Dooley on the offense

"It is hard to expect 17 freshmen and sophomores to play like Hunter and Bray. Every good football team, you need two or three dynamic playmakers on offense and defense. That’s what you have to have to be a good team. When you don’t have them and nobody is filling that void, it becomes tough. Right now, there is not a whole lot of dynamic playmaking going on. We have to find them.”

Well, no shit.

 

Some people need to have the obvious force fed to them, Justin.

 

Dooley should just shut up for awhile. There's nothing that can be said anymore.

 

Apparently

Yes. What he's saying is true, however, he's being paid millions to figure it out. It's coming across, whether he means it to or not, as whining and excuse making.

It does suck replacing Hunter with ZR. It does suck replacing Bray with Simms and Worley but that's part of being a coach. He flopped his 3rd year at La Tech due to injuries too. It seems to be a pattern. Instead of developing players, just make excuses when you lose a starter.

 

Has Dooley EVER said, "the coaching staff made a few screw-ups during the game today."

 

this is getting ridiculous. We all knew going into the season we were two or three key injuries away from a dismal season. The two worst injuries possible happened, a probably top ten injury that can't happen happened in Lathers, plus the whole JJ scenario. Now that we've faced the situation, this board has pulled an Obama and flip flopped into still blaming coaching. Is Dooley stating the obvious? Yeah, of course he is, it's what coaches do. How much are he and Chaney really supposed to do with an offense led by a qb whether it be Worley or Simms that can't do basic functions, Zach Rogers and RBs that can't find holes and/or fumble all the time?

I'm not saying Dooley is going to be successful here, that's still totally up for grabs. I'm just saying this season is what it is, a complete wash due to injuries and the fact that we still have absolutely no depth anywhere, something we knew going into the season.

 

Multiple penalties that took us out of FG range. That is a discipline problem which falls directly on the Coaches shoulders (thought truth be told anything over 15 yards could be out of Palardy’s range).

The last 2 attempted onside kicks went out of bounds never giving our guys a change to recover them. That is an execution problem that falls directly on the Coaches shoulders.

You never turn it over in the red zone. Yet we turned it over 2 times at our goal line. That’s a fundamental of football and falls on the Coaches shoulders to teach ball discipline.

 

I see your point and agree for the most part. I think that I am speaking for most people here in saying that we weren't expecting to have a great record this year (I felt 7 wins was probably the best possible). We expect to see improvement and competent well thought out decisions that are a part of a plan. So far, we have not improved for the most part since the injuries. I don't expect the replacements to play at the level of the starters. They are starters for a reason. However, I do expect to see the replacements improve. What we have seen since Hunter and Bray's injuries is a staff that seems to be flailing away in the water to keep from drowning. I feel that they have hit the panic button on a couple of occasions, but I could be wrong.

I am not bailing on CDD and calling for him to be ousted, but my faith in his and some of his staff's abilities has been shaken. I know that means nothing; however, I do have an opinion that is based on some semi-competence in the game. I hope this is an anomaly and things change. Only time will tell.

 

Did you just compare this board to Obama?

Ban comin'.

 

If we had actual talent as the backups I would agree with your argument, but right now, we're just filling out a roster. They tried the only other option at qb and he failed miserably. There were even reports that the coaches were split as to whether or not Worley was even ready to be the starter. They knew Simms wasn't working (although we've all known that for over a year) so they changed it up. We knew we didn't have any ready to play receivers outside of Hunter and D Rogers. Now we're asking true freshmen to step up and play in the SEC. Not many people can ever do that. Justin Hunter didn't look all that great the first half to 2/3 of the season last year and he had Gerald Jones and Denarius Moore to help him out. There's a good number of starters on defense that shouldn't be starting under normal Tennessee circumstances. The only group that should be greatly improved is our offensive line and they have only shown minimal improvement and in spurts at that. You can make the argument that our RBs haven't produced, because they haven't. Poole has been the definition of a disappointment. That said, Lane hasn't looked like he deserves the starting spot either, especially in pass blocking situations. That's where Poole does shine. Not sure what all is wrong with Smith, but evidently there are at least a couple of problems and Neal can't hold onto the ball. I would like to see Young get more chances back there. But the coaches have given Lane and Neal their chances and they haven't done anything worthy of stealing the position. Again, to me, as most everyone here agreed with at the beginning of the season, it all boils down to a talent issue. It's going to take a long time to get all the different units restocked. So long in fact, that the magical arm of Bray and Hunter's incredible athleticism might never see an SEC Championship because we're still rebuilding every else.

 

If we had actual talent as the backups I would agree with your argument, but right now, we're just filling out a roster. They tried the only other option at qb and he failed miserably. There were even reports that the coaches were split as to whether or not Worley was even ready to be the starter. They knew Simms wasn't working (although we've all known that for over a year) so they changed it up. We knew we didn't have any ready to play receivers outside of Hunter and D Rogers. Now we're asking true freshmen to step up and play in the SEC. Not many people can ever do that. Justin Hunter didn't look all that great the first half to 2/3 of the season last year and he had Gerald Jones and Denarius Moore to help him out. There's a good number of starters on defense that shouldn't be starting under normal Tennessee circumstances. The only group that should be greatly improved is our offensive line and they have only shown minimal improvement and in spurts at that. You can make the argument that our RBs haven't produced, because they haven't. Poole has been the definition of a disappointment. That said, Lane hasn't looked like he deserves the starting spot either, especially in pass blocking situations. That's where Poole does shine. Not sure what all is wrong with Smith, but evidently there are at least a couple of problems and Neal can't hold onto the ball. I would like to see Young get more chances back there. But the coaches have given Lane and Neal their chances and they haven't done anything worthy of stealing the position. Again, to me, as most everyone here agreed with at the beginning of the season, it all boils down to a talent issue. It's going to take a long time to get all the different units restocked. So long in fact, that the magical arm of Bray and Hunter's incredible athleticism might never see an SEC Championship because we're still rebuilding every else.

 

The East is going to be down next year too. Tennessee can ride Bray's arm into, at worst, 2nd place in the East.

The defense will be slightly above average and the offense is going to score a lot.

 

What do you mean by slightly above average? A little better than most SEC teams?

We have some questions, but if the offensive line develops like they should, I think UT may have the best offense in the conference next year.

Our linebackers could be a very good group as well. We would still have some holes to fill in, but it's not like it's bad all around.

 

No, around 40 to 55 in the nation.

 

I think we'll be a little better than that. I'm concerned about the defensive line, though. The secondary should certainly be better.

 

We're going to be so disappointed next year, aren't we? Can we just go ahead and surgically implant backup ACL's on all the players now?

 

Winning the sec east next year doesn't make us back or even good for that matter. It does help Dooley's resume and likely improves recruiting though, which in turn will get us back and good again. So we should be thankful the rest of the sec east sucks too.

 

Look at the East frontrunners this year for an example of that.

 

Out of curiosity, where would you rank us this year?

 

75th or so