Tonight revealed one thing…

[volcop1]

He didn’t kick the field goal because he thought his defense wouldn’t be able to stop them hell they didn’t stop them the whole game so that’s why he went for the touchdown

should have never come to OT anyway, plenty of time and timeouts left to get in good field goal range for the win in regulation, does CJH know you can win with a field goal?

 

[GVol1966]

and he apparently dosnt know what a slant pass is

Scored a record # of points in UT history and dumbest fans in the nation question his offensive knowledge

 

[brockytop]

Heupel still has a long way to go before he is an elite coach. I like Heupel, and he has done some good things this year, however, he should have never been considered for Coach of the Year.

The final possession of tonight’s game proved my point. Benefit of the doubt - Hooker just forgot that we could actually kick a field goal. No idea what that whole last series during regulation was about.

Should have never went to OT.

Yeah, never mind the obvious PI that wasn’t called on the last drive. The proper call there and we’re in FG range.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

Heupel still has a long way to go before he is an elite coach. I like Heupel, and he has done some good things this year, however, he should have never been considered for Coach of the Year.

The final possession of tonight’s game proved my point. Benefit of the doubt - Hooker just forgot that we could actually kick a field goal. No idea what that whole last series during regulation was about.

Should have never went to OT.

Fair points. As we were leaving the stadium last night, a friend and I were wondering what could be the only possible explanation for the playcalling at the end of regulation — what some of us would call a wasted possession. My friend suggested a simple explanation: he doesn’t trust his defense. To me, that’s the only explanation that makes sense for that last series in regulation.

 

[GVol1966]

I said it all year, his aversion to calling timeouts at end of halves to preserve time and set up plays would cost us. 'His offense works on speed, keeps them off balance" everyone said. How'd that work out last night?[/QUOTE]
45 points. Pretty damn good .
Unfortunately giving up that many, not so good. But you’re asking about the offense

 

[tampavolsfan]

Fair points. As we were leaving the stadium last night, a friend and I were wondering what could be the only possible explanation for the playcalling at the end of regulation — what some of us would call a wasted possession. My friend suggested a simple explanation: he doesn’t trust his defense. To me, that’s the only explanation that makes sense for that last series in regulation.

I had the same thought, but they could have easily ran the clock down to 1-2 seconds and kicked the FG. Three timeouts and we didn’t utilize them properly. Just head scratching.

 

[Tnphil]

If it's no trust in the defense why snap it every 13 seconds? If it's no trust in the defense why go warp speed on short yardage run plays and our players are looking around confused? I wonder how many more possessions Purdue got than they should have because we were going warp speed and giving them the ball back in quick order in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and even other times up 21-7?

 

[tampavolsfan]

Knuckledragger still comes to mind. When 90 freakin points are scored in regulation, there are all kinds of whoulda, coulda and shoulda scenarios. Why wasnt 87's forward progress stopped but our guys was? We missed #2 on defense. Anybody with a semblance of a football IQ could see that Purdue picked on the weakest link in the secondary all game long. Second guessing playcalling 45 points into it is kind of silly. We are still 30 players short of a roster and you can make these nonsensical comments because you're a fan. This team overachieved, but whatever. It doesn't take much to feel superior in this room. Common sense should lead the day.

Let’s try this again. I’ll type slower so you can keep up. We…are…talking…about…the…final…drive…in…regulation.

Let me help you. Final drive in regulation: No TN db’s were on the field to get picked on, even if 2 had played in this game he wouldn’t have been on the field, 87’s TD while sad, was already a known quantity. All of these things were factors for sure, but, it’s the game of football - what’s done is done. Time to block it out, and go wrap it up. Cry about all that happened before, and you have done plenty of that, but we had a better than solid chance to win, and we didn’t execute cleanly in that last 40-50 seconds of regulation. It was bungled.

Talk about common sense all you want, but it apparently alludes you. We got to a bowl game, with a better than expected season record in the bank - any fan that has a history with TN is excited about Heupel and the future of the program. Common sense is that I can BOTH be happy about our future and say, “He screwed that up royally. And, if he wants to be an elite coach - he can’t let those types of things happen in the future.”

