Film doesn’t lie. We aren’t running coverage beaters consistently 12 personnel, with either 2 WRs running routes or 1WR/1TE (other WR doing an orbit) is an absolute staple of this offense
Agree with the sentiment. TN turned it around in 2 years under a new head coach with a great scheme. Many here are telling us to give Napier 4 years ?
Our skill at WR, or lack thereof, may limit the routes we can run. If you don’t have good WR’s and have a struggling QB, I don’t think any coach could create a successful offense.
Tennessee is a great team built for short term success but they have shown an ability to develop any athletes on the roster. Heupel as an OC has improved points per game from 30 to 40 from year 1 to year 2 while the DC has kept opposing points per game right at 20 each year while improving red zone defense (I do not have the stats readily available but it is something on the order of 80% stoppage to high 90%). For comparison, Mullen’s offenses stayed between 30 and 40 points per game while defense kept getting worse (20 PPG to 30 PPG) and Mullen never upgraded the coaching staff. Mullen’s staff got recruiting classes ranked near top 10 as averaged over the years with some transfers to help the adjusted ranking, but Heupel is averaging top 15 classes with slight boost due to transfers. Heupel’s strengths are the transfer portal and actually developing athletes on the roster. We only have two data points with Heupel, so it is hard to tell if he can succeed long term. If we believe the correlation between recruiting and long term success, then I would say Tennessee has a ways to go. Recruiting in Knoxville looks like it could be surpassing Florida based on 2023 and 2024 projections, but it is still early to draw that conclusion.
Tenn paid for a 5* freshman. He’s already there. The passes were there for AR against Georgia he just missed them. A good passer can see that it’s there. It’s no different than Trask coming in and then receivers are open. Good passers find seams.
You have to have a great qb if you don’t have equal talent. The qb thing can happen quick but building a roster like Georgia did takes some time. Four years isn’t much to ask as long as it’s moving in the right direction.
But that is the way all of college football is going...constant holding never called, timid players due to worry about targeting (let me know when one is called on an offensive player for lowering his helmet), and the Refs unable to decipher PI. You just need to outrun the other guy and get one more defensive stop. Some coaches have seemed to recognize the current state of affairs and adjusted. Some never will.
Agreed. Multiple analysts have stated that Napier runs an NFL offense; however, I would agree with the spirit of the comment if it were worded as "The way Napier's scheme is executed by these athletes it looks like a high school offense." The coaches can only do so much when the athletes run themselves out of the play or freelance a route that renders the play ineffective. Napier does have some flaws, which could be fixed by either bringing in a dedicated OC/QBC or if he absolutely must have two OLCs then he needs some way to share in-game OC duties with a passing game coordinator. The running game coordinator is basically one of the two OLCs. He is the one who gets paid millions to make those decisions, but I think we can agree that it looks as if Napier is getting overwhelmed at times balancing HC, OC, and QBC duties.
They will have a huge dropoff..drop-off... during our game when they showed starting rosters almost their entire team was senior or junior. Ours were mostly sophomores. They will lose a lot, but will have a great recruiting class this year. So a year drop off and then back in competition I imagine. The Vols may very well be back. Good for Huepel and good for the SEC East. Finally back to being the better division overall hopefully... Tired of being the West's doormat since Urban Meyer ran amok in the SEC.
