last year wasn't great coaching but have any of you not been on the field when you are outmanned? Outsized, outdepth and outspeed.
Yes. Almost every game. But we were taught to execute, execute, execute. If we only ran 5 plays we were going to execute them to absolute perfection.
And therein lies my hope for what Jones might have been doing last year that resulted in subpar results. It is my hope that he's just the type to say "By golly, we're going to perfect the base O and base D before we work on anything else." If that IS the reason that the team only won 5 games and was uncompetitive too often last fall then we can truly look forward to great things.
However if last year's use of available talent was really the absolute best this staff can do... then it doesn't matter how well they recruit. UT will not make it completely back to the top until there's another change.
I've been on the field or court before when we knew what was coming and there wasn't anything we could do about it.
I'm not sure we ever played anyone who didn't have better athletes than we did. We played a division above the actual size of our school. During my 3 years we were 32-5 including a 14-0 state championship run. Four of our losses were to teams that won state championships in the same season we lost to them. At least 3 of those teams had players who played professionally later on. We didn't have a single player that played above the FCS level.
Coaching, development, team, and execution are FAR bigger factors than many of you want to admit.
I can accept that as a reason for last fall... I reject the attempts of folks like you to throw players under the bus or distort the level of their talent in a vain effort to avoid placing blame on the coaches.
That's not an excuse. It's a fact. People complaining about the blowouts are clueless as to how little talent we have had.
Completely false. Several teams with significantly less talent than UT had were more competitive than UT against all 4 teams that blew UT out. Again, if you want to say that the inability to compete was a function of a willful decision to build "brick by brick" only adding "bricks" when the foundation of understanding/execution was in place... I'm with you. Lack of talent? Sorry. But no.
If you have any damn questions, look at the nfl draft the past few years and the last db or lb we had taken in the draft was Eric Burry, Ericburry. In '09. It's '14
Look at the NFL draft over the past few years. How many players total have been taken from Ark St, Toledo, or Indiana? All were more competitive vs Mizzou than UT was.
How about Ga State? Bama beat UT about as easily as them. Colorado St was more game that UT too. I don't think either of those schools are loading NFL rosters, are they?
If you want we can keep going through opponents. UT's roster last year had enough talent to win 6-7 games and to NOT be uncompetitive in 4.
Yes the Vandy game sucked. Yes the SC game was awesome. Usually an outmanned team will win one they shouldn't and lose one they shouldn't and that's what happened.
Despite what many of you think. The USCe game was a reasonably good match up talent wise with particular position match ups that favored UT. The coach UT needs will NOT make a habit out of losing to teams that have less talent and WILL make a habit of beating teams with more.
That IS according to Daj Jones' history... he has to repeat it at UT.
Worst part is if poor Pig doesn't try to help his qb, last years team is bowling and erybody isn't pissed off or questioning the coaches, though we are trying to stop the all time SEC leading receiver with Max Arnold, Swafford, Toney and #47 linebacker on the field on the last drive. That's not happening again.
Poor Pig was trying to help his QB? I thought he was trying to win the game. How is that helping Worley any more than any other player on the team?
