| 17 April 2010
The 2010 Tennessee Volunteers football squad has embarked on their rebuilding mission. Having had the chance to attend today's intra-squad scrimmage, I came away with several general feelings.
Over all, this is not a bad team. Sure, there are still several holes to fill from Phillip Fulmer's lack of depth that was left behind. While Lane Kiffin's staff did an admirable job in recruiting, the over looked positions are still lacking under new head coach, Derek Dooley.
What are the holes the Vols continue to need to fill? What are the bright spots for the UT Vols? What is the general feel? Would the other 35,890 people in attendance agree with this assessment? Continue after the jump to find out ....
I will preface this with: not all is bad for the Orange and White of Tennessee. While this team will not be vying for an SEC or National Title anytime soon, UT could surprise some people in 2010. Without wasting time, first we will take a look at the meat and potatoes of the team ... the players.
The good: Skill Position Players
Lane Kiffin's staff began to refill the cupboard last season. Refilling the team with solid skill position players was a key and it shows. While Dooley's staff held their own, we do not fall for a Top Ten national recruiting ranking as per Rivals.com, they still have a long road to travel.
Several people were shocked that QB Nick Stephens left the Vols so early. After viewing today's scrimmage, Stephens apparently could see the writing on the wall. Matt Simms and Tyler Bray are the two players vying for the starting position. In my opinion (IMHO for the uninitiated), both players are capable, but both also have gaping flaws in their game.
Matt Simms. Everyone knows the name, everyone knows who his Dad is, everyone knows blah, blah, blah. Simms is a better player than I anticipated. Much better. Most JUCO quarterbacks latch onto a school and you never hear anything from them. This will not be the case with Simms.
Of the two quarterbacks, Simms is obviously more seasoned ... you can witness that immediately by his field presence. The coaching staff must concentrate on Simms' drop, reads, and delivery. It is that simple.
Drop: Simms is slow and sloppy in his drop. He does not have a quick drop and set and this must be improved before SEC play. It could have been the game situation or it could just be his game. Additionally, Simms needs to carry out his play fake after handing the ball off. Everyone will find out come September because barring a miracle, Simms will be the starter when the Vols open up against UT Martin on September 4th.
Reads: While Simms showed the ability to check down to at least a secondary receiver, the majority of the time he would drop and lock onto the primary ... even if that player was covered. This could be due to atrocious offensive line play, or again, it could be his game.
Delivery: While having to fight through poor pass blocking, Simms has several key improvement areas in his delivery. In a straight drop, Simms showed difficulty throwing the ball to his left. Often times, the ball either sailed on him (no wind) or was thrown flat. In "waggle" passing plays, Simms showed that he can get to the outside fast enough with his legs, but would then 'flick' the ball to the receiver (90% of the time, the fullback in the flat). When Simms is in the game, the coaching staff will have to think twice before calling a slant route ... even with a receiver that has gained separation, Simms fires the ball in too fast and hot for the wide receiver to have much of a chance to make the catch. Again, it could have been the lack of interior pass protection, but Simms still has a ways to go; however, he is the starting quarterback on this team IMHO.
Tyler Bray. Bray is a diamond in the rough. He has the physical talent to be a solid SEC quarterback. Bray is still young and it shows. That is his major obstacle to overcome and the only thing that will get him there is game experience. As any young quarterback will do, Bray locks onto his receiver as soon as the ball is snapped ... then never checks down. In several key down-and-distance situations, Bray stuck with his primary receiver even when it was obvious that receiver could not possibly gain the first down. This could be the green showing through or it could be something as simple as the coaching staff instructing him to do so. Bray has a better arm, but will likely be confused more easily than Simms in games. When Bray is in the game, look for defenses to put direct pressure up the gut on him to force him to the outside.
Wide Receivers. Gerald Jones, Denarious Moore, Matt Milton, Zach Rogers, and Marsalis Teague are all solid. Gerald Jones was the go-to receiver early in the game, but like in game situations in the past, disappeared quickly. This could be attributed to the quarterback locking onto the key receiver on the play that was called or it could be situation normal for the Vols. In the second half, Jones was hooked up with on three consecutive plays (the last a touchdown). Matt Milton was a machine ... soft hands and good physicality. Denarious Moore was once again under-utilized IMHO .... he will be good for one or two deep shots per game.
