UT Dead Last in FBS - Impressive Stat

[Gandalf]

There is a lack of talent and you can blame coaching but neither of those alone will get you to being DEAD LAST in the entire FBS. That requires a will to lose. You have to WANT to lose to suck that badly. Just look at those videos above. Nothing to do with coaching when you are standing there and someone runs right over you or past you without you even raising your hands. I think this just shows the level of cancerous culture that Butch left and that Pruitt is having to reverse and eliminate.

 

[savannahfan]

Nick Saban wouldn't be able to fix this in 2018. Horrible OL play. Must have much better quality next year just to be average. Freshman will have to be special, and returning players will need marked improvement.

When Saint Nick showed up at Bama, they were not the "best" bunch of players in the SEC, nor were they the worst. (not by a long shot) But, Saint Nick had a little trouble getting it going. What I'm saying is Saint Nick was not always a Saint.

 

[LargePairOfVols]

130th out of 130 teams by OL Stuff Rate - "the percentage of carries by running backs that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage"

2018 NCAA OFFENSIVE LINE STATS | Football Outsiders

What is really amazing isn't just that we are last in this category, but the margin by which we are. All other 129 fbs teams are in a range of 10.2% (Wisconsin) to 26.6%. That is a 16.4% range total. But, there we are way out in left field another 6% from our nearest neighbor at a whopping 32.6%. Yes, a full third of our runs were stopped right at the LOS or behind. That is insane.

What's even worse? Of the last 4 years they've been tracking the stat, no one has reached our level. Next closest was 28.7%, not even close! Suck it 2017 Texas State!

We can only go up from here!

This makes sense. It felt like we got stuffed behind the LOS way too much. This proves it.

You almost have to try to be that incompetent.

 

[LookinUp]

Doesnt it make you think. Why in the world would we try to run on 60% of our plays.

Because the quarterback gets hit 60% of the time before he can even throw.

 

[savannahfan]

Nick Saban wouldn't be able to fix this in 2018. Horrible OL play. Must have much better quality next year just to be average. Freshman will have to be special, and returning players will need marked improvement.

When Saint Nick showed up at Bama, they were not the "best" bunch of players in the SEC. nor were they the worst. (not by a long shot) But, Saint Nick had a little trouble getting it going. What if saying is Saint Nick was not always a Saint.

Weird how Dobbs was able to get 9 win seasons with bowl game wins with a terrible o-line.....wonder what changed?

Simple answer.... There are not many Dobbs types out there. He made defenses play just a little more honestly. AND the o-line was not quite as bad as it is now.

 

[overseasorange2]

When Saint Nick showed up at Bama, they were not the "best" bunch of players in the SEC. nor were they the worst. (not by a long shot) But, Saint Nick had a little trouble getting it going. What if saying is Saint Nick was not always a Saint.

Simple answer.... There are not many Dobbs types out there. He made defenses play just a little more honestly. AND the o-line was not quite as bad as it is now.

Defintely helps to have a "real"dual threat QB.

 

[1974Vol]

Lots of folks to blame here. Dooley didn't recruit any bodies (really 0 OL recruits his last year) Jones recruited too few. So, you start with a lack of numbers which means you better hit on the ones you get, obviously we didn't. Then the few guys that have shown promise have just been devastated by injuries, Trey, Jones, Hall, Richardson, probably others. So, it’s been a perfect storm of ineptness. Unfortunately, it’s not a quick fix like you could have at RB or CB. You just have to recruit a bunch of guys, redshirt most of them and make them eat right and live in the weight room until they are grown men. I don’t know if I’ll live that long ☹

 

[GAVol]

Lots of folks to blame here. Dooley didn't recruit any bodies (really 0 OL recruits his last year) Jones recruited too few. So, you start with a lack of numbers which means you better hit on the ones you get, obviously we didn't. Then the few guys that have shown promise have just been devastated by injuries, Trey, Jones, Hall, Richardson, probably others. So, it’s been a perfect storm of ineptness. Unfortunately, it’s not a quick fix like you could have at RB or CB. You just have to recruit a bunch of guys, redshirt most of them and make them eat right and live in the weight room until they are grown men. I don’t know if I’ll live that long ☹

That's pretty much it. I guess if there's any upside is that we going to have some young guys forced into the field next year. They'll get abused early on, but it should pay off in the future.

