Coach Doug Mathews has us 8-4.

[chargervol]

Yeah we didn't really help the defense too much last year... Be it turnovers, 3 & out or even with some of the quick scoring drives we had... We put our defense out there a lot... And they were not up to task...

No, we didn't make it easy on them.
All in all though, I like much of what I saw on offense. It's the reason I'm not on the fire Jones now train.
If it is a correctable issue that mainly lies with the defense, we can be good.
However, if we look like total crap again, even just on defense, I've got to lean a different direction.
Even if it's completely due to bad luck. Some people just never have things go their way. That's no better for us then someone who just doesn't coach well at all.

 

[jakez4ut]

No, we didn't make it easy on them.
All in all though, I like much of what I saw on offense. It's the reason I'm not on the fire Jones now train.
If it is a correctable issue that mainly lies with the defense, we can be good.
However, if we look like total crap again, even just on defense, I've got to lean a different direction.
Even if it's completely due to bad luck. Some people just never have things go their way. That's no better for us then someone who just doesn't coach well at all.

Its hard to criticize an offense that was as explosive as ours was.... So I won't.

I'll just say I think this offense will be a little more deliberate in putting drives together while still taking shots, looking for big plays.

And I think that will be done to protect the defense a little bit..I also think you will see a more concerted effort to put lesser teams away early... And provide reps to younger players

 

[Behr]

I've read here

1. Shoop was stubborn with the personal he had to work with.

2. No way we could have that many injuries without failing.

3. Shoop and the assistant coaches didn't mesh.

So my guess, some combination of the above. I'm not as good as just taking a feeling and presenting it as fact, as some here are.

So that's just my guess.

I don't think you can have that many injuries and not have serious problems. IMO those types of problems cause other problems and then its hard to recover. That's where the issue with Butch comes in. Some of those problems could have been easily avoided and I think we pull off the A&M game and finish 11-1.

 

[BeecherVol]

I've read here

1. Shoop was stubborn with the personal he had to work with.

2. No way we could have that many injuries without failing.

3. Shoop and the assistant coaches didn't mesh.

So my guess, some combination of the above. I'm not as good as just taking a feeling and presenting it as fact, as some here are.

So that's just my guess.

3 was a bigger issue than most want to believe.

 

[Behr]

3 was a bigger issue than most want to believe.

How am I around as much as I am and haven't heard this? How was it a big issue?

 

[JacketVol]

And... how do you know that? It is a fair bet that we do not know who was talked to or who "wanted" the job.

UT made a choice among candidates. It is almost certain that someone else who was "worth a crap" would have taken the job.


Yeah... and two years ago... it was "be patient, he needs two more years before we judge".... and in two years... it will be more of the same.

I think he's done pretty close to what his resume would suggest so far. With much better players and resources, he's still under 50% against teams with a winning record over the past 4 years. He does have 7 wins including 4 vs P-5 opponents that won 10 or more games. So that might be considered an "improvement". On the flip side, no division or conference championships with his closest finish 2 games behind the winner.

Strong backed out for sure. It was in worse shape than when DOOLEY took it and several declined. Just sit in your VN world and believe all these top coaches wanted to come here.

 

[JacketVol]

We would've have won last year with even a mediocre defense. We get that straightened out, we should be a contender each year regardless of what other coaches do.

If not, ditch him. There is nothing wrong with replacing a coach not meeting standards. The reason people get upset with negas is not this concept.
But last season, I believe he did a better job as a coach. No doubt in my mind - mediocre defense, we beat A&M and Vandy for certain. 10 wins and the east minimum. That's the truth yet it sounds completely opposite of the way it's told on VN.

He earned next year for me but if we produce an ugly product, I have zero problems saying thanks but see ya.

If we don't lay it on the ground so much, we win both those games. Got to get back to dicipline football.

 

[LA Vol]

A total of 7 TOs, 12 penalties and almost 700 yds of offense. Not taking care of the football cost us the aTm game. If Dobbs hadn't thrown that last INT, I think we go on to win that game. Just a bad judgment call-- overthrowing a receiver who wasn't even open at a critical point in the game. The team never quit, but that game was an inflection point.

 

[BeecherVol]

How am I around as much as I am and haven't heard this? How was it a big issue?

By mesh I don't mean they weren't friendly or didn't like each other.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

A total of 7 TOs, 12 penalties and almost 700 yds of offense. Not taking care of the football cost us the aTm game. If Dobbs hadn't thrown that last INT, I think we go on to win that game. Just a bad judgment call-- overthrowing a receiver who wasn't even open at a critical point in the game. The team never quit, but that game was an inflection point.

I posted this in a thread before last season started and was sort of arguing against setting a national championship as our goal. I named dropped hoping for some credibility but like that was ever going to work.

Yet despite the fact that she has always acknowledged the importance of setting goals for her team, she never once set a goal of winning an NCAA title. “Setting goals is incredibly important to success,” she once said, “but if you set a goal that seems impossible to achieve—if you go into a year saying your goal is to win the national championship—then you risk losing morale, self-discipline and chemistry if you falter early.”

“Set a goal that stretches you, requires exceptional effort, but one you can reach,” she continues. “We might [have] set a goal that we win 20 or so games, that we win a conference championship, that we make the NCAA tournament. If we do those things, the truth is that we have a chance of winning the national championship.”

https://www.aslantraining.com/blog/pat-summitt-and-setting-goals