We Weren’t Good This Year

[AdoptedVOL]

Over and over this season I’ve heard “wins are wins no matter how bad we play”.

Eventually it catches up. And when it does…

 

[chuck0303]

Our scheme was completely reliant on Sampson. Losing him was like pulling a spark plug in your engine. And the portal knocked some ornaments off the tree. In hindsight, we were doomed.

Sampson won many games for us this year. Where's the next Sampson? Until we get some elite Oline players who can block & pass protect there's going to be many more heartaches. I haven't liked the play-calling all year. Giving the benefit of the doubt to a young QB is one thing, but you have to get better throughout the year and you can't just play cupcakes every week. It takes an entire team and that includes the coaches making the right adjustments. We have some good players but not enough. I'm afraid there's rough sledding ahead. Nico can't be running for his life all the time like JG did. As it is right now, I'd hate to make a prediction for next year--not good.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I wouldn't say we weren't good, but we weren't as good as Vol fans thought.

 

[utvols74]

Many CFB experts before the season started believed OSU would be the national champion. Some of them are hopelessly B1G biased, but others gave an honest assessment based on their returning starters, portal grabs, schedule, bench strength, recruiting success etc. I believe they may be right.

 

[Alto1]

It’s all about expectations.
I for one expect us to win every game we play, knowing on a few occasions that may not happen, but I do expect us to be competitive and in every game we play, till the end.
CJH did say Anybody Anytime Anywhere.
The “anywhere” didn’t work out real well on 3 different occasions, but other than that it was definitely a good year.

 

[Alto1]

Many CFB experts before the season started believed OSU would be the national champion. Some of them are hopelessly B1G biased, but others gave an honest assessment based on their returning starters, portal grabs, schedule, bench strength, recruiting success etc. I believe they may be right.

Hard to argue this^
I do find it extremely disappointing that they manhandled us in the manner they did.
I thought we had closed the gap more than that shat show exposed last night…….

 

[theFallGuy]

We just weren’t. Beck torched us. The Ohio State QB torched us. Our pass defense was horrible all year. Heupel is kinda vanilla. So uninspired at times. I don’t blame this on the players really. If Michigan’s d can slow down Ohio State, why couldn’t we? So bad on both sides of the ball. I’m speechless. It’s really inexcusable. We played so bad in the first half all season. That’s not on the players. I think Heupel is a good coach. He’s not great. Day out coached him, and Day is not great. We need a great one. Heupel was a good stop gap. It’s time to go in a different direction. That was absolutely pathetic.

Good grief step away from the ledge

 

[theFallGuy]

We are a really good team. But we are not a great team. I thought we all knew that. We need multiple years of recruiting skill position players. Ohio State has been recruiting top 5 classes for like a decade. We have no deep threat at WR and with Sampson out it was going to be a difficult road game especially at night. Ohio State was obviously pissed off about the embarrassing loss to Michigan and took it out on us.

 

[volfeeva]

Georgia is far from average

They are average compared to the Georgia teams in the last 3 or 4 years. This is a down year for both Georgia and Bama---relative to their dominance in the play offs of late.

 

[volfeeva]

This year, the VOLS were an over-rated team that played some great quarters and some horrible quarters. They were shallow and inconsistent. They did not belong on that field last night… that was painfully clear.

I had moments of great frustration and great happiness this season. As a fan I want to see more consistency against the good teams from my team.

This staff needs to reflect inwardly and figure out how they move this program forward. I believe they will. This off-season and next season is going to be very telling about Huepels future in college football.

I agree the staff needs to reflect inward and ask what they can do better as coaches. But consider the Arkansas loss came after they had 2 weeks to prepare, and Ohio St came after they had 3 weeks to prep. No new plays, no trick plays

 

[AdoptedVOL]

I agree the staff needs to reflect inward and ask what they can do better as coaches. But consider the Arkansas loss came after they had 2 weeks to prepare, and Ohio St came after they had 3 weeks to prep. No new plays, no trick plays

The lack of discipline on the field and vanilla play calling is coaching and fixable.

EDIT: I don’t need to see trick or gadget plays. A slant. More throws down field. Maybe a reverse. Running between tackles and screens to the flat get old.

 

[Delmar]

Over and over this season I’ve heard “wins are wins no matter how bad we play”.

