Climer Actually Positive

#1
rexvol

rexvol

The Minister of Defense
Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Messages
18,124
Likes
54
#1
UT gets upgrade on offense | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean

Clawson seems undaunted by the switch from Division I-AA football to the SEC. His standard line — "Football is football" — tells you all you need to know. He gets it.
Credit UT Coach Phillip Fulmer for thinking outside the box and hiring outside the family. As much as I like Clawson's predecessor, David Cutcliffe, the Vols' offense had grown inbred over the last quarter-century. Since 1982, UT has been running a variation of the scheme Al Saunders installed.
Click to expand...

His background might be in small-school football, but Dave Clawson is thinking big.
Click to expand...
 
#2
#2
....and accurate. Until we see the point production some retain the right to be skeptical. However you cannot deny the fact that Clawson seems to have come in with both guns blazing.

It is nice to have actual coaches on staff with aspirations of becoming big time head coaches one day.
 
#5
#5
I don't think that alot of these writers that talk negatively about the program really want to. But they, like many of us, were frustrated with a stale and redundant team who consistently(with the exception of 2005) were slightly above average. And how many readers do you think they will reach by talking about how wonderful our underachieving teams have been. Now that for the first time in lord only know how long Phil is changing things up and making a move to win. I don't know how Clawson will do when game time comes, but it is something to give all of us hope. And it has been a while since that has happened to this degree. I think this article is a sign of this new found optimism.
 
#6
#6
RoanokeVol, Like other Vol fans I'm excited about what Clawson seems to bring to the table. I AM hopeful that the changes will make UT more dangerous and difficult to defend.

OTOH, I WAS hopeful when Cut came back to town and immediately began tightening up discipline. Sanders had let discipline and execution go to pot. The results are pretty undeniable. The O in two years improved production by about 2 TD's per game.

He took a banged up QB and something less than premier atheletes at the skill positions and scored enough points to win every game UT played. I'm all for the optimism we feel about Clawson... but there is no reason to act as if Cut didn't make a dramatic improvement and a significant contribution to getting the program back on track.
 
#9
#9
sjt18 said:
RoanokeVol, Like other Vol fans I'm excited about what Clawson seems to bring to the table. I AM hopeful that the changes will make UT more dangerous and difficult to defend.

OTOH, I WAS hopeful when Cut came back to town and immediately began tightening up discipline. Sanders had let discipline and execution go to pot. The results are pretty undeniable. The O in two years improved production by about 2 TD's per game.

He took a banged up QB and something less than premier atheletes at the skill positions and scored enough points to win every game UT played. I'm all for the optimism we feel about Clawson... but there is no reason to act as if Cut didn't make a dramatic improvement and a significant contribution to getting the program back on track.
Click to expand...

I was not happy about Cut coming back, and I am glad that Fulmer got rejected by Kippy Brown, Marone, and Spence (2 X's). It would have just been a case of recycling old faces and running the same schemes out there all over again.

And against our major rivals and LSU, our offense couldn't must up more than 17 pts against Florida, Bama, or LSU... and we were essentially MIA in the second half of most of our other SEC games the rest of the year on offense.
 
#10
#10
Rasputin_Vol said:
I was not happy about Cut coming back, and I am glad that Fulmer got rejected by Kippy Brown, Marone, and Spence (2 X's). It would have just been a case of recycling old faces and running the same schemes out there all over again.

And against our major rivals and LSU, our offense couldn't must up more than 17 pts against Florida, Bama, or LSU... and we were essentially MIA in the second half of most of our other SEC games the rest of the year on offense.
Click to expand...


Ditto.
 
#11
#11
I'm as happy as anybody else to see Clawson coming in this year, but if you can score 3-4 TDs in the SEC you've definitely got a chance to win the game.

What was our average point total last year? It seems like the offense pretty much did their part if you ask me. Even in the Cal game, our defense let us down big time.

Our offense last year was NOT bad at all in terms of putting points on the board.

Think back to Cal, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.

Our defense came to play against LSU in the championship game, but other than that they were the reason we didn't win more games last year.

So, getting a new guy on offense is really exciting and it may turn out great, but our offense was NOT the problem last year. In 2005 our offense stunk, but Cutcliffe wasn't the OC then.
 
#12
#12
Mullet said:
Our offense last year was NOT bad at all in terms of putting points on the board.

