jakez4ut
Patience... It's what's for dinner
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- Jul 7, 2005
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you know, we've had the season, we've seen the product, and we have our opinions on what was wrong, who is to blame and what is needed to fix it...but after reading and posting on this thing in many different threads, i thought i would try to sum up what i take from all this....sorry if this is long, but i have to get all this off my chest...you can all tear it apart at your leisure....
1. Player development. This has been an issue at this program for a while now, but only now is so evident by the clear number of mental errors comitted by WR's, QB's, RB's, FB's, OL etc....the thing i really never got over this year was this: after 8-10 weeks of game prep, practice, meetings, and film review, you'd of thought that the recievers, etc... would have addressed the drops etc...and fixed it at some point along the way...but it never happened. it was the same thing each and every week.
2. Play Calling/game planning. This year, i think these two things were actually pretty good. It was the execution of the plays called and plan installed that sucked out loud. We were calling some very good plays, good in the situations they were called, but time after time, we dropped a ball, had a penalty or turned it over...it was only then that the offense became predictable. After so many tries down the feild with no success, you and your opponent begin to realize what you can and cannot do. That limits you worse than not having talent on offense on what plays you can call.
3. Penalites. this is a clear lack of discilpline, period. These are issues that should be tracked by player and addressed in practice the following week. Especially personal foul calls that turn a 3rd down stop in to a 1st down, or a holding penalty turns a 3rd and short in to a 2nd 18. Driver killers either way got to go.
4. Turnovers. they will happen. we know that. But how many could be prevented? better ball handling by RB's, smarter decisions by QB's, ball security on special teams. I'll go back to what i said about Penalties, this is lack of discipline, period. If a turnover can be attributed by a mistake by the ball handler, then he should be held accountable.
5. Special teams...stress the kicking game for that is where the breaks are made....We used to be very good on special teams...where we went wrong i don't know, but we could take a lesson from Frank Beamer, and treat that unit with as much attention as the other two, obviously that is not the case when you have a position coach doing it part time.
6. Expecations. Get rid of them. the only expectation we should have from now on is to only win the next game on the schedule. In fact, the schedule should only be realeased on week at a time....I don't want to hear any more about "best this, or best that" etc...this goes for us as well as fans. We get pretty caught up in that aspect as well....instead of expectations, we should call them "GOALS". What is the goal for next year? Win the East? what then? win the SEC? what then? win whatever bowl we go to. you can't acheive the last w/out first acheiving the first, so why start talking about Atlanta and Pasadena in August in the first place?
Now as for opinions as to why it happened, who to blame etc...well, why it happend is kind of hard to answer. but here's my opionon.
i think we had a group of guys, including some coaches that read too much in the summer about how good they were going to be, and that all they had to do was show up. That led to an attitude problem that resulted in the team probably thinking they didn't have to work to hard to fulfill the expecation of the season. I also think that the decision not to name a starting QB in the spring, as well as a set 3-4 WR rotation at that time hurt the offensive chemistry immensely. And lastly, i don't think the players worked hard enough or applied any self discipline or work ethic in to what they were doing each week.
Who's to blame? coaches and players. Coaches ultimately make the decisions that put the players in the position or situation they are in. the coaches in this case made some bad decisions by 1)buying in to the hype and 2)not making decisions in the off season regarding offensive skill positions.
At some point you have to wonder what they saw in that Offensive line and Gerald Riggs. Both under acheived.
Players though share in this process. It's not like they didn't know what the issues were. Surely they saw on film each week who was dropping balls, fumbling, throwing interceptions, over throws, under throws, penalties etc, etc, etc...where was the personal accountability where you just make up your mind to get better?
Solutions:
coaching changes needed have already taken place. with that we all hope that some simblance of discipliine and pride come back to this program. where "i'll give my all for Tennessee today" means something again. It is my hope that Phil, Cut and JC lead that charge....Also, the players again must take some of that upon themselves. I hope that the offensive returning players take it upon themselves this year to learn from this year, spend extra time working with each other, studying film from this past year, as an example of what not to do, and lose the egos, and get back to what football is all about: TEAM
Regardless of how you feel about CPF and his decision making etc....it is the responsibility of all to correct this and get this going back in the right direction. If there is one positive from this year , it should be that no one that comes back for the next 3 years from this team should ever forget what it was like.
i'm off my stump now, and i do feel better...have fun.
