Vols in reverse

#26
#26
Idk what’s so hard to understand about this. More comfortable he is in the pocket the less stupid decisions or rushed decisions he will make. This is some unique new phenomenon associated with Nico, he a RS freshman, first year starter. You give him plenty of protection and help and he’s still going to make mistakes, it’s just something young players do. Nothing has changed the kid has great accuracy, great arm strength and throws a great ball when he gets his feet set and delivers it. If the pocket is collapsing or even worse a free blitzer is coming then yeah he’s going to make worse decisions.
 
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#33
#33
pimo1 said:
Or is he being overanalyzed?
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It was always going to be a shock for any freshman, but when your OL is a disaster, it made the situation so much worse. Heupel isn't stupid. Just simplify things a bit. Move him around. If they have the 3 deep safety look, give him some throws underneath. I think they also need to run him. Sometimes that gets a players juices flowing. Worked a bit with Milton if memory serves. Just do what bama is doing with Milton. They've altered their offense to do what Milton does best. They aren't trying to force a round peg in a square hole. As much as we are down on Nico for his play, I think we need to point out that the staff is coaching scared, too. They're worried about mistakes and injuries and they're coaching like it.

The team is a reflection of the coaching staff. If I'm going down, I'm going down giving it my best shot. Right now it feels like this team has no confidence on offense and the staff is throttling down. Still say we need to find out exactly what we have in Nico. He's 6 games in as a starter. He's been in the program for well over a year and a half in practice. It's just time to take the training wheels off and just let the kid play. Run the UT offense. Defensive coordinators have adjusted to what UT is doing on offense so where's Heupel's adjustment? Is he turtling up? Where's the offensive genius we thought we had? Is his offense just a gimmick? Is stopping it as easy as 3 safeties and flopping players? Where's our opening script designed to take advantage of the opponents defense? Is Heupel surprised by this odd number front that Arky and Oklahoma used? Why is it still confusing him? By now, one would have expected that Heupel would have a few answers in his bag of tricks....unless he's a one trick pony? The second half of the season will be very, very interesting to me. Come next season, it's all Heupel's roster and staff....his creation. That's when we'll find out what kind of coach we hired.
 
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#34
#34
Our OL has been exposed. For whatever reason, they can't protect Nico. His level of play might be deterorating, but, it's due to external forces - not Nico.
 
#35
#35
CAVPUT said:
It was always going to be a shock for any freshman, but when your OL is a disaster, it made the situation so much worse. Heupel isn't stupid. Just simplify things a bit. Move him around. If they have the 3 deep safety look, give him some throws underneath. I think they also need to run him. Sometimes that gets a players juices flowing. Worked a bit with Milton if memory serves. Just do what bama is doing with Milton. They've altered their offense to do what Milton does best. They aren't trying to force a round peg in a square hole. As much as we are down on Nico for his play, I think we need to point out that the staff is coaching scared, too. They're worried about mistakes and injuries and they're coaching like it.

The team is a reflection of the coaching staff. If I'm going down, I'm going down giving it my best shot. Right now it feels like this team has no confidence on offense and the staff is throttling down. Still say we need to find out exactly what we have in Nico. He's 6 games in as a starter. He's been in the program for well over a year and a half in practice. It's just time to take the training wheels off and just let the kid play. Run the UT offense. Defensive coordinators have adjusted to what UT is doing on offense so where's Heupel's adjustment? Is he turtling up? Where's the offensive genius we thought we had? Is his offense just a gimmick? Is stopping it as easy as 3 safeties and flopping players? Where's our opening script designed to take advantage of the opponents defense? Is Heupel surprised by this odd number front that Arky and Oklahoma used? Why is it still confusing him? By now, one would have expected that Heupel would have a few answers in his bag of tricks....unless he's a one trick pony? The second half of the season will be very, very interesting to me. Come next season, it's all Heupel's roster and staff....his creation. That's when we'll find out what kind of coach we hired.
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Cole Cubelic said nothings wrong with Heupel offense in his opinion. Its just their not hitting the ones when they scheme it open and have time, in SEC they have great Ds you have to connect on opportunities, yes its the SEC you're facing future NFL D-lineman every week. If you don't hit any of them yes your offense just don't click, instead of 7 points its 2nd & 10 or if it was a 3rd down miss its punting vs 7 points on the board.
If HH had missed Hyatt on 2 or 3 of those 4 beautiful TD passes vs Bama in 2022, we don't win 2 years ago its just that simple. If its there you have to make plays or against the SEC or you lose its tough week in and out, we were fortunate last week with great D play to pull out a W.
 
