Recruiting Football Talk VIII

What surprised me most was our very lackluster defensive line performance against a banged up OSU offensive line.
All season, we heard how this was one of the deepest and most talented dlines we’ve ever had and supposedly one of the best in the country. But against the best teams this year, that simply wasn’t the case and we made some average quarterbacks look great.

Yeah, I’m actually with you here. That surprised me. I wondered if they wore down as the season went on, despite the depth.

Ole Miss and USCe in the end may have had more disruptive DLs than we did. I didn’t see that coming either.

That said, sounds like the two weeks of practice helped OSU scheme around their own OL problems. I had a sense what our guys saw on film was very different than what they saw on the field, and it made them a step slow. Wish we did the same in reverse.
 
what's not happening in portal, or is, but the strategy behind is infuriating. Same for our recruiting success, or lack thereof at offensive line, WR, and RB. Really every position minus TE, lol.

It is frustrating. But aint a damn thang we can do except give $.

When it comes to players I’ve just decided to wait until the season starts to assess what we have, rather than handwringing over the offseason. We have a decent NIL program, highly competitive coaches, a strong administration. They will get good players. If we fall short, it won’t be for lack of effort. I think it will mostly be due to the ridiculously competive landscape.

My long standing view is for Tennessee to win big, we need elite QB play surrounded by a solid supporting cast (e.g., Auburn, with Cam Newton). I don’t think we are ever going to overwhelm everyone with superior talent.

I will confess I thought preseason Nico would be that elite QB. He still may be, but he needs a strong offseason to get there. I look forward to watching him try!
 
When it comes to players I’ve just decided to wait until the season starts to assess what we have, rather than handwringing over the offseason. We have a decent NIL program, highly competitive coaches, a strong administration. They will get good players. If we fall short, it won’t be for lack of effort. I think it will mostly be due to the ridiculously competive landscape.

My long standing view is for Tennessee to win big, we need elite QB play surrounded by a solid supporting cast (e.g., Auburn, with Cam Newton). I don’t think we are ever going to overwhelm everyone with superior talent.

I will confess I thought preseason Nico would be that elite QB. He still may be, but he needs a strong offseason to get there. I look forward to watching him try!
Yes. After last year's bowl game, many of us thought Nico was going to dominate making Tennessee offense tough to stop. Surprisingly, offense was our weak point. Hopefully, his struggles were due to being young and struggles on the offensive line. But, after this year, the jury is out.
 
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Based on the this guys grammar, he is slightly ahead of Julius Peppers. Somewhere in the "barely passing English class in elementary school" range. Good luck reading defenses, drawing conclusions from watching film, and memorizing the playbook. If you spent 13 years in school thus far but cannot string a pair of sentences together coherently, I have serious doubts about what lies between your ears.

Maybe he has Michael Vick level athletic ability, in which case it will not matter. That 4.58 time is miles from Vick though. Guess Michigan could always simplify their offense to where he can handle it, and rely on arm talent and those around him. They prefer to run the ball. Ask the Colts, Cardinals, 49ers, Titans etc about drafting dumb QBs though. Usually doesn't work out. I wouldn't trade Jake, Gmac, nor Faison for this kid.
 
The Vols best play-making WR is a DB at the moment. A game changer with the ball in his hands is better then any other two players on the field... and it's not close.


totally agree.

Boo Carter is incredible with the rock.

so much so, that maybe he needs to be pullin some Champ Bailey type work
 
Then why didn't they do it this year?

Why didn't they do it for UGA last year? Or Bama the year before that?

"Bama plus refs every game gonna be tough for them to lose" Don't y'all say the refs already help them to go undefeated every year? Sure didn't help em in Norman when it was all on the line and the most egregious call went against Bama. Can't believe OU was "allowed" to win...
Your right
They never get any favorable calls in close games

I don’t know why I thought that
 
In 2021 against Florida we ran a mesh concept to Jimmy Holiday that he dropped. I've been waiting on us to run another since.

Also 23 Florida had a couple really good plays in there. I remember one unique one where Sampson did an orbit motion bubble and the TE came back and blocked behind him. We got called for a crack back but it was a really cool play design.

I wanna know where that stuff went.

Why dont we have wheel routes to the RBs? Thats a great play to run once a game or so. For that matter...why can every other SEC team run quick slants except for us?? The extra wide splits we use make that play more effective...not less. The WR just has to get inside leverage on the DB and get his head around for the pass. One of the simplest plays in football and yet nearly impossible to stop if executed correctly. Squirrel/Staley cant catch a slant? Until this year our defense has been absolutely haunted by slant passes. Killed us. For decades. Why don't we use them? Everyone else does, college and pro.

The biggest problem besides our WRs being in the worst 10 statistically in FBS in both dropped passes AND actually getting separation from DBs was a lack of patience. How many first half drives did we have where we are moving down the field, good gains on the ground and short to intermediate passes going well....and then 4 or 5 plays into the drive we sling the ball 50 yards downfield? Got behind the sticks then...2nd and 10 or 3rd and long...and killed the drive. We did it so many times that even Hubbs has mentioned it at least 3 times over the season on VQ youtube. Total lack of patience. I understand those huge plays are great when they work...but when Nico overthrew nearly all of them by 5 yards for 3 or 4 games, and when he didnt guys like Nimrod, Brazzell, and even Squirrel just flat dropped them. We should have beaten Arkansas by 3TDs. If only Nimrod caught the sure thing, wide open TD passes to him we would have had 14 more points.

We knew that Ark loss was huge when it happened. A couple plays in that game cost us a win, an 11-1 season...and likely a home playoff win vs SMU or somebody. This is a game of inches, talent, and especially execution. We will have to improve before we can take that next step. I am very thankful for how far we have come though.
 
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This was from before our lawsuit against the NCAA, part of the “cornbread settlement“
I can’t remember the exact number but 2-3/year for 3 years I think. So, CJH is dealing with a short hand. We need 10 pounds of talent but we’ve been given a 5 pound bag.
He’s done an amazing job in 4 short years and once we can past these penalties, we should really be rolling. GBO
The limit is 83, since they didn't approve the 105. It will be at 83 until we're off probation. I just didn't know where we were with numbers. Apparently, we aren't developing guys well enough to plug holes as they open. OL and DL are both in question next year. DL only because of how we rotate to keep bodies fresh. OL, IMO, is an indictment on Elarbee. Need some WR help. Need safety help. But if we're still over cap, not sure how they make that happen.
 
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