The plan for QB

#78
#78
Sudden Impact said:
How many Freshman QBs have won the SEC title? 0, 1, or 2.
How many Freshman QBs have won a National Championship? 2 or 3 I believe.
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Forget Tenn in the talk using SEC or NC comments. Honestly just need to make big improvements while facing a tough schedule.
GMac is heading into his 3rd spring practice. Most of these guys are early enrollees now a day. Gives them an 8 month head start in a college program before a season starts. Give them a redshirt year and they have close to 2 years and still called a freshman. Everything has changed.
 
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#79
#79
BigOrangeTrain said:
Ok I see you think the QB is the answer. Let’s take a look at the last two years. This season our defense was atrocious for the most part. We had one of, if not the best QB in the SEC. In 2024, we had bad QB play but a top 10 ranked defense nationally.

Did we make the playoffs this past season despite having much better QB play? Here is a better way to look at it. Let’s say we take the 2024 team with Nico and put this years defense on that team. Then let’s say we have this years team with Aguilar and we give him 2024s defense.

In the scenarios I listed, do we make the playoffs in 2024? Do we make the playoffs this past year?
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Well, if we get to cherry pick scenarios, I will point out that the four qbs remaining in the playoff have qbr rankings as follows 2- Mendoza (Heisman), 5- Chambliss, 10-Beck and 13- Moore, all of whom are rated ahead of Aguilar at 21.

Sure, we made the playoff in 2024 heading into that Ohio State game with the number 6/7 (yds per game/ points per game). And that top tier defense gave up 317 yds passing, 156 rushing, 473 total yds and 42 freaking points to the OSU offense led by #1 QBR ranked Howard. Mediocre qb Iamaleava put up 104 yards passing and 17 points.

I’m not arguing that other positions are irrelevant. I am only arguing that QB is the single most important position (is this even debatable?), and that if the coaches are not absolutely sold on Brandon or GMac’s ability to be a top tier QB then they should and will spend what it takes to get that capability. Saying that we cannot afford a QB because of other needs is laughable if their is doubt that top level capability does not already exist in the qb room.
 
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#80
#80
stolitonic said:
If our 5* QB in the system for a year or our all everything 5* incoming freshman do not even get the benefit of the doubt next year then honestly-what are we even doing here?

Between GMac and Brandon that is $5 million in NIL each year.

You guys want EVERY QB that enters the portal.

Heupel has to make a decision of whether or not he is going to just keep grabbing plug and play transfers or try to develop a guy and stay on that path.

You can't do both. You end up just wasting a bunch of money on guys who will never end up playing a snap for UT as they realize they aren't gonna play and GTHO.

I liked Joey. I really did. But this was a wasted year. No meaningful snaps taken by anyone who will be on our roster next year

The wise move would have been to roll with GMac. Let him take his lumps a bit and see if we were gonna have anything to work with

You really think we would have won less than 8 games with our joke of a schedule no matter who you put under center

Now we have an atomic schedule next year and no QBS who have taken a meaningful snap in college


What a waste
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Exactly. At some point they have to get some experience one way or another. Either they do it for us (because we're paying them a lot) or they do it for someone else. These kids want playing time and they want to be paid top dollar too. So how do you balance that?

It's been said we aren't going to pay $3-$5M for a QB. And if we did I would be concerned George would leave and then we have a true freshman backup QB. And if he stays then we think Brandon will wait around for 2 years to start in his 3rd or 4th year? Or Brandon beats out George in 27 then George definitely leaves? Then we're right back to either having a probably a freshman backup or going to portal for a backup?

I don't know but I feel like maybe the best way forward is to bring in a mid-tier guy this year and let them compete for the job. That's what we did with Joey after all... And if our defense was better we would've won a few more games. I know we all want to win now, but next year the focus should be developing and shooting for making the playoffs with the goal of winning a national championship in one of the following years with our developed high 4* or 5* QB.

I think until something changes, the days of keeping high quality QB's on the team for more than a year or 2 before they are the starter are gone. If you want a QB who can be your starter for multiple years you're going to have to get them there early or they'll be gone. If we're going to pay top dollar and sign these highly rated kids out of HS we gotta start developing them or what's the point?

All I know for sure is I am glad I am not the one having to make these decisions! 😂
 
#81
#81
JohnnyJava said:
What’s our payroll budget? I mean I would rather have a top tier qb who has a big role in deciding the fate of 75 offensive plays per game than to get two defensive linemen who might total 50 tackles and ten tfls of some sort on the year combined. If you are confident in GMac and Brandon playing at top 4 or so level in the SEC, then sure… if not, you need to focus on acquiring outstanding qb play.
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I’ll just stat what I see as wrong with your theory. Say both teams run 75 plays (A good defense may hold to 68-75) a game and are a balanced offense like Tenn. of the 75 plays 35 are running plays which takes the QB out of the equation on those. A great DL or LB plays 75 snaps and can influence every play.
 
