Serious concerns going into SEC play

#1
Volstate

Volstate

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#1
This team really concerns me. We have some HUGE deficiencies that are going to really be exposed going into SEC play. Our offensive line, particularly Drew Richmond, looks lost at times. I can only hope that a light bulb goes off in his head before the Florida game or we are in serious trouble. The Gators have a stout defense.

Our defense, particularly our secondary and Justin Martin, is getting beat quite regularly and in Martin's case finds himself trying to catch up, never looks back at the ball, and gets flagged for interference. Happened twice at BoB and also against APPY state. Another concern is one Herbstreit pointed out with our blitzing. We aren't getting to the QB fast enough on blitzes and its creating a soft zone in the secondary which allows for those short dump passes for big yards.

The BIGGEST concern is Josh Dobbs. His inability to throw downfield consistently AND his poor decisions with the ball are going to be exposed against SEC defenses. He has a hard time even completing 3 yard passes for goodness sakes much less the long ball. He is making freshman mistakes trying to force the ball into covered receivers as well way too often. SEC corners are going to eat him alive. Yes, Dobbs can run the ball so that part of his skill set is beneficial but his inability to throw downfield in going to hurt the overall effectiveness of the offense. I'm also not very impressed with his leadership skills. I don't buy into the silent leader types. A leader has to be vocal and strong and I just don't think that is Dobb's personality at all.

Here's to hoping some things magically get fixed before Florida or it's gonna be 12 in a row folks and yet another mediocre season. We don't beat Florida we will spiral down in flames because I don't see us beating Georgia or Bama we lose to the Gators.
 
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#2
#2
Dobbs could be great at QB "throwing" if he had a better QB expert/coach. I am not an expert myself but did play a little qb while staying at a holiday inn express
 
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#3
#3
Josh Dobbs is the biggest concern?! Without him we are 1-1 or 0-2 right now. He is our BEST option behind the junk O-line, which is what really should be our biggest concern.
 
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#5
#5
I don't agree that Dobbs is the biggest concern. I do not think he'll ever be a true pocket passer who can read a defense and choose between several receivers, but if the the O-Line were solid Dobbs would probably look better at passing and gain even more rushing yards.

His two jump ball TD passes were both fine throws and the spin move to escape before the easy pitch to Kamara was also a good play. Combined with his large gains on QB keepers, Dobbs IMO played a good game.

He makes more mistakes than I would like, and this will probably lead to interceptions in big games, but that is a little more forgivable because he is frequently dealing with unblocked D linemen.
 
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#6
#6
Shocker0 said:
Josh Dobbs is the biggest concern?! Without him we are 1-1 or 0-2 right now. He is our BEST option behind the junk O-line, which is what really should be our biggest concern.
Click to expand...

This. Better Oline play would allow for better downfield passing.
 
#7
#7
Volstate said:
This team really concerns me. We have some HUGE deficiencies that are going to really be exposed going into SEC play. Our offensive line, particularly Drew Richmond, looks lost at times. I can only hope that a light bulb goes off in his head before the Florida game or we are in serious trouble. The Gators have a stout defense.

Our defense, particularly our secondary and Justin Martin, is getting beat quite regularly and in Martin's case finds himself trying to catch up, never looks back at the ball, and gets flagged for interference. Happened twice at BoB and also against APPY state. Another concern is one Herbstreit pointed out with our blitzing. We aren't getting to the QB fast enough on blitzes and its creating a soft zone in the secondary which allows for those short dump passes for big yards.

The BIGGEST concern is Josh Dobbs. His inability to throw downfield consistently AND his poor decisions with the ball are going to be exposed against SEC defenses. He has a hard time even completing 3 yard passes for goodness sakes much less the long ball. He is making freshman mistakes trying to force the ball into covered receivers as well way too often. SEC corners are going to eat him alive. Yes, Dobbs can run the ball so that part of his skill set is beneficial but his inability to throw downfield in going to hurt the overall effectiveness of the offense. I'm also not very impressed with his leadership skills. I don't buy into the silent leader types. A leader has to be vocal and strong and I just don't think that is Dobb's personality at all.

