QB competition..

[KBVol]

North went down and our offensive game plan went out the window. Our coaches thought we could play conservatively and win and we almost did win but the collapse of our gameplan against Vandy when North got hurt was similar to the collapse of our gameplan against Florida when Hunter went down. There was no one on the field left to throw to that was 'safe' (Devrin wasn't back yet, Josh had the drops, and Croom's breakout wouldn't come until UK, our TEs were the walking wounded) and our coaches knew that we needed the bowl win - they played it safe and lost.

Even so had that block in the back not happened we'd've won.

Agree. Good accurate post. Where did Pig go that game? Would've thought he'd have been safe to throw to from the slot. Guess not. Only time I saw him was when he negated Dobbs' game winning td run.

 

[MWAVolfan]

JONES: We are waiting for someone to take grab and say 'I am the quarterback of Tennessee.' You have to bring it every single day.

This worries me the most. I dont think that its a case of waiting for one of them to "grab it". I just dont think any of them are capable of grabbing it. CBJ "isnt about depth charts" because he couldnt possible justify filling one out, at least at QB.

If he were honest and didnt use lines like "we're not into depth charts", he'd have to tell the media that his depth chart had zero first string QB's and a bunch of guys tied for 3rd or 4th.

It really doesnt take a genius to read between the lines that CBJ is drawing.

I dont think this is about a bunch of guys who are so good that CBJ just cant decide which to pick. It's because they are so bad that CBJ cant decide which one to pick.

In the end, he will go with the senior unless there is an undeniable reason to go with Fergs.

But the reality will be that we see 2-3 different QBs under center this year..... and it isnt going to be because we are blowing teams out. :-(

 

[UTProf]

Agree. Good accurate post. Where did Pig go that game? Would've thought he'd have been safe to throw to from the slot. Guess not. Only time I saw him was when he negated Dobbs' game winning td run.

In retrospect I'd have put Johnathan Johnson in the slot during that game** after North went down and have Dobbs throw to him (We saw what Devrin could do in the slot against UK and Johnson could've done something similar to Vandy, imo). He may not be as good as Josh at getting open but he has great hands and had been a reliable slot guy all year when he got playing time. Pig's plays don't work as well when there's no one else to throw to - that's one of the things about the way it's designed. Our offensive playcalling is far more interdependent than a lot of offensive systems - the prior plays effect how the defense responds to the next one quite a bit and in turn that effect how productive the next offensive play will be. It's far more a true offensive 'system' than a collection of plays.


**Just checked and Johnson started the UK game so the coaches must've reached the same conclusion on that.

 

[KBVol]

This worries me the most. I dont think that its a case of waiting for one of them to "grab it". I just dont think any of them are capable of grabbing it. CBJ "isnt about depth charts" because he couldnt possible justify filling one out, at least at QB.

If he were honest and didnt use lines like "we're not into depth charts", he'd have to tell the media that his depth chart had zero first string QB's and a bunch of guys tied for 3rd or 4th.

It really doesnt take a genius to read between the lines that CBJ is drawing.

I dont think this is about a bunch of guys who are so good that CBJ just cant decide which to pick. It's because they are so bad that CBJ cant decide which one to pick.

In the end, he will go with the senior unless there is an undeniable reason to go with Fergs.

But the reality will be that we see 2-3 different QBs under center this year..... and it isnt going to be because we are blowing teams out. :-(

It's not hard to understand this sentiment but I think our QB situation is more positive than this..... Reports are that Worley looks significantly better, that Ferguson has excellent arm talent and is beginning to assert some leadership and I believe Dobbs has excellent potential..... he flashed some good things as a true freshman under very difficult situations last year.

I think some of this is coach speak from CBJ so that one of the guys don't look to transfer coupled with wanting to let competition push all these guys to get better. Either way, I'm much more bullish on our QB play to be significantly better this year....especially with the studs we now have at WR, TE (albeit they're young) and RB (Hurd and Scott to go with Lane).

 

[KBVol]

In retrospect I'd have put Johnathan Johnson in the slot during that game** after North went down and have Dobbs throw to him (We saw what Devrin could do in the slot against UK and Johnson could've done something similar to Vandy, imo). He may not be as good as Josh at getting open but he has great hands and had been a reliable slot guy all year when he got playing time. Pig's plays don't work as well when there's no one else to throw to - that's one of the things about the way it's designed. Our offensive playcalling is far more interdependent than a lot of offensive systems - the prior plays effect how the defense responds to the next one quite a bit and in turn that effect how productive the next offensive play will be. It's far more a true offensive 'system' than a collection of plays.


**Just checked and Johnson started the UK game so the coaches must've reached the same conclusion on that.

Good point. Johnson did some good things in limited time last year. He tends to get lost/forgotten. Bet he makes good contributions this year spelling Pearson at slot.

