Recruiting Football Talk VII

[TheBigOne10]

Good thing the league as a whole is a train wreck this year, every single game save Georgia (probably) is attainable if we improve. Probably a log ham or 7-5 to 9-3 teams in this conference.

 

[InVOLuntary]

Huepel saying “We have to make some changes,” is by far the most encouraging thing I’ve read today.

I watched the post game press conference. Heuple isn't a happy man. He looked disgusted. He looked more disgusted than after the SC game last year.

It's times like this separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

[volinbama256]

Terrible take. CJH put together two of the best back to back seasons of the past 20 years with a bad roster as well as an NCAA investigation hanging over the program and you want to make him uncomfortable?

Last night sucked but please. You sound like a stupid, entitled UGA or Bama fan.

I understand where you are coming from, but now he has a more talented roster on paper, and based on last week and this week, is regressing... so what do you think the issue is that we are playing like crap? Running up the middle on first down every single time last night didn't help as an example... How can this team that whooped Clemson several months ago come out two weeks straight and look this unprepared and pathetic?

 

[Jack Burton]

Ima ride with Joe, as long as CJH does. The rest of you all who think you know something, I pretty much guarantee you don't know as much as you think you do. I am extremely disappointed and pissed about last night. I believe we bounce back big time.

I didn’t expect us to win 10 games this year with Joe, but I didn’t expect it to look this bad either. It’s weird we just aren’t passing the eye test right now. Something is off.

 

[LA Vol]

Not just SEC teams but the SEC itself wants Tennessee to lose every game it seems like. Granted I'm only going off a 2 game samples sized but those 2 games are the only 2 games with SEC officials. A 100% average is not looking good for the SEC

UT has cultivated a lot of ill will. I don't pretend to understand the extent of the animosity, though it is cumulative. UT seems to be on the wrong side of the narrative most of the time. Narratives drive revenue. The media and conferences are not impartial. But the officiating needs to be addressed. That is out of control and letting it run amok is going to destroy the residual integrity of college sports.

 

[MarcoVol]

There's no point in turning on CJH. None whatsoever. This team has limitations. Some of the older players have ceilings, and they've hit them. We're serviceable at best at certain positions. When workarounds aren't working, things break down. I wouldn't pin hope on one player being the fix. They have to work together and hold it together when things aren't going their way. What happened last night will happen again. UT is a team SEC teams want to beat. We'll get every SEC team's best effort. We have tough road games ahead, and SEC home games won't be a cakewalk, either.

CJH is the man. Last night was disappointing but gonna be a fun year scrapping for Ws and Vols will be better in the future

 

[Govolsman98]

I watched the post game press conference. Heuple isn't a happy man. He looked disgusted. He looked more disgusted than after the SC game last year.

It's times like this separate the wheat from the chaff.

Our response after the SC game last year was great too. I hope we'll see that again this season

 

[Grey_pilgrim]

 

[barrylee]

Well, I’ve waited a good bit before I came here to post this because if I had posted this last night I would be accused of overreacting!

I believe we are staring at a 7and 5 season. To be truthful I’m not shocked by last night. I wanted to believe, convinced myself that AP was a one off but that was a harbinger of what was to come. S Carolina and Mizzou are not sure things. I watched both of their games and they look better than us atm!

Even though it wasn’t all on Joe, they obviously didn’t trust him enough to run the full offense! Not really fair to Joe but I think we should build to the future and go with Nico. At this point it may be necessary to hold on to our commits!

Most of you know I’m usually one of the sunshine pumpers but there doesn’t appear to be a break in the clouds to allow any sun to peek through. Really hope I’m wrong!

 

[Daddy pants]

There's no point in turning on CJH. None whatsoever. This team has limitations. Some of the older players have ceilings, and they've hit them. We're serviceable at best at certain positions. When workarounds aren't working, things break down. I wouldn't pin hope on one player being the fix. They have to work together and hold it together when things aren't going their way. What happened last night will happen again. UT is a team SEC teams want to beat. We'll get every SEC team's best effort. We have tough road games ahead, and SEC home games won't be a cakewalk, either.

While fair and I agree, if one is getting $9M per year (upper echelon of SEC coaches)- and deliver a product like last night's performance-it's also fair for them to answer tough questions. If we look at the last three road losses, it's concerning. USC played out of their minds and our kids didnt feel like playing that night. Uga was simply better 1V1 at every position. In neither of those games did I feel like our coach was the sole problem. Last night, not only did our kids not execute, but our scheme looked vulnerable, our players were unprepared, and our staff and players made bad decisions. Not only did UF block and tackle infinitely better, but we also looked like a pretty dumb football team. One can debate the fact that coaches aren't on the field and can only do so much, but the truly elite coaches have their kids prepared to win those one-on-one battles. The fundamentals last night were simply bad. It's year three and our talent gap should be narrower than immediate post-Pruitt phase, and should be at least on-par with UF. I'm still very much a CJH supporter, but last night was a step back and deserves criticism.