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#36
#36
Ffs, he's halfway through his 2nd year, he's not a freshman.

On the other hand, Mayer did pick UT to beat Bama.

I would agree though, he does seem to have taken a few steps back. Seems to playing too stiff. Needs to just go have fun and play his game.
 
#38
#38
Seems to me a lot of the post on here actually agree with UM's statement and lists correct reason(s) why Nico is underperforming, which is good. I'm not a fan of him either but he does have yrs of FB knowledge for credibility.
 
#39
#39
We looked better against Florida than Arkansas so that is already a bad take. A few of those downfield passes hit and we would be singing a different song about Nico and the passing game.
 
#40
#40
CAVPUT said:
It was always going to be a shock for any freshman, but when your OL is a disaster, it made the situation so much worse. Heupel isn't stupid. Just simplify things a bit. Move him around. If they have the 3 deep safety look, give him some throws underneath. I think they also need to run him. Sometimes that gets a players juices flowing. Worked a bit with Milton if memory serves. Just do what bama is doing with Milton. They've altered their offense to do what Milton does best. They aren't trying to force a round peg in a square hole. As much as we are down on Nico for his play, I think we need to point out that the staff is coaching scared, too. They're worried about mistakes and injuries and they're coaching like it.

The team is a reflection of the coaching staff. If I'm going down, I'm going down giving it my best shot. Right now it feels like this team has no confidence on offense and the staff is throttling down. Still say we need to find out exactly what we have in Nico. He's 6 games in as a starter. He's been in the program for well over a year and a half in practice. It's just time to take the training wheels off and just let the kid play. Run the UT offense. Defensive coordinators have adjusted to what UT is doing on offense so where's Heupel's adjustment? Is he turtling up? Where's the offensive genius we thought we had? Is his offense just a gimmick? Is stopping it as easy as 3 safeties and flopping players? Where's our opening script designed to take advantage of the opponents defense? Is Heupel surprised by this odd number front that Arky and Oklahoma used? Why is it still confusing him? By now, one would have expected that Heupel would have a few answers in his bag of tricks....unless he's a one trick pony? The second half of the season will be very, very interesting to me. Come next season, it's all Heupel's roster and staff....his creation. That's when we'll find out what kind of coach we hired.
Click to expand...

I think most of us already know what kind of coach we've hired.........
 
#41
#41
At this point forward, Nico's progress is more about Heupel & Halzle. We now know Nico is NOT that rare generational talent that just steps on the field and succeeds. No shame in that. Does he have the work ethic to improve - it appears so. Therefore, it's up to H&H to get the best out of him.
 
#43
#43
DaddyChad said:
Idk what’s so hard to understand about this. More comfortable he is in the pocket the less stupid decisions or rushed decisions he will make. This is some unique new phenomenon associated with Nico, he a RS freshman, first year starter. You give him plenty of protection and help and he’s still going to make mistakes, it’s just something young players do. Nothing has changed the kid has great accuracy, great arm strength and throws a great ball when he gets his feet set and delivers it. If the pocket is collapsing or even worse a free blitzer is coming then yeah he’s going to make worse decisions.
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I don’t understand why they don’t roll him out of the pocket more. He seems to make his best throw on the run, and it’s obvious that he’s not comfortable in the pocket (who would be when about every 5th play you get rocked because one of your tackles just whiff).
 
#44
#44
We aren't getting a 1st down running up the gut on 3rd and 11. It's never happened this year against sec defenses. It means Heupel doesn't trust Nico with trying to throw on obvious passing downs. That is a problem. Can Nico get us that 1st in that situation? He'd better or else it's gonna be a long disappointing tenure cuz we've gotta move the chains. Running off tackle on 1st and 2nd down sets us up for 3rd and long all the time and if Nico can't throw for a 1st in those situations we won't go anywhere.
 
