What We'd Like To See: 2nd half areas for improvement

#31
#31
I’d also like to see Hooker make better decisions and stop turning it over. This has got to stop. If he can’t quit throwing it to the other team, I say we bring in Milton - I think he’s corrected his under throwing everybody and might be ready
 
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#32
#32
Rucker had some really good moments in the Bama. Turnage looked better from earlier in the season. Charles had his best game until he got hurt. Once Hadden gets back, we'll be looking better back there, plus getting Dee fully integrated should help. I thought Slaughter looked pretty good, even when McCollough comes back, I would like to see some rotation back there to let one of flowers or tank get some rest.

For this game, I would love to see the young WRs get some more burn this week. Holiday, Merrill, and Calloway could be big for us in the future and it would be nice to get them involved.

Young lineman as well on both sides of the ball should get some burn. Josephs, Pearce, and West are really exciting players to watch. Some of those young offensive lineman like Nichols, RJ Perry, Brian Grant, etc should get some nice reps this week.
 
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#33
#33
Prayivm3rcy said:
After stating the obvious pass defensive woes I'd like to see them(DBs) play with more physicality. They need to tackle much better. Flowers needs to stop trying to touch guys like it's flag football and go out there and hit people.
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This… we all know the dbs have struggled in passing downs this season. But I’d really like to see the safeties play more physical. Flowers gets trucked in just about every game
 
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#34
#34
VOLfrombama said:
I agree with all your points except #3. Warren and Fant are serviceable, but not anything special. I like Fant's ability to run with the ball, but he needs to run tougher and get more YAC imo. Warren looks like he is running in quicksand after the catch.

I think Heup uses them situationally on purpose, because he knows they aren't great, to catch the D off guard. Just keep using them when you need them and keep feeding Hyatt, Bru, Keyton, and Tillman (when he gets healthy) the lion's share of the passes.

I would like to see more CBs attacking the ball, batting down passes, and maybe a few more INTs.
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I gotta say re: Fant, though, that I’ve been critical of him at times this season, including Saturday. There was a 3rd or 4th down play where he broke off his route before the marker. There was the fumble against UF.

The offset I fullback run and the shovel pass on the 2-pt conversion wiped away those memories. Great hardnosed running by him on the first and great play design and execution on the latter. That I formation play made me giddy. Felt like I was 10 watching a Fulmer team in the good years.
 
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#35
#35
For me, other than the secondary this team is buzzing right now. And really the secondary isn’t terrible when you consider how thin the unit is and the fact that the defense gets a ton of snaps due to the offense scoring so quickly. I think that when you run the type of offense that we do, your defense needs to get you 2-3 stops per game to seal the deal. They don’t need to totally be world beaters.
 
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#38
#38
GregAmsler said:
Now that we're entering the 2nd half of the season (undefeated!), we have a pretty good idea of what this team is good at and where it needs to get better. I'd like to hear y'all's takes on what areas you'd most like to see growth in during the back half of the schedule. As good as we are right now, if we accomplish growth in the areas below, we'll be tough for anyone to beat.

Mine are:

1) The back 7/pass defense: This one seems obvious. But some have said we are what we are back there. I'm not so sure. I think we can improve. Hadden, Charles, Williams, and others have the speed and athleticism. They're just not always where they need to be and came into the year inexperienced. I've already seen improvement from Charles. Turnage looked pretty good when he played Saturday. Hadden started strong, but has tailed off. Maybe a couple of weeks to get fully healthy will help him. Also, LBs are part of the problem...while Banks has really improved in pass coverage, Beasley looks lost when he has to cover...he needs to get the mental side of coverage down. I think a huge part of the back 7's problem isn't lack of athleticism, but understanding and experience. That tells me they can improve. But here's the encouraging part: they played pretty well against LSU. LSU just lit up Florida for 45. And a few of the guys who played well against LSU simply weren't available against Bama (Hadden and McCollough) or got hurt during the game against Bama (Charles, Rucker). By the Kentucky game, think all of those guys will be back.

