Recruiting Forum: Football Talk XI

#11,226
#11,226
volinexile17 said:
That's a bunch of ifs to me. Neither Maggitt nor Saulsberry has stayed healthy for a full season. We have no idea what Vereen or Williams will provide since neither has done it against SEC competition.

That Dline has potential, but I am skeptical.
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I'm pretty sure Vereen played in several games last year. Maybe not starting, but you can't say he hasn't played against SEC competition.
 
#11,227
#11,227
Ron Swanson said:
What DL did we lose that made significant contributions last year?
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Just because we were bad last year doesn't we will be better. We are terribly thin at DT. I'm not optimistic about many of the guys we have at that spot, and I don't foresee freshman doing any better than Corey Miller or Big Mac.

If Maggitt stays healthy, Vereen can hold up against the run, and some other guys develop, maybe we'll see an improved pass rush.

But I fully expected to get gashed up the middle by run plays all season.
 
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#11,228
#11,228
The only thing I'm worried about is our size and depth on the D-Line. If Saulsberry, OBrien or Owen Williams gets hurt. We'll be extremely bad on depth at D-Tackle and also smaller. In the SEC, you need to have your big runstuffers, or the linebackers on the 2nd level will get blocked.
 
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#11,229
#11,229
Ron Swanson said:
What DL did we lose that made significant contributions last year?
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Miller broke the single game sack record. I'd say that's fairly significant. And like big Dan or not, he did take a double team quite often. I don't think this year's DL will be bad, may even be better than last year. We won't know till the season gets going, but I do think we lost some good pieces (hopefully we can replace them with better pieces).
 
#11,230
#11,230
I'm hoping all of the DB's we have coming in are ready to play. I'm more worried abot that than am the D-line. Teams picked on Sutton last year because he was a Freshman. I'm pretty sure they've learned their lesson and won't be doing that this year. That means the other DB's had better be ready.
 
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#11,231
#11,231
todd_young said:
I'm pretty sure Vereen played in several games last year. Maybe not starting, but you can't say he hasn't played against SEC competition.
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I think he had 1-2 sacks and maybe a dozen tackles. Guarantee Jaques Smith was more productive than that as a freshman. I like Vereen. I think he'll be great, but we really have no idea what we're getting from him based on how limited his reps were last year.
 
#11,232
#11,232
jman9865 said:
Miller broke the single game sack record. I'd say that's fairly significant. And like big Dan or not, he did take a double team quite often. I don't think this year's DL will be bad, may even be better than last year. We won't know till the season gets going, but I do think we lost some good pieces (hopefully we can replace them with better pieces).
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Miller almost double his # of sacks when he broke that record against UK?
 
#11,233
#11,233
jman9865 said:
Miller broke the single game sack record. I'd say that's fairly significant. And like big Dan or not, he did take a double team quite often. I don't think this year's DL will be bad, may even be better than last year. We won't know till the season gets going, but I do think we lost some good pieces (hopefully we can replace them with better pieces).
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Against Kentucky.

We lost some decent DL play and some VFL's that gave their all, no question about it. I'm not bad-mouthing our guys. I'm just saying the guys who are coming back are a year older, stronger and in the system longer than last years guys and we signed 8 DL.

I think we'll be better as a unit on the DL in '14, JMO.
 
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#11,234
#11,234
todd_young said:
I'm pretty sure Vereen played in several games last year. Maybe not starting, but you can't say he hasn't played against SEC competition.
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Yeah Vereen had a huge sack against USCe on a 3rd down play toward the end of the game. His motor is always running full tilt.
 
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#11,235
#11,235
Daniel Hood - 19 Total Tackles. 0 sacks. 1 INT. 2 Pass deflections
Daniel McCullers - 33 Total Tackles. .5 sacks. 1 Pass deflection
Jacques Smith - 28 Total Tackles. .5 Sacks. 1 INT
Corey Miller - 36 Total Tackles. 6.5 sacks.
 
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#11,237
#11,237
jman9865 said:
Miller broke the single game sack record. I'd say that's fairly significant. And like big Dan or not, he did take a double team quite often. I don't think this year's DL will be bad, may even be better than last year. We won't know till the season gets going, but I do think we lost some good pieces (hopefully we can replace them with better pieces).
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Miller had 5.5 sacks in 48 career games going into the nobody-gives-a-damn bowl against UK. He wasn't a major loss.
 
#11,238
#11,238
You can't realy on freshman DT in the SEC. Most don't have the size nor the technque to go up against the SEC O-Line on a week to week basis.
 