#45
#45
Stonewall83 said:
Yea…..couldn’t have anything to do with him facing better teams or anything
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OU, FL, and Arkansas looked like Top 10 defenses against our Offense.

Are they anywhere close to that in reality???

Playing better team is no excuse when you have the offensive weapons we have and only throw
1 TD in 3 games….
 
#46
#46
rocketskates said:
100%. Someone is causing him to overthink his progressions. And possibly putting more pressure on him. Those long bombs the first three games of the year were perfect. And yeah, I know, we were smashing cans…but if the receiver beats the DB it’s just pitch and catch at that point regardless of the opponent. The long pass to Squirrel should’ve been an easy touchdown.
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Right now the pressure has spread the game back up for him. He is thinking about the rush first, which makes his progression read time less. Once he acclimated to the speed, the game will slow back down. We will see more accurately how he does.
 
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#48
#48
KTrain said:
Cole Cubelic said nothings wrong with Heupel offense in his opinion. Its just their not hitting the ones when they scheme it open and have time, in SEC they have great Ds you have to connect on opportunities, yes its the SEC you're facing future NFL D-lineman every week. If you don't hit any of them yes your offense just don't click, instead of 7 points its 2nd & 10 or if it was a 3rd down miss its punting vs 7 points on the board.
If HH had missed Hyatt on 2 or 3 of those 4 beautiful TD passes vs Bama in 2022, we don't win 2 years ago its just that simple. If its there you have to make plays or against the SEC or you lose its tough week in and out, we were fortunate last week with great D play to pull out a W.
Click to expand...
Hooker was a 5th year Senoir who had 3 years of practice time with Hyatt. just saying. I don't think people realize how important timing is between QB's and WR's and how much experience for the QB affects how much of a factor that could be.
 
#49
#49
pimo1 said:
Hooker was a 5th year Senoir who had 3 years of practice time with Hyatt. just saying. I don't think people realize how important timing is between QB's and WR's and how much experience for the QB affects how much of a factor that could be.
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Also Hyatt had better speed than most of the guys trying to cover him. I like the matchup with Hyatt and most humans one on one.

To be fair, Milton had similar time with Hyatt and similar reps and similar years of experience and didn't have the success Hooker enjoyed with Hyatt. It's not ALL on the QB-WR experience.

We all want to see the exciting big chunk plays but Heupel has got to adjust the offense if those plays aren't consistently going to happen for us.

We accepted Heupel's open admission: we'll have lots of quick scores AND lots of 3 and outs. We're not seeing the quick scores anymore as often and some of that is defenses figuring out how Heupel's offense works.

He needs to evolve beyond what worked in 2022.
 
#50
#50
SayUWantAreVOLution said:
Also Hyatt had better speed than most of the guys trying to cover him. I like the matchup with Hyatt and most humans one on one.

To be fair, Milton had similar time with Hyatt and similar reps and similar years of experience and didn't have the success Hooker enjoyed with Hyatt. It's not ALL on the QB-WR experience.

We all want to see the exciting big chunk plays but Heupel has got to adjust the offense if those plays aren't consistently going to happen for us.

We accepted Heupel's open admission: we'll have lots of quick scores AND lots of 3 and outs. We're not seeing the quick scores anymore as often and some of that is defenses figuring out how Heupel's offense works.

He needs to evolve beyond what worked in 2022.
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Uhh Milton rarely ever played with Hyatt friend. When Milton was in he was in with backups. By the time Milton was taking first string snaps Hyatt was sitting out of practices on his way to the NFL.

Timing is exactly why Hendon could hit both Hyatt and people like Tillman and Bru who all run very differently. Its also why often when backups comein as starters they usually have better timing with guys that were backups with them. For instance, Milton had very good timing with Squirrel Keyton, Nimrod and Webb because he got a lot of his practice and garbage time reps with them. In 2022 Most of Joes 10 TD's went to Ramel Keyton and Squirrel White. He was practicing mostly with them and Webb/Nimrod (redshirting). Timing is important.

TLDR version Backup QB's get most of their practice snaps with backup WR's. Especially during the season.
 
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