What I Saw on the OL Yesterday That Possibly Explains Things...

#1
MontyPython

MontyPython

It's Just a Flesh Wound!
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#1
I like to keep track of who's playing in the trenches each series - generally speaking, unless there's an injury on the OL, the same group of 5 will stay in there. On the DL, though, you obviously have a lot more rotation to keep guys fresh and dependent on the down and distance. This is what I saw yesterday... granted, no tape review or anything, so take it FWIW:

On the OL, there was a HUGE amount of shuffling. Going into the game, Pruitt didn't bother to post a true starting lineup, instead opting to post 2 starters for each position. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. The OL was a self-inflicted train wreck! Why? Complete lack of continuity. Not only did the OL Coach Friend continuously sub players in at each position, he also shifted them around on the line. One play in particular showed the fallacy here: Wanya Morris - who had been at LT got moved inside to LG. GT didn't run a stunt or any elaborate pass rush, but the DE ran STRAIGHT BY Morris who opted to dual-block a DT with the Center. JG had the guy in his face instantly, and fell to the ground for a sack.

Why? Why would coaching staff put Morris at LG, when anyone who has followed practices to date knows that he has practiced (at least during the open periods) almost EXCLUSIVELY at LT?

This was just one instance that comes to mind, but the point is there was clearly ZERO CONTINUITY on the OL. As Pruitt himself has said repeatedly, picking the best 5 to play on the OL is all about minimizing mistakes. But, to minimize mistakes, our players have got to have some continuity - play in and play out. The revolving door that featured new OL members coming in out / shifting positions was a disaster - not by our players - but by our coaching staff.

This is a big reason why we stopped running effectively after the 1st quarter.

Explanation(s)? Anyone?

Staff wanted to "test" as many guys as possible to see which new guys could perform on gameday?

Staff didn't feel pressured to produce the "best line" possible, since this was a cupcake game, so time for experimentation?

There were undisclosed injuries?

Staff isn't very good?

The take away for me from this game is that our coaching staff isn't the "best staff in the country" as Pruitt has boasted. Clearly. We just lost to a team without a SINGLE 4* player on its roster.

Whatever the issue is here - such that Coach Friend can't take 4* and 5* talent and run against a crap team like GS - it needs to be nipped in the bud like pronto.
 
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#4
#4
MontyPython said:
I like to keep track of who's playing in the trenches each series - generally speaking, unless there's an injury on the OL, the same group of 5 will stay in there. On the DL, though, you obviously have a lot more rotation to keep guys fresh and dependent on the down and distance. This is what I saw yesterday... granted, no tape review or anything, so take it FWIW:

On the OL, there was a HUGE amount of shuffling. Going into the game, Pruitt didn't bother to post a true starting lineup, instead opting to post 2 starters for each position. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. The OL was a self-inflicted train wreck! Why? Complete lack of continuity. Not only did the OL Coach Friend continuously sub players in at each position, he also shifted them around on the line. One play in particular showed the fallacy here: Wanya Morris - who had been at LT got moved inside to LG. GT didn't run a stunt or any elaborate pass rush, but the DE ran STRAIGHT BY Morris who opted to dual-block a DT with the Center. JG had the guy in his face instantly, and fell to the ground for a sack.

Why? Why would coaching staff put Morris at LG, when anyone who has followed practices to date knows that he has practiced (at least during the open periods) almost EXCLUSIVELY at LT?

This was just one instance that comes to mind, but the point is there was clearly ZERO CONTINUITY on the OL. As Pruitt himself has said repeatedly, picking the best 5 to play on the OL is all about minimizing mistakes. But, to minimize mistakes, our players have got to have some continuity - play in and play out. The revolving door that featured new OL members coming in out / shifting positions was a disaster - not by our players - but by our coaching staff.

This is a big reason why we stopped running effectively after the 1st quarter.

Explanation(s)? Anyone?

Staff wanted to "test" as many guys as possible to see which new guys could perform on gameday?

Staff didn't feel pressured to produce the "best line" possible, since this was a cupcake game, so time for experimentation?

There were undisclosed injuries?

Staff isn't very good?

The take away for me from this game is that our coaching staff isn't the "best staff in the country" as Pruitt has boasted. Clearly. We just lost to a team without a SINGLE 4* player on its roster.

