Locker Room Post Vandy Win...

This is my thoughts exactly. I am usually the one who doesn't get overly excited about games that should be one. However, I reacted differently with this game, and that is something that I can't quite explain. I am willing to admit that it is probably because I am a dumbass.

 

I think that sums up where our program is at right now.

Hamilton started the lower expectations with his 'Eight is Enough' Fulmer contracts.

Tennessee WAS used to 8s and 9s. In 1998 we woke up with the naked 9 (there is no such thing as a 10, the only 10 is a naked 9). Now we are celebrating over taking home the drunken 4 that has been passed out on the table half the night.

 

Obviously the majority of comments about college football are opinions. Few things can be stated as absolute fact, other than a final score, result of a particular play, statistics, etc. So I like reading posts about strategies, use of players, training and coaching philosophies, theories on the game or a player or a coach.

How opinions are delivered tends to sway me on how valid I consider it to be. If you need a bull dozer to deliver it, then I'm thinking it doesn't carry much weight on it's own.

 

I actually agree with this. This board is swamped with those who choose to be negative not because it's the only obvious out there, no, they choose to be negative so they can be "that guy". TOOS had guys on both end of the stick, as in there were also those that were just too optimistic and jolly. This is just getting old and stale, very quickly imo.

 

You may be right that some are jockeying for position of being "that guy". I think most of us, however, are different versions of anxious about the future direction of the program. And that can bring out the worst in us all.

 

It is also possible that you are attributing ulterior motives to people who express opinions that are different from your own simply because you don't agree with them.

 

Possible? yes. Realistic, no. Too many on here just throw out tidbits of thoughts and ideas with no rational just to push their pessimistic views. The proof is that the few that offer alternatives don't immediately reach for putdowns or the like to the said poster while they make their case.

In before I get called a Dooley lover or something of that ilk

 

I don't think people are being negavols for pointing out the obvious. We keep hearing the same excuses. We are riddled with injuries and we are young.

Really? The same errors in fundamentals week after week are injuries and and youth? The youth excuse works the first 5 or 6 games. After that you should at least know the fundamentals. A lineman starting 8 or 9 games in can't hold still long enough to snap a ball on a critical 4th and 1. Is this because Hunter or Bray is on the sideline? No, that is coaching

How many times has this team been called for 12 men in the huddle, or had to burn a timeout to get enough men on the field? At least once a game. That is coaching.

Sometimes you have to lay the Orange colored glasses aside.

 

What? You didn't realize how lucrative being "that guy" on a 270 person website can be? It couldn't possibly be that many of us have looked at the product Dooley has put on the field at Louisiana Tech and Tennessee and realized he's better suited to selling insurance or taking depositions.

 

Great point. Nobody ever puts forth any evidence that Dooley is a clod. It's not like his career record is 28-33 and we regularly look like an elementary school evacuation drill when attempting to make substitutions. You're right. We should look at all the overhwelming evidence of Dooley's competence and bow at his altar.

 

Since you raised the issue, I've got a question. What rationale, outside of blind VFL!!! style faith, have any of the people calling for patience regarding Dooley put forth to defend that position? Oh, I forgot. Baseless optimism is a good thing.

 

maybe you should read more hat. I've posted several posts about it. Others have as well, but they left for greener pastures because how they were pushed and left to the side for having such an opinion.

By the way several people on here post, you would think Dooley was forced to struggle with having top 3 draft classes the past 4 years that all stayed, all stayed out of trouble, were incredibly healthy, and haven't dealt with multiple (to put it lightly) coaching changes in their career. You would think he was getting to start 8 juniors and seniors on both sides of the ball and had kickers and punters capable of kicking the ball out of the stadium from anywhere on the field. You would think he had a Heisman qb under center for him all year. I could go on, but I've got better things to do.

 

I don't think a lot of us have "blind VFL!!!! optimism". I think a lot of us just don't think it's really fair to decide the guy is a total clod based on the circumstances that have occured here both before he arrived and since. He may be a total clod. The truth will eventually win out.

FWIW I have a hard time attributing a false start on 4th and 1 to coaching . Frustrating as hell but IMO it's up to the guy on the line to not be a dumbass isn't it?

 

Kansas is about to fire their football coach because they've made up their minds, after all of two seasons, that he can't get it done at the level they wish to compete. UT, which should have infinitely higher standards than those held in Lawrence, is just meandering along with a cut rate clown because "you have to give him time." The offensive line is composed mostly of guys who return from last season. How much have they improved? In fact, what aspect of the team is even moderately better?

Also, how does one get "left to the side" on a message board? I must have missed the banning of people posting logical arguments on Dooley's behalf. The only way you get run over around here is if you are unwilling or unable to defend your position.

 

The point is that he doesn't even handle the things that are totally within his control well. We are still, two full years into his tenure, unable to consistently get the proper personnel on the field and avoid burning timeouts to try and rectify the chaos on the sidelines. Further, he acts as if he's the only guy who doesn't deserve any criticism for UT's abject mediocrity. He has no problem hammering players publicly. Yet, he doesn't have anything to say about the fact his offensive line and secondary coaches are presiding over units that not only haven't gotten better, they've regressed.

 

I sure wish Duke would've fired their men's basketball coach after those first two or three seasons. I mean it was obvious he wasn't ready to coach. Now look at the mess they're in 20 years later since they wouldn't let him go.

 

Great analogy. Look at how well giving Wade Houston "time" turned out for Tennessee. That extra year they gave Buzz Peterson was a golden idea. Look how well giving John Blake "time" treated Oklahoma football. Using the exception in an attempt to disprove the rule is an incredibly weak tool in debating.

 

I bet Ted Roof wishes Duke had taken your theory on handling coaches to heart for football. He'd have gotten "more time" to run up 1-11 seasons.

 

He'll have the opportunity to rectify some of those assistant positions over the offseason, and if he doesn't I'll be one step closer to your camp. And they've certainly got to get better with regards to the personnel issues, but i still think that goes on all over the place and gets magnified when you stink. Doesn't excuse it but it is what it is.