So... about those running backs

[VolInNW]

It had nothing to do with a hole new elite
Line learning on the job hints 1-4 start and 4-1 since. Kennedy playing all year Trey playing all year and the 2 true freshman studs playing and Calvert but by all means blame Friend for the bad and someone else for the good. Dang people on here just spewing garbage and not looking into any information.

The OLine performance improved, from what I understand, when Cheney got involved in the actual practice coaching. From what I have seen, Friend is not a top level recruiter and is a mediocre at best OL coach. If Pruitt wants to get to the next level, he needs stud recruiters on his staff first and foremost. Does Friend fit the bill? Time will tell, but I have not been blown away so far.

 

[GVol1966]

You coach the people you have to work with. They all have ceilings. They all also have stages they are in their development. I know they are a lot better than they were last year. Pass blocking is much better. Run blocking maybe marginally better. RB’s have a role in that too. Arm chair experts on here are quick to call for coaches replacement based on their own scant assessments. I wonder how those same people would feel about 20000 people looking over their shoulder at work every day and however many of them calling for your head, whether they know anything about your job or not.

The D was a big question coming into this year, especially the line which was said to be short on talent and depth and at linebacker. The line has exceeded every expectation and Freshman Henry T has been a big part of the LB success!
The O line like every year may show some improvement but marginal, even with Smith back and healthy, Kennedy back and addition of 2 top 5 OL recruits.
Think what you want but seems like of all position groups OL seems to be the 1 that consistently underperforms along with RB and QB, but the later 2 are hugely effected by the former!
But draw your own conclusions

 

[GVol1966]

The D was a big question coming into this year, especially the line which was said to be short on talent and depth and at linebacker. The line has exceeded every expectation and Freshman Henry T has been a big part of the LB success!
The O line like every year may show some improvement but marginal, even with Smith back and healthy, Kennedy back and addition of 2 top 5 OL recruits.
Think what you want but seems like of all position groups OL seems to be the 1 that consistently underperforms along with RB and QB, but the later 2 are hugely effected by the former!
But draw your own conclusions

Edit:
I will add the OL is the only group that has 3 legit, not overrated, legit 5 star recruits!!!

 

[Bigun]

Gameplanning. We don't match up well against the run with them, if we were going to beat them it was going to be through the air. We ran just enough to keep them honest. I view this as Chaney doing his job well.

HOw can we not match up well with them against the run. Aren't they giving up over 150yds/game on the ground and supposedly our OL was improving mightily. I'm not seeing anything other than our OL is decent and our backs lack a superstar difference maker.

 

[ftsandersvol]

Charge you phone dude!

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.

 

[pimo1]

HOw can we not match up well with them against the run. Aren't they giving up over 150yds/game on the ground and supposedly our OL was improving mightily. I'm not seeing anything other than our OL is decent and our backs lack a superstar difference-maker.

You people act like we tried to run and failed miserably...we averaged 4 yards a carry but we only ran it just over 20 times and it was mostly QB'sand some of those rushing attempts were scrambles, realistically we called less than 20 actual rushing plays If we had 21 rushes for say 40 yards or something people would have a point but we rushed for 83 yards on 21 carries Ty averaged 4ypc Jordan 3 gray has one for 0 but I mean those are not great averages but they are not something to be worried about.

You look at almost any team that wins against an almost pure option team.. they are not gonna run the ball much because that option team is gonna chew the clock. It is not a failure of the defense or coaching its the nature of the game. Kentucky rushed the ball 64 times. That eats up a lot of clock friends. That's why option teams win so much because it forces other teams to pass unless they jump on top early. We fall behind 13 points early passing was the only way to come back. JG only threw the ball 8 times in the second half. Its what option teams do to boxscores.. they make things crazy.

 

[Carp]

Time of Possession and getting down 13-0 in the 1st.

This.

