All I can see is Tennessee's progress or it's lack thereof in various areas.
I think our QB play has obviously improved. Worley, like him or not, is light years better than what he was last year. Is he perfect? No. But would I like to have him back another year? Yes, definitely. He has done well, minus a few mistakes, but find me a quarterback who doesn't. Worley at this point could be compared to Foster....great job overall, just a few critical mistakes at critical times gets him his reputation. Take away the Oklahoma pick 6 and the 4th quarter Florida interception, and Worley has had a great season. I think given the OL, and the amounts of hits he's taken, Worley has been exceptional this year. At least compared to last year.
RB I think has been neutral. I haven't seen any improvement from last year. Sure, with bringing in Hurd, there's potential, huge potential. But Lane and Neal from last year to Lane and Hurd this year? Haven't seen any real huge difference. Only difference is last year, you knew what you were getting with Neal, and this year, we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg from Hurd. Once again, I think the potential of RBs we have now and are getting is great (especially once Scott is 100%, and Reid and Kamara get on campus). Just from year 0 to year 1 though, I'll call it neutral.
OL - Obviously, this group hasn't improved, but of course, it's a whole new group. These guys weren't on the field last year. Most of them weren't anyways. Still a young group, and it's showing. Decent pass blockers, terrible run blockers. Opposing DC's know this is our weakness, and they've really tested our OL, and forced us to pass. From year 0 to year 1, yes, this group has regressed. But I hope that people will wait until their second year to truly judge them. They spent most of the year as backups or even high schoolers last year.
WR - Improvement. I don't think we've utilized them as much as we should, and we haven't gotten them open in space as much, but you can definitely see our athleticism improving at WR. Bringing in Pearson has helped. I think we have improved at the position, but I don't think we've come close to utilizing the potential we have at the position.
TE - Major upgrade. Wolf is the real deal, and Helm is going to be a good one as well. I like where we are at the TE position. Interested to see where Kyle Oliver fits in next year.
DL - Upgrade. That's the surprise to me. We lost a lot on the DL obviously, but I think that Derek Barnett has made the difference, and I think that Danny O'Brien has stepped up in the middle. We've been able to get decent pressure on QB's, and I've been impressed with them. I think we've upgraded the DL, and next year....oh man, I get giddy thinking about Kahlil and Shy on those lines.
LB - Upgrade. Why? JRM. He has been the surprise of the defense, IMO. Any LB crew with A.J. is gonna be alright, but JRM has made a huge difference in our LB corp.
DB - Neutral. Cam is obviously legit, but Coleman hasn't shown much improvement. McNeil has played a little better. Randolph doesn't seem to have made a whole lot of noise yet. TK is playing well, he's been a surprise. I think alot like I do on RB's here. Potential to be great....but neutral from what we were last year. Anytime you have a Cam Sutton in the secondary, you're going to be alright. I like where the DBs are headed.
Special Teams - Neutral. I think Darr is punting about as well as he has been, and I think that Medley is going to be just fine. Started off rough, but I think he's going to be alright. Palardy really was our MVP last year, and Medley has done well, after those first few misses against Utah state and Arky State. Going to Athens, and playing the Gators, he did well. Our return game??? Haven't really even had anything to judge on punt return, and kick returns, still haven't broke anything worth mentioning. But, as opposed to a few years ago, at least we're still catching balls and not fumbling them.
I think overall, our team has improved, no doubt. Defense is glaringly better. Offense is better at most every position, but the one weakness almost cancels out those gains. OL is the bottleneck of the offense. Without a good OL, everything gets harder.
I just keep thinking "patience....patience...."
