When you think about the talent

[Other_Guy]

Yes, nah derr the players were underdeveloped by the previous staff.
Yet thats the point. Many of you point to a lack of talent, that the stars beside their name were wrong. Many say that the staff has done nothing outside of JG, new staff same team.
However, when you think of the "best" players who are supposed to be the anchors of the team, the originally answer makes even more sense.
Lets leave Kirkland and Jennings to the side. I also want to leave some questionable play calling aside. Is Tuttle really that much better than when he arrived? What about Warrior? Abernathy? Phillips? Kongbo? The OL? Callaway? Im sure you can make cases for some of these guys, but I would say either no or not much. Im not peeing my pants over the defense because I believe under Pruitts leadership will get better and I think JG and Jordan give us a shot on offense when they arent playing an NFL caliber QB and WRs to score 40+ points. I just dont think we will see a drastic change by the end of the season because these best players who should be really good right now are simply so underdeveloped in their careers they arent going to be that good.

 

[Other_Guy]

So again, this sounds like old news, but my question is: do you think these 4 and 5* players can be coached to their potential in the short time left? I think no.

 

[jakez4ut]

So again, this sounds like old news, but my question is: do you think these 4 and 5* players can be coached to their potential in the short time left? I think no.

well that was always one of, if not the, biggest question about this off season.

if the answer is no, then what happened yesterday isn't a surprise...if the answer was yes, then one might think we'd of been more competitive.

it's a big ask to have everything that needed to come together in the 1st off season together, to actually come together.

i expect this team will get better as the year goes on. but you still may not be able to see it from a results standpoint given the schedule.

 

[Jack Burton]

I was watching more for the scheme hoping to see something on offense or defense to encourage for the future. You don’t need a few recruiting cycles to call a good game. Should be able to do so from opening kickoff.

 

[The Original Fade]

We only have ONE cornerback on the roster that was ranked higher than a 3* coming out of high school. One. You can’t win in the SEC and against top 25 teams with 3* talent covering receivers. Is what it is until Pruitt restocks the roster, which will be a few years.

 

[MyBloodRunnethOrange]

We only have ONE cornerback on the roster that was ranked higher than a 3* coming out of high school. One. You can’t win in the SEC and against top 25 teams with 3* talent covering receivers. Is what it is until Pruitt restocks the roster, which will be a few years.

Cam was a 3*

 

[The Original Fade]

Cam was a 3*

Citing the exception is not a good argument

 

[AustinMem]

Tuttle is a bad example... I still believe his injury(ies) set him back and his lack of push is purely a physical result of losing a bit from the injury. For DL, coaching only goes so far.

 

[turdherder11]

So again, this sounds like old news, but my question is: do you think these 4 and 5* players can be coached to their potential in the short time left? I think no.

The effort isn't there. They don't play mean enough . I don't think they no how . that was one of the flatest outings I've ever seen from ut. They're not physical, no one is scared to go over the middle on this D. I haven't seen a fired up ut defense in a long time.
The worst part of it is there's no depth on the Dline. No one pushing for playing time. You can't just bench them.
Qb and rb are the most competitive positions on the field. .....they played pretty well yesterday.

 

[BigOrangeMojo]

One team kicked the other team's ass in the trenches. Hint, it wasnt the team with 4* and 5* along the lines...

 

[MSrivervol]

Tuttle, Kirkland, and Jennings have all seen their best days as Vols. Some players are never the same after some injuries. Phillips is soft. Kongbo just looks good in the weightroom. Not a Baller

 

[MyBloodRunnethOrange]

Citing the exception is not a good argument

How about this then. Osborne, CFA, Taylor, and Thompson we're all 4* on 247. Bailey was a 4* on rivals. So your argument that we only have one 4* corner is not true. Now, having said that, Osborne and Bailey have never shown any 4* ability, Taylor and Thompson are true freshmen, and CFA is a converted RB.