 

[JohnMarxism]

This worries me the most. I dont think that its a case of waiting for one of them to "grab it". I just dont think any of them are capable of grabbing it. CBJ "isnt about depth charts" because he couldnt possible justify filling one out, at least at QB.

If he were honest and didnt use lines like "we're not into depth charts", he'd have to tell the media that his depth chart had zero first string QB's and a bunch of guys tied for 3rd or 4th.

It really doesnt take a genius to read between the lines that CBJ is drawing.

I dont think this is about a bunch of guys who are so good that CBJ just cant decide which to pick. It's because they are so bad that CBJ cant decide which one to pick.

In the end, he will go with the senior unless there is an undeniable reason to go with Fergs.

But the reality will be that we see 2-3 different QBs under center this year..... and it isnt going to be because we are blowing teams out. :-(

Your concerns are echoed and understood. I do think that CBJ is handling the QB situation the right way and that the opportunity for the right guy to steer the ship is primed.

 

[bigslk]

The QB Competition has been settled, tomorrow Peyton will be in the HOUSE!!!!!

 

[UTProf]

Good point. Johnson did some good things in limited time last year. He tends to get lost/forgotten. Bet he makes good contributions this year spelling Pearson at slot.

I bet he will too. I said this last year but it bears repeating - our season went down when Devrin Young got hurt before the Oregon game. We needed an experienced solid guy with the ability to make plays in the slot and that's exactly what Devrin was and when he got hurt we were left without no one at all in WR/TE corps that had any experience. You can't do that to a QB new to a system and expect anything more than we got. A QB has to have someone reliable at TE or in the Slot to take pressure off and we had neither. Not having that one guy hurt us in a lot of games and a lot more than people think.

 

[Oskie Volum]

Compton was a sure thing 4-star recruit. And Bray was a 4-star.

These guys can fuss all they want, but as I recall, Worley, Peterman, and Ferguson were all 3-star recruits. Look it up on Scout. Yeah, they had offers from SEC schools...but not really much love there.

Bray was a 3* on Scout. 4* on Rivals. Also if u want to bash Worley, Peterman, and Ferguson on their offer list u have no ability to use Bray. Kif stole him away from San Diego St, and iirc his only other offer was Fresno St.

This is what I think is true. somebody threw out there that the two young ones were "elite 11". Whatever. I go by rivals.com and so far I have no reason to back out on that. We have three 3* QBs (Ferguson, Dobbs and Worley) and a 4* QB (Peterman), and the 4* QB is showing the least talent of all of them. If the younger two are "pushing" the senior, its because CBJ isnt very comfortable with the senior. If you have two players of equal ability (physically and mentally), but one is a senior with more experience and the other is a freshman, you start the senior. No brainer. But that isnt our case, clearly. If Worley wasnt that good as a junior, I seriously doubt he became so much better now that he is a senior. He had his time in college football to improve, and it just isnt happening. The two freshmen, however could have improved greatly from year 1 to year 2, becoming acclimated to college football. They however were good enough last year to get on the field, but still not good enough to overtake Worley? Sounds to me that its more like all of the QBs are still basically in the same boat as they were last year, just another year older.

Based on which schools offered these players scollys and who those other schools took INSTEAD, it is easy to see that these guys ended up at UT because of 2 reasons: UT's program was a dumpster fire and secondly and more importantly they saw the writing on the wall that said they could fight for a starting job at UT or be the 3rd string QB for one of the other schools. I could make the specific case for each QB, but dont want to type it all out in one post. What I said above just about covers it in a very broad way.

Butch Jones is fighting to rebuild the program and just lost his entire front line(s). He knew this before he took the job. He knows his job isnt going to be in jeopardy after year 2. He will continue to "get by" with what he has until he gets more of his recruits in place in other areas.

At this point I think the question of "who will be the starting QB?" is a moot point. I fully expect to see 2-3 QBs on the field for UT this year, maybe all 4 if injuries are an issue, which they darn well could be given a whole new O-line. One can only hope that Hurd can have a historic first impression on UT and take the heat off of the QB.

U go by rivals instead of being considered am elite 11 QB?? So u take the analysis of random guys over the accomplishment of beating out hundreds of other players in actual competition held by professional QBs?? Yeah I'll go with the elite 11 myself. Also, Dobbs didn't have a bunch of schools knocking his door down either so I guess he's jumping onto a dumpster fire by coming here?? Or is it he saw the easy peasy ability to become a starter or is it the education...arghhh so confused.

Ferguson committed to Dooley pretty early, and his family was all Vol too. So it's not surprising that schools backed off, and also not surprising he didn't get the extra *. Perhaps the same things happened to Worley and peterman once they commited. Not out of the norm for the scouting sites to use the *s to help pump site visitors.

