Status of Coach Willie Martinez

#129
#129
LWSVOL said:
I've had several DB coaches, college level, tell me many times if the DBs take their eye off a receiver they will be 5 yards behind them in a second. The speed of receivers is too great. Most teach then to watch the player and read him for when ball may be arriving to turn for it. I imagine not the easiest skill to learn. Most DBs are also giving up size to WRs now days. Easier for WRs to bump them away.

The really good DBs are very athletic. Not so much physical, some are, but really fast and fluid in the hips. They are able to handle press coverage and be able to turn for ball. I imagine if you count them, majority of interceptions happen by DBs that are watching the QB and not running with a WR.
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The problem is more when the WR has to adjust to the ball and isn't running full speed and our DBs don't get their head around and just face-guard.
 
#130
#130
it is concerning when Brian Kelly has no problem firing his D coord. Shows they are serious about winning.
 
#134
#134
Tnphil said:
In zone you read the QB and react in your zone....In man you read your receiver. You do not run down the field with your head turned to the QB...You read your man and react to his actions for the ball. Letting your man catch the ball while never looking for the ball to avoid your man to freely catch it is bad football....Our problems for several years our DBs are so slow they are too busy catching up to the receiver and not in position to turn and make a play on the ball. Our DBs are tacklers AFTER the receivers catch the ball...We hope they tackle.

Hopefully things are changing...Please.
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I agree... its been lack of talent for sometime now..
 
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#135
#135
BigOrangeTrain said:
I get it. You have this belief that our coaching staff can do no wrong. While I will fully admit everyone on our staff has for gotten more football then I will ever know, I have two eyes and ears. I can read stats. I can watch our DBs routinely miss tackles, be out of position, be terrible at fundamentals and get torched. You obviously cannot. The secondary has been bad since Martinez took over.

If you can’t see that Martinez isn’t a good coach then I don’t know what to tell you. Plenty of head coaches evaluate their staff and replace them. Kelly and Napier have done it. Saban and Smart have done it. In my opinion, which is no better than yours, it’s a red flag that Heupel refuses to at least TRY and upgrade some position coaches. You can disagree or agree. Frankly I don’t care. But my opinion on this matter hasn’t hurt nor helped this team.
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Your postings have for sure lowered the fan quality coefficient. Your plus/minus value for impact on visiting fans and prospects is horrible. Who would want their family members and friends to play in front of 100k of you and your cyber backslapping buddies. Hopefully they can determine our EVERBODY HAS THEM percentages are in line with our competition. You force the rational middle to post rebuttals when we would all be better served to have some dead air and wait for some real facts instead of jaded interpretations of facts.
 
#136
#136
DaddyChad said:
Not really. Martinez is a great recruiter. All of the staff was given time to get some players in place. Obviously you think we had top tier talent already though.
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If he's a great recruiter, keep him on the staff as an analyst, and get a new DB coach..
 
#139
#139
jasonvol18 said:
Dammit man, what the hell is Heup thinking? He knows more than me , but damn. Our Secondary has not improved in 3 yrs.
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You also must have missed the DB rooms being emptied and making it clear we needed SEC caliber players more than 18 years of age on the field. Growing those we got in the first post NCAA hammer class and bringing in some upwardly mobile through the portal. They have not been shopping culls. Still PROBABLY not AA caliber but closing ground. If we don’t see improvement trends this year, get back to us.
 
#140
#140
SugarVols said:
it is concerning when Brian Kelly has no problem firing his D coord. Shows they are serious about winning.
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Remind me what happened the last time Tennessee played LSU? Yes Kelly firing the DC he hired is getting serious about winning. Maybe he will be serious enough to hire the right guy from the start this time?
 
#141
#141
jasonvol18 said:
Dammit man, what the hell is Heup thinking? He knows more than me , but damn. Our Secondary has not improved in 3 yrs.
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You’re absolutely wrong. It has improved. Just hasn’t improved quickly enough for anyone. Hadden before the injury was absolutely 100% improved. Our secondary in general has improved year by year they still suck but they’ve improved.
 
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#143
#143
DarkVolder said:
Of course he’s coming back. Heup won’t fire his buddies
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He won’t have to in this case. Martinez is aware of the expectations and the struggles.

Unfortunately outside of Hadden you’ve got guys that shouldn’t be playing SEC football or you’ve got guys that are really young and inexperienced. Banks and Martinez are basically scheming to cover our own weakness instead of scheming to stop the opposing offense in some games. Sometimes we’re essentially rolling a warm body out there when injuries take people out.
 
#145
#145
Some facts regarding the building of the DB room..

The 2021 class was signed in December 2020 prior to Pruitt being fired.

There were 10 DBs in the room returning from 2020 roster for 2021 (3 seniors in last year but 7 with more time)

Heupel was hired 1/27/21 12 days before NSD (2-3-21) and had to assemble a staff.

