The Official Tennessee vs. #17/20 West Virginia Game Thread, 3:30 PM ET, CBS

[rocketskates]

No kidding. I was 14-21 during those years. Man I was spoiled growing up.

A little younger but yeah..I was 13 when we won the title. Hell I’d take 2007 back. Give me something

 

[greazy1722]

JG was okay to me he was playing not to lose his job instead of playing free..He never gave the plays time to develop everything was one read and throw..Everything was short..Love the running game today..Teams are going to start jumping those short routes..

 

[rocketskates]

I would add that we only recruited better "on paper". It still takes a ton of the right kind of coaching to get a h.s. player ready to compete at even w.v.'s level and he better be a fast learner with a lot of core talent if you want him to compete and excel at the top levels of the SEC, we are a long way from there, some of getting there is gonna take time and the right kind of coaching, which has been absent, and some of getting there is going to take getting the right talent AND the right coaching, this ain't gonna happen overnight but we might be headed in the right direction. imo, it's way too early to tell.

Agreed. You can coach a three star to play like a five star or let a five star regress to the level of a two star. These kids were never developed and even though we got a good beat down today, I will say that for the most part the kids were at their assignments. A couple of those passes were just damn good throws.

 

[greazy1722]

Why hire Helton as H.C. His play calling today cost us. We should have scored a minimum 28 points against that defense. They were loading up on the line of scrimmage in the first half and were were too conservative all four quarters.

Cant blame this on OC

 

[photovol]

No amount of coaching is going to make this team good.
Players win games and coaches coach, the same as it's always been

We knew they would struggle, I just wasn't ready to be embarrassed again so soon, oh well it is what it is

 

[lifeVol]

Agreed. You can coach a three star to play like a five star or let a five star regress to the level of a two star. These kids were never developed and even though we got a good beat down today, I will say that for the most part the kids were at their assignments. A couple of those passes were just damn good throws.

Yep. A good QB is gonna make some good plays regardless, and we just saw a good one. Bet FL wishes they had him back.

 

[photovol]

Cant blame this on OC

The Oline looked like high school

 

[rocketskates]

Yep. A good QB is gonna make some good plays regardless, and we just saw a good one. Bet FL wishes they had him back.

The one TD pass to jennings was spot on. Warrior was right there, it was just a perfect throw.

 

[Coach Punk]

View attachment 166329

Did better on offense and worse on defense than I thought we would. And somebody’s won a zillion dollars betting that Jordan would of be carrying the water. And for such a young offense, no fumbles, no interceptions.

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

I think you need to understand this year is a wash for Pruitt.No way he is thinking this is "win now" for TN

Most Vol fans were not expecting a wash season. With JP's coaching pedigree , I was hoping for a 2 or 3 year turnaround like Georgia with a bowl win this year. I'm not encouraged with the coaching staff after today's performance.

 

[StarBar33]

JP needs to have a talk with the DC and OC. Why did we not blitz or nickel/dime package more to protect these young corners and safeties. WV did not run the ball that good.
Second qtr. O look great except for that last possession (3 runs???). Second half looked like the first quarter. We did not take the game to them. O play calling was just weird.

JP called the plays on defense.

 

[lifeVol]

No amount of coaching is going to make this team good.
Players win games and coaches coach, the same as it's always been

We knew they would struggle, I just wasn't ready to be embarrassed again so soon, oh well it is what it is

I sorta agree, but it depends on your definition of good. If you want to compete for the SEC East, nope. Not near to being there yet. But by the end of the year I'm hoping for MUCH better than last year...I can't define that yet and I'm not going to try yet.

 

[JPL]

For those that saw improvement I honestly believe you saw what you wanted to see and forgot what you wanted to forget about last years team. Yes the formations were different but honestly it was the exact same results. Everyone talking all off season that Pruitt will make so much better halftime adjustments than Butch... well yeah that didn't happen and he had an extra hour! DB's still out of position even with Pruitt's great defensive mind and coaching. It was exactly the same bad gift we got last year just this year it had different wrapping paper.

Yes, agree with you. The performance in the 3rd qtr suggested WV made the right adjustments. We simply could not stop them & Pruitt is calling the plays on D.

I would like a good gift for once, don’t care about the wrapping paper.

