Some thoughts on the season (looking back)

[Remy]

I was thinking about this today and really wonder if something weird is going on.


I wrote following the Missouri game, that I thought it was a sign that Tennessee had turned the corner. There wasn’t much drama and while it wasn’t a masterpiece, for Tennessee to bring what I thought was their “C” game and win by 3 TDs, I thought that was a big deal.


Even the loss to Georgia, I thought was encouraging. They lead at the half. While the second half wasn’t what you would want, I believed Georgia was the best team in the country at the time because I thought while a lot of teams had an offense, they were the only one with a defense. So, this wasn’t a huge red flag to me.


Then, Kentucky. This is where the wheels came off. JG done JG’d. The team quit. And later we learned an assistant coach lost his job during the game. I don’t know what the heck happened, but this to me is clearly the point that everything went to hell.


And since that time (here’s where the greatest indictment of Pruitt and JG is), they have flat out played and coached scared. Handing the ball off on 3rd and 8 against Alabama. Have two weeks to prepare for Arkansas and have an offensive game plan that even Pat Dye would have said lacked imagination. Ditto Auburn.


You have to go out and be the team you were against South Carolina, Missouri and Georgia (and I mean philosophically). If the personnel can’t execute that, then they need to be benched and see if someone else can. While JG catches a lot of hell (and don’t misunderstand, he deserves a lot of it), you stopped believing in him yet you continue to play him. And that’s on the coaches. That’s on Pruitt. And that’s on Chaney. You can’t put a guy in the game, say “yeah, he’s our guy”, and then not allow him to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. So while, yeah, the boss is the boss, you better believe we’d be having a knock down drag out argument in the coach’s office if I was forced to continue to play a guy who I didn’t believe was the best guy for the job and prevented me from calling plays. We know what fans and the media think, but there has to be members of the staff who are thinking the same damn thing. I don’t believe for a second that they all believe JG gives them the best chance to win and I don’t believe all of the guys who wear the helmets and pads buy that either. Leadership sometimes means looking your boss in the eye and telling him the stuff he doesn’t want to hear.


But, I have serious curiosity regarding the dismissal of Brumbaugh and how much the coaches are really on the same page.

The something didn't happen during the UK game. The wheels came off for this team and season during halftime of the UGA game. I don't know what it was but this team was playing hard up until that point. They held UGA on fourth and goal to go AT Sanford just before the half ended, a valiant effort few P5 teams could do on their best day. After half time the UT football team as a whole has played far less than their capabilities. It's CJP's job to find out why and fix it, so far he has not.

 

[GoVols64]

Hang on, easy there...

lol! It's just Hamlet man!

 

[GoVols64]

The something didn't happen during the UK game. The wheels came off for this team and season during halftime of the UGA game. I don't know what it was but this team was playing hard up until that point. They held UGA on fourth and goal to go AT Sanford just before the half ended, a valiant effort few P5 teams could do on their best day. After half time the UT football team as a whole has played far less than their capabilities. It's CJP's job to find out why and fix it, so far he has not.

I agree, whatever happened in the second half crushed this team and they never recovered.... Makes no sense. I don't want to be crotchety but is this the participation trophy generation? Seemingly no grit in a lot of the players save a few; no fire. Piling on the coaches but that is on them too; adding to an apparent leadership void on the team. I don't know what I don't know about the internal workings on this team so this is admittedly an ignorant opinion/SWAG. Definitely short on WGWDFA......