Allz I know is that we haven’t had an elite playcaller who could make in-game adjustments since Kiffin or a competent one since DeBord. What Chaney threw on the field against Arkansas lost any standing respect I had for him and I don’t excuse it because of Pruitt’s micromanaging. He had a guaranteed contract so basically writing off his brand betrayed his slovenly fall. Other teams strategy was to wait for us to give the game to them and give up…only Vandy couldn’t capitalize by the end of the season.
I've often wondered about that. Why (after our glory years) we seemed incapable of making successful halftime adjustments?
First, I doubt that coaches at that level of experience do not see and understand what's happening on the field, and even know what adjustments need be to made. That's done by coaches at the high school level.
If so, then I here's three possible explanations for our perennial inability to make the second half ours.
1) The coaches you named were unskilled at quickly & effectively
communicating to the players during halftime, how the needed adjustments should be implemented.
2) The players we were able to recruit, even if physically gifted, skilled, and committed... were not
mentally equipped with either a high football IQ, or the cognitive abilities to quickly grasp and adjust to something different from what they had been practicing.
3) Our coaches were good, but
predictable, so that our opponents were also making halftime adjustments to counter the specific changes they expected from our coaches. Checkers vs chess.
Thoughts from the couch. Maybe others can offer more explanations.
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*4) Maybe the best teams get good enough at fundamentals and game prep, that their coaches can devote more
practice time to the adjustments they
might call at halftime. That's the kind of thing a team can do when it has continuity, like plenty of seniors who have been playing for the same coaches--or, at least, coordinators--throughout their career.
Coaching continuity is definitely something Tennessee enjoyed in those recent glory years.