John Chavis

#1
swami2302

swami2302

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Oct 8, 2005
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#1
Tennessee has had some great defenses over the years. The 98 defense, and the 05 Defense especially. Chavis was crowned a defensive genius. But as I look back over the years, Chavis may just be overrated. Here's my thinking.

The common thing with our great defenses was Great D-Linemen. Haynesworth, Henderson, Little, Walker, Ellis, Mahelonia(sp) to name a few. With the exception of Bolden, we probably don't have a NFL caliber lineman on the team. Despite the talent we've had in the secondary over the years, our Defense has consistently given up big plays. Especially 3rd and long. Now I believe we have good talent in the secondary(young but athletic and talented). But without a D-Line to provide a pass rush and the stupid scheme we run our DB's and LB's are forced to cover huge amounts of territory thus giving up huge chunks of yardage. You may say that this is a talent problem and you are correct, but IMO Chavis isn't smart enough to change things to suit the talent he has.
I don't know a lot about defensive coaching. But what I saw Sat. night was no pass rush and huge cushions between their WR's and our DB's. To me my friends that is poor coaching. Your thoughts?
 
#2
#2
swami2302 said:
Tennessee has had some great defenses over the years. The 98 defense, and the 05 Defense especially. Chavis was crowned a defensive genius. But as I look back over the years, Chavis may just be overrated. Here's my thinking.

The common thing with our great defenses was Great D-Linemen. Haynesworth, Henderson, Little, Walker, Ellis, Mahelonia(sp) to name a few. With the exception of Bolden, we probably don't have a NFL caliber lineman on the team. Despite the talent we've had in the secondary over the years, our Defense has consistently given up big plays. Especially 3rd and long. Now I believe we have good talent in the secondary(young but athletic and talented). But without a D-Line to provide a pass rush and the stupid scheme we run our DB's and LB's are forced to cover huge amounts of territory thus giving up huge chunks of yardage. You may say that this is a talent problem and you are correct, but IMO Chavis isn't smart enough to change things to suit the talent he has.
I don't know a lot about defensive coaching. But what I saw Sat. night was no pass rush and huge cushions between their WR's and our DB's. To me my friends that is poor coaching. Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Concerning this season, I agree about the pass rush issues and the lack of blitzes against Alabama once it became obvious we weren't going to touch Wilson. Chavis was so stubborn against Bama.

As for this week, I thought we tried to up the pressure some in the second half. But guess what, when your team can't get a stop and spends most of the night on the field, they get tired. It didn't matter how many we sent at one point, they still never got the pressure to Mitchell.

I'd like to see us try this a little sooner in the game, instead of giving up 7-10 play drives so consistently in the first half, which leads to our 3Q meltdowns.
 
#3
#3
I have never liked Chavis' reactive, instead of proactive, approach to defense. It is also obvious that at least on the front line he has absolutley no horses at all.
 
#4
#4
I'll never forgive him for coming up with weak excuses the week before and after the Air Force game as to why we can't play fundamental assignment football and do a better job against the option.
 
#5
#5
hard to get a rush on the QB when 1 DE and 1 DT drop back into coverage...anyone catch MAPU trying to cover the RB over the middle???
 
#6
#6
this year we have lost 5 starters in the D backfield. i think that pretty well sums up why there are coverage issues.

however i don't understand why the D line is having so much trouble, and this puts more pressure on the secondary.

i've also heard chavis referred to as "great" but i've been asking for some stats to illustrate it and so far have seen none.
 
#7
#7
swami2302 said:
Tennessee has had some great defenses over the years. The 98 defense, and the 05 Defense especially. Chavis was crowned a defensive genius. But as I look back over the years, Chavis may just be overrated. Here's my thinking.

The common thing with our great defenses was Great D-Linemen. Haynesworth, Henderson, Little, Walker, Ellis, Mahelonia(sp) to name a few. With the exception of Bolden, we probably don't have a NFL caliber lineman on the team. Despite the talent we've had in the secondary over the years, our Defense has consistently given up big plays. Especially 3rd and long. Now I believe we have good talent in the secondary(young but athletic and talented). But without a D-Line to provide a pass rush and the stupid scheme we run our DB's and LB's are forced to cover huge amounts of territory thus giving up huge chunks of yardage. You may say that this is a talent problem and you are correct, but IMO Chavis isn't smart enough to change things to suit the talent he has.
I don't know a lot about defensive coaching. But what I saw Sat. night was no pass rush and huge cushions between their WR's and our DB's. To me my friends that is poor coaching. Your thoughts?
Click to expand...


Secondary has always been the problem. Look at how many guys are doing so well in the NFL but never really were great at UT. Gibril Wilson is a stud at NY, Jabari Greer just flat out made T.O. look bad on a Monday night game. The biggest problem on our defense besides Chavis is Larry Slade. He is awful. He is the Pat Washington of our defense. Just a really bad position coach.
 
#8
#8
swami2302 said:
Tennessee has had some great defenses over the years. The 98 defense, and the 05 Defense especially. Chavis was crowned a defensive genius. But as I look back over the years, Chavis may just be overrated. Here's my thinking.

