Not down yet

[JacketVol]

I don’t understand the need to debate which QBs we’re facing are elite. It doesn’t make much difference. An average QB can eat us alive. Alabama and UGA could just run the ball every play and still win. We don’t have the horses.

Truth.

 

[KBVol]

Couple of things:

We WILL see a few qbs of that caliber and actually better. I can already name 4- Stidham, Fromm, Hurts/Tagovailoa, Drew Lock.
WV is not some high caliber team. I don't get why our fans think they are that good, when in reality we are just that inexperienced and made a good qb look great. Lets temper this WV is NFL caliber with their offense talk.

WV is looking at 2 maybe 3 losses this year (maybe TTU, TX, OK St). OU especially will smoke them and this Heisman talk for Will Grier will quiet down. We were able to run on their defense and that was with a group of unproven backs. Wait til they run into higher caliber offenses/defenses. That team will look quite pedestrian. Griers a good qb, but I see things coming back down to earth for him and that team before long.

After only 1 game, nobody knows what WVa is, good or bad. They looked very good at times on both defense and offense on Saturday. Was it them being really good or is being really bad? No way to know right now.

However, I do recall that after the first game last year vs GaTech, after we gave up 41 points and 655 total yards, people were coming out of the woodwork saying how great GaTech and their qb was, that nobody was gonna stop them all year, that the QB would get Heisman consideration and that they were gonna likely play in the ACC championship game for sure......GaTech averaged 24 points, 326 yards a game vs everybody else they played, finished 5-6 on the year, and nobody even remembers what their smallish, one-dimensional, DB turned QB’s name even is.

 

[ATLVols]

We are gonna get bodied by Georgia, Alabama, Auburn. The offensive coordinator needs to play to our strength better. We could have scored more. Our defense is liquid garbage. I wanna see if chryst can air it out. Sure JG looked good but I wanna see those Peyton , tee , Bray deep throws. I feel we have the receivers if our line could hold a dump in for a few hours to avoid using the city park toliet.

A new QB is not the answer to more deep routes. WV’s secondary was playing off and not allowing the deep throws. We took maybe one shot and it was a good throw (caught I believe) but he let the ball drift a yard out of bounds. JG will be a good one for us.

 

[Jack Burton]

I realize that talking up WV makes the loss a little easier to take because right now they have a Heisman QB and will be making the playoffs. Reality is we’re not good, Grier probably won’t win the Heisman, and WV is going to lose a few games.

 

[Remy]

Georgia will stumble, maybe this weekend in Columbia. They have a history of choking on the big one.

... and do not discount the dirty birds boat racing us. They have a very good experienced QB as well.

 

[FranklinVFL]

Meant to say TCU in my previous response, not TTU- I know they stink. However, though Texas lost to Maryland, I can see them getting better later in the year.

Well, with three freshman DBs, I see us getting better later in the year as well. Coach will actually coach these guys and they will me playing more like experienced DBs for our November slate of games.

 

[FranklinVFL]

A new QB is not the answer to more deep routes. WV’s secondary was playing off and not allowing the deep throws. We took maybe one shot and it was a good throw (caught I believe) but he let the ball drift a yard out of bounds. JG will be a good one for us.

JG did nothing to have his starting capabilities questioned. He was crisp, on time, on target with his passes. For a deep route, he will need time for the play to develop. OL needs to prove they can pass block for that to happen.

 

[GrizzlyVol]

I realize that talking up WV makes the loss a little easier to take because right now they have a Heisman QB and will be making the playoffs. Reality is we’re not good, Grier probably won’t win the Heisman, and WV is going to lose a few games.

That's right, as you said in your other post we don't have the horses yet to compete and in all honesty for the last few years every QB we played looked elite against us why? Because we don't have depth or players to change it yet.

 

[ButchAintOne]

Couple of things:

We WILL see a few qbs of that caliber and actually better. I can already name 4- Stidham, Fromm, Hurts/Tagovailoa, Drew Lock.
WV is not some high caliber team. I don't get why our fans think they are that good, when in reality we are just that inexperienced and made a good qb look great. Lets temper this WV is NFL caliber with their offense talk.

WV is looking at 2 maybe 3 losses this year (maybe TTU, TX, OK St). OU especially will smoke them and this Heisman talk for Will Grier will quiet down. We were able to run on their defense and that was with a group of unproven backs. Wait til they run into higher caliber offenses/defenses. That team will look quite pedestrian. Griers a good qb, but I see things coming back down to earth for him and that team before long.

I'll bet that WV winz atleast 2 of those and probably all 3.

 

[TexasVolfan1]

We are gonna get bodied by Georgia, Alabama, Auburn. The offensive coordinator needs to play to our strength better. We could have scored more. Our defense is liquid garbage. I wanna see if chryst can air it out. Sure JG looked good but I wanna see those Peyton , tee , Bray deep throws. I feel we have the receivers if our line could hold a dump in for a few hours to avoid using the city park toliet.

