Recruiting Football Talk VIII

[csprig9]

Our fans This year….

You Gotta play the young guys, Fahr CJH, Fahr pope

Then old guys leave and players that didn’t contribute leave so now young guys can play and freshman coming in can possibly play and now fans act like it’s bad lol

 

[Checker_the_Shire]

You did, but okay. Like you said, this isn’t going anywhere.

Born and raised in Knoxville. Graduated from UT with my masters. Keep reaching with the nega stuff.

Vol my whole life, parents went to UT, my undergrad was UT, masters and doctorate elsewhere but bleeding orange every day. I’ll keep reaching with the nega stuff and you keep reaching with that hypocrisy . Good luck in 2025!

 

[TrippieRedd]

… were you not just bickering with Enki about him being positive???

I was giving Enki ****. He’s always being overly positive.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

 

[mrMet]

I was giving Enki ****. He’s always being overly positive.

And now bickering with Checker Shire

I don’t have a dog in the fight but just funny based on your post lol

 

[TrippieRedd]

And now bickering with Checker Shire

I don’t have a dog in the fight but just funny based on your post lol

Right?

I said people can be positive or negative.

Enki and we’re just going back and forth, hence the meme picture I sent.

Other dude wanted to throw a little shade, different reaction.

Keep on….I guess?

 

[Dudley Smith]

December 29, 1986

UT - 21
Minnesota - 14

After starting the season 2-5, the Vols dominated November and finished 6-5 and traveled to the Liberty Bowl to play Minnesota. After jumping out to a 14-0 lead, the Vols saw the Gophers tie the game in the 4th. Two passes to Nate Middlebrooks and Anthony Miller got the ball deep into Minnesota territory. On 3rd and 3, Jeff Francis hit Joey Clinkscales for a 15 yrd TD to put the Vols up 21-14. The defense held giving UT their third Liberty Bowl win in three tries. Jeff Francis threw for 243 yrds and 3 TDs and was named MVP.

Francis and Clinkscales

I remember watching that game with my Dad and a couple of his college buddies after dinner at the Roman Room on the Strip. Lou Holtz coached Minnesota. The 1985 season is when I dove in head first to college football and the Vols and the 86 season was a real reality check for young me, but that was a nice way to finish.

 

[JCVol00]

So you wanted to pay "regressed WR's" more money? You can't have it both ways. Either they sucked and we should have let them walk or they were good and the WR coach helped develop them and we should pay them to stay on. Our fans crack me up.

Im talking about Squirrel, Bru, Nimrod and Webb regressing. Our WR unit as a whole has gotten worst each year, you can’t deny that or you are fooling yourself. But, you cant let the 5 star wr, who was the anchor for your ‘24 recruiting class, walk. Especially leaving 2 wr’s on the roster excluding the ‘25 guys

 

[VolGee4]

Im talking about Squirrel, Bru, Nimrod and Webb regressing. Our WR unit as a whole has gotten worst each year, you can’t deny that or you are fooling yourself. But, you cant let the 5 star wr, who was the anchor for your ‘24 recruiting class, walk. Especially leaving 2 wr’s on the roster excluding the ‘25 guys

Bru didn’t regress. He was the same he ever was but after a broken leg. Squirrel was hurt this year after 800 yards last year( same WR coach). Everyone needs to get better. The offense as a whole, including the QB reads and play calling, need to get better. But it is funny about the freak out over losing some WR’s after all of the complaints this year.

 

[TrippieRedd]

Bru didn’t regress. He was the same he ever was but after a broken leg. Squirrel was hurt this year after 800 yards last year( same WR coach). Everyone needs to get better. The offense as a whole, including the QB reads and play calling, need to get better. But it is funny about the freak out over losing some WR’s after all of the complaints this year.

Really sad about the injury bug after I talked about how well our Strength and Conditioning staff was doing.

My fault for jinxing everything.

 

[SoilVol]

Maybe we are just purging the WR room like we purged the DBs last year.

 

[JCVol00]

Bru didn’t regress. He was the same he ever was but after a broken leg. Squirrel was hurt this year after 800 yards last year( same WR coach). Everyone needs to get better. The offense as a whole, including the QB reads and play calling, need to get better. But it is funny about the freak out over losing some WR’s after all of the complaints this year.

Bru definitely did regress, the whole wr unit’s stats fell off besides Thornton’s. Pope continued to trot out injured players over playing the freshmen we have. Im not complaining about any of the wr’s lost besides Matthew’s. What I am complaining about is lack of development and inactivity in the portal despite us having only 5 scholarship wr’s for the year next year

 

[RiseToTheTop]

Maybe we are just purging the WR room like we purged the DBs last year.

Matthews and Staley are all i care about.
The brand new guys wont play until their 21st birthday knowing how we treat receivers w this staff. Need a few portal guys with Staley and hopefully Matthews. Relying on Brazzell is not good.

 

[LotteryPick]

Im talking about Squirrel, Bru, Nimrod and Webb regressing. Our WR unit as a whole has gotten worst each year, you can’t deny that or you are fooling yourself. But, you cant let the 5 star wr, who was the anchor for your ‘24 recruiting class, walk. Especially leaving 2 wr’s on the roster excluding the ‘25 guys

Squirrel wasn’t used properly. He’s not a catch and go guy, he’s a vertical threat. He’s way too small to make something happen off a two yard screen pass.

McCoy had major injuries and Nimrod and Webb weren’t good enough.

I want Pope gone as well, but those guys are fairly easy to explain away.

