It Wasn't Coaching

#1
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smashmouth105

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#1
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
 
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#2
#2
smashmouth105 said:
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
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Truth.
 
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#3
#3
I think it's on both. Six turnovers speaks to lack of ball security which is as much coaching as it is the players. Running sideways in the end zone, missing blitz pick ups, and not executing is not something you see from well coached teams. For example, Swain was Flowers man and he left him alone on the long touchdown. Is that all on the player or is it on the coaches who are playing a true freshman with very little football experience?
 
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#4
#4
smashmouth105 said:
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
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It's coaching at the end of the day. Pruitt himself said after the West Virginia debacle "The plays you see on the field are a direct reflection of the coaches."

I'm not happy about losing to Florida, but I could take it if it appeared the Vols were better than last year. Instead they look a whole lot worse. No improvement in strength, fundamentals, tackling, ball security, no aspect of the game looks any better except maybe fg kicking. Plus Pruitt has no style, he has no track record. He has nothing to indicate he is capable of making a football program better than he found it. Scott Frost and Chip Kelly look bad now, but they are proven. They have a system that requires certain kinds of recruits. No idea if Pruitt does or doesn't have that. That was why it was an absolutely terrible idea to hire him. No one knows what he's capable of doing. Let a guy prove himself at Western Kentucky, not at Tennessee. It's especially bad when we had paperwork with Mike Leach's signature on it when he was coming off a year where he turned a Vandy level program into a top 15 team in the rankings and had a top 15 offense and defense. Once again Phil's ability to hire coaches was his absolute worst trait and for some reason it was the one people got most excited about when he was named AD.
 
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#5
#5
VolArmy74 said:
It's coaching at the end of the day. Pruitt himself said after the West Virginia debacle "The plays you see on the field are a direct reflection of the coaches."

I'm not happy about losing to Florida, but I could take it if it appeared the Vols were better than last year. Instead they look a whole lot worse. No improvement in strength, fundamentals, tackling, ball security, no aspect of the game looks any better except maybe fg kicking. Plus Pruitt has no style, he has no track record. He has nothing to indicate he is capable of making a football program better than he found it. Scott Frost and Chip Kelly look bad now, but they are proven. They have a system that requires certain kinds of recruits. No idea if Pruitt does or doesn't have that. That was why it was an absolutely terrible idea to hire him. No one knows what he's capable of doing. Let a guy prove himself at Western Kentucky, not at Tennessee. It's especially bad when we had paperwork with Mike Leach's signature on it when he was coming off a year where he turned a Vandy level program into a top 15 team in the rankings and had a top 15 offense and defense. Once again Phil's ability to hire coaches was his absolute worst trait and for some reason it was the one people got most excited about when he was named AD.
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Like you I cannot see any improvement from last year to now.
 
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#6
#6
Mr. Lofton said:
I think it's on both. Six turnovers speaks to lack of ball security which is as much coaching as it is the players. Running sideways in the end zone, missing blitz pick ups, and not executing is not something you see from well coached teams. For example, Swain was Flowers man and he left him alone on the long touchdown. Is that all on the player or is it on the coaches who are playing a true freshman with very little football experience?
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You want the coaches to strap up and go play?
 
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#8
#8
smashmouth105 said:
I can. It's not much, but we're getting a little more production from our skill positions. Besides last night, Guarantano has much improved from last year in terms of efficiency and completion rating.
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He was 7/18, that's a 38% completion rating, worse than any game he played last year minus Indiana State, and 0/2 TD to INT ratio, also worse than any game he played during 2017.
 
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#9
#9
Well.. you can always say it's the players. If I was on a team and they told me to cover Antonio Brown step for step he's obviously going to beat me. Then we he does, it's a "lack of execution."

You have to put your people in the best position possible. A good example would be Kiffin having Crompton roll out most plays so he only had to read 1/3 of the field. A bad example would be running the zone read with Justin Worley.

I don't blame JP for the loss. I blame him for not having the team prepared and predictable play calling.

One thing that worried me about this hire was the players he's coached in the past. Yes he had great credentials working with FSU's, UGa's and Bama's talent. I was curious/nervous about what he would do when he's the guy that doesn't have the best players on the field.
 
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#10
#10
QB’s are judged more for yardage and TD’s than completion rates. JG can complete 3 passes in a row and we still have to punt because we don’t throw downfield (line doesn’t give us tune and WR don’t get open). Last night he threw downfield more and didn’t complete very many (over or under thrown). He doesn’t have good timing or chemistry with the receivers.

When other teams stack the line, throwing those short passes don’t help - in fact they are likely to be picked off as we saw last night. Butch left a mess and the current staff does not have the answers yet
 
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#11
#11
I ran out of patience with Tennessee football many years ago and have become extremely cynical of our football program but ...

I believe that I see signs of progress in this coaching staff and team. Even though it's difficult to see through the SIX turnovers and another lopsided loss I do see progress. This team DID NOT QUIT. They continued to play hard on both sides of the ball. The D had a ton of 3rd down stops and the O improved as the game went on as it has in previous games. The more time CJP and his staff have to "coach these boys up" the better we will become. Furthermore, I believe we will win an SEC game THIS YEAR ... possibly two. Slowly but surely CJP and staff will change our "loser" mentality and upgrade our player mix which will ultimately result in tougher Tennessee teams and corresponding wins. GBO!
 