Eventually it catches up. And when it does…

Should we just go ahead and lose them all and take the suspense out?

 

[Jbob1871]

If it’s all on the everyday fans then I’m out.

Fans can pay into a collective. I would rather put into my 401K

 

[GAV4L]

10-3 is a good record for this team, and if we’re as bad as you say then how did we get to 10 wins? Coaching or just being fortunate with a favorable schedule?

We were a good team but a favorable schedule led many to think this was a great or borderline elite one, but last night showed us we are far from that at the moment

 

[livefaith]

You mean we aren’t as good of a football team w/out our 25 year old Senior QB, who is probably one of the top 3 QBs of the last 35 years on the hill? We are a different football team that’s evolving from a team that needed to outscore teams, to a team that played defense and field position all year bc we were starting a RS freshman QB.

We lost 3 games total. 2 of those losses were to the consensus preseason #1 and #2 teams in the country on the road, at night, coming off of devastating losses. UGA and Ohio State have been recruiting at a much higher level than anyone other than Bama for a very long time . When those teams are highly motivated and play at a high level they will win most times . We were exposed at linebacker and safety.. again. We dont have the horses there yet. This is something that has to be addressed, but we’re moving in the right direction. We were 1 of 3 SEC teams that made the Playoff and I don’t consider this season to be a bad one at all.

Nice take. I had a 9-3 expectation. Had a 10-2 / 11-1 if Nico proved to be a superstar Bryce Young prodigy. He didn't. But, overall we moved to train in the right direction. Hopefully Hype does well in the portal again. Next season we should have a Heisman candidate type to build around at QB. So, who knows. I had very low expectations the season after Nebraska manhandled Peyton, Little, and that loaded upperclassmen/draft prospect team. So, you can't always tell by one game.

 

[volfeeva]

The lack of discipline on the field and vanilla play calling is coaching and fixable.

EDIT: I don’t need to see trick or gadget plays. A slant. More throws down field. Maybe a reverse. Running between tackles and screens to the flat get old.

Teams should have a few plays they save for the red zone/ needing a first down/ or at the goal line. Something that hasn't been used often that other teams haven't seen on film

 

[livefaith]

Anyone who thinks we should move on from Heupel is a delusional fool and should not be taken seriously.

We just played in our first, significant postseason game in over two decades. We just came up short. I’m excited about the future.

OU would hire him before midnight tonight if given ½ a chance, and their fan base would go wild in the morning.

 

[livefaith]

I can take the loss. We lined up with them, and it wasn't our day.

What I can't take? Listening to the radio, and listening to OSU score their second TD. And that damn Blob Kesling on the radio sounding almost giddy about it. So over that.

Well, I guess you'll have your wish met there. He gone

 

[Jravol78]

Thank goodness OP took the time to put this together at 2a.m . I wasn’t sure how to feel about the season.

 

[Daniel_Lincolns_Foot]

People got caught off guard by the recency bias of OSU losing to Michigan at home just 2 weeks ago.

A general rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t take rivalry games into account when judging a team. We see things in rivalry games that don’t often reflect where a teams at overall.

Long story short: Ohio State is not a bad team and they haven’t been all season. They started and ended the season ranked in the top 10. Their only loss besides Michigan was a one point game to the #1 overall seeded Oregon on the road. In fact, they are a really good team.

Us on the other hand? We clawed our way to 10-2 but have been super suspect all season. Way more suspect that Ohio state has been. And let’s be honest: we backed our way into the playoff because some teams in front of us massively screwed up.

Now does this take away from getting blown out? No. It sucked and it was embarrassing. But please, stop grasping at straws for excuses. Ohio State was the better team all year, the better team last night, and we got outclassed in front of the nation. Just own up to it.

 

[livefaith]

The lack of discipline on the field and vanilla play calling is coaching and fixable.

EDIT: I don’t need to see trick or gadget plays. A slant. More throws down field. Maybe a reverse. Running between tackles and screens to the flat get old.

That is my biggest negative of the year. Our offense has become downright boring. CJH has a reputation as a wizard. Not this team. 2nd negative is our lack of discipline that led to sooo many paralyzing penalties this year. But, the offense was eó

I hate to say it, but Nico is not currently capable of reading and delivering as needed, our OL was SEC average at best, and passing game chemistry needs serious work.

