Recruiting Football Talk VII

[MarcoVol]

That’s with our starting line mostly in tact. We saw what it looked like in the bowl game without all the starters.

And your belief is every player will look exactly the same as they did in the bowl game?

 

[HoleInTheRoof]

KingVFL and VQ both saying its not an NIL issue with the OL recruiting, which means that it falls on Elarbee

Elerbe is over rated.

Been saying it for a while now.

 

[JacketVol]

How far into the future are we building? Right now there’s possibly a generational talent at QB on the Hill. He’ll likely only be here for two more seasons. The window is so small. At this point the 2025 signing class likely won’t contribute on the field with Nico.

I’m all for Heupel building a program, but I don’t think we should waste today in favor of tomorrow either. Maybe we need to stretch for a few pieces so we can make a run in 2024 and 2025.

I don’t want to look back after 2024-25 and say “we just needed another WR” or “if only our OL blocked a bit better”. It’s possible to be both happy that Heupel has brought us here and also recognize that the opportunity for the next step is right here if we can step it up a bit.

We are about to have 2 more QB's that will have us forgetting our bad QB days. Better to build a program long term period and we are not out yet as far as gaining some more on the OL better than what we have in a couple of spots.

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

Thing is, portal OL are almost as much of a gamble as HS OL are. Sure they have had a year or two at higher level ball but a lot of them are transferring because they either want a payday or they weren't good enough to start on their former team. The portal is a double edge sword. There are undoubtedly some good/great players to be had. There are also some divas and some duds. The portal will take you so far but the bread and butter of a program will still be solid HS recruiting and development.

Portal is much easier to evaluate as you have game film against college competition. High school is much harder to evaluate.

 

[jbr82]

And your belief is every player will look exactly the same as they did in the bowl game?

Apparently the coaches think the same way and maybe the reason why they are looking in the portal.

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

Chop it up how you want, but we've developed some very good OLs since Heupel has arrived.

Any level of fret is just projecting at this point. Season after season we've heard of OL concerns, only for us to come out blocking well.

The onus atp is on the doubters. Is the body situation concerning? Sure. But Elarbee has earned benefit of the doubt so far.

Very true. Problem is most are prior leftover OL and we haven’t done a good job evaluating/recruiting players to take over. Hence portal players being the other starters.

Development is great. E is a great OL coach. He is struggling at evaluating high school talent. I think this class is his first true good OL class and spent more time evaluating. But they will need time.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

We are about to have 2 more QB's that will have us forgetting our bad QB days. Better to build a program long term period and we are not out yet as far as gaining some more on the OL better than what we have in a couple of spots.

Merk might be good.

Im not sold on Mcentyre.

 

[MarcoVol]

Apparently the coaches think the same way and maybe the reason why they are looking in the portal.

Or doing their due diligence and seeing if there’s an opportunity where an upgrade might make sense. I’m sure they’d like to add some depth with some guys who have snaps under their belt.

 

[LA Vol]

We really need at least one of Pounds or Heard. Hope we can talk Pounds into visiting before he does something dumb like committing to OM.

Like I said, these were both steep hills to climb. It's hard to close a deal from behind, but you have to keep trying while continuing to look elsewhere.

 

[knoxvol52]

Merk might be good.

Im not sold on Mcentyre.

Aaah, another topic here ...

 

[Weezer]

Like I said, these were both steep hills to climb. It's hard to close a deal from behind, but you have to keep trying while continuing to look elsewhere.

So this weekend was a complete strikeout? Oof. That hurts right in me jimmies.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

So this weekend was a complete strikeout? Oof. That hurts right in me jimmies.

Very disappointing to go 0/3

 

[JacketVol]

Mincey wasn't so good that we should be too upset, but obviously he was better than the backups or he wouldn't have been starting; so we're now relying on an unknown (the backup improved) for our hope that Nico will have some decent protection.

