I believe all the rah rah rah stuff on our new coach is mostly likely the typical hype we tend to generate because, well, we are Tennessee, and we want to believe. I’m not saying this can’t work out; I’m saying I highly doubt it right now. I know most people are focused on the defensive side as a concern with this staff but I’m not convinced that the offense is as cut out to be what some are claiming. For example, the guy was replaced at OU by Riley and the OU offense went to another level in the first year under Riley.
After OU the guy had a 6-win season at Utah State as the OC before moving to Mizzou. His first year at Mizzou, Drew Lock was a sophomore. Lock’s freshman year had been abysmal for the Tiger offense. In 2016 against 8 SEC opponents with our guy running the offense and Drew a year older, the offense averaged 22.6 points per game, good for 11th in the conference. In Lock’s junior year, the offense took the next step, rising to 34.6 ppg against 8 SEC foes. Their best offensive outputs in conference that year took place against Butch Jones’ last team here (4-8) (50 points), a dejected Florida team who coach was claiming to be a victim of death threats (4-7) (45 points), an Arkansas team (4-8) (48 points), and a Vanderbilt team (5-7) (45 points). Missouri finished that 2017 season 7-6.
Figures don’t lie but liars figure. There are all kinds of caveats that affect a team’s performance. At UCF this past year for example one of the hits the team reportedly took was a number of players opting out of participation for the season. Some years you have a better offensive line than others. Sometimes a team gets unlucky on the injury or disciplinary front. It’s hard to look at the headline numbers and jump to conclusions that have a high probability of standing up over time. Hell, we should have had one of the absolute best defenses in the nation over at least the past couple of years but that never materialized. I think most of us at one time believed it would. Alas.
When Chaney was hired I indicated I wasn’t thrilled with the hire. My buddy Charger got offended by my lack of support. I like Charger so I tried to be very careful how I might approach saying anything about Chaney from then on out. I don’t want to offend anyone else here but I’m hearing a lot of what I think is some trying to sell the new hire. We’re trying to convince ourselves of something I strongly suspect that few believe. I don’t have elevated expectations right now and don’t expect I will this time. I’m willing to give it a shot because that’s our only option.
In the past when Nick has done his pregame/game threads for the RF, anytime he predicts that we are going to lose a game, I’ve just shook my head in disbelief. Where does he get off doing that? I love it on the isolated times we prove him wrong. Even though I have a hard time with his “defeatist” view now and again, I most often still try to give him a like, because he’s put some work into it and in all honesty, I actually think he’s still mostly an all-around pretty good guy. jmo.
I guess I’m trying to say I’m probably not going to be cheering as loudly this time around but I’m really hoping I don’t offend you guys too much with some of my contrarian views.
