But when you put all of those decisions together, it was a mess.
Tennessee fans have been complaining about the vanilla flavor of the offense for years. It made sense when we've been all in the playcalling family for the last two decades.
When Urban Meyer walks into the SEC with his spread option and picks up a National Championship in only two years, even if it was won on the strength of the defense and an uncanny ability to win close games, you start to covet. Instead of two tight ends and running on 2nd and 10; and screen passes and throwing for four yards on 3rd and 7, we wanted something else. Something sexy.
When David Cutcliffe left us again, we all felt pretty good about the hire of an FCS head coach with an offense described as "get the ball to the playmakers" (doesn't that sound silly this morning?) because it was something new and it sounded sexy.
We believed that if a man from Wisconsin-Milwaukee could take our basketball program forward, a coach from Richmond could easily do the same.
Most of us fell in love with the idea of this offense. You couldn't have really fallen in love with the offense itself, because you hadn't seen it.
At the center of this lovefest was Jonathan Crompton.
Crompton became the latest in a long line of Vol QBs post-Manning who we all believed were going to be better than the last guy: Casey Clausen was thought to be more NFL-ready than Tee Martin, and Erik Ainge even more so.
It's always been true, but never more so than this morning: all three of those guys were pretty good quarterbacks.
The next best thing, who is now 0-3 in games where he takes the majority of snaps, went 19-of-41 for 189 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT. At one point, he threw eight straight incompletions in the second half.
So you can already hear the swing of the pendulum.
I understand the dissatisfaction with the old offense. I understand the excitement over Dave Clawson's hire. I understand being in love with an idea, anointing a new quarterback because of what he's supposed to be, and the general and often total optimism that runs rampant on every college campus in August.
But in September, when you put all that together, the Vols are 0-1. Again.
After watching the travesty unfold last night, I also understand why Vol Nation may want to hang Clawson, Crompton, and anyone else they can find.
I hope we're jumping to conclusions again.
Crompton is an inexperienced quarterback who's learning on the job. We hope he'll get better. But last night...well, he didn't look good.
He didn't throw four interceptions like his counterpart, but the Vol offense did make those four interceptions a complete non-issue, because if you're Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow, all you have to say in the locker room is, "Hey, it's 14-7 and we get the ball. We're fine."
He did make two throws to set up a Daniel Lincoln field goal to send the game to overtime, a sequence which should now and forever erase the thought that a squib or pooch kick is a good idea in that situation.
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3 months ago
ya he fumbled at the worst possible time... again but Arian Foster is the most consitent weapon we got and he he is averaging 7.4 yards a carry POUND THE ROCK Hardesty also looked like a gazelle last night fully hope to see more of him
3 months ago
What now? Take out your frustrations on UAB and get ready for Florida. I certainly understand the disappointment but the last time I checked, a loss to UCLA does not impact the SEC East standings.
Did they make Lincoln walk back to Knoxville?
from 3 months ago
Well, and like I said, we should've learned last season to look at the season as a whole. It's hard though, even as Vol fans are used to late September disappointment against Florida at times, it just sucks when you wait for something for nine months and it all goes wrong right away. For two years in a row.
Lincoln was incredibly consistent until the end of last season. Then he missed two makeable kicks in the SEC Championship and yanked the one last night.
They say the greatest improvement is from game one to two - and granted, I think we have more issues in philosophy and execution than we did talent and experience last year, so overall I think we're in better shape than we were off the receiving end of the Cal/Florida beatings last September. But I hope that statement comes true for the Vols. We need the preparation time, but in a way right now Florida can't get here fast enough.
3 months ago
Man it was difficult to read anything Vol related today. You cannot put this loss on any one player in particular. Each quarter we had a catastrophic error made by different parts of the football team. With that said, Fulmer is in charge and I think this was one of his worst games. The most glaring problem was the playcalling Will, you're right. Crompton was off last night so why in the world did we not keep doing what we were successful at, running the ball. Not to mention, our secondary continues to play too far off the ball. I thought with our db's being the strength of the defense, we wouldn't let them dink and dunk like every team did against us last year.....The worst loss since Memphis in my mind, just inexcusable.
from 3 months ago
Agreed all around - not sure how much of the blame to delegate between Fulmer and Clawson, but like you said, Fulmer is in charge. Definitely one of the hardest losses to defend.
