I think Milton will be limited running Saturday

[RavinDave]

They will give us everything they've got and If Joe's not 100% and our defense isn't playing lights out, it could get ugly again.

Anything other than a win to me is ugly.

I’d be happy with an ugly win.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

I’d run the RBs until they shut that down. Vols RBs should be able to run on them. Maybe run Joe occasionally to keep ‘em honest

Agreed. They're vulnerable to reverses and short drag rite catch and run across the middle, too.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Milton is very similar to JG whether you want to admit it or not. He is a guy that has all the physical capabilities with size, weight, arm strength, etc. He’s also a high caliber kid and good leader. The guy that learns the playbook and shows up to work on time every day. But… When the bright lights come on, he’s just not a very good player at all. Just exactly like JG.
If you could put JG in this offense here right now, with these skill position players and this offensive scheme… I think we would see very, very similar on the field production.

JG would go Rouge on Play calls and threw interceptions and pick sixes like they were going out of style. Whatever faults you might attribute to Joe, he nevertheless follows the game plan and has proven very careful with the football. Since taking over for Hooker against USCJr, he is 5 and 1 as a starter and has thrown a single interception. Like I say, if one cannot differentiate between that level of play vs JG, they aren’t being very observant

 

[TNinSC]

They will give us everything they've got and If Joe's not 100% and our defense isn't playing lights out, it could get ugly again.

Anything other than a win to me is ugly.

the defense is what i think is going to hurt us. rattler lit us up last year and i feel like our defense has taken a step backwards

 

[GAVol]

Milton is very similar to JG whether you want to admit it or not. He is a guy that has all the physical capabilities with size, weight, arm strength, etc. He’s also a high caliber kid and good leader. The guy that learns the playbook and shows up to work on time every day. But… When the bright lights come on, he’s just not a very good player at all. Just exactly like JG.
If you could put JG in this offense here right now, with these skill position players and this offensive scheme… I think we would see very, very similar on the field production.

Say what you will about Milton, he at least takes care of the ball. JG turned it over and threw pick 6's.

 

[GAVol]

the defense is what i think is going to hurt us. rattler lit us up last year and i feel like our defense has taken a step backwards

I don't think it's humanly possible to be worse than it was against SC last year.

 

[ttocswob]

"...meaningful wraps."

Another entry in the Vol dictionary.

 

[TNinSC]

I don't think it's humanly possible to be worse than it was against SC last year.

i hope you're right.

 

[Smokymtnbullet]

I honestly believe if his leg was broken at this point, Heupel would get a full leg cast on it and some lightweight athletic crutches so he could gimp out there and continue air-mailing pass to all the wide open receivers. I’ve never seen anything like this coache’s affinity for sticking with a single player, no matter how poorly they play. Bringing back shades of Pruitt with JG

He just doesn’t want to get a 195 pound,8 million dollar man broke in half.

 

[VOLINVONORE]

He just doesn’t want to get a 195 pound,8 million dollar man broke in half.

Nor who I, if I was his coach..

 

[OrangeTsar]

He just doesn’t want to get a 195 pound,8 million dollar man broke in half.

The hillbilly analogy here is “don’t eat your seed corn”

 

[chattavol420]

He just doesn’t want to get a 195 pound,8 million dollar man broke in half.

Are you saying that just because of his size? Or because he doesn’t know all the protections yet?

Niko has had more time in Heupel system at this point than hooker when hooker took over.

As for getting broken in half… Nico is 6’6” and up to around 210ish . He was listed at 2:06 coming out of spring ball.

A QB that tall with long arms will always look thin. To me, he looks just like Trevor Lawrence, or Tyler Bray when they took over. Both of them were true freshman when they started playing, and neither of them ever sustained any significant injuries.

Nico way bigger than Bryce Young is even now. And Bryce young also has never sustained a significant injury. Go back and watch some high school video of Nico. He played at a class 6a powerhouse in California. When you watch videos of him, he is always playing against future D1 players on the other side. He runs a lot as a part of his game. However, he seems to always run with his eyes downfield. He uses his quickness and athleticism to escape pressure, but prefers to throw.

He’s a very twitchy/rangy athlete. In those high school videos you’ll never find even a single clip where he takes a direct shot and gets stoned in his tracks. Sometimes tall rangy players are kind of like that… They are hard to really drive into the ground. I think Nico would be perfectly fine at this point. But why are we not even giving him any meaningful reps? Heupel could always be giving him a series here and there early in the game with the 1’s just to see what he is capable of.

I think heypel isn’t putting him out there right now, because he fears that he will make some athletic plays, and potentially have that lead to a quarterback controversy that kind of divides the team. But I believe that logic is shortsighted. For one, if he balls the hell out and is obviously the better player in the system… Why not go ahead and just make the change? Number two, even if he did kind of divide the team for the duration of this year, Nico’s future is here and Milton‘s is elsewhere. Our team will absolutely be better next year and beyond if Nico is getting some meaningful work this season. JMO

 

[chattavol420]

Another entry in the Vol dictionary.