Imo i don't think it's appropriate to bash our players as if they only came here because they couldn't have done any better anywhere else. Unfortunatly it's all based on Dooley hatred too. Dooley was rebuilding a very depleted QB position from day 1, so yes these kids saw that as an opportunity. Doesn't mean they couldn't have succeed somewhere else especially somewhere that didn't have a coaching change right when it was their turn to compete for the job. I personally believe that our O production would have been way better last yr if it weren't for the change. Just like I believe the Gruden Fiasco cost us 1-2 games in '12 the coaching change cost us 1-2 games last season, so constant bashing of these players based on a yr when they were trying to adjust to a new coaching staff and system isn't fair.

 

[oregonvol]

North went down and our offensive game plan went out the window. Our coaches thought we could play conservatively and win and we almost did win but the collapse of our gameplan against Vandy when North got hurt was similar to the collapse of our gameplan against Florida when Hunter went down. There was no one on the field left to throw to that was 'safe' (Devrin wasn't back yet, Josh had the drops, and Croom's breakout wouldn't come until UK, our TEs were the walking wounded) and our coaches knew that we needed the win to make a bowl - they played it safe and lost.

Even so had that block in the back not happened we'd've won.

Yeah, it's not as if Vanderbilt had any injuries either.

But man, we were close. So close to being able to say we could beat Vanderbilt at home. If only our offensive game plan hadn't been entirely based around one freshman and took into account the incredibly remote possibility that he could get injured.

 

[VolBraniac]

Really hate to say it, but god help us if Worley is our best shot.

We'll need Buddha, Hare Krishna and Allah and not just fly-by, guest appearances either. :cray:

 

[MWAVolfan]

U go by rivals instead of being considered am elite 11 QB?? So u take the analysis of random guys over the accomplishment of beating out hundreds of other players in actual competition held by professional QBs?? Yeah I'll go with the elite 11 myself.

Rivals.com is by far the most consistent and accurate of all the ratings websites (Scouts, 247, ESPN being the other big ones). With that said, I START with Rivals and then let my eyes do the rest. No, the elite11 thing was clearly wrong. It's ESPN, after all. Hell, if you need proof of it, just look at 2009. Tyler freaking Bray was an ESPN "elite 11". Boy, how did that turn out? In fact, go back and look at all 11 QBs from 2009. Tell me how successful any of them turned out to be.

Also, Dobbs didn't have a bunch of schools knocking his door down either so I guess he's jumping onto a dumpster fire by coming here?? Or is it he saw the easy peasy ability to become a starter or is it the education...arghhh so confused.

Technically, Dobbs didnt CHOOSE Tennessee. He chose Az. St. Coach Jones stole him away at the last minute. Again, I'm guessing the conversation went something like: "You can surly beat out the QB's I have at UT. Come be a starter here at UT quickly"

Ferguson committed to Dooley pretty early, and his family was all Vol too. So it's not surprising that schools backed off, and also not surprising he didn't get the extra *. Perhaps the same things happened to Worley and peterman once they commited. Not out of the norm for the scouting sites to use the *s to help pump site visitors.

So, you are saying he didnt get the extra stars because he committed to TN? Jalen Hurd committed really early to TN and he finally got his 5th star...so...........

Also, I will choose to believe Worley didnt get another star because, well, he didnt deserve another star.

Imo i don't think it's appropriate to bash our players as if they only came here because they couldn't have done any better anywhere else.

I'll respect that to a certain point. But IMO, its appropriate to look at the situation in a realistic way. NO QBs were lining up to play for UT in the Dooley years. Sorry, its just true. Yes, I whole heartedly believe that the guys we recruited were not the number 1 choice of the major schools that offered them schollys and I dont believe they were even the number 1 choice of Derek Dooley or CBJ. We got who we could get. It is what it is and now CBJ just has to go out and get their replacements in the recruiting ranks of 2015 and 2016.

so constant bashing of these players based on a yr when they were trying to adjust to a new coaching staff and system isn't fair.

I realize that Worley and Peterman were at UT during the Dooley days, but Coach Jones WAS NOT running his system last year. He was coaching to the players that he had and they style of play they could play under. The issues with these players has nothing to do with the "system". They cant throw accurately and they are horrible decision makers when trying to read defenses. None of their issues, IMO, are related to adapting to a system, but are physical and more importantly mental deficiencies.

 

[KBVol]

Rivals.com is by far the most consistent and accurate of all the ratings websites (Scouts, 247, ESPN being the other big ones). With that said, I START with Rivals and then let my eyes do the rest. No, the elite11 thing was clearly wrong. It's ESPN, after all. Hell, if you need proof of it, just look at 2009. Tyler freaking Bray was an ESPN "elite 11". Boy, how did that turn out? In fact, go back and look at all 11 QBs from 2009. Tell me how successful any of them turned out to be.