Think back to Cal, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Vanderbilt.
Click to expand...
The offense was responsible for 17 pts against Bama, 13 pts against Florida, 14 against LSU and struggled to move the ball for extended stretches of the games against Vandy, USCe, and Kentucky. Keep in mind we scored 21 pts against Kentucky in OT on a short field and only scored 6 pts in the second half and OT combined against USCe. This is what we did against SEC competition.

Against our 4 non-conference opponents, we stat padded our way to averaging 44 pts/game against Cal, USM, Arky St., and La-Lafayette.

When we played the big boys in the SEC (UGA being the exception), our offense laid eggs.
 
#13
#13
Cutcliffe's athletes were not subpar, nor did he score enough points to win every game. 13 points isn't going to beat freaking Urban Meyer.
 
#14
#14
Rasputin_Vol said:
And against our major rivals and LSU, our offense couldn't must up more than 17 pts against Florida, Bama, or LSU... and we were essentially MIA in the second half of most of our other SEC games the rest of the year on offense.
Click to expand...

UT gave a decent defensive effort against LSU in the CG but stank it up against Bama and UF. Maybe if the D had played better the O would have had more to work with?

I never said they were great in every game. I sincerely hope you don't expect them to be great in every game under Clawson. If you do then you are set up for disappointment. The D has to come through once in awhile. The O's in both 06 and 07 were good enough to win the SEC.

No matter how you "cut" it. Cut came in and did much more than Sanders with the same or less talent. The 07 O was not incredibly talented compared to past UT O's. There were no game breakers at WR. Probably the best potential weapon was out for most of the season, Cottam.

I'm not disappointed that Clawson is in charge. I've liked everything I've heard... but I wouldn't have been pessimistic about UT's chances on O with Cut in charge either... except that UT would probably be embroiled in a QB controversy right now.
 
#15
#15
kptvol said:
Cutcliffe's athletes were not subpar, nor did he score enough points to win every game. 13 points isn't going to beat freaking Urban Meyer.
Click to expand...

It certainly didn't help that UF had the ball about 35 minutes to UT's 25 minutes... nor when the D gives up scores on 9 of 13 drives.

The athletes weren't subpar compared to past UT teams? Who was the equivalent to Meachem, Stallworth, Price, etc?
 
#16
#16
Rasputin_Vol said:
The offense was responsible for 17 pts against Bama, 13 pts against Florida, 14 against LSU and struggled to move the ball for extended stretches of the games against Vandy, USCe, and Kentucky. Keep in mind we scored 21 pts against Kentucky in OT on a short field and only scored 6 pts in the second half and OT combined against USCe. This is what we did against SEC competition.

Against our 4 non-conference opponents, we stat padded our way to averaging 44 pts/game against Cal, USM, Arky St., and La-Lafayette.

When we played the big boys in the SEC (UGA being the exception), our offense laid eggs.
Click to expand...

Didn't we score like 30 in the first half against UK? Other than that i do agree with you. Our offense was good, but in the big games struggled. On the other side, our defense was way worse against Bama and UF.
 
#17
#17
In support of the "lack of athletes" argument... UT's O was almost completely reliant on Ainge. When he was hurting, the O struggled. When he had a bad game (UF/Bama/LSU), UT could neither score nor keep the D off the field. Cut played primarily with what he inherited from Sanders... to include the recruiting class that followed 05. They still generated points.

The only game I saw where the D won it and Ainge didn't play particularly well was Arkansas.
 
#18
#18
all the ingredients are there.

all that's left is to put them together and have some real success. we'll know plenty 9-20
 
#20
#20
depth is only a concern in a few spots.....granted, they're fairly important positions......

but our depth issues aren't going to be enough reason for us to lose 5+ games this year or anything.....
 
#22
#22
chavisut said:
The only depth problem I'm concerned about is at DT. We are inexperienced at DE, but I think they will come along.
Click to expand...

DL depth is the only place we have problems. OL has decent depth, RB and WR has fantastic depth. CB has good depth, S is decent depth, and LB has decent depth. DL is the only place and we have "unproven talent". The starters on the DL will be good. Ayers, Bolden, Williams, and Brown will be better than last years line. Walker, Langley, Fisher, and Martin will be good 2nd teamers hopefully. Behind that is the scary part, cause if someone goes down we are thin.
 
#23
#23
ehhhh. He could have cut and pasted what the astute posters on this board have been saying for months.
 
#25
#25
OrangeEmpire said:
Only your posts....

:hi:
Click to expand...

Grrrrr.

Actually I haven't posted on what to expect next year. I have no idea. The homer in me says undefeated baby!

But there is a respected contingent here that are very positive on the outlook next year for the exact reasons Climer used. And they were posting it months ago.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top