 

[The Original Fade]

The effort isn't there. They don't play mean enough . I don't think they no how . that was one of the flatest outings I've ever seen from ut. They're not physical, no one is scared to go over the middle on this D. I haven't seen a fired up ut defense in a long time.
The worst part of it is there's no depth on the Dline. No one pushing for playing time. You can't just bench them.
Qb and rb are the most competitive positions on the field. .....they played pretty well yesterday.

This is a good post and good analysis. Where there’s competition, there’s effort.

 

[lexkyvol]

i thought out of all the man coverage guys yesterday, osborne showed there's something there and so did taylor. anyone else was french toast. and maybe tkjr needs to move up the depth chart because ive never seen him play safety as horrible as those guys did yesterday. its time to let a few folks play special teams and just graduate:

kongbo
abernathy
kirkland
phillips

and if shy tuttle keeps choosing instead of bullrushing, he can sit too. great when he doesnt choose. he roots and gets whoever is blocking him off the ball very well

 

[Gandalf]

I dont want to totally write of highly rated talent after one game, as bad as it was for many of them. Reality is that they had several bad years to absorb bad coaching and a bad attitude. Not sure Pruitt can fix that in one offseason. I do believe that if CJP is the coach we hope him to be, however, by the end of the season, those "busts" will have improved on the field. I will say too, that learning a new scheme is not an easy task, so that is undoubtedly a factor as well.

 

[Volfan2012]

Yes, nah derr the players were underdeveloped by the previous staff.
Yet thats the point. Many of you point to a lack of talent, that the stars beside their name were wrong. Many say that the staff has done nothing outside of JG, new staff same team.
However, when you think of the "best" players who are supposed to be the anchors of the team, the originally answer makes even more sense.
Lets leave Kirkland and Jennings to the side. I also want to leave some questionable play calling aside. Is Tuttle really that much better than when he arrived? What about Warrior? Abernathy? Phillips? Kongbo? The OL? Callaway? Im sure you can make cases for some of these guys, but I would say either no or not much. Im not peeing my pants over the defense because I believe under Pruitts leadership will get better and I think JG and Jordan give us a shot on offense when they arent playing an NFL caliber QB and WRs to score 40+ points. I just dont think we will see a drastic change by the end of the season because these best players who should be really good right now are simply so underdeveloped in their careers they arent going to be that good.

Almost every player played like a freshmen today a lot of mistakes were made. I don't think 3/4 of them are much better than when they came to Tennessee. I think where they've gotten better is under this staff which has been about half a year and no actual playing on the field. I think this staff also had the problem of breaking a lot of bad habits and retraining them in a different direction. When you've played under a system for a couple years very easy to go back into bad habits especially when you might get confused on a play during a game. I think we'll get better every game we play but right now I think 6 and 6 would be an amazing season for this team.
This game came down to W Va protecting with seven preventing us from getting pressure and their QB able to take advantage of one on one coverage with some great throws and catches. The hope is every team won't be able to do that with three WR's and that our coverage will improve game by game.

I think it would've been far better and will be in the future for these coaches to start with freshmen players who haven't been under the influence of another program or coaching style in college.

 

[photovol]

Almost every player played like a freshmen today a lot of mistakes were made. I don't think 3/4 of them are much better than when they came to Tennessee. I think where they've gotten better is under this staff which has been about half a year and no actual playing on the field. I think this staff also had the problem of breaking a lot of bad habits and retraining them in a different direction. When you've played under a system for a couple years very easy to go back into bad habits especially when you might get confused on a play during a game. I think we'll get better every game we play but right now I think 6 and 6 would be an amazing season for this team.
This game came down to W Va protecting with seven preventing us from getting pressure and their QB able to take advantage of one on one coverage with some great throws and catches. The hope is every team won't be able to do that with three WR's and that our coverage will improve game by game.

I think it would've been far better and will be in the future for these coaches to start with freshmen players who haven't been under the influence of another program or coaching style in college.

