I don’t get it……

[peaygolf]

Definitely need better and FASTER players on the back end. Everyone was clamoring for Hadden to get the start, but when he was on an island vs Shorter in the 4th, Shorter just ran right by him. If AR hadn't underthrown the ball a bit forcing Shorter to pull up, he'd have scored easily. We need much, much better players on defense across the board. They need to be bigger, faster and much more physical.

next year they are coming.................

 

[WoodsmanVol]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game. Every. Single. Game. Is going to be different, teams win in different ways every week. These coaches put in game plans and schemes all week to prepare for what they think will work to slow down the opponent. This isn’t a video game where you can just throw everything you’ve preached all week out the window and do a complete 180 on your gameplan. I get it, it’s frustrating, but it doesn’t mean the gameplan against Lsu won’t work perfectly and they have half the yards.

The zone coverage calls were to make AR beat us, and of course he played the game of his life. In my opinion we wasn’t running man, because we didn’t want a reoccurrence of Ole Miss last year. When you are manned up across the board and Db’s are chasing receivers you make it so hard on yourself to stop a running Qb. Everybody in the country all week long continuously said, Make AR beat you with his arm. Well, we ran the defense to force him to do that, and the kid played great. Hell, they have game plans and practice too. Be happy that we are 4-0 and are finding ways to win these games FINALLY.

I love volnation and I love this team, but people need to take a step back sometimes and chill. Enjoy the ride and the process, quit expecting everything to be perfect all the time in this sport. Sorry for the long post, GO VOLS!

SILENCE! You're futilely talking sense and common sense to VN whiners and NegaVols, the QNON conspiracists of VN. They can't hear neither sense or facts. SILENCE!

 

[imw8n4u]

If you can't enjoy the wins I'm not sure what the point of watching is. But I don't know what is going to kill me first, the offense that takes my breath away or the defense that gives me a heart attack.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

There's a lot of extreme mischaracterization of comments on Volnation following yesterday's game. I don't see a lot of people wanting to fire Heupel (Banks, yes) or saying the program is headed the wrong direction. My concerns from yesterday don't negate the fact that I'm happy with the win or thrilled by Hooker's incredible performance. We have the meat of the schedule in front of us. The Pitt and FL wins were HUGE, but both could have easily been losses because of this team's inability to put a game out of reach. When the outcome is decided by the final possession either in regulation or OT, you are asking for trouble. The "negative" comments are merely reflecting the fact that the defense we've seen so far just isn't going to get Ws consistently.

If you want to be frustrated by the defense thats fine but at least know WHY the defense is frustrating you. Our secondary and linebackers are complete slaw! We're starting a converted, undersized RB and a Texas transfer that they did not want at LB. Our DB's are SLOW. The reason we play such soft coverage is because Banks knows this and he's opting to keep everything in front of the defense and hope the opposing offense makes a mistake. There is nothing wrong with our schemes! We literally do not have the speed and athleticism on the back 7 to stop anybody! To simply blame Banks and Martinez and call for their jobs is a lazy take on the whole situation! We do not have the horses on defense yet to compete with the elite teams in the SEC!

 

[Arrested Devolopment]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game. Every. Single. Game.

Seeing the bad in good situations is something animals have evolved to do to avoid danger, but overplayed it's an example of Loserthink, and it's a mental prison that stunts your enjoyment of life.

 

[hUTch2002]

Outside of the Utah game, our fans have been saying UF can't play, UF is garbage, Richardson can't throw the ball, Richardson is hurt and we were going to blow them off the field. They talked themselves into believing our team is way, way better than it really is. 4 games in and I'm still at a loss as to how those are our best on defense. You aren't going to win in this league with a defense like we have.....unless you have a scheme like we have. What Heupel and Co have done with this roster merits COY honors. He's getting the most out of a very average(at best) roster. I honestly thought we'd be 2-2 at this point. Never, ever did I consider 4-0. No way. I'm still scratching my head after watching the game again and seeing that defense as to how we won.

We need roster upgrades everywhere and in time, we'll have better players and more depth. Until then, enjoy the moment. Things are about to get just a tad more difficult with our schedule. We're 4-0, ranked and broke the streak. I'm pretty darned happy.

