My Thoughts on the South Carolina Game, After Sleeping on it

[jimed1]

Rattler placing the ball in a Solo cup to his receivers all night long was damned impressive..
Several times the defender played the WR as well as could be expected but somehow the ball was right in a tight window into the WRs hands..

I can agree with this because you really can't defend a perfect passing play with out committing PI. With that said, we played too soft a lot of the night.
Rattler was on the money for sure.

 

[volfeeva]

Greg, I always enjoy your write-ups. It's hard to argue with your first paragraph, but it begs the question: If our DBs are not being coached, how do you explain our victories against LSU, Alabama, KY and Florida? Were they that bad then and we simply outscored the other team? Is Banks that effective of a leader and our defense seemed "lost" without him? DBs were badly coached to begin with and just had an even worse day than normal? All the above?

" simply outscored the other team" ? <<<<<< that is exactly what we did in at least the Florida and Bama game,( maybe not the LSU game) but that's been our key to winning all year with a few exceptions. Every team we played lit up our secondary except Kentucky Even Akron/Tenn-Martin. Stats don't lie.

 

[rocketskates]

I’ll be honest. As horrendous as the secondary was, I have no idea what the Dline was doing. They should of mauled Carolinas ****** oline but they got dominated. Very disappointing. Don’t get it.

Just no emotion. Watching Rattler celebrate touchdown after touchdown, as a lineman I would’ve been so pissed I would’ve wanted to demolish him. They just sorta took it.

 

[EconVol92]

I am not on the fire Banks bandwagon, but I'm also not on the keep Banks bandwagon.

My question would be when he was hired were we really in a position to get anyone better? I mean this program was a train wreck and had quite a few defensive starters leave.

How much of this is a lack of talent or maybe a bad position coach? I think there is not a simple answer and maybe a position coach change might be needed to at the very least send a message.

I just have more questions than answers.

 

[a vol n tears]

My thoughts. No matter what is, or is not, leaked from the locker room, there was an outside issue at work Sat night. Tenn’s defense has not shut down passing this year but there is no way their normal effort was there. When we have a 10 game resume of both teams, Rattler has not been very good and Tenn has been a bend but not break defense. Tenn DBs were 10 yds off the los at the snap and were sometimes 5 yds away from the receiver when the pass was thrown. Even the offense looked distracted. Missed passes, WR drops, Olinemen not rushing to help their teammates up. Something was / is going on in the Locker room.

Didn‘t the offense try to keep up at the beginning, then seeing the defense lay down, it seems some of the offense finally gave up. The WRs dropped way to many and often times pulled up or just came out of the game. Even starting the 2nd half it seemed the offense was hoping the D would start giving an effort and scored after the D shut down SC on their 1st possession of the second half. Tenn’s offense could have scored every possession in the 2nd half and still lost. That isn’t on coaching. That’s on the players not trying. I know, I’m a conspiracy theriois.

 

[NighthawkVol]

You realize the #6 juco CB isn't very good right? Some years there may be 2-3 very talented juco corners. There's almost never 5 or more. He was a very low ranked player

We only have 3 4* players on our roster at DB. SC has 3 within their freshman class alone. Recruiting is where we lost this game.

Plenty of teams don't have 3 4* players or less on the back end and don't play as poorly as this backfield does. That was South Carolina, not Alabama. Rattler had 8 TD passes all year before throwing 5 against Tennessee. He doubled his average yards per game.

 

[Vol8188]

Plenty of teams don't have 3 4* players or less on the back end and don't play as poorly as this backfield does. That was South Carolina, not Alabama. Rattler had 8 TD passes all year before throwing 5 against Tennessee. He doubled his average yards per game.

Cool. Hyatt had his best game against Bama. That doesn’t mean their staff did a worse job than every other team on our schedule. You’re attempting to take one data point (granted it’s a bad one) and proclaim the problem is coaching. That’s not how this works.

When two teams are equal in talent, there’s massive room for variance in outcomes. The key to changing that is to get a roster that isn’t on par with SC (worse than SC in the secondary).

 

[sgtwebb1]

Vandy seems like they're not going to be a pushover w/ wins vs KY and FL last two weeks. We better come to play with an aggressive mindset. Losing to SC and Vandy to end the season would seem too "Butch Jones-ey" and would not help rounding out our 2023 class.

^^^AGREED 100% ^^^

They need to go into this game pissed OFF, and beat the holy hell out of them.
You know the arrogant bastards in black & gold are already savoring the win, even though the game is THIS Saturday, not last week.
Flood that glorified high school stadium with BIG ORANGE, get loud, and stay loud.

 

[temptn]

Can we put Tillman and Hyatt in as defensive backs?

 

[sechamp2012]

If this team plays in Nashville the way they played in Columbia, this could easily be an L. They better get their heads right and get back to playing as a team.

We really need to get to 10 wins and then get to 11 in a bowl game.

I reall can’t see the Vandy QB going off like Rat. If he throws over 3 TDS the whole staff should just quit coaching football and all the DBs just turn their Unis in. Talk about an embarrassment

 

[orangemadam]

When it's 3rd and 5 our DBs back off 10 -15 yards. Press the receivers it's not that difficult. Banks and Martinez need to go. I lost all faith in our DBs on 3rd and 20 and we just refused to cover anyone.

Also when it's 4th and 20 and you have 2 DB's and @ safeties 10 yds PAST the 1st down marker, sounds like a coaching issue. Playing 30 yds off the receiver?

