Half-ish way through the year thoughts

#26
#26
right where I thought we would be. However, we should be 6-1 right now if it wasn't for the case of the fumbles in college station.

10-2 rematch with Bama and hope we have some guys back for depth and can keep it close.
 
#27
#27
Crazy Ivan said:
We are 5-2, with losses against #1 & #6. And that is with a nightmarish amount of injuries.

Last season we were 3-4 after week 7.

So what if we no longer control our own destiny? So far, besides our head-to-head game we have played UGA, #6TAMU, and #1 Bama. UF has played Mizzou, Vandy, and UK. They still have to play #17 Ark and #25 LSU, both on the road in a stretch that includes UGA, @Ark, SC, @LSU. If they go 7-1 then I suppose they deserve the East.
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So we squeaked by teams we should've beaten badly and got throttled by Bama. The 2nd half of A&M was solid and we played them well. We should've been beating Appy State, Ohio, Florida and UGA all by at least 2 touchdowns.

4 years later and we are still not a fundamentally sound football team, the type that competes for National Titles. THIS IS TENNESSEE, we win championships not morale victories.

I'm worried about the rest of our season, we need to worry about every team left on our schedule because the way this team has played not one game on our schedule is a give me, like 90% of us originally thought to start the season.
 
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#28
#28
TennVols423 said:
So we squeaked by times we should've beaten badly and got throttled by Bama. The 2nd half of A&M was solid and we played them well. We should've been beating Appy State, Ohio, Florida and UGA all by at least 2 touchdowns.

4 years later and we are still not a fundamentally sound football team, the type that competes for National Titles. THIS IS TENNESSEE, we win championships not morale victories.

I'm worried about the rest of our season, we need to worry about every team left on our schedule because the way this team has played not one game on our schedule is a give me, like 90% of us originally thought to start the season.
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Keep in mind also that we don't have proven replacements for Dobbs, Kamara, or Hurd yet. With the current offensive staff, this season could be their peak, as we are going to be a "young team" again very soon due to attrition.
 
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#29
#29
BigOrangeTrain said:
Yeah Fulmer's ultra conservative play really sucked. Man did he lose a TON of games. Debord and Jones are fine as long as we are winning. They deserved to be fired after every loss. Put up almost 700 yards against TAMU. Nothing wrong with playcalling. Get dominated by a team with NFL players while being down a ton of players and its time he goes.

Wait so Butch will never be a Saban? You mean he wont ever be the greatest coach in college football history? Man I am shocked.
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There is plenty wrong with playcalling
 
#31
#31
vol-un-tear said:
Right where I thought 5-2
I didn't think A&M would be as good.
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While the win/loss ratio is about what I thought it would be, I thought we'd be 6-1 with only a loss to Alabama. I wouldn't say the level of play I've seen this year is what I expected after last season. We do not play like a team that was littered with juniors and seniors, playing in the 4th year of a coaches program. That's what scares me the most about going forward without some serious changes in coaching staff.
 
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#33
#33
We're 5-2 and beat both Florida and Georgia in the same season for only the 4th time in the 25 years of divisional play. That's the silver lining because I think everyone believes we have underperformed...

We do have a shot at winning the east for the 6th time in the 25 years of divisional play (meaning we would have won the east 24% of the time)...and that would give us a shot at a 3rd SEC title since divisional play started (meaning we would have won the SEC 12% of the time) but I don't think we'll do much better in a rematch with bama...they out talent us at every position...

Things that concern me...

The team lacks consistent rhythm on offense and the stat that bears that out the most is that we have punted the ball more than any other team in the SEC...we average about six and half punts per game. I think the two primary causes are weak OL play and an inaccurate QB...

Dobbs is the leader on Offense and he's not going to be replaced. He gives us the best option to win primarily with his feet but more importantly the team chemistry would be severely screwed up if you benched him. I love the kid but you're just not going to coach up his passing skills...he has (hopefully) seven more games as a Vol. Next year's team will have a more accurate downfield passing attack...I always have considered Dobbs to be an interim fix at QB while we rebuild the team...

I'm not sure what will "fix" the OL - unlike so many on here, I never played OL in college so I don;'t have all the answers...I do know that we don't have any 5th year seniors since we didn't sign any OL in 2012 and the the seniors we have - Dylan Wiesman and Brett Kendrick - have played ok but are injured. The other seniors who could have been impact but didn't include Dontavius Blair and Austin Sanders...both 4 star recruits who for whatever reason, never panned out...we only have three junior OL on the team. Thomas and Robertson have been ok when not injured but Mosley has never really contributed...it's really going to be on the freshman and sophomores...So is the problem coaching? Is it talent? Is it schemes? Again, I never played or coached OL so I don't know but I have run several organizations and understand you do have to match talent/skills with schemes...I doubt a change would have made a difference in the bama game but definitely should have against the weaker teams we played...let's see how the OL performs over the second (weaker) half of the season...unlike the QB passing accuracy, I don't think the problems at OL are going to fixed by changing one player...

