Offensive Woes Continue

Before discussing the Volunteers game I will mention another.  Florida upset by Ole’ Miss at the Swamp!  The Rebels made us look even worse today going into Florida Stadium and taking it to the Gators.  Ole’ Miss came out with twice the fire and intensity this week than the Volunteers did last week.  The Rebels kicked to Brandon James 9 times in their game this Saturday and all but shut down James, we only kicked to him 6 times and surrendered a touchdown and another huge return.  I suppose wins like today’s for the Rebels are why they had better recruiting this past off season than the Volunteers despite the recruiting budget. Did you know The Mississippi Rebels have beaten the Gators more times than the Vols since 2002? Interesting.

Now, lets move on to this weekends game.  Another loss as the Vols move to 1-3 on the year and the bottom of the barrel in the SEC.  The big orange could not move the ball what so ever, Crompton has been proven again this week as a completely ineffective quarterback.  With Crompton at the helm I see a less than five hundred season on the horizon, I think its time Phil gives Nick Stephens or B.J. Coleman a look, its only fair at this point. The game as a whole wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be thanks to our defense playing a great game.  And now lets break down each aspect of the game.

Offense, complete junk with Crompton taking the snaps again this week.  He is completely inadequate as a passer and despite what we heard about his legs I continually see him get dropped behind the line when he tucks the ball under.  Crompton threw only 8 completions out of 23 attempts which only produced 67 yards.  The running game got going early which was nice until Auburn realized that is all the Vols had and stacked the box with 8 and 9 defenders and that is when the offense stopped.  We had seven three and outs during this game, if that doesn’t tell the story I don’t know what does. But if you need more we were only converted 4 third downs out of 14 tries against Auburn.  Again I will indicate my disgust with Arian Foster and Jonathan Crompton this week after another exchange problem.  The Volunteers had similar fumble cost them six against Florida last week and obviously didn’t fix the problem before this week. At least Phil made Foster learn his lesson as we saw very little of him the remainder of the game.  The G-Gun did a decent job moving the ball with the run, but I still believe the Volunteers have to let Gerald throw the ball before it will reach its full potential and one throw which was dropped after hitting Lucas Taylor in the hands hardly qualifies.  And it should be noted that the only offensive touchdown came off a Dennis Rogan interception which gave the offense a very short field of 37 yards.

Hats off to the defense this week, the D only surrendered 7 points to the Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium.  Credit the other seven to the offense.  The defense can’t do much else when they held Auburn to 226 yards of total offense. Auburn was only 6 for 18 on third downs thanks to the D this week.  Again the secondary played an amazing game snatching another interception making that 8 on the year which is fourth in NCAA football.  Some missed tackles here and there plagued the defense in stopping runs behind the line of scrimmage and cost the Vols one or two sacks.  

On to Special Teams, first off great job by Cunningham pinning the Tigers three times inside the five yard line.  Although it did make me a little nervous that Auburn almost blocked three punts this afternoon, especially after seeing the punt block for a TD against UCLA.  Last week I said I would like to see Gerald Jones return some punts, and this week that came true for me this week, and he did make a big play with a long return in the second half but, surprise surprise a three and out followed suit.  Never really gave up a big return which was a change, good adjustments there.  I would also like to give props to Daniel Lincoln who kicked his first field goals since the misses at UCLA, he went two for two from 47 and 35.  

Now to coaching, again simple mistakes cost the Volunteers the game with the fumble and some more personal fouls to go along with the turnover.  I have to say that this team lacks discipline when a blatent hit out of bounds gives Auburn fifteen more yards.  Peyton Manning said it best, “bonehead plays costing this team games.”  That couldn’t be a more true statement.  The offensive adjustments were nonexistent after Auburn committed to stopping the run.  I will give John Chavis some credit for bringing the defense in ready to play.  And I have to say if Phil doesn’t make the executive decision to take out Crompton and give someone else a shot it is going to cost him his job.  I don’t put a whole lot on Fulmer after this loss but when your team is one and three all fingers point to the coaches and that is still the direction mine points as well.