Here's to hoping some things magically get fixed before Florida or it's gonna be 12 in a row folks and yet another mediocre season. We don't beat Florida we will spiral down in flames because I don't see us beating Georgia or Bama we lose to the Gators.
Click to expand...

I agree with all of this and would add tackling. Entirely too many missed tackles. There seems to be something amiss with the basic fundamentals.

Our receiving corp is too talented to be wasted. Dobbs cannot get the ball to them consistently.

I'm happy we're 2-0...but this team looks like a 7-5 team. Nowhere close to top 25 material. I share your concerns.
 
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#8
#8
Volstate said:
This team really concerns me. We have some HUGE deficiencies that are going to really be exposed going into SEC play. Our offensive line, particularly Drew Richmond, looks lost at times. I can only hope that a light bulb goes off in his head before the Florida game or we are in serious trouble. The Gators have a stout defense.

Our defense, particularly our secondary and Justin Martin, is getting beat quite regularly and in Martin's case finds himself trying to catch up, never looks back at the ball, and gets flagged for interference. Happened twice at BoB and also against APPY state. Another concern is one Herbstreit pointed out with our blitzing. We aren't getting to the QB fast enough on blitzes and its creating a soft zone in the secondary which allows for those short dump passes for big yards.

The BIGGEST concern is Josh Dobbs. His inability to throw downfield consistently AND his poor decisions with the ball are going to be exposed against SEC defenses. He has a hard time even completing 3 yard passes for goodness sakes much less the long ball. He is making freshman mistakes trying to force the ball into covered receivers as well way too often. SEC corners are going to eat him alive. Yes, Dobbs can run the ball so that part of his skill set is beneficial but his inability to throw downfield in going to hurt the overall effectiveness of the offense. I'm also not very impressed with his leadership skills. I don't buy into the silent leader types. A leader has to be vocal and strong and I just don't think that is Dobb's personality at all.

Here's to hoping some things magically get fixed before Florida or it's gonna be 12 in a row folks and yet another mediocre season. We don't beat Florida we will spiral down in flames because I don't see us beating Georgia or Bama we lose to the Gators.
Click to expand...

Oline will be fine when Hall returns.

DK needs to come back healthy. Otherwise the defense is fine.

Outlook is good right now.
 
#9
#9
Coaching has to be the main concern with the OL, QB, WR, and LB development. Butch needs to let go of the dedication to assistants and get the top guys in each field. As much as we all hate kiffin, he can coach up QB's. There have to be better candidates than our current coaches. We won't win NC's with this staff. I think the talent is there, just not the coaching currently.

GO VOLS!!!
 
#12
#12
coach799 said:
Coaching has to be the main concern with the OL, QB, WR, and LB development. Butch needs to let go of the dedication to assistants and get the top guys in each field. As much as we all hate kiffin, he can coach up QB's. There have to be better candidates than our current coaches. We won't win NC's with this staff. I think the talent is there, just not the coaching currently.

GO VOLS!!!
Click to expand...
Malone and Jennings make great plays and clearly showing that they can beat Va techs secondary, so what does Debord do....doesn't even target them again.
 
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#13
#13
We are aware that our OL is not up to par. Hope they improve as time goes on.
One problem I see with Dobbs and our play calling and design is, Dobbs is holding the ball too long in the backfield. IMHO, the OC should have plays designed to get the ball out of his hands quickly.
Hurd up the middle, time after time is not going to get it done in SEC play.
We need to rethink our offensive play calling.

Another thing that gripes my butt is when Dobbs throws a lateral pass to Kamara, it is behind the line of scrimmage. If he gets nailed, it is usually for no gain or lost yardage. Why not let the reciever advance at least 3 or 4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. That way if he is tackled quickly, at least we have gained yardage.
Surely a college quarterback can throw four yards.
 