Offensive Line. I am not going to throw any names out, good or bad. Over all, the entire unit needs work. This is the same statement made prior to last season. While last season's squad did a fantastic job by playing over their heads, can this year's coaching staff pull a similar miracle with the players at their disposal? That is a good question. There are some gamers on the line and over all, the talent level has risen considerably. I spent most of the first half attempting to determine if the offensive line was 'that bad' or if the defensive line was 'that good'. By midway through the third quarter, I determined that the offensive line is in fact, that bad. Interior defensive linemen were consistently running loose in the backfield and on waggle plays, no one was at least bumping the backside defensive end ... allowing the defensive end to wreak havoc on the play. Run blocking looked good at times.
Running backs. There are no Herschel Walker's ... no Cadillac Williams-Ronnie Brown combination on this team, but all is not lost. David Oku, Taurean Poole, and Toney Williams will all easily fill the void created by the loss of Bryce Brown. Poole should end up being the starter by the beginning of the season, but will be pushed by the other three players. Poole and Williams showed the best vision, but neither have Oku's speed.
Defensive Line. Marlon Walls is a beast. Period. Montori Hughes also showed a ton of ability on the field. Defensive End Chris Walker did not show the burst that he did on the field last season. Pass rushing, this unit should be able to hold their own. The overall weakness for the defensive line will be in run support. Too many times, the line took incorrect angles to the ball carrier and it showed.
Linebackers. Not having Nick Reveiz on the field during Spring Practice hurt this team. Herman Lathers and Nigel Mitchell-Thornton were a bright spots.
Defensive Backs. The unit did a solid job of keeping the receivers in front of them except for two plays (one, a push off by receiver Gerald Jones, the other a slot reverse pass). Freshman Eric Gordon is going to be a name to remember; however, he does not wrap the player up and drive through him. The fans went wild on one play in which Gordon came up to make a play on a running back ... Gordon's arms were basically folded across his chest and he attempted to make a shoulder tackle ... it worked, but not wrapping up will only lead to shoulder injuries and running backs bouncing off for extra yardage.
Special Teams. In the first half, not a single punt turned over and without seeing a stat sheet, would imagine the average punt was 36 yards (or less). After the first half, Cunningham did a better job of getting the ball to turn over. Punt coverage was excellent with the vast majority of kicks being fair caught ... then again, when the ball has only traveled 35 yards, coverage becomes a moot point,
2010 could also bring another Daniel Lincoln/Chad Cunningham duel to see who handles the bulk of kicking duties. No kicks came close to reaching the end zone in this game ... in fact, most came down around the ten yard line, with one or two coming down around the twenty. Kick coverage was adequate.
Coaching. OK, it was a joke to name "Celebrity Coaches" for each team (the Knoxville News Sentinel's John Adams and local sports talk jock Jimmy Hyams). Having witnessed the game, I would be shocked to learn that either had much impact on the game outside of asking the coaches to call a running play or a passing play. The offensive mixture seemed to be close to 50/50 on runs to passes. Dooley's formations are extremely similar to Phillip Fulmer's offense as was the play calling ... my eight year old son nailed most of the plays pre-snap ... not good.
Over all, once again, it was difficult to determine the entire makeup of this team. Offensively, several key concerns should keep the new coaching staff up at night ... offensive line must be addressed first and the quarterbacks need experience. Having similar offensive line problems as last season should concern many fans. Without solid line play, this team could be in trouble. Defensively, it was very difficult to determine exactly the caliber of the players on the field (due to offensive problems) ... the offenses had little trouble gaining positive yards rushing ... the play selection must improve as well. Without improvements made between now and this fall, this team could be relying on their favorable schedule to pull them into a bowl game.
By the way, not that it 'really' matters, the White beat the Orange 16-7.