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#11,239
#11,239
ChattaTNVol said:
I looked at their depth chart for last year and truthfully on paper they don't look much better than what we have. They even had a walkon backup tackle that won a scholly for his RS Sr year. They had a converted TE for a center and I think their starting left tackle was a converted mid 3-star defensive tackle. That was on offense. On defense they had a freshman starting at safety with another freshman backing him up. They had a very young defensive line. They had a brand new defensive coordinator 6 years removed from being a high school coach and to top it off they had our very own Sunseri coaching defensive ends. They also had a new running backs coach on board, also fresh from a stop in Knoxville. What FSU didn't have or at least didn't use was all the ready made excuses that will be available to us this year. :)
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That freshman at safety is an exceptional player, though. He's special. And he wasn't the only one, either - they had a lot of exceptional players where it counted and they play in an incredibly bad league. I stand firm in my conviction that FSU rode Jameis, Kelvin Benjamin, and Timmy Jernigan to the national title. I'm not sure what went wrong in the 2nd half, but Auburn was making them look like middle schoolers through most of the first half. I think if that game is played 10 times Auburn wins 8 of them and I don't think FSU even gets a whiff of the BCS if they have to play in our league. So I'm not sure it's an excuse per se for us to say we're young, etc. They can get away with that over in the pee wee conference they play in. We can't, though.
 
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#11,241
#11,241
PassedOutAwake said:
Daniel Hood - 19 Total Tackles. 0 sacks. 1 INT. 2 Pass deflections
Daniel McCullers - 33 Total Tackles. .5 sacks. 1 Pass deflection
Jacques Smith - 28 Total Tackles. .5 Sacks. 1 INT
Corey Miller - 36 Total Tackles. 6.5 sacks.
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There is no reason I can think of why a *healthy* 2014 Vols DL couldn't do better than this.
 
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#11,242
#11,242
Vereen had 13 total tackles and a pass deflection.
6 games as the 2nd string against the hardest portion of our schedule. In and out of injury.
 
#11,243
#11,243
I'm worried about OT and think we will give up a bunch of sacks. But big plays from the talent at the skill spots may offset that. There's also no help coming. Who we have today is who we are going to battle with next fall. Hope they get better.

I'm comfortable with DL - it is what if is. I don't know if it be better than last year but it probably won't be worse. I think Mixon is the diamond in the rough. Stripling was raving about his speed and athleticism by the end of spring. Curious to see how and the others develop.
 
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#11,244
#11,244
JAllen18 said:
You can't realy on freshman DT in the SEC. Most don't have the size nor the technque to go up against the SEC O-Line on a week to week basis.
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I don't think we will be relying on a fresman DT. We have people coming back that saw plenty of playing time and have had aother year to improve, and CBJ has moved people around to add speed and fix some problems.

todd_young said:
There is no reason I can think of why a *healthy* 2014 Vols DL couldn't do better than this.
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My thoughts too.
 
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#11,245
#11,245
vol2002 said:
I'm worried about OT and think we will give up a bunch of sacks. But big plays from the talent at the skill spots may offset that. There's also no help coming. Who we have today is who we are going to battle with next fall. Hope they get better.

I'm comfortable with DL - it is what if is. I don't know if it be better than last year but it probably won't be worse. I think Mixon is the diamond in the rough. Stripling was raving about his speed and athleticism by the end of spring. Curious to see how and the others develop.
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Agreed on the OT. But something we need to remember is that a lot of the DEs in the SEC left this past season. We wont be facing guys like Clowney and Sam anymore.
 
#11,246
#11,246
BaldBiker said:
I don't think we will be relying ona fresman DT. We have people coming back that saw plenty of playing tim and have had aother year to improve, and CBJ hasmoved people around to add speed and fix ome problems.




My thoughts too.
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Plenty of guys?

You know we only return Salsberry and Obrien at DT and thats it. I'm not counting Jordan Williams as he was DE last year. Owen Williams and the incoming freshmen are who we'll be adding this year. Not a whole lot of depth there.
 
#11,250
#11,250
volinexile17 said:
I think he had 1-2 sacks and maybe a dozen tackles. Guarantee Jaques Smith was more productive than that as a freshman. I like Vereen. I think he'll be great, but we really have no idea what we're getting from him based on how limited his reps were last year.
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Vereen:

9 games played; 9 solo tackles; 4 assists; 1 sack (7 yards); 1 PBU; 2 QBH; 1.4 tackles per game

Smith (2010):

13 games played; 15 solo tackles; 9 assists; 2 sacks (7 yards); 1 FF; 4 QBH; 1.8 tackles per game

What this doesn't do is say anything about context--number of snaps, coverage calls, etc.
 
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