What happened to all the talent?

#101
#101
I have learned 1 thing as a fan of 49 year's 30 percent of VOL NATION will moan and groan no matter what we do, but the true VOL FANS will give the man time, now we are better of this time around Butch left some talent, just couldn't coach it up to SEC level, plus we wasn't tough enough, the SC coach will be a major hire this day and time the SC coach is a must, you can't miss on it or you are in trouble from the get get go.
 
#103
#103
sjt18 said:
Some here for whatever reason have a knee jerk reaction to set the bar low. They think "patiently" enduring subpar performance will somehow magically produce championships in the future.

This team still has talent and has quite a bit if several players come back from injuries and get good development. The right coach will be able to get Fr to play well without the years of development Jones thought they had to have.

I like the hire. I hope for the best. But if he can't improve the team, avoid bad losses, and get some good wins in his first 3 years... then you cut bait. "Time" isn't the friend of building a championship program if time means tolerating someone without the skill to get the job done.

UT needs a great coach. A great coach wins 7 games with 6 win talent... not 5 like Jones did in '13. He wins 9 with 7 win talent... unlike Jones in '14. He doesn't whine about youth then choke away a potentially great season like Jones did in '15.
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:hi: Good post sir.
 
#104
#104
We had talent wooed w/ snake oil promises and never developed. If not for Dobbs we'd been doing this two yrs ago.

I have disdain for any dyed in the wool bammer but I'll allow him to coach us up to beat the Tuscaloosa midget. Then he'll jump the state line.
 
#105
#105
BigOrangeTrain said:
This talent has not been coached up. Outside of the RBs anyway. The cupboards arent bare. Our talent needs a culture change from the bottom up. Terrible coaching has turned our talent into high school level guys. Thats gonna take some time to fix.
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Define 'time'. The players currently on the roster have a shelf life. 3 years or less remaining. So... if it takes 2 years to "Coach 'em up" then the cupboard is in fact bare.

Pretty interesting that there is no consensus after only 4 ages on this thread about where we should be. The VN braintrust is all over the map.
 
#106
#106
golf437 said:
The problem is we have talent but not SEC speed. So fans like you see the stars but not the skills. So 6-6 is not unacceptable.
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I don't see star ratings as anything but opinion. I am talking about how many people have said over and over that we are loaded with talent. I am just posing the question.


Your talent vs speed comment is hilarious.
 
#108
#108
SpaceCoastVol said:
I have been reading for the last couple of years about how we are LOADED with talent. Now all of a sudden, in many threads I have been reading how we have to give CJP 'time' because essentially the cupboard is bare. OK. Where did all the talent go? Did they graduate? Quit? Die? Help me out.
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My opinion about half injuries that will heal and bad coaching we got talent to win and in his second year win alot.
 
#111
#111
sjt18 said:
Not only did he not play him enough... he didn't utilize him or Hurd for maximum impact. His OL philosophy was just incredibly bad. He never put either of those guys in a position to be as good as they could have been individually or as a tandem.
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They are the poster children of players at UT under his tenure (think pocket QB's in his "rpo offense"). Square peg, meet round hole, over and over again. Atrocious mismanagement of player personnel. Frankly I dunno how TF he convinced players to come to UT. He must've lied his ass off just like Hurd and Jennings said.
 
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#112
#112
JettVol said:
Drew Richmond, Smith, Jashon Robertson OL???

K-Mac, Phillips, Kongbo, Tuttle, Vickers, Taylor???

Kirkland, Reeves Maybin???

Umm all 4-5* guys??? No Talent??? Guess me and every scout and espn report on High school athletes are full of it. You have to be kidding me if you don't think that we have a talented team......


Lesson for you, we had Alvin Kamara. Remember him?? yea vaguely I'm sure bc our previous inept staff only gave him the ball 6-9 times a game....he is now up for ROOKIE OF THE YEAR IN THE NFL!!!!! He barley played for us.........

There is a boatload of talent that Pruitt is inheriting, now to see if he can coach them up to play at their maximum level will be the question.
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Of the OLs you listed, only Trey Smith has played like he was rated.

Among the DTs and DEs you listed, which one has done ANYTHING here? None of them have played anywhere near their individual billing. Both KMac and Kongbo are flat out busts....Phillips too....none has sniffed anywhere near 5 star level of play. Not trying to dog the players, just being honest.

Kirkland has flashed in the 10 minutes he’s been healthy, but what has he done? JRM was outstanding, but he too was often injured and is long gone from the program.

There’s not a “boatload of talent” on this team. We have several very talented, proven players to various degrees (Kelly, JG, Smith, Callaway, Johnson, Chandler, Bituli, Gaulden, Warrior) and a fair amount of guys who we think are talented and can maybe be good, productive players, but time will only tell...we certainly haven’t seen anything from them to this point to truly know.
 
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#113
#113
KBVol said:
Of the OLs you listed, only Trey Smith has played like he was rated.