We have a great defensive class on the way and it’s definitely needed. I know I’m in the minority but I believe our defensive issues are more to do with personnel than scheme. Both are a factor at times of course but it’s more on personnel in my opinion. How Hadden played as much as he did is quite telling as he was horrible yet we left him in. It’s not a surprise though. The defense was decimated after Pruitt was fired. We have some talent but we’re very very thin, especially in the secondary.

 

[hUTch2002]

There's a lot of extreme mischaracterization of comments on Volnation following yesterday's game. I don't see a lot of people wanting to fire Heupel (Banks, yes) or saying the program is headed the wrong direction. My concerns from yesterday don't negate the fact that I'm happy with the win or thrilled by Hooker's incredible performance. We have the meat of the schedule in front of us. The Pitt and FL wins were HUGE, but both could have easily been losses because of this team's inability to put a game out of reach. When the outcome is decided by the final possession either in regulation or OT, you are asking for trouble. The "negative" comments are merely reflecting the fact that the defense we've seen so far just isn't going to get Ws consistently.

The offense couldn’t put Pitt away and the defense saved that one. The opposite was true against Florida. Things change game to game and look at other games around the country. Texas almost beats Bama and then loses to Texas Tech. Georgia curb stomps everyone…until running into the mighty Kent St Golden Flashes. Football is inconsistent for all teams. The very best, like UGA, are more consistent than others but that’s why they’re number 1.

 

[vols2345]

Not even 5 mins after the game the nega vols were out in full force. Must of felt they had to get ahead of the pack. Florida had alot of Dak stats (cowboys reference). Go vols we looked amazing!!!

 

[Boone&Crockett]

They did have a gameplan and they stuck to it, my question is did they not include any blitz packages in this plan? It was obvious Richardson's passing was affected by pressure yet the entire game we sat back and played coverage, when you see a weakness you have to exploit it, play coverage but blitz on certain plays too, those 4th downs should have never happened.

 

[Doberman]

If you want to be frustrated by the defense thats fine but at least know WHY the defense is frustrating you. Our secondary and linebackers are complete slaw! We're starting a converted, undersized RB and a Texas transfer that they did not want at LB. Our DB's are SLOW. The reason we play such soft coverage is because Banks knows this and he's opting to keep everything in front of the defense and hope the opposing offense makes a mistake. There is nothing wrong with our schemes! We literally do not have the speed and athleticism on the back 7 to stop anybody! To simply blame Banks and Martinez and call for their jobs is a lazy take on the whole situation! We do not have the horses on defense yet to compete with the elite teams in the SEC!

The entire defense is a mystery.

To be fair though, we had a couple of NFL guys back there last year and sucked ass then too.

 

[hUTch2002]

If you want to be frustrated by the defense thats fine but at least know WHY the defense is frustrating you. Our secondary and linebackers are complete slaw! We're starting a converted, undersized RB and a Texas transfer that they did not want at LB. Our DB's are SLOW. The reason we play such soft coverage is because Banks knows this and he's opting to keep everything in front of the defense and hope the opposing offense makes a mistake. There is nothing wrong with our schemes! We literally do not have the speed and athleticism on the back 7 to stop anybody! To simply blame Banks and Martinez and call for their jobs is a lazy take on the whole situation! We do not have the horses on defense yet to compete with the elite teams in the SEC!

I’m with you. We’re very much in the minority but I don’t think it’s an issue with our DC. In general, the schemes seem to be putting us in the right spots but our guys just aren’t able to make plays yet. We do seem to be doing better about getting crucial turnovers though. The fumble yesterday and the pick down 10-0 at Pitt come to mind. On the other side of the ball I am very impressed with how much our short yardage offense has improved. Kudos to these coaches. I still think Bama will probably beat us but I’m confident it won’t be easy for them. Same for UGA. But if one of them has an off game you never know!

 

[EZE]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game. Every. Single. Game. Is going to be different, teams win in different ways every week. These coaches put in game plans and schemes all week to prepare for what they think will work to slow down the opponent. This isn’t a video game where you can just throw everything you’ve preached all week out the window and do a complete 180 on your gameplan. I get it, it’s frustrating, but it doesn’t mean the gameplan against Lsu won’t work perfectly and they have half the yards.