If you’re looking for a deep threat Chryst ain’t the guy. Seems like Helton made his mind up before the game we weren’t gonna take many shots. Kinda weird I thought we should have taken more shots too cause the one when JG got blown up Brandon Johnson had a few steps on the DB and other one was only caught a yard out of bounds.

 

[Rudy123]

TTU and Texas both stink. WVU probably wins 10.

I think that the coaching will get us better as the season goes on. I think we will win the 5 games that we are supposed to win and might get a 6th win, if some team feels charitable and gives us a win by having many turn overs.

 

[savannahfan]

Couple of things:

We WILL see a few qbs of that caliber and actually better. I can already name 4- Stidham, Fromm, Hurts/Tagovailoa, Drew Lock.
WV is not some high caliber team. I don't get why our fans think they are that good, when in reality we are just that inexperienced and made a good qb look great. Lets temper this WV is NFL caliber with their offense talk.

WV is looking at 2 maybe 3 losses this year (maybe TTU, TX, OK St). OU especially will smoke them and this Heisman talk for Will Grier will quiet down. We were able to run on their defense and that was with a group of unproven backs. Wait til they run into higher caliber offenses/defenses. That team will look quite pedestrian. Griers a good qb, but I see things coming back down to earth for him and that team before long.

Like tour post. However I don't think Hurts is in Griers' class. I would also question Stidham the same way.

 

[savannahfan]

Agreed. People are overreacting. They 7 man protected a quarterback who tore our weak secondary apart with quick accurate throws. Meanwhile our offense produced over 300 yards but constantly had horrible field position and our play calling was too conservative. We won't be good this year but we were not actually bad in any position group besides the secondary. The secondary will improve drastically with experience and better matchups in 7 of the remaining games. The trenches weren't great and will keep us from winning more than 7, but they were serviceable and WV lines are comparable or better than 7-8 of the other teams we play.

Along the line of line ability and line play. Did you watch LSU and Miami? The analyst said more than once that Miami line play would hold them out of playoff contention. That it would take more people and time (as in seasons) to get to where they want to be. NOW, where does that leave us??

 

[BeardedVol]

He put on a clinic all year last year when healthy. Tua is the only QB who can be as good as him. Bama and Georgia are better teams than WV but Grier is on the Heisman watch list for a reason and is an expected first round pick. You can’t say that yet about the other three.

Guess which stats are Grier's, and which are Drew Lock's...

 

[savannahfan]

Right on.....no pressure up front means more pressure in the backfield. Fix it or get tromped. We don't have the overall talent on defense to win us games which means the offense needs to kick into a higher gear to keep us in games. The passing game looked better against WV. Needed to do more of it in that game to build confidence in live game enviroment.

Better passing game will require MUCH better o-line play.. Don't think this can happen in one off season with the people we have right now. Think it will require a whole lot of recruiting linemen. If all of the recruits that will come, all will not pan out. Will take lots of recruits. (blame NCAA restrictions) Recruiting many lineman means offensive side of the team will suffer.. Which means we must recruit based on ability, intelligence, size and on and on, as we and all programs try to do now....... (again, blame NCAA for restrictions on number of people per year)
This is why the lessor (I use the term for identity of classification only) conferences teams are able to "sneak up on" folks, like App State, to name one.

 

[txVOL4]

We are gonna get bodied by Georgia, Alabama, Auburn. The offensive coordinator needs to play to our strength better. We could have scored more. Our defense is liquid garbage. I wanna see if chryst can air it out. Sure JG looked good but I wanna see those Peyton , tee , Bray deep throws. I feel we have the receivers if our line could hold a dump in for a few hours to avoid using the city park toliet.

Chryst is not the answer if you want to see deep throws. It's not even close in the arm strength category. JG has the strongest arm on the team with Strout not far behind. As much as people hate Jordan Rodgers prick a$$, he even stated that he thinks JG might have the strongest arm in the conference. JG did nothing to warrant ANY QB debate, but he does have a tendency to not put alot of touch on his deep balls. Partially bc he does have a cannon. He looked accurate and confident. He was throwing the ball on a few routes before the receiver even came out of his break. Something in the offseason many posters thought was impossible bc of how long he would hold the ball.

 

[photovol]

 

[VolsFan-TX]

Meant to say TCU in my previous response, not TTU- I know they stink. However, though Texas lost to Maryland, I can see them getting better later in the year.

Not sure TCU stinks, but we will know more when they play Ohio St on 9/15 and OK on 10/20. They are currently ranked #16.

