What was our problem the last few years?

#1
kell7517

kell7517

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#1
We had good recruiting classes and apparently at least 3 NFL caliber coaches. Pruitt, Ansley and Martin.
 
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#8
#8
Fulmer was a terrible AD. Pruitt micromanaged the offense and wasn't a good leader.

I honestly think it's that simple. In spite of all the negative comments here, this team was not that bad outside of terrible QB play and overly conservative gameplans (which smells more of Pruitt micromanaging the offense than Chaney).

We lost at least 3, and maybe 4 games, due to poor QB play (Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, and maybe Georgia). Still probably not good enough to have beaten Bama, Florida, or A&M, but we might've knicked Georgia and would be at least 6-4 against a schedule with 4 top 10 opponents.

While Josh Heupel likely would've wanted the job regardless, I do wonder if part of him saw the terrible underperformance at QB and realized that was something he could fix quickly. We have a very talented roster of QBs that have been mismanaged.
 
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#9
#9
For a place like Tennessee, you have to hire someone with a track record as a head coach who has proved he can win in that role. And even then there's no guarantees (see Butch). The Pruitt hire was a huge gamble that met with predictable results. He was obviously out of his depth from the start of the introductory press conference. He tried to act like Saban, obviously hoping that he would get the same results while he tried to learn on the job. But he was just a guy pretending to be a head coach. The players seemed to like him, but that's about where it ended. Just a waste of 3 seasons on someone who never should have been hired.
 
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#10
#10
DiderotsGhost said:
Fulmer was a terrible AD. Pruitt micromanaged the offense and wasn't a good leader.

I honestly think it's that simple. In spite of all the negative comments here, this team was not that bad outside of terrible QB play and overly conservative gameplans (which smells more of Pruitt micromanaging the offense than Chaney).

We lost at least 3, and maybe 4 games, due to poor QB play (Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, and maybe Georgia). Different season with good QB play. Still probably not good enough to have beaten Bama, Florida, or A&M, but we might've knicked Georgia and would be at least 6-4 against a schedule with 4 top 10 opponents.

While Josh Heupel likely would've wanted the job regardless, I do wonder if part of him saw the terrible underperformance at QB and realized that was something he could fix quickly.
Click to expand...

The sprint draws on third and seven, or more, drove me nuts...Third grade offense, maddening!
 
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#12
#12
DiderotsGhost said:
Fulmer was a terrible AD. Pruitt micromanaged the offense and wasn't a good leader.

I honestly think it's that simple. In spite of all the negative comments here, this team was not that bad outside of terrible QB play and overly conservative gameplans (which smells more of Pruitt micromanaging the offense than Chaney).

We lost at least 3, and maybe 4 games, due to poor QB play (Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, and maybe Georgia). Still probably not good enough to have beaten Bama, Florida, or A&M, but we might've knicked Georgia and would be at least 6-4 against a schedule with 4 top 10 opponents.

While Josh Heupel likely would've wanted the job regardless, I do wonder if part of him saw the terrible underperformance at QB and realized that was something he could fix quickly. We have a very talented roster of QBs that have been mismanaged.
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I agree we should have beaten 2 maybe 3 out of Arkansas, Kentucky and Auburn. Georgia outgained us 431-214 though, their center snapped the ball into the endzone on one of their first plays from scrimmage and that made that game look and feel more even for awhile than it really was.
 
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#14
#14
The mismanagement of the QB position was a massive problem. We still have a lack of talent/depth compared to the Alabama, Georgia and Florida programs.
 
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#16
#16
Our A.d and administration. Hiring people that had no business being here dooley butch ect. Ad's. As much as I like Fulmer he had no business being athletic director. He was the one who hired Pruitt. But its been a down fall for awhile now.
 
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#17
#17
unfrozencvmanvol said:
I agree we should have beaten 2 maybe 3 out if Arkansas, Kentucky and Auburn. Georgia outgained us 431-214 though, their center snapped the ball into the endzone on one of their first plays from scrimmage and that made that game look and feel more even for awhile than it really was.
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Georgia ran on us pretty well, but we kept giving them the ball in easy spots in that 2nd half. If we played like we did in the 1st half, we had a shot.
 
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#18
#18
N.ohio vol said:
Our A.d and administration. Hiring people that had no business being here. As much as I like Fulmer he had no business being athletic director. He was the one who hired Pruitt. But its been a down fall for awhile now.
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That coaching search was a disaster when it was handed to Fulmer. He had to hire someone to stop the bleeding but in retrospect we'd have been better off with Mel Tucker.
 
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#19
#19
DiderotsGhost said:
Georgia ran on us pretty well, but we kept giving them the ball in easy spots in that 2nd half. If we played like we did in the 1st half, we had a shot.
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They gave us the ball on like their 35 on one of our long bombs when Kirby went for it on 4th. Credit to us for getting the stop but that was a gift from them too to go with the bad snap. We couldn't sustain drives at any point and in the second half we just couldn't block them. The game with Florida I thought was actually more competitive but to your point, at least by that time we had set JG.
 
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#20
#20
unfrozencvmanvol said:
That coaching search was a disaster when it was handed to Fulmer. He had to hire someone to stop the bleeding but in retrospect we'd have been better off with Mel Tucker.
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I agree with Fulmer being put in a tough spot. But Fulmer shouldn't of been there to begin with. The never been a.d hiring a guy that had never been a head coach was a big risk to begin with.
 
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#21
#21
kell7517 said:
We had good recruiting classes and apparently at least 3 NFL caliber coaches. Pruitt, Ansley and Martin.
Click to expand...

The talent didn’t meet the eye test for the most part, the coaching looked poor across all positions except RB...hard to tell about WR, because the QB couldn’t get them the ball.

Defense was below average everywhere, against Bama, UF and UGA we looked like we didn’t belong.

Lack of development, lack of chemistry, unimaginative offensive scheme, lack of explosive plays and players, no ability to force turnovers, lack of a pass rush, poor tackling...

But that’s not the worst part. All of the above PLUS leaving the program in the worst shape of ANY head coach in program history...while cheating!!!

That’s right! While cheating and doing that soooo poorly that the Former HC of UT is an assistant coach, not a position coach mind you...an assistant to an assistant, in the arm pit of America, NFL Siberia, And that’s a friend doing him a solid, lol.

What went wrong, lol? Everything.
 
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#24
#24
No player development especially at qb. A coach that actually said Guarantano gives us our best chance to win. A coach that fired people during games. A coach that was not ready to be "the man". A coach that didn't want players from the great state of Tennessee. A coach that thought alright was a one syllable word. A coach that an offense from the 1960s could win in today's game...............
 
#25
#25
Combination of really bad coaching and having the wrong types of players on your roster. JMO, but I think we had a good number of guys who really didn't care about the team and program. They were "individuals".
 
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