 

[sechamp2012]

Plenty of teams don't have 3 4* players or less on the back end and don't play as poorly as this backfield does. That was South Carolina, not Alabama. Rattler had 8 TD passes all year before throwing 5 against Tennessee. He doubled his average yards per game.

Threw 6 TDs vs Vols and just had 8 TDS passes for the year with 9 interceptions one of the worst QBs in the conference and with only a mug a mother could sorta like.

 

[Backwards K]

Rattler placing the ball in a Solo cup to his receivers all night long was damned impressive..
Several times the defender played the WR as well as could be expected but somehow the ball was right in a tight window into the WRs hands..

Gamecocks threw 40 passes and the UT DBs had one PBU. You can't put a happy face on that or talk about how UT had tight coverage but the pass was great. One of the TDs was thrown high enough to be fair caught and UT DB has still not seen it. It's easy for any QB to look good when the DBs line up 10 yds off the line and start backpedaling on the snap.

 

[Zues1]

Gamecocks threw 40 passes and the UT DBs had one PBU. You can't put a happy face on that or talk about how UT had tight coverage but the pass was great. One of the TDs was thrown high enough to be fair caught and UT DB has still not seen it. It's easy for any QB to look good when the DBs line up 10 yds off the line and start backpedaling on the snap.

Yeah man we get that but there were plays with great coverage as well.
The point is Rattler hit everything no matter the situation.
Hooker and Milton did not..
Rattlers accuracy was off the charts Saturday night.

 

[utvolCO]

Yeah man we get that but there were plays with great coverage as well.
The point is Rattler hit everything no matter the situation.
Hooker and Milton did not..
Rattlers accuracy was off the charts Saturday night.

Was Rattler's accuracy due to lack of pressure from defenders, playing out of his mind, or poor defensive coverage?

 

[volinbham]

Assuming we beat Vandy we'll have the same record as Bama while having beaten them and having a harder schedule.

That's impressive compared to what I thought we'd do this season.

Go Vols

 

[DaddyChad]

You know usually I feel better after a loss after a nights sleep. Hell I think I’m more pissed now.

 

[i2amavol]

I’ll be honest. As horrendous as the secondary was, I have no idea what the Dline was doing. They should of mauled Carolinas ****** oline but they got dominated. Very disappointing. Don’t get it.

Yeah, I didn't see much to call home about. In fact, I think it was the mild rush that gave the qb time to have a career night. I think this fact is under-"appreciated".

 

[1world1love]

Cool. Hyatt had his best game against Bama. That doesn’t mean their staff did a worse job than every other team on our schedule. You’re attempting to take one data point (granted it’s a bad one) and proclaim the problem is coaching. That’s not how this works.

When two teams are equal in talent, there’s massive room for variance in outcomes. The key to changing that is to get a roster that isn’t on par with SC (worse than SC in the secondary).

I agree. Each player is unique and are not robots programmed to their rankings. We made Bama's highly ranked safeties look like chumps. SC made our entire secondary look like chumps. Everybody wants to pretend that our secondary should be able to play above their talent level (note that I did not say play above their ranking), and while it is true that good coaches can squeeze extra effort out of players, that does not mean that those good coaches could do that for our current group of players. It just seems like there is a ceiling that exists for most of our secondary roster. Each player has some glaring faults. And each player has actually played above those faults at different times this year.

The problem is that Saturday was a night where every player played to their talent level. There could be a lot of reasons for that and it might not be the same reason for each player. Exams, holidays, girlfriends, money, etc.

I agree that there appear to be some scheme issues, but you have to wonder if the scheme is meant to mask a lot of our deficiencies. We have been playing way off the receivers all year, but the reality is that our secondary is incredibly slow for he SEC. I think its safe to say that we have the slowest secondary in the entire SEC.

It's hard to coach around speed.

 

[1world1love]

Was Rattler's accuracy due to lack of pressure from defenders, playing out of his mind, or poor defensive coverage?

Yes.

 

[theroyz71]

Was Rattler's accuracy due to lack of pressure from defenders, playing out of his mind, or poor defensive coverage?

All of the above but mostly no pressure and no press coverage.

 

[landscapingvol]

Yeah man we get that but there were plays with great coverage as well.
The point is Rattler hit everything no matter the situation.
Hooker and Milton did not..
Rattlers accuracy was off the charts Saturday night.

That happens when you don’t play defense

 

[Sea Ray]

Cool. Hyatt had his best game against Bama. That doesn’t mean their staff did a worse job than every other team on our schedule. You’re attempting to take one data point (granted it’s a bad one) and proclaim the problem is coaching. That’s not how this works.

When two teams are equal in talent, there’s massive room for variance in outcomes. The key to changing that is to get a roster that isn’t on par with SC (worse than SC in the secondary).

There are plenty of other examples. Missouri's QB looked awfully good as did UT-Martin, Pitt, FL and even Georgia. All those QBs had one of their best games of the yr vs us. I think that is coaching. Our DBs are being coached to give huge cushions, that's one obvious thing

 

[Volfan1000]

If Heupel decides to make wholesale changes on the defensive side of the football, he should keep Jean-Mary and Garner on staff.

 

[sechamp2012]

If Heupel decides to make wholesale changes on the defensive side of the football, he should keep Jean-Mary and Garner on staff.

Well I think Hueple is gonna have to make some tough decisions after the Bowl game. Hopefully he and Danny have a forward looking plan.