Recruiting Forum Football Talk II

[Kingston Vol]

We're going to beat UK as bad as we did USC or worse. The D will shut down their one dimensional offense and JJ and the gang on O will find a way to put up 40pts.

If they’re still playing that WR at QB we will beat them like a drum.

 

[OrangeGlasses731]

@volatil None of this would have been possible without you and the staff at STR. Specifically you, since you were the one who posted it here first but then VN did what we do...we took care of our own when they were down. We did it for RichRollin, @chargervol and several others. That's what makes this board great.

What @Atlanta VOL did today was...I can't even describe. Holy crap y'all. Not only did he pitch in a TON for Ashlee, he gave me and my girls the best day I've ever had in Neyland. He's a helluva dude too. Super nice host, down to earth, good guy, great company, and made my family feel welcome. I'll never forget that.

AV, when we get the house built, you're getting an invite to the party that I'm throwing....might not rival yours but I can give it a shot. Plus, a good friend of mine is an award winning chef, I told him he has to cater....there will be a spread.

Anyway... I'll post more when I can, we just got home. Here isr Mrs. ob79 and my girls. Ashlee's the youngest.View attachment 235661

So happy you and your beautiful family had this incredible day, ob! Thank you for sharing it with us!

 

[InVOLuntary]

I think it comes down to confidence for me. I'm not sure I have the confidence that JG can lead us to victory in the remaining games. I'm not confident his left hand will hold up. We don't know how UAB compares to the rest of our opponents because they haven't really played anybody. The o-line seemed to regress last night. Wanya had a down night. We know what JG gives you at this point. His peripheral vision is limited as he doesn't seem to see rushers and takes too many hits. He will be lucky to last a full game. He's consistently late on throws. Stares down receivers. The offense seems to operate at a slightly slower pace when he's running the show. I thought he deserved a lot of praise for last week but he seems to have stepped back to his old self last night. Maybe it was his hand. I just don't have a ton of confidence we can win the rest of our games with a banged up JG. Maybe we can by playing all three.

 

[volinbama256]

Oline didn't play well last night, but I think UAB's Dline is better than folks think... Need to be at full strength here the last three games.

D played well-- did Bituli play, didn't hear his name called ..?

We had to be saving Maurer for the SEC final stretch and Pruitt just needed a win-- JG gave us the best chance, even if it wasn't pretty-- he did okay for just having surgery, but made some stupid late throws obviously... JT is about another full season away in this system. He will probably transfer or even JG may transfer.

RB's did a descent job, but nothing spectacular... was disappointed we couldn't establish the run game more ... we ran better against bama and SC

I am a bit worried about WR play next season. Palmer is going to be the go-to guy and he dropped way too many last night... We need a Jarrett type guy to come in here.

We should win 2 more, but they are not going to be pretty unless we can get that mojo/fire back like we have had ... going on the road will be tough and we will see how much this team wants it.

 

[Dudley Smith]

We're going to beat UK as bad as we did USC or worse. The D will shut down their one dimensional offense and JJ and the gang on O will find a way to put up 40pts.

The Gang on O hasn't put up 40 against anyone besides UTC this year. If Maurer can get through a whole game, that might be a possibility. If the Governor is out there, we'll be lucky to get to 24. Maybe we'll cash in a defensive score or special team TD again.

 

[drvenner]

While I agree with you, we also have to remember that the flow of the game dictates sometimes what we need to do on offense. Obviously, if we had not created so many turnovers early with great field position and capitalized with field goals and a touchdown, then it is possible we may have been more aggressive with our play calling. However, with how our defense was playing, we didn’t need to be overly aggressive and allow momentum to change and let them back in the game. Pruitt showed last week that he was willing to open it up when we needed to. It may have been boring, but once we started creating so many turnovers, I liked the game plan. We won and kept everyone healthy, as well as we got some rest for a few who needed it.

Valid points but we still need to execute better. QB play has to improve.

 

[SouthKnoxVOL]

How does Pruitt expect JT to progress in this offense without giving him the proper amount of live in game reps...i just don't understand.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

They had a game plan to beat MSST. It worked.
They had a game plan to beat Bama. It worked, but the refs worked better.
They had a game plan to beat SC. It worked.
They had a game plan to beat UAB. It worked.

They will have have plans for each of the three remaining games. The last 4 games suggest strongly they will work. Fret less and enjoy the ride.