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#14
#14
ice said:
We are aware that our OL is not up to par. Hope they improve as time goes on.
One problem I see with Dobbs and our play calling and design is, Dobbs is holding the ball too long in the backfield. IMHO, the OC should have plays designed to get the ball out of his hands quickly.
Hurd up the middle, time after time is not going to get it done in SEC play.
We need to rethink our offensive play calling.
Click to expand...

The offensive game plan for the last two days have been terrible. Head scratching in some cases.
 
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#15
#15
I'm not a football evaluater but as a casual fan, it looks like we play extremely slow. It looks like both Appy and VT had better speed on the field than us.
 
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#16
#16
The line was better with Coleman on the bench, Wiesman at center, and Jones at guard.
When Hall is back, Kendrick to LT and Hall at RT seems like a better lineup than what we have seen. Surely they can consistantly get us more than 3 seconds of protection.
 
#17
#17
ice said:
We are aware that our OL is not up to par. Hope they improve as time goes on.
One problem I see with Dobbs and our play calling and design is, Dobbs is holding the ball too long in the backfield. IMHO, the OC should have plays designed to get the ball out of his hands quickly.
Hurd up the middle, time after time is not going to get it done in SEC play.
We need to rethink our offensive play calling.
Click to expand...

Dobbs holding the ball too long?

Is your TV on slow motion or something?

The amount of time he has to throw the ball on most plays is the amount of times it takes to flip a light switch thanks to the interior of that OL
 
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#18
#18
Offensive linemen are the problem. All of them struggled in some capacity last night. Wouldn't be surprised to see Kendrick, Robertson, Wiseman, Jones, Hall in some capacity. Thomas and Robertson both struggled last night and both have played in 20+ games now.
 
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#20
#20
orangeluvr said:
Butch fired a DC so he may have no problem firing an OC, can't let loyalty stand in the way of a paycheck.
Click to expand...

The offensive scheme and play calling is fine.

Oline just hasn't executed.

When Hall returns and we see the oline that was supposed to take the field against App State we will be just fine.
 
#21
#21
I thought our secondary was pretty good actually. Evans threw for 214 yards and 52 of those were that last TD drive where nobody was trying. So that's 162 when the game actually counted.
 
#22
#22
Why would anyone say that Dobbs can't get the ball downfield? We don't throw the ball down the field--or two our wideouts! We hardly throw it at all. We did not throw one pass to a TE last night! No slants, no creativity. When we do try to throw it downfield, the pass protection breaks down quickly. Our OL play has not been good--and I absolutely hate DeBord's schemes and play-calling. I've never liked this offense. We rely on individuals to make great athletic plays. That doesn't work too well against good defenses as we will find out against florida and bama.
 
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#23
#23
armchair said:
Why would anyone say that Dobbs can't get the ball downfield? We don't throw the ball down the field--or two our wideouts! We hardly throw it at all. We did not throw one pass to a TE last night! No slants, no creativity. When we do try to throw it downfield, the pass protection breaks down quickly. Our OL play has not been good--and I absolutely hate DeBord's schemes and play-calling. I've never liked this offense. We rely on individuals to make great athletic plays. That doesn't work too well against good defenses as we will find out against florida and bama.
Click to expand...

The offense is Butchs. Debo just selects the calls
 
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#24
#24
Shocker0 said:
Josh Dobbs is the biggest concern?! Without him we are 1-1 or 0-2 right now. He is our BEST option behind the junk O-line, which is what really should be our biggest concern.
Click to expand...

Absolutely right...I don't understand why some think Dobbs is the biggest issue.
 
#25
#25
armchair said:
I've never liked this offense. We rely on individuals to make great athletic plays. That doesn't work too well against good defenses as we will find out against florida and bama.
Click to expand...

+1... With a one back set and conservative play calling, this offense kills itself... 90% of running plays go to Hurd, and aĺlows the defense to key on him... we need a two back set and run mis-direction plays, or pass more on first down to set up the run...
 
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