Everyone we play is going to try to make Dobbs beat us from the pocket...but no one has the talent Bama has and I trust Dobbs will beat a number of teams with his feet - either running for big yardage or buying time while receivers get open for easier throws...

We can win out and finish 10-2 but we are by no means back to where we want to be...I don't know where Jones will plateau...Majors was a 7-4 coach and no one would be happy with that...Fulmer was a 9-3 coach and many wouldn't want that either...I would like a trip to Atlanta this year and an SEC Championship before we hit the 20 mark of no championships...2018 will be Butch's sixth season and it was Fulmer's sixth season he was able to win his first of two championships...
 
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#34
#34
BeardedVol said:
Keep in mind also that we don't have proven replacements for Dobbs, Kamara, or Hurd yet. With the current offensive staff, this season could be their peak, as we are going to be a "young team" again very soon due to attrition.
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I'm aware of this, I will say Kelly seems like he will be a solid back and Dormandy from all video I seen has a big arm, Guarantono also could be a good one. I'm worried about defense and the O-Line and after these last "legacy classes" it seems as if the recruiting has turned into 3 star low 4 star talent. These recruits are not stupid and Jones is not good enough to coach up 3 star talent, so we need to get big time players here and that's just not happening.

Jones and Co. will have more analogies and what not to woo the fans over.

I don't think we need to fire Jones because honestly with LSU and Texas both having a vacancy we will not find any better. The key to Jones succcess here will be he has to hire the best Coordinators money can buy and let go and stop being a micro manager. Time to let a good Offensive Staff come in here and do what they're paid to do, coach!! This off season will be big because a new AD and Chancellor coming in with no ties to Jones, if Butch wants to stay might be time for him to change his philosophy a little bit.
 
#35
#35
Crazy Ivan said:
I'm not sure why we are blaming Debord for the loss. Coming into the Bama game the offense was averaging 37 pts per game in the 3 SEC games, and 2 of those defenses, UF and TAMU, are solid defenses.

As far as the Bama game, it's kind of hard to scheme against the best front 7 in CFB with 3 starting OLinemen out of the game.

Dobbs had about 1-1.5 seconds to get his throws away, which meant Bama could crowd the box and play man-to-man because they knew we didn't have time to let pass routes develop.

But hey, if we are throwing Debord under the bus we might as well throw Shoops under the bus too for not being able to stop Bama's offense. No matter that he had 5 starters out.
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I didn't blame Debord for this loss. In general, I just don't think he's good, although I agree with the sentiment that our OL limits his calling.

Defense is a different deal, not having a large chunk of starters and being on the field constantly is detrimental.
 
#36
#36
TennVols423 said:
So we squeaked by teams we should've beaten badly and got throttled by Bama. The 2nd half of A&M was solid and we played them well. We should've been beating Appy State, Ohio, Florida and UGA all by at least 2 touchdowns.
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I think if we opened up the playbook against ASU and OU we would have blown them out. Staff had their reasons I suppose for not opening the playbook up against those OOC opponents. I would have preferred we come out wide open in those games, so yes I agree we should have blown them out.

4 years later and we are still not a fundamentally sound football team, the type that competes for National Titles. THIS IS TENNESSEE, we win championships not morale victories.
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Too many mistakes, I will grant you that. But we were one of the least penalized teams last season and very good at limiting TOs, and these are pretty much the same players just a year older, so the mistakes are a head scratcher. But my point is I think the staff had this same group of players playing fundamentally sound football last season, so I don't think the staff has suddenly lost their ability to do so. Just not sure what the problem has been this season.

And while I appreciate your thought on UT winning championships, UT has only won 4 SEC championships since 1970 and 1 NC, so let's not get carried away.

I'm worried about the rest of our season, we need to worry about every team left on our schedule because the way this team has played not one game on our schedule is a give me, like 90% of us originally thought to start the season.
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If we can get relatively healthy I'm not worried about any opponent left on the schedule. If we don't, then yes there could be some tricky games.
 
#37
#37
CBJ will never beat/out coach/outsmart Saban, the Bama streak will continue as long as Saban is the head coach at Bama and CBJ remains our head coach
 
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