My take from the game.....

[checkerboard_charly]

1. CROWD- Neyland was absolutely electric. From the moment i walked in, I had chills. Almost everyone in the place was standing and cheering. Although i had a few Folks around me who had better things to do, like warm their hands. I had my section rocking, even had some older ppl yelling. I counted about 5 false starts or delays the crowd alone caused Cal.

2. O-line- WOW. What else can u say? Come off the ball with quickness and power. Cleared holes for all 3 backs. Ainge had all day to pick a target. And Eric wasnt hit any after the throw the entire game.

3. Linebackers- Another question mark coming in. Just played fantastic. Especially Mayo and Karl. Both have a nose for the ball. And I think Karl is a superstar in the making. He had 9 tackles and was everyone on the field making plays. The interference called on him was pathetic.

4. Wilhoit Kickoffs- These kept the ball out of Lynch's hands. All his kickoffs except 2 went 5 yards deep. Lynch couldn't get a rhythm going and field position was key.

5. Blocking by receivers- Great great great. Meach had 2 on the Hardesty run alone. Just good job by playing hard all game and not taking plays off when we run. :good!:

6. Team Speed- Just overwhelmed Cal. They didnt have a chance against our D. Their First team all but gave up after Halftime. Just hard to match up with SEC speed.

Wade's pass break up in the 1st after he was beat to me is the turning point. Neither team had scored and Cal was getting some separtation from our corners up until that play. Awesome technique by Wade.

One of my concerns is the out patterns we burned them on. In an SEC game a couple of those are taken the other way for 6. Ainge still was late on some throws. And missed a wide open Austin Rogers early in the 4th qt when the starters went back in.

Just a few things i saw. Feel free to bash away guys.

 

[tidwell]

Very good synopsis of the game, CBC.

I'm willing to buy milo's spin on Ainge's out patterns when he says that Ainge CAN make those throws because of his strong arm. Certainly made them last night.

I thought Cal was loaded with All-Americans? Did they not make the trip? :lol:

 

[checkerboard_charly]

Very good synopsis of the game, CBC.

I'm willing to buy milo's spin on Ainge's out patterns when he says that Ainge CAN make those throws because of his strong arm. Certainly made them last night.

I thought Cal was loaded with All-Americans? Did they not make the trip? :lol:

My point on the Ainge throws was that some were late but their corners werent fast enough to get to them. Trust me that Georgia and Florida and LSU have guys who will pick that and go dancing the other way.

 

[tidwell]

Probably. I'll admit there were a few that made me sit up in my seat that barely made it into the receiver's hands... get those there quicker, along with everything else Ainge did last night, and it'll be gravy baby.

 

[milohimself]

I also said the playcalling and routes will be different for the big boys in the SEC. It looked as if, from opening drive, that Cutcliffe simply knew Cal's corners just couldn't keep up with his receivers.

 

[checkerboard_charly]

Yeah great playcalling by both coaches. They did thier homework.

 

[volinbham]

Good summary of the game.

One of my concerns is the out patterns we burned them on. In an SEC game a couple of those are taken the other way for 6. Ainge still was late on some throws. And missed a wide open Austin Rogers early in the 4th qt when the starters went back in.

I made this comment in another thread - I could see a few going the other way.

I also thought we came out from the very beginning and hit all the key players on Cal's offensive very hard. There was no doubt that the Cal players were going to take big hits and I think that cost them some completions.

 

[Volsguy12]

Nice summary CC.

did anyone notice any kind of recruits? i know there wasn't any offical visitors but maybe some unoffical?

 

[RockyTopEmpire]

That sounds about right. I still don't know if Ainge can make the deep throw, he didn't have to, the one he did, was a little behind the WR. But hey, whatever works!

 

[rwemyss]

That sounds about right. I still don't know if Ainge can make the deep throw, he didn't have to, the one he did, was a little behind the WR. But hey, whatever works!

Don't consider the TD pass to Swain 30 yards downfield "deep"? It was beautiful.

 

[MrOrange]

the lob to the tightend(Chris Brown?) on that zero coverage play was beautiful. Perfect touch off his back foot.

 

[rwemyss]

the lob to the tightend(Chris Brown?) on that zero coverage play was beautiful. Perfect touch off his back foot.

That was definitely another nice one. I was on the other end of the stadium... we didn't even know Brown had gotten in until I heard the announcer. :dance2:

 

[JWVol]

Did anyone notice that Cal had those cool mist blowers going on their side of the field and they were in the shade? The Vols are standing in the Sun and only had regular fans going.

