Recruiting Forum Football Talk XXIX

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#9,552
#9,552
GoBigOrangeVols said:
Biggest question marks on our team going into next year? My list:



Defense:

1. Defensive End (Kongbo is still raw, but shows promise. Phillips and Taylor do good things, but we will miss Barnett).
2. Cornerback (both spots should be up for grabs in the spring/summer. No one on our returning roster has shown anything close be All-SEC caliber)
3. OLB (Berry? McDowell? Neither has been great, but both are serviceable).
4. Defensive Tackle: Can Tuttle and KMac heal in time to be game ready by GT? Will Alexis Johnson live up to his potential?

In looking at it this way, I think we have a really strong team coming back next season. No reason we shouldn't be competing for the East again, and who knows beyond that if a little luck goes our way.
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2. I'm hoping we go ahead and move Byrd to defense. I think he'll have more opportunities to impact the game that way.

3. If Bituli shows himself to be a capable MLB, Kirkland to OLB might be our best look IMO.
 
#9,553
#9,553
Bassmaster_Vol said:
Rewatching the game. Kongbo looked great Saturday. I can't wait to see him next year when he puts it all together. His speed and athleticism are off the charts. Potential is huge. While Phillips looked good at DT, I'm concerned about his future there. Maybe I'm wrong about him, but the talk about him when he was recruited was that his speed off the edge was "unfair". That's what they said about him in the army game. I'm really concerned that he's being misused on the inside. I get it that we don't have much of an option this year because of the injuries, but I would hate to see a guy with all that potential be squandered
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Kongbo is what he is right now. An athletic freak who doesn't know how to football. He stands straight up too often and is very slow off the ball and needs to learn how to use his hands better. He shows flashes but a very long way to go.
 
#9,554
#9,554
MockingVol said:
So why do you dislike Butch so much? He certainly hasn't been close to perfect but he has done a ton to pull us back to respectability; I believe you need to explain yourself.
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Haha I need to explain myself?

I don't dislike Butch so much. Just isn't my kinda guy.
 
#9,556
#9,556
As far as the Muschamp/Butch argument goes, I think they're about even honestly. Muschamp was never able to put an OC worth a damn in place at UF. If he ever finds a good OC, he'll be very dangerous because he is a good defensive coach.

IMO Muschamp is much better at his specialty (Defense) than Butch is at his specialty (Offense) and it's not really close. That doesn't make him a better head coach (especially when some of his offenses have been truly abysmal), but it's worth something.
 
#9,561
#9,561
Man i wish we could run an offense like buffalo so far, great formations and play selections in a pistol/ option read offense
 
#9,565
#9,565
Darth_Shiveman said:
IMO Muschamp is much better at his specialty (Defense) than Butch is at his specialty (Offense) and it's not really close. That doesn't make him a better head coach (especially when some of his offenses have been truly abysmal), but it's worth something.
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I really hope Butch isn't delusional enough to think that he's an offensive guru or really an offensive coach at all. I defended him/his offense quite a bit early on by pointing out his journeyman-like coaching career through the offensive ranks, but I think his promotions/advancement came from being a great motivator more so than an Xs and Os wizard at any position on the field.
 
#9,566
#9,566
There has been a lot of discourse recently about the quality of our recruiting. Popular opinion is that we take too many 3*s to compete with elite teams like Alabama. I would like to offer my take.

There are only a few teams in the country who can nearly fill an entire class with 4* and 5* recruits. Right now, we are not among them. We grab the blue-chip guys we can grab, but we need to fill the gaps with those 3* guys who we believe are undervalued or who we believe are good fits to our system. This DOESN’T mean that we should never expect to compete with the elite programs. What it means is that when we do land those top 250 ‘big fish’, they need to be the backbone of our program while they’re here if we’re to compete at the highest level. Take a look at the spreadsheet that LWS posted earlier. Specifically, look at the top 250 guys we pulled in 2014 and 2015. In my opinion, our issue in these classes wasn’t the quantity of blue-chip recruits. The issue is that very few of these guys are panning out for us at an elite level.

In 2014, Hurd gave us two good years and is gone. Payne, Sawyers, Helm, Hendrix, Scott… Gone with no meaningful contributions. Bates, barring a near-miraculous senior season, is a bust. TK, Gaulden, Malone, McDowell… these guys are all solid SEC players to a greater or lesser extent, but not stars. The only top 250 who exploded for us in 2014 is Derek Barnett. Similar story in 2015 (caveat: these guys are only in year two, so a lot can still happen here). Preston is gone. Lots of top 250 guys haven’t contributed yet. Some can’t stay healthy. Some look like solid SEC players, but again… not many true elite guys.

Some 3* players turn into stars. Everybody brings up Sutton, and JK appears to be another cut from that mold. But you don’t bring in every single player expecting them to be a star; that’s not realistic. You bring in many of these players expecting them to be complementary pieces to your stars. Our issue is that the guys we need to be stars have just been complementary players. And these injuries upset the apple cart even further: now you have complementary players having to pose as stars, which just further exposes their shortcomings. An obvious example is Moseley having to act like a #1 cover corner when that's not his skillset and ideally he's fourth on the depth chart at CB.

TL;DR: I believe our issue is not that we take too many 3* recruits, but rather that our elite recruits aren’t developing into elite college players at a high enough rate. JMO.
 
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#9,568
#9,568
My kid is one of our better recruiters.

OL recruit at our house right now get the full court press. Too funny
 
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#9,575
#9,575
Outside of injuries this season is all about the offense IMO. It is currently producing 391 Total Offensive yards per game and is ranked #78. It is #8 in the SEC. Strength of schedule influences it, but not radically.

The teams people laugh about on here:
Mizzou is producing 487 ypg and is #25.
Missy State is #44 with 446 ypg.
UK is #80, one ypg behind UT. Essentially the same.
USCe is #120, 60 ypg behind UT. Most of the season was pre-Bentley at QB.
Vandy is #125 ypg and 79 ypg behind UT.

Of those teams, did you expect UT's offense to produce less ypg than Mizzou and Missy State at this point after 9 games with Sr. Dobbs at QB and Hurd/Kamara/Kelly/Malone/JJ/Wolf as skill players? I did not. This is after the TN Tech game being added in.

The TN Tech game helped a great deal and pushed UT up to #48 for Scoring Offense at 32 ppt, which is #5 in the SEC. Of the teams listed above that are on the schedule, all score less than UT per game. However, Mizzou is really close at #51 a few tenths behind and UK is at #70. Vandy is bad as is USCe, however, the later is skewed because of Bentley.

So that brings it to Total D and Scoring D per game.

As expected the SEC has 5 in the top 25 on total D. Bama #2, UF #3, LSU #13, UGA #16, UA #25. USCe is #52, UT #55 and 7th in the SEC. Vandy #60, UK #84, Mizzou #116.

Even after the TN Tech shut out Scoring D has UT tied with UGA at #53, which is #8 in the SEC. USCe is #21, Vandy is #26,and UK and Mizzou are tied at #87. The SEC has 7 teams in the top 26 in Scoring D when you add in aTm at #25 with Bama, UF, LSU and UA.

What this shows is that unless the O performs as a top 50 O in Total and Scoring Offense in the next 3 games, it will be a battle to win out. That was proven in the USCe game. Cut the TO's and make first downs. Just like Bentley was a wild card, so will there be one with UK. Stoops took over the D calls in mid-Sept. after a rough start giving up 44, 45, and 42 points (his first game calling was the third game). Since that point they are averaging around 25 ppg and only gave up 34 to Bama. We cannot afford another USCe offensive performance against UK. Score the ball.
 
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