WNML / HH Practice Report (9/18, 7:30am)

Per HH this am:

1. First day the media was allowed to watch practice this week, only saw first 3 periods
2. Gator music blaring
3. Randolph, Moore, breed, Williams all in green (no-contact) jerseys
4. Ayers out with torn ACL
5. No lingering effect from Oregon whipping
6. Salisbury on crutches, out at least 3 weeks
7. Magit looked good, running around "moving freely"
6. As to the QB's
"Nothing impressive" about QB competition,
Completion percentage was "extremely low", less than 50% completed, lots of missed balls, throws being nowhere near the WR's
WR's having to break back / adjust for balls
Peterman got a lot of team snaps in.

READ THIS CAREFULLY: "Didn't see much of the freshmen QB's getting any team (snaps). Only drills."

So, here's what I take from this (insofar as my interpretation of her recounting of that limited portion of practice which she saw):

Worley and Peterman got all of the team snaps (offense versus defense). Each still seems confounded as to how to throw a football with any consistency or accuracy, even against our own defense. Ostensibly, it appears to be two variations of awful.

But the frosh - Ferguson and Dobbs - only threw drills, and weren't observed to be similarly awful, for whatever that's worth.

 

To take a page from IP's Book of Heretical Arguments - the simplest solution is most likely correct.

1. Jones / the staff simply erred in thinking that Worley could be even a competent QB
2. This error continued through the AP / WKU games, which he felt would be two safe games to get Worley "right"
3. That's why you didn't see Peterman get meaningful snaps.
4. It's also why one or both of the frosh didn't get any snaps.
5. Now that its painfully obvious that Worley is nowhere near anything resembling either competent or consistent, Jones is scrambling to get someone else ready....having missed the chance to do so in the first two weeks of the season.

I don't believe that he's playing some high-minded shell game as to which frosh might redshirt, play, or not.
I don't believe that there is some higher / larger strategy at play with starting Worley, but instead, that they simply failed to fully realize how truly awful he would perform.

Just my $.02.

 

I am just having to fight my fan impulse to do what gives the team the best chance right now instead of for the future. It is hard to ignore that, but you know, "brick by brick" and all of that...

If Butch doesn't think the freshmen are ready to practice in a competition to win the starting job, then I have to assume that they really aren't. Peterman will probably get his shot at this since Worley is incredibly bad. By the end of the year, we will probably have a freshman that Butch believes has learned enough to start.

 

"Magit looked good, running around "moving freely" "

ffs I sure hope so.

 

Not so sure they necessarily said the freshmen weren't also bad.

 

smokescreen

 

I can't take Heather seriously.

 

Once the media left after first three periods, all reps were given to Dobbs and Ferguson?

 

Football time said that all 4 got time with 1 and 2.

 

Then they're already out of their league attempting to coach a major college football program. My 2 cents.

 

Smokescreen.

Riley Dobbs will be in by the 2nd quarter.

 

Both freshman QBs on the field. Same time. Entirely new offense. Drawn up in the dirt. 5 minutes before kickoff. Vols roll.

 

3 QB's, one wide receiver. Just have the center hike the ball back there see which one can figure out how to get it down field first.

Genius.


Surely there is someone on a D-1 roster who can throw a consistent 6 to 10 yard pass. I mean, oh my god.

 

Our receivers aren't exactly running free. Combine that with Worley's "skill set" and you get what we've gotten. That's just an added reason we need a guy with a big and accurate arm.

 

I'm standing by what I've said all along. Try to get through Florida with Worley and then unleash the young'uns. The only change is that they've realized they can't get through Florida with Worley, so they altered the plan accordingly.

 

I'm so sick of sucking.

 

I don't think our receivers are all that more covered then a lot of teams. Worley has show a guy with 10 yards of open space isn't a sure completion.

 

I don't necessarily agree with that.

I think that Worley was what you could easily see as being the safest option, by far. He has game experience, he has time at the college level, he had the whole spring to learn the offense. If he coukd simply be a somewhat neutral force on gameday, he's probably the best pick to start.

I don't think that they thought he would be a world-beater, or could carry this team, by any stretch of the imagination - but I don't think that they saw him as being as inept as be has been through three games. And while he looked, let's say "less than stellar" through fall camp, I could easily see them believing that they could use the AP / WKU games to get a true-game assessment of where he was, and could dial him in from there.

Its an error - and I find it hard to argue otherwise, frankly - but its not one that leads me, personally, to question the competency of this staff. Worley's play has not only been off-the-charts bad, but likely far worse than even they imagined possible.

And what stood out to me from BJ's comments the other day was the perceived sense that Worley is just playing timid and scared, and worse, that he's lacking a confidence which I think they hoped to instill in not only naming him the starter, but entrenching him at the spot ("I don't want Worley looking over his shoulder, that he's going to get benched for making a bad play." - Butch Jones)

They just didn't fully estimate how bad he could be, but to their credit, they at least seem willing to do something about it.

 

This.

We had guys open at Oregon, and he just flat missed them.

What's most concerning is how much trouble our WR's had with Oregon's press coverage, especially when you consider (and as someone on WNML pointed out) that Florida may be the second best team in the country at press coverage, trailing only Bama.

 

We didnt have guys open that often against Oregon. But there were some.