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

Cant blame this on OC

On the loss, No. But I can blame him for not calling plays that allowed us to try and keep pace with West Virginia. We should have scored at least 28 but did not because of the play calling. WVU does not have a good defense.

 

[The Original Fade]

I expected to see an improvement from what we saw in 2017. Especially on defense given Pruitt's pedigree and history.

Maybe by the end of the year we’ll see improvement, but not game 1 of year 1 from a team that lost every league game last year.

 

[lifeVol]

For those that saw improvement I honestly believe you saw what you wanted to see and forgot what you wanted to forget about last years team. Yes the formations were different but honestly it was the exact same results. Everyone talking all off season that Pruitt will make so much better halftime adjustments than Butch... well yeah that didn't happen and he had an extra hour! DB's still out of position even with Pruitt's great defensive mind and coaching. It was exactly the same bad gift we got last year just this year it had different wrapping paper.

You do speak truth here, but I would add that our DB's are gonna need to see their live game mistakes before the coaching sinks in. If CJP has half a season under his belt coaching them and they still look like they did today, I'm gonna have to say, that ain't real good. But I'm betting that won't be the case. In another post I mentioned the players don't even know what they don't know yet. They haven't had quality coaching yet. I think they're going to get more quality coaching and actually hear and understand what they are being coached to do over the next few games than they've ever had .... at least I hope so and I'm prepared to wait and see if that transpires ....

 

[Rockytoptilidie]

Why hire Helton as H.C. His play calling today cost us. We should have scored a minimum 28 points against that defense. They were loading up on the line of scrimmage in the first half and were were too conservative all four quarters.

Welp, the defense cost us at least 40, so...

 

[ABINGDON VOL FAN]

Welp, the defense cost us at least 40, so...

Defense would have cost us less if Helton had been aggressive with his play calling.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Most Vol fans were not expecting a wash season. With JP's coaching pedigree , I was hoping for a 2 or 3 year turnaround like Georgia with a bowl win this year. I'm not encouraged with the coaching staff after today's performance.

I understand the disappointment but that's really not fair to Pruitt. Richt's last team was 10-3, Pruitt inherited a 4-8 squad from Botch, huge difference. I think Pruitt is a good coach, but this is going to take some time, I know no one wants to hear it, but it's reality. If we go 6-6 it will be a very good year, 7-5 would be phenomenal. Those who let themselves get carried away with off-season delusions of grandeur, have let themselves down. Usually, these same people overreact too far in the opposite direction when their hopes are dashed. Things are almost never as good as they seem after a win or as bad ass they seem after a loss.

 

[82_VOL_83]

That's wishful thinking. Maybe you're right, but many of these kids were highly recruited players (certainly more so than WV's). Pruitt's whole thing is physicality. We looked bad.

This is truth. When WVU can push you around, you are not SEC champ material.

 

[VOL 4 Life 83]

Honest question, did we throw downfield deep at all?? I can’t remember one deep pass

 

[82_VOL_83]

Why hire Helton as H.C. His play calling today cost us. We should have scored a minimum 28 points against that defense. They were loading up on the line of scrimmage in the first half and were were too conservative all four quarters.

Because he doesn't have a QB that can consistently hit timing routes.

 

[Tombo]

Nice third post. Given the fact that our relationship with a 3-4 under Sunseri was not appropriate to be seen in public and ended up with us being screwed without lube on a nearly weekly basis, I'd say the word I originally used was actually somewhat appropriate. I changed it to make the forum more of a safe space for your precious sensibilities; aren't you special?

Actually I have had several hundred posts. As the site has done to several "Senior Members", my name, avatar, number of posts and likes has been deleted. Working on a fix. Don't need a safe space, but thanks.

 

[UT-Rex]

Honest question, did we throw downfield deep at all?? I can’t remember one deep pass

I remember only 1, down the right line. I think we had our man beat, but the throw was a little slow and a tad out of bounds -- I thought we should have tried at least a few more deep passes.

 

[82_VOL_83]

JG was one of the bright spots for us today. Only Jordan had a better game.

Thats because you wanted to see that. I came in just wanting to se the best QB. I don't think we saw that today. A practice QB is different from a game QB. I think he should give JG the start next week and alternate series.