 

[volinbama256]

Your post lacks logic.

the logic is simply that at this point, today, we have lost a 'ish ton of talent to graduation and the portal, the staff doesn't SEEM to have cared enough to try and get some of the portal kids to stay, MM as I understood it had hit the portal and we all saw it coming, so didn't the staff see it coming too? Yet now they will have to pay more to keep him. We will lose more this spring in the portal. Numbers are going down and we are not getting kids in the portal at this point to bring the talent level back up. So now I question the staff as to either we don't have the money for some reason (see NW Olinemen we let walk), or they are just going to ride with what they have, which sends the message that they are okay with going backwards next season instead of forwards. So if that's the case, they don't need to say they are competing for championships... because that's no where close to how it will need to be done moving forward. Again, at this point, we will be looking at the Pop-tart bowl next season instead of a playoff. Other teams are making moves in the portal and as of today we are ranked like 78th in the portal. For the prices UT is asking for tickets, concessions, etc, I am not down with the staff/Admin seeming to take a mehh we're good approach, but ask me for a ton of money for a 6-7 win team that they chose to field. Essentially, the staff needs to show me something... show me they are trying to replace the talent lost, show me they are serious about winning and getting to the next level where we are in the playoff making noise each year, show me they are managing the roster and making hard decisions by upgrading the staff... As of today, they haven't shown me anything except a long list of exists/our roster dropping and the existing staff staying put so they can half ass coach the same way next season.

 

[jave36]

The funny part though is that people have highly criticized our WR’s. Now, when several hit the portal, they are upset. The only one to be upset about is Matthews, and he technically isn’t officially in yet. But we will see. It truly does show though how people criticize nearly everything. It’s kind of how the world is operating.

It's two separate complaints. Not the same.

The WR play has been bad. That's recruiting and development, which is on the coach.

Separately, we can't hang on to bodies at that position, including our top returning one. That's also on the coach.

So it's two separate criticisms of the coach.

 

[VolGee4]

Bru definitely did regress, the whole wr unit’s stats fell off besides Thornton’s. Pope continued to trot out injured players over playing the freshmen we have. Im not complaining about any of the wr’s lost besides Matthew’s. What I am complaining about is lack of development and inactivity in the portal despite us having only 5 scholarship wr’s for the year next year

Bru himself did not. The offense did. There are highlights where WR’s were actually open this year, but I know what people want to argue. Just watch the Arkansas game- guys were open. Nico missed receivers against UF and Bama.

Matthews was injured in fall camp. Could he have played more later? Sure. People have made up their minds about certain things, and that is fine. But the whole offense needs to improve and that includes the blocking and decision-making too.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Legit question...does Heupel's offense need to be less complicated for WRs?

I mean obviously previous stops etc. and even here we've seen it work. But seems a lot of talk about WRs have to read defenses and most are on choice routes... just seems like ya have a high level of potential failures if that's the case, especially when not running tempo or getting good pass protection.

WR reads defense wrong and runs a different route than QB is expecting, without good pass protection it's either an INT or sack since QB won't have time to progress. And in most our plays only half the field is being utilized and the WRs are on "dead" routes on the other side anyway.

 

[25vol]

Not many are upset outside MM though. The entire room is in shambles though.

I couldn’t care less about any of them entering besides MM because I feel like he has amazing potential and talent and wasn’t given a fair shake to prove himself but the rest of them can kick rocks as far as I’m concerned—including Squirrel.

Not a single one of them did anything with the opportunities they were given this year so it’s addition by subtraction in this case.

 

[RiseToTheTop]

Legit question...does Heupel's offense need to be less complicated for WRs?

I mean obviously previous stops etc. and even here we've seen it work. But seems a lot of talk about WRs have to read defenses and most are on choice routes... just seems like ya have a high level of potential failures if that's the case, especially when not running tempo or getting good pass protection.

WR reads defense wrong and runs a different route than QB is expecting, without good pass protection it's either an INT or sack since QB won't have time to progress. And in most our plays only half the field is being utilized and the WRs are on "dead" routes on the other side anyway.

Whats crazy ab it being complicated for receivers is they only run about 4 routes to the exact same part of the field

 

[JCVol00]

Squirrel wasn’t used properly. He’s not a catch and go guy, he’s a vertical threat. He’s way too small to make something happen off a two yard screen pass.

McCoy had major injuries and Nimrod and Webb weren’t good enough.

I want Pope gone as well, but those guys are fairly easy to explain away.

Squirrel couldnt stay upright vertically when we did throw it deep to him. Nimrod and Webb were guys that our staff recruited, so what does that say about our staff’s abilities to identify talent if they weren’t good enough?

 

[Vol423]

Not many are upset outside MM though. The entire room is in shambles though.

That entire room has been in shambles for quite a while. It's finally being addressed.

 

[R0CKYT0P 16]

Squirrel wasn’t used properly. He’s not a catch and go guy, he’s a vertical threat. He’s way too small to make something happen off a two yard screen pass.

McCoy had major injuries and Nimrod and Webb weren’t good enough.

I want Pope gone as well, but those guys are fairly easy to explain away.

It’s hard to be a vertical threat when you can’t catch a ball and run at the same time.

 

[VolGee4]

It's two separate complaints. Not the same.

The WR play has been bad. That's recruiting and development, which is on the coach.

Separately, we can't hang on to bodies at that position, including our top returning one. That's also on the coach.

So it's two separate criticisms of the coach.

It’s funny, too. Why would you hang on to guys that aren’t producing?

It’s just the way around here.

 

[RiseToTheTop]

I couldn’t care less about any of them entering besides MM because I feel like he has amazing potential and talent and wasn’t given a fair shake to prove himself and the rest of them can kick rocks as far as I’m concerned including Squirrel.

Not a single one of them did anything with the opportunities they were given this year so it’s addition by subtraction in this case.

Facts


You literally win the Arkansas game, as bad as it was if Nimrod could literally catch anything. That dude sucked bad. I dont blame MM for being upset.