Josh Pate on Josh Heupel

[a vol n tears]

Have you attended practices and seen the lack of "teaching" in them? There are videos available showing all the receivers on passing plays. Watch some of them

I watch all of them when available in the spring and fall camps. Do you see an hour or even 30 minutes of a practice. I am basing my point of view on how much of a drop off the WR group has shown sine Burns left. From Biletniloff winner with Burns, to 500 yards guys with Pope.

 

[LAVol1]

There’s no excuse for how poor our offensive line and receivers were this season

OL Excuse: In '22, the only highly regarded OL recruited was Nichols, and he transferred for whatever reason. This year and next year will be the years where we see if the OL situation is improving or not. We have some highly regarded recruits with 2 years in the system (Satterwhite, Heard, Anderson, Warren, Ginther, Umarov, Johnson III). They should be starting to show that they are ready. If not, then we either aren't recruiting as well as the stars indicate or players aren't being developed. Does Elarbee get credit for developing Darnell Wright (didn't allow a sack in 19 consecutive games) or Cooper Mays (one of our best C of all time)?

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

People must misremember that time period because Clemson had very similarly ranked classes to Tennessee most years. The only year they were in the same ballpark as Alabama in recruiting was 2020, after their championship stretch. Other than that they have been at the tail end of the top 10.

Clemson Team Rankings according to 247Sports:

2010: 27th
2011: 10th
2012: 20th
2013: 15th
2014: 16th
2015: 9th
2016: 11th
2017: 16th
2018: 7th
2019: 10th
2020: 3rd
2021: 5th
2022: 10th
2023: 11th
2024: 11th
2025: 27th

A lot of that was due to the fact they had small classes due to low attrition. I remember once they took like 14 guys. Their average rating was up there with the elites, but with 14 guys you aren’t going to have a top class.

 

[VolPack22]

A lot of that was due to the fact they had small classes due to low attrition. I remember once they took like 14 guys. Their average rating was up there with the elites, but with 14 guys you aren’t going to have a top class.

They still have low attrition. You don’t hear about players leaving Clemson. He has built a good culture there. Yeah they aren’t a national championship caliber team anymore but they are still competitive enough to win the ACC every year.

 

[LegionnaireOfTheMiserable]

They still have low attrition. You don’t hear about players leaving Clemson. He has built a good culture there. Yeah they aren’t a national championship caliber team anymore but they are still competitive enough to win the ACC every year.

He comes off corny and lays the religion on too thick for me personally, but it does seem to work for him.

 

[Lekvolrrah]

It took Dabo 7 full seasons to really breakthrough. And he didn’t have an AP top 10 finish until his 5th full season. Years 7-12 he had the second best program behind Alabama but went toe to toe with them and won 2 out of 4 championship appearances in that time period. Not saying we will win a championship in the next few years but things are trending towards that direction if we allow Heupel to run his operation.

Dabo broke through when he started paying top dollar

 

[VolPack22]

Dabo broke through when he started paying top dollar

You mean whenever Kiffin didn’t want Tajh Boyd and he took Clemson to new heights? That allowed them to get Watson and Lawrence. Lawrence btw was a Peyton Manning fanatic so we screwed the pooch on Boyd and Lawrence while Dabo reaped all the benefits.

 

[illvol]

Not disagreeing but times are different now have the portal that makes easier

Is it easier though? Yes you can shop for better players who may be proven but while you are, others are shopping for yours. I wouldn’t say anything is easier. Different for sure.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

Pate is by far the best sports talk guy. He's just insanely good!

Agree with everything he says.

 

[vol94]

Have you attended practices and seen the lack of "teaching" in them? There are videos available showing all the receivers on passing plays. Watch some of them

I enjoy reading your comments @ BernardKing. Idk if it’s coaching, but it’s a fact our receivers struggle to gain separation. I was at the Shoe watching Nico run for his life. We were all surprised watching the receivers stand around instead of coming to the ball trying to get open.

 

[wmcovol]

Dabo Recruited as good as Alabama did during alot of that stretch. Our recruiting hasnt really picked up steam. Top 10 nationally is ok, but we are still middle of the road in the SEC.

Today’s recruiting is a lot tougher. Until 2016, Ga had Richt ( good guy good recruiter, not elite) Tennessee completely sucked with Jones (he couldn’t sign 5 stars 20 miles from campus) SC wasn’t **** (SOS despised recruiting). It was basically Alabama & Clemson thru the heart of the SE. Today, Ga, Tennessee, Auburn, SC are all recruiting at higher levels than they did when Dado built his ‘16 & ‘18 NCs. Oh, and Clemson isn’t recruiting in the top 5 anymore either.

 

[miket4god]

I watch all of them when available in the spring and fall camps. Do you see an hour or even 30 minutes of a practice. I am basing my point of view on how much of a drop off the WR group has shown sine Burns left. From Biletniloff winner with Burns, to 500 yards guys with Pope.

Pope was the WR coach when Hyatt won the Biletnikoff award, not Burns.

 

[KTrain]

Not disagreeing but times are different now have the portal that makes easier

WE are also still going thru the Mc Pruitt sanctions this will be the last year. Incredible job taking over a program that had 35 players leave, some Toto and a few others future NFL guys. It's amazing how he took over a broken program and has the best 4-year record since the 1990s, just a remarkable job IMO.

 

[volsdeepnsc]

Agree

Kinda makes it harder

 

[Bearkat_Vol]

It is beyond what you guys are thinking actually.

CJH came in January (after recruiting season) to inherit the actual WORST UT TEAM IN 100 YEARS. Note that 6 of the 17 worst teams in all of UT history were in the past few years.
That means nearly HALF of the years from 2008-2020 were in this worst of all time category.

Add to that, we had gotten the death penalty from the NCAA, that we still have to shoulder AND it was a completely new era with the NIL that could have buried us for good if we didnt respond.

To turn that around and after the first year's (covid), to go 11-2, 9-4, 10-3 with a final #6 and #10 and a spot in the playoffs is nothing short of amazing really.

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[BigOrangeTrain]

Josh Pate.........................

what’s so funny?

 

[BigOrangeTrain]

Not disagreeing but times are different now have the portal that makes easier

Not really