#82
#82
a vol n tears said:
I’ll just stat what I see as wrong with your theory. Say both teams run 75 plays (A good defense may hold to 68-75) a game and are a balanced offense like Tenn. of the 75 plays 35 are running plays which takes the QB out of the equation on those. A great DL or LB plays 75 snaps and can influence every play.
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I can’t agree with your argument. No Tennessee defensive lineman plays 75 snaps. Bailey led this year with less than 35 snaps per game due to the heavy DL rotation. Tennessee’s top two LBs played roughly 50 snaps per game.

Aguilar is not taken out of the equation on running plays. Many of Tennessee’s runs are RPOs where the QB is literally the one deciding whether to keep it, throw it, or hand it to the running back. There are other alignment responsibilities, checks, etc that a qb is expected to handle for Heupel, counting defenders in the box,etc. On many running plays, Aguilar’s responsibilities might be even more than on a lot of the simpler pass plays.
 
#83
#83
volmanNC said:
Hindsight vision is 20/20!
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True

There is absolutely zero point zero reason for Joey Aguilar to have ever taken a meaningful snap for UT again after the Oklahoma game though

Once we were eliminated from the playoffs, some combination of GMac and Meerk needed to get ALL the snaps.

We got embarrassed by Vandy and whipped by Illinois. Exactly how much worse could it have been if we had just rolled with our young guys?
 
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#84
#84
Hacksaw said:
George needs to add more than 10 lbs. If he adds 20, he'll be around 210. At 6'6" that's still pretty thin.

And it's almost impossible for a naturally lean kid to keep weight on once the season starts. He's got a busy off-season ahead of him. Back up the grocery truck.
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Tyler Bray played at 6-6 190 his freshman year. George will be ok.
 
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#86
#86
With Faizon and George M being so young, we have to bring in a talented starting QB. If those young guys beat out a talented veteran QB from the portal, then you have created insurance and still win by having more elite guys who are ready.
 
#87
#87
jarnol32 said:
Tyler Bray played at 6-6 190 his freshman year. George will be ok.
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Tyler was lean, but I don't remember him playing at 190. Your memory is probably better than mine, though. But even if it is survivable, I think most would agree that it's not advisable.
 
#89
#89
Proud Army Wife said:
I thought Ty Simpson and his dad hated us lol.
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Not true. His dad wouldn't talk to Heupel bc the deal was done with b@ma at that point.

His little brother is still a huge Tennessee fan. Little brother (seen below) is in high school now. Ty's family have long history of ties to UT.
 

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#90
#90
I'd take Ty Simpson and a high end Transfer RB for our big spending.
Add 2 OL's for depth

Then we raid the bottom of the barrel for every 21-24 yr old we can find to fill the defense up for a year.
 
#91
#91
Sudden Impact said:
How many Freshman QBs have won the SEC title? 0, 1, or 2.
How many Freshman QBs have won a National Championship? 2 or 3 I believe.
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QBs don’t win games by themselves. Your point is moot. Are all teams equal? No. Say you have a FR QB at Kentucky. Then you have a FR QB at OSU. Are those rosters and coaching staffs equal? No.

In the SEC, if you have a FR QB at UK and one at UGA. Which QB has the much easier path to success?
 
#92
#92
allstar34 said:
I'd take Ty Simpson and a high end Transfer RB for our big spending.
Add 2 OL's for depth

Then we raid the bottom of the barrel for every 21-24 yr old we can find to fill the defense up for a year.
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Don’t need the high end RB. Need to take the money for the RB and put into either DL or DB.
 
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#93
#93
ATLVols said:
With Faizon and George M being so young, we have to bring in a talented starting QB. If those young guys beat out a talented veteran QB from the portal, then you have created insurance and still win by having more elite guys who are ready.
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But I thought that was why we play cupcakes at the beginning of the season, to get the young guys experience.

Mac should be ready to go after the cupcake games are over, if coach allows him to play (unlike this past year)
 
#94
#94
Heupel's Side Chick said:
I think is we get a cheap backup who can "compete for the job" (yes I think they still exist) so we don't potentially have to throw Brandon in there as a true freshman. If what people say is true, that George didn't play (much) due to his size, I think he is the guy and one of the (many) reasons we dumped our S&C. I think we'll bring in a new S&C guy who'll add a solid 10lbs of muscle on George in the off-season and he'll be our starter.

We're spending our money mainly on defense and maybe a RB, WR, OL. That's what I think at least and probably not a bad way to go about it.
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You believe we fired out S&C coach because our freshman QB didn’t weigh enough?
 
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#95
#95
Proud Army Wife said:
I thought Ty Simpson and his dad hated us lol.
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I bet that you didn’t know that his dad is the head football coach at UT Martin, and on Saturday, October 18th, in the year of our Lord 2025; coached a game that morning, and STILL made it to Tuscaloosa to watch his son play that evening.
 
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#97
#97
Go get a guy ready to win right now. Y'all say you want to win now but play a Freshman QB just so you can get mad about them not being a finished product after playing 6 games.
 
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