Coach Doug Mathews
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This is a very good time for an open week after two physical SEC East rivals and prior to two physical SEC opponents from the West. The good news on the injury front is there seems to be little news on the injury front …..and no news is usually good news in this area. We have most all of the players who were in the playing rotation at the start of the season available now. We also have a bunch of younger and/or inexperienced players who have eight quarters of top SEC competition under their belt. While it may not be apparent right now this experience will pay dividends at some point…..hopefully this year. Over 90% of the players that are actually playing scrimmage snaps are underclassmen. In areas that are hard to see as fans we are improving. Playing as we did against Georgia and expecting this team to play similar the next two weeks…..the score may or may not be in our favor but valuable lessons are being taught and learned. By the end of the Alabama game we will have played against four of the top 10 teams in the country. And we will be better because of that competition.
I have never liked the phrase “it is what it is” but frankly “we are what we are” as a football team right now. Good, bad or somewhere in between this group of players is what we will win or lose with. That is the challenge for this coaching staff with seven games remaining. By now most every fan has an idea of what each of the 40ish players that are playing in games can do……and certainly this coaching staff has the knowledge of what each player they coach can and can’t do. Their job…..get them doing what they can do.
This head coach won’t have many questions of the defensive staff about who is playing where and when. He won’t have to ask why a particular coverage was called etc…..why we pressured or why we didn’t. Why? Because he is setting up the defensive game plans and calling defensive plays during the game. However I am sure he has had multiple discussions with the offensive play caller and staff regarding the offensive game plans and game execution. With an open date I would bet those discussions are ongoing and in all likelihood pointed. I have been in a few of those and they are not for the faint of heart.
Five games overall and two conference games into the season here is one person’s opinion of what has transpired so far.
Defensively: This side of the ball is not as physically talented as the offense but they are playing better as a unit. We are getting better each game from a fundamental stand point. We are playing tougher, more physical. There are limitations in the secondary, limitations in pass rush with only a four man rush and limitations on what a defensive play caller can do during a game. Most of those limitations are because of a secondary that limits what CJP can call. Pressure (bring 5/6 or more) and he has bad matchups in the pass game. Don’t pressure (rush 4) and the QB has time to pick out a receiver. Our potentially six best secondary players athletically include three freshmen (#6, #20, #25), two sophomores (#26, #12) and a junior (#18). Those three freshmen had their best day against Georgia….. “hold on the Calvary is coming”! Post Georgia I really like the “T” players….Tuttle, Thompson, Taylor (Alonte and Darrell).
Offensively: It is hard to see what we are trying to get done here. Unlike defensively there is not much apparent improvement fundamentally. Exactly what we are is still in question. I realize this is a new offensive staff with a first time play caller. We don’t have great talent on offense but surely we have more that we are showing so far. Questions I would bet the head coach has asked and is asking…….Is there a reason we can’t get #8, our best big play offensive player, more than nine touches in a competitive SEC game? Is there a reason why we can’t get a deep ball called and executed prior to half time? Is there a reason we don’t have any misdirection in our offensive play calling? We have two of the more physical receivers (#1 and #15) in the conference….is there a reason we can’t throw 50/50 jump balls to either or both. Does our offensive line know that it is legal to go down field and knock the hell out of someone in another color jersey prior to the whistle sounding?
I write the above from experience……I have been in an offensive staff room at Tennessee when the head coach came in and ask similar questions…..including if any of us wanted to be around the next year. It certainly got our attention. Let me give you one example….1980… we had one great offensive player a receiver named Anthony Hancock. That was about it. We were having trouble getting him the ball in preseason scrimmages and after a couple of prior “suggestions” from the head coach he walked in one day and announced this….(paraphrasing) “If we play a game and Anthony does not touch the ball at least 15 times we damn sure better win it or I will fire every damn one of you!” That was my first year at Tennessee, I wasn’t sure if he meant it but I certainly did not want to tell my wife to not hang the drapes……I quickly learned to count to 15!
I have been on offensive staffs that produced every bit of anemic performances as this offensive staff has the last couple of games. Again 1980 in Knoxville in the rain against the Tide…..zero 1st and 10’s the entire first half. Handled smartly, handled wisely, handled with urgency this offensive staff can do what that 1980 staff did……identified what we could do on offense, identify what players need to get the ball and most importantly get all eleven offensive players on the field playing nasty get after your ass football. If we do that we will get back to playing like Volunteer teams should play.
We saw why it is so important for this team to greatly limit turnovers. We stayed in the game late into the third quarter because of field position against the #2 team in the country……. and Georgia did not help us by committing turnovers…….a great teaching lesson for this young team. For the first time this season we fought for 60 minutes. Almost every major mistake from the Florida game was corrected……and that’s coaching. Unlike Florida where we lost……this game we made Georgia beat us…..and that is progress.
Let’s “Talk” next week.