It’s voice text. Do you think I don’t know the correct word?

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

The hillbilly analogy here is “don’t eat your seed corn”

Holy crap! I've not heard that since my PawPaw was living. Nice.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Are you saying that just because of his size? Or because he doesn’t know all the protections yet?

Niko has had more time in Heupel system at this point than hooker when hooker took over.

As for getting broken in half… Nico is 6’6” and up to around 210ish . He was listed at 2:06 coming out of spring ball.

A QB that tall with long arms will always look thin. To me, he looks just like Trevor Lawrence, or Tyler Bray when they took over. Both of them were true freshman when they started playing, and neither of them ever sustained any significant injuries.

Nico way bigger than Bryce Young is even now. And Bryce young also has never sustained a significant injury. Go back and watch some high school video of Nico. He played at a class 6a powerhouse in California. When you watch videos of him, he is always playing against future D1 players on the other side. He runs a lot as a part of his game. However, he seems to always run with his eyes downfield. He uses his quickness and athleticism to escape pressure, but prefers to throw.

He’s a very twitchy/rangy athlete. In those high school videos you’ll never find even a single clip where he takes a direct shot and gets stoned in his tracks. Sometimes tall rangy players are kind of like that… They are hard to really drive into the ground. I think Nico would be perfectly fine at this point. But why are we not even giving him any meaningful reps? Heupel could always be giving him a series here and there early in the game with the 1’s just to see what he is capable of.

I think heypel isn’t putting him out there right now, because he fears that he will make some athletic plays, and potentially have that lead to a quarterback controversy that kind of divides the team. But I believe that logic is shortsighted. For one, if he balls the hell out and is obviously the better player in the system… Why not go ahead and just make the change? Number two, even if he did kind of divide the team for the duration of this year, Nico’s future is here and Milton‘s is elsewhere. Our team will absolutely be better next year and beyond if Nico is getting some meaningful work this season. JMO

Joe was well liked last year too but when Hooker came in and was successful, the locker room got behind Hooker because they're a team, not a fan club.

It's complete BS to think a competent coach is afraid of the dang players so he'll play a worse player and risk losing rather than a better player who gives the team a better chance of winning.

Get a grip. This is the SEC. These guys know it's competition from the first time they start conditioning at UT. If Nico was ready and gave us a better chance to win and Heupel DIDN'T play him, we've got way way way way WAY bigger problems than this season.

Is that what you're trying to say?

 

[90 Vol]

Vols win comfortably.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Joe was well liked last year too but when Hooker came in and was successful, the locker room got behind Hooker because they're a team, not a fan club.

It's complete BS to think a competent coach is afraid of the dang players so he'll play a worse player and risk losing rather than a better player who gives the team a better chance of winning.

Get a grip. This is the SEC. These guys know it's competition from the first time they start conditioning at UT. If Nico was ready and gave us a better chance to win and Heupel DIDN'T play him, we've got way way way way WAY bigger problems than this season.

Is that what you're trying to say?

Heup is the most competitive coach we have had in a long time. He still has the heart and soul of that NC winning, Heisman runner up Oklahoma QB. He hates losing more than any of us can imagine. I have absolutely no doubt that he is going to play the players who give us the best opportunity to win.

 

[Hank Bukowski]

SC game plan will be to stop the run and make Joe prove he can throw it accurately. I'm concerned the Oline issues will show in this game. SC is a better overall team than floruda, coming in needing a W to stay alive in the East. This won't be easy. The Fans had better be loud and stay loud to disrupt like uga's crowd did last year. Rattler is extremely accurate, so Tenn had better keep him under heavy pressure, since we KNOW our DB's cant cover very long. Tennessee needs 5-7 sacks in this game. Study the history. Tight games are the norm, excluding last year's DEBACLE.

Good points. I would add that I don’t expect us to get many sacks at all, given our DL’s production against FL. Earlier this year, we all heard heard Banks and Heup talk about getting pressure with a four-man rush. It seemed to work against VA and AP, if I remember correctly, and not so much against FL. I just don’t see our DL winning many one-on-one matchups against SC’s OL. Hope I’m wrong, of course.

But if I’m right, we could be in for a long night, given that our secondary is still very much a work in progress (I know, I know — that’s putting it kindly.). Rattler can and will carve us up if we let him sit back there and choose his targets. I expect him to target no. 5 all night long. I mean, I would. Wouldn’t most of us?

Continuing as an oracle of the obvious, add to these possibilities the questions remaining about our OL in pass protection and, well, I just can’t muster any solid reasons for rational confidence going into this game.

