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.
