JG, Taj Boyd and recruiting

#1
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njvols

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#1
This may be a stretch, but it's the off season, and is how I hope this season plays out. Realize that for every hypothetical positive, there's many other examples where someone flames out. But, if you look at JG's and Taj Boyd's second year, they both had QB ratings of 141 (sports-reference.com). If you go back to where and how Clemson started their rise, Taj (former Fulmer commit) was probably the most critical part. He was the foundation. His play helped Clemson rise in performance, and helped their exposure, which, in turn helped their recruiting. Granted, ACC competition was much different than life in the SEC. But, the way that Pruitt and co are recruiting right now, I think this will only be elevated if JG can take his game to the next level. It's not all on him...we need much better OL play...but he's also got to take the next step in being "the guy" and being the emotional leader of the offense. Chaney has a good history of QB development, so if JG does take that next step over the next two years, I think he's got the chance to have the same affect on the Vols as Taj did for Clemson. Recruiting is above average, but the Vol Brand is powerful...it's just waiting for the spark/wins to get us up to the LSU, UGA levels of recruiting. I like how this staff is seemingly being very selective and being patient in waiting for their guys. That being said, this is important year for Pruitt...probably his most important year...it's a leapfrog year...we show noticeable progress on the field, and we're off to the races, leapfrogging over many of our SEC counterparts, and building the program back...another 5 or 6 win season, and it may be a much longer build, with folks starting to question if Pruitt's the guy.
 
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#2
#2
njvols said:
This may be a stretch, but it's the off season, and is how I hope this season plays out. Realize that for every hypothetical positive, there's many other examples where someone flames out. But, if you look at JG's and Taj Boyd's second year, they both had QB ratings of 141 (sports-reference.com). If you go back to where and how Clemson started their rise, Taj (former Fulmer commit) was probably the most critical part. He was the foundation. His play helped Clemson rise in performance, and helped their exposure, which, in turn helped their recruiting. Granted, ACC competition was much different than life in the SEC. But, the way that Pruitt and co are recruiting right now, I think this will only be elevated if JG can take his game to the next level. It's not all on him...we need much better OL play...but he's also got to take the next step in being "the guy" and being the emotional leader of the offense. Chaney has a good history of QB development, so if JG does take that next step over the next two years, I think he's got the chance to have the same affect on the Vols as Taj did for Clemson. Recruiting is above average, but the Vol Brand is powerful...it's just waiting for the spark/wins to get us up to the LSU, UGA levels of recruiting. I like how this staff is seemingly being very selective and being patient in waiting for their guys. That being said, this is important year for Pruitt...probably his most important year...it's a leapfrog year...we show noticeable progress on the field, and we're off to the races, leapfrogging over many of our SEC counterparts, and building the program back...another 5 or 6 win season, and it may be a much longer build, with folks starting to question if Pruitt's the guy.
Click to expand...

Agree, but I believe next year will be when the frog jumps
 
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#3
#3
njvols said:
This may be a stretch, but it's the off season, and is how I hope this season plays out. Realize that for every hypothetical positive, there's many other examples where someone flames out. But, if you look at JG's and Taj Boyd's second year, they both had QB ratings of 141 (sports-reference.com). If you go back to where and how Clemson started their rise, Taj (former Fulmer commit) was probably the most critical part. He was the foundation. His play helped Clemson rise in performance, and helped their exposure, which, in turn helped their recruiting. Granted, ACC competition was much different than life in the SEC. But, the way that Pruitt and co are recruiting right now, I think this will only be elevated if JG can take his game to the next level. It's not all on him...we need much better OL play...but he's also got to take the next step in being "the guy" and being the emotional leader of the offense. Chaney has a good history of QB development, so if JG does take that next step over the next two years, I think he's got the chance to have the same affect on the Vols as Taj did for Clemson. Recruiting is above average, but the Vol Brand is powerful...it's just waiting for the spark/wins to get us up to the LSU, UGA levels of recruiting. I like how this staff is seemingly being very selective and being patient in waiting for their guys. That being said, this is important year for Pruitt...probably his most important year...it's a leapfrog year...we show noticeable progress on the field, and we're off to the races, leapfrogging over many of our SEC counterparts, and building the program back...another 5 or 6 win season, and it may be a much longer build, with folks starting to question if Pruitt's the guy.
Click to expand...
Well said
 
#5
#5
It’s important that JG sets the standard and lays the foundation for what we want at the Quarterback position to be successful for the future just the way Tajh Boyd did. Boyd IMO might have have Clemson’s most important player of the last decade because he started that upward trajectory for Clemson. You may not get the Watson’s or Lawrence’s or incredible skill guys without Boyd showing what Dabo wanted to do. If JG receives half the accolades Boyd did we might not win titles now, but we will very soon.
 
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#8
#8
RDU VOL#14 said:
It’s important that JG sets the standard and lays the foundation for what we want at the Quarterback position to be successful for the future just the way Tajh Boyd did. Boyd IMO might have have Clemson’s most important player of the last decade because he started that upward trajectory for Clemson. You may not get the Watson’s or Lawrence’s or incredible skill guys without Boyd showing what Dabo wanted to do. If JG receives half the accolades Boyd did we might not win titles now, but we will very soon.
Click to expand...
Yup, and Lane Kiffin gift wrapped him and put a bow on his head, to Clemson, with love.

People forget Boyd had a pretty nasty knee injury and could not play his freshman year. Clemson understood the long term plan and also had the luxury of playing in a much weaker conference as Dabo built a powerhouse. UT doesn’t have that luxury.

