And We Thought Dooley was Bad

[gymvol]

Call it coaching, bad recruiting or lack of player development but this is one of the worst teams I've seen at Tennessee and that's a long time.

When we struggle to beat a bad UMASS team at home folks get ready because SEC play ain't gonna get any better.

Before Florida I thought we might break even in SEC play but now it looks like 1 or 2 wins may be it and I'm still trying to figure out who the second win might be.

[VolRage]

Yep. It really pisses me off because I wasted a shit load of money traveling to watch that garbage dumbass Butch calls football. They were booed several times today and deserved it. They played scared. Butch ball is pathetic.

[ALA2262]

LSU thought Miles was bad. Nebraska thought Solich was bad. It happens. Just think how you would feel if Dooley had been anywhere near as good as those two.

[Cincydawg]

Jones has recruited pretty well overall.  He had a decent season last year, but the team lost a lot of key players, including of course the QB.  I think if they had a QB who was dangerous they would be a MUCH better team.

QD just doesn't scare any defense at all.

They might be one player away.

[OrangeAfroMan]

SEC Win % of much-maligned coaches:

.438  Butch Jones, UT
.174  Derek Dooley, UT
.667  Ron Zook, UF
.531  Will Muschamp, UF
.689  Les Miles, LSU
.143  Ed Orgeron, OM
.740  Mark Richt, UGA
.208  Mike Shula, ALA

Some reeeeally good coaches let go.  Some reeeeeally bad coaches hired and kept around too long.  And some in between.

[Cincydawg]

I always think before firing a coach the AD should have a pretty good idea or three about who would be better that he can hire.

CBJ gets noticed because of things he says to the media, and his record is not that great, and perhaps his team is not showing much of anything yet.  Who would come in and do better?  Anyone?  Obviously not anyone.

[Drew4UTk]

Dooley was lazy- he wanted all the perks of being head ball coach but with none of the effort.... he was also managed by arguably the worst AD in UT history. 

CBJ isn't a bad coach- and he's a pretty damn good program manager.  his issue, again, is he is afraid to lose more than he is hungry to simply perform.  everything he does on the field is 'careful'.  he is coddling that team attempting to 'set them up for success' by attempting nothing but high percentage plays- and becoming frustrated when they can't do even that- resorting to more of the same... 

I'm just an old grunt who doesn't know nuthin' about the management of a football team, but i've damn sure sent teams of men out in the wilds to do what they were trained to do- I don't really know how related those things are, but i find it interesting that one is often compared to the other by the other... and here is how it's done from the other vantage:

train... train some more... train atop of that... the same thing over and over and over again until it's muscle memory- until when they are about to fall to sleep from exhaustion their bodies go on auto-pilot and they execute to perfection.  That is when they're ready to go- and because they can actually rely on themselves and confidently know they're executing the tasking of their billet.  It becomes fun- the 'game' is nothing but an extension of practice and an opportunity to present what you've accomplished while competing against someone who has done the same.     

some groups are green, so you teach them basics and continue to drive that until they literally have to make a conscious effort to not perform in a predictable way.... basics/fundamentals of the role over and over and over some more.  then you employ them in a circumstance all they need are the basics so they can discover (you can't teach them this, they must discover) they're capable.  

then and only then you start developing complexities that make things easier or expound on basics into complicated/complex tasks- and run them over and over and over and over some more until they don't even realize they've stepped up their game- they're unable to distinguish between basics and the new layer of complexity..... then- test it, talk about it, hone it.  then move to the next layer... 

i can't recall the last time i saw a UT bench smiling and goofing off- the QB and WR actually 'laugh' about a broken route, dropped pass, bad read, or just plain stupid mistake- and it's because they lack moxy... they're confident, but they're confident that they'll screw up instead of expecting success.  They SHOULD feel that way, because their coach hasn't prepared them and he also expects them to screw up.  He may posture that he doesn't, but he does... he lacks confidence, not only in his team as that is an extension of him, but with himself and his staff.... of all the pep talks in the locker room ever given, and there have been some doozies, the best one either begins and ends or at least ends with "gentlemen, we've practiced our asses off and worked like hero's to become drones that execute consistently and to expectations- the work is done, and now it's time to go out there and show off what you've accomplished- let's go have some fun!"  

i can't recall the last team from Knoxville that appeared to be having fun... they've all appeared to be suffering an anxiety attack, instead. 

[MikeDeTiger]

Apologies for derailing your thread, but Drew, you hit on something I've long thought you and a lot of our fans missed the boat on when it came to our former coach.  He didn't play with fire nearly so much as people wanted to think.  He had a plan, and the two major tenets of that plan was 1) don't get blown out, and 2) trust your kids to go make a play.  It won a lot of games.  

1)  Yeah, a lot of the games were uglier than people wanted, and caused all manner of concerns about "squandering talent" or whatever.  He wanted to possess the ball and take away the other team's ability to run away with anything, and he really, really, REALLY wanted to avoid turnovers.  And it all made a recipe for a lot of contests where games against inferior teams looked the same as against good teams.  There were plenty of blowouts--though people conveniently forget them--but it's true there were also a lot of ugly games against lesser teams that made you feel like we should be doing more.  I'm convinced it was by design.  The main thing is don't give the other team a chance to blow it open.  The reason why too many poor teams hung around is the exact reason why lesser LSU teams could still take Alabama to overtime and scare the hell out of them, and have a chance.

2)  When he drags every team, great or small, into the mud and forces you to play that game, maybe the little guy has more of a chance than he ought to, but it doesn't matter.  Because in crunch time, whether it's a bad team or a national champs, the Hat trusted his guys.  He counted on them to get out there and go lay it on the line for him.  They knew it and they loved him for it.  For as conservative as he was thought to be, he really had a long history of putting all his eggs into the basket of a kid or two and saying hey....go be amazing...give it your best and I believe you're better than the guy across from you....and then the kids believed it because he did.  The fake FGs, the late TD against Auburn, going for it on 4th down, all of it....it wasn't recklessness and it wasn't luck.  It was his style.  His idea was we practice this stuff, why would we NOT go do it in a game when we need it most?  He had a plan that was conservative, but a style that was aggressive, if that makes sense.

All that to say, I think you're on to something with Butch.  It matters what a guy believes about his players.  I watched it for 11 years here full throttle.  I'd imagine it can have a negative impact as much as a positive one.  UT strikes me as the polar opposite of all this....they'd rather blow the game open, but if they can't, they might very well freeze up.  If you don't think Butch trusts the players when the going gets tough, then that's huge.  They pick up on all that, and they're going to respond accordingly.   

[Drew4UTk]

I think you just nailed Miles, Mike.... great post.