How Can Our O-Line Be Such A Mess?

#1
rexvol

rexvol

The Minister of Defense
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#1
STILL STARTING: Freshman Marcus Jackson will make his third consecutive start at left guard over sophomore James Stone, Dooley said, although Stone rotated with Jackson throughout Saturday’s game.

“But we’ll still play James some,” Dooley said. “Waiting for whoever’s going to take it.”

Dooley said the Vols are “going to probably keep repping James at guard” rather than dividing his practice time between guard and center, where he started UT’s first six games.

Bullard “didn’t have his best game” Saturday against Middle Tennessee, Dooley said. But Dooley indicated that Bullard isn’t in danger of losing his starting job because “the snapping part” of playing center “is so important,” and Stone’s problems at center mostly came from snapping.

Still, Dooley said Stone remains the Vols’ backup center.
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How is it that we are "settling" in a center because he snap the ball correctly? Isnt that center 101? Our team goes through and entire offseason, spring, and fall practice and now we are starting a guys based only on his ability to snap the ball? We need a new O-Line coach.
 
#2
#2
They're pretty good at pass blocking.

Aint worth a damn doing anything else tho.
 
#3
#3
rexvol said:
How is it that we are "settling" in a center because he snap the ball correctly? Isnt that center 101? Our team goes through and entire offseason, spring, and fall practice and now we are starting a guys based only on his ability to snap the ball? We need a new O-Line coach.
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Perhaps because neither Stone nor Ballard were ever centers and never developed the skills required for the position. Hopefully the Big Mack will take care of that as he will be our first recruited center we've had in a while.
 
#5
#5
I would like to know the reasoning behind making Stone switch hands. He seemed to do fine last year left handed. Switching hands just gave him a lot more to think about.
 
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#7
#7
VolinDawgland said:
Perhaps because neither Stone nor Ballard were ever centers and never developed the skills required for the position. Hopefully the Big Mack will take care of that as he will be our first recruited center we've had in a while.
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First since McNeil?
 
#9
#9
for the barrage of verbal abuse from the Dooley crowd. Great question though, it sure has taken quite a bit of time for us to settle on who can snap correctly.
 
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#11
#11
rexvol said:
How is it that we are "settling" in a center because he snap the ball correctly? Isnt that center 101? Our team goes through and entire offseason, spring, and fall practice and now we are starting a guys based only on his ability to snap the ball? We need a new O-Line coach.
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Croom!
 
#12
#12
It's really hard to evaluate this offensive line with the running backs we have. I think if we had a better running back this line would look better then it does. Most now seem to agree that Poole couldn't start for more then one other SEC team (if that) and Marlin runs way to tentatively to get through a hole even if there is one so why are we so quick to say the offensive line is horrible? Do we really know that for sure? Obviously they are not a great line atm but maybe not as bad as we think. Chaney's scheme and play calling certainly doesn't help either. I just think our biggest problem going forward is our coordinator and RB situation not the offensive line.
 
#13
#13
rexvol said:
How is it that we are "settling" in a center because he snap the ball correctly? Isnt that center 101? Our team goes through and entire offseason, spring, and fall practice and now we are starting a guys based only on his ability to snap the ball? We need a new O-Line coach.
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FWIW:

1)We did not have an established true center last year. Cody Pope was the best bet and he was converted from another line position.

2)They tried to bring in Darrin Gooch to be the center, but he did not pan out.

3)They then put the only lineman in that could even come close to handling it, which was James Stone. He had no experience. They tried to get James to switch hands because the QBs were used to getting the snap in one way and were having difficulty adjusting.

4)Lastly, Mack Crowder was brought in as a true center, but he is not ready yet. He will probably be the man next year.

Next year will tell the tell of whether or not the answer has been found.
 
#14
#14
Pride85 said:
FWIW:

1)We did not have an established true center last year. Cody Pope was the best bet and he was converted from another line position.

2)They tried to bring in Darrin Gooch to be the center, but he did not pan out.

3)They then put the only lineman in that could even come close to handling it, which was James Stone. He had no experience. They tried to get James to switch hands because the QBs were used to getting the snap in one way and were having difficulty adjusting.

4)Lastly, Mack Crowder was brought in as a true center, but he is not ready yet. He will probably be the man next year.

Next year will tell the tell of whether or not the answer has been found.
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Solid. Can we put the o-line threads to rest now? Both o-line and d-line were severely depleted when Dooley came in. It will take time.
 
