Nakos reporting Aguilar is trending to be named the starter

#301
#301
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
I'm saying you can't just say "everyone else was bad" to explain away Joey A having a bad year too.

He gets props for a good year in 2023.
He takes his share of the lumps for a bad 2024.

Wouldn't you say UT lost our best players from 2024? I think so, but you'd say we replaced them with similar or better. Me too, hopefully.

I'm giving App State the same benefit of the doubt. They had a bad year as a team. Joey A takes his piece of the responsibility.
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On offense? Sampson was the biggest loss. But I would argue we are much deeper at the position this year and we'll be able to rotate a fresh RB much better. Thornton is the only real loss at WR, as he was our leading receiver. But he played banged up most of the season. Bru and Squirrel are losses in depth only, not in production. Their production can be easily filled. Talent wise, I would say there is no drop off. But the depth and the experience is a concern.

I think the OL will actually be better this year as long as people stay healthy.
 
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#302
#302
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Coach Clark, the guy who brought Joey A to App State, was known for having decent SunBelt teams for a few years including a 2022 win over aTm.

It's pretty convenient to throw the rest of the team under the bus to describe the dip in Joey A's performance in 2024.
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They kinda threw themselves there though. It is fair to criticize them.

I have said this earlier in the thread: I am not some JA evangelist. However, any criticism he receives for his lackluster 2024 campaign should be taken in context.

The argument I subscribe to is that Joey is an okay QB, who can be an effective game manager if he has the correct talent around himself. The reason I support that viewpoint is simply because App St was a better team in 2023, which meant pressure was off JA to make hero plays. Fast forward to 2024, the overall quality of the team dropped, especially on defense and the offensive line, which put him in bad positions where he just had to chuck and pray half the game. I will agree that Joey is not good enough to uplift an entire team as a result too.

So, for 2025 as the presumed starter: Joey will be surrounded by the best team he has been a part of for his career. But, the hardest competition. My hope is that our talent is good enough around him to keep him focused on the easy throws, check downs, and quick running decisions that Heupel puts in front of him so that he can be a game manager and we can lean on our strengths: defense and running the ball.

I will also reiterate what I have said before: I am less concerned with QB, and way more concerned with the WRs. That group has underperformed for two years. Brazzell has some lingering injury all the time, and Mathews lost a lot of time last year with injury. Everybody else is new and unknown.
 
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#303
#303
Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va said:
Isn’t that a big assumption that the team around him in 2024 was sun belt quality? They really sucked last year.

Something change around JA from 2023 to 2024, namely the O line and defense were not up to App St’s standards.
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But aren't you making the same assumption that the O-line wasn't sun belt quality??
 
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#304
#304
Carp said:
On offense? Sampson was the biggest loss. But I would argue we are much deeper at the position this year and we'll be able to rotate a fresh RB much better. Thornton is the only real loss at WR, as he was our leading receiver. But he played banged up most of the season. Bru and Squirrel are losses in depth only, not in production. Their production can be easily filled. Talent wise, I would say there is no drop off. But the depth and the experience is a concern.

I think the OL will actually be better this year as long as people stay healthy.
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We lost almost the entire starting WR room and I think Heard is the only starting O Line guy back. Obviously Sampson is gone from the RB room.

Your comment that Joey A lost most of his offense as a reason for his bad 2024 is just an excuse. Joey A had a really good 2023 and a pretty mediocre 2024.

He was transferring to UCLA, for goodness sake, not Bama, Ohio State, or Oregon.

I hope the kid does well. I like how quickly he gets the ball out once he's got his target and that he's definitely going to try to make a play and not hold it for a sack. It could backfire in the SEC with the DBs being extremely quick to react to the ball and read the QBs, but he's definitely going to try to do something.

He had a really good 2023. He doesn't get a pass from me for 2024.
 
#307
#307
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
We lost almost the entire starting WR room and I think Heard is the only starting O Line guy back. Obviously Sampson is gone from the RB room.

Your comment that Joey A lost most of his offense as a reason for his bad 2024 is just an excuse. Joey A had a really good 2023 and a pretty mediocre 2024.

He was transferring to UCLA, for goodness sake, not Bama, Ohio State, or Oregon.

I hope the kid does well. I like how quickly he gets the ball out once he's got his target and that he's definitely going to try to make a play and not hold it for a sack. It could backfire in the SEC with the DBs being extremely quick to react to the ball and read the QBs, but he's definitely going to try to do something.