We had 11 carries total by our RBs. Not so sure what is all that surprising about their performance given we were behind the majority of the game against a team that controlled the clock. The bigger question, imo, is why did UK allow us to throw all over them in the 2nd half when they had a 10 point lead? I'd have been in nickel and dime packages basically the entire 2nd half if I were them.

 

[bpalmer28]

You people act like we tried to run and failed miserably...we averaged 4 yards a carry but we only ran it just over 20 times and it was mostly QB'sand some of those rushing attempts were scrambles, realistically we called less than 20 actual rushing plays If we had 21 rushes for say 40 yards or something people would have a point but we rushed for 83 yards on 21 carries Ty averaged 4ypc Jordan 3 gray has one for 0 but I mean those are not great averages but they are not something to be worried about.

You look at almost any team that wins against an almost pure option team.. they are not gonna run the ball much because that option team is gonna chew the clock. It is not a failure of the defense or coaching its the nature of the game. Kentucky rushed the ball 64 times. That eats up a lot of clock friends. That's why option teams win so much because it forces other teams to pass unless they jump on top early. We fall behind 13 points early passing was the only way to come back. JG only threw the ball 8 times in the second half. Its what option teams do to box scores.. they make things crazy.

Our running backs only averaged 3.4 yards per carry against Kentucky. They averaged 3.6 ypc against UAB and they averaged 3.7 ypc against South Carolina.

Those averages aren't just "not great". They are abysmal. I don't know if it's the running backs who aren't getting the job done or if it's the offensive line or both, but it's definitely a valid concern. I wouldn't say I'm "worried" about it, because it has no impact on me or anyone I love, but if we want this winning streak to continue and if we want to build on this season the running game absolutely has to get much better.

 

[willinhf]

What’s going on here?

Better charge that phone.

 

[bpalmer28]

This.

We had 11 carries total by our RBs. Not so sure what is all that surprising about their performance given we were behind the majority of the game against a team that controlled the clock. The bigger question, imo, is why did UK allow us to throw all over them in the 2nd half when they had a 10 point lead? I'd have been in nickel and dime packages basically the entire 2nd half if I were them.

I think there's more to it than simply calling passes because we were behind.

In the 11-play drive that resulted in a FG, our running backs only had 2 carries. Then in each of the 7-play touchdown drives, our running backs only had 1 carry. After we took the lead, we ran 9 plays and only 3 were running back carries. It seems to me like Chaney gave up on the run early on because he realized we weren't going to be any more effective against Kentucky than we were against anyone else, and passing was our only hope at moving the ball.

 

[rocytop2624]

Are offense had the ball for about a quarter there was only 11 run plays by the running backs and we was down 13-0 we ran better against Georgia south Carolina and miss St
Kentucky game planned well against the Vols. .

 

[Backwards K]

I've said all along. UT does not have elite SEC running backs. Heck, they really aren't even average SEC backs. Chandler and Gray go down way too easily and Jordan runs hard but he is a 1/2 step slow. This is a big need for the Vols in recruiting this year.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

Just two manageable games left. Pruitt is loyal to staff and team. If there need to be changes, I bet they will be made. You don't get where Pruitt is headed by "hiring your in-laws".

 

[vettefool]

Funny how many on here are so quick to advocate someone losing their job. Even though they’ve never seen them doing their job, and likely wouldn’t know what it would look like if they were doing a good job.

Well posting from mom’s basement it’s easy to tell who should be fired and who should play.

 

[VolInNW]

Just two manageable games left. Pruitt is loyal to staff and team. If there need to be changes, I bet they will be made. You don't get where Pruitt is headed by "hiring your in-laws".

Agree 100%. Although I cut Pruitt some slack for bringing friends in (pun intended) at first as this is his first shot at the big chair, and anyone would like some trusted people around as you get your footing.

That said, in year 3, Pruitt will be growing into the job more and more, and needs to ditch the dead weight. His move to fire Helton and hire Cheney showed me he gets this. I expect a few of our assistants will be looking elsewhere at the end of the season. Since as I understand it so few are actually recruiting, I doubt Pruitt will wait till February.

