Obviously, there was attrition -most notably Trey Smith- during the season and we didn't start our best 22 guys with scholarships. About where in the country did the 2018 Vols rank in talent IYO by the end of the season? Conventional wisdom here is that Pruitt needs to flip the roster right because we are not in the top half of the SEC right now, right?
How many, and who will be our NFL draft picks this year and next, and how does that stack up against teams on our schedule. Thats where we were and still are until we get some upperclassmen talent.
Going through and looking at the 4*s (35 of 85 on the roster) and above, here are the hindsight rankings: Dillon Bates - laughable Byrd - Meh Chryst - laughable Crosby - Who? Fils-Aime - laughable Guarantano - Meh Ignont - Meh Ryan Johnson - meh TK Jr - not the same after the injury Brandon Kennedy - injured Kongbo - meh Osborne - meh Petersen - arrived late and rarely played Richmond - laughable Sapp - meh Smith - injured
I get that these guys were recruited by Lyle’s staff but how did/do we continually whiff on supposedly high quality recruits when other schools roll 7’s more often than not.
Starters against Vandy: TE: Anderson: Alabama, Auburn, etc. Pruitt Guy. LT: Tatum: Alabama, Auburn, etc. LG Johnson: Meh list. (Nebraska, Texas, USC) C: R. Johnson: Alabama, Clemson, etc. RG: Niehaus: Garbage List RT: Richmond: Bama, Auburn, Clemson, Etc. RB: Ty Chandler: Everyone but Bama WR: Callaway: Everyone WR: Jennings: Alabama, Auburn, etc. QB Guarantano: Everyone Kyle Phillips: Everyone Shy Tuttle: Everyone Alexis Johnson: Alabama, etc. De Andre Johnson: Not great. Included Auburn. Darrel Taylor: Good list (Basically all but UGA and Bama) Daniel Bituli: Great list (Basically all but UGA and Bama) Kirkland Jr.: Great list (Basically all but UGA and Bama) Alontae Taylor: No Bama but everyone else. Thompson: Weak list Nigel Warrior: Everyone Micah Abernathy: Everyone
Is it possible that Butch couldn’t evaluate players, could only get the highly ranked but injury-prone players that the big guys didn’t really want, or some combination of the two?
Very. It could also be due in part to the lack of stability on the staff, especially S&C... in short, Lyle was/is an utter and complete dipshit who should fall on his knees every night and give praise to God that UT was dumb enough to ever hire him in the first place.
How he was ever able to lure the likes of Barnett, Kamara and others here will forever be a mystery to me.
Butch was recruiting the same guys the big guys were for a couple years. I don't think many people are projecting injury proneness out of HS. My take is that our roster problem is a distant to second to what we do with guys once they are on campus.
You don't think some of these guys that are meh/laughable would have turned out different under a competent regime?
Don’t know that it would have helped Richmond... dude looked like he’d never played football in his life quite a few times this past season...
There were a lot of guys who simply never wanted to play anymore after getting a steady dose of Lyle.
That is definitely a huge problem, or at least it has been a huge problem. I don't think you can pin the lack of development of guys that have been on campus for 3 or 4 years on the coach that has been on campus for 1.
Co-signed. I’ll grudgingly give him a pass this year due to the Lyle stank over the program but next year needs to yield solid results (7-8 wins) and marked improvement. Lose to Vanderbilt again and he can GTFO.
The last two games were a cluster[uck fay]. Chryst's interception killed them against Mizzou and the Vandy game was embarrassing. Before that, things were going decently well