Martinez was hired 2/17/21.

The 2021 signing class had 2 DBs in it (Charles and Rucker: It should be noted that both have been more injured than healthy)

They picked up two Portal DBs in the spring/summer (Hadden and Turnage. Hadden has also missed a lot of time injured)

In 2022 signed 3 DBs (Williams (for KR skills and little else), Thomas and Harrison).

From the portal, picked up Turrentine and Walker.

In 2023, picked up Jeudy-Lally from the Portal.

Signed Conyer, Gibson, Luttrll, Matthews and J Slaughter.

So its been a veteran room since Heupel has been here and he put priorities elsewhere in recruiting. 2023-24 is when he saw a need to work that room harder. Talent was not great with the veterans but they were older and understood SEC ball.

2024 he has added more young talent in Beasley, Carter, Farooq, plus 3 portal players thus far. Hopefully all are continue to add talent.

We can argue until the next century about coaches skill sets and it won't change anyone's mind. I leave coaching decisions up to the coach and would have had no problem with a change or him keeping WM. I do think the talent has been improved over what they got from Pruitt (Taylor and Jackson were better than most of the others)

Just thought the arguers deserved some of the facts that led us to where we are on that room and where it has been the last 3 years.
 
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#146
#146
KTrain said:
Yep the deep ball killed them this year, if Auburn had a QB with a pulse they'd won that game + the lucky 4th & 31. Bama had just one real good cover guy, I think Saban knew he was lucky to make the F4 this year he had to coach his A off to squeak in, was time to exit.
We will see if the players picked up can be formed into a better D backfiel. Some of you should know its not the law you have to turn your head around every time, sometimes DBs turn head just as WRs make a cut and TD, then ppl are on here why was that guy so wide open. If you turn your head the likelihood of getting a PI goes down when hand fighting for the ball and chance for interception. Sometimes you just have to keep the eye on receiver and play and knock the ball as it arrives. It is taught both ways its circumstantial. The talking points on a PI by announcers are, he would not have got a PI if he'd turned his head. So the casual fans thinks on every pass DB has to turn his head because they heard their favorite TV guy Gary Danielson say "well probably a PI because guy didn't get his head around". I've just seen on here that was one of the most talked about banes of DB haters post.
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Bingo
 
#147
#147
LWSVOL said:
Some facts regarding the building of the DB room..

The 2021 class was signed in December 2020 prior to Pruitt being fired.

There were 10 DBs in the room returning from 2020 roster for 2021 (3 seniors in last year but 7 with more time)

Heupel was hired 1/27/21 12 days before NSD (2-3-21) and had to assemble a staff.

Martinez was hired 2/17/21.

The 2021 signing class had 2 DBs in it (Charles and Rucker: It should be noted that both have been more injured than healthy)

They picked up two Portal DBs in the spring/summer (Hadden and Turnage. Hadden has also missed a lot of time injured)

In 2022 signed 3 DBs (Williams (for KR skills and little else), Thomas and Harrison).

From the portal, picked up Turrentine and Walker.

In 2023, picked up Jeudy-Lally from the Portal.

Signed Conyer, Gibson, Luttrll, Matthews and J Slaughter.

So its been a veteran room since Heupel has been here and he put priorities elsewhere in recruiting. 2023-24 is when he saw a need to work that room harder. Talent was not great with the veterans but they were older and understood SEC ball.

2024 he has added more young talent in Beasley, Carter, Farooq, plus 3 portal players thus far. Hopefully all are continue to add talent.

We can argue until the next century about coaches skill sets and it won't change anyone's mind. I leave coaching decisions up to the coach and would have had no problem with a change or him keeping WM. I do think the talent has been improved over what they got from Pruitt (Taylor and Jackson were better than most of the others)

Just thought the arguers deserved some of the facts that led us to where we are on that room and where it has been the last 3 years.
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That’s the thing. Let’s access performance:

1) Has the talent we have performed better?

I think that answer is yes. I know they haven’t been extraordinary but still better.

2) Have we recruited the position better and improved talent?

Again I think there’s no doubt it’s better.
 
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#149
#149
Chitlin&theDude said:
We have been consistently bad in the secondary. We were bad in his first stint here. Ask GA fans if they thought he did a good when he was there. As far as being a great recruiter???? How, who? Who are the phenomenal dbs he's bringing in?
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Exactly. Some are having memory issues whether intentionally or not
 
#150
#150
titansvolsfaninga said:
You know Bama's DBs were not that good. Their front 7 was good. Yall just say stuff, and it's stupid.
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Exactly...they had a couple of very talented guys but had some weak players, too. It wasn't like the Bama teams of old (or current Georgia team) where they play 11 superstars on D. Look what we did to them last year when the OL gave Hooker time...
 
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