I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
Ok, so I have been on the site most days since our latest embarrassment to Auburn on Saturday. And yes it was indeed embarrassing. It is unacceptable for UT to get thrashed like that by any team. That being said I would like to post the following:
First, just for credibility's sake I will tell you that I am an ex D1 football player. I did in fact play linebacker. Not an all star by any stretch but in some ways that makes what I am about to say even more credible because I have been there and really know what it is like to be at physical disadvantage to my opponents. These players today are even more physical and fast than what I competed against. I can't even imagine what it must feel like to be on an SEC field of play today.
The common theme of those critical of our current coaches is that our current lack of speed (almost universally agreed that this exists) is no excuse for lack of proper pursuit angles, lack of proper tackling technique and the lack of a proper "scheme" to counter said lack of speed. The fact is that lack of speed in a controlled environment, IE drills or practice in general, typically does not impede technique, angles etc... However, a game is far from a controlled environment. $hit happens really fast and is constantly changing. If a team lacks speed in most of its positions, it becomes increasingly more difficult to adapt to these changes. Anyone who has played the game can tell you there is no worse feeling than being on your heels on the defensive side of the ball. Throw in a HC/OC that is great at exploiting weakness, a book of nine prior games for study and an offense with blazingly fast skilled players, it is a recipe for a long day.
Regarding angles- Your game angles, especially early, are predicated on the speed you have practiced against. AUs qb torched us repeatedly and we did indeed take poor angles. But when you are practicing day in and day out against 4.6 speed and gameday is at 4.5 you are already on your heels. I was told that that .1 on a forty is almost no difference in speed at all. It is in fact a very big deal and usually equates to about a yard in space. That's easily the difference between making or missing a tackle. Hell, six inches at this speed can do that. You can try to adjust and hope that the entire team adjusts along with you, but then you get hung up thinking too much and you start from an even farther point behind. Never mind that a good OC immediately begins to exploit this more and more. Keep in mind also that if you need to take an angle, you are already beat. The key to good defense is to beat your opponent to the spot and hammer them there. Auburn did a great job of getting their skilled guys into space really quickly and we just were incapable of responding adequately.
Technique- I'll try to keep this short- If you are slower than your opponent you will not meet them in a proper position to make a tackle with sound technique. It's just not going to happen. If they beat you to the spot, you will be glancing off of them or whiffing altogether. We saw a lot of that. couple that with our difficulty controlling the LOS and it was clear we were going to get blistered. I could see it even early when we were supposedly in the game. I could just feel the damn was about to break and that AU was capable of exploiting us at will.
Scheme- There was no way to scheme our way out of such a HUGE speed disparity. They seemed as fast or faster than Oregon in the skill positions to me. I've heard "load the box", "play a nickel", "bring in Saulsberry and some of our quicker DL" etc. etc. etc. every change you make in scheme creates a new weakness that given our inexperience and lack of depth was going to and did expose us to some different method of attack.
The bottom line in all of this is that Auburn is simply better, a lot better than we are right now. I don't even think you can begin to judge coaching against these faster teams when we are so inadequate from a speed perspective. I'm not sure next year will be much better because even though we are bringing in some really fast players, there is such a HUGE difference in the speed of the game that there will be a serious adjustment period. It will help that many are EE.
I remain very hopeful, but not entirely sold on CBJ. I will tell you this though. That man is a football coach and I would LOVE to have played for him and this staff. They are energetic, positive, tough and totally engaged all of the time. He doesn't make excuses but goes back to work immediately to get better and prepared for the next game. To compare him to the loser that Dooley was is totally ridiculous as I've seen so many try to do.
Again, I apologize for the length of this.
Oh, and a preemptive :moon2: to those of you that find joy in immediately trashing someone new that decides to start a thread haha.
eace2:
