The CheckerBoard

That's a catch 22. A slow or short game is exactly what Saban wants. If they get ahead we cannot afford to do that because they will get stops. We dont need 85 plays though, 65-70 would be good.

Also, UT *DID* run the ball at Miss. State. Over 200 yards even. So we are doing that.

It's just converting the 3rd and shorts in the first half that killed the defense early. As been said by coaches and players, to string one FULL game would be beneficial and a show to see. Well, gentlemen, let's make it this weekend. Go Vols

I keep reading what Dooley is saying and I like the guy. I hate that he can't win football games, because that is ultimately going to be his demise at UT.

I was surprised to read "and now hear they are in Year Three and Year Four, and the reality is we didn’t do in those two weeks and didn’t really have (enough) committed on the other side"

I read this as he basically focused more on offensive recruiting than defensive recruiting. That is a mistake! Defense wins games.

When the head coach's expectation is to "compete" with SEC teams and not "beat" SEC teams, you're never going to beat the teams that you shouldn't beat, and your team will not have that winning mentality.

I know Dooley is all about the process, but I believe this team's progress and swagger would be a lot better with higher expectations and a winning mentality.

Dooley is a great guy and a good coach. I think he has improved you guys each year but he's had a lot of help with the bray/hunter combo. I don't know where y'all would be without those two. (Last year) yes he did recruit the two but neither were cant miss prospects they just turned out to be excellent college football players. To me Dooley just doesn't have that killer instinct that you need to win the big ones.

Not sure that's a fair statement.

I just don't see how you can put all the failures of the D on Dooley & then not give him credit for scouting/developing the best offensive players that they have, especially when they may not have been the most highly rated guys coming out of school, by just blowing that off as "getting lucky".

There's a lot more that goes into building a program than just coming into a new program, instilling your process & then, boom, 2 years later winning at an insane rate. I realize Saban did just this at Alabama, but his name carried a whole lot more weight in recruits' houses, both to the recruit themselves & their parents, & we still had to catch a couple of breaks, in terms of how quickly even some of those elite recruits panned out, compared to how long it normally takes even with the best coaching staffs in the nation, for things to work out the way that they did.

For those that remember, for all of Mike Shula's shortcomings, the man had produced some pretty top notch defenses during his time at the Capstone & that transitioned itself rather nicely into us having some pretty elite, EXPERIENCED playmakers on the defensive side of the ball, for us, by the time Saban's 2nd & 3rd year in Tuscaloosa had arrived.