Transfer Portal vs Coaching

#1
LittleVol

LittleVol

Of course I can help you, Coach Heupel.
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Oct 10, 2014
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#1
RB – Ty Chandler, North Carolina All-ACC (2nd team)
- 1300 total yards 14 TDs
LB- Quavarius Crouch, Michigan State All- Big Ten (Honorable Mention)
- 75 tackles 2.0 scks
LB Henry To'otoo, Alabama All- SEC (2nd Team)
- 111 tackles 4 sacks
DB Key Lawrence, Oklahoma All-Big 12 (Honorable mention)
- 47 tackles 3 Forced Fumbles 1 sck

(all were part of the 3-7, 2020 team)

If you were to tell me that we were about to sign 4 All-Conference level players (2 for sure) in the transfer portal for 2022, I would start to talk about challenging for the east.
Yet we had these guys AND MORE, but went 3-7. Pruitt brought these guys in. He switched Banks to LB. He brought in Hendon Hooker. He took a flyer on an unranked WR from Las Vegas (Tillman) in 2018. I could go on and on, but Pruitt knew what good football looked like is my point. But he was just stupid... that's really his only problem. He couldn't get out of his own way...


Heupel took a roster minus these 4 All conference guys and had us within striking distance of a 10 win season the very next season.
He also inherited Hendon Hooker All-SEC (4th team).
Is Heupel some genius? I wouldn't go that far, but he was able to mold some pieces to his advantage.
However,...like I said. This was close to a 10 win team. At the very least should have been 9 wins.
Heupel is far above the mental capacity of his predecessor, but he's not immune to certain shortcomings that coaches often display. I'm optimistic about Heupel and Banks as DC. But Heupel needs to really examine how he executes.
He just needs to slow down a little every now & then...
when he does, then we all will begin to see how good the defense can really be.
 
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#7
#7
MurphyVol said:
I see a lot of people saying this (and I'm not disputing it) but how does a guy everyone knocks start for Nick Saban?
Click to expand...
By him leaving it hurt a lot of feel feels. Lot of post are emotion driven. I like how people forget it was an all sec schedule last year to. Breads dumbarse would have won at least 6 with our OOC games this year.
 
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#8
#8
That's not too mention some extra depth pieces like Jahmir Johnson, Morris, Gray, etc. Key would've been huge for us, same with Crouch and Henry T. We just needed bodies on defense, but they would've improved our talent level.
 
#9
#9
Pruitt knows talent. He knows some football. What he didn’t know is how to be the boss. His foolish pride on thinking he knew everything was his downfall. Sometimes you just gotta admit you’re wrong and accept change.

The game has changed. Its not about smashmouth football any more.
 
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#10
#10
MurphyVol said:
I see a lot of people saying this (and I'm not disputing it) but how does a guy everyone knocks start for Nick Saban?
Click to expand...
Not sure. Maybe they didn’t have the depth they normally do. He did seem to be around the ball a lot. I’ll give him that. Just seemed to get pushed around. He’s a good player. Just don’t understand the second team all SEC thing.
 
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#11
#11
VOLfrombama said:
Pruitt knows talent. He knows some football. What he didn’t know is how to be the boss. His foolish pride on thinking he knew everything was his downfall. Sometimes you just gotta admit you’re wrong and accept change.

The game has changed. Its not about smashmouth football any more.
Click to expand...

I think GA played some level of smashmouth football this year, particularly on defense.
 
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#12
#12
The 2 LBs (Henry T and Crouch) were coached by Nieds and Shelton Felton in 2020. They had as much experience coaching P5 LBs as my 8 year old daughter had heading into 2020...
 
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#13
#13
BigOrangeMojo said:
The 2 LBs (Henry T and Crouch) were coached by Nieds and Shelton Felton in 2020. They had as much experience coaching P5 LBs as my 8 year old daughter had heading into 2020...
Click to expand...
100% confident your daughter could have coached them better. Guy was maybe worst position coach I've seen in 40 years of UT football
 
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#16
#16
GoVols9800 said:
No way Henry T belonged on the 2nd team. I saw him get pushed around a ton this year.
Click to expand...
He's good, he's still got flaws in his game mainly he tries to do too much, something he learned playing on Pruitt's hapless squads and is now having to unlearn. He will play in the league.
 
#17
#17
You’re spot on with the Pruitt was just really dumb comment. Him taking a flyer on Tillman was a great move. But the other were elite kids coming out of high school. What costs Pruitt his job and ultimately his legacy is the inability to understand how bad our qb was and the inability to realize he needed to move mountains to get someone in that could play the position. JG had our en to be a really bad player before Pruitt ever even showed up on campus. We had other options at qb. But for 3 straight years nobody else ever really saw the field. Rather he wanted us to just play good defense and a game management style on offense. That worked 30 years ago. But won’t work in todays game.
 