 

[HessHallHeath]

Well, with three freshman DBs, I see us getting better later in the year as well. Coach will actually coach these guys and they will me playing more like experienced DBs for our November slate of games.

Hopefully we have a few more freshman to play back there because honestly I thought the freshman played better than the older guys in the secondary. Buchanan was as bad or worse than any of the three freshman except for maybe flowers. Warrior looked just ok maybe and I don't know if shamburger even played. If he did then he is a liability because he was literally not in on one play unless I somehow missed it and Abernathy still looks like the same guy from last year that supposedly fought through injuries all season. The young guys made some mistakes but will progress and get better but I'm not sure the holdovers are capable of getting much better

 

[greenbacknative]

Not even close to having the players to run out of a pro style offense. Only players geared for a spread type offense.[/
We also couldn't run the spread either. .

 

[sameolvol]

Couple of things:

We WILL see a few qbs of that caliber and actually better. I can already name 4- Stidham, Fromm, Hurts/Tagovailoa, Drew Lock.
WV is not some high caliber team. I don't get why our fans think they are that good, when in reality we are just that inexperienced and made a good qb look great. Lets temper this WV is NFL caliber with their offense talk.

WV is looking at 2 maybe 3 losses this year (maybe TTU, TX, OK St). OU especially will smoke them and this Heisman talk for Will Grier will quiet down. We were able to run on their defense and that was with a group of unproven backs. Wait til they run into higher caliber offenses/defenses. That team will look quite pedestrian. Griers a good qb, but I see things coming back down to earth for him and that team before long.

I just can't agree with your assessment, TuVol. As OP pointed out, seven blockers with a trio of elite WRs, snagging perfectly thrown and timed passes from an even more elite QB, can only equal a perfect storm for UT's talented but grossly inexperienced DBs. None of those other QBs you mentioned have the receivers and combined experience as does WVU; not even bama, and let's expect these DBs to wind up much better due to this instructive debacle. The Mountaineers' defense was far stouter than expected, too, and game-time adjustments were favorably augmented for them due to the lightning delay. IE, a far greater congregate of experienced players = more adjustments that can be implemented on the fly and, boy, they had a lot of time to fly in this one. UT's late 1st half surge wasn't a fluke. Although this was a perfect storm for WVU to win this one...don't sell them short. And, hey. Don't give up on our Vols after just the 1st game.

 

[VolinMC]

I don’t understand the need to debate which QBs we’re facing are elite. It doesn’t make much difference. An average QB can eat us alive. Alabama and UGA could just run the ball every play and still win. We don’t have the horses.

Sad but true.

 

[tcash051]

We will get better. I'm still thinking 6-6, maybe 7-5. We will win the next 2 easy games and then after the Florida game, the conversations will get more serious. If we lose, everyone will say the wheels are coming off. I think we have a reasonable chance of winning and if we are 3-1, there will probably be overreactions the other way.

 

[FBtime]

I just can't agree with your assessment, TuVol. As OP pointed out, seven blockers with a trio of elite WRs, snagging perfectly thrown and timed passes from an even more elite QB, can only equal a perfect storm for UT's talented but grossly inexperienced DBs. None of those other QBs you mentioned have the receivers and combined experience as does WVU; not even bama, and let's expect these DBs to wind up much better due to this instructive debacle. The Mountaineers' defense was far stouter than expected, too, and game-time adjustments were favorably augmented for them due to the lightning delay. IE, a far greater congregate of experienced players = more adjustments that can be implemented on the fly and, boy, they had a lot of time to fly in this one. UT's late 1st half surge wasn't a fluke. Although this was a perfect storm for WVU to win this one...don't sell them short. And, hey. Don't give up on our Vols after just the 1st game.

The 40 really doesn't concern me right now. I DO wish we had put up 24-28 points. That would have made me feel better about the season. Regardless I still feel like we'll make a bowl game.

 

[Carl Pickens]

I remain optimistic. WV 's strengths matched up terrible with our weakness. They have an incredibly accurate QB and three top notch receivers. They max protected , keeping 7 blockers . The QB was getting rid of the ball in 3 seconds. Pressure is not going to get there in the situation and blitzing a guy like that only makes it worse. There offense is very NFL caliber. We could not get to him for the same reason teams could not get to Manning or Brady. Too many blockers and the ball was gone too fast. We needed coverage pressure ….which is the weakest part of our defense. The secondary is not skilled enough at this point to get the extra 2 seconds to beat max protect. It was their strength on our weakness.

The good news is we wont see a QB at that level , maybe once or twice ...possibly. IMO there are 7 realistically winnable games on the schedule. I expect to see this team takes some lumps and improve down the stretch. I think a reasonable first step is to start winning the games that you are supposed to win and competing in the others. There were a lot of improvements on the field that may be more apparent with opponents that match up more favorably to our skill sets