 

[Go47]

I am appreciative of this team and season. We weren’t world beaters in the end, but this team of questions marks really came together and fought. We had severe limitations as a team and those were exposed today. Our over reliance on Sampson to bail us out and for pressure with four to let us sit back and play with a numbers advantage finally caught up with us. Touché OSU. It is just reality. We have some serious holes still in scheme that have to be answered as well as personnel. My goodness our LBs are bad.

Teams with any offensive creativity are able to scheme is into horrible matchups. Napier did it but was severely limited by his players. Tonight Kelly had us so twisted that Arian Carter was covering Megatron 2.0 on man coverage repeatedly.

Offensively we have been bad at tackle all year long. We have at times struggled against teams to move the ball even with a favorable box. The wide split offense is dead if you cannot run on a soft box as are most offenses. If we cannot get better OL play, this is the ceiling. I hate this offense but I pray it keeps working. But, if you can’t block, it’s all just squiggles on a chalkboard.

I am thankful that we have had great individual and team defensive performances but I hope Banks is hired elsewhere as a HC. His system is a liability. We have been good defensively because we out talented people. Our front is really good and some of our dbs are too. When they are better than the opponent, we have been really good. In even or unfavorable matchups we are toast and have been. We are outsmarted and it is obvious. As the season has worn on, it has been even truer. Presnap motion is into unfavorable conditions and isolate our slow LBs.

In tournaments all but one ends with an L. I think we ran into a buzz saw tonight. We saw the best roster in CFB operating at 100%. Nobody was going to beat OSU today.

Go Vols. I hope we can use this to adjust and improve for next season. I will be cheering. A lot of this team was young or from the portal. Another year will do us good. I will hate not seeing the same DL guys out there. I have enjoyed watching them play and grow.

Merry Christmas everybody

Spot on.

Kelly moved Smith around a lot . . . And was able to get him matched up on Carter and Brooks a lot. Egbuka too.

Banks never adjusted to follow Smith or double him. Almost all teams doubled him.

Banks decided to play straight up zone . . . Not double team Smith / not follow Smith with McCoy . . . And we got torched.

Talent advantage? Yes. But make no mistake, people who watch the chess match know Kelly dominated Banks - that’s beyond question.

Our Dline was deep . . . And good at stopping the run . . . But against supposedly beat up olines in UGA and OSU . . . They got no pressure with the front 4. None.

On offense, to me without the hurry up element I see no matchup advantages, no crossing patterns, nothing.

I don’t see our talent level suddenly improving that much in one year . . . But who knows with the portal?

I think we will see much more of the same next year . . . With a likely 8-4 record.

 

[loosecannon]

Spot on.

Kelly moved Smith around a lot . . . And was able to get him matched up on Carter and Brooks a lot. Egbuka too.

Banks never adjusted to follow Smith or double him. Almost all teams doubled him.

Banks decided to play straight up zone . . . Not double team Smith / not follow Smith with McCoy . . . And we got torched.

Talent advantage? Yes. But make no mistake, people who watch the chess match know Kelly dominated Banks - that’s beyond question.

Our Dline was deep . . . And good at stopping the run . . . But against supposedly beat up olines in UGA and OSU . . . They got no pressure with the front 4. None.

On offense, to me without the hurry up element I see no matchup advantages, no crossing patterns, nothing.

I don’t see our talent level suddenly improving that much in one year . . . But who knows with the portal?

I think we will see much more of the same next year . . . With a likely 8-4 record.

The exceedingly wide receiver splits make crosses too slow to develop. It is one of my big gripes with the offense. Yes we are wider but throws take longer and faster teams can rally to the ball without respecting the middle third for the most part

 

[tennesseeduke]

We just weren’t. Beck torched us. The Ohio State QB torched us. Our pass defense was horrible all year. Heupel is kinda vanilla. So uninspired at times. I don’t blame this on the players really. If Michigan’s d can slow down Ohio State, why couldn’t we? So bad on both sides of the ball. I’m speechless. It’s really inexcusable. We played so bad in the first half all season. That’s not on the players. I think Heupel is a good coach. He’s not great. Day out coached him, and Day is not great. We need a great one. Heupel was a good stop gap. It’s time to go in a different direction. That was absolutely pathetic.

Umm coming into the season the expectation was to make the playoffs, period. We did that plus won one more game than expected.