During the past week I took the over on 2 interceptions off of Johnston. Check. Thanks Bryce.

I said I thought we ought to win by 20+ points. Check. Thanks defense.

I’m okay with the game. I think maybe some fans look for the same game plan for all of our opponents, particularly on offense. Of course it doesn’t work that way. Every game plan has its own nuances and for multiple reasons. jmo.

I didn’t think we executed all that well tonight on offense, particularly up front, but we did enough to more than cover the spread. Sometimes I think in games where we have a substantial advantage or are maybe substantially overmatched we may use those games to work on things we’re not all that good at yet. Think about it like this, we have several hundred plays in our offensive playbook; tonight we probably ran very few of those plays which we have the highest confidence in our ability to execute, particularly as it applies to the guys up front. jmo.

Last year against Charlotte we rushed only 26 times and gained a total of 20 net yards on the ground. That was all we needed to win. The very next game against a highly ranked Kentucky squad we rushed 40 times and gained a net of 215 yards and were well in control of the game throughout.

Last year Kentucky’s rushing defense finished ranked 6th in the conference against conference competition. With only 2 conference games to go this year for them they are ranked 12th. Our rushing defense against SEC teams was at #9 last year; this year we’re at #6 so far.

We were dead last in the conference last year for rushing offense but we had a stellar rushing performance against the wildcats while shutting down their run game. I think we need to do the same thing this year, make them one-dimensional on offense and have a game plan that we know we can execute for our running game, particularly as it relates to blocking assignments.

Last year Kentucky’s passing offense was dead last in the conference against their schedule. So far it hasn’t budged from that position this year. At this point in our season we have marginal improvement in both our passing offense and our rushing offense, relative to last year.

I think our rush defense, if it holds up, is the main factor in us winning out and I think to compliment that we need a strong offensive rushing performance against Kentucky by our running backs and against Missouri by our QB (Maurer or Jennings). I think UAB would probably have no problem beating Vandy. jmo.

We’re not just running the same 20 or so plays game in and game out and I don’t think we’re missing a lot of blocks because of lack of effort. Our blocking assignments are as complex as our playbook. We ran pretty good against the SC defensive front so what happened yesterday? My opinion is we didn’t run the same plays with the same blocking assignments. We weren’t going to our bread and butter that often, maybe in a few situations just to make sure we came out with a win. Based on the MSU & SC games I think we’ll see our better game plans especially over the next couple of games. jmo.

On defense, last night Pruitt credited some of our improvement on that side of the ball to improved play-calling by Ansley. He said he’s gotten better as the year has gone on. I said last week that I thought we needed to shut down UAB’s passing game and I thought we could do that if we kept Johnston under pressure. I think we did a really good job of that last night. jmo.

In rewatching the first 3 quarters of the game I think if we get TDs instead of FGs for our first 3 scores and JG makes a better decision on his lone pick, and we don’t empty the bench in the 4th quarter, we maybe win the game 49-0, at least. Brent Cimaglia says, “Where’s the fun in that? I want to play too.” Career long 53 yard field goal and it’s GOOD.

 

[Dooby15]

Never going to complain about a win especially of that fashion. QB rotation didn’t make sense to me. Trey smith solidified himself as a 1st round pick with that game, not that he needed it really but he could’ve built an IHOP. Cimaglia is going to be huge for us down the stretch. I have absolutely no idea why we were playing the style of defense the first quarter of the season. We are a man team and can make plays in it. We may give up a big play here or there but i will gladly take that.

Pruitt mentioned in the post game presser that Ansley is getting better as a play caller. Do you think during the bye or at some point Pruitt has started making some calls?

 

[CHen]

Oline didn't play well last night, but I think UAB's Dline is better than folks think... Need to be at full strength here the last three games.

D played well-- did Bituli play, didn't hear his name called ..?

We had to be saving Maurer for the SEC final stretch and Pruitt just needed a win-- JG gave us the best chance, even if it wasn't pretty-- he did okay for just having surgery, but made some stupid late throws obviously... JT is about another full season away in this system. He will probably transfer or even JG may transfer.

RB's did a descent job, but nothing spectacular... was disappointed we couldn't establish the run game more ... we ran better against bama and SC

I am a bit worried about WR play next season. Palmer is going to be the go-to guy and he dropped way too many last night... We need a Jarrett type guy to come in here.