 

[VolInNW]

Guys, it’s a combo of all of this in a perfect Tennessee storm:

1. Lyle liked splash players. He liked headlines regardless of mix. His classes show this. He didn’t like recruiting in the trenches. You don’t build a DL or OL with all 5 stars. There just aren’t that many out there. Usually this is a 3 Star heavy with a 4 or 5 thrown in area where you build them up and coach them up. No headlines there. Lyle no likey.

2. Lyle killed out S&C program. Nuff said.

3. JG is a tough determined young man who on his best day seems to be a marginal SEC QB. Put him behind a hot mess lime we have and you get him beat to a pulp. You know, kinda like what we watched all year.

4. We had lousy coaching under Lyle. Frankly Friend hasn’t wowed me either. The times we get bull rushed onto our backside I attribute to the S&C issue. The kid is where he needs to be he just isn’t strong enough to stop his man. But more often we either miss the block or assume a ‘pose’ and watch our guy run past. That’s technique. That’s coaching.

5. Our OL is used to sucking now. A missed block is just no big deal. Extra effort to get back in the play is rarely there. That’s culture.

So it’s not one thing. It’s a combo of poor recruiting, poor coaching, a marginal QB, no S&C, and a culture of losing.

Can CJP fix this? His recruiting looks much better. I’m not close to being sold on Friend. S&C takes time. Culture is a tricky thing to shift.

Time will tell.

 

[The Original Fade]

Of course not. The fans and team were sold a bill of goods when it comes to JG and mobility. But what I was referring to was one team had a good QB..one does not. Guess which is which!

Dobbs and JG are equal in every category other than Dobb’s ability to run and escape pressure. When you have crap for an Oline, that one extra ability makes a huge difference

 

[GAVol]

If we could just get to a point where we can create stalemates or put up a little resistance before getting beat, it'd be an improvement. I've never seen a collective group blow assignments and whiff as much as last year.

 

[The Original Fade]

If we could just get to a point where we can create stalemates or put up a little resistance before getting beat, it'd be an improvement. I've never seen a collective group blow assignments and whiff as much as last year.

There were times where I thought we wouldn’t even be able to get a spike off

 

[Devo182]

Doesnt it make you think. Why in the world would we try to run on 60% of our plays.

1 word comes to mind - stubborn. Not that our sack rate was great, but you'd think replicating the USC game plan would've been smart. Everyone said it was the best schemed game all year - all we did was scrap some runs for short throws and it worked.

Pray to god we can run better this year, it's like playing with 1 hand tied behind your back.

 

[bag12day]

Everyone knew our OL epically underperformed, now we just have stats to back it up.

This is POOR PLAYER DEVELOPMENT by a coach who had zero understanding of SEC football.

I'm curious and I am genuinely asking to get an impression not to argue about it. If you read my post #38 above do you think that the epic failure to actually put Hands, arms, pads or helmets on the rusher immediately is on the coach? Do you think they teach players to let a player blow by, push you back, or juke you left and rush right based on the play call? I don't think that is taught from Pee Wee on up to the NFL and doesn't have anything to do with SEC "understanding" at a basic level. I used to teach if you put the guy on his ass in front of you I wont say a word about not doing what the play was designed for because you blocked the wrong guy.
I guess I have my opinion but I'm willing to listen to reason.

 

[82_VOL_83]

At least our numbers are highest in something!!!

 

[Devo182]

They run to shorten the game if you pass more you get sacked or turn it over. Bad OL ties the coaches hands.

