Recruiting Football Talk VII

[VolsDoc81TX]

Milroe can run and is surrounded by talent...that will be enough to beat the sawft Shorthorns.

Evidently bama is worse than anyone thought. Still not sold on longhorns being a legitimate contender.

We shall see.

 

[Ron Swanson]

Joe wasn’t good, WR’s were bad and the Refs were horrible. Good news is our RB’s and Defense are very very good.

Did we all want to win by fiddy? Yes. Did we? Nope. But these types of games oftentimes play out that way for Top 25 teams that are favored by 35+. One team is half asleep and the other is ready for the Super Bowl.

Next few weeks will tell us what this team can do. Especially a road game in Gainesville next week where we are the better team, have better coaches and are favored to win. But it’s also a place we haven’t won in 20 years. Looking forward to seeing how much fight Milton and these receivers have in them. It’s all on them.

GBO!

 

[MarcoVol]

Evidently bama is worse than anyone thought. Still not sold on longhorns being a legitimate contender.

We shall see.

Appears early that Ewers might’ve taken a big step in the off-season

 

[Nuctech777]

After sleeping on it, here are my post game random thoughts... (and I'm trying real hard not to knee jerk

-- Joe Milton isn't it. And it pains me to say that because I've been on the Milton hype train all offseason. I am not lying when I say I thought he would have a Cam Newton type potential Heisman season and yeah, potentially be the first or second QB drafted. He's got the size and arm that, if you were building a player in NCAA 2014 (which cool guys like me still play) you'd build them like Joe. But he lacks a feel for the position, sometimes referred to as moxie. It's as if he's over thinking back there. And he isn't accurate. From my seats in the stands, it looked as though had he hit Bru in stride on that first offensive series, Bru is running to the end zone. Bad miss. There were other times throughout the game where he'd get the snap and a receiver would be open almost immediately 7-10 yards off the LOS and he would hesitate to throw, or just look for someone else.

-- Aaron Beasley is the best linebacker we've had in a long, long time. Almost the exact opposite as Joe in that he isn't the prototypical size but makes up for it with all the intangibles. I have to give credit to Matt Ray (if he still reads here - don't remember his screen name) but he had said two years ago that that staff loved Beasley and he was going to be our best LB. I was skeptical at the time but it has come to fruition.

-- Jaylen Wright is our best player. Looks like our best running back since probably Kamara, except he's being used correctly.

-- Flipside is, Jabari Small is a progress stopper. He's a VFL and I appreciate everything he's done - but he isn't especially fast, lacks great vision, doesn't have very good feet or balance. I guess he's steady but IMO I'd rather see what the younger backs have.

-- Can I just say how frustrating it was we just got into a dog fight with an undersized/undermanned FCS school? That was a very Butch Jones/Jeremy Pruitt style game. And I never had an opinion on Austin Pee before but I can't stand them now. Not because they played their guts out - but because of how obnoxious the players were on the sidelines. This might not have shown on TV but the refs kept screwing us over and the fans were making a lot of noise about it - and their players were on their sidelines taunting the fans. Oh and their coach was beyond obnoxious with his sideline temper tantrums.

-- There is zero reason that officiating crew should still have a job. I won't get into the bad calls because we all saw them but it was comical. Except not comical in a haha kind of way. Comical in a I hope they go home and find their house burned down kind of way. Just seemingly blatant bad calls, even post review.

-- Donte Thornton (and Milton's) performance is why I hate hate hate hate hate reading all the pre-season practice reports. Yet I can't quit doing it. How many times did we hear what a freak Thornton was and how everything looks effortless and he's definitely a one and done blah blah blah blah blah. Absolute non factor. Two horrid drops yesterday. I'm guessing he was benched - deservedly so. Majorly disappointed there.

-- Our offensive line is not good in pass protection. I forget when exactly it was in the game but we set up a perfect play and I watched as Squirrel was streaking open on a deep post that likely would've gone for six, and when I saw how wide open he was I looked to see what Joe was doing and he had TWO Autsin Pissers on him, getting a sack.