But, hope springs eternally orange, and maybe our guys present to the world the team we’ve been waiting for this year. As a friend pointed out the other day, “If these guys can’t get fired up about this game after what SC did to us last year, then they don’t deserve to be playing.”

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Heup is the most competitive coach we have had in a long time. He still has the heart and soul of that NC winning, Heisman runner up Oklahoma QB. He hates losing more than any of us can imagine. I have absolutely no doubt that he is going to play the players who give us the best opportunity to win.

Exactly. I won't say I didn't have a Hmmmmm? moment when Hooker came in and seemingly ran the offense much smoother than Milton did....... can this coach really evaluate QB talent at a high level?

I think he can. I know he can better than me. I know he has the fire, especially after last year's run, to create an elite offense at UT.

I'm still perplexed by our gameplans and play calls and I'd want to make some changes there but no one has ever called me and said, "You've got a great offensive mind, let's talk about a job......" so it's not my first time being confused by play calls.

 

[OrangeTsar]

Exactly. I won't say I didn't have a Hmmmmm? moment when Hooker came in and seemingly ran the offense much smoother than Milton did....... can this coach really evaluate QB talent at a high level?

I think he can. I know he can better than me. I know he has the fire, especially after last year's run, to create an elite offense at UT.

I'm still perplexed by our gameplans and play calls and I'd want to make some changes there but no one has ever called me and said, "You've got a great offensive mind, let's talk about a job......" so it's not my first time being confused by play calls.

Heup sees the possible plays being run in practice. I assume he knows that some of the ones he wishes to run just aren’t being executed well enough at this point. And my guess is that falls on 1) OL blocking mistakes and 2) WR corps not getting adequate separation and not running routes as crisply as Hyatt and Tillman got us used to

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Heup sees the possible plays being run in practice. I assume he knows that some of the ones he wishes to run just aren’t being executed well enough at this point. And my guess is that falls on 1) OL blocking mistakes and 2) WR corps not getting adequate separation and not running routes as crisply as Hyatt and Tillman got us used to

I'm not sure why everyone repeatedly calls for head of Banks and Martinez but never calls for Elarbee to step it up or find a coach who can get it done.

The OL is a problem. It's not all Elarbee, there's been injuries and there's Mincey's boneheaded behavior, but there are just plain fully blown assignments and too many pre-snap issues. That's discipline. That's coaching.

 

[chattavol420]

Joe was well liked last year too but when Hooker came in and was successful, the locker room got behind Hooker because they're a team, not a fan club.

It's complete BS to think a competent coach is afraid of the dang players so he'll play a worse player and risk losing rather than a better player who gives the team a better chance of winning.

Get a grip. This is the SEC. These guys know it's competition from the first time they start conditioning at UT. If Nico was ready and gave us a better chance to win and Heupel DIDN'T play him, we've got way way way way WAY bigger problems than this season.

Is that what you're trying to say?

If you think coaches, aren’t concerned about the locker room cohesiveness, and how that can be impacted by inserting a different quarterback into the lineup you are naïve. Coaches make 1 million Little decisions. I think Heupel has gotten the majority of them right since he’s been here, but I do believe he made a mistake in putting the future in Milton’s hands. He could’ve certainly been grooming, a different quarterback to take over after hooker, but he didn’t. Rather, he has poured considerable time, effort, and energy into Milton. Nobody knows what always into consideration, except for Heupel himself.

But Joe has been incredibly underwhelming during his entire time here at Tennessee. He was very underwhelming to start his tenure, and that has continued this year as a 6th year senior.

Personally, I don’t feel most of our Fanbase had any level of optimism for him last year. I think most of us expected to see exactly what we have seen this season. He had an average/above average showing in the bowl game, but wasn’t amazing. He air-mailed four or five open receivers and essentially was a game manager. Clemson moved inside the 25 five times without scoring. All Milton needed to do was manage the game and he did that well. But that was his best performance here by far (and even it was just ok).

Nobody could know what all Heupel considers when making personnel decisions. But it seems strange how committed he is to ensuring that Milton is taking every meaningful snap.

Regardless, this is what fans do on message boards. We post various theories, opinions, and perspectives. There’s nothing wrong with that so long as it is done in a respectful manner. And I think most of us believe Milton is a real high character kid that has a good leader, and works hard. Personally, I have a lot of respect for the kid. I just don’t think he’s capable of playing at a high enough level for the team to be really good.

Do you believe Joe has played at a high-level this year? And if not… Why do you believe in Heupel has been unwilling to get Nico any meaningful game reps? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m not being sarcastic or anything. Just saying… If we’re going to take a step back this year, doesn’t it make sense to get the future of the program some experience?