1. Player development. This has been an issue at this program for a while now, but only now is so evident by the clear number of mental errors comitted by WR's, QB's, RB's, FB's, OL etc....the thing i really never got over this year was this: after 8-10 weeks of game prep, practice, meetings, and film review, you'd of thought that the recievers, etc... would have addressed the drops etc...and fixed it at some point along the way...but it never happened. it was the same thing each and every week.
2. Play Calling/game planning. This year, i think these two things were actually pretty good. It was the execution of the plays called and plan installed that sucked out loud. We were calling some very good plays, good in the situations they were called, but time after time, we dropped a ball, had a penalty or turned it over...it was only then that the offense became predictable. After so many tries down the feild with no success, you and your opponent begin to realize what you can and cannot do. That limits you worse than not having talent on offense on what plays you can call.
3. Penalites. this is a clear lack of discilpline, period. These are issues that should be tracked by player and addressed in practice the following week. Especially personal foul calls that turn a 3rd down stop in to a 1st down, or a holding penalty turns a 3rd and short in to a 2nd 18. Driver killers either way got to go.
4. Turnovers. they will happen. we know that. But how many could be prevented? better ball handling by RB's, smarter decisions by QB's, ball security on special teams. I'll go back to what i said about Penalties, this is lack of discipline, period. If a turnover can be attributed by a mistake by the ball handler, then he should be held accountable.
5. Special teams...stress the kicking game for that is where the breaks are made....We used to be very good on special teams...where we went wrong i don't know, but we could take a lesson from Frank Beamer, and treat that unit with as much attention as the other two, obviously that is not the case when you have a position coach doing it part time.
6. Expecations. Get rid of them. the only expectation we should have from now on is to only win the next game on the schedule. In fact, the schedule should only be realeased on week at a time....I don't want to hear any more about "best this, or best that" etc...this goes for us as well as fans. We get pretty caught up in that aspect as well....instead of expectations, we should call them "GOALS". What is the goal for next year? Win the East? what then? win the SEC? what then? win whatever bowl we go to. you can't acheive the last w/out first acheiving the first, so why start talking about Atlanta and Pasadena in August in the first place?
Now as for opinions as to why it happened, who to blame etc...well, why it happend is kind of hard to answer. but here's my opionon.
i think we had a group of guys, including some coaches that read too much in the summer about how good they were going to be, and that all they had to do was show up. That led to an attitude problem that resulted in the team probably thinking they didn't have to work to hard to fulfill the expecation of the season. I also think that the decision not to name a starting QB in the spring, as well as a set 3-4 WR rotation at that time hurt the offensive chemistry immensely. And lastly, i don't think the players worked hard enough or applied any self discipline or work ethic in to what they were doing each week.
Who's to blame? coaches and players. Coaches ultimately make the decisions that put the players in the position or situation they are in. the coaches in this case made some bad decisions by 1)buying in to the hype and 2)not making decisions in the off season regarding offensive skill positions.
At some point you have to wonder what they saw in that Offensive line and Gerald Riggs. Both under acheived.
Players though share in this process. It's not like they didn't know what the issues were. Surely they saw on film each week who was dropping balls, fumbling, throwing interceptions, over throws, under throws, penalties etc, etc, etc...where was the personal accountability where you just make up your mind to get better?
Solutions:
coaching changes needed have already taken place. with that we all hope that some simblance of discipliine and pride come back to this program. where "i'll give my all for Tennessee today" means something again. It is my hope that Phil, Cut and JC lead that charge....Also, the players again must take some of that upon themselves. I hope that the offensive returning players take it upon themselves this year to learn from this year, spend extra time working with each other, studying film from this past year, as an example of what not to do, and lose the egos, and get back to what football is all about: TEAM
Regardless of how you feel about CPF and his decision making etc....it is the responsibility of all to correct this and get this going back in the right direction. If there is one positive from this year , it should be that no one that comes back for the next 3 years from this team should ever forget what it was like.
i'm off my stump now, and i do feel better...have fun.
uke:
