Jalen Hurd Retires

#51
#51
VolFreakJosh said:
Butch was incompetent but Hurd also is the one who decided to quit on his brothers during the middle of the season.

That’s not giving his all for Tennessee.

Bash me all you want but it’s the truth.
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Agreed. Butch had one of the most talented rosters and squandered it. But Hurd was on his way to being the schools all time leading rusher and took bad advice from people around him
 
#52
#52
The Original Fade said:
Weird how people are blaming coaching for Hurd’s lackluster career.
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He had good career at UT. I believe he is #6 all time in rushing yards at UT. He only needed 440 yards to break the all time record when he left UT. If he would have stayed he would Have broke the record easily.
 
#53
#53
GoVols1961 said:
Jalen had some struggles physically and mentally. He made a tough decision that I'm sure wasn't easy to make. I think the saying "Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes" should apply in this case. I wish him nothing but the best and thank him for his time as a Vol.
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Agreed!
 
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#55
#55
Tman44 said:
I wish him the best. He certainly had a rough go of it with Butch Jones botching his career.

Patriots Wide Receiver Retires After Training Camp Injury
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How did Jones botch his career? He was an excellent running back. It's a shame the guy could not stay healthy. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a prospective pro player who suffered season-ending injuries three or four straight years--all or nearly of all of them in the first few days of training camp. Bizarre.
 
#56
#56
No argument from me that Hurd is a moron or that this was handled poorly but again a lot are discounting just how incompetent Butch was as well. Again Jones never dealt with any issue with any player; he tried to tell everyone what they wanted to hear and kick the can down the road for later. Eventually that ended with him losing the entire lockerroom and things just blowing up spectacularly. Also this wasn’t the first instance of misleading on an injury. Butch did whatever he thought would get himself ahead, damn the players and damn the program if it came before his own ego.

His pettiness was on full display when he went to Bama basically just to spite Tennessee and celebrated beating the players he recruited at Tennessee. No other coach has been as petty as Butch when it came to finding a job after termination.
 
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#57
#57
Vol8188 said:
Agreed. Butch had one of the most talented rosters and squandered it. But Hurd was on his way to being the schools all time leading rusher and took bad advice from people around him
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One could easily (very easily actually) say he took some bad advice but the general idea of wanting to switch to receiver (TE vs WR would be a different discussion) was probably a good one if the NFL was the goal. The brutal truth of the matter is he was pretty unspectacular as a RB. He was "on his way to being the schools all time leading rusher" entirely as a function of carries...that's it. Picture in your mind the most "Eh, he wasn't bad" RB and give them 600 carries and you'll have a pretty good total. Now ponder what names like Garner, Webb, Kamara, Henry, Lewis, etc would have done with that much opportunity. Hurd suffers terribly in comparison to those guys if corrected for that context.

I'm actually kind of sad to have this happen to the guy. I genuinely would have liked to have seen what he could have done in the NFL if given the chance if only out of sheer curiosity.
 
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#58
#58
hndog609 said:
One could easily (very easily actually) say he took some bad advice but the general idea of wanting to switch to receiver (TE vs WR would be a different discussion) was probably a good one if the NFL was the goal. The brutal truth of the matter is he was pretty unspectacular as a RB. He was "on his way to being the schools all time leading rusher" entirely as a function of carries...that's it. Picture in your mind the most "Eh, he wasn't bad" RB and give them 600 carries and you'll have a pretty good total. Now ponder what names like Garner, Webb, Kamara, Henry, Lewis, etc would have done with that much opportunity. Hurd suffers terribly in comparison to those guys if corrected for that context.

I'm actually kind of sad to have this happen to the guy. I genuinely would have liked to have seen what he could have done in the NFL if given the chance if only out of sheer curiosity.
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I’m sorry that’s just not accurate. A lot of these guys were running out of a completely different system than Hurd. Hurd’s yards after contact was pretty good early on; at times he was getting hit behind the LOS too. Bama also wanted him as a RB badly coming out of high school; he likely would’ve been great running in that system. I’m just saying we’re not comparing apples to apples here.
 
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#61
#61
driscokid said:
When an oversized RB comes to you and says he wants to be a TE because Alvin Kamara is probably better and you say no…it could be the coach that is partially to blame.
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How long had Hurd been at UT when Kamara arrived? At least a year or two, no? Yes, agree he might have been a good college TE, but he was
also a very good power back. I never quite saw him as a pro WR, but we'll never know....
 
#62
#62
bamawriter said:
That's a tough argument to make when the guy didn't even remain a running back.
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Is it a tough argument? He averaged nearly 5 yards a carry each of his first two years at UT, running behind, correct me if I'm wrong, offensive lines that were somewhere between poor and mediocre. He ran for 900 yards as a freshman, 1,285 as a soph. I think he would have made a very good college TE, and Jones probably was dumb not to move him to that position. He could have done so in 2015--Hurd's second season (when he ran for 1,285) and Kamara's first after transferring---but coaches are not going to make a move like that until they know what they've got in the transfer player, and that's not going to be before at least the end of training camp or earlyish in the season, by which time it's not easy to switch positions.
 
