I just don’t get it... why would Baylor look so much better than us

#101
#101
If you look around college football new coaches make their biggest strides in yr two, including Saban at Alabama. I expect to see the same here in Knoxville. If not then we can discuss
 
#102
#102
Not going to make any excuses as someone suggested but man this thread is going in 40 different directions. But the topic will invoke that I guess...
 
#103
#103
I think part of the team gave up the last 2 weeks. OL certainly didn't play well. The DL played hard on D, but Safeties and LB's certainly didn't.

I want to see this team the next 2 years to know, but they certainly gave up last 2 weeks of the season.

I think Vandy has a team with experience in the same system for the past 5 years.

At some point we need consistency in the same system.
 
#106
#106
Carp said:
38th rated offense in the nation. Clearly they were doing something right.
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38th only in total yards, half the story.

63rd in scoring (all that matters) at 29 ppg, nothing special, especially if you believe the b12 doesnt play defense narrative. Terrible red zone team, but they made Vandy look silly.

It's a miracle what a spread offense with speed at wr can do. Why more coaches dont just adopt b12 offense is mindboggling.
 
#107
#107
chatt-townVOL said:
Against Vandy?

This Baylor team is completely devoid of talent. There’s is no way Baylor goes on the road and beats a Top 25 SEC West Team. There is no way Baylor thrashes Kentucky. But yet they are the dominant team over Vandy?

I’m not asking for “because we suck” type of comments, I’m genuinely just lost here. Was this just really a matter of Butch’s leftovers not wanting to play anymore? Did Vandy just have that much of an “on” night against us? Did we get outschemed?

Any football experts that would love to give their two cents would be much appreciated.
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I saw an offensive line for Baylor that was much better than the offensive line I saw at Tennessee this year. They were much more dominant than UTs play versus Vandy.

Their running back looked much faster than Tennessee's.

Wide receivers looked faster and were wide open many times. Looked too fast for Vandy's DBs.

The QB for Baylor was head and shoulders better than Tennessee's QB.

So my conclusion is that they have better players via development, coaching and scheme. Talking a second year coach at a program versus a first year coach at a program. Also talking a successful head coach at previous stops versus a first time head coach anywhere.
 
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#108
#108
chatt-townVOL said:
Against Vandy?

This Baylor team is completely devoid of talent. There’s is no way Baylor goes on the road and beats a Top 25 SEC West Team. There is no way Baylor thrashes Kentucky. But yet they are the dominant team over Vandy?

I’m not asking for “because we suck” type of comments, I’m genuinely just lost here. Was this just really a matter of Butch’s leftovers not wanting to play anymore? Did Vandy just have that much of an “on” night against us? Did we get outschemed?

Any football experts that would love to give their two cents would be much appreciated.
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Because Baylor’s players are better coached than UT’s. Either you can’t fix bad in one year or the staff in K town is not what you think/hope it is.
 
#109
#109
Matchups. Same reason why we crushed Kentucky and got blown out by Mizzou. Matchups. Poor pass rush + young secondary=bad matchup vs. Mizzou, Vandy. Shurmur had all kinds of time to survey the field and pick us apart, as did Lock. KY QB incapable of hurting us so we slow run and destroy them. Pruitt getting talent and coaching them up=favorable matchups=wins a coming!!! Help is on the way...
 
#110
#110
FLVOL_79 said:
Because they do have more talent than UT. Not sure why everyone thinks Tennessee "has talent" when they go 4-8 then 5-7.
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This!

I used to think we had smart fans that came with a winning program, but over the last several years I've come to realize our fanbase in several pockets isn't very bright.

The fanbase has the delusion of the fans of a lower tier program that think they can compete with the big boys. I don't think long term we are a lower tier program but right now we have a lower tier team. Have now for a couple of years. The inability to connect the dots between bad record and talent level is puzzling.

Sure, the program has some players but good players are not as plentiful as it seems. Not only is there a lack of good players you need to compete at this level, there an even greater need for difference makers.

We can add in lack of stability, leaders, dysfunctional lockerrom, development, transfers, and etc because there are always multiple reasons. You still have to get back to the Jimmies and Joe's.
Consider Butch tried to line Marcus Tatum up against Bama when we was a 260 freshman. Where is the blazing speed on the edge? Where is the proven sideline to sideline LB in the upper class? How many of the players have gotten knocked back after taking on a runner the last few years? How many SEC quality backs are on the team? QB? I won't touch that right now.

The bottom line is the young players and 2019 recruiting class is the future.
 
