So did we sacrifice this season

#51
#51
EastTNVol6240 said:
lol. Guess you didn’t watch this season. Nico just gave us a decent performance as a true freshmen. Decent was joes ceiling. It’s Nico’s floor. Nico panicked a bit, but he also hit his third progression on a few plays. Joe never processed progressions. In one start Nico gave us as much as Joe has been a few years in.
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Which plays? Honestly curious. I want to feel the excitement
 
#53
#53
utvolz98 said:
You don’t know that unless you’re a coach or blindly trust those that are. Remember that we almost never saw Hendon due to a decision to start Joe until he was hurt. We’ll never know if Nico would have made a difference, but my gut tells me he would’ve. Offense looked like Heupel’s for the first time since Hendon went down. One things for sure. Joe was never it. But it doesn’t matter now as it’s all in the past.
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I make a living in the sport. I know enough to see talent and the best ways for it to mature. TN fans need to get over expecting QBs to go out there as freshman and turn into Peyton. That was a different era. As I mentioned on another reply, look at Dante Moore at UCLA this year as the Example A. Nico had to learn to read a defense, and still was holding onto the ball too long. Joe held onto the ball but physically was able to take a beating from SEC defenses. Remember how terrible Dobbs looked as a true freshman? Our genius fans were clamoring for Riley Ferguson after seeing Dobbs for half a year. It wasn’t until his sophomore year that we saw the switch come on and the game started to slow down for him.

As Ainge mentioned, Nico was raw coming in and needed to learn how to read an SEC defense, which he had not been taught to do. He wasn’t physically prepared to take over until after the meat grinder vs Bama and UGA.
 
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#54
#54
perico said:
I make a living in the sport. I know enough to see talent and the best ways for it to mature. TN fans need to get over expecting QBs to go out there as freshman and turn into Peyton. That was a different era. As I mentioned on another reply, look at Dante Moore at UCLA this year as the Example A. Nico had to learn to read a defense, and still was holding onto the ball too long. Joe held onto the ball but physically was able to take a beating from SEC defenses. Remember how terrible Dobbs looked as a true freshman? Our genius fans were clamoring for Riley Ferguson after seeing Dobbs for half a year. It wasn’t until his sophomore year that we saw the switch come on and the game started to slow down for him.

As Ainge mentioned, Nico was raw coming in and needed to learn how to read an SEC defense, which he had not been taught to do. He wasn’t physically prepared to take over until after the meat grinder vs Bama and UGA.
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As an aside, Dante Moore transferred to Oregon knowing there's a good chance he sits behind Dillon Gabriel for a year.

Ducks add 2nd transfer QB in Moore from UCLA
 
#55
#55
Maybe. However, it's more likely that putting Nico in at the start of the season could have gone terribly. He has an entire season to prepare, train, and be on the field (even if on the sidelines) to understand how the game goes. It was a down season at 9-4, seeing how Florida is just inexcusable for one of them. We should accept this as an absolute win. The best two years in Tennessee history in the last 20 years make me believe in the coaching staff correct if I think it's not very fun to watch.
 
#57
#57
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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I like being wrong in these cases, I had no clue what this team would do today, and to hang the big donut on Iowa (B10), was very satisfying.
 
#58
#58
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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I was wearing a Tennessee hat before the season started and a nice gentleman approached me and struck up a conversation about Nico and how excited he was to see him at Tennessee. His son was Nico's friend and high school teammate and he knows the family well. He said that the plan was for Nico to sit his freshman year and learn and more importantly put on some weight and hit the weight room. The coaches, family and Nico were all on board and it played out exactly as planned.
 
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#59
#59
Said it at the beginning of the year, I’ll say it again. Riding with Milton was and is the right call.

1. The team loves Milton. Would’ve been a locker room disaster if he hadn’t played.

2. Joe Milton is a redshirt senior. He has been in a college weight room for years. He was able to handle the SEC schedule with relatively no problems, health wise. Nico has only been in the weight room one year. I worried he would not have been able to handle the SEC grind. Now Nico can redshirt. Right call and I’d do it again.
 
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#60
#60
Volfan2012 said:
The only game where it might have made a difference is Florida. The other three we just didn't have enough at other positions.
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Of course, Nico hadn’t had a full year to develop at the time of the Florida game so he may not have looked nearly as good. Who knows.
 