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#12
#12
Instead of starting a new thread, I would throw out these ideas. If I'm CJP, a couple of things I do to help this team a little... Focus big time on pass blocking, simplify the blocking scheme in total. When JG has time, he can connect. Oddly enough, it's exactly opposite of what I thought to start the year. I think we have to pass, using these big body receivers, to loosen up the run. On kickoffs, I say fair catch it every time. We are giving up five yards every kick off because none of our returners can get it past the 20. Banks and Ty Chandler are my starters in the backfield, with Banks getting half the touches. Next time one of our DB's looks into the backfield when the QB starts to scramble and releases his receiver, who then catches a pass that goes for a long TD....that DB has to write 10,000 sentences. "I will NOT leave my wing man!", have his mom sign it and send it back to CJP. That's all I got.
 
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#14
#14
I’m sorry, but this game was on Helton more than anything else. Did Helton fumble? No, of course not, but his play calling was unreal.

Like.... absurd. Pruitt needs to answer for that before anything else.
 
#15
#15
Easy to be a Monday morning QB. If JG had not give ball twice, might have been a different game. Ditto Pope caughing up the football. Not sure what plays were called but, like someone said in another post, if you are asking a true freshman, 3 Star player, to cover a 5 Star senior all SEC, and the opposing QB can zip it where only the WR can catch it, good luck with that. Painful but, I’m not giving up on Pruitt yet.
 
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#17
#17
smashmouth105 said:
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
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OK, so who wins a four team playoff between Ark, UT, NEB, UCLA? Who could get out of their own way enough to win this matchup?

I do think you're right about your statement...all these head coaches and assistant coaches who got new jobs aren't entirely dysfunctional, but looks like they are, when teams execute so poorly.
 
#18
#18
Mr. Lofton said:
I think it's on both. Six turnovers speaks to lack of ball security which is as much coaching as it is the players. Running sideways in the end zone, missing blitz pick ups, and not executing is not something you see from well coached teams. For example, Swain was Flowers man and he left him alone on the long touchdown. Is that all on the player or is it on the coaches who are playing a true freshman with very little football experience?
Click to expand...
The blind side on JG could happen to anyone. The dive into the endzone could have happen to anyone. The two INTs were poorly thrown balls. The kickoff return was trying to gain extra yards from an inexperienced returner. I forget the sixth TO. But coaches cant make infield decisions. Why fans believe this is ridiculous.
 
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#19
#19
chatt-townVOL said:
I’m sorry, but this game was on Helton more than anything else. Did Helton fumble? No, of course not, but his play calling was unreal.

Like.... absurd. Pruitt needs to answer for that before anything else.
Click to expand...

To me, Helton was one of Pruitt's most questionable hires. I did not believe he had enough experience as a OC, and still don't. We see this as he is calling run, run, pass... PUNT... series after stinking series. JG is NOT a deep threat passer, and yet Helton keeps calling for the deep passes. JG is a short to 30 yard passer at best for consistency purposes. He simply does not have the accuracy or chemistry with the WR's for the long passes. Helton needs to realize that he has to work with what he has rather than what he wishes he had. He needs to work in the 1st down passes, more screens, and utilize his TE's more, etc., if we are to see improvement in the offense. That is just my opinion for what its worth.
 
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#20
#20
smashmouth105 said:
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
Click to expand...
Amen brother, I'm labeled a Kool aid drinker apparently because I Support our coaching staff and team and was told by a poster on here " we should get rid of the Kool aid drinkers not the fair weather fans" like that makes any sense??? Pruitt will get it fixed it just takes time as will Frost and Kelly but some don't want to realize that especially when all they really know about the game is what sportscenter says and the final score
 
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#21
#21
Mr. Lofton said:
I think it's on both. Six turnovers speaks to lack of ball security which is as much coaching as it is the players. Running sideways in the end zone, missing blitz pick ups, and not executing is not something you see from well coached teams. For example, Swain was Flowers man and he left him alone on the long touchdown. Is that all on the player or is it on the coaches who are playing a true freshman with very little football experience?
Click to expand...

As a coach for ball security all you can do is to tell your guys to keep it high and tight, cover it up on contact, and don't extend the ball when it isn't needed..... Dunno how a coach has any more bearing then that.... They work on ball security drills every practice just like every other college football team.
 
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#22
#22
OK... based on the above #20 comments... we all need to watch CJP show and then post our opinions.
 
#23
#23
smashmouth105 said:
I can. It's not much, but we're getting a little more production from our skill positions. Besides last night, Guarantano has much improved from last year in terms of efficiency and completion rating.
Click to expand...

Still cant throw TD's though.
 
#25
#25
smashmouth105 said:
Watching the Jeremy Pruitt show, I realized it wasn't the coaches. It's all in the players. Lots of these players are just losers in heart. You can't take a hard-nose coach, experienced coordinators, and qualified staff and put them in charge of losers at heart and expect wins. Anyone see what Scott Frost and Chip Kelly are doing at their programs? How TERRIBLE they are? They couldn't even beat Cincinnati or Colorado!
Click to expand...
I think there is some truth to things getting better during the purge process.

It doesnt take much (many players) not buying in to change and that problem gets worst until they are gone.

Having said that. The staff had its blunders last nite as well. It was in a sense of the term "a team effort".
 
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