Coaching

[MWAVolfan]

Except that it isn't. You have a very good and deep OL. You have two good RB's. You have talented youth at WR. You have 4 options at QB with 3 of them being players Jones recruited. On D, you have experience and talent at every starting position except for one CB spot. Depth is an issue... but it is not unique to UT by any stretch. USCe did not start the season with talent and depth everywhere in their D 2-deep and may not be there now. UGA has 9 new starters on D with most of their two deep getting PT for the first time in their careers.

I could buy the idea that Jones is has to pull all the pieces together game by game. That can be a process even when you have the right pieces and the right "builder". To an extent, I can buy that he may not have "ideal" players for what he wants to do. There is no question he does not have the depth and experience everywhere that he needs to compete for the East and with the best programs.

But this whole notion that he inherited a bare cupboard is false and I have yet to see anyone saying they expect him to win the East or more than 8 games as a high side possibility. Most of the argument has been over whether this roster is legitimately capable of 7 wins or 8 at the outside. It is. It may not get them. There may even be reasonable explanations for why it didn't. But the roster is there if it is coached well.

Regardless of coaching, we have glaring issues at the wrong positions. Having good RBs means nothing if you have to run the ball 80% of the time because your quarterback completes 25% of his passes and the ones that are good throws get dropped by rookie and or bad wide outs. the Oline, which is the strength of the team really does not matter if the QB cant even throw a football in a straight line. Plus they are not that good at run blocking. I really think the Oline was overrated (at least through 4 games).

The defense looked better against Florida, bu that has to be discounted given how hapless the Florida offense is. Also, we have no speed and cant make high-school level tackles. Our defense is capable of catastrophic failures at times.

So whether or not CBJ is coaching as well as he could, he has maybe one of the worst Tennessee teams of all time and has not been able to take a bad team and make them serviceable.

 

[MWAVolfan]

Players weren't Saban's only problem when he arrived at Bama and people WAY overplay his one bad season there. More often than not, good coaches make an immediate impact and utilize the existing players better than their predecessor.

Based on what I have seen. It is my open that Oregon will win the NC this year. I doubt an SEC team will go this year unless it is LSU. Oregon is not the most talented team in the country. They probably aren't top ten. They have coaching and a system plus the "right" players.

Coaching=coaching. You have to have great players to reach the level Bama has. But coaching makes a HUGE difference. Anyone who can look at Bama and suggest they are not a well coached football team is ignorant.

Cases in point, USC and UGA.... both have tons of talent. Both have mediocre to worse coaches. You can toss Texas and several others in that boat too.

On the other side, Oregon is definitely an overachiever as is Stanford. A&M is STILL not in the same talent class as Bama but beat them last year and gave them a great run this year. TCU, Boise, Ark under Petrino,.... there are numerous examples where the coach is the difference between success and failure... not just talent.

Hoke's impact at Michigan... Meyer's impact at UT, UF, and tOSU....

If CBJ is a coach on the level of Saban, then the program will be competing for the sec title in 3 years.

If he is not a good coach, we wont be competing for at least another 5 years.

 

[sjt18]

If CBJ is a coach on the level of Saban, then the program will be competing for the sec title in 3 years.

If he is not a good coach, we wont be competing for at least another 5 years.

Agree with the first part, however if he's not a good coach then I personally doubt he produces enough wins to hang on to the job after '15. But he can still be the Vols' Ron Zook and leave a loaded roster that a "great" coach will want to coach. I believe UT's last 3 coach searches missed some top name coaches because they realized the roster problems that existed.

Of the 3, I think Jones inherits the best roster overall AND is the "best" hire. Kiffin was rescued by UT after his Raider fiasco... he wasn't on many short lists. Dooley was considered by some to be a guy about to emerge... but there's no way he's hired if UT's program and roster were in better shape.

Jones had some options and was going to get more.

 

[KBVol]

First -

Starting Peterman was an absolutely terrible decision. And that is not based simply on the result of watching him.