-- Dear Coaching Staff ..... stop being so predictable on second down. It's always a wasted play. For those that haven't caught on yet, we run a play on first down.... RUSH to the line as fast as possible.... hand it off on a draw up the middle. Every. Damned. Time. The defense always knows its coming. And our offensive line isn't good enough for it to be a productive play. Last night it kept ending in a tackle at the LOS - especially if Small is the ball carrier.

-- I no longer have confidence in games vs Florida, uscjr, Texas A&M etc. I don't now how anyone can watch our performance yesterday and feel confident we can beat them. Hell, I think if that was UTSA we played last night instead of Austin Urine, we lose. But it's only Sunday morning. I'm sure by Wednesday I will have convinced myself that we kept it vanilla on purpose and come SEC play were going to open things up and shock the world.

-- Lastly... hats off to the crowd last night. That atmosphere - weak opponent and flakey weather notwithstanding - was intense. It was fun. I love night games at Neyland. Us fans definitely did our part.

Perfect example of a knee jerk reaction. Still too early to write off Joe or this team. Was it frustrating? Sure. Everyone trying to bench Joe can pound sand though…….which it sounds like y’all are already doing.

 

[Enki_Amenra]

I think he just gets too amped up...I have said for years that they need to give him a Valium before games.

They need to run a draw up the middle with no blocking so he can get his bell rung right away, , that should wake him up.

 

[Orange.]

Welp, that was an epic fail of a job interview.

I think they did what Birmingham wanted and passed with flying colors

 

[Jackcrevol]

The scary thing is, isn't that what they've been doing for over a month now and this is how our offense is working? One week isn't gonna fix it at this point.

Man, Sally says we ran 6 different plays. We showed them no respect. Their coach resorted to using time outs to try and stop us. WR's have to catch those balls. That isnt Joe's fault.

One of those holds was blatant. Rest was ticky tack. I believe we will be fine. Granted yesterday was infuriating.

 

[Jackcrevol]

I think he just gets too amped up...I have said for years that they need to give him a Valium before games.

The AP coach?

 

[VolGee4]

How can we go from the Orange Bowl performance with just about the same roster to today looking like a bunch of bozos out there ? So many on here saying the last thing they are worried about with Heupel is the offense and getting/having WR's... well based on last week and this week, there's been a huge drop-off in WR talent from last season to this season. Hopefully this was just a bad day, but our QB and WR's flat out sucked today... no sugar coating it... We will get embarrassed and get "the same ole TN choking in the swamp" label if we don't get our shi# straightened out in the next 5 days. The only good thing is it looks like several other SEC teams are not as good as advertised just like us.

Just curious, do you always point out the negatives in every part of life?

 

[Orange.]

MTSU nearly beat Misery last night and no one has mentioned it because no one cares

 

[UTSuave’]

 

[Ten_Titans]

Hubbs tip toed around it in the post-game pod, and I noticed it as well.

Did not care for the Milton post game interview. The completely manufactured swag persona he does is honestly whatever, I don't care. But it would have been cool if there was a hint of disappointment or frustration in it. There wasn't. Basically a "Eh, we probably took AP a little bit light and didn't play hard enough. Oh well we won by three scores" attitude.

Like Hubbs said, the media scrum means nothing, and if that's the front facing message he wants to out out there I don't care. But I hope somebody other than the coaching staff is actually upset about how ugly that was behind closed doors. And it should be him. Because he's the QB and also because it was largely on him.

 

[Orange.]

How is it we’re 8.5 point favorites right now?

Because WGWTFA

 

[Jack Burton]

Hooker didn’t hit his stride until late in the Pitt game last year. If memory serves that’s about the time it clicked for him and he really played at a high level from then on. I don’t think Joe, or many others, can play at that level but he could start to get some rhythm and play better soon.