Whatever the issue is here - such that Coach Friend can't take 4* and 5* talent and run against a crap team like GS - it needs to be nipped in the bud like pronto.
Click to expand...

Saw the exact same thing you did and followed throughout. Although, the play you mention was destroyed by a blitzing LB, not a DE, I believe. It is remarkable how our staff overlooked GSU and treated this like scrimmage where the results mattered not.
 
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#8
#8
jaxvol said:
It did look like we were in scrimmage mode. They were in game mode.

We came out with the attitude of keeping it vanilla and trying out a lot of players in different positions, and never could shift back to win the game.
Click to expand...

Booom! 100% nailed it.

This was a scrimmage to develop our team, show recruits how many FR get to play, and give young players experience. More than a few players played extended snaps and they were not even listed on the depth chart!

OL, LB, DB and even some WR were all in rotational flux throughout. Offense was kept vanilla. Everyone got to play and we certainly were hoping first for no injuries. We still should have won by 2 or 3 scores.

But GSU had other plans. And they passionately executed them with discipline and skill. They were honestly impressive from coaches to players.

This is how you get your *** whipped by bringing a KNIFE to a GUN FIGHT!

Oh, and we paid them hundreds of thousands to come do it to us. 😒
 
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#10
#10
Pappy said:
yep.......Pruitt did not want to show Georgia and Bama his hand too early
Click to expand...
Its a smokescreen!
Vg8Z9.gif
 
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#12
#12
macrovol said:
Also, JG clearly has an strong and accurate arm, but he has no clock in his head. Got to get better at feeling pressure. Not sure if this is coachable.
Click to expand...
Has to develop consistent touch. The guy can throw some pretty balls..but then he laser cannons some when its unnecessary. Gotta wonder if the only time he practices is during practice...no offseason development at all?
 
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#14
#14
FLVOL_79 said:
Has to develop consistent touch. The guy can throw some pretty balls..but then he laser cannons some when its unnecessary. Gotta wonder if the only time he practices is during practice...no offseason development at all?
Click to expand...

This. Yesterday, JG had a dump pass to an RB who was like 5 yards away from him. Threw it at full strength. Not surprisingly, too hot to handle and dropped. *sigh*
 
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#15
#15
MontyPython said:
I like to keep track of who's playing in the trenches each series - generally speaking, unless there's an injury on the OL, the same group of 5 will stay in there. On the DL, though, you obviously have a lot more rotation to keep guys fresh and dependent on the down and distance. This is what I saw yesterday... granted, no tape review or anything, so take it FWIW:

On the OL, there was a HUGE amount of shuffling. Going into the game, Pruitt didn't bother to post a true starting lineup, instead opting to post 2 starters for each position. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. The OL was a self-inflicted train wreck! Why? Complete lack of continuity. Not only did the OL Coach Friend continuously sub players in at each position, he also shifted them around on the line. One play in particular showed the fallacy here: Wanya Morris - who had been at LT got moved inside to LG. GT didn't run a stunt or any elaborate pass rush, but the DE ran STRAIGHT BY Morris who opted to dual-block a DT with the Center. JG had the guy in his face instantly, and fell to the ground for a sack.

Why? Why would coaching staff put Morris at LG, when anyone who has followed practices to date knows that he has practiced (at least during the open periods) almost EXCLUSIVELY at LT?

This was just one instance that comes to mind, but the point is there was clearly ZERO CONTINUITY on the OL. As Pruitt himself has said repeatedly, picking the best 5 to play on the OL is all about minimizing mistakes. But, to minimize mistakes, our players have got to have some continuity - play in and play out. The revolving door that featured new OL members coming in out / shifting positions was a disaster - not by our players - but by our coaching staff.

This is a big reason why we stopped running effectively after the 1st quarter.

Explanation(s)? Anyone?

Staff wanted to "test" as many guys as possible to see which new guys could perform on gameday?

Staff didn't feel pressured to produce the "best line" possible, since this was a cupcake game, so time for experimentation?

There were undisclosed injuries?

Staff isn't very good?

The take away for me from this game is that our coaching staff isn't the "best staff in the country" as Pruitt has boasted. Clearly. We just lost to a team without a SINGLE 4* player on its roster.