Worley has the benefit of having some degree of experience. In addition, he started the Oregon game on the road. The sole benefit Tennessee has in playing Oregon is experience. And particularly experience at the QB position. So by starting Peterman you effectively neutralize the main advantage you had in playing Oregon in Eugene.
Plus - its either a horrible decision on its face - which it was proven to be, or it was an admission of terrible evaluation of QB talent. Either way - its the fault of coaches.

And do not blame this on the players. In the first half there was definitely no clear talent gap. If anything, it looked to me that Tennessee had better talent.

Plus - why the insistence on passing the ball or running on the edges so much? Our running game was not good tonight, but that is largely because of our reluctance to run between the tackles where we had some degree of success. Constantly running the read option that takes a day and a half to develop and then running to the corners over and over with limited success was so frustrating to watch. Its not as if I am saying that running up the middle every single time would have resulted in a win - but there is no doubt a better commitmment would have helped. And lining up behind the one strength we have - the OL - and hitting holes fast as opposed to the option would have resulted in a btter offensive performance.

Starting Peterman was not a horrible decision. Butch felt team needed a spark and was hoping Peterman would be more of a gamer than Worley has been. That's all. It's a rebuilding year and now we know more about our QB group than we did.... Peterman likely ain't the future.... at all. Now Butch checks that box, works on coaching up Worley until he can get his freshman/men ready.

It was a calculated decision that didn't pan out IMO.

 

[Orange_Crush]

This, ladies and gentlemen, is how you disagree. It is cordial. There is no name-calling. Only a well-thought comment. Thank you for restoring my faith in our fans.

I agree with you. I think people took my comment the wrong way. My whole comment about the coaching referred to the shell-shocked first quarter, penalties where there had been none, and the disparity in talent/execution. However, it is the coaches' role to get the team mentally prepared and develop a plan based on strengths. For all I know, Butch is the guy. So far I like everything he has said/done. However, I got the impression that our staff was just as flustered as Peterman in their first SEC road game too.

I think it will get better. Heck. I still think we'll get someone we're not supposed to, but we looked unprepared tonight.

This was not this staff's first SEC road game. Cincinnati got beat by a vastly superior UT team, yet the coaches and players remained composed and coached/played hard. Cincy went on the road and beat Vandy, playing with heart and grit when things didn't go well.

Same coaches, same system... What is the difference? Players and time in the system. The way our team performed, any coach would have been a bit shell shocked.

 

[Orange_Crush]

If you give Butch credit for the discipline in the first two games, don't you have to give him the blame for the lack of discipline since then?

Please expound on the "lack of discipline" that our team has shown.

 

[Orange_Crush]

I'm not ready for a "Fire Butch" mentality, but what bothers me is seeing the same mistakes happenning game after game. We do have a qb coach, so why can he not help Worley? Seems like it would be a top priority.

Worley's problems are mental and mechanical, neither of which can be fixed overnight-- especially when it comes to game-speed performance. In live action, a person will usually revert back to they way they have done things forever until they have had time to drill a change as second nature. The way and speed that a person processes the game mentally is especially hard to change.

Tim Tebow had the best QB coaches in the nation privately tutoring him for the NFL combine and he still could not make a permanent change to his mechanics and/or mental processing as a QB. Thus, he washed out of the NFL.

 

[Orange_Crush]

1. Started Peterson in the swamp
2. QB had a broke hand and left him in resulting in balls slipping out of hand and continued lack of confidence
3. Called way too many agressive play calls on 3rd down when we had the lead giving up turnovers and huge field advantage to uf
4. declining penalty at oregon
5. lack off 4 down attempts against oregon

he can't coach. not a game day coach at all.

lulz...

 

[sjt18]

Regardless of coaching, we have glaring issues at the wrong positions.

No question there are problems. That is a great reason to argue that this is not a contender for the East or SEC. It is NOT a great argument against this team beating Vandy, UK, Mizzou, USoA, APSU, WKU, and then one of USCe, Aub, UGa.... assuming Jones is a coach with top tier ability.