Technically, Dobbs didnt CHOOSE Tennessee. He chose Az. St. Coach Jones stole him away at the last minute. Again, I'm guessing the conversation went something like: "You can surly beat out the QB's I have at UT. Come be a starter here at UT quickly"



So, you are saying he didnt get the extra stars because he committed to TN? Jalen Hurd committed really early to TN and he finally got his 5th star...so...........

Also, I will choose to believe Worley didnt get another star because, well, he didnt deserve another star.



I'll respect that to a certain point. But IMO, its appropriate to look at the situation in a realistic way. NO QBs were lining up to play for UT in the Dooley years. Sorry, its just true. Yes, I whole heartedly believe that the guys we recruited were not the number 1 choice of the major schools that offered them schollys and I dont believe they were even the number 1 choice of Derek Dooley or CBJ. We got who we could get. It is what it is and now CBJ just has to go out and get their replacements in the recruiting ranks of 2015 and 2016.



I realize that Worley and Peterman were at UT during the Dooley days, but Coach Jones WAS NOT running his system last year. He was coaching to the players that he had and they style of play they could play under. The issues with these players has nothing to do with the "system". They cant throw accurately and they are horrible decision makers when trying to read defenses. None of their issues, IMO, are related to adapting to a system, but are physical and more importantly mental deficiencies.

So you think our QBs are unathletic, inaccurate and mentally challenged. Alrighty then. Glad I don't share your pessimism.

 

[MWAVolfan]

So you think our QBs are unathletic, inaccurate and mentally challenged. Alrighty then. Glad I don't share your pessimism.

Relatively speaking, yep. However I never took a pessimistic tone. My whole case was to cast the entire QB situation in a realistic light and not rely on foolish beliefs that UT landed "top QB talent" that other major football powers are pining over. It just isnt true. Coach Jones knows it isnt true which is why he "doesnt do depth charts". And that's fine, he has to say what he has to say to keep the rabidly unrealistic Vols fans at bay while he fixes that and gets us back to the caliber of QB we had in the Fulmer years.

 

[lexkyvol]

Dobbs was NOT better than Worley. Worley would have beaten Vandy, and taken us bowling had he not gotten injured.

no one knows this for sure

i mean once upon a time, we easily thought tyler bray would go into commonwealth stadium and beat kensucky for win number 6, but we all know what happened there

 

[VolAllen]

no one knows this for sure

i mean once upon a time, we easily thought tyler bray would go into commonwealth stadium and beat kensucky for win number 6, but we all know what happened there

True, but Worleys "give a damn" level is much higher than Brays. That's gotta count for something.

 

[lexkyvol]

Well JMO, QB 4 outplayed QB 1 and QB 2 during game time, also, with not having your best player on the field and playing the top 2 of the top teams in the country.

RF said himself that he was able to come in if needed to. Don't get me wrong, I'm for whoever gives TN the best chance to win on the field.

don't sting those guys so hard man

 

[lexkyvol]

Dobbs was NOT better than Worley. Worley would have beaten Vandy, and taken us bowling had he not gotten injured.

based on? because dobbs did have better numbers vs better comp

 

[VolAllen]

based on? because dobbs did have better numbers vs better comp

Based on:

He didn't almost beat UGA.
He didn't beat USC.
He turned the ball over a lot, Worley didn't.

Worley's SEC win - #9 South Carolina (and almost UGA)
Dobb's SEC win - Kentucky

The team seemed stable with Worley. They didn't with Dobbs. Worley will start this year and probably do well. Wish they would just announce that already and help boost his confidence.

 

[Doyle Hargraves]

based on? because dobbs did have better numbers vs better comp

Out of morbid curiosity, what does Dobbs taste like?

 

[MWAVolfan]

True, but Worleys "give a damn" level is much higher than Brays. That's gotta count for something.

It would have been interesting to see Tyler Bray play had CBJ been around during his playing days.

He may have become a leader AND a legend at UT.

Or.... CBJ would have killed him.

 

[Kook]

Out of morbid curiosity, what does Dobbs taste like?

 

[lexkyvol]

Out of morbid curiosity, what does Dobbs taste like?

prolly someone u sleep next too

 

[lexkyvol]

Based on:

He didn't almost beat UGA.
He didn't beat USC.
He turned the ball over a lot, Worley didn't.

Worley's SEC win - #9 South Carolina (and almost UGA)
Dobb's SEC win - Kentucky

The team seemed stable with Worley. They didn't with Dobbs. Worley will start this year and probably do well. Wish they would just announce that already and help boost his confidence.

stable.....nope. got 1 big win, yes!

this was also before a pile of injuries

 

[VolAllen]

It would have been interesting to see Tyler Bray play had CBJ been around during his playing days.

He may have become a leader AND a legend at UT.

Or.... CBJ would have killed him.

I'd give money to watch CBJ slap the $hi+ out of Bray haha. Butch looks scary when he's pissed.