 

[rocytop2624]

Kitchens and tosh come on down.

 

[rocytop2624]

I've said all along. UT does not have elite SEC running backs. Heck, they really aren't even average SEC backs. Chandler and Gray go down way too easily and Jordan runs hard but he is a 1/2 step slow. This is a big need for the Vols in recruiting this year.

Gray could have went anywhere he wanted and Ty is elite Jordan is molding his body into a bruiser all had sec offers . Check the stats the problem at the beginning of the season they all looked the same you can see jordan is getting bigger if he could add 20 more pounds over the winter he could be a bulldozer next year.

 

[Sarms58]

Heck of a block by Jordan on the huge conversion JG ran for.

Game changer...I love how physical Jordan plays...

 

[VolInNW]

Jordan's block was a bona fide de-cleating.

 

[Backwards K]

Gray could have went anywhere he wanted and Ty is elite Jordan is molding his body into a bruiser all had sec offers . Check the stats the problem at the beginning of the season they all looked the same you can see jordan is getting bigger if he could add 20 more pounds over the winter he could be a bulldozer next year.

I want all of that to be true but the Vols are 12th in the SEC in rushing and these backs normally get only what they line gives them. The lack of an elite back is a major problem in the red zone and a major reason why the Vols have struggled to score there.

Not saying they arent' serviceable backs but not sure if any of the the 3 would start anywhere else in the conference. Vols currently have 3 SEC backup level running backs

 

[rocytop2624]

I want all of that to be true but the Vols are 12th in the SEC in rushing and these backs normally get only what they line gives them. The lack of an elite back is a major problem in the red zone and a major reason why the Vols have struggled to score there.

Not saying they arent' serviceable backs but not sure if any of the the 3 would start anywhere else in the conference. Vols currently have 3 SEC backup level running backs

I disagree any would be in a 2 deep and that's what you want in running backs. What did you think of Kamara?

 

[rocytop2624]

Jordan's block was a bona fide de-cleating.

He got knocked the uck out!

 

[Backwards K]

I disagree any would be in a 2 deep and that's what you want in running backs. What did you think of Kamara?

Stats don't lie. Vols want to be a running team and they are 12th in the SEC. The Vols have had great backs in the past and none of these 3 would be in that category. The fact that you would compare any of these three to Kamara just further shows your ignorance of the subject.

 

[BeecherVol]

Saturday was just a weird nite. We threw 25 passes, we ran 21 times (10 of those were JG and Maurer, most of those 10 were scrambles). The majority of the 45 plays we ran came after we were down 2 scores. The RB stats are not going to look good when you split 11 carries over 3 RBs.

For most of the season the QB play has been inconsistent enough for opposing teams to stack the box and dare UT to be accurate throwing.
Ty is a solid RB that's getting 5+ a carry on a average of 12 attempts a game.
Jordan has had some good games and is a solid 2.
Gray has talent but needs a year of protein and a weight program.

 

[Carp]

I think there's more to it than simply calling passes because we were behind.

In the 11-play drive that resulted in a FG, our running backs only had 2 carries. Then in each of the 7-play touchdown drives, our running backs only had 1 carry. After we took the lead, we ran 9 plays and only 3 were running back carries. It seems to me like Chaney gave up on the run early on because he realized we weren't going to be any more effective against Kentucky than we were against anyone else, and passing was our only hope at moving the ball.

Against anyone else? RBs stats for the previous 4 games before KY: 100 yards vs South Carolina, 115 vs UAB, 130 vs Bama, 129 vs Ms State....

Since the GA game, we've done pretty well running the ball. We're not gonna be confused UGA any time soon, but those are very solid rushing numbers, especially considering all but one of those games are against SEC teams. We didn't run the ball vs KY because we down and needed to throw the ball to get back into the game. That's really all there is to it.