Biggest areas of concern with UT at this point?

#26
#26
rockydoc said:
Not as bad as 1988 with the likes of Ray Robinson at center and Phil Stuart at tackle. Manning's junior year('96) the OL wasn't very good though some of the younger guy later developed into great college and respectable pros (Chad Clifton and Tret Teague).
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The '88 line at least featured some young guys like Antoine Davis and Charles McRae. Also, that team was at least able to run the ball against the tomato cans on the schedule. We can't run the ball against Air Force or Marshall. As to the '96 line, how many yards did Jay Graham have that year? The numbers don't show that those guys had any problems.
 
#27
#27
hatvol96 said:
The '88 line at least featured some young guys like Antoine Davis and Charles McRae. Also, that team was at least able to run the ball against the tomato cans on the schedule. We can't run the ball against Air Force or Marshall. As to the '96 line, how many yards did Jay Graham have that year? The numbers don't show that those guys had any problems.
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I seem to remember that Graham's yards were decent, but way down from the previous year.
 
#29
#29
hatvol96 said:
The '88 line at least featured some young guys like Antoine Davis and Charles McRae. Also, that team was at least able to run the ball against the tomato cans on the schedule. We can't run the ball against Air Force or Marshall. As to the '96 line, how many yards did Jay Graham have that year? The numbers don't show that those guys had any problems.
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Which begs an answer. Guys like McRae and Harry Galbreath came to UT not highly recruited and OL line coach Phillip Fulmer turns then into All-SEC and pro players. Yet as head coach he has Parade All-Americans like Sean Young, Michael Munouz, and several more that, IMO, don't reach their potential. You would think, despite being HC, he would have a special interest in the OL as Spurrior does in developing his QB's????
 
#30
#30
hatvol96 said:
Quite simply, the worst offensive line I've seen at UT.
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Ditto.

Don't let the late-game breakaways against Marshall fool you. The Herd is thin and was worn down in the second half. Once we get into the SEC meat of the schedule, I'm afraid that we're going to see that the Florida game was no anomaly. We struggled against AF, we struggled against Marshall in the first half, and we are going to HAVE to make some serious improvement to fare better against UGA, Alabama, LSU, and Arkansas.

As for Ainge, he has looked really good if you take into account the pressure he's been under by poor blocking (esp. from the fullbacks). Imagine what he could do if he had some time!
 
#32
#32
rockydoc said:
Which begs an answer. Guys like McRae and Harry Galbreath came to UT not highly recruited and OL line coach Phillip Fulmer turns then into All-SEC and pro players. Yet as head coach he has Parade All-Americans like Sean Young, Michael Munouz, and several more that, IMO, don't reach their potential. You would think, despite being HC, he would have a special interest in the OL as Spurrior does in developing his QB's????
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Yeah, think about all the great NFL QBs Spurrier has developed.
 
#33
#33
hatvol96 said:
Yeah, think about all the great NFL QBs Spurrier has developed.
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Think of all the great or good college QB's he developed, from Shane Matthews to Wuerffel to Palmer to Johnson to Grossman (all of these played in the pros though not too well.) Remember there is only one QB and there are 5 offensive lineman and Spurrier was only at Florida like 12 years. Not shabby in my opinion.
 
#34
#34
P.S. I don't give a rat's ass what they do in the pros as long as they are good college players. J.C. Watts was a great wishbone QB in college. Pros.....nah.
 
#35
#35
I cannot believe Fulmer has put up with poor ST for so may years. Bring back Stanley Morgan out of retirement!!!
 
#36
#36
rockydoc said:
Think of all the great or good college QB's he developed, from Shane Matthews to Wuerffel to Palmer to Johnson to Grossman (all of these played in the pros though not too well.) Remember there is only one QB and there are 5 offensive lineman and Spurrier was only at Florida like 12 years. Not shabby in my opinion.
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I would agree. The best thing Spurrier does compared with a lot of other people is that he prepares his players, esp. the young ones, ready to compete and operate in his offense.

He never had a bad QB at FLA. And that wasn't because they were all super talented.
 
#37
#37
1. Offensive line has been plain-out offensive. I think thats a main reason you see so many hitches and screens to Swain and Meachem.

2. Running game still off since Houston-Riggs. Coker's speed might cover up the o-line's failure to push, but youve seen Hardesty and Foster with no room to operate.

3. Depth in secondary. One more injury there and we're screwed.

4. Our D-line doesnt scare anyone without Harrell. He made the whole thing go. Expect more linebacker blitzes to try to hide the lack of pressure from our dt-des.

5. (correct me if im wrong) 5-10 record against top-10 teams since 2000. Thats just embarrassing and makes me so upset. Neyland should give us a crushing home field advantage. Instead, Florida and Georgia march in there and win FAR more regularly then they should, based on 107,000 fans and the talent lvl we have. I pin that fully on coaching (read: Fulmer). Even the "easy" wins (air force, marshall, uab last year, vandy last year) stick around all game.

6. No help coming from our last recruiting class. There is a reason Fulmer keeps talking about depth problems.


Really, though, I feel pretty good about this team. Ainge+Meachem+Swain will keep us scoring points, and Coker is a playmaker. I have confidence that Chavis will keep making it work. I just miss being a top-10 program that people feared, and I think that we're stuck in this rut until there is a change at the top.
 
#38
#38
The backups that got in near the end of the Marshall game seem to show that they are coming around. I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen Hancock on the field more with how good he looked in the preseason scrimages.
 
#39
#39
and i would think you will see that continue hopefully in the Memphis game. i think there is a concerted effort to get as many guys playing time as possible right now, because at this point, that's the only way we are going to build any depth.

That will be important going in to next season, and it will be important alos that over the next two years we rebound in the recruiting...
 
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