By the way, he came out last night and said he didn’t put McGrath in a position to succeed on that final drive. See, that’s common sense.

 

[tampavolsfan]

should have never come to OT anyway, plenty of time and timeouts left to get in good field goal range for the win in regulation, does CJH know you can win with a field goal?

People are having a hard time understanding this…I guess it’s easier to complain about the refs.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Heupel still has a long way to go before he is an elite coach. I like Heupel, and he has done some good things this year, however, he should have never been considered for Coach of the Year.

The final possession of tonight’s game proved my point. Benefit of the doubt - Hooker just forgot that we could actually kick a field goal. No idea what that whole last series during regulation was about.
The first thing that was clear to me is that Heupel is playing with much less than a full team of SEC quality football players with little experience and previous SEC quality coaching His ability to scheme and coach offensive football and win 7 games this year is nothing short of amazing. Without his and his staffs coaching abilities, we would have been lucky to win 4 games his year. In addition, he has recruited much better than almost everyone thought possible and he is not finished with the current class. Bandy is the only SEC team with less talent than had at the beginning of this past season. It still takes time to rebuild a football team which was as depleted as our team was last September. We have now completed year one and I look forward to seeing how we play and recruit the rest of this year and it appears we are setting a firm base for recruiting next year.

Should have never went to OT.

 

[sjt18]

Heupel still has a long way to go before he is an elite coach. I like Heupel, and he has done some good things this year, however, he should have never been considered for Coach of the Year.

The final possession of tonight’s game proved my point. Benefit of the doubt - Hooker just forgot that we could actually kick a field goal. No idea what that whole last series during regulation was about.

Should have never went to OT.

Dude. He had the play. Purdue played the run and short stuff. They left their SLOOOOOOOOW CB one on one with Tillman. Tillman got off coverage and got held. Otherwise that was the game winning play. Neither Hooker nor Heupel can officiate the game too.

There aren't many elite coaches so in that respect you're right. But yeah. If you consider what he pulled together then what he did with it... that's the stuff of COY even considering the rip off vs Purdue.

Your right. It never should have went to OT. Their last drive to tie should have ended rather than being sustained by questionable PI calls. They should have been penalized MULTIPLE times on UT's last drive for defensive holding or PI. None of that has one thing to do with Heupel being or not being "elite".

UT made plenty of mistakes that could have won the game long before the 4th qtr. Hooker played pretty bad and missed multiple opportunities to break their backs early. The D needs some MAJOR work and not just the players. They need to throw the playbook away and start from scratch.

But Heupel called the right plays. The team was prepared to play. People before the game and the announcers throughout the game talked about how much Purdue's missing guys hurt them. A Taylor was UT's best CB and there's no one else even in the same universe. If he plays then he locks someone down even if Bell had played. Mays would have made a major difference in the consistency of the run game.

 

[sjt18]

should have never come to OT anyway, plenty of time and timeouts left to get in good field goal range for the win in regulation, does CJH know you can win with a field goal?

Do you know what multiple uncalled defensive holding fouls look like? Hooker threw those balls because Purdue lined up to stuff the short stuff. I would bet good money that they INTENTIONALLY had their CB's hold UT's outside receivers on the chance it wouldn't be called. It shouldn't have come down to a FG or if it did then it should have been set up by at least TWO defensive holding calls.

 

[tampavolsfan]

Dude. He had the play. Purdue played the run and short stuff. They left their SLOOOOOOOOW CB one on one with Tillman. Tillman got off coverage and got held. Otherwise that was the game winning play. Neither Hooker nor Heupel can officiate the game too.

There aren't many elite coaches so in that respect you're right. But yeah. If you consider what he pulled together then what he did with it... that's the stuff of COY even considering the rip off vs Purdue.

Your right. It never should have went to OT. Their last drive to tie should have ended rather than being sustained by questionable PI calls. They should have been penalized MULTIPLE times on UT's last drive for defensive holding or PI. None of that has one thing to do with Heupel being or not being "elite".