2) Continued development from Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson: Jabari Small has been everything we could ask for in his role, so I'm not criticizing him. But while Small is a fireplug and short yardage banger, Wright and Sampson have the ability to serve other roles. Sampson can be a game-breaker and Wright can be a more all-around RB, with the strength/vision to get short, tough yards, but also the speed to hit big runs. The biggest thing with Wright is to fix the fumble issues and with Sampson is to understand pass protection. Both of those things are coachable, so they are things that can improve. It's a mater of how quickly they improve. If those things happen, we could have a great 3-headed monster in the 2nd half of these season.

3) TE development, especially from Warren: Jacob Warren has the size, athleticism, and catch radius to be a weapon on offense. I'm not sure why he hasn't become that. I'm hoping the light comes on. If he becomes a major player in this offense, look out. Fant seems to be slowly putting it together.

4) Tillman's healthy return and easy re-integration: This one should probably rank higher, but I'm taking it more for granted than some items above. We need Tillman to return to form quickly, but Hooker to continue to be comfortable spreading it around without forcing it to #4.

5) Continued improvement by the pass rush. This one is nit-picky. But hey, we're undefeated, so there's not a lot to pick on. The DLine has improved tremendously this year. Run defense has been elite. Pass rush has been much better. But it can still improve, especially while just rushing 4. I wanna see Baron, Young, Harrison, and Josephs turn it up to one more level.
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Great list.

My only caveat would be to #1. I would still like to see the constant aggression and pressure that Heupel promised. It is almost as if Banks is trying to play "bend don't break" while Heupel is urging him to pour the steam on.

I would like to see a lot more man D coupled with exotic blitzes and pressure on the QB. I really don't mind giving up more big plays if they could reduce the number of plays per opponent drive by 30-50%. It seemed to be what they did vs Bama. I know Bama scored a lot but UT forced Young to be a literal superman to get that done. UT forced them out of their system and design. Many of their best plays came on improv by Young... there are no QB's left on the schedule who can do what he did. There aren't many if any in CFB who can do what he did.
 
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#39
#39
Need to rotate offensive players somehow...without losing our edge against the defense by not allowing them to substitute.
Not sure that's really possible. But still
.


But guys like Holiday need to be able to play in the game since he's also returning kicks. Needs snaps on offense.
Get Sampson involved again.
Get Calloway involved again.

Play Pearce a lot against UT Martin.
Good pass rush from the front 4 allows our other defenders to play the pass better. Still need him like Josephs to help spell the older guys.
 
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#42
#42
Getting pressure with 4 and dropping 7. I think to get to where we can now go we can’t continue to give up the pass yards we’re giving up.
 
#43
#43
I think for the pass D, the reality is that the coaches have to pick their poison and they have chosen to try to keep the game manageable by keeping everything in front of them. Based on our personnel and results so far, it is hard to argue. We give up a ton of yards, but not a ton of points. Before Bama, we were giving up 17 points a game, which is damn good when compared to the number of possessions that our opponents have had.

After Bama we are now at 23ppg, still very good considering we score that pretty much every quarter and a half. We need to get better for sure, but we may have a low ceiling given our personnel.
 
#44
#44
sjt18 said:
Great list.

My only caveat would be to #1. I would still like to see the constant aggression and pressure that Heupel promised. It is almost as if Banks is trying to play "bend don't break" while Heupel is urging him to pour the steam on.

I would like to see a lot more man D coupled with exotic blitzes and pressure on the QB. I really don't mind giving up more big plays if they could reduce the number of plays per opponent drive by 30-50%. It seemed to be what they did vs Bama. I know Bama scored a lot but UT forced Young to be a literal superman to get that done. UT forced them out of their system and design. Many of their best plays came on improv by Young... there are no QB's left on the schedule who can do what he did. There aren't many if any in CFB who can do what he did.
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I agree. And Young is the best QB we'll face all season. We had constant pressure on him and he got away almost every time. Which is a nightmare for the DBs, since it means they have to cover even longer.