#18
#18
chattavol420 said:
You’re spot on with the Pruitt was just really dumb comment. Him taking a flyer on Tillman was a great move. But the other were elite kids coming out of high school. What costs Pruitt his job and ultimately his legacy is the inability to understand how bad our qb was and the inability to realize he needed to move mountains to get someone in that could play the position. JG had our en to be a really bad player before Pruitt ever even showed up on campus. We had other options at qb. But for 3 straight years nobody else ever really saw the field. Rather he wanted us to just play good defense and a game management style on offense. That worked 30 years ago. But won’t work in todays game.
Click to expand...
It certainly won't work if you can neither play good defense nor have someone under center who can manage the game.
 
#19
#19
LittleVol said:
RB – Ty Chandler, North Carolina All-ACC (2nd team)
- 1300 total yards 14 TDs
LB- Quavarius Crouch, Michigan State All- Big Ten (Honorable Mention)
- 75 tackles 2.0 scks
LB Henry To'otoo, Alabama All- SEC (2nd Team)
- 111 tackles 4 sacks
DB Key Lawrence, Oklahoma All-Big 12 (Honorable mention)
- 47 tackles 3 Forced Fumbles 1 sck

(all were part of the 3-7, 2020 team)

If you were to tell me that we were about to sign 4 All-Conference level players (2 for sure) in the transfer portal for 2022, I would start to talk about challenging for the east.
Yet we had these guys AND MORE, but went 3-7. Pruitt brought these guys in. He switched Banks to LB. He brought in Hendon Hooker. He took a flyer on an unranked WR from Las Vegas (Tillman) in 2018. I could go on and on, but Pruitt knew what good football looked like is my point. But he was just stupid... that's really his only problem. He couldn't get out of his own way...


Heupel took a roster minus these 4 All conference guys and had us within striking distance of a 10 win season the very next season.
He also inherited Hendon Hooker All-SEC (4th team).
Is Heupel some genius? I wouldn't go that far, but he was able to mold some pieces to his advantage.
However,...like I said. This was close to a 10 win team. At the very least should have been 9 wins.
Heupel is far above the mental capacity of his predecessor, but he's not immune to certain shortcomings that coaches often display. I'm optimistic about Heupel and Banks as DC. But Heupel needs to really examine how he executes.
He just needs to slow down a little every now & then...
when he does, then we all will begin to see how good the defense can really be.
Click to expand...
Don't care, they left their "brothers"
 
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#20
#20
Pruitt definitely recruited us talent. Keeping it and coaching it up was an issue. But that's old news now. Why aren't we snagging more folks from the portal? That's gotta change if we're going to make a move. I find this the most disappointing part of the Huepel regime. Maybe it's due to the NCAA investigation and all. I don't know but it's gotta change
 
#21
#21
chattavol420 said:
You’re spot on with the Pruitt was just really dumb comment. Him taking a flyer on Tillman was a great move. But the other were elite kids coming out of high school. What costs Pruitt his job and ultimately his legacy is the inability to understand how bad our qb was and the inability to realize he needed to move mountains to get someone in that could play the position. JG had our en to be a really bad player before Pruitt ever even showed up on campus. We had other options at qb. But for 3 straight years nobody else ever really saw the field. Rather he wanted us to just play good defense and a game management style on offense. That worked 30 years ago. But won’t work in todays game.
Click to expand...

Deciding to ride with JG certainly was Pruitt’s most glaring mistake. I don’t know that any staff coulda coached at a high enough level to overcome it. JG didn’t just lack the ability to make positive plays, he had an incredible capacity to make back-breaking mistakes.

If Heupel had stuck with Milton, we woulda seen similar results this season. I still don’t see how the staff made the mistake to start him at the outset, but kudos to them for recognizing and fixing it.
 
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#23
#23
JWilly said:
I think GA played some level of smashmouth football this year, particularly on defense.
Click to expand...
I won’t dispute that they were the more physical team, but they also gave up almost 400 yards passing. If B Young doesnt throw 2 picks, their physicality wouldn’t have made as much difference.
 
#24
#24
EZE said:
Deciding to ride with JG certainly was Pruitt’s most glaring mistake. I don’t know that any staff coulda coached at a high enough level to overcome it. JG didn’t just lack the ability to make positive plays, he had an incredible capacity to make back-breaking mistakes.

If Heupel had stuck with Milton, we woulda seen similar results this season. I still don’t see how the staff made the mistake to start him at the outset, but kudos to them for recognizing and fixing it.
Click to expand...
unfortunately we are seeing why JG was playing. Harrison Bailey is still in the portal and Maurer is at Stephen F Austin. Not a fan of JG but seems with those two didn’t give much competition based on where they viewed with other programs.
CJH is working with what he has and the result have been promising. He did more this year with less.
 
#25
#25
VOLfrombama said:
I won’t dispute that they were the more physical team, but they also gave up almost 400 yards passing. If B Young doesnt throw 2 picks, their physicality wouldn’t have made as much difference.
Click to expand...

You are right and if UT had played better defense this year, they would have won more games. If the officials got a couple of calls right UT would have won the MCB. If J Williams had not gotten injured Bama might have won that game. If Pruitt would not have stuck with JG as QB, he might have won more games. If GA had not have hired Kirby, they might not be doing so well right now. If....
 
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