The zone coverage calls were to make AR beat us, and of course he played the game of his life. In my opinion we wasn’t running man, because we didn’t want a reoccurrence of Ole Miss last year. When you are manned up across the board and Db’s are chasing receivers you make it so hard on yourself to stop a running Qb. Everybody in the country all week long continuously said, Make AR beat you with his arm. Well, we ran the defense to force him to do that, and the kid played great. Hell, they have game plans and practice too. Be happy that we are 4-0 and are finding ways to win these games FINALLY.

I love volnation and I love this team, but people need to take a step back sometimes and chill. Enjoy the ride and the process, quit expecting everything to be perfect all the time in this sport. Sorry for the long post, GO VOLS!

You’d think that this fan base—after all we’ve been through—would now know how to appreciate winning, especially against UF.

 

[Brave Volunteer]

The entire defense is a mystery.

To be fair though, we had a couple of NFL guys back there last year and sucked ass then too.

If Im frustrated with anything, its that our staff didnt aggressively hit the transfer portal harder in the offseason to bring in more help on defense. We had help wanted signs hanging everywhere! Why didnt we go after more defensive guys to plug in? The only thing I can think of is maybe it had something to do with our situation with the NCAA and we were trying to limit our scholarship players at the time.

 

[jmacvols1]

"....he played the game of his life"

"Dude played miles over his head...."

" their quarterback had a career day"

Did AR really play that great or was he his normal self exploiting a bad TN secondary?

 

[IluvdoubleD's]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game.

It's called gambling away your life's savings.

 

[VolBricks]

If you want to be frustrated by the defense thats fine but at least know WHY the defense is frustrating you. Our secondary and linebackers are complete slaw! We're starting a converted, undersized RB and a Texas transfer that they did not want at LB. Our DB's are SLOW. The reason we play such soft coverage is because Banks knows this and he's opting to keep everything in front of the defense and hope the opposing offense makes a mistake. There is nothing wrong with our schemes! We literally do not have the speed and athleticism on the back 7 to stop anybody! To simply blame Banks and Martinez and call for their jobs is a lazy take on the whole situation! We do not have the horses on defense yet to compete with the elite teams in the SEC!

Wow, finally someone who gets it. I totally agree. We knew coming into this season that the defense was a liability. If Heupel knows the defense is a liability then why did he stop trying to score half way through the 4th quarter and let FL catch up so that we have to cover a Hail Marry to win?

 

[CNCVol88]

"....he played the game of his life"

"Dude played miles over his head...."

" their quarterback had a career day"

Did AR really play that great or was he his normal self exploiting a bad TN secondary?

The truth is probably somewhere in between but its also true that Richardson is a freak athlete that we won't see much the rest of the year.

 

[Hbd10]

They did have a gameplan and they stuck to it, my question is did they not include any blitz packages in this plan? It was obvious Richardson's passing was affected by pressure yet the entire game we sat back and played coverage, when you see a weakness you have to exploit it, play coverage but blitz on certain plays too, those 4th downs should have never happened.

We did blitz, a lot actually. I don’t have exact number yet of how many times we brought pressure, but while he threw for a ton of yards he also was only at 54% completion. He threw the ball 44 times with 20 incompletions. Normally I was say that’s a great recipe to blow them out, because of how good our run defense was, but that wasn’t the case today. Kid played good!

 

[Volfan2012]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game. Every. Single. Game. Is going to be different, teams win in different ways every week. These coaches put in game plans and schemes all week to prepare for what they think will work to slow down the opponent. This isn’t a video game where you can just throw everything you’ve preached all week out the window and do a complete 180 on your gameplan. I get it, it’s frustrating, but it doesn’t mean the gameplan against Lsu won’t work perfectly and they have half the yards.

The zone coverage calls were to make AR beat us, and of course he played the game of his life. In my opinion we wasn’t running man, because we didn’t want a reoccurrence of Ole Miss last year. When you are manned up across the board and Db’s are chasing receivers you make it so hard on yourself to stop a running Qb. Everybody in the country all week long continuously said, Make AR beat you with his arm. Well, we ran the defense to force him to do that, and the kid played great. Hell, they have game plans and practice too. Be happy that we are 4-0 and are finding ways to win these games FINALLY.

I love volnation and I love this team, but people need to take a step back sometimes and chill. Enjoy the ride and the process, quit expecting everything to be perfect all the time in this sport. Sorry for the long post, GO VOLS!