I thought that was a big tell on Cal since it was not even hot by Southern standards.

Sorry to go a little off topic here but I just thought it was as relevant as the slow DB's. The heat, or lack of it to our standards, could have been a factor after all.

 

[rwemyss]

Did anyone notice that Cal had those cool mist blowers going on their side of the field and they were in the shade? The Vols are standing in the Sun and only had regular fans going.

I thought that was a big tell on Cal since it was not even hot by Southern standards.

Sorry to go a little off topic here but I just thought it was as relevant as the slow DB's. The heat, or lack of it to our standards, could have been a factor after all.

Interesting thought. You're right, even in the sun, crowded together like sardines (students don't like to sit where their ticket says to)... it still wasn't HOT.

 

[tvolsfan]

They didn't make this clear on TV, (or at least I wasn't listening) but when did the backups come in on defense, if they did at all? (assuming that they did)

 

[rwemyss]

Near the end of the third quarter. We actually use lots of subs during the game, so there isn't a specific "starters out,, backups in" we just start using the 2nd teamers MORE than we were using the starters, if that makes sense.

 

[tvolsfan]

Yeah it does.

On yahoo, some Cal fans are saying with Ayoob in the whole game, they would have won, and I knew he was more likely not facing the starters the whole time, but I was wondering when they actually came in.

 

[sjt18]

I told a Cal fan on another board that both teams would load up on the run and that one of the differences in this game would be that UT's WR's were bigger, stronger, and faster than Cal's DB's and UT's DB's were bigger, stronger, and faster than Cal's WR's.

Cut saw it and exploited it.

The line was very impressive to me. Cal went 8 men in the box for much of the game and they continued to make positive rushing yardage.

SEC defenses won't leave their corners on an island with UT's WR's except maybe LSU. AFA will be a good opportunity to get ready for zones and deceptive coverages.

They will be tough and can't be taken lightly but assuming things go as planned, they'll make a good prep for the rest of the SEC schedule.

 

[rwemyss]

Yeah it does.

On yahoo, some Cal fans are saying with Ayoob in the whole game, they would have won, and I knew he was more likely not facing the starters the whole time, but I was wondering when they actually came in.

Ayoob certainly LOOKED better than Longshore, but we weren't nearly as agressive on D after we got the score to 35. Less blitzing, more dropping back. Ayoob wouldn't have fared any better in the first half than Longshore, IMO.

 

[sjt18]

Yeah it does.

On yahoo, some Cal fans are saying with Ayoob in the whole game, they would have won, and I knew he was more likely not facing the starters the whole time, but I was wondering when they actually came in.

It wasn't even the second teamers that let Ayoob make plays. They stopped him too until Chavis called off the dogs and went vanilla.

When they were still blitzing and playing tight, he looked panicked. Remember the pick he threw up... that would have been repeated several times had they not let up on him. That one long TD looked like it was thrown into a deep zone or some kind of prevent/safe D.

For the sake of UT's strength of schedule, I hope Cal only loses one more game to say WSU or ASU.... and that won't happen if Tedford thinks that Ayoob is the guy. He is very inaccurate when playing at a high speed.

 

[GAVol]

Cal looked to me like a team going through an offensive identity crisis. I kept expecting to see more of the Spread, but it didn't really happen until the 3rd quarter and by then it was too late to matter.

 

[sjt18]

The d and o lines looked very solid. I love this team.

The linemen looked to have had a solid start on meeting the objectives set before them: faster, stronger, more physical.

I love to see big linemen who can get out in front of plays, trap, and pull. They look promising.

 

[sjt18]

Again, Ayoob broke down under pressure last year... having not faced anything like what broke Ainge down.

If UT had kept up the pressure, it wouldn't have matter if he were in the spread or not. He'd have been punished and made many more mistakes.

Tedford knew he couldn't handle it... that's why he didn't bring him in sooner.

 

[milohimself]

Cal looked to me like a team going through an offensive identity crisis. I kept expecting to see more of the Spread, but it didn't really happen until the 3rd quarter and by then it was too late to matter.

True. I kept expecting a spread as well, it looked like they were running I and offset I most of the night. Bad call.

 

[OWB]

Overall, I thought Cal tried to throw the ball way too much. How many carries did Lynch get? 12?