#15
#15
Fijivol72 said:
for the barrage of verbal abuse from the Dooley crowd. Great question though, it sure has taken quite a bit of time for us to settle on who can snap correctly.
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Unlike the Fulmer-queda crowd on here most Dooley and UT supporters have no problem criticizing him when it is merited.

This would be a case where they could have done better. However Stone gave no indication last year that he was having any problems handling the duties of Center.
 
#16
#16
Vol_Doc said:
Solid. Can we put the o-line threads to rest now? Both o-line and d-line were severely depleted when Dooley came in. It will take time.
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How can we do that? Our fans have already fired our current OL coach and are bring Bama's retired OL coach out of retirement. As soon as they can get CDD ran out of town with some burned mattresses and UHaul's, they are pretty sure Bear Bryant will be interested in the head coaching job...
 
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#17
#17
Your RB will always suck as long as your oline is being thrown around, like ours have been all season
 
#18
#18
BIG ADAM said:
Your RB will always suck as long as your oline is being thrown around, like ours have been all season
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If you ask any coach they would rather have a great back with an average line then a great line with an average back. Unfortunately we have a average line with a well below average back.
 
#19
#19
rexvol said:
How is it that we are "settling" in a center because he snap the ball correctly? Isnt that center 101? Our team goes through and entire offseason, spring, and fall practice and now we are starting a guys based only on his ability to snap the ball? We need a new O-Line coach.
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Did anyone before CDD recruit a center? I would think this would be like QBs, minimum of 1 each class.
 
#21
#21
GLDunlap said:
It's really hard to evaluate this offensive line with the running backs we have. I think if we had a better running back this line would look better then it does. Most now seem to agree that Poole couldn't start for more then one other SEC team (if that) and Marlin runs way to tentatively to get through a hole even if there is one so why are we so quick to say the offensive line is horrible? Do we really know that for sure? Obviously they are not a great line atm but maybe not as bad as we think. Chaney's scheme and play calling certainly doesn't help either. I just think our biggest problem going forward is our coordinator and RB situation not the offensive line.
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They're great pass blockers. Terrible run blockers. They're slow pulling, they don't block LBs, they whiff on blocks, and don't "finish" their blocks. It doesn't help that Batholomew is not a very good lead blocker. IMO too much blame is put on the running backs. Just watch the blocking in slow-mo and you will see it all.
 
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#22
#22
Stone is a real smart kid. I think they wanted him at center because he is the best at making the line calls. If you noticed when he was playing there, he did a lot more pointing and verbal type stuff than Bulluck is doing.

Unfortunately, when you are real smart you are more likely to be impacted by crowd noise and big nose guards and that stuff. You tend to over think it. With James, I speculate that he did fine in practice. The wild snaps probably started in the games. He really needs to be a guard. He was a guard at Maplewood.

James is going to have to develop a nasty streak and learn to use his god-given talent and size.

He is left handed. I guess he was good enough with his right hand that they switched him over to make it more consistent for the quarterbacks. In hinesight, that was really bad move and I think it will end up costing Hiestand his job.
 
#23
#23
To me Stone was playing center scared. Anytime a NT lined up on him he started worrying about getting his hands up to block to the point that he was short arming the snaps. Once this happened he starting making mistakes and his confidence declined.
 
#24
#24
mchandl7 said:
To me Stone was playing center scared. Anytime a NT lined up on him he started worrying about getting his hands up to block to the point that he was short arming the snaps. Once this happened he starting making mistakes and his confidence declined.
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Yes, exactly. Same as in baseball when you start aiming it instead of just throwing it.

Once you lose the confidence, it is hard to get back. Takes time, and we don't have that during the season.
 
#25
#25
Hoople heads like orange crush think if you point out how bad our run game is you are somehow throwing a brick through CDD's window.

The fact is, we have a lot to be positive about as year zero-plus-one is coming to a close. Our passing game when healthy is top drawer, and we've got a keeper at TE. Our defense is rounding into shape under JW, and our return game brings excitement that we haven't seen this millenium. Our coverage teams are much improved, and there's hope that Palardy will build off of some recent successes.

The one glaring negative is our running game. You can't polish that turd enough; I'm sorry. Last in the league (by a mile), next to last in the country - what can you say?
Our line has had almost two full injury-free years under Hiestand and we can't runblock poor MTSU (ranked 112th in run defense)? Does it really offend people to point that out?

Dooley has proven time and again with his players that he's not afraid to ditch what doesn't work in favor of something that does.
 
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