I wouldn't say freak out, but Mays is the only really good OL returning, so my concern is that I believe we need to get at least one really proven OL from the portal, so we're not hoping to just be as good as we were this year, which was decent but not good enough to get us to Atlanta.

Right now, our hope is for the backups to take a huge step forward if we want overall OL play to be improved.

So much wrong in this post. You are usually posting well but this team has more holes than just on the OL to get to Atlanta. Mays only good one on the OL but Spraggs and Campbell are not good? Nico is good but he doesn't alone get a team this young on D and still questionable depth across a team with what should be a junior class with only 4 guys I think still on the team from it. We will have to catch lighting in a bottle to get to Atlanta and we may have a shot but this program needs at least a couple of years to be on that level and be more than a one year flash. I am for building it than a one year Lane run. Be thankful for 22, hopeful for 24 and 25 and expecting for 26 forward. You never know, we may get Nico for 3 more years just like that Manning kid.

 

[Weezer]

I hate stories like this.

Sports Illustrated Tennessee Volunteers News, Analysis and More

Volunteer Country is a Sports Illustrated channel featuring Matt Ray, bringing you the latest News, Highlights, Analysis, and Recruiting surrounding the Tennessee Volunteers.

www.si.com

It just puts out a negative vibe about Tennessee and ignores that it was a previous staff.

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

And your belief is every player will look exactly the same as they did in the bowl game?

Lane still had his crazy hold and missed blocks. Nothing looked different with him. Mincey is gone so OT gets worse. Davis tackled our own QB and got beat a lot. And he has played a good bit for us. So no those likely don’t change. Lane is gone and no real idea who will fill in that spot other than I know they are actively looking for a portal for it which means they don’t trust what they have.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

Dan Campbell trolling the league.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

Like I said, these were both steep hills to climb. It's hard to close a deal from behind, but you have to keep trying while continuing to look elsewhere.

So are we still going to go try and land a LG and a RT out of the portal after missing this weekend?

 

[MarcoVol]

Lane still had his crazy hold and missed blocks. Nothing looked different with him. Mincey is gone so OT gets worse. Davis tackled our own QB and got beat a lot. And he has played a good bit for us. So no those likely don’t change. Lane is gone and no real idea who will fill in that spot other than I know they are actively looking for a portal for it which means they don’t trust what they have.

I think it’s all gonna work out

 

[knoxvol52]

Dan Campbell trolling the league.

Well that's good, hope the ref announced it ...like they suppose too..

 

[Smyrna ATL Vol]

I think it’s all gonna work out

And you are entitled to that opinion. Looks bleak now as OL looks bad for next year.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t take a few after spring and change the whole outlook. We need to take a page from the Lane book of cheating and tamper with some OL lol.

 

[jbr82]

Or doing their due diligence and seeing if there’s an opportunity where an upgrade might make sense. I’m sure they’d like to add some depth with some guys who have snaps under their belt.

That’s right. I believe these were potential upgrades that they were looking for at G and T. I do not believe that they are completely sold on the backups to step in and start this fall.

 

[99Vol]

So...basically they wrote him off and he has to go somewhere to build himself back up so he can get back in the money.

I don’t think they wrote him off they just didn’t know what they had yet. I don’t think he did spring practice then once the season starts reps are limited so they needed some bigger room with extra options and he took that as a slight. Big name teams likely wouldn’t take a flier on him with no game reps and the labrum surgery so I think he wanted to go somewhere with exposure but where he would also start, likely to move up to his next stop in a few years. That’s CFB these days…

 

[ugg]

Going into the offseason after drubbing a ranked opponent in a New Years Day bowl 35-0 feels pretty darn good.

 

[LA Vol]

So this weekend was a complete strikeout? Oof. That hurts right in me jimmies.

One commit; could have been two but coaches hit the brakes. Happens sometimes.

 

[knoxvol52]

"The Prince" just tossed a TD pass for Jaguars 28-20 Titans 4th Quarter...