Good morning, let's take a deep breath.

[checkerboards09]

I'd almost want to face them in a bowl game just to see how much we improve over the course of a season.

Our learning curve will be much faster than other teams. And we're gonna have to find a way to steal a couple of victories from Mizzou, SCAR and Florida and not screw up against KY, and Vandy.

We’re gonna improve tremendously and you’ll see the idiots calling for CJP’s head already scatter like roaches. I saw flashes of a soon to be good team yesterday. For anyone who wants to bookmark this post, feel free. This will be a much improved football team as the season goes on.

 

[IPleadInsanity]

We have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball but both lines are weak, very weak. Makes it difficult for the playmakers to appear. A little pressure and our DB's would look a lot better. A little blocking and the QB would have more options at receiver. Jordan did a hell of a job running with very little blocking.

 

[gunner]

I thought the offense stunk. WVU gave up gobs of rushing yards last year. Our Oline looked downright inept to start the game. Trey had two penalties. They basically had one good quarter and had to rely on a 4th down pass after getting absolutely bitch slapped at the one yard line. Jordan was the one positive.

Jordan was a positive and he played that way in the spring game. It looks like that's one guy that the old staff got right.

 

[livefaith]

Honestly, I'm amazed at how many 5* and 4* linemen we have who look utterly average out there. Our front 5 of Kongbo, Phillips, Johnson, Tuttle, Taylor we're almost absent from the backfield. Decent pressure in 2nd Q and nowhere to be found the other 3.

Jones/Shoop didn't get pressure w these guys and Pruitt/Sherrer didn't either. My orange colored glasses hope it's an anomaly or WVU is a playoff team. But, I honestly don't know why these guys cannot rush.

6 more teams on our schedule have excellent QBing. We'd better find a way.

 

[KBVol]

Wish Kelly had been in game and with Kelly out WVA seemed to pick on a couple freshman.

Also don't like a team running up the score and leaving the first team in the whole game. Had chance to replace Grier for "one play" but called time out instead.

Glad we didn't play Appalachia.

We will be going bowling, so hang in there....."It don't rain on the same dogs back all his life"

If Kelly had been healthy and made the trip, he wasn’t gonna play. He’s the 4th safety at best.

 

[Pruitt Will Do It]

While waiting to hear what we've come to know will be excellent summaries of our first match from OMG and DG, a few steering points:

1. Dana Holgorsen is not classless. He's a good coach who called a good game, and did it fairly and with his players' best interests in mind.

2. Losing against a good WVU team does not presage another 4-8 season. WVU is no Bama, but they're better than many of the teams on our schedule. 7-5 is still realistically possible, though 9-3 seems very unlikely.

3. We aren't talentless. There's actually a significant amount of talent on our team. What we lack is discipline and self-confidence. That explains how we played so well in the 2nd quarter, after our coaches made some adjustments to counter the WVU rush, but then fell apart in the 3rd and 4th. Importantly: these shortfalls are coachable. Don't despair yet.

4. Remember, Pruitt's learning on the job, too. One thing that struck me as very insightful during last night's game is the sideline reporter's description of how each team spent that storm-lengthened halftime. Pruitt and Co, new in their positions, spent every minute coaching, adjusting, teaching. Holgorsen spent it making sure his guys had something to eat, dry clothes, and were relaxed. It's like a first-time parent worrying over every fever and cough, compared to an experienced mom or dad who knows what needs to be worried about and what doesn't. Jeremy will get there; he's doing fine.

Ladies and gents, the sun is going to come up in about an hour, and a new day of wonder is going to pop into being around us. Things are okay. The Vols still have a lot to play for this year. Let's show them some support and respect.

Go Vols!

Learning to win can be a very rough thing at times

 

[VOL_Lyfe]

I thought the offense team stunk.

 

[KBVol]

We’re gonna improve tremendously and you’ll see the idiots calling for CJP’s head already scatter like roaches. I saw flashes of a soon to be good team yesterday. For anyone who wants to bookmark this post, feel free. This will be a much improved football team as the season goes on.

I haven’t seen it, but anybody calling for JP’s job right now is a blithering idiot. Hell, any particular criticism of him after yesterday’s game is ridiculous.

Dude took a pocket knife to a tank division battle yesterday. He doesn’t have the players right now at some very key position groups, and if you watched the Jeremy Pruitt Show this morning, you know that he knows it. Said as much without actually saying it. He’s gonna take the lumps he needs to take with the younger DBs right now because it’ll give us the best chance to win games in late October and in November.

Also, there’s a reason why 11 of his 20 current 2019 commitments are at DL and DB....he knows where he needs help and where he has to replace non-SEC players. He’s not perfect but he’s the best actual football coach we’ve had here in a good while. He has to be given time to turn this awful mess and those actually lacking the good judgment by calling for his job right now need to go pound sand.

 

[Hunerwadel]

Hey, we're still winning at life.

 

[GreyWolf1129]

"Take a deep breath" is probably good advice. I was pretty hot last night. It was the result of disbelief at how easily WVU punched through, around, and over the top of our defense...Holgerson's complete lack of class at the end of the game (you have your take, I have mine)...and maybe the Yeungling helped. But alas, the sun did rise this morning, so time to toss a steak on that black eye and start healing.

Perhaps I remain a bit jaded by this staff and my own lofty expectations of UT Football, but I still think the O/U for this team is 6.5 wins. That number absolutely hinges (now) on the UF game. Lose that one, and the number goes down a notch. There's no way to predict how much this team will or won't improve as the season progresses; project the impact of any injuries; and account for the remaining myriad of variables that come in to play here. But I'm at 6+, and for now I'm sticking to it.

I saw a new team under a new staff on the big stage yesterday. In hindsight, that's exactly what they played like. There were some positives, and there were some negatives. Let's see where they go from here. We should be 2-1 when UF comes to town. That game will tell us if WVU becomes a bad memory, or an ominous sign of things to come.

So, enjoy reading the 4.6 million threads and posts about the WVU game until the collective focus finally turns towards ETSU, and we can...hopefully...let the WVU loss fade into the past. Take it; learn from it; get better; and move on.

It's what winners do.

Go Vols.