Among the DTs and DEs you listed, which one has done ANYTHING here? None of them have played anywhere near their individual billing. Both KMac and Kongbo are flat out busts....Phillips too....none has sniffed anywhere near 5 star level of play. Not trying to dog the players, just being honest.

Kirkland has flashed in the 10 minutes he’s been healthy, but what has he done? JRM was outstanding, but he too was often injured and is long gone from the program.

There’s not a “boatload of talent” on this team. We have several very talented, proven players to various degrees (Kelly, JG, Smith, Callaway, Johnson, Chandler, Bituli, Gaulden, Warrior) and a fair amount of guys who we think are talented and can maybe be good, productive players, but time will only tell...we certainly haven’t seen anything from them to this point to truly know.
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Excellent post KB. People have lulled themselves into a falsehood that we have a ton of talent. We dont. We have what Imcall paper talent. Good on paper but poor on the field.
 
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#115
#115
SpaceCoastVol said:
I have been reading for the last couple of years about how we are LOADED with talent. Now all of a sudden, in many threads I have been reading how we have to give CJP 'time' because essentially the cupboard is bare. OK. Where did all the talent go? Did they graduate? Quit? Die? Help me out.
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50 kids left program that is 2 classes....cbj ran alot of them off by how he treated them....
 
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#116
#116
Hopefully a new mind-set will take hold under Coach Pruitt and Tennessee players will be challenged to be as hard-nosed and physical and no-quit as they can possibly be, which will be exactly 180 degrees from where the program had fallen to under CBJ. I believe Pruitt has the strength of character and right approach (no BS, no clichés... a'aight?), but just as Rome was not built in a day the Vols' inevitable return to being conference- and BCS-competitive will not happen overnight. But I expect we will see a completely different team effort on whole 'nother level in 2018. Just IMHO anyway.
 
#117
#117
SpaceCoastVol said:
I have been reading for the last couple of years about how we are LOADED with talent. Now all of a sudden, in many threads I have been reading how we have to give CJP 'time' because essentially the cupboard is bare. OK. Where did all the talent go? Did they graduate? Quit? Die? Help me out.
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There is talent on the roster but many still aren't healthy. By Spring practice the health issues should be behind this team.


The biggest hurdle for success in the first year is both sides of the ball having to learn brand new terminology and plays as well as new practice methods and processes. Depending on the teaching ability of the coaches this could take a couple of games to get guys playing without having to overthink everything it it could take all season. Of course if the coaches suck it may never happen. That likely isn't going to be the case.

I just hope all the keyboard coaches on here don't start their usual crap when things don't go as smoothly as it should the first half of the season.

With all that said 9 wins are easily attainable and less than 7 and we'll know that it's going to be a long 4-5years and then we get to start all this again.
 
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#120
#120
SpaceCoastVol said:
I have been reading for the last couple of years about how we are LOADED with talent. Now all of a sudden, in many threads I have been reading how we have to give CJP 'time' because essentially the cupboard is bare. OK. Where did all the talent go? Did they graduate? Quit? Die? Help me out.
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for me, it's mostly about depth. there's talent in the 1st 22. after that it gets dicey, and we still have the same questions we had last year. O line isn't where it needs to be, DL past the starting 4(and they can improve too), and we need LB's.

i think we're ok at QB, WR(need more speed), Safety, DB (especially if Byrd moves here).
 
#122
#122
Rudy123 said:
Would Jumper have been the starter with Pruitt as the head coach? I bet the best player plays now and not the upper classman
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dunno, i do think you get to a point on a roster where you don't have a choice. and i'm not going to say we didn't have choices.

i'm just going to say LB has been an issue, and we lost our 3 starters before the 1st game last year. hell we lost starting LB's each of the last 4 years.
 
#123
#123
VolArmy74 said:
We had some attrition but the talent is there. We will return a 5 star QB, 2-3 5 star DL, multiple 4/5 start OL. Very talented at the RB position. Our top 2 leading WR return. We lose the most in the defensive backfield but hopefully Pruitt is good enough at defense to make that better.

6-6 should be the floor next year. That's losing to everyone you should, beating everyone you should and going 3-3 in toss up games.

After that, we should be looking at another leap forward to approach 9 wins, if Pruitt is a capable coach. The pattern with the greats is that they get it going pretty quickly.
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Thanks for the recap. We were seeing highly rated recruiting classes under CBJ with results that did not match. It was kind of obvious the CBJ and his staff did not coach up the talent recruited. The coaching we saw this year was frankly a joke. I am looking for a much better year with the Vols getting much better coaching. I would sure hope that we get to a bowl game next year.
 
#125
#125
Schasz said:
Thanks for the recap. We were seeing highly rated recruiting classes under CBJ with results that did not match. It was kind of obvious the CBJ and his staff did not coach up the talent recruited. The coaching we saw this year was frankly a joke. I am looking for a much better year with the Vols getting much better coaching. I would sure hope that we get to a bowl game next year.
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I'm not sure why, but this photo came to mind after reading your post:

butchband.jpg
 
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