 

[OrangeTsar]

I'm not sure why everyone repeatedly calls for head of Banks and Martinez but never calls for Elarbee to step it up or find a coach who can get it done.

The OL is a problem. It's not all Elarbee, there's been injuries and there's Mincey's boneheaded behavior, but there are just plain fully blown assignments and too many pre-snap issues. That's discipline. That's coaching.

I think we all knew that we would be thin in depth on the OL this season which is why Coop’s injury had so many of us concerned. We all saw what Elarbee could do last year, turning Wright into one of Tennessee’s highest draft picks in forever. I will not be too harsh on him unless we continue to struggle once we get that needed depth into the pipeline. But yeah, eventually we have to be simply reloading on OL instead of rebuilding

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

If you think coaches, aren’t concerned about the locker room cohesiveness, and how that can be impacted by inserting a different quarterback into the lineup you are naïve. Coaches make 1 million Little decisions. I think Heupel has gotten the majority of them right since he’s been here, but I do believe he made a mistake in putting the future in Milton’s hands. He could’ve certainly been grooming, a different quarterback to take over after hooker, but he didn’t. Rather, he has poured considerable time, effort, and energy into Milton. Nobody knows what always into consideration, except for Heupel himself.

But Joe has been incredibly underwhelming during his entire time here at Tennessee. He was very underwhelming to start his tenure, and that has continued this year as a 6th year senior.

Personally, I don’t feel most of our Fanbase had any level of optimism for him last year. I think most of us expected to see exactly what we have seen this season. He had an average/above average showing in the bowl game, but wasn’t amazing. He air-mailed four or five open receivers and essentially was a game manager. Clemson moved inside the 25 five times without scoring. All Milton needed to do was manage the game and he did that well. But that was his best performance here by far (and even it was just ok).

Nobody could know what all Heupel considers when making personnel decisions. But it seems strange how committed he is to ensuring that Milton is taking every meaningful snap.

Regardless, this is what fans do on message boards. We post various theories, opinions, and perspectives. There’s nothing wrong with that so long as it is done in a respectful manner. And I think most of us believe Milton is a real high character kid that has a good leader, and works hard. Personally, I have a lot of respect for the kid. I just don’t think he’s capable of playing at a high enough level for the team to be really good.

Do you believe Joe has played at a high-level this year? And if not… Why do you believe in Heupel has been unwilling to get Nico any meaningful game reps? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m not being sarcastic or anything. Just saying… If we’re going to take a step back this year, doesn’t it make sense to get the future of the program some experience?

You're not addressing the fact that Joe was replaced last year and Hooker's success was embraced by the team. It's a team. It's always a competition.

You think players would rather lose with Joe than win with Nico? Ridiculous. You think Heupel would rather lose with Joe than win with Nico? Again..... what do you think?

You seem to be saying Coach Josh Heupel doesn't have the balls to be a good coach. Is that what you mean?

 

[Volnanza]

If you think coaches, aren’t concerned about the locker room cohesiveness, and how that can be impacted by inserting a different quarterback into the lineup you are naïve. Coaches make 1 million Little decisions. I think Heupel has gotten the majority of them right since he’s been here, but I do believe he made a mistake in putting the future in Milton’s hands. He could’ve certainly been grooming, a different quarterback to take over after hooker, but he didn’t. Rather, he has poured considerable time, effort, and energy into Milton. Nobody knows what always into consideration, except for Heupel himself.

But Joe has been incredibly underwhelming during his entire time here at Tennessee. He was very underwhelming to start his tenure, and that has continued this year as a 6th year senior.

Personally, I don’t feel most of our Fanbase had any level of optimism for him last year. I think most of us expected to see exactly what we have seen this season. He had an average/above average showing in the bowl game, but wasn’t amazing. He air-mailed four or five open receivers and essentially was a game manager. Clemson moved inside the 25 five times without scoring. All Milton needed to do was manage the game and he did that well. But that was his best performance here by far (and even it was just ok).

Nobody could know what all Heupel considers when making personnel decisions. But it seems strange how committed he is to ensuring that Milton is taking every meaningful snap.

Regardless, this is what fans do on message boards. We post various theories, opinions, and perspectives. There’s nothing wrong with that so long as it is done in a respectful manner. And I think most of us believe Milton is a real high character kid that has a good leader, and works hard. Personally, I have a lot of respect for the kid. I just don’t think he’s capable of playing at a high enough level for the team to be really good.

Do you believe Joe has played at a high-level this year? And if not… Why do you believe in Heupel has been unwilling to get Nico any meaningful game reps? That’s not a rhetorical question. I’m not being sarcastic or anything. Just saying… If we’re going to take a step back this year, doesn’t it make sense to get the future of the program some experience?

I'm with the coach on this. Every team Heupel has coached has been at or near the top in offense every year. He is proven. He is out front in the evolution of offensive football.