Sooner Sobriety

[WoodsmanVol]

Disclaimer: In no way is this meant to duplicate, challenge, or anything else to or with our Fantastic, Vols Infected, Foreign Fan, and analyst, LondonVol

But it is a sort of I told you so gloat.

1. To you Volgod makers, as I and some others pointed out, our man, Nico is mortal. Yep, I think he played really well in a true hostile environment. And I said, we will see reminders that he is still basically a frosh (redshirt soph), and not that experienced, Sacked, fumbled, got run down etc. He'll be fine, but Volgod makers, he is mortal.
2. The OL kind of played with one hand tied behind their backs. Heard was out, I think, Campbell too. Davis has heart, did what I think was his best. Several of us mentioned w3 thought the OL depth wasn't what it needed to be. Way I see it, we dodged a bullet last night, cause OU came to play, and their defense certainly did. We better get better fast before we enter the teeth of SEC play.
3. Texas should be number one, not Tennessee, despite my pride in our climbing this high. I believe we won due to our defense. AND, because OU was playing with a QB even less experienced and capable than our Nico. Our DL did to him what the old Minnesota Purple People Eaters did to QBs back in the day. They rattled him so much he didn't know up from down, left from right, or whether he was standing still or running. I do believe that backup QB, had he started, would have given our boys fits. We miss too many backfield tackles on QBs. And that guy was like a Vaseline coated eel. Future opponents with running QBs will note this and exploit it, count on it. Back to our being ranked number one...well, I say it is.
RP.
4. Maybe it's my BVS, or something worse. I think that field was a mess to take away Tennessee's speed advantage. Our RBs, and return guys just couldn't maintain their footings to cut, slash, and dash the way they normally do. As a matter of fact, the moment one of the commenters suggested the field condition wasn't intentional, my AH-HA! klaxon blasted.
5. The future as I see it. Unless we heal up and get back to full strength on the OL, just about every game will be a struggle. Even Vanderbilt is flexing, so is Kentucky. Meanwhile, I'll keep drinking the Kool-aid- GBO!!!!!

 

[onevol74]

With the way their defense was cheating to the box I would have put Nico on the corner more with run pass options.

 

[VolRage]

#4 - spot on. I also believe it was intentional. Yes the field is trash and army worms may have caused it but I believe they also wetted it to make it worse.
On a quality field, I believe the point spread would’ve widened.

 

[tnburban]

I don't think the SEC has ever been closer in competition from top to bottom.

 

[tnburban]

#4 - spot on. I also believe it was intentional. Yes the field is trash and army worms may have caused it but I believe they also wetted it to make it worse.
On a quality field, I believe the point spread would’ve widened.

Intentional? I don't know. May be incompetence. It wasn't too long ago Neyland had the worst field in probably all the P5. It seemed like UT was bringing in consultants left and right to fix it and it took almost 2 years.

 

[Scot Harvath]

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[WoodsmanVol]

With the way their defense was cheating to the box I would have put Nico on the corner more with run pass options.

I wouldn't. OU pursuit was really good, and they hit hard. Given enough chances, they'd have broken Nico in six pieces, and sold the results as bush meat on an open air market. Early in the game, it mentioned him being 6"6" but thin. You can safely bet your money that Brent, Inc. would have sought to neutralize Nico with efforts to debone him.

 

[VolRage]

Intentional? I don't know. May be incompetence. It wasn't too long ago Neyland had the worst field in probably all the P5. It seemed like UT was bringing in consultants left and right to fix it and it took almost 2 years.

The intentional part would be that they let it grow too long (even the announcers mentioned that) and then wet it down (I suspect they did but no proof).

If army worms destroyed the field as the Sooners claim then……

Still, Oklahoma has played on that field for the first 3 games. They had the correct cleats to manage their footing and the Vols didn’t. That affected the game negatively for the Vols.

 

[bigorangepoppa]

Watching the game, the first thing that stood out to me was the way Tennessee seemed to be having trouble with footing. I told my son that I hoped Tennessee had different cleats in the locker room with longer cleats. I didn't notice the field looking like an army worm invasion had happened. There was one particle shot that caught my eye to the length of the grass. That seems to have been the plan to try to negate Tennessee's ability to keep their footing. Oklahoma players were able to make their cuts without slipping. Sneaky!

 

[ScornedPapaVol]

Of course the field was "on purpose". Everything about major college football is on purpose. So were the fake assed injuries after a big first down. Totally killed our momentum. Signs of a loser program when you have to openly cheat and then still lose handily. GoVols.