VFL-82-JP
Bleedin' Orange...
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2015
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...and Consistent Improvement
When we played West Virginia on the 1st of September, we were flat out-classed. Our lads were far from mentally prepared for a football season. Tons of mental mistakes, which is a phrase normally used to mean dumb penalties, like false starts--but in our case this season has been even more about broken plays, missed duties, at least one person out of position or doing the wrong thing in just about every play. And if that weren't bad enough, the men in Orange also seemed to suffer a lack of confidence in themselves and each other.
A few weeks later, not much seemed to have improved as we battled Florida, despite two cupcake weeks to get things down. Really sloppy game with just as many mental mistakes--and this time, they tended to manifest themselves in turnovers. Killed any hope of showing improvement, all those turnovers.
Just one week after that, the improvement began to show versus Georgia. Still a loss, but our lads were usually all executing the same play, with far fewer mental letdowns. They looked like a team, rather than a collection of football players sharing a field. Progress.
And this week, against Auburn? Steady progress, again. You might be tempted to say, "no, DRAMATIC progress." Let's don't over-estimate it. The improvement was not dramatic. When you adjust for the relative qualities of UGa vs Auburn, that accounts for a lot of the flip in score. Nonetheless, steady progress. Our lads were (mostly) mentally dialed in today, the playbook memorized, understanding the schemes our OC and DC were pushing, showing they've started to figure out the keys to each of their roles.
And we will hopefully make more progress this coming week. Even if Bama lays a 30-point beat-down on us, the important thing is that we continue to improve, to grow.
All well-coached teams get better as the season progresses (offset by losses to injury). But teams with more room to grow, they can grow faster. They can play catch-up with the competition. That's what we're in the middle of doing. Playing catch-up.
And that offers hope for the back half of the season.
We're 3-3. We'll likely be 3-4 next Sunday. But that leaves five games, all of which are potentially winnable.
As long as we continue to make steady progress.
Go Vols!
When we played West Virginia on the 1st of September, we were flat out-classed. Our lads were far from mentally prepared for a football season. Tons of mental mistakes, which is a phrase normally used to mean dumb penalties, like false starts--but in our case this season has been even more about broken plays, missed duties, at least one person out of position or doing the wrong thing in just about every play. And if that weren't bad enough, the men in Orange also seemed to suffer a lack of confidence in themselves and each other.
A few weeks later, not much seemed to have improved as we battled Florida, despite two cupcake weeks to get things down. Really sloppy game with just as many mental mistakes--and this time, they tended to manifest themselves in turnovers. Killed any hope of showing improvement, all those turnovers.
Just one week after that, the improvement began to show versus Georgia. Still a loss, but our lads were usually all executing the same play, with far fewer mental letdowns. They looked like a team, rather than a collection of football players sharing a field. Progress.
And this week, against Auburn? Steady progress, again. You might be tempted to say, "no, DRAMATIC progress." Let's don't over-estimate it. The improvement was not dramatic. When you adjust for the relative qualities of UGa vs Auburn, that accounts for a lot of the flip in score. Nonetheless, steady progress. Our lads were (mostly) mentally dialed in today, the playbook memorized, understanding the schemes our OC and DC were pushing, showing they've started to figure out the keys to each of their roles.
And we will hopefully make more progress this coming week. Even if Bama lays a 30-point beat-down on us, the important thing is that we continue to improve, to grow.
All well-coached teams get better as the season progresses (offset by losses to injury). But teams with more room to grow, they can grow faster. They can play catch-up with the competition. That's what we're in the middle of doing. Playing catch-up.
And that offers hope for the back half of the season.
We're 3-3. We'll likely be 3-4 next Sunday. But that leaves five games, all of which are potentially winnable.
As long as we continue to make steady progress.
Go Vols!