Too many here seem to argue "no talent" to an unreasonable extreme. Not having talent on par with Bama does not mean UT is not close enough in talent to beat lesser teams with good coaching and playcalling.

 

[sjt18]

Some of you will be a "amazed" at Worley's overnight transformation if a couple of the WR's really step up their games.

 

[vtvol98]

Starting Peterman was not a horrible decision. Butch felt team needed a spark and was hoping Peterman would be more of a gamer than Worley has been. That's all. It's a rebuilding year and now we know more about our QB group than we did.... Peterman likely ain't the future.... at all. Now Butch checks that box, works on coaching up Worley until he can get his freshman/men ready.

It was a calculated decision that didn't pan out IMO.

I applaud Jones for making that calculated decision to start Peterman. Granted, it didn't work out but at least Jones had the stones to make that call. Earlier this summer, someone posted that Butch is playing with house money; he is in a honeymoon period where he can experiment and tinker with CDD's leftover parts and CBJ's new cogs. I agree with that statement as well. Hopefully, we will see either Ferguson's or Dobbs' red-shirt burned this Saturday against USA and the bye week before UGA used as an evaluation and training period to further solidify that person as the starter at QB for the remainder of the season.

 

[Eddie Vol Halen]

Starting Peterman was not a horrible decision. Butch felt team needed a spark and was hoping Peterman would be more of a gamer than Worley has been. That's all. It's a rebuilding year and now we know more about our QB group than we did.... Peterman likely ain't the future.... at all. Now Butch checks that box, works on coaching up Worley until he can get his freshman/men ready.

It was a calculated decision that didn't pan out IMO.

Beating Florida is worth its weight in golden 5-stars for Tennessee. They were there for the taking - with Worley.

It was clear after two possessions that Peterman was as lost as last year's Easter Egg. In other words, everything that Butch and co had seen in Spring and in Camp was correct.

But they still started the RS Freshman before he was ready on the road against easily a top three defense in the country. That's a lot more than "didn't pan out" IMHO.

I still believe the game is completely winnable if Worley goes in on position #3. And beating Florida is one great big cinder block in the brick-by-brick rebuilding effort.

 

[KBVol]

1. Started Peterson in the swamp
2. QB had a broke hand and left him in resulting in balls slipping out of hand and continued lack of confidence
3. Called way too many agressive play calls on 3rd down when we had the lead giving up turnovers and huge field advantage to uf
4. declining penalty at oregon
5. lack off 4 down attempts against oregon

he can't coach. not a game day coach at all.

So #3 point complains he's too aggressive trying to get a first down on 3rd downs. But #4 complains he's not aggressive enough on 4th down. Huh?

Guys that cant coach on gamedays don't win 65% of his games in 6+ yrs including a share of or outright 4 championships. This post is really dumb. No offense buddy.

 

[dillyo51]

I can grade Josh Smith. Not good

He is going to be good....very good. :hi:

 

[bullet20]

1. Started Peterson in the swamp
2. QB had a broke hand and left him in resulting in balls slipping out of hand and continued lack of confidence
3. Called way too many agressive play calls on 3rd down when we had the lead giving up turnovers and huge field advantage to uf
4. declining penalty at oregon
5. lack off 4 down attempts against oregon

he can't coach. not a game day coach at all.

Who is Peterson ?

 

[northknoxvol]

Wouldnt it have made more sense to roll the freshman out in the first 2 games before Oregon and UF? Dont give Butch too much credit yet boys.........he still has to prove he can do the job.

 

[sjt18]

Wouldnt it have made more sense to roll the freshman out in the first 2 games before Oregon and UF? Dont give Butch too much credit yet boys.........he still has to prove he can do the job.

No it wouldn't... and I'm taking a wait and see approach to Jones.

 

[photovol]

Has anyone considered that we may have Cincinnati Coaching with Marshall Talent?