The CheckerBoard

And Tee Martin. As good as Peyton was, he couldn't win us a NC, but Tee did.

Looking at how Butch Jones had his staff laid out at Cincy I would guess that the question with Hinshaw and Tee Martin is going to be if either is going to want to be the TEs coach. I can't imagine unless the Cincy OC becomes head coach that CBJ wouldn't want him to be OC/QBs coach. That only leaves WRs coach and TEs coach. I hope and pray we can have both Martin and Hinshaw, but I can't imagine either accepting the TEs coaching position.

agree with you...i really like Pittman but you are totally right.

Buckshot, respectfully, i cant agree with that. For a passing offense like ours to also average 160 yds on the ground was pretty remarkable. Moreover, look at the defenses we had to run the ball against. I wonder how many teams would have run the ball for 160 yds a game against the teams we played? And our yards per attempt is 4.7 which is really a better measure of the aptitude of the rushing offense. I'll take 4.7 yards per attempt any day of the week against the teams we played. Finally, and i think this point was made elsewhere above, but we didnt exactly have barry sanders in our backfield either. We have no home run hitters that could make the big 80 yard house call. So while other teams would pile up yardage with their backs making the big gains when big holes were opened, the same holes opened by our offensive line would only result in, at most, a 20-30 yd gain. With a game breaking back, i think our rushing offense would have been top 25.

I'm really glad Graham is staying. I really wish we'd keep Pittman. He really improved the OL's running game, and not only avoided botching their good pass protection from the previous year, but improving it to one of the best in the nation. As for our running game not being even better: yes, we were a passing team, but I'm still not convinced Bray is very good at managing the running game.

I can understand the points about Jones OL coach Mahoney knowing Jones' offense and Jones in some sense owing him allegiance for his work so far. And Mahoney seems to have a good background -- but 1) I don't know if he's as good an OL coach as Pittman, especially in the SEC. Pittman has now been successful against good SEC teams, which Mahoney hasn't. (Maybe he will, but Pittman's a known quantity.) 2) I wonder if Mahoney can recruit as well in the southeast as Pittman. Dumping Pittman also puts at risk our hope of landing the 4-star OL recruit from HI.

Mahoney may be a great coach. He's been successful at Cincy and previously. If he replaces Pittman as expected, we'll see. He'll have some great talent to work with, because we'll have a mostly Sr line next year, even if James is replaced by a So.

Jones made a point about the coaches needing to be able to teach the players in his presser yesterday. If the OL blocking scheme is significantly different than Chaney's, it makes sense to being his OL coach along, because he already knows the system. The last thing you want is a coach on the same learning curve as the players...

I wanted a lot more guys to stick around but it doesn't make much sense. Jones has a lot of pressure on him to win..,.he wants his guys.

If we could have both Tee and Jay on staff, I don't really care about anyone else. I trust Jones to do his job.

Everyone was upset about the bad coaching. Now some are upset they are being let go. OK?