I knew the offense would take a step back this year but it’s more like two steps right now. We can still improve though.

 

[Orange.]

Just curious, do you always point out the negatives in every part of life?

Who are you talking to?

 

[Enki_Amenra]

I hate to keep piling on Joe, but he has the keys to this offense and right now it does not look efficient. Perhaps, he can overcome his accuracy issues and late decision making. Obviously, he has the respect of the team because they elected him as a captain. However, I just cannot stop thinking about Mike Leach’s opinion on QBs…

“And a lot of times, you hear how big somebody is, how strong somebody is, how fast somebody is," he said. "Well, every bit of that is irrelevant unless they're accurate and can make good decisions. From there, you look for, do they have quick feet? Are they fast? Which, those are two different things. And then, do they have a strong arm. Some collection of those things and their ability to lead and elevate their team... you see quarterbacks come from all different levels than just Division 1.”

i'm surprised more people aren't talking about his decision making. He made a few obviously bad audibles and a few times he made bad throwing decisions. He could've dumped one pass off in the flat for a 1st down and another he could've easily ran for a first down. Both times he made hard throws into coverage downfield and was off-target.

 

[MarcoVol]

After sleeping on it, here are my post game random thoughts... (and I'm trying real hard not to knee jerk

-- Joe Milton isn't it. And it pains me to say that because I've been on the Milton hype train all offseason. I am not lying when I say I thought he would have a Cam Newton type potential Heisman season and yeah, potentially be the first or second QB drafted. He's got the size and arm that, if you were building a player in NCAA 2014 (which cool guys like me still play) you'd build them like Joe. But he lacks a feel for the position, sometimes referred to as moxie. It's as if he's over thinking back there. And he isn't accurate. From my seats in the stands, it looked as though had he hit Bru in stride on that first offensive series, Bru is running to the end zone. Bad miss. There were other times throughout the game where he'd get the snap and a receiver would be open almost immediately 7-10 yards off the LOS and he would hesitate to throw, or just look for someone else.

-- Aaron Beasley is the best linebacker we've had in a long, long time. Almost the exact opposite as Joe in that he isn't the prototypical size but makes up for it with all the intangibles. I have to give credit to Matt Ray (if he still reads here - don't remember his screen name) but he had said two years ago that that staff loved Beasley and he was going to be our best LB. I was skeptical at the time but it has come to fruition.

-- Jaylen Wright is our best player. Looks like our best running back since probably Kamara, except he's being used correctly.

-- Flipside is, Jabari Small is a progress stopper. He's a VFL and I appreciate everything he's done - but he isn't especially fast, lacks great vision, doesn't have very good feet or balance. I guess he's steady but IMO I'd rather see what the younger backs have.

-- Can I just say how frustrating it was we just got into a dog fight with an undersized/undermanned FCS school? That was a very Butch Jones/Jeremy Pruitt style game. And I never had an opinion on Austin Pee before but I can't stand them now. Not because they played their guts out - but because of how obnoxious the players were on the sidelines. This might not have shown on TV but the refs kept screwing us over and the fans were making a lot of noise about it - and their players were on their sidelines taunting the fans. Oh and their coach was beyond obnoxious with his sideline temper tantrums.

-- There is zero reason that officiating crew should still have a job. I won't get into the bad calls because we all saw them but it was comical. Except not comical in a haha kind of way. Comical in a I hope they go home and find their house burned down kind of way. Just seemingly blatant bad calls, even post review.

-- Donte Thornton (and Milton's) performance is why I hate hate hate hate hate reading all the pre-season practice reports. Yet I can't quit doing it. How many times did we hear what a freak Thornton was and how everything looks effortless and he's definitely a one and done blah blah blah blah blah. Absolute non factor. Two horrid drops yesterday. I'm guessing he was benched - deservedly so. Majorly disappointed there.