 

[Midas]

I watched the game and have some thoughts based on what I saw.

The D line wasn't terrible, they didn't disrupt the run enough. The linebacker play wasn't very good at all. The DB's are what they were last year which isn't very good. That being said holding Florida under 30 should have been enough......The defense or the offense is going to have to step up moving forward.

Kentucky, South Carolina, ATM, Mizzou were always going to be tough games.... But after watching what happened last night nine of us should expect an auto win in any of those games. Still a lot of season to go obviously, but if we're honest I think we are taking a significant step back this season, thinking we are probably a 6-8 win team

This brings me to the offense. Something is way off, we are somewhat predictable this year. We made a killing off showing sets and formations and running multiple plays that conflicted defenses. That isn't happening.

Despite what many think I believe Golesh was a big loss. We also miss our anchors on the o line, they were disappointing yesterday. WR's played better. We aren't really able to sustain drives or strike quickly..... The identity of this offense is off and the offense is why we lost this game.

JMO

On offense there’s not much time to throw the ball. The middle of the line was getting manhandled and pushed back all game. When they were forced to throw the ball and they got Joe an extra second he threw deep passes but if you watch a defender is right there in his face for most of those big completions. Even on the first drive to squirrel, he had two guys coming at him and he had to throw it off balance.

 

[KB5252]

Fair to Turn on heupel? No
Fair to criticize him? Yes

If we dont see changes and/or improvements offensively in the nexf couple of weeks, especially if we have a first half against UTSA like we did AP, things could implode fast

I think what he's saying is there are no changes that can be made or easy fixes.... obviously because the easy stuff is what is fixed first.

The offense is limited and the defense isn't very good.

Now if you want to ask why development is lacking I'm with you, I would like to know as well, especially defensively. But remember, he developed a QB that was a cast off, a guy told to look elsewhere and turned him into a Heisman front runner. A WR that wasn't on any radars into one of the better receivers in the country.

 

[Nuctech777]

Pretty much spot on. We have glossed over the issues because they have been winning (pointing the finger at myself as well).

JMO -

For all of the Sunbelt Billy commenters I have read on here - he just took less talent with more hungry players and schemes that worked for his guys and beat us like a drum. Florida will continue to be a thorn in our side for the future. Beatable, but not without doing things better.

We are getting exactly what Martinez has produced his entire secondary coaching career. You will see flashes of good play and the rest of the time it will be subpar to trash. He's still here.

I am tired of the Banks learning experiences as a DC in the SEC. Being unprepared and unable to adjust other than at half time is not acceptable. I like his overall scheme - but it seems something falls through the cracks in his game prep and adjustments under the lights in a handful of games each season. Hooker and the O covered for it last season. Not happening this season.

Again - not taking a serviceable back up Center with the transfer portal and free agency of today was stupid on Heup's part.

I like Joe M as a person. I like him best as a back up as a player. Joe is a bit of a show pony. With his body he should be inflicting pain on defenders trying to tackle him, but his instincts are to avoid and go down. I do not see "warrior" in him. As a result leadership will always be an issue. Add in his inability to control the game with his calls at the LOS and missed throws to open targets. It is Nico time in my book. I do not want to limp through a 7 win season with Joe when they can do that or better with Nico while gaining ground on the future.

Birmingham can stick their officials where the sun doesn't shine. Hate is a strong word - but I have hated their good ole boy cheating for decades. They don't even try to hide it anymore.

2023 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

247 has Fl composite roster rated at 15 and ours 16. Not sure where you are getting that they are less talented than us.

 

[volinbama256]

There’s no reason to even be talking about “is Heupel the guy”

Bama is in the same boat as us. No QB. Definitely coaches job to find one, but Heupel took a chance on Milton just like Saban did with Milroe.


Imagine if we or Bama had someone like Hartman starting at QB, lordddddd

Bama would’ve beaten Texas by 21+ and we prob would’ve blown FL out of the water

Funny-- coincidentally I said the exact same thing last night to a buddy--- can you imagine if we had Sam Hartman back there at QB? We'd have won last night by 2+ TDs...

 

[KptVFL]

I think if I see Joe run out of bounds on 4th down one more time I'm gonna dive through my living room window.