The common thing with our great defenses was Great D-Linemen. Haynesworth, Henderson, Little, Walker, Ellis, Mahelonia(sp) to name a few. With the exception of Bolden, we probably don't have a NFL caliber lineman on the team. Despite the talent we've had in the secondary over the years, our Defense has consistently given up big plays. Especially 3rd and long. Now I believe we have good talent in the secondary(young but athletic and talented). But without a D-Line to provide a pass rush and the stupid scheme we run our DB's and LB's are forced to cover huge amounts of territory thus giving up huge chunks of yardage. You may say that this is a talent problem and you are correct, but IMO Chavis isn't smart enough to change things to suit the talent he has.
I don't know a lot about defensive coaching. But what I saw Sat. night was no pass rush and huge cushions between their WR's and our DB's. To me my friends that is poor coaching. Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I agree with you partially. The lack of talent on the d-line is having a huge trickle down effect and is exposing an already suspect secondary. I may be crazy, but I really don't think there is much talent out there to coach up right now. If you start making a list, it is staggering to think of all the guys who should be on the field but aren't due to injury, attrition, academics, discipline etc.
 
#9
#9
GAVol said:
I agree with you partially. The lack of talent on the d-line is having a huge trickle down effect and is exposing an already suspect secondary. I may be crazy, but I really don't think there is much talent out there to coach up right now. If you start making a list, it is staggering to think of all the guys who should be on the field but aren't due to injury, attrition, academics, discipline etc.
Click to expand...

I've wondered about the defensive situation this year and have more or less blamed poor coaching for the total lack thereof. Are you able to name some of the missing talent that should be on the field and if they are not on the field due to academics, discipline, attrition, etc., isn't that a coaching thing as well?
 
#12
#12
The 05 defensive line was great, and so was the run defense. The pass defense wasn't at the same level.

In 04 UT gave up more points then any other UT defense in history. That record will no doubt be broken by the 07 group. So 2 of the last 4 years, UT's defense has given up more points then any team in UT history. The 06 defense wasn't particularly good either.
 
#13
#13
Voluripides said:
I've wondered about the defensive situation this year and have more or less blamed poor coaching for the total lack thereof. Are you able to name some of the missing talent that should be on the field and if they are not on the field due to academics, discipline, attrition, etc., isn't that a coaching thing as well?
Click to expand...

This, football fans, is a great question.

:salute:
 
#14
#14
IMO it's bad coaching when you have two QB's in a row that can't throw a pass downfield for more than 10 yards accurately and you coach your defensive backfield to play 12 yards off the ball. We made Wilson and Mitchell look like Favre and Elway and Hall and McKinley look like Rice and Owens with simple ten yard dump off passes. In addition to playing to their strengths you do not allow yourself to pressure the QB when you leave their WR's and TE's wide open 8 yards off the ball. If I can see it, I do not see how they cannot make these adjustments. Our defenseive scheme is 'play scared' and don't give up a big play. I think we have the talent to win every game with a 21 point lead in the second half regardless of whether we have the studs we had back when or not. That's my rant for the moment anyway.
 
#16
#16
Vols2TheWall said:
Secondary has always been the problem. Look at how many guys are doing so well in the NFL but never really were great at UT. Gibril Wilson is a stud at NY, Jabari Greer just flat out made T.O. look bad on a Monday night game. The biggest problem on our defense besides Chavis is Larry Slade. He is awful. He is the Pat Washington of our defense. Just a really bad position coach.
Click to expand...

Gibril Wilson was an excellent player for UT. Before him, Julian Battle was also really good.
 
#20
#20
KCVolLaw said:
I don't know either but Chiefs fans hate him. They always thank me for Colquitt though.
Click to expand...

I think they probably hated Larry Johnson for awhile there, too. Wasn't there some talk of him wearing diapers before he became a stud the last few years?
 
#21
#21
kptvol said:
I think they probably hated Larry Johnson for awhile there, too. Wasn't there some talk of him wearing diapers before he became a stud the last few years?
Click to expand...

yea...i think it was Vermil who made that comment. Now he's the biggest dbag in KC. Seriously if you ever met the guy...huge dbag
 
#22
#22
That was just Vermel challanging him. I don't think the fans ever hated him, they had that weirdo Holmes at that time.
 
#24
#24
The '05 defense is the most overrated Tennessee unit of all time. They lost three games with their inability to make plays at the end of games. That group was overloaded with losers. Also, before anyone starts the tired and inaccurate garbage about how they were on the field all day, look at time of possession against Alabama, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. The discrepancy has nothing to do with the fact that Mahelona, et al were pure chokers.
 
#25
#25
hatvol96 said:
The '05 defense is the most overrated Tennessee unit of all time. They lost three games with their inability to make plays at the end of games. That group was overloaded with losers. Also, before anyone starts the tired and inaccurate garbage about how they were on the field all day, look at time of possession against Alabama, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt. The discrepancy has nothing to do with the fact that Mahelona, et al were pure chokers.
Click to expand...

The front seven were as good as you'd need to win games. We might be better off playing with ten guys, if we could trade both our DTs this year for one of the DTs from 2005. Jason Hall, Parys Haralson, and Turk McBride were also much better than any of our defensive ends. All the linebackers were better, as well.

I don't think our defense really lost the Notre Dame game. Didn't they only give up like ten offensive points the entire game?
 
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