-- Our offensive line is not good in pass protection. I forget when exactly it was in the game but we set up a perfect play and I watched as Squirrel was streaking open on a deep post that likely would've gone for six, and when I saw how wide open he was I looked to see what Joe was doing and he had TWO Autsin Pissers on him, getting a sack.

-- Dear Coaching Staff ..... stop being so predictable on second down. It's always a wasted play. For those that haven't caught on yet, we run a play on first down.... RUSH to the line as fast as possible.... hand it off on a draw up the middle. Every. Damned. Time. The defense always knows its coming. And our offensive line isn't good enough for it to be a productive play. Last night it kept ending in a tackle at the LOS - especially if Small is the ball carrier.

-- I no longer have confidence in games vs Florida, uscjr, Texas A&M etc. I don't now how anyone can watch our performance yesterday and feel confident we can beat them. Hell, I think if that was UTSA we played last night instead of Austin Urine, we lose. But it's only Sunday morning. I'm sure by Wednesday I will have convinced myself that we kept it vanilla on purpose and come SEC play were going to open things up and shock the world.

-- Lastly... hats off to the crowd last night. That atmosphere - weak opponent and flakey weather notwithstanding - was intense. It was fun. I love night games at Neyland. Us fans definitely did our part.

7.3 ypc with a long of 38 is a progress stopper? Cool story.


You thought Joe Milton was Cam? Lol that was dumb. I assume your he ain’t “it” is in reference to him not being Cam and taking over college football. But he can still be good enough for this team to win 10 games. And 10 wins would be a spectacular season.

Are you telling Josh Heupel to stop being predicable? Are you still drunk? You’ll see guys running wide open all year long bc that’s what Heupel does. It’s ok to be predictable vs UVA and AP.

You’re giving way too much credit to other teams. A&M, FL, USCe have all looked plenty suspect. Not saying we beat all of them - I’d expect some tough games - but to think we don’t have a shot against them? Ok yes you are still drunk.

 

[drvenner]

Some details. This is a mess. Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker accused of sexually harassing rape survivor

Definitely a mess. Not sure how it will play out but Tucker is on very thin ice at this point, IMO.

 

[Ten_Titans]

i'm surprised more people aren't talking about his decision making. He made a few obviously bad audibles and a few times he made bad throwing decisions. He could've dumped one pass off in the flat for a 1st down and another he could've easily ran for a first down. Both times he made hard throws into coverage downfield and was off-target.

There were maybe three times we inexplicably tried to run it straight up the middle against not only a 7 man box, a 7 man blitz.

It doesn't really matter who is on your Oline. That math doesn't math.

 

[drvenner]

It’s Florida … at Florida. I will expect a loss there until we win. Hell I still expect to lose to them at neyland. They were a play away from coming back from 38-21 to win it last year

I definitely get it. We have to go down there and win. We can. Obviously, if we play like we did yesterday, it will be a long night.

 

[Orange_Crush]

Just now watching the game. (Thanks Frank.) The officiating in this game wasn't just one sided. It was egregious. I can come up with no rational explanation for the officiating in this game.

 

[VolNash17]

Perfect example of a knee jerk reaction. Still too early to write off Joe or this team. Was it frustrating? Sure. Everyone trying to bench Joe can pound sand though…….which it sounds like y’all are already doing.

Joe is what he is at this point. You’re getting an up and down player that while in the game probably won’t be great on 3rd downs (takes away scoring potential) and that’s alright. It is what it is. Makes for way more heart attack moments coming up this season

 

[drvenner]

I'm extremely disappointed in Byron for not throwing any mustard at the refs yesterday. He certainly did not give his all

I was with my daughter's boyfriend's family. Didn't want to wreck her relationship with him.

 

[TheRain]

 

[VolNash17]

Joe Isn’t magically going to be Can Newton or something like that. Just ain’t happening. Took Hooker’s consistency for granted although it should make the games a complete fight

Aggies offense looks a heck of a lot better although their defense looks to have fallen apart so that one should be interesting