#63
#63
DaddyChad said:
I’m sorry that’s just not accurate. A lot of these guys were running out of a completely different system than Hurd. Hurd’s yards after contact was pretty good early on; at times he was getting hit behind the LOS too. Bama also wanted him as a RB badly coming out of high school; he likely would’ve been great running in that system. I’m just saying we’re not comparing apples to apples here.
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Actually I don't agree with this at all for multiple reasons. First the actual point was addressing the all time rushing bit. That's straight forward and doesn't depend on anything you cite. On any list of greatest Vol RBs of all time you'll see the names Webb and Garner. Their career carries combined don't equal what Hurd amassed himself and yet their production with what they did have exceeded his by over 800y. (yes, you read that right) So again, if some of our much more productive backs had the better part of 600c would we even be having this conversation? I'd posit not.

We get pretty speculative with the other observations. First I think you might have taken my observation as "Hurd actually kinda sucked". I don't think he did. He was a big strong guy that ran hard, was a legit receiving threat and actually a pretty darn good blocker. He also was not particularly elusive, way too easy to bring down when moving laterally (in fairness that's sort of a thing with taller runners for the most part) and nowhere near as explosive as we were led to believe (I know as I drank that koolaid myself) coming in as his speed never scared anyone. Also if you care to look he ran out of the I at Baylor more than a few times and wasn't anything spectacular there either.
 
#64
#64
Tman44 said:
When it all went down I thought the same thing; however, Butch Jones was never honest with Hurd. He kept lying to him so he wouldn't transfer. Hurd finally had enough. I can't blame him for that.
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Can you imagine the roster churn under the new transfer rules if Butch was still the HC? 80% of each class would transfer out after one year because they would have discovered what a liar he is.
 
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#65
#65
The first down runs when he was trying to get to the perimeter were mind numbing. Towards the end of Hurds career as a Vol you could see his frustration on the field getting up after another 2 yard loss. I hate butch, pray for me
 
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#66
#66
No one to blame but himself and his family for the decisions they made. Made the selfish decision to move to wide receiver and then pouted when the coaches didnt agree with him. He was playing in front of a guy who was obviously better than him and he still wasn't happy. Then, regardless of any events that occurred, he quit on his team in the middle of an incredible run by that team. This along with some injuries and other factors killed the momentum of a great year in the making. Don't give me the stuff about it's all Butch's fault. Kamara had more reason than any player to pout but he worked through it and now he in the midst of a very good NFL career.

This is a great example of a selfish attitude ruining a team and derailing a very talented player's career.
 
#69
#69
Backwards K said:
No one to blame but himself and his family for the decisions they made. Made the selfish decision to move to wide receiver and then pouted when the coaches didnt agree with him. He was playing in front of a guy who was obviously better than him and he still wasn't happy. Then, regardless of any events that occurred, he quit on his team in the middle of an incredible run by that team. This along with some injuries and other factors killed the momentum of a great year in the making. Don't give me the stuff about it's all Butch's fault. Kamara had more reason than any player to pout but he worked through it and now he in the midst of a very good NFL career.

This is a great example of a selfish attitude ruining a team and derailing a very talented player's career.
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This is the common feeling among most Vol fans, but we dont know the conversations, relationships and other day to day factors that led to all of this. Because I dont know all that stuff, I blame the leadership that was making the money and the decisions.
 
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#71
#71
Vol_sanity said:
This is the common feeling among most Vol fans, but we dont know the conversations, relationships and other day to day factors that led to all of this. Because I dont know all that stuff, I blame the leadership that was making the money and the decisions.
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Agreed. Just a guess but it seems like they may have promised WAY too much to those kids to get them to commit and then never de-recruited them once they got on campus. Plus there really wasn’t much team leadership in the beginning I don’t think. If that’s true then that’s on the coaches.
 
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#72
#72
turbovol said:
How did Jones botch his career? He was an excellent running back. It's a shame the guy could not stay healthy. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a prospective pro player who suffered season-ending injuries three or four straight years--all or nearly of all of them in the first few days of training camp. Bizarre.
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I followed up the original message with this. This is how Butch Jones screwed him:

The Original Fade said:
Weird how people are blaming coaching for Hurd’s lackluster career.
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Tman44 said:
When it all went down I thought the same thing; however, Butch Jones was never honest with Hurd. He kept lying to him so he wouldn't transfer. Hurd finally had enough. I can't blame him for that.

Jalen Hurd Tells All About Why He Left Tennessee Mid-Season | RTI
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#73
#73
Tman44 said:
When it all went down I thought the same thing; however, Butch Jones was never honest with Hurd. He kept lying to him so he wouldn't transfer. Hurd finally had enough. I can't blame him for that.

Jalen Hurd Tells All About Why He Left Tennessee Mid-Season | RTI
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That's no excuse to leave mid-season. That's quitting on your teammates and us fans. Life sucks sometimes. We all have bosses we don't like. His leaving did not serve his football career well either
 
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#74
#74
The only time I’ve ever had my account suspended was after drunkenly responding to Hurd’s drop as he tried to act cute going into the end zone against UGA lol

Best of luck to the guy!
 
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#75
#75
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