We should win 2 more, but they are not going to be pretty unless we can get that mojo/fire back like we have had ... going on the road will be tough and we will see how much this team wants it.

I think Gibbs is going to add another needed veteran on the WR group next year. It’s been quiet since the season started but in fall camp he was mentioned a lot to be looking good.

Beyond him Brandon Johnson redshirting should help. Keyton and Tillman have both had flashes this year.

 

[drvenner]

Cimaglia should be an All American. But, I bet he doesn't get it.

 

[VolInDayton]

How does Pruitt expect JT to progress in this offense without giving him the proper amount of live in game reps...i just don't understand.

Maybe practice? Shrout is still a redshirt freshman and didn't have much experience from high school if I recall correctly. JG had a very pedestrian game yesterday, but the only way we were losing to UAB was if we started turning the ball over on our side of the field.

 

[volinbama256]

How does Pruitt expect JT to progress in this offense without giving him the proper amount of live in game reps...i just don't understand.

I have to agree with you on this... it was like a high school game... he had one bad series, already knew what he had done wrong before he was to the sidelines, and still got taken out... not very motivating...

 

[millst987]

One thing I know for certain is that Kash kid for UK will intentionally hurt Maurer if he gets a chance. He’s a dirty dirty player for sure. He snapped FF’s ankle purposely earlier this year. Need to keep an eye on that kid if Maurer plays.

 

[volinbama256]

I think Gibbs is going to add another needed veteran on the WR group next year. It’s been quiet since the season started but in fall camp he was mentioned a lot to be looking good.

Beyond him Brandon Johnson redshirting should help. Keyton and Tillman have both had flashes this year.

Thanks--- I had forgotten about Gibbs... all these kids are going to need to work hard in the offseason and really step up if we are going to win more games next year...

 

[CHen]

Someone mentioned earlier Pruitt not running up the score, I think that’s being overlooked by some. He was never going to come out and try to put up 50+ on a staff he has so many connections to, imo. He respects those guys, had a fairly vanilla offensive game plan, which was fine considering the aggressive defensive plan kept them from moving the ball.

 

[ALLVOL24/7/365]

We're going to beat UK as bad as we did USC or worse. The D will shut down their one dimensional offense and JJ and the gang on O will find a way to put up 40pts.

Ron, I so hope you are right. Just like arthritis, MY BVS keeps flaring up. GBO BEAT THE mildcats!

 

[Rishvol]

Someone mentioned earlier Pruitt not running up the score, I think that’s being overlooked by some. He was never going to come out and try to put up 50+ on a staff he has so many connections to, imo. He respects those guys, had a fairly vanilla offensive game plan, which was fine considering the aggressive defensive plan kept them from moving the ball.

The play calling says differently

 

[VolMike16]

Pruitt mentioned in the post game presser that Ansley is getting better as a play caller. Do you think during the bye or at some point Pruitt has started making some calls?

I'm not sure if he is making calls but I think he has upped his input since that bye. It's no coincidence that the defense has flashed since. Shamburger had to have blitzed 10 times last night. I'm not sure we saw any DB's blitzing the first couple games. It's funny because Shawn isn't tip toeing anymore.

 

[SouthKnoxVOL]

I have to agree with you on this... it was like a high school game... he had one bad series, already knew what he had done wrong before he was to the sidelines, and still got taken out... not very motivating...

Then you got JG heaving that throw into endzone before half that gets picked off.....cost us at least 3 more points....But Pruitt just slaps him on the wrist and trots him out there in the 2nd half.

 

[drvenner]

If someone puts me on ignore please announce it to the group and tag me. I need stuff like this in my life.

 

[gunner]

Valid points but we still need to execute better. QB play has to improve.

Correct, if JG is still the starter and plays like that against any of the three remaining opponents, UT will get beat.

JG did NOT play winning football last night, Vols were just good on defense last night which won them the game.

 

[SweetasSoda]

How does Pruitt expect JT to progress in this offense without giving him the proper amount of live in game reps...i just don't understand.

Maybe he expects him to do well in practice then do what he is taught in games. Think he said he would have played more if he had not made the 6th grade pickup game throw (paraphrasing here) that he has been told not to do.

 

[Catbone]

I think Maurer is going to be out for the rest of the year ...

 

[millst987]

I think Maurer is going to be out for the rest of the year ...

Nah