Overall the fact is the Volunteers have suffered another loss, they are almost like two different football teams, with a different team on each side of the ball.  This week should be an easy win with Northern Illinois coming to town. But without a complete turn around of this football team we will be staring a 2 and 4 start in the face with a game at Georgia in two weeks.  This is going to be a rough season Vol fans. Until next time Volball out.

Rivalry?

 

Where I come from rivalries are competitive. This one truly is not. Four years without a win over the Florida Gators. For the second time in four weeks I am embarrassed with the play of the Tennessee Volunteers. Volball reflects.

I had already prepared myself for this loss just to be honest, I just really didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was this past Saturday at Neyland Stadium. For the first time I was not ashamed at the fact that the stadium was half empty by mid third quarter, and when I say half empty, it was full of Blue. And as a friend says don’t wear it if it’s not in the checker board. For the second time in a row the Gator faithful enjoyed another Saturday in Knoxville.

Personally I have lost all faith in the Volunteers this season, people can say its early, say look at what happened last year. Sorry, I just won’t do it. Optimism is nice but realism is better. To think that Vol fans are saying, “don’t lose faith, we were right here last year and got to the conference title game,” statement like that absolutely makes me sick. It is everything that is wrong with Tennessee football. It is why you go to Neyland every saturday afternoon we are forced to watch highlights of the nineties and cheer for things over a decade old while we watch title celebrations of Tennessee women’s basketball only months old. Tennessee football is all that “was” and I for one am ready for Tennessee football to be now but, with Phil at the helm this just will not happen.

I was either blessed enough or cursed depending on viewpoint to attend the game this weekend at Neyland Stadium. What is interesting is the Florida offense wasn’t even that impressive, we even out gained their offense in total yards. Two huge errors by Tennessee in this game, I will start with special teams, in particular the coverage teams or should I say lack there of? Phil said pregame this past week, “we certainly know what Brandon James is capable of.” Really Phil? Did you know? Two years in a row now this kid has taken it to the house with ease. Five missed tackles on a 78 yard punt return and Brandon James earns his second of the year, first coming against Miami. And his opening return took the Gators past midfield on the very first play of the game which certainly didn’t bode well for the Volunteers. Returns like that are exactly how Tennessee out gained Florida in total offense and still lost the game.

Next, the offense. All I can say is disgraceful. I don’t understand how you get inside the Gator three yard line two times and come up with no points. The play calling in this game was absolutely terrible. Obvious passing situations we run, obvious running situations we passed. I don’t understand how we had numerous second and shorts at times when the pace of the game needed to change and we didn’t take a shot down field. Instead the offense opted to run the ball unsuccessfully and half the time ended up in a worse spot than on second down. On another note, I was proud to see the G-Gun package get used this week but, until they let Gerald Jones throw the ball it will never be a game changing formation. Montario Hardesty let me down this week with a fumble after a one yard catch. Then any kind of reasonable gain seemed to be taken away due to penalties, false starts, holdings, etc. And when you are 4 out of 11 on third down and 0 for 2 on fourth you can’t expect to win a football game.

On to defense, first off I want to say thank you to Eric Berry, no matter what anyone says you can’t say this kid “quit.” He must have given a halftime speech to himself that wasn’t given to the rest of the team, he hit harder, ran faster, and tackled better than anyone on this football team. Overall, I really don’t have a lot of faults for the defense. A couple of penalties didn’t help the effort, but overall they held the Florida offense to only 243 yards total offense. And last years Heisman winner Tebow to under 100 yards passing. Way to go secondary once again. There is no part of this football team I have given credit every week beside Eric Berry and his buddies. Maybe our secondary should put in a mass letter of transfer to somewhere where their efforts can actually be used. Can’t fault the defense for this weeks loss, especially when they only gave up 23 points to the 4th ranked team in the nation.

