Stop Blaming COVID

#1
VolFreakJosh

VolFreakJosh

“Don’t you put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!”
Joined
Feb 2, 2013
Messages
28,835
Likes
74,299
#1
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vol423, J C Higgins, tricitiesvolsfan and 56 others
#2
#2
VolFreakJosh said:
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
Click to expand...

Too many people in America are using COVID as an excuse to suck! Why are so many companies, retail stores, restaurants and sports teams able to deal with it and still be successful while others are not? My opinion is the companies/teams with strong leadership find a way to deal with it and those with poor leadership leave everyone from the top to the bottom looking like deer in headlights.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tricitiesvolsfan, rkvdg, BristolVol and 18 others
#4
#4
VolFreakJosh said:
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
Click to expand...
We are not losing 100% because of Covid. But it’s also dumb to act like this year has been normal and that everything the team usually experiences as been normal too. Covid protocols DO play a role around the country with how teams are playing. But it also isn’t a 100% excuse as to why JG struggles at QB
 
  • Like
Reactions: VolinMC, PulaskiVolFan, GordonC and 4 others
#6
#6
GAVol said:
I’m not sure what’s more stupid: automatically blaming Covid for everything or completely denying it has had some effect.
Click to expand...

COVID-19 having "some" affect would be us failing to line up correctly early in the season or jumping offsides frequently because the team hasn't had enough reps yet.

Failing to defend a slant pass for 7 SEC games, trotting out JG week after week, 3rd quarter collapses, and poor game-planning has ZERO to do with COVID. That's just bad football and bad coaching.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifeisdeep, Commish14, Skullbone and 26 others
#7
#7
VolFreakJosh said:
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
Click to expand...

TL/DR but if I had to guess, this is what OP was doing when he started this thread.

1606678839702.gif
 
  • Like
Reactions: BucksnortVol, goooooovols, SalVolinus and 1 other person
#8
#8
TheMookieMonster said:
COVID-19 having "some" affect would be us failing to line up correctly early in the season or jumping offsides frequently because the team hasn't had enough reps yet.

Failing to defend a slant pass for 7 SEC games, trotting out JG week after week, 3rd quarter collapses, and poor game-planning has ZERO to do with COVID. That's just bad football and bad coaching.
Click to expand...
My thing is that I can’t quantify how much of any of it is Covid. I just know it’s in there somewhere whether it’s 1% or 90%. My guess is that there were already issues and Covid magnified them.

As far as QB goes, I can’t think of a worse scenario than JG underachieving, Maurer slowed by a hamstring, Bailey severely limited due to contact tracing and WRs constantly held out of practice. Some of that is Covid. Some of that is coaching. Some of that is underachievement. Some of that is bad luck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tricitiesvolsfan, volsrock09, VolinMC and 10 others
#9
#9
GAVol said:
I’m not sure what’s more stupid: automatically blaming Covid for everything or completely denying it has had some effect.
Click to expand...

I'll tell you why I don't buy it in Tennessee's case.

They're getting worse.

If it was like last season where they struggled out of the gate and got better as the year went along, I'd be more likely to buy the COVID argument.

But, they, like South Carolina, looked better during game 1 than they do right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: volsrock09, tricitiesvolsfan, lifeisdeep and 23 others
#10
#10
99gator said:
I'll tell you why I don't buy it in Tennessee's case.

They're getting worse.

If it was like last season where they struggled out of the gate and got better as the year went along, I'd be more likely to buy the COVID argument.

But, they, like South Carolina, looked better during game 1 than they do right now.
Click to expand...
You are 100% correct on that. That’s the #1 indictment of the coaching staff. Only thing that’s improved is the running game. Defense is about the same. Downfield passing game and red zone offense is a trainwreck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rockytoptalker and titansvolsfaninga
#12
#12
GAVol said:
I’m not sure what’s more stupid: automatically blaming Covid for everything or completely denying it has had some effect.
Click to expand...
Could some of the effect be due to people automatically blaming it for everything?.... 😎
 
  • Like
Reactions: VOL_Lyfe
#17
#17
VolFreakJosh said:
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
Click to expand...