I get the strategy that if you think your team is worse, then shorten the game, but this was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Run game was easily the worst part of the entire team, offense, defense, special teams. To rely on it is to make a bad team out of a decent team. Passing and D were serviceable.

We also did this vs worse opponents, which makes no sense. Why shorten the game vs Charlotte or utep?? Have to wonder if they were simply stubborn.

 

[bmaultbay]

With these kind of numbers...it's easy to see that Coach Pruitt's most effective recruiting talk to prospective lineman goes something like:
"Young man, aight, I can pretty much GUARANTEE, aight, you'll be thrown into the game from day one, aight,...straight outta High School aight. We're gonna be depending upon you, aight, to open those running lanes, aight, and provide pass protection, aight, against our typical top 10 ranked SEC opponents, aight".

FYP

 

[05_never_again]

Lack of line play has been a problem for a number of years. As far I am concerned everyone signed in Feb. should be a big nasty Mama-jamma.

Offensive line play has not been truly good at Tennessee since the early 2000s. We've had good/great QBs, RBs, and WRs at various times.

The offensive line and cornerbacks/secondary have been bad here for a long time. By far the worst 2 position groups. Before Cam Sutton, the last corner Tennessee had drafted was in 2007 (Jonathan Wade).

 

[orangerush]

So you're saying there's room for improvement.

 

[Devo182]

And to think people actually believe 8 to 9 wins is possible next year...

Friend has improved every line he's coached. Of course it would be very "UT" for this to be the lone stop where it doesn't happen, but let's see. I believe he'll turn it around some this year returning everyone. Consistent s&c and OL coaching is unheard of here. Both are supposed to be really good, so let's see this year.

 

[livefaith]

Doesnt it make you think. Why in the world would we try to run on 60% of our plays.

Because our other option is to throw.

 

[northknoxvol]

Will Friend needs to be run out of town on a rail!

 

[GAVol]

1 word comes to mind - stubborn. Not that sack rate was great, but you'd think replicating the USC game plan would've been smart. Everyone said it was the best schemed game all year - all we did was scrap some runs for short throws and it worked.

Pray to god we can run better this year, it's like playing with 1 hand tied behind your back.

I never understood that. We seemed to look best throwing screens, hitting RBs out of the backfield, throwing underneath to JJ and Callaway and occasionally throwing a jump ball.

 

[ShoalCreekVol]

130th out of 130 teams by OL Stuff Rate - "the percentage of carries by running backs that are stopped at or before the line of scrimmage"

2018 NCAA OFFENSIVE LINE STATS | Football Outsiders

What is really amazing isn't just that we are last in this category, but the margin by which we are. All other 129 fbs teams are in a range of 10.2% (Wisconsin) to 26.6%. That is a 16.4% range total. But, there we are way out in left field another 6% from our nearest neighbor at a whopping 32.6%. Yes, a full third of our runs were stopped right at the LOS or behind. That is insane.

What's even worse? Of the last 4 years they've been tracking the stat, no one has reached our level. Next closest was 28.7%, not even close! Suck it 2017 Texas State!

We can only go up from here!

And yet the OL got worse against the run as the season went on, not better. Our coaching staff couldn't make even middling improvement, in teaching technique, stance, knowing where to block, or even scheming to mitigate the damage. And our QB still refused to move around. This season was quite the indictment of a major college coaching staff full of millionaires who are supposed to be expert teachers.

Either that or our entire OL consisted of completely unteachable, incapable players. I guess there could be some middle ground?

 

[Devo182]

Weird how Dobbs was able to get 9 win seasons with bowl game wins with a terrible o-line.....wonder what changed?

Those OLs were actually rated decently well in run game, and so-so in pass. To stick with this stat, for example, their stuff rates were ranked 30th in 2016 and 55th in 2015. Not top notch, but a vast improvement over the last 2 years.