Of course yardage doesn't matter when you end up with the most points and the win that is all that matters. I think we certainly need to discuss where the defense is and where it needs to go in the next couple of seasons because the ultimate is not to only beat Florida but to have a shot at Bama and Georgia as well. That is why the defense is under the microscope. it is obvious we have a ways to go there to be a team that can beat anybody.

 

[Ashevillevol]

Our corners and safeties are about as bad as it gets. You see how they can make a bad quarterback look like a Heisman candidate. They can’t cover and once they allow the catch they can’t tackle. Hadden was ridiculously inept. As bad as Burrell ever thought about being. We would be just as well off if we put department store mannequins back there and hope the other team trips on them on their way down the field. And it’s not coaching that’s going to make a difference with this bunch. We need much better players back there. It’s gotta come from recruitment and the portal.

 

[DeltaVol05]

Especially in the way it seemed like it was going to happen.

 

[Remy]

Tickled we won. However one cannot ignore a QB unable to throw a single TD pass in 3 games, came to town and completed 4 of them against us. He also routinely converted 3rd and 4th downs all day against us using the forward pass. We kept them in the game until the final play when we were up by 17 with a little over 5 minutes to play allowing them to openly complete pass after pass against us. Something on The Hill is rotten in Denmark with our pass defense.

 

[Other_Guy]

Only Volnation whines about “Just beat Florida” all summer and then finds something to whine about when it happens.

We're not App State and just hoping to beat a good team.
We're also not a semi-successful team that nitpicks and are looking for reasons to look for a better coach.
We're super excited and at the same time already looking into the future and knowing they've got a lot of improving to do in order to be a successful program.
Heupel has improved this program quickly, so higher expectations come sooner. He was expected to beat Florida because he had the better team. He's beating Pitt, Kentucky, Florida now. What's the next step? Complete and play close games with Bama and Georgia and maintain this type of success for the rest of the reason (barring injuries of course).
We're looking to that next step and seeing the defense is so bad (and ST is iffy) that it's going to be hard to take that next step.
We're looking at the fact that Heupel could be successful here if he finds him a better DC and secondary coach. We don't want him to eventually get fired because he doesn't want to make a change because he's happy with just trying to outscore people.
We're celebrating in the now and looking t9 the future

 

[FiremedicVOL127]

I don’t get the people who are ready to jump off a cliff because Florida put up some yards and AR had a good game. Every. Single. Game. Is going to be different, teams win in different ways every week. These coaches put in game plans and schemes all week to prepare for what they think will work to slow down the opponent. This isn’t a video game where you can just throw everything you’ve preached all week out the window and do a complete 180 on your gameplan. I get it, it’s frustrating, but it doesn’t mean the gameplan against Lsu won’t work perfectly and they have half the yards.

The zone coverage calls were to make AR beat us, and of course he played the game of his life. In my opinion we wasn’t running man, because we didn’t want a reoccurrence of Ole Miss last year. When you are manned up across the board and Db’s are chasing receivers you make it so hard on yourself to stop a running Qb. Everybody in the country all week long continuously said, Make AR beat you with his arm. Well, we ran the defense to force him to do that, and the kid played great. Hell, they have game plans and practice too. Be happy that we are 4-0 and are finding ways to win these games FINALLY.

I love volnation and I love this team, but people need to take a step back sometimes and chill. Enjoy the ride and the process, quit expecting everything to be perfect all the time in this sport. Sorry for the long post, GO VOLS!

‘98 was a great undefeated season but every game that year had the same feel as last nite. We barely clawed our way outta some of those games but we did and we was Champions at the end of the day!! Don’t care how we get em or how ugly they are I’ll take the W in the end any day!!! Go VOLS

 

[jaxvol]

Our corners and safeties are about as bad as it gets. You see how they can make a bad quarterback look like a Heisman candidate. They can’t cover and once they allow the catch they can’t tackle. Hadden was ridiculously inept. As bad as Burrell ever thought about being. We would be just as well off if we put department store mannequins back there and hope the other team trips on them on their way down the field. And it’s not coaching that’s going to make a difference with this bunch. We need much better players back there. It’s gotta come from recruitment and the portal.

I agree that is players not coaches on the defense. When a player is in the correct position (coaching) and misses the tackle (player) that is obvious.