Recruiting Forum Football Talk IV

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#178,702
#178,702
drvenner said:
Kiffin's biggest problem is that he did not embrace or commit himself the the UT brand. He wanted to make us into USC and he never, ever fully bought in, IMO.
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I thought his problem was that he is a gigantic douche canoe? I guess it could be both at the same time.
 
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#178,705
#178,705
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In his fall camp kick-off presser Sunday Heupel was asked by Brent Hubbs if during the offseason Heupel and the staff during their self-scout had found any rhyme or reason why we didn’t fare so well statistically in the 2nd quarters of some of our games. Josh thanked him for pointing that out. lol.

In the first quarter even against the big 3 last year we did pretty well winning 2 out of the 3. Overall we outscored our opponents last year in the 1st quarter in 11 of our 13 games. Only Florida and Ole Miss put more points on the board in the first quarter than we did.

In the 2nd quarter we were outscored in 7 of the 13 games. We lost the 2nd quarter to BGSU, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Alabama, and Georgia.

We only lost 3 of the 13 3rd quarters, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.

We lost 5 of the 13 4th quarters, Vanderbilt, Purdue, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

We lost the only overtime period last year to Purdue.

Football, it is often said, is about winning one-on-one matchups. It’s also said that execution is critical. Jim Chaney throughout his time here claimed that he approaches his coordinator role as a chess player. Fans from schools all over often complain that coordinators whether offense or defense are too slow to make adjustments when things aren’t working.

One of the more common critiques of Heupel’s offense is that it is too simple and relies heavily on attacking the defense when it is not ready or properly aligned. It’s thought that the tempo challenges communication on the defensive side of the ball and allows us to take advantage of catching the defense off-guard so to speak. One analyst for On3 who has high regard for the Briles offense claims that Heupel’s version is janky. I had to look up that word. It means poor quality. I mean that’s like his opinion. jmo.

In the 3 Power 5 losses not among the big 3 SEC teams on our schedule it would seem that we lost the game in the 2nd quarter. Overall we won the 1st quarters of those games as well as marginally coming out ahead in the 3rd and 4th quarters. We got blasted by those 3 teams in the 2nd quarter, 57-13. We lost the 2nd quarter to our big 3 permanent SEC opponents by a score of 38-7.

In the 7 games we won we outscored our opponents in the 2nd quarter by a score of 89-48 so it would seem like whatever the issue may be isn’t related to all of our opponents.

In wins, we won 1Q 119-10, 2Q 89-48, 3Q 87-34, and 4Q 56-35.

In losses, we won 1Q 71-41. We lost 2Q 20-95, 3Q 27-41, and 4Q 42-71.

Josh’s answer to Brent was that the 2nd quarter was pretty poignant in some of our games. He said there was no magic potion. He said it was some of the things that we controlled in those ball games, in particular on the offensive side of the football. He talked about everything we’re doing in the weight room and our offseason program and how they’ve related everything to 4 quarters. Honestly, to an extent, it all that sounded like coach-speak to me and I would have been just as pleased if Josh told Brent that what they were doing to address the issue was none of his business. lol..

Here’s what has been said that I think answers Brent’s question. First, in the spring Alex Golesh said that our offense would continue to evolve. Second, it has been said Hooker and the other guys have a much better grasp of our offense heading into year two. Third, it has been said that we are adding option elements to our offense and in fact were practicing that in the spring.

Last year Heupel got a lot of praise for his scheme and rightly so for the results it produced compared to our recent experience on offense but apparently what we were doing last year will only take us so far depending on the quality of our opponent, both players on the field and opposing coaches. I learned from Booger McFarland not to dismiss outside critiques that I may not want to hear. His preseason claim that we would be abysmal in 2017 yielded the worst on-field performance for a Tennessee football team in the entire history of the program. At the time on VolNation McFarland was the devil incarnate. jmo.

I think most critiques from rival fans can be dismissed but if those critiques are coming from someone not wedded to a fanbase I think they’re worth looking into. After I had posted a number of times about our defense and expectations for the coming year on that side of the ball one forum regular noted that no one talks about the offense.