It's all about the players

 

[savannahfan]

Yes, nah derr the players were underdeveloped by the previous staff.
Yet thats the point. Many of you point to a lack of talent, that the stars beside their name were wrong. Many say that the staff has done nothing outside of JG, new staff same team.
However, when you think of the "best" players who are supposed to be the anchors of the team, the originally answer makes even more sense.
Lets leave Kirkland and Jennings to the side. I also want to leave some questionable play calling aside. Is Tuttle really that much better than when he arrived? What about Warrior? Abernathy? Phillips? Kongbo? The OL? Callaway? Im sure you can make cases for some of these guys, but I would say either no or not much. Im not peeing my pants over the defense because I believe under Pruitts leadership will get better and I think JG and Jordan give us a shot on offense when they arent playing an NFL caliber QB and WRs to score 40+ points. I just dont think we will see a drastic change by the end of the season because these best players who should be really good right now are simply so underdeveloped in their careers they arent going to be that good.

I hope trying to learn a new system and trying to catch up development wise are the only problems. I just think they (most of them) are doing the best they can or will ever be capable of. Goes back to what I have said before "don't really think the former staff knew very much about evaluating talent. Much less developing what they recruited.

 

[jim pique]

Thumb's up to volfan2012,I think you are pretty much 100%correct in your statement

 

[savannahfan]

I was watching more for the scheme hoping to see something on offense or defense to encourage for the future. You don’t need a few recruiting cycles to call a good game. Should be able to do so from opening kickoff.

You can call the best game ever,, but it takes PLAYERS to execute the plan. Now, if you dumb down the plan to match the players, well I think that's what we are stuck with.

 

[skyrookie]

So again, this sounds like old news, but my question is: do you think these 4 and 5* players can be coached to their potential in the short time left? I think no.

NOOOOO!!!

 

[lifeVol]

I was watching more for the scheme hoping to see something on offense or defense to encourage for the future. You don’t need a few recruiting cycles to call a good game. Should be able to do so from opening kickoff.

Agree JB, however, I do have one caveat, the OL is nowhere close to being settled as a 'unit' yet and I want to believe that affected the play calling to some extent, how much I have no way of knowing but I do believe that it is likely that in certain situations it did affect play calling and unfortunately it stood out to us as bad play calling ....

 

[KBVol]

So again, this sounds like old news, but my question is: do you think these 4 and 5* players can be coached to their potential in the short time left? I think no.

No, they can’t, because most were never true 4 and 5 star players. 3 cases in point....Phillips, Kongbo and Taylor. God bless em, but are substandard D1 players who you cannot win with at this level. JP will have success with a handful of these who can indeed play to their recruiting rankings (JG, Jennings, Bituli, DKJr, Smith, Callaway), but the rest need to be replaced as soon as he can possibly get the younger/newer players he just brought in up to speed.

 

[KBVol]

I was watching more for the scheme hoping to see something on offense or defense to encourage for the future. You don’t need a few recruiting cycles to call a good game. Should be able to do so from opening kickoff.

Just watched Jeremy Pruitt Show, would suggest you do so as well. JP explained each and every highlight they showed, what happened, why it was successful or why it failed. He said he watched the game on the way to catching their flight....said he told the players “they were gonna he sick” on the plane when they watched it because of the lack of execution that cost them the game. Said simple, correctable first steps, foot placement, leverage, etc was what cost them the game. I would add that he has about 40% of the physical talent that he needs, but of course he didn’t say that...dude isn’t about excuses like the last guy, only about coaching, correcting mistakes and winning.

 

[photovol]

I hope trying to learn a new system and trying to catch up development wise are the only problems. I just think they (most of them) are doing the best they can or will ever be capable of. Goes back to what I have said before "don't really think the former staff knew very much about evaluating talent. Much less developing what they recruited.

It appears that some of the recruits were very overrated by recruiting services, because the Vols 4 stars are getting outplayed by 2 and 3 stars players, just sayin