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#113
#113
illinoisvolfan1 said:
Baylor would curb stomp us this year. And no way we would have scored 38 like Vandy did.
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Maybe, but yall giving them waay too much credit. They are 85th in s&p+ and actually gave up more points than they scored. Gave up 6.5 ypp and 32 ppg, pretty terrible. We were 87th in s&p+.

Baylor played 4 ranked teams and went 0-4.

But particular to Vandy, spread and speed worked. They ate up our basic power pro garbage.
 
#114
#114
I thought Baylor outplayed Vandy on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Heck they were pressuring the Vandy QB with 3 DLmen. You tend to win games when you win in the trenches.
 
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#115
#115
Baylor wouldn't have qualified for a bowl in the SEC... and Vandy is still not a good football program. Better? Sure. But that's relative. It doesn't take a "good" football team to stop an offense like the one UT had this fall.
 
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#116
#116
VOL 4 Life 83 said:
Stability, plain and simple. When you have guys running the same system for many years compared to a team constantly changing coaching staff and systems recruiting rankings don’t mean as much
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Your theory is not applicable at Baylor. They hired a new head coach last year. Matt Rhule runs a different offense than Briles. Wish we had hired him.
 
#117
#117
Less talent overall than we have but they have a team of players that fit the schemes they run. We basically have a team of misfits. Some of our guys would be much better in other systems and some are built for the system Pruitt wants to run. Seems like Butch tried to recruit star rankings and build a team around who he got. What Pruitt is doing is only recruiting players that will fit his system. Jmo
 
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#118
#118
savannahfan said:
Then if this is true, Pruitt should send them home to their families. It doesn't matter how good they are or may someday be. This attitude is like the "black death" for the whole team. You just have to bite the bullet, and remove the illness.
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It's most likely not true, minus some bench warmers that don't even see the practice field unless there are injuries on the second string.

Though the idea of a bunch of Butch-coached quitters does let some posters on here continue to blame 2018's coaching missteps and lack of development over 2017 on Butch instead of with the current coaching staff. So it will be posted until 2021 when all of Butch's recruits are finally gone, and then we'll go back to blaming Mark Richt.
 
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#120
#120
ReelfootVol said:
The reason Baylor won the game was the type offensive they run............some offenses can win with totally inferior lineman. When you run a power offensive like our................YOU GOTTA HAVE THE HORSES UP FRONT WITH FULLBACKS THAT ARE BAD DUDES !!!! BAYLOR COULD BEAT SEVERAL SEC TEAMS IN MY OPINION, STRICTLY BECAUSE THE TYPE OFFENSIVE THEY RUN.
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Our offense didnt have alot of power.
So are you suggesting that our coaches are stuck in the stone age?
 
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#122
#122
90 Vol said:
Baylor and Vandy are both better football teams than us even though we’ve had higher ranked recruiting classes. Kinda points to coaching and talent development over the years.
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It could also mean that we used an approach to recruiting in which we focused too much on star ratings and not enough on building a stable of high-character, high-effort, sufficiently-athletic guys who could grow into solid SEC players over a 2-year period.
 
#123
#123
Here is an example of how poorly the Jones staff developed the players on this roster. Development doesn't happen in one year when it has been ignored for 5 years. The only true development is extracting the older guys and getting in fresh guys that you train and develop like you want.

if one takes the previous 5 recruiting team rankings (2014-2018 classes) here is what you see.

In the SEC Tennessee classes averaged an 8.0 ranking. Only 3 SEC teams were better than that. Bama (2.4), UGA (5.4) and LSU (7.2)

Nationally, Tennessee was 7th with that 8.0 average. Only 6 programs recruited better than Tennessee. Bama (2.4), Ohio St (3.8), FSU (4.8), UGA (5.4), USC (6.0) and LSU (7.2)

That is a true reflection of how very bad that the talent was developed by Butch Jones and his staff. Until Pruitt can replace the majority of those players with players that he believes in, Tennessee will struggle.
 
#125
#125
I think much of the problem was that this team was just mentally out of gas at the end of the season. They played hard to beat KY, but that took a lot out of them. People seem to forget that they played the second most difficult schedule (per Sagarin ratings) and they lost their 2 best Olinemen early in the season. Per Sagarin Ratings, they played numbers 1, 3, 12, 13, 19, 21, 27, and 30 - that is 8 teams in the top 30 out of 12 games. If they had played a schedule like Memphis, for example, or even Central Florida's schedule, I fully believe they would have won enough games to get to a bowl. I think they should win at least 6 games to get to a bowl next year, but they will probably be very young overall, especially the Oline, so hard to tell just how well they will do, but I think improvement is coming over the next 2 or 3 years. GBO.
 
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