If you don't think it's a contributing factor, then you are wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tbones0711 and manUTe__VOL
#18
#18
Maybe I'm not paying close enough attn, but I've not noticed a ton of folks blaming our dysfunction on covid.

One thing, for sure, covid has impacted all teams differently. My thought, coming into the season, was that with a veteran and stacked OL, AND a 5th year SR QB, that we'd have a leg up on much of our SEC competitors. To me, the foil of this season boils down to doing some good things in the running game, but not able to do enough to build momentum off the rampant critical turnovers, which takes the air out of the room and leads to either the D being on the field too much, or loss of mojo being deflated by TO's....that, and Pruitt not being able to figure out how to cover the slant. We have no identity on offense...and every time it looks like we're close to establishing a dominant run game, we throw a pick 6.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Commish14, gasguy98, orangebloodforlife and 1 other person
#19
#19
Here’s the way I see it and maybe why I give the staff a little more of a break than others...Yes every team has had to deal with the pandemic. But not every team has had the same circumstance to deal with. We, as fans, have no clue what each program has had to deal with since last April. We don’t know the negative effect that it’s had on each team. I do know that this is uncharted waters and that no coaching staff has ever had to deal with something like this and all the limitations Covid has provided in developing a team. Each staff had to suddenly come up with a plan on how to navigate a spring, summer off season program, and fall camp. Here is where I maybe give our staff, and others that have struggled, a break. Maybe our staff had a really hard time developing a plan on how to move the program forward despite Covid. Maybe our plan sucked. And yes, they should be held responsible for that but to what extent? Again, this is something no coach has ever dealt with, and presumably will never deal with again. Pruitt and staff had some good things going last year and had positivity heading into the offseason. Did they forget how to coach? Did Harbaugh and Franklin suddenly become bad coaches? Their teams look even worse than we do this year. So all I’m trying to say, is that maybe some staffs have done a worse job at navigating this sh*t storm of a year than others, so I’m willing to give Pruitt and staff another “regular” off-season and season to show improvement. With that said, the QB situation is baffling regardless of a Covid season or not. That has got to be fixed ASAP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kcvols1 and Rickyvol77
#21
#21
Look, here is all I know.

My Vols suck, Alex Trebek died, and I can't find a PS5 to save my life.

2020 sucks and I resigned a long time ago any hope of anything good happening this year.

On to 2021.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kcvols1 and GrizzlyVol
#22
#22
VolFreakJosh said:
I’ve read numerous posts around the FB forum, how COVID is the main reason why we’re struggling this year.

Why not just admit Pruitt and his staff have failed developing a serviceable QB to replace JG?

Why does our defense continue to struggle with defending the slant pass?

Sorry but getting stomped by Kentucky and Arkansas in year 3 is NOT because of COVID.

Every team has been dealing with this pandemic, not just us.

This excuse has to stop.
Click to expand...


It’s the only excuse Tennessee has right now
 
  • Like
Reactions: onevol74
#23
#23
I'd give all teams a mulligan through Week 3 of this season because there's no spring, summer, games/scrimmages/practice to get set.

After Week 3 if you still don't have your s#$% together, then that's a personnel/scheme issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Big Al Orange
#24
#24
4chrissy said:
Too many people in America are using COVID as an excuse to suck! Why are so many companies, retail stores, restaurants and sports teams able to deal with it and still be successful while others are not? My opinion is the companies/teams with strong leadership find a way to deal with it and those with poor leadership leave everyone from the top to the bottom looking like deer in headlights.
Click to expand...
This pretty much sums it up.

Covid is a huge obstacle to overcome but is pretty democratic in how it affects teams, businesses by sector....etc. Some adapt and persevere while others lean on it like a crutch. Penn St/Jimmy Franks has been let it destroy them while Alabama hasn't skipped a beat. Essentially the same inputs but very different outputs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifeisdeep and 4chrissy
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.
Advertisement



Back
Top