UT made plenty of mistakes that could have won the game long before the 4th qtr. Hooker played pretty bad and missed multiple opportunities to break their backs early. The D needs some MAJOR work and not just the players. They need to throw the playbook away and start from scratch.

But Heupel called the right plays. The team was prepared to play. People before the game and the announcers throughout the game talked about how much Purdue's missing guys hurt them. A Taylor was UT's best CB and there's no one else even in the same universe. If he plays then he locks someone down even if Bell had played. Mays would have made a major difference in the consistency of the run game.

I agree with most of what you are saying. It was a good night on some fronts and a terrible night on others. I noticed that their weak CB lined up on the top, but we were still gaining enough yards to play our game. Also, play calling and schemes aside - the use of timeouts were questionable.

 

[Volsfannn]

People are having a hard time understanding this…I guess it’s easier to complain about the refs.

Most posters here are perfectly content with mediocre 7 win seasons with double digit blowouts to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

 

[Volsfannn]

Do you know what multiple uncalled defensive holding fouls look like? Hooker threw those balls because Purdue lined up to stuff the short stuff. I would bet good money that they INTENTIONALLY had their CB's hold UT's outside receivers on the chance it wouldn't be called. It shouldn't have come down to a FG or if it did then it should have been set up by at least TWO defensive holding calls.

You aren't going to win many football games against mediocre much less quality opponents with a defense giving up average 38 points per game. With good refs or bad refs. Until they can field a solid sec defense 6-7 wins is the ceiling.

 

[GVol1966]

If it's no trust in the defense why snap it every 13 seconds? If it's no trust in the defense why go warp speed on short yardage run plays and our players are looking around confused? I wonder how many more possessions Purdue got than they should have because we were going warp speed and giving them the ball back in quick order in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and even other times up 21-7?

If you still have to ask that after watching our D all year !
Going warp speed gives us an advantage,
We lack dominate line players and slowing down only takes that advantage away.
We could take 20 minutes between plays and they sub , line up and it’s just who’s winning the hd/hd battle, and if you haven’t figured it out yet , it’s not us 80% of the time

 

[DERELICK_MY_VOLS]

Reading these comments just proves to me how damn ungrateful and unappreciative this fan base truly is. This team was picked to finish 2nd to last in the SEC. 4 wins if lucky. This is all because of Heupel and this staffs ability to coach up chicken into chicken salad. He got these outmanned outclassed rag tag of unwanteds to overachieve at an all time high. Yet that just wasn’t good enough.

This game was like the Pitt, Florida, and Ole Miss games. Heupel dialed up some deep wide open runaway TD passes….we over shot them/dropped them. Lack of depth played into our defense tumbling in the 4 quarters of these close games. Still all the Players left it all on the field in each of those games. 2 of the 4 losses ended up being from some extremely inexcusable poor officiating game changing calls.

Losses suck. But this season was a taste of things to come. Celebrate these players and this staff. Heupel deserves praise not anger. He’s gonna bring great exciting times to Knoxville. Personally I can’t wait to see us take that next step to 9 possibly 10 wins next season. Yes Florida and LSU are both very winnable next season. GO VOLS!

 

[chef3531]

End of the 4th quarter he failed, just like he's done multiple times this year at end of halves. FG would have been the finishing touch on a very solid season. Heup and Golesh failed in situational awareness.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

For sure got to get better on D. When you get to championship level you better have a very good D first and foremost. On offense you need to be able to do both but you better have a strong running attack. You can have a smaller back but you need a pounder too and a mean hasty O-line that can play physical when it needs too. Just look at Bama and Georgia they got what I described and that’s why they are where they are at.

 

[ksgovols]

Let’s try this again. I’ll type slower so you can keep up. We…are…talking…about…the…final…drive…in…regulation.

