The CheckerBoard

I love Coach's blunt, direct approach. It isn't mean spirited at all. Just factual and to the point. And, it seems, that when he makes comments to us in the public, he has already said as much to the players themselves. No blindsides that I can see here.

Honest and out in the open. He's the same way with the fans. He knows and understands exactly where we are.

Smart dude. I like him. I'm in for the long haul.

The D-backs looked lost against bammer. Is it a lack of ability or the whole new defensive scheme just not working. Something has got to change or there will be no improvement in the defense. The passing game is still viable to put up points. Hopefully it will against SC. GO VOLS

Like Bray & Patterson, there's little doubt of Hunter's ability & potential. But I think he's minimizing his fall-off in productivity against top SEC teams. It's more than "just a drop or two": he hasn't had either the receptions or the yards against SEC teams this year that he has had against lesser games. Maybe some of that isn't his fault; but can he say none of it is?

Something I've wondered is if our WR's simply aren't getting challenged in practice they way they are in major SEC games because our starting DB's aren't as good as the starting DB's from other SEC teams. If the adage is true "You play the way you practice" then maybe that's part of the problem.

+1 Good point. Hunter missed most of his So. year and his Fr. year he was probably largely overlooked by defenses as a secondary receiver. Now he & Patterson are both top priority for defenses, and it's likely a lot harder for him than 2 years ago.

Yes, they played well against NC St. But my sense is NC St isn't in the same league as even middle-of-the-road SEC teams (GA & Miss St) much less division leading SEC teams (Bama & FL). My sense is the competition was lower against NC St.

Every year in recent years, SEC teams have had about half or more of the top 10 recruiting classes, and the middle-of-the-road SEC teams have been well-represented in the #10-#20 recruiting classes. Where was Cincinnati's classes the 4-5 years before we hammered them last year? Or where was NC St's classes the 4-5 years before this year? SEC teams are just loaded with talent after the conference has so distinguished itself with 6 consecutive national titles and loads of bowl wins. More top recruits want to play in the SEC than other conferences, and UT's recruiting is really benefiting from that.

Something that's hard for me to understand is, given the fantastic year our OL is having protecting Bray and the fact all the skill players around him can catch (not just Hunter & Patterson, but also Z. Rogers, Rivera, Neal, Lane, Young, Bartholomew, and likely others), why can't Bray find _somebody_ open on virtually every play? If Hunters & Patterson are covered, why not take what the defense gives you and throw it to someone else?

Another thing: our running game this year hasn't set world records, but it has been really solid against pretty much everybody -- even Bama & GA. Lane's looked good up the middle whenever he's played and Neal also looked really good after the first game or two. If defenses want to tie up extra players double covering Hunter & Patterson, why don't we run the ball with Neal or Lane or Young until they _have_ to pull guys away from pass coverage to defend the run -- and THEN start burning them with our WR's?

Majors & Fulmer seemed to believe a team had to establish it could run before it threw the ball -- so we'd run up the middle even with 8-9 men the box. I wonder if this year's Vols are too much of the opposite mind: that we're going to keep throwing it even when our WR's are well covered & the play's not there. We've got enough talent to take advantage of whatever a defense gives us. If they give us the run, take it. Eventually they'll have to cover the run as we push them downfield, and when they do, throw it.

It's simple, 11 has to step up his game. His talent is through the roof, its unacceptable to drop the passes he does. Last yr in his 2nd season at UT Da'Rick had a 1000 yd 9 td season as a #1 WR with no reliable #2 WR and 5 games with a tru Fr QB. All I've heard for 18-24 months on here and TOS is how 11 is better than 21...well its about damn time he starts proving it. I love being right but 21 isn't in O&W anymore...so I'm desperately asking for 11 to prove me wrong, but as of right now I'm still adamantly standing by my opinion that 21 is better than 11

But Da'Rick got his big yards against lower-level competition, too. He made some catches against GA (who punished him hard for it), but his production fell off last year after Hunter went down and then Simms became QB after Bray broke his thumb against GA. We subsequently ran better against LSU & Bama, but we weren't very prolific passing the ball. You could probably look up stats online for last year & see, but that was my sense last year watching the games.

You make some fair points here. In the beginning of the year, especially after NCST & our non-conference games I didn't think we were missing 21 at all, but after this grueling stretch of tough SEC defenses I've started to think more and more that we were in fact missing him. He is very talented and will also play at the next level so it would be dumb to think you wouldn't miss a player like that. I can't tell you which is better because they're different types and styles but having them both would be nice. Oh well.