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#61
#61
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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Nico today is not Nico back in September.

He was what he was today BECAUSE he had the luxury of sitting back as the #2 guy all season and absorb, learn, grow, ask questions, and develop.

Josh Heupel and Joey Halzle are pretty dang smart. They knew what they were doing.

Go Vols!
 
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#62
#62
Sacrifice is a strong word that I don't think ecaptulates the situation correctly.

This past season was more about rewarding your experienced QB who stayed the course in the program.

I do think the loss at receiver was greater than expected and it was amplified once Bru went down. So I do think the staff was more hesitant to throw Nico in under the circumstances.

But sacrifice isn't the right way to think about it. Just a development and reload year. Afterall we were able to convince alot of our prominent upperclassmen to return for next year.
 
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#64
#64
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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No
 
#66
#66
DeadByDaylightFan said:
Iowa is a horrible team.
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I think their offense would fall in that category but I just don’t think they’re defense ever seen anything quite like what we ran at them today. Traditionally, though they were really strong defense …just didn’t have the athletes to keep up.
 
#68
#68
Others have said "sacrifice" is a strong word and I agree. Things appear to have gone to plan. While results like losing to Florida, and getting blown out by Missouri hurt I think there was always a long game. There's a culture being built and hopefully we're past the hiccups of last year's USCjr game. I like Tyler Baron but maybe the coaches are hoping we've got talent on board where if a guy wants to keep threatening to walk we let him go so that the culture remains intact. There are certainly things I've seen that worry me but I will choose to believe that this staff knows what they're doing until they prove that theory wrong. Cheers to nice bowl win and looking forward to '24!
 
#69
#69
utvolz98 said:
You don’t know that unless you’re a coach or blindly trust those that are. Remember that we almost never saw Hendon due to a decision to start Joe until he was hurt. We’ll never know if Nico would have made a difference, but my gut tells me he would’ve. Offense looked like Heupel’s for the first time since Hendon went down. One things for sure. Joe was never it. But it doesn’t matter now as it’s all in the past.
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Let me think. Do I trust a coach who sees them everyday or a guy sitting anonymously on his computer. Hmmm. I think I’ll take CJH.
 
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#70
#70
Go47 said:
On the radio a few days ago . . . Ainge said Nico did not play for a high school team that taught him how to read defenses . . . And he was a raw talent that needed most of this year to learn how to read defenses / really play the QB position. It was a process for him all year.
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Makes sense!
 
#71
#71
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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Nope!! I didn't see anything that makes me believe our record would have been any better!! May and I mean may have beaten Florida!!
 
#72
#72
Atlvol313 said:
By allowing Nico to sit knowing that Milton was going to try but not be a world killer. Did we look at the schedule and say that beating Bama and UGA would be too much to ask for a freshman.
Nico was prepared for today way more than I thought he’d be.
Looking forward to spring and next fall.
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No. For one, Nico had all season to get where he is at currently. I think we actually would have sacrificed the season for the sake of building Nico had we gone that route.

While Nico’s coming out party was indeed special, Joe had plenty of good games that rivaled, if not bested, Nico’s game today. We clearly aren’t comfortable with Nico throwing the ball downfield yet. He only threw for 155 yards and ran for 27 which isn’t even 200 yards of offense. In fact, I think Joe would have absolutely destroyed this team.

I think we should all be very pleased how this season turned out with consideration to the fact that Mays and Mincey were both out for part of the season, we lost Bru, Pili, Hadden (still can’t believe I am saying Hadden but that kid was coming on strong), and Keyton was not the clutch receiver he was last year. Squirrel struggled at times too, but not like Keyton.

I pegged us at 8 or 9 wins before the start of the season and believed that would be a successful season if we showed signs of improvements and flashes of new stars by the end of the season.

That is absolutely the case.

Had we still had Bru against Alabama, we may have taken that one too, but I still think the games we lost were due to us getting beaten badly in the trenches vs much else.

This season was what I consider a mild success. It’s as good as any season any other coach has put up since Fulmer won 10 games in 2007.
 
#75
#75
Nico would not have made a single tackle. Our 4 loses were defensive failures for the most part.
 
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