Let me help you. Final drive in regulation: No TN db’s were on the field to get picked on, even if 2 had played in this game he wouldn’t have been on the field, 87’s TD while sad, was already a known quantity. All of these things were factors for sure, but, it’s the game of football - what’s done is done. Time to block it out, and go wrap it up. Cry about all that happened before, and you have done plenty of that, but we had a better than solid chance to win, and we didn’t execute cleanly in that last 40-50 seconds of regulation. It was bungled.

Talk about common sense all you want, but it apparently alludes you. We got to a bowl game, with a better than expected season record in the bank - any fan that has a history with TN is excited about Heupel and the future of the program. Common sense is that I can BOTH be happy about our future and say, “He screwed that up royally. And, if he wants to be an elite coach - he can’t let those types of things happen in the future.”

By the way, he came out last night and said he didn’t put McGrath in a position to succeed on that final drive. See, that’s common sense.

Feel better? The response to your OP isn't necessarily towards you, but the trending of the thread. But.....it's ok to be disappointed in the outcome. Throw your name in the hat as OC. Next morning quarterbacking is always right. I agree that getting into field goal range in regulation was the goal and for whatever reason, those gaping holes that had been in the middle of the Purdue DLine suddenly weren't there. Roster management also in affect here. Both sides of the ball are gassed from the frantic 4th quarter and we're trying to run clock and win the game. It didn't work. That's more of a reduced roster affliction than coaching chops. JMO of course. You could be Bama's OC for all I know.

 

[sjt18]

You aren't going to win many football games against mediocre much less quality opponents with a defense giving up average 38 points per game. With good refs or bad refs. Until they can field a solid sec defense 6-7 wins is the ceiling.

Yeah. I think they need to sit down and reconsider everything on D. There has been a lot of shade thrown at UT's defensive players this year... and they do need more talent. However teams with less talent have done more. I'm not throwing bombs at Banks or anyone else. I don't know who is responsible for what and they need time to develop that side of the ball. But what we saw this year can't continue.

 

[sjt18]

I agree with most of what you are saying. It was a good night on some fronts and a terrible night on others. I noticed that their weak CB lined up on the top, but we were still gaining enough yards to play our game. Also, play calling and schemes aside - the use of timeouts were questionable.

My point was a specific one. Purdue sold out to keep UT out of FG range. They thought UT would run in the middle or throw short to set it up. It was absolutely the right call and decision to throw down the sideline to UT receivers in single coverage. They gave the officials more than one opportunity to make the right call. I can only imagine that the coaches got in their ears all game long about missing those holds... and they still didn't call them. IMO... that's not just simple incompetence.

 

[GUNTERSVOL]

Not the point. This post was a criticism of the last series of regulation. You don’t have to be a genius to understand that 1 point more than your opponent wins the game.

His play calling and methods got us nearly 700 yards of total offense. That defensive holding call they somehow missed would have given us some yardage and a new set of downs. Just a different plan than yours, get over it. As far as elite status, he could not have earned that this year PERIOD. He is at least a few elite players and several SEC upper caliber players away from even considering a run to earn that status.

 

[DCharVol]

Heupel still has a long way to go before he is an elite coach. I like Heupel, and he has done some good things this year, however, he should have never been considered for Coach of the Year.

The final possession of tonight’s game proved my point. Benefit of the doubt - Hooker just forgot that we could actually kick a field goal. No idea what that whole last series during regulation was about.

Should have never went to OT.

I think some of Vol fans have a little too high expectations. This is Heupel’s first year and introduced a brand new offense and defense to mostly players that he inherited from Pruitt. This team came within a whisker of winning 10 games. Yes, defense was undermanned at times, but they played hard all year.

I wonder how many of the biggest complainers went through the Major years. I respected Johnny as a really good coach, but it took him 4-6 years before he had a decent team. Look at how his teams turned out - Fulmer reaped many rewards for the teams that Majors built. In contrast, Heupel has brought excitement back for first time in 5-6 years and has done it the right way so far. Wait until he adds more talent. I bet he’ll do it quicker than Johnny!

 

[Clad in Big Orange]

...football season is fun again!