Exactly! He didn't have the speed to beat that guy to the outside and honestly didn't even seem to try to. At least could have put the outside foot down and cut inside towards the goal line. Was his only chance.

 

[VolNash17]

There's no point in turning on CJH. None whatsoever. This team has limitations. Some of the older players have ceilings, and they've hit them. We're serviceable at best at certain positions. When workarounds aren't working, things break down. I wouldn't pin hope on one player being the fix. They have to work together and hold it together when things aren't going their way. What happened last night will happen again. UT is a team SEC teams want to beat. We'll get every SEC team's best effort. We have tough road games ahead, and SEC home games won't be a cakewalk, either.

Agreed on not turning on Heupel yet. But why weren’t a lot of these issues addressed in the offseason in player acquisition?

 

[drvenner]

My biggest gripe for last night was the extremely soft defenseive scheme and play during the first half. Poor execution in tackling, and they didn't send pressure. Hell, we didn't even send a back in motion on the jet sweeps, why?!?
Defense def got better second half, but still some missed assignments and poor execution.
I thinks it's obvious Heupel doesn't trust the oline or Milton to call games the way he did last year under Hooker. He is getting the ball out quick, and not giving Milton the chance to make decisions, poor oline play will do that.

I have been very patient with Banks and Martinez. I am definitely losing some patience. Absolutely disastrous second quarter. Still, holding Florida to 29 should be good enough with what is supposed to be our offense. We have no choice but to ride with them the rest of the year, but If the trend continues, I hope Heupel is ready to make some necessary changes.

 

[drvenner]

It’s his team, man. You think he’s gonna talk sh*t about his own players?

Agree. The way he would communicate that would be benching them. I think he realizes that he probably needs to make some changes. Not sure we have the personnel to do that.

 

[KB5252]

Well, I’ve waited a good bit before I came here to post this because if I had posted this last night I would be accused of overreacting!

I believe we are staring at a 7and 5 season. To be truthful I’m not shocked by last night. I wanted to believe, convinced myself that AP was a one off but that was a harbinger of what was to come. S Carolina and Mizzou are not sure things. I watched both of their games and they look better than us atm!

Even though it wasn’t all on Joe, they obviously didn’t trust him enough to run the full offense! Not really fair to Joe but I think we should build to the future and go with Nico. At this point it may be necessary to hold on to our commits!

Most of you know I’m usually one of the sunshine pumpers but there doesn’t appear to be a break in the clouds to allow any sun to peek through. Really hope I’m wrong!

They don't trust the line, as is, to block what is needed for any QB to run our offense..... It was obvious, they are the most disappointing position group on offense yesterday.

 

[turdherder11]

Commercial breaks, and the new clock rules have killed this game. It's easy to phase out and not keep up. Idk how in the hell the ncaa thought that was a good rule change. .....$$$

 

[Jackcrevol]

They don't trust the line, as is, to block what is needed for any QB to run our offense..... It was obvious, they are the most disappointing position group on offense yesterday.

if only there was someone responsible for trotting that group out there.

 

[csprig9]

it’s his team….. he is responsible for the whole team.

I’m meaning why doesn’t he question the db performance and personel to the db coach

 

[drvenner]

Several players were suspended for violation of team rules. UT generally doesn't announce it, and injuries are often undisclosed, as well. Sometimes they'll say a player is "unavailable"-- but they prefer to say nothing at all.

Honestly, several players is concerning. Now, I am getting nervous.

 

[MrVolton]

On offense there’s not much time to throw the ball. The middle of the line was getting manhandled and pushed back all game. When they were forced to throw the ball and they got Joe an extra second he threw deep passes but if you watch a defender is right there in his face for most of those big completions. Even on the first drive to squirrel, he had two guys coming at him and he had to throw it off balance.

The OL played like $&¡7 last night, no doubt.

But Mertz wasn’t exactly getting a lot of time either. A lot of their bigger plays in the passing game came when Mertz either stepped up into the pocket or escaped the pocket completely.

Milton’s decision making and unwillingness/inability to move well in the pocket were way more detrimental last night than his inaccuracies.

 

[drvenner]

There’s no reason to even be talking about “is Heupel the guy”

Bama is in the same boat as us. No QB. Definitely coaches job to find one, but Heupel took a chance on Milton just like Saban did with Milroe.


Imagine if we or Bama had someone like Hartman starting at QB, lordddddd

Bama would’ve beaten Texas by 21+ and we prob would’ve blown FL out of the water

Georgia is going to lose a game this year because Beck under performs.