The CheckerBoard

I believe the offensive line that CBJ inherited will be a major advantage. It will allow the running game to be a bigger part of the offense, lowering the pressure on a young quarterback and receiving corps. Also the switch back to the 4-3 should be a better fit for our current defensive personnel.

It's definitely a good article. I don't know that I totally agree with some of his conclusions on which starters are/were better. I think from a purely depth perspective, Jones has the upper hand. I think the Ws & Ls will come down to how the team is "coached up". And from that point, I give Jones an A+++, although he hasn't coached a game at UT yet, I have watched some of his videos on YouTube and the man brings it every day....very, very passioinate. He reminds me (in those terms) a lot of Bruce Pearl....we'll see

I've said it before, will say it again. CBJ no doubt inherits a better roster than CDD. But that's still no excuse for Dooley's yearly regression. His lack of major head coaching or coordinator experience was glaringly obvious especially in Year 3. Too talented of a team to lose 7 games this year.

I agree with this. Jones definitely inheriting better situation however, I believe Jones is also a better coach.

I certainly hope you are right that this is a 'jumping of point for discussion'. Otherwise I would have to think it's agenda driven. I don't think it's close. Dooley was a bad coach but a very good recruiter and foundation builder. If he had been an average or below recruiter then Jones would be ready to shoot himself right about now or not taken the job at all. I ascribe more closely to bavw's point of view. Interesting discussion.

THIS. + what DCVOL said.

Lots of errors in this article.

1. Anywhere you mention a 2010 FR like Bray and Hunter and Rogers and J James etc you have to counter that with a player in the 2013 class like Ferguson, Harris, maybe North or Green or ?, Sanders, Carr etc etc.

The author is not comparing apples and apples

2. Key players have been in the program for 1-2 years vs in 2010 James, Fulton, Bray, Hunter, Stone, Rogers, etc etc were true FR. Now many backups are at least true sophs or RS sophs or JRs or SRs.

3. The statement " While Jones should have a slight advantage in year one, his year two challenge may be larger than Dooley's" is flat out wrong as in 2011 we had maybe 3-4 SEC "good" players total from the following classifications: RS SRs, SRs, RS JRs, JRs, and RS Sophs.......we had zero 3rd, 4th and 5th year players basically that Dooley had not recruited like Rivera and Malik.

Jones will have 3-4 times that many with ease from those classifications and this years 2013 class will be in the program a full year+ by the 2014 season.

There are mulitple things wrong with this article but the key thing is the author is not even considering the 2013 class but is the 2010 class so he is very non factual.

Now I will go position by position not using the 2010 class or the 2013 class....this gets scary when you are talking about the 2010 roster and backups not using Dooleys 1st class bc the author did use Jones 1st class (which he has much more time to recruit and sign and no NCAA shadow vs Dooley had):

Dooley inherited vs Jones inherited

QB: Only Simms vs Worley/Peterman.........not even close for JONES. Worley is a JR and Peterman is a RS FR both being in the program/ training and getting coached and Worley has played in mulitple SEC games and started

RB: Poole/ Oku/ Toney Williams vs Neal/ Lane/ Hill/ Watson/ DYoung/ Smith.....not even close for JONES. Poole was a 4th string RB in 2009 and Oku and Williams soon left the program. Neal or Lane is better than Poole (or at worst equal to Poole on his best day) now that Graham has been coaching them for a full year and we have all seen the improvement

OL: Dallas Thomas/ Schofield and Revis etc vs the best Oline maybe in the nation in 2013 and numerous backups like Kerbyson, Crowder, and Bullard etc that have been in the program for 1 full year or more......not even close for JONES. Dallas Thomas was the ONLY OLineman that panned out for Dooley when he walked in the door.

WRs: DMoore/ GJones/ ZRogers/ Teague* (who Dooley had to move CB bc we just didnt have ANY....a huge sacrifice that many dont give Teague credit for) vs Bowles, Pig, Carter, VDallas, and Blanc.......close but a slight advantage to JONES or at worst a draw bc 5 is greater than 3 and all 5 have been in the program for 1+ years and Bowles was RS'd in 2012 and was very highly recruited + Pig is our GJones now and VDallas showed he can contibute a ton and so can Blanc and Carter when needed for depth. Also we only had ZRogers returning in 2011 at WR.......we will have all the above for Jones for 2-3 more years.

TE: Stocker vs Croom/ Downs/ Meredith (will be healthy finally some think)....the author left off Meredith and Ben Barth was a FB not a TE til 2012. Advantage JONES as 3 is greater than 1 and all 3 have been in the program for 1-2+ years and Croom appears to have a very bright future and Downs has been a starter for 2 years. While Stocker was very good....we simply had only 1 TE inherited by Dooley vs 3 by Jones

I will do the defense later..........time for dinner.