The Defense

#26
#26
Ten_Titans said:
I don't think the offense will be quite as good as everyone thinks they will right now, and I don't think the defense will be quite as bad as everyone thinks right now.

QB play and outside pass rush is what it comes down to. If we find capable players at those positions, that's the difference between 5-7 and 8-4 or even 9-3.
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This is where I am at. I think some fans think JH offense is going to light it up this year. I don’t see it. I do think we will be better but we won’t be one of the top tier offenses in the SEC.

As far as the defense goes, I do think it’s going to be a little better than some think. Like you, it’s gonna depend a lot on our pass rush.
 
#27
#27
BigOrangeTrain said:
This is where I am at. I think some fans think JH offense is going to light it up this year. I don’t see it. I do think we will be better but we won’t be one of the top tier offenses in the SEC.

As far as the defense goes, I do think it’s going to be a little better than some think. Like you, it’s gonna depend a lot on our pass rush.
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At this point I’m just excited to us put up 50+ against the cream puff opponents. When’s the last time that happened consistently? Fulmer?
 
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#30
#30
LittleVol said:
You need to actually LOOK at the stats.
Even with a pedestrian offense that put the defense at a constant disadvantage, they were still mid-tier defensively in the conference.
Fla
LSU
Arkansas
South Carolina
Vandy
Ole Miss
Mizzou

All had worse scoring defense than us last year. Mind you, that is with an All SEC schedule and JG giving the opposite team 21 points on the season.

Our secondary was better than average and with ANY pass rush at all will be even better.
Our DL is capable of being good when the offense is actually putting up points for us (team as a whole).
LBs- TBD

We will be top half of the conference. Probably 6 thru 8th in defense.
Hopefully 2nd thru 4th on offense
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Totally agree. The mindset of coaching is diffrent. Score first, keep running, and stay within 7. The defense, if it could look like Missouri's defense while CJP was there with 2 mostly 3 star and a splash of 4 stars, would be fun. Getting back to 8-10 wins is the thermostat. Offense, defense, Dont Care!
 
#31
#31
T2P_Priceless said:
At this point I’m just excited to us put up 50+ against the cream puff opponents. When’s the last time that happened consistently? Fulmer?
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actually, that was one of the problems with Phil and a strength of Spurrier...........Phil did not evolve into the aggressive approach to a winning culture and attracting recruits. Athletes were more attracted to Spurrier type teams because of the aggressive nature of the offense. Heupel should step on the pedal everytime the opportunity presents itself, especially in the SEC. we should aim to put a 70 spot on Vandy and not stop throwing it until the clock runs out. putting 50 on Kentucky would be a great sign for future.
 
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#32
#32
Gonna be really interesting watching a coach with a more aggressive philosophy. Haven't seen much of that on Rocky Top. Might work. Might blow up in our face. But it should be worth a watch. Hopefully the defense can do enough.
 
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#36
#36
sjt18 said:
I'm going to challenge this. They were not coached well as a group. I believe the former staff including Pruitt were as good as anyone in teaching "technique". If the current staff can coach their scheme and teach them to make better reads then the fact that they were previously coached and schemed poorly... may not be a negative.
Remains to be seen. Henry T was an obvious loss. The guys who were kicked off the team were unavoidable. But who by name do you think was irreplaceable.

I'm going to say that the addition of Mitchell takes a lot of the sting out of losing HT. UT lost their leading tackler from last year who averaged 7.6 tackles per game and add Texas' leading tackler who averaged 6.2 tackles per game. Just the little bit I watched of Texas from last fall, Mitchell looked better and more natural in pass coverage.

May hurt... but may also help.
I think we are all concerned about that. They need to play a lot of guys even if they have to "protect" some guys to get a few plays out of them each week.
What bothers you about the secondary now?

Well... HT and Crouch were a part of that problem as was Pruitt's scheme. Of course that doesn't mean it will be better... but it could be.
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Dream on, I hope you are right, but doubt it.
 
#46
#46
We don’t have bad players we have a lot of good big bodies on the DL with a top 3 DL coach in all of college football... LB we got big time help in the portal plus adding banks and Harrison back we should be serviceable... we were already solid at safety needed another corner which we added in the portal... add in the fact that they will now be able to play complementary football and know the offense will be able to score some points i think our defense will be good enough for us to win 8 games maybe even upset 1 of the big 3 UF most likely IMO... Tennessee's depth does scare me somewhat but it’s not too many teams in the SEC who don’t feel this way... Pruitt wasn’t a bad coach he was just a terrible head coach and manager but he left the roster with enough talent for CJH to succeed
 
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#47
#47
Hope springs eternal in the Spring. Everybody can go undefeated. However I see 7-8 wins for this team. If the incoming players on defense can be equal to what was lost, and I see no reason they won’t be as good or better, than that seems doable. Out of conference should allow 4 wins and as bad as coaching was and team morale was last year they did win 3 conference games. Coaching has got to be better. Last year’s team had at least 3 or 4 missed assignments every games that gave up TDs or big gains. Offense will come down to QB play as usual. An accurate QB cannot be defended. If they can throw into tight windows the defense cannot defend continually. CJH uses the pass to set up the run. If the passing game clicks, the offense is very balanced with lots of running plays too.
 
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#48
#48
Even with the transfers, we look pretty weak on defense so far. The secondary could be serviceable, but I’m afraid we finish near the back in the SEC in defense. This is not a popular opinion, but missing HT would be a huge loss for anybody, but especially with our roster. We can’t expect to replace that kind of talent with a random transfer LB and call it close to even.
 
#50
#50
BigOrangeTrain said:
This is where I am at. I think some fans think JH offense is going to light it up this year. I don’t see it. I do think we will be better but we won’t be one of the top tier offenses in the SEC.

As far as the defense goes, I do think it’s going to be a little better than some think. Like you, it’s gonna depend a lot on our pass rush.
Click to expand...
Im with you on this. Imo, if the offense improves to middle of the SEC and the defense slightly improves we can win 7-8 games with this schedule. 4 OOC games, Vandy, JR . Win 1 or 2 vs ky, mizzo, or ole miss
 
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