The CheckerBoard

I think the coaches take at least part of that albatross. But there's something to be said, too, for good teams pushing you to bring your best game -- and I'd think inexperience in a new system matters for something, too.

Something that impressed me tonight was Miss St's coaching. They had highly touted DB's -- but those guys more or less shut down our 2 top receivers. Their D adjusted to our O late in the 3rd and contained us for the rest of the game. Their OL gave their Q great protection. Their special teams (except getting scorched by Patterson, who's just a stand-out talent and missing one make-able field goal), looked good. They got a TO when they had to have one. Their clock management was good. They looked like the ones who had 2 weeks to prepare for us. And they did all that without a stand-out QB or 1st rounders at WR. They just played solid fundamentals.

But Rajion Neal had the reputation of putting the ball on the turf his first year or so at UT, too. I was really impressed with Devrin's runs up the middle tonight. He made a fundamental mistake carrying the ball in traffic. It's something he ought to be able to correct.

Chris Rainey & Jeff Demps at FL were little guys, too, but they had successful Sr seasons at FL last year, and at least Rainey is now in the NFL. It's possible to do -- whether or not Devrin can pull it off remains to be seen, but if Neal & Lane are out next week against Bama, my strong suspicion Devrin will get more touches -- along with Q and hopefully Patterson.

It's so hard to be a TN Football fan..........Mistakes,mistakes, mistakes. Something has to change......And changes usually start at the top.....
One step forward and three steps back... We shouldn't be like Vanderbilt where moral victories count. We need something to be excited about and I don't see anything with this team that excites me.
One week we laid down...Tyler can't make a play, defense stinks it up......Botched KO's, fumbles, missed xp's, int's.....etc.etc.etc
If If's and butts were candy and nuts , we would all have a nice Christmas....No more sugar coating it.... We are not a good team........ Its something different every week. The only thing we are good at is losing....
Always a Vol fan.......but right now it stinks.......

whatever the excuse, I'm done. We have led 3 SEC games and didn't win any. How in the world did we lose this game tonight? Stupid coaching mistakes and turnovers. Pooched kickoff, young fumble, 3rd & and a yard twice and we throw long, can't stop 3rd and 18, I mean good grief we made them look like super bowl champions! I've supported Dooley for 3 yrs all the way till now. But he's 1-10 in the last 11 SEC games with the lone win over vandy in OT. Sorry but that's unacceptable with this talent! We have 7-8 first and 2nd round draft picks on the starters right now and this is the best we can do? What the hell has happened with Hunter? Win out or he has to be fired!

Tennesseeduke

I don't think firing Dooley is the solution...yet. Give him one more year. One more. If he can't win next year with a team chocked full of his seniors that he'll have coached for four years, he'll never be able to win with anybody. I agree partly with your assessment of the defense, switching to a 3-4 takes time. That being said, it is still no excuse for the D being this bad. I mean, we are AWFUL. It's embarrassing how poorly our defense plays; fundamentally and schematically. Say all you want about the switch of systems, but poor tackling and lane discipline have nothing to do with playing a 3-4 or a 4-3; it's just fundamentals. Maybe next year, we'll be better...I hope. As for 2012, we better take care of business against Mizzou and Vandy; and the Vandy game is looking more and more lose-able by the day,

+1

I agree with almost everything -- except questioning signing Dooley 3 more years. He may deserve more time, but I'd hesitate given episodes like tonight to give him that long.

Agree totally with the 3-4 and with rebuilding a program taking time. Saban could turn Bama around in 1-2 years, but it took Spurrier a lot longer than that to build up USC -- and Holtz had done a good deal of that job for him before he got there. There may be some other Saban's out there, but getting them on a limited checkbook with Neyland being part empty and the athletic program running in the red may well be impossible for us right now.

We seem to get interest from 2 types of blue-chippers: 1) JUCO's who want to follow Patterson here and 2) RB's who I wonder if Jay Graham isn't attracting.

I can't help but agree at least some about the fundamentals on defense; hard not to with games like GA and some things tonight. But how much of that is not playing 'fast & loose' that docmac pointed out? Also, you could argue being on the field for 20-25 min of the first 30 min of the game left them tired and prone to a droop in fundamentals. The D was looking bad at the same time the special teams looked like a 3-ring circus with the giving the kickoff back and the 15 yrd punt, and the O was going 3-and-out.

I hope we beat Mizzou. KY's a gimme. And both of those are in K-town this year.

Vandy will be wanting a replay after last year -- but Nashville is typically 50% or more UT fans. We'll hopefully also be healthier (and deeper) this year than we were when we played them last year.

Right, I was referring to the whole game as far as outplaying

I will take that Game Manager (0 Int's in 3 SEC Wins) than inconsistent Tyler Bray who seems to collapse again in big game.

Seems like leadership was the issue last night. Bray trying to hit the home run ball every third down it seemed and defense is just confused in the secondary. I hate to say this, but Dooley is not out on there playing. He should be accountable for not having the team ready after a bye week, but he was not out on that field last night.
Is it time to sit Bray and play Worley? Could he do any worse than the last two games of Bray?

That's what I was screaming. We desperately needed to build momentum. I can see going deep on 3rd and 2 if you are up by 2 touchdowns, but not when you haven't gotten a first down since early in the game. When he dropped back to throw it, I was screaming, "NO, NO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING????"

Watching Dooley walk out of the press box on crutches was strangely indicative of his state of affairs.