Yesterday couldve gone a lot worse. Those kids at least saw Neyland rocking for an hour or so like it hasnt in awhile. Hopefully they shuffled them back to play a call of duty tourney in the 2nd half.
Just never know what you are dealing with with memphis kids from a handler standpoint. Hopefully they have aome good parents and advisors and see UT as a way to get away from Whitehaven.
We have moved on from taking guys Bama and UGA didn’t want to guys South Carolina didn’t want. Progress.
We need to develop some kind of Matrix simulation thing and just trick these kids into thinking they are seeing a live game while we replay 98 Florida.
Need Omari Thomas badly for the DL. Chris Morris too but I believe hes going to A&M. Before the wheels fell off early we were positioning ourselves nicely for several good players, but unless we can turn it around and get 5 or 6 wins we will be scraping the bottom to get what we get unfortunately. Next week is a must win to get some momentum for those last 5 games. Would be heckuva story if we could get 6-6.
Ms st coming off a bye with a running qb. Nothing is looking good this year. Actually thought we could still beat uab, SC, vandy and ky. Mizzou if Bryant doesnt play. By the time we get to SC after Bama game, I dont want to think about what we will look like. UF, GA, ms st and Bama in a 5 week span. We need to be rebuilding the roster in another conference.
I don’t really see anyone committed or that we have a realistic chance of landing that will significantly improve any starting position over what we have this year. Might get some good depth. Bailey may be the exception. We have to hope either Bailey is a freshman phenom or Maurer develops into a good QB over the course of this season. And I mean those guys need to be well above average, because they aren’t going to have great receivers next season that cover up a lot of inaccurate throws. Otherwise, next season is another dud.
You don't need to be five stars to execute. We aren't talking about competing with UGA or Bama. Kids expect us to beat the GSUs, BYUs, and Vandys. They are correct to expect that and the reason we have not been is simply poor execution. Hoping Bailey or other special players come along with their superior talent to beat the GSUs, BYUs, etc... Ya well, that won't leave anywhere to grow for the UGAs and Bamas except the same thing as before: execution. This gets fixed through coaching and execution. Better talent follows. Gotta prove you can do it with athletes before you can depend on convincing the super athletes. The real panic for me is, "can these coaches get their kids to execute and learn?" Because Bailey coming and throwing to a bunch of newby receivers is not going to look much different than what we saw yesterday in total, without coaches being able to transfer some poise and knowledge. That D-line sucks ass, and there are bodies there. They just have no moves or techniques. Why? Edit: I shouldn't be calling them kids. They're men, and they are smart enough not to just gamble away their opportunity. Pruitt and staff need to mitigate that risk and coach some ball.
Until the DL undergoes such significant improvement as to defy the imagination - be it through recruiting, JUCO’s, player development, scheme, etc., or some combination thereof - this team has no hope of stopping even below-average teams team from running the football, or of similarly below-average QB’s from picking them apart, and at will. If you can’t stop offenses, you have no hope of winning more than 3-4 games a year, and that’s if you’re lucky. If you ever find yourself wondering how strongly and positively correlated line play is to winning football games, just watch this current Tennessee team play any game, against anyone. There is no combination of fast and talented skill-guys, big-arm QB’s and big, strong and hard-hitting LB’s / DB’s that can overcome terrible line play. At least not very damned well, or for very damned long. And it wouldn’t make an appreciable difference to have Sean Peyton and the Saints offense coupled with the Patriot’s LB’s / DB’s on the field and with Bill Belichick coaching them up. Worst, some would argue that our OL / DL coaches are far and away the two worst on Pruitt’s staff. The OL didn’t start getting competent until Cheney started coaching them, instead of Friend. Pruitt now needs to do the same for our DL, and Rocker. And both need to be shit-canned the day after NSD, if not before. Because they’re both terrible at their jobs. That’s why? Source: *gestures broadly at everything*
Just found out this staff wanted Jahmyr Gibbs to play DB. The kid plays GA 6A and has 1600 yards and 27 TDs on the ground through 6 games. Why can't we hire coaches that call a spade a spade?
I’d be doing my absolute damnedest to recruit / sign over that entire defensive line, and to get more LB’s. 4-5 Offensive difference-makers at skill spots 4-5 Offensive linemen 15 others are on defense. I don’t know how JUCO recruiting works, as it relates to the number of recruits you can sign, who is available, what we specifically need, etc., but it’s obvious that we need immediate help on the D Line. I get that you want to sign traditional recruits, so as to develop them over a longer period of time, but I honestly don’t think Pruitt will be around to see that happen if the defensive line isn’t fantastically and immediately better, and next season. Like KPT said earlier, there aren’t any defensive difference-makers on that current list of recruits, meaning next year will likely be a dud, too. If Pruitt’s third season is anything like his first and second ones, he won’t get a fourth.
Tee Hodge is going to immediately be the short yardage guy Jalin Hyatt could possibly be the fastest guy on Tennessee's roster from day one