Now its time to grill, I went to lunch today with my family and Tennessee football obviously came up in our conversation. During lunch our waiter passed and said, “its kind of hard to throw a kid under the bus after three games but, he is looking rough.” To which I replied, “I already ran over him.” Johnathan Crompton is absolutely awful, and it is not just his play for me, the kid is far too confident and has no bearing on the game. This is his third straight game with an interception. And not only a pick, credit him with a fumble as well. Both turnovers inside the Gator three yard line came from this big John. He could be dragging this football team down even more than Phillip Fulmer himself, which is a tough feat. Then you have his brilliant 12 yard rush for at first down which ended with him getting laid out by a Florida linebacker jumping right back up and running his mouth at which point the score was 27 to 0 in favor of the Gators. He has lost all confidence from his offensive teammates, and is clearly not a leader on this football team. Just before the second half began with Tennessee about to receive the kick off Crompton tried to call his offense to a meeting when he was greeted by no one except one player #48 Adam Myers-White who is a linebacker, not even a part of the Tennessee offense. Is the Tennessee faithful aware that Crompton has yet to have an interception on first or second down, he simply forces the ball in situations because he thinks he can make plays that he has no business trying to make.

Next, Arian Foster, wow this kid calls himself a “leader.” That is a complete joke, again he fails to come through in a big game. Foster accounted for only 37 yards of rushing and had a blatant personal foul which showed complete lack of maturity and accounted for 15 yards against the offense. Then not only did he receive a personal foul, after returning to the sideline a Tennessee fan had some choice words for him and rather than ignore it or use the words as fuel he chooses to turn around a return fire like a middle school child. The kid has showed no maturity and a complete lack of leadership on this football team. Maybe Eric Berry should have given his halftime speech to Arian Foster as well because as energized as Berry looked Foster looked equally as flat going out to the second half captains meeting with his hands on his hips, as if to be half asleep.

And last but not least good ole’ Phil. Urban Meyer has had is way with Phil still undefeated against the Orange and White. Again a terrible job of preparation for Phil and his coaching staff. I don’t understand how you come out and kick to the most dangerous return man in college football not once but twice. He is obviously out coached in the SEC and can’t keep up with the competition. Halftime adjustments again were not a factor for the Volunteers seeing as their were none. The team was flat and unmotivated once again. Phil has already stepped up and taken responsibility for the win saying, “That loss is on me, I’m a big boy with broad shoulders. I can handle it.” No….really Phil?

Overall, for me its no longer about routing for wins, now it turns to routing for change whether that is in victory or defeat it does not matter to me. The Volunteers are behind the times in college football and it is showing every week more and more. It is time for change in Knoxville and with extremely tough SEC schedule ahead of us if Vol fans don’t yet agree they will soon enough, mark my words. Next week the Volunteers travel to Auburn to a hostile environment and play against a defense who may be even tougher than that of the Gators. Look for the shut out next week on the road.

keys to stomp the chomp.

Its been four years.  Long(def.)- the amount of time since we took it to Gators and I for one am getting tired of the third week loss. Crompton, running game, coaching all public keys to success against the gators.  For me the battles will be won in the trenches.  The offensive and defensive lines will be key if the orange and white are to have a chance against Urban Meyer’s crew.

So far the offensive line has looked weak in protecting Crompton in drop back passing situations.  Jonathan can’t quite handle a good pass rush yet, he seems to crack under the pressure of D lineman and linebackers in his face.  With the Vols starting such a deep offensive line this year they really need to step up and help John out this week.  During the previous two weeks I feel they have left down Crompton not giving him the protection that he needs to be successful. 

Good blocking by the boys up front will also be key to develop the running game which will be key for a victory over the Gators.  If the vols can’t develop the run early we will be in huge trouble.  Clock management will be huge, we need to keep the powerful Florida offense off the field for as long as possible.  The more snaps the Florida offense takes the more chance the big play will occur.

On to the defensive line, after seeing the Gators play the ‘canes two weeks ago I feel I can’t stress enough the need to get pressure on Tim Tebow.  For the first time in a while the Gators showed weakness during the first half against Miami.  I would mention our linebackers but I don’t feel you can rest much pressure on their shoulders quite yet. I hope the big orange were taking notes during the first half of the Miami game, the Hurricanes held Florida to only nine points and the nation saw frustration on Tebow’s face, a completely foreign idea.

If the Volunteers can win the battle in the trenches they will drastically increase their chances to get the W this week against the Gators for the first time in four years. If Tennessee can’t come up with the win this year I think the Big Orange Army might have blow torch under Phillip Fulmer’s office chair.

Volball’s keys to stomp the chomp!