Kentucky, Georgia, and SCar will have their challenges, but we're not going up against anyone like Young again for the rest of the (regular) season. I'm curious how our D matches up against Kentucky. I think Kentucky will treat this game like the Super Bowl, but we do match up better against them defensively than we did against Bama.
 
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#45
#45
GregAmsler said:
Now that we're entering the 2nd half of the season (undefeated!), we have a pretty good idea of what this team is good at and where it needs to get better. I'd like to hear y'all's takes on what areas you'd most like to see growth in during the back half of the schedule. As good as we are right now, if we accomplish growth in the areas below, we'll be tough for anyone to beat.

Mine are:

1) The back 7/pass defense: This one seems obvious. But some have said we are what we are back there. I'm not so sure. I think we can improve. Hadden, Charles, Williams, and others have the speed and athleticism. They're just not always where they need to be and came into the year inexperienced. I've already seen improvement from Charles. Turnage looked pretty good when he played Saturday. Hadden started strong, but has tailed off. Maybe a couple of weeks to get fully healthy will help him. Also, LBs are part of the problem...while Banks has really improved in pass coverage, Beasley looks lost when he has to cover...he needs to get the mental side of coverage down. I think a huge part of the back 7's problem isn't lack of athleticism, but understanding and experience. That tells me they can improve. But here's the encouraging part: they played pretty well against LSU. LSU just lit up Florida for 45. And a few of the guys who played well against LSU simply weren't available against Bama (Hadden and McCollough) or got hurt during the game against Bama (Charles, Rucker). By the Kentucky game, think all of those guys will be back.

2) Continued development from Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson: Jabari Small has been everything we could ask for in his role, so I'm not criticizing him. But while Small is a fireplug and short yardage banger, Wright and Sampson have the ability to serve other roles. Sampson can be a game-breaker and Wright can be a more all-around RB, with the strength/vision to get short, tough yards, but also the speed to hit big runs. The biggest thing with Wright is to fix the fumble issues and with Sampson is to understand pass protection. Both of those things are coachable, so they are things that can improve. It's a mater of how quickly they improve. If those things happen, we could have a great 3-headed monster in the 2nd half of these season.

3) TE development, especially from Warren: Jacob Warren has the size, athleticism, and catch radius to be a weapon on offense. I'm not sure why he hasn't become that. I'm hoping the light comes on. If he becomes a major player in this offense, look out. Fant seems to be slowly putting it together.

4) Tillman's healthy return and easy re-integration: This one should probably rank higher, but I'm taking it more for granted than some items above. We need Tillman to return to form quickly, but Hooker to continue to be comfortable spreading it around without forcing it to #4.

5) Continued improvement by the pass rush. This one is nit-picky. But hey, we're undefeated, so there's not a lot to pick on. The DLine has improved tremendously this year. Run defense has been elite. Pass rush has been much better. But it can still improve, especially while just rushing 4. I wanna see Baron, Young, Harrison, and Josephs turn it up to one more level.
Click to expand...
Stop the 3rd quarter swoons. Use that 3rd quarter like our hair is on fire.
 
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#46
#46
Good teams get better as the year goes along. We are
definitely doing that. We are slowly building depth and
experience. Great coaching does that. We have beaten
4 ranked teams and have just faced the best QB in the
country. There is always room for improvement, and I
have all the faith in the world that this staff will make
that happen.
 
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#48
#48
GregAmsler said:
The only one we’ve lost who we don’t expect to get back is Burrell.
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Volfanstucknga said:
Often times Bryce's passes were complete because of impeccable ball placement. Coverage was there, but the throw was almost Heisman like...
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No kidding on the placement. About four times I relaxed on his throws thinking we had perfect coverage, no way is that complete, and then it was. I don't know if I've ever seen accuracy like that.
 
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