What happened?? (Speculation encouraged)

[Dergibvol]

Kentucky is the only game where our Pass Defense looked good for the whole game.

Thats the levis special

 

[JoeMiltonsAgent]

Something was very off with this defense tonight with Jeremy Banks out.

They haven't been great by any stretch but they haven't shown the complete lack of effort like we saw tonight this season.

 

[BDP!]

Spencer Rattler had the best game he’ll ever play, our defense was garbage, and the offense underperformed.

Maybe we can beat Vandy next week. As bad as this loss stings 10 wins is still a really good year.

If we can win next week 10 wins is a great year. No excuse for how we played tonight but nobody on the planet thought we’d be in the position we were in coming into tonight’s game. Sucks to lose this way but let’s move on, get our 10th win of the season next week.

 

[Rememberthelate90s]

I watched Hadden all night talk the WHOLE TIME! How did we see it and NO ONE ON THE COACHING STAFF?? Quit talking and play football. The guy was trying to arm tackle all night! Juwan Mitchell pushing people instead of tackling ball carriers. It was pathetic. It truly looked like Tennessee of Pruitt years or even worse a Sal Sunseri defense. JUST ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC. Spencer freaking Rattler and that D-Bag Beamer.…I canNOT believe it.

He doesn't tackle. He doesn't like physical. He gave up 2 tds bc he didn't want to hit anyone.

 

[Cartervol]

SC bullied us—plain and simple.

Yep. Heupel's offense and style of play is kind of finesse. He's going to have to find a defense to survive here.

 

[njvols]

Maybe something is going on behind the scenes. Huepel going to the pros? This is literally unexplainable

Not after that game. We are fine…still 10 win season possible which I’d have taken in a heartbeat early in the season…just shows we aren’t where we thought we were but probably still ahead of schedule.

 

[cobbwebb0710]

He doesn't tackle. He doesn't like physical. He gave up 2 tds bc he didn't want to hit anyone.

There was certainly something going on with the back 7 of the defense.
The front four played decent and almost every time they got pressure, they were blatantly held.
The LB’s and secondary gave little effort for the most part.

 

[Woodlawn VOL]

I honestly do not know. I had you in for the fourth seed. Heupel is a good coach. I don’t know enough about your DC to say if he should be replaced. However, with Heupel’s offense, you only need a decent defense.

No in this conference you need a very solid to very good defense at least if you want to win it all. We can’t mask defense with more offense. We have to be much better on D! Much better! But we will get there! GBO!

 

[Tigervol]

Absolutely no adjustments in the half! We should have played press cover and blitzed a more nimble and fast nickel back or safety going into 2nd half. The 8-12 yard cushion strategy and lack of blitzing coast us big time. How can they not see this from the coaches box?

 

[TartanTurff]

This defense wasn't even up to American Athletic Conference standards, Heupel is in the SEC now, the premier college Athletic Conference in the country with a full SEC schedule each season, his defensive mindset, schemes, coaching capability, NIL commitment to defensive players will have to change or we are looking at Heupel's ceiling in the SEC

 

[Rememberthelate90s]

There was certainly something going on with the back 7 of the defense.
The front four played decent and almost every time they got pressure, they were blatantly held.
The LB’s and secondary gave little effort for the most part.

I'm not saying he did it only tonight. Before he got hurt he didn't hit anyone. He's the reason florida scored on a possession bc he didn't tackle AR.

 

[ftsandersvol]

South Carolina watched enough film to know our secondary is our Achilles’ heel. Gambled on airing it out knowing they don’t have a running game and won.

 

[vols4evah]

Have you heard the old saying "on any given Saturday" well you have just experienced it. Always remember this is kids playing a game, things can go wrong and get crazy at anytime. You always need a little luck, this just wasn't our night and SC played a damn near perfect game the best game they have played all year. All you can do is put it behind you and move forward. Beat Vandy and we are 10-2 that's a good year and we can build on that.

 

[tn born]

. It was the way we lost on defense that was more discouraging. All of the trash talk and posturing by the defense when you are getting beat by 25 at the time and unable to stop anything. We looked lost , out of sync and totally confused .

 

[turbovol]

Terrible defensive game plan. Also saw too many damn players running their mouths and getting chippy for no reason at all..

If I was Heupel, I'd be hard pressed not to send Hadden to the damn house..

Hadden was mouthing off all night and he was terrible. He gave 8/10 yard cushions to SC players on 3rd and 6 situations, and they just threw short and made the first down--did that multiple times. We were out-coached badly on both sides of the ball and were not ready to play.

 

[turbovol]

There's a new definition of "a foolish person": It's someone who mocks TCU and Michigan for their close, last-minute wins over mediocre opponents and then watches HIS TEAM give up 50 points in three quarters to a bottom tier league opponent--as I did.

 

[Wezcoast]

Humble pie. We played above our heads a few games , but the glaring weaknesses were there every week . You have to earn it in this league. Obviously our team thought South Carolina didn't deserve our full attention and were thinking about something ahead that we hadn't earned yet. Credit to the chickens for smacking a bunch of cocky Vols that didn't take them seriously leading up to this game. Maybe we learned a lesson from this and will stick to preparing for every opponent as they come instead of expecting them to roll over and give it to us.

 

[gr82batnvol]

The defensive scheme is not good but some of that is limited to the players you have in your defense so some of it is a talent issue. The things we have done well at times on defense haven’t been consistent. We got very little pressure on Rattler. I think having Banks out tonight really hurt us. This secondary is not good. I don’t know how to say it kindly. Hooker has been off at times this season and tonight he was off quite a bit. With that being said, we rely too heavily on our offense. If our D could get stops and help our offense out, it would be a much different look. When we get down, especially knowing how our D responds or more appropriately doesn’t respond, we play desperate. Of course, penalties don’t help matters either.
I think the off season should be a major focus on the defensive side of the ball. You could have a small downtick on offense and improve your D and have a much more productive season.

 

[Remy]

My biggest problem, the coaches seem to refuse to blitz and pressure the QB. They wanna only rush 4 the whole friggin game and the get no pressure. Our db's can't cover and it give their Qb alll the time in the world.

They didn't even run stunts like they usually do.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Silver lining - Cedric Tillman came back and looked good

Even though he is far from being 100%.

 

[UTFanHades]

What happened? Program got exposed. Beamer has an objectively better win vs any of our wins and it’s possible he and Heupel aren’t that different in talent and ability.

 

[captain chaos]

The numbers caught up to us. The hype caught up to us. If Mizzou stopped punting last week on 4th and 1 that game would have been close. As far as a devastating loss, nah. The numbers caught up to us. How many bowl wins are on this current roster?

 

[UTblood4life]

SC bullied us—plain and simple.

Straight up Clubber Lang ass kicking

 

[DaddyChad]

Watching that game back, I’m not sure the defense even wanted to win tonight. We’ve had problems but damn I’ve never seen coverage this bad this year. No idea what happened but this wasn’t simple coaching or talent. Something else is going on in that lockerroom

 

[TJVol95]

Banks needs to be shown the door and Martinez is hot garbage!