Whatever the issue is here - such that Coach Friend can't take 4* and 5* talent and run against a crap team like GS - it needs to be nipped in the bud like pronto.
Click to expand...
I'm telling you...they didn't approach this game thinking it was possible for GSU to beat us. They viewed it as practice and we got beat. Stupid move.
 
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#16
#16
allvol123 said:
Yet to understand why Friend was not fired last year.
Click to expand...

Cronyism going back as far as the eye can see.

Fulmer couldnt pull the plug on Sanders when it was obvious.

Kiffin brought his dad in on defense.

Cant recall a specific instance with Dooley.

Jones leaning on the swim coach to survive.

Now Pruitt has his Achilles Heel with a guy who belongs on a team like GA ST...not the SEC.
 
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#17
#17
The offensive linemen didn’t know who to block, the receivers ran the wrong routes. On defense nobody appeared to know who to cover or where to be. It took us til week 6 last year before our players knew what direction to go. BYU and Florida are going to brutalize us. Chattanooga is a toss-up.
 
#19
#19
I think they were in scrimmage mold and BOOM the interception happened was a hard throw no touch to hard for that distance but Ty should have caught. That said
Dorthy you're not in Bama anymore.after GS got that gift and scored they played out of their mind for a bunch of mostly no Star & 2 star players. We just couldnt match their intensity we have no killer instinct at all. IMO you go out take care of business then get into scrimmage & shuffling and experiment mold. I saw some Vol player interviews where they said they never went over or were expecting some of the stuff they saw from GS.
My thought when I heard this was this coaching staff had always treated these $$ games as practice& let superior talent takeover but this is not the 90 Vols or GA or Bama. I say don't sleep on BYU or UTC.
 
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#21
#21
MontyPython said:
I like to keep track of who's playing in the trenches each series - generally speaking, unless there's an injury on the OL, the same group of 5 will stay in there. On the DL, though, you obviously have a lot more rotation to keep guys fresh and dependent on the down and distance. This is what I saw yesterday... granted, no tape review or anything, so take it FWIW:

On the OL, there was a HUGE amount of shuffling. Going into the game, Pruitt didn't bother to post a true starting lineup, instead opting to post 2 starters for each position. Apparently, he wasn't kidding. The OL was a self-inflicted train wreck! Why? Complete lack of continuity. Not only did the OL Coach Friend continuously sub players in at each position, he also shifted them around on the line. One play in particular showed the fallacy here: Wanya Morris - who had been at LT got moved inside to LG. GT didn't run a stunt or any elaborate pass rush, but the DE ran STRAIGHT BY Morris who opted to dual-block a DT with the Center. JG had the guy in his face instantly, and fell to the ground for a sack.

Why? Why would coaching staff put Morris at LG, when anyone who has followed practices to date knows that he has practiced (at least during the open periods) almost EXCLUSIVELY at LT?

This was just one instance that comes to mind, but the point is there was clearly ZERO CONTINUITY on the OL. As Pruitt himself has said repeatedly, picking the best 5 to play on the OL is all about minimizing mistakes. But, to minimize mistakes, our players have got to have some continuity - play in and play out. The revolving door that featured new OL members coming in out / shifting positions was a disaster - not by our players - but by our coaching staff.

This is a big reason why we stopped running effectively after the 1st quarter.

Explanation(s)? Anyone?

Staff wanted to "test" as many guys as possible to see which new guys could perform on gameday?

Staff didn't feel pressured to produce the "best line" possible, since this was a cupcake game, so time for experimentation?

There were undisclosed injuries?

Staff isn't very good?

The take away for me from this game is that our coaching staff isn't the "best staff in the country" as Pruitt has boasted. Clearly. We just lost to a team without a SINGLE 4* player on its roster.

Whatever the issue is here - such that Coach Friend can't take 4* and 5* talent and run against a crap team like GS - it needs to be nipped in the bud like pronto.
Click to expand...
From an untrained eye (mine), I told my wife "they look like they're never played together". I saw a lot of them with 4 down linemen and us using 6-7 player to block them. That doesn't leave many players available to run or catch the ball. I don't know football like some of you but, I'm pretty good at math.
 
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#25
#25
It’s not that difficult, IMO. I don’t understand the shuffling either. Just made a decision and roll with it.

LT - Morris
LG - Smith
C - Kennedy
RG - Johnson
RT - Wright

Morris and Wright are the foundation for the future, so you develop them as quickly as possible.
 
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