OK It's Been 3 Seasons

[BigBlueCatNation]

You can't keep a defensive coordinator who can't do his job for three years and expect to have a great defense.

That's true to an extent. However, I'd argue that because it takes so much longer to form a good defense, you might not know how good he really is.

We've made so many DC changes over the years and none of them have worked out. I'm getting to the point where I feel like that's not a coincidence. We need to stick with one for at least 5 years to see major improvement. Defense takes a much longer time to get to be a dominant defense, compared to an offense.

 

[DCFseattle]

Boy this season went by fast.

Right?
Seems like just yesterday we opened the newly renovated commonwealth stadium to start the third season of the stoops era.

 

[TACcat7]

Wow! Those Vawls sure looked great against Bowling Green, a team I'm certain ULL would thrash. Maybe they ought to farrrrrr Butch Jones. His team gave up a ton of yards and points to a MAC team. Farrrrrrrrrrrr em! Some of you are dumb as a bag of hammers.

 

[Clive Gollings]

so they don't deserve it? Do they owe something to their teammates and their fans?

You seem angry fans cheer for UK and want to discourage it.

 

[brianpoe]

Wow! Those Vawls sure looked great against Bowling Green, a team I'm certain ULL would thrash. Maybe they ought to farrrrrr Butch Jones. His team gave up a ton of yards and points to a MAC team. Farrrrrrrrrrrr em! Some of you are dumb as a bag of hammers.

I agree ULL would beat BG.

But UT still won 59-30. They did give up 500 yds - over 433 were passing yards. And some may say it doesn't matter it is still yardage but I would disagree.

The inability to stop the run is much more crucial in my opinion. You can adjust your passing defense, it is much harder to make your dline and linebackers be better players.

UT also had 400 yards rushing.

Thus I am very concerned about UT, they seem to have the rush game in check on both sides of the ball.

I understand your point that UT wasn't as impressive as they should have been, but they never let that game get close. They outscored BG 24-10 in the second half.

 

[TransyCat09]

A punk is a punk, whether he plays for UL, Tennessee or us.

Again our "punks" violate team rules which could simply mean missing a team meeting.

The punks at UL and UT commit violent felonies. Trying to draw an equivalency between those two is stupid

 

[footballfanatic77]

Wow! Those Vawls sure looked great against Bowling Green, a team I'm certain ULL would thrash. Maybe they ought to farrrrrr Butch Jones. His team gave up a ton of yards and points to a MAC team. Farrrrrrrrrrrr em! Some of you are dumb as a bag of hammers.

It's odd that you make fun of Tennesseans accents, growing up in KY I met plenty of people with very strong southern accents. In fact, I was never able to tell a difference between east Tennessee accents and east Kentucky accents. After all, the people that populate those regions are primarily from the same Scotch-Irish ancestry.

That said, the Vols offense actually looked pretty fantastic. I'm not sure why you think ULL would thrash Bowling Green. They are both very good mid-major teams and I think Bowling Green's offense is better than ULL's offense. That being said, you are right UT's defense did not play very good. I'm not sure why because that was supposed to be the strength of the team, but if they don't get it corrected it's going to be a long season on Rocky Top.

 

[footballfanatic77]

I think DJ Elliot is the most unproven coach on the staff. Not sure he was ready for a coordinator position when he got one, but Stoops is a defensive guy so there's really validity to the argument that defensive coaching is the problem. The problems on defense are problems that recruiting will fix.

 

[teetim]

2 seasons and one game... Puhleeeeze!

 

[ktbug]

Saw many times the right call on d, and the kid whiffs somehow. The linebacker play was bad in the second half. If I am not mistaken we get a couple of kids back in a game or two who will probably help a little.
I wonder if some of these blowhards are UL trolls.

 

[brianpoe]

Saw many times the right call on d, and the kid whiffs somehow. The linebacker play was bad in the second half. If I am not mistaken we get a couple of kids back in a game or two who will probably help a little.
I wonder if some of these blowhards are UL trolls.

I'm definitely a UL troll.

We are definitely not deep enough to lose 3-4 players on defense in the SEC, but again Sun Belt, I hoped we would be against this level.

 

[theycallmefrancis]

2 seasons and one game... Puhleeeeze!

No kidding....how does 1 game equate to a whole season

 

[ace on the river]

wow we have some stupid fans!! We are playing a ton of freshman and sophomores, and the they didn't fold until the offense went multiple 3 and outs in the second half, defense was GASED because they were on the field 3 TIMES in 9 minutes.... If the offense would have RAN THE BALL while up 17 in the second half that game wouldn't have last almost 4 hours and the cats would have won by 17 to 20.....You people are smoking crack

and we hear that same excuse EVERY YEAR

 

[fuzz77]

College players only get 4 year of eligibility though...so this "takes 5-10 years" is folly.
- Why is Elam in his 2nd year still standing straight up and isn't being taught to explode thru the hole and penetrate into backfield? He'll be gone in 2 more years.
- We quote Tiller/Quinn are still playing CB...what does that tell you about Hytche/Randolph/, etc.. that can't knock them out and Westry did?
- All the hype about Forrest being the man...at best he is a pass coverage LBer...certainly not every down kid...again Hendrix already flames out and Frios appears to not be close
- Lewis looks decent but the rest of the DL are a grease fire. Reggie Meant, CJ Johnson, Hugengtin, etc..look just like Joker Phillips DL of old.

Can't we state is an