Sitting after the Georgia game this Sunday afternoon, I am trying to think of what to say. It’s a tough loss. While Georgia is the more talented team, it’s still a young team coming into Neyland at night. The talent gap isn’t as substantial as last year, and well, we are going against Mark Richt, who some felt was coaching for his job last night. However, I do not believe it’s that we lost but how we lost.
For only the second time in the short Dooley Era, the team looked uninspired (the first was Georgia last year for obvious reasons). I don’t believe the team quit nor had any heart or any other clichés you hear after uninspiring performances. I feel the team didn’t have confidence. The team looked tentative and unsure of themselves. It seemed no facet of the game looked in full out attack mode for Tennessee. Wilcox refused to send pressure, and Murray had all day to throw. It actually should have been worse. Murray missed multiple receivers on deep routes and wasn’t in rhythm till late in the game. He sent maybe three or four blitzes, and even those didn’t work. The passing game was vanilla. Not a lot of deep balls or play action, and the game plan was simple: Find Da’Rick Rogers or Mychal Rivera and nobody else. The coaching staff did not do a good job preparing the team on both sides of the ball. This was a huge game. The chances of Tennessee beating the next three teams looked slim even before last night, and Tennessee played conservative football. That’s not what you want to see.
A huge problem (and this isn’t ground breaking analysis) is the run game. It’s actually the biggest problem right now. In two SEC games, Tennessee has -29 yards rushing. Think about that for a second. It’s an incredible statistic. Everything with the run game is screwed up. First, the offensive line does not play with a mean streak in any capacity. While the game has become much more complex in the last thirty years, sometimes football comes down to who can hit the hardest and smash people in the mouth. Tennessee simply does not do that. While the line is young, this team rushed for 1,400 yards last year. Not ground breaking by any means, but still a solid number. This year the team is on pace for 1,017 yards, and are average 2.5 yards per carry. For a team with all five starting offensive lineman back from last year’s team, it’s embarrassing. There’s no excuse for that. If this team is going to go anywhere this year and in the future, that can’t happen. Somebody needs to be accountable.
However, while I and others are discouraged about the game last night, it’s not the end of the world. One game does not make a program, and one game does not break a program. I understand the frustration. We haven’t had a big national win since 2006. We the fans are so desperate for a big win that every loss against an above average program feels like the apocalypse, especially considering the tough stretch the Vols have coming up. Patience is very hard to teach when you have been through so much as Tennessee fan the last few years. While I was disappointed in the outcome of the game, and even lost a little bit of confidence in the coaching staff, it by no means shows that Derek Dooley can’t lead Tennessee to a championship in the future.
Despite the talent upgrade, the team is still very young. Only three starters are seniors on the team, and 60% of the starters are freshmen or sophomores. And while this was a bad loss no matter how you look at it, you have to let a team grow first. It’s completely unfair to judge a team and the coaching staff by one game, especially a team that is so young. If you see a loss like this in 2012 and 2013, then we can say that maybe Coach Dooley is not the answer. You can’t say that 18 games into his tenure. It’s not a good way to judge if we need to fire him or not. I am disappointed in the fact I have seen very little improvement in the team, and that goes to coaching to some extent. But it’s next to impossible to become an SEC title contender with freshman and sophomores. Dooley is trying to completely change the culture of the program. It’s going to take more than 18 games to fully implement that.
So, what can we take from the Georgia game? I believe not too much. Should the fans be disappointed? Yes. Are there concerns with the team that shouldn’t be there such as bad pass rush and no run game? Yes. Should we start to think about a coaching change at the end of the year? No. It’s a ludicrous position to take. I’m disappointed the team hasn’t improved like I (and most of the fans) thought it would. I am frustrated that we are more than likely going to end up with the same record as last year. But we are still rebuilding. It’s hard to contend when you haven’t fully rebuilt the program yet, especially one as down as Tennessee was. I don’t think you can say with certainty that Derek Dooley isn’t the answer with one bad coaching game. Dooley still hasn’t lost to a team he shouldn’t have. While he’s going to have to start pulling upsets at some point, you cannot write him off till that happens in my mind. There’s no need to panic. The goal this year should be to get to a bowl game, and go into 2012 with the mindset of winning the SEC title or making a BCS bowl. You can’t judge the coaching staff till you have seen the full product. We have not and will not see the full product this year.
5 responses to “Georgia Game: What to make of it.”
If you think that was only the 2nd time the team played “uninspired”, you obviously didn’t watch many games last year. Dooley basically had to teach them not to quit when they’re trailing.
They played their hearts out last night and didn’t show any quit. To be honest, your blogs seem “uninspired”, and I hope you have more to offer next year or you too should be on the hot seat.
I am not a Dooley fan, same mistakes, same bad special teams, and frankly same old getting outcoached everywhere on the field. Having said that he has one more year to right the ship but changes have to be made. Justin Wilcox should be held accountable, the offensive line coach, and Terry the terrible need to be taken to the woodshed. It is embarrassing to see our plans before and during each game. This trail always leads back to Dooley who has shown us nothing yet except bad clock management, ill timed decisions, and a penchant to repeat mistakes. Put up or shut up and you got one year to fix your staff. I have been a season ticket holder since 1972 and enough is enough. Quit blaming youth when every team has young guys playing and put the team in a position to win. Taking a penalty on 3rd and one is inexcusable period. Don’t call the team out, call your friggin coaches out. Your resume suggests you have never been a winner, maybe you should put up now.
I find it “interesting” that your take on the game doesn’t include any mention of losing our only shining star. I do agree that, at some point, we have to stop excusing the mental mistakes and the bad clock management. The lack of improvement in run blocking HAS to fall on the coaches. Before the season, I kept hearing how we would be surprised at the progress of the OL. Oh, I am…but not in the direction we hoped.
This is the first day that I have felt so negative about the current staff…but it is troubling, to say the least.
You didn’t read my blog correctly. I said they looked uninspriring. I said they didn’t quit and had heart.
No. I teach people to read for a living. I’m not too shabby at it. You must not have read it correctly. You wrote that they looked uninspired.