Recruiting Football Talk VIII

[JCVol00]

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.

Agreed, I think the whole offense needs a facelift. OC, wr, and OL coaches all have to go. Heup needs to tear it down and build it from the ground up. We have the resources to go get quality assistant coaches, it’s just will Heupel swallow his pride enough to do it?

 

[RikidyBones]

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.

The biggest issue there still remains in Knoxville though. Pope.

 

[RiseToTheTop]

The biggest issue there still remains in Knoxville though. Pope.

Well yeh, they hired him on vibes. It was always a bad choice. Nothing ab his resume warranted us hiring him.

 

[Vol423]

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

@TrippieRedd seems to continuously explore the entire portfolio of rollercoaster rides in the Volunteer amusement park.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

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?

Nimrod and Webb were actually both recruited by Burns/Alex...neither on staff anymore.

2022 was last class before that changed. So current staff 2023, 2024, & 2025 recruits are theirs.

 

[TrippieRedd]

@TrippieRedd seems to continuously explore the entire portfolio of rollercoaster rides in the Volunteer amusement park.

There’s plenty!

 

[TrippieRedd]

The biggest issue there still remains in Knoxville though. Pope.

Yeah apparently the ones in the portal were on IG live and the vibe was they weren’t the biggest fans of Pope.

Not that it means anything. Could be pissed off kids.

Staley was on there but got off right when the bashing of Pope started. Who knows what the issue truly is.

 

[LotteryPick]

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?

They’re not all going to hit. Especially WR’s. I don’t want Pope to stay, but those aren’t the guys you cling to.

Now if Matthews, Staley, Smith Jr, Jackson and Dodson look similarly, yeah that’s pretty damning.

 

[ugg]

What’s his last name?

Thomas Lewis

 

[RikidyBones]

Yeah apparently the ones in the portal were on IG live and the vibe was they weren’t the biggest fans of Pope.

Not that it means anything. Could be pissed off kids.

Staley was on there but got off right when the bashing of Pope started. Who knows what the issue truly is.

Heupel needs to figure it out for his own sake. I hear he is competitive but needs to show those standards more often. The few things I respected about Saban.

 

[barrylee]

Your post lacks logic.

You actually read it??

 

[RikidyBones]

Our January for bball is outrageous.

 

[Enki_Amenra]

Who was that 2* wr Vandy had a few years ago that was really good? I'd like to find some players with something to prove, instead of these guys eating in the King's court and acting like it's not good enough for them.

 

[therickbol]

How long has Pope been coaching?

Looks like he hasn't started yet

 

[KnoxLandcruiser]

Replying to save and watch later

 

[MoCo_Vol]

I mean as fans we don't all know what or who made the choices that have been made.

Cam Seldon for example 4 star top 200 player by all services, top 20 ATH on all services, seems he wanted to play WR and spent 2 years here getting battered at RB with no real shot at playing time early there because of guys ahead of him.

Now, as an "ATH" prospect he really didn't have much production in HS at any specific position...so hard to say if he would be better at WR or RB. But what I don't get is the burning the RS. 2023 he played in 13 games for a total of 25 carries, this year just 6 games for a total of 23 carries. Seems weird. But maybe that was his first "demand" to keep him happy, more playing time.

I feel like if a guy isn't a RB with proven HS production it's the worst position to try and move someone. Most RBs tend to move away from RB because of how difficult it is to take the punishment.

 

[Daddy pants]

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.

Great question. It’s a media-driven narrative and was something we heard when Hyatt and Tillman were coming out, but it was reported that the route tree and offense in general was….different. Not NFL conducive. Neither one of the them has lit it up in the league (Tillman has had some moments, while Hyatt has been drafted over). Don’t know if correct but would love someone who is familiar with tactics to educate. To me, there are a two drawbacks:
1. If it requires the WR to read the D and make a choice, that assumes a pretty savvy player can do that correctly and also is on the same page as the QB. The WR is thinking, instead of attacking and just going-confidently running the route everyone on O knows he is supposed to run.
2. We are so wide. The boundary is a built in defender. They can’t run outs and I think our WRs are easy to defend. Inside leverage limits what they can do.

Your point on half the field is spot on.

Again-I’m not a coach. Probably ignorant comments and concerns from me but I’m getting the sense it’s not known as the best place to come and succeed as a wideout. We thought elite WRs would be knocking down our door to come here after 22. Some intriguing HS recruits but portal wideouts have been, meh.

 

[jp1]

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

2 of those WR's were dealing with pretty serious injuries, and the other 2 didn't regressin my mind. If you are making the point that Nimrod and Webb didn't develop like we expected then I can agree on that. Either way, did you want to pay them more money? Likewise, if you play Matthew's over them, I think they move on anyway. They moved on to play more in my opinion ( I do think we should sub more WRs in to get more guys time).

 

[NMVol]

.

Are you OK?

 

[jakez4ut]

People can look at it from different perspectives. Vol fans have earned that right.

The ones that think people are trolls for every little bit of negativity need to go sniff paint.

If you wanna be positive, cool, there’s definitely a lot to be positive about. I’m glad they trust the staff 1000% fully.

If you wanna be negative, cool, there’s some stuff to be negative about. Some posters know what’s it’s like to suck and don’t want to go back to mediocrity. Does the bitching do anything? No, but just let them bitch, or ignore them.

I’m sick and tired of people bickering back and forth about being positive and being negative, never results in an actual constructive debate.

People saying the negas are the issue are issues themselves because they don’t do anything to put “negas” on ignore.


*the extreme negas, sure go ahead and destroy them*

Agreed


Multiple things can be true at the same time.

 

[volstudent26]

Tennessee wide receiver Mike Matthews has not officially entered the transfer portal as of 10:15 a.m. ET this morning.

Volunteers have 48 hours to submit his name when he files paperwork.

- Pete Nakos 1 hour ago

 

[TrippieRedd]

Now I know I’m a lazy sack of ****, but there’s no way these two are the top players in 2026…they look like they play video games all day.

 

[Jackcrevol]

if i'm cjh, i'm not asking. want a detailed plan for 2025. how will you use the soph? what are ind goals for each rec? what new wrinkles/packages will you have to get them there? have you shared this with players?

what is youe detailed plan for filling the vacant starting positions? what is your targeted plan for getting two new portal players? HS for 2026?

These are our expectations, this is what we need from you. Else, you will be replaced.

 

[jave36]

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

It’s just the way around here.

Because the reason they aren't producing is probably because they aren't being developed. Or our coach massively missed on identifying potential for literally the entire WR group.

Either way (or some of both), why would you trust that same coach to go replace the entire group of WR if he's doing so because he sucked so badly at identifying good talent or developing them over the last couple years?

 

[JT3]

Well thats a flat out lie. They beat #17 TCU in their very 1st game at Colorado