In Defense of Butch Jones

Also, give Butch team full of 4 stars. Give Malzahn team full of 3 stars. Gus wins pretty much every time.

 

I'd question anybody who even needed to do it once. Like, Bajakian probably knew better than that.

 

You got him there, Columbo.

 

I was like 5 years old.

 

"It's the players fault" is the apologist stance of every shitty coach in American history. Good coaches win with what they have and they surely beat shitty teams at home.

 

I'm pretty sure we're being trolled. I remember TD not liking the Butch hire.

 

Except for that one I refuted.

 

You keep saying this. It isn't true.

 

Nah, letting him take himself out of the play by proceeding unblocked in a direction you're happy to have him go is option numero uno.

[video=youtube;GxTHeyKuXGw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxTHeyKuXGw[/video]

 

No, I'm not trolling at all.

Anyone who thinks that our single biggest problem isn't an inept o-line, is crazy.

 

You just described zone blocking, which these guys have been saying doesn't work.

 

The O-line is inexperienced in pass protection. However, a healthy Hurd still managed 100 yards against Georgia. The first true freshman since Lewis to do that. A mobile QB could have masked the o-line inefficiencies in key situations. Worley's lead feet only magnifies the problem on the o-line.

Worley is as inept. As another poster stated, back pedaling off his back foot and throwing an int is inexcusable in the red zone. The defense gave him two red zone possessions and he should come away with 6 points at a minimum. If pass protection was the issue, fades in the corner of the endzone to North was a safe bet. The Florida secondary was their weak link heading into the game.

 

Zone blocking has nothing to do with misdirection.

 

Who disagrees? There are things that can be done that can help those linemen out rather than highlighting them like boil-sized zit on the end of your nose that pops up just before your first date. Mitigating the shittiness is what is being discussed not that they aren't shitty.

If you think there' s absolutely nothing that can be done if you have a less than stellar OL, let's cancel the rest of the season and go the ETSU route. They can travel the state doing intersquad scrimmages to get ready for next year. We can avoid so much wear and tear on the players.

 

I'd like to add some thoughts, regarding this post, and which I think that some of our newer / less frequent posters often fail to recognize:

Some may have questioned the hiring of Jones, or preferred that another coach were hired. But that largely ended at the presser to introduce Jones. Once announced, he's our guy, like it or not, for well or ill.

Thereafter, and once decided, everyone is for Butch Jones, myself being absolutely included.

Everyone who loves and roots for Tennessee, by default, is for Butch Jones, Mike Bajakian, Jancek, etc., and wants them to be successful. Where we doubt some things about them / their coaching, we will question and criticize them when warranted. Despite this, most (all?) would much rather be proven wrong in that criticism, and that Jones' way will work, and be successful.

Now, if the criticisms prove true, and compile, compound or become so egregious that Jones' tenure begins to be questioned, then that argument will only endure insofar as the continued evidence demands, either in support of correction of that argument.

Simply, few here dislike Jones to the point of wishing for his failure, because he may not be the guy we most wanted hired. But conversely, neither will anyone blindly follow and support him, despite any evidence to the contrary, simply because he is Tennessee's head coach.

There are not two Tennessee's - one for the Orange kool-aid drinking masses, and another for the more pessimistic / skeptical amongst us. We're all in this together. And as Butch Jones goes, so go we all, and the overwhelming preference and desire is for him to succeed, because that's what's best for Tennessee, and is our single best and fastest way back to regaining our competitive signifigance, both in the conference and nationally.

While we may squabble and disagree as to how best to get that done, or what does or does not constitute suitable progress toward that end, the ultimate goal - for Tennessee to get back to where it should be - remains unchanged, at least for the most reasonable amongst us.

 

Who said anything about misdirection?

Kid didn't, and neither did I.

 

Here's another way to word your post:

Sometimes we haven't been made to pay for our woeful offensive line, or Hurd's individual talent has somehow managed to produce in spite of it.

There are two problems with this line of thought:
1. The fact that our o-line is woefully inadequate remains to serve as our biggest weakness, and which either causes or exacerbates additional ones.

2. Florida did make sure that we did pay for it, and bottled up Hurd. And that's why we lost. So, my point stands.

 

You surely don't believe we struggle with press coverage? Who's pressing us? They know we can beat college corners.

Now you're arguing to argue. We don't need HoF players to run some semblance of a two back game with a bunch of underneath routes featuring FBs, flares, drags etc.

 

Uh, I did.


We aren't going to be perfect, but we'll be better. We're in the single worst scheme for our ability of anything we could be in, period.

Completely neutering the running game with stupid scheme also clamps down the passing game. The two work in concert. We are no threat to beat a LB or DE making a mistake because he has backup, as everyone knows exactly where to go from the snap.

 

I agree with your points but a mobile Qb would have won this game in spite of the woeful line. We were that close even only getting 3 points in two red zone possessions. Shutting down the run game put the game solely in a lead-footed qb. We saw the difference with florida in only two possessions what a more fluid QB can do.