3 months ago
Does anyone ever remember, one time anytime, a Phil Fulmer Coached team that goes into the locker room at halftime and makes some adjustments? Or for that matter, makes adjustments during the game? I am not sure if it is arrogance or lack of ability, but year in year out they simply refuse to adjust to the changes within a game. The coaches for the other teams seem to have no problem adjusting their offence and defense to the current situations of the game. Fulmer looked like Leon Spinks at a spelling bee on the sideline. He had no idea what was being done to his team or how to stop it.
3 months ago
I honestly thought that after the Hardesty TD the game was over. He was the fastest player on the field, and UCLA couldn't stop him. Why Clawson or Fulmer didn't go back to him, I'll never know. They didn't even go to him in OT. In my mind, personnel decisions cost this game for the Vols. Fulmer's best players at that point were on the bench. The UCLA D was sucking wind in OT and UT is throwing the ball?? Come on, seriously??
3 months ago
Darn good article, Will. You took the words right off my keyboard.
Not to say that Fulmer and Clawson has forgotten more football than I'll ever know because they have, but there were certainly some questions to be asked about the decision making, especially in the second half. Not the least of which were...
What business did Clawson have dropping Crompton back to pass 41 times in the first place, especially when UCLA was sending the house EACH AND EVERY TIME? Crompton looked as comfortable in the pocket as David Duke would at an NAACP rally; even when he DID have time, he rushed passes that could've made a difference.
Where were the quick passes? From my football understanding, if the defense is sending everyone but the kitchen sink, you get it out quickly to a receiver whose defender is playing off or to someone on a hot route. UCLA's corners were 8-10 yards away and never had the fear of God put in them by having Crompton get the ball to Jones, Briscoe, et al after the snap and putting them in space to make a guy miss.
The pass defense or lack thereof in the second half. Why are we going with a soft nickel zone coverage with the secondary we have? You would've thought we was still playing Danny Wueffel and the '96 Gators in church shoes with how passive our secondary played. It didn't help that UT rarely blitzed Craft and allowed him not only time to regain his composure by completing some passes, but more importantly, his confidence. They put his back to the wall in the first half with those picks; they should've BROKE his back in the second half by manning up their receivers at the line of scrimmage, sending the linebackers (there was no fear coming out of the Bruin backfield), and making Craft pay the price.
The run game was going, going, gone by the 4th quarter until that TD drive that briefly put us back ahead (ironic how the run game put us ahead while the passing game only delayed the inevitable). If the backs are getting 5-7 yards a pop, the offensive line outweighs the defense by 50 lbs. a man, the defense is tiring, all while the passing game is struggling, common football sense says that those backs are going to need a trip to the local Spa Sydell the next morning because they're going to get the ball...a lot. You think UGA or even Ohio State would've given up on the run game after getting numbers like that? Yet and still, Hardesty and Foster spent more time on blitzing linebackers than carrying the rock and breaking UCLA's will. If the number of run and pass attempts were reversed, UT wins the game. Period, end of story.
Frustrating, disappointing, and other words that will get my login revoked couldn't describe Monday night's performance. And you're right, beating UAB 153,594,985-6 isn't going to make me feel any better about it. We'll see if they can learn from their mistakes soon enough....
3 months ago
THIS JUST IN FROM KNOXVILLE.... Tennesse kicker Daniel Lincoln apparently tried to commit suicide in his dorm room following three missed field goals in Monday night's loss against UCLA. He was found with a makeshift noose around his neck. He will be fine though, because while attempting to hang himself, when he tried to kick the chair out from underneath him...he missed.
I haven't been this disappointed at a missed kick since Greg Burke missed a chip shot against Auburn in 1990. Oh, the humanity. In a perfect world you don't put the game on the shoulders of a sophomore who had already missed two that night, but that's part of being a kicker at Tennessee. A kicker bails the team out and gives them a chance, and he didn't get it done. Yank his scholarship.
from 3 months ago
Lincoln had some necessary arrogance that I like in kickers in the early part of last season, but somewhere along the line that went away. He did make big kicks against South Carolina and Kentucky last season, and did bury the one to put the game in overtime against UCLA, but it's getting to the point that he's missed just as many big ones. The kid needs to kick with confidence.
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