Status of Coach Willie Martinez

#155
#155
norrislakevol said:
I've never been real impressed with Willie, except for his recruiting ability...he does do pretty well there. Since he's still going to be hanging around I guess, it will be interesting to see what he can do with the better talent that he's going to have this upcoming year. He hasn't had much to work with to be fair. Hopefully this isn't another year of me screaming "Turn around!" at the T.V. as a pass doinks off one of our corners helmets.
Click to expand...
So he’s a good recruiter but hasn’t had much talent to work with?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deebowbear and sonofUT62
#158
#158
Welp there goes our hope of replacing Willie with Corey Raymond (formerly lsu and uf) or Travaris Robinson (currently bama)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deebowbear
#159
#159
sonofUT62 said:
That I could look through this thread and tell that you’re a devout Martinez apologist????
Click to expand...
I don’t care if he’s kept or not BUT I think a fair assessment is warranted. If you want to discuss criticism of the secondary, there’s plenty to discuss as well. This staff walked into a house fire basically; before you start to rebuild you’ve got to put the fire out, get the smell out, then rebuild it with the right pieces.

You can use splits and spread to do some stuff on offense but defense if you don’t have speed you’re screwed. It’s not just about speed athletically, it’s about speed mentally as well. Outside of Hadden you haven’t had a corner that had those attributes of being able to cover an elite SEC WR and being experienced enough to mentally process what’s going on quickly. Guys like Gibson and Matthews are far superior talent than what we’ve had; our freshmen coming in are far superior to what we’ve had. You just now have the players to actually develop and evaluate your coaches. This was never a situation like Georgia or Bama where the cupboards were full; Banks and Martinez had the cupboards empty with the kitchen on fire and the rats running out of the door when they came in.

Heupel has really outperformed on the offensive side of the ball; arguably Banks has as well considering what he inherited. It just hasn’t been fast enough for most people. We’ve had some excellent defensive performances and a lot of meh to terrible ones especially when we’ve had people injuried.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GoVols64
#160
#160
Hbg said:
So he’s a good recruiter but hasn’t had much talent to work with?
Click to expand...
Matthews, Gibson, Conyers, Carter, Beasley, Goree all coming in last year and this year. Also landed the kid from Oregon State due to his connections. Take a look at some of those guys film in comparison to the players we’ve had. Next year Gibson should be starting imho, just too much to put a true freshman on the outside in this conference with the safety play we’ve had.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JacketVol and tn4elvis
#161
#161
norrislakevol said:
I've never been real impressed with Willie, except for his recruiting ability...he does do pretty well there. Since he's still going to be hanging around I guess, it will be interesting to see what he can do with the better talent that he's going to have this upcoming year. He hasn't had much to work with to be fair. Hopefully this isn't another year of me screaming "Turn around!" at the T.V. as a pass doinks off one of our corners helmets.
Click to expand...
I don't understand many people say he is a great recruiter, yet also say we have not had the talent to play well?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chitlin&theDude
#162
#162
DaddyChad said:
Matthews, Gibson, Conyers, Carter, Beasley, Goree all coming in last year and this year. Also landed the kid from Oregon State due to his connections. Take a look at some of those guys film in comparison to the players we’ve had. Next year Gibson should be starting imho, just too much to put a true freshman on the outside in this conference with the safety play we’ve had.
Click to expand...
Gibson will be a star.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JacketVol, DaddyChad and KTrain
#164
#164
DaddyChad said:
I don’t care if he’s kept or not BUT I think a fair assessment is warranted. If you want to discuss criticism of the secondary, there’s plenty to discuss as well. This staff walked into a house fire basically; before you start to rebuild you’ve got to put the fire out, get the smell out, then rebuild it with the right pieces.

You can use splits and spread to do some stuff on offense but defense if you don’t have speed you’re screwed. It’s not just about speed athletically, it’s about speed mentally as well. Outside of Hadden you haven’t had a corner that had those attributes of being able to cover an elite SEC WR and being experienced enough to mentally process what’s going on quickly. Guys like Gibson and Matthews are far superior talent than what we’ve had; our freshmen coming in are far superior to what we’ve had. You just now have the players to actually develop and evaluate your coaches. This was never a situation like Georgia or Bama where the cupboards were full; Banks and Martinez had the cupboards empty with the kitchen on fire and the rats running out of the door when they came in.

Heupel has really outperformed on the offensive side of the ball; arguably Banks has as well considering what he inherited. It just hasn’t been fast enough for most people. We’ve had some excellent defensive performances and a lot of meh to terrible ones especially when we’ve had people injuried.
Click to expand...
This^^^
The staff had to either chose to stick with what was here and recruit younger talent or pull a Deon and run everyone off and hope for the best from the portal. I think they made the right decision with the looming sanctions I am not sure they would have faired very well in the portal in year one and two.

I am with you I don’t care either way if they retrained WM or not but the criticism he has received the last 3 years is unwarranted IMO.
 
#165
#165
cgrish said:
I don't understand many people say he is a great recruiter, yet also say we have not had the talent to play well?
Click to expand...
What don’t you understand about we didn’t have the roster spots for him to recruit to? CHJ placed emphasis on other needs and chose to stick with what we had In the defensive backfield. See LWSVOL post above with what he inherited and what we have recruited.
 
#166
#166
DaddyChad said:
He looks like he’s going to be special. Beasley kid coming in looks really good too imo. Boo will also be someone that finds his way onto the field early somewhere.
Click to expand...
Everyone has a guy. My guy is telling me Boo is playing O. He said he really doesn’t like the contact. That’s ok with me though. Catch it and then don’t get hit on the way to the end zone. 😀
 
#167
#167
cgrish said:
I don't understand many people say he is a great recruiter, yet also say we have not had the talent to play well?
Click to expand...

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.
Click to expand...
This is the post I was referencing. If I am reading this correctly he inherited 10 and signed two freshman and 2 portal players.
 
#168
#168
tn4elvis said:
Everyone has a guy. My guy is telling me Boo is playing O. He said he really doesn’t like the contact. That’s ok with me though. Catch it and then don’t get hit on the way to the end zone. 😀
Click to expand...
He is very good with the ball in his hands. Everything I’ve heard is on the defensive side of the ball though so far. I wonder if he finds himself in a return role next year with Dee gone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tn4elvis
#172
#172
volfan411 said:
This is the post I was referencing. If I am reading this correctly he inherited 10 and signed two freshman and 2 portal players.
Click to expand...

He signed two portal players. He was hired post signing day. He was limited on what he could get in portal due to roster requirements
 
  • Like
Reactions: volfan411
#174
#174
LWSVOL said:
He signed two portal players. He was hired post signing day. He was limited on what he could get in portal due to roster requirements
Click to expand...
Thank you!! I think that proves my point that he was limited in what he could recruit due to the DB room being full, other needs on the roster that took priority and scholarship reductions.

As I said earlier I don’t care either way if they kept or let him go but some of the criticism is unwarranted at this point of the rebuild.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tennrich1 and tn4elvis
#175
#175
he's a great recruiter. i think our young guys were pretty impressive in the bowl game. we have good talent coming in. I think we will be improved.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top