This is my thinking on the offense. Heupel and Golesh are evolving the offense in order to address the issues we faced last year against some of the better teams on our schedule. I think they don’t want too many specifics of that ongoing evolution getting out but they’ve told us that they know we need to make some adjustments and they’ve let us know as much as they can that they have a plan. jmo.

I think across our program deficiencies identified last year by the staff and players are being addressed. We have more talent, more experience and development, a better grasp of our schemes, and have added wrinkles to our schemes to throw at some of the better teams on our schedule which is why I do not think it is pie in the sky wishful thinking that our performance this year has the potential to shock the world. jmo.
 
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#178,708
#178,708
Ron Swanson said:
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#178,709
#178,709
bignewt said:
I was just talking to someone about this, they wanted to try shrooms and wanted my advice. Its all about having a plan. Where you do it, who you do it with and your frame of mind when you do it all matter a great deal. Ive pretty much always had a great trip but Ive always been in nature with good peeps. Its been about a year since I did it and probably 8 years since I went deep but I still feel shrooms are the bestest of drugs. 100% from the earth meant to open the third eye.
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Agree 100% about having a plan being important. I think our lack of plan was the reason for my bad trips. My first trip, it was pouring down rain while me and some friends sat in the car in a parking lot on merchant trying to figure out where to go/what to do. Ended up at east town mall and was super paranoid the whole time walking around
 
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#178,711
#178,711
ACvol3 said:
Agree 100% about having a plan being important. I think our lack of plan was the reason for my bad trips. My first trip, it was pouring down rain while me and some friends sat in the car in a parking lot on merchant trying to figure out where to go/what to do. Ended up at east town mall and was super paranoid the whole time walking around
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If I had a nickel for every “bad time” story I’ve heard that ended up at East Town Mall…
 
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#178,713
#178,713
Ron Swanson said:
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I’m excited about this, but I have noticed something from the clips from the RB group so far - freshman Justin Williams-Thomas is a Big Dude! He’s considerable bigger than all the other backs in that group, who all seem to be built identically.

Maybe he can be the big bruiser that we were hoping Dee Beckwith could’ve been
 
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#178,715
#178,715
Bringing some recruiting positivity here as we hit a slowdown point in this class for a while.

If you look at 247's own rankings the Vols have 5 current top 100 players.

#3 overall - QB - Nico
#30 overall - WR - Cam
#62 overall - DE - Chandavian
#79 overall - DE - Caleb
#99 overall - TE - Ethan

As a program since 2008 class we have only done that 2 other times. 2010 class and 2015 class and they each had 5 as well.

Pretty dang impressive!!!
 
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#178,718
#178,718
I think a lot of our 2nd quarter struggles comes down to something you see often in boxing and MMA, adrenaline dump.

If you've ever played a sport or competed in some way you know what it feels like. Most of the games where we essentially got worked over in the 2nd quarter if you look at the body language of our team (especially on the LOS) you'll see signs of fatigue.

Now more quality depth can help offset this. Playing under control (something you'll hear all the coaches bring up) also helps. But ultimately experience is the key to avoiding it. It's why I think this year's offense despite having less production in the skill positions has the potential to perform better. We have a larger number of players entering year 2 in this offense at all levels, they'll be more comfortable with the tempo we want to push and they'll also understand the calls/audibles being made more.

It also helps to have more ammo, which more experience in the offense will allow us to create. It's kind of crazy how similar Barnes and Heupel are in this regard. Barnes requires his guys regardless of talent level to learn how to do the basics. Once they show him they can do that then another layer of the offense/defense opens up with them on the court. It's why Grant/Admiral/Bone/Kyle were such a good team when they all were in year 3 or 4 of their careers. It's why JJJ and Santi are so much better now than they were in year 1.

And it's why I think Tillman, Small, Hyatt, Hendo, and most the offense will be better in their year 2 than they were in year 1.
 
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