Kiffin did more damage to the roster running off many and bringing in low life hooligans.

UTs struggle is that despite being down for so long, no one overlooks us. There is enough history there that every team still gets up to beat UT.
 
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#9
#9
JG's biggest area of improvement has to be avoiding the big loss. There's nothing wrong on a 3rd down conversion (or any other down for that matter) to simply throw the ball away if the play is not there. He rarely did that, he'd take a loss rather than put it in the air out of bounds. That's a fundamental play most QBs have that he has not yet demonstrated consistently. It's a useful play when a jailbreak DL is coming unblocked as well. I think he has most of the other tools, I don't think he misreads defenses as much as he doesn't get rid of the ball. Punting is not a bad thing, but if you make your team punt AFTER taking a 7 + yard loss, that IS a bad thing. He has to eliminate those type plays this year.
 
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#10
#10
The Tennessee Vols brand has been remarkably resilient.

Look at Dabo's first few classes and they were ranked #36, #27, and #10. Dabo really struggled attracting top recruits until that 2011 class. And Clemson wasn't nearly as down as Tennessee has been this decade. The Tommy Bowden years weren't spectacular, but Clemson went to 10 straight bowl games under Bowden; their only problem was they could never take the next step.

We've been in a much deeper hole. We're 9-15 over the past two years and 6 out of our last 9 teams have been pretty bad. Meanwhile, Pruitt's first full recruiting class was ranked #12 and he has a legit shot at a top 10 recruiting class for 2020. That's impressive and speaks to the power of the UT brand. There aren't a lot of programs where a coach could recruit at this level after the past decade.

If we could just get the right coach, we'll be very good again in a short amount of time. Hoping Pruitt is the guy. Certainly he has an elite staff surrounding him; the best staff we've had since the 1990's IMO.
 
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#11
#11
I've wanted to share this for awhile and seems like a good time now. My brother was on a cruise and ran into Taj Boyd. My brother is a huge vol fan as is most of my family but were he and them slack is keeping up with recruiting. I help them out 😉 Anyways with that said he got back home and told me he met him and said he didn't know he was committed here at one point. I told him yeah Kiffin F'd that up. Now what I'm bout to say idk if it was alcohol related or not but my brother said he started to get pissed talking about Kiffin and how he really wished he could have played for Tennessee. Said "we" had the best fans he's ever seen and roots for us every Saturday. I know cool story bro, but I find it pretty cool a guy still wonders what could have been if not for F'ing Kiffen.Screenshot_20181203-003729_Facebook.jpgScreenshot_20181203-003753_Facebook.jpgScreenshot_20181203-003753_Facebook.jpgScreenshot_20181203-003729_Facebook.jpg
 
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#14
#14
JG can be a part of it. But if I were going to point to a skill foundational skill player it would be Chandler. The forgotten guy for Clemson is Ellington who rushed for almost 1200 yards.

Also the analogy fails pretty hard when you consider that Boyd had 3800 yards of passing with 33 TD's ... about 2000 more yards and 20 more TD's than JG as a Soph. Boyd rushed for another 5 TD's. It isn't an apples to apples comparison.
 
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#17
#17
Mccage said:
Agree, but I believe next year will be when the frog jumps
Click to expand...
Yes we will have at least 21 OLs LOL. <== Starting to mean laughable offensive line. If our OL does not improve this year, I believe that coaching position is our only change. That said, we need some big time safety recruits. Who is most likely to fill Jenngings, Callaway, Boyd and Palmer’s shoes? Is Chaney working with the OL at all? He coached the OL for the rams. We need his input!
 
#18
#18
DiderotsGhost said:
The Tennessee Vols brand has been remarkably resilient.

Look at Dabo's first few classes and they were ranked #36, #27, and #10. Dabo really struggled attracting top recruits until that 2011 class. And Clemson wasn't nearly as down as Tennessee has been this decade. The Tommy Bowden years weren't spectacular, but Clemson went to 10 straight bowl games under Bowden; their only problem was they could never take the next step.

We've been in a much deeper hole. We're 9-15 over the past two years and 6 out of our last 9 teams have been pretty bad. Meanwhile, Pruitt's first full recruiting class was ranked #12 and he has a legit shot at a top 10 recruiting class for 2020. That's impressive and speaks to the power of the UT brand. There aren't a lot of programs where a coach could recruit at this level after the past decade.

If we could just get the right coach, we'll be very good again in a short amount of time. Hoping Pruitt is the guy. Certainly he has an elite staff surrounding him; the best staff we've had since the 1990's IMO.
Click to expand...
Do you not feel we have the right coaches now? Pruitt thinks it is a depth issue, which to your point, he is fixing over time.
 
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#20
#20
vegasvolfan said:
Yes we will have at least 21 OLs LOL. <== Starting to mean laughable offensive line. If our OL does not improve this year, I believe that coaching position is our only change. That said, we need some big time safety recruits. Who is most likely to fill Jenngings, Callaway, Boyd and Palmer’s shoes? Is Chaney working with the OL at all? He coached the OL for the rams. We need his input!
Click to expand...
If I understand right, the OL's on average will play about 20 lbs heavier. Some of them could be 30+ lbs bigger and stronger. Their mental errors even with an unstable starting 5 last year went down. By the end of the season, they mostly knew what to do but just couldn't physically do it- too small, too weak.

They should be better. Hopefully JG will also be better. The OL and JG need each other to overcome their issues from last year.
 
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