've really had no problems in this area.
Matt Darr, AJJ, Worley, Lane, D. Young and Coleman all have played pretty well, especially Darr and AJJ.
I haven't touched on the Soph's and Jr's, but this is a fairly talented and productive group overall -- it's just not showing up with W's. Some are wondering why not, others are suggesting it's experience and age.