He had a really good 2023. He doesn't get a pass from me for 2024.
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You act like he had a terrible 2024

Was it a step back from 203? For sure. He still finished with 3k yards passing, another 200 rushing, 23 passing TDs against 14 Ints. Are they great numbers? No. But they weren't awful either.
 
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#308
#308
Carp said:
You act like he had a terrible 2024

Was it a step back from 203? For sure. He still finished with 3k yards passing, another 200 rushing, 23 passing TDs against 14 Ints. Are they great numbers? No. But they weren't awful either.
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I agree. Mediocre year and some of it might have been his teammates but some of it might have been him too coming back down to earth after a great year.

I don't think he's a disaster QB for UT. I trust Heupel too much to believe he'd pull just anyone in, even on short notice.

I think his gunslinger reputation may be VERY muted at UT because it's very likely he's already seen in practice that SEC secondaries are not SunBelt secondaries.
 
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#313
#313
YankeeVol said:
I bet you'd like a 5% raise.

5% is decent gap
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The Army gives me a raise close to that amount almost every year, and while it is nice, I do not think tearing down a VFL over 5% and using him as a trash-talking prop is either valid or in good taste.


This is the same fan base I remember as a kid that dogged Casey Clausen like he was Nathan Peterman. At some point, we have to accept that not every quarterback will measure up to the last one, and that is simply the reality of the game. I will die on the hill that we talk about these athletes like dogs far too often and at least 75% of the time, it is completely unwarranted.
 
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#314
#314
Hairy Vols said:
The Army gives me a raise close to that amount almost every year, and while it is nice, I do not think tearing down a VFL over 5% and using him as a trash-talking prop is either valid or in good taste.


This is the same fan base I remember as a kid that dogged Casey Clausen like he was Nathan Peterman. At some point, we have to accept that not every quarterback will measure up to the last one, and that is simply the reality of the game. I will die on the hill that we talk about these athletes like dogs far too often and at least 75% of the time, it is completely unwarranted.
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I'm aware, I get the same raise.

I don't remember Casey Clausen hate.

Milton did miss a lot of easy passes though.
 
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#315
#315
YankeeVol said:
I'm aware, I get the same raise.

I don't remember Casey Clausen hate.

Milton did miss a lot of easy passes though.
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Without a doubt. And he made some awful plays during his time here. I'm not arguing against that. But he is a good dude who, if he had left, would of put us in a much worse spot than we were in. He still was better than a lot of previous QBs we have had, and played very well for what he was/who he was. That is all I am trying to say.
 
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#316
#316
Ifs and buts all day. Everything is an assumption. All of fall practice is actually closed session. They let accredited media in for 10 minutes for about 7-8 practices. That’s only to build up fan interest. Logic says JA is older and will start. Logic says Gmac is young (6 years younger than JA) and won’t start. Than the fans in the middle pick Merck because JA can’t be that good and Gmac is to thin.
Don’t think it really matters of the 3 players if they can run the offense. Change plays and set up pass protection. I loved the deep completions but I think this is another excellent running team and excellent defensive team. Think CJH will be using this to stay competitive regardless of QB. Why no forums debating other positions like center, LBers, safety, etc
 
#317
#317
YankeeVol said:
I'm aware, I get the same raise.

I don't remember Casey Clausen hate.

Milton did miss a lot of easy passes though.
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I remember the Clausen hate well and never understood it. The guy was 34-10 as a starter and an astounding 14-1 on the road and my favorite stat was he was undefeated in the Swamp. How many staring QB's for UT can say that??
 
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#319
#319
volfan411 said:
I remember the Clausen hate well and never understood it. The guy was 34-10 as a starter and an astounding 14-1 on the road and my favorite stat was he was undefeated in the Swamp. How many staring QB's for UT can say that??
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Werent they just pissed off because his brother Jimmy chose ND and was supposedly to be better than Casey ?
 
#323
#323
YankeeVol said:
I'm aware, I get the same raise.

I don't remember Casey Clausen hate.

Milton did miss a lot of easy passes though.
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Casey Clausen had plenty of hate as did Ainge and Bray.

A bunch of stupid frat boys and rednecks out of our fanbase didn't like the "West coast attitude" of any of the 3 and always pushed for the back ups to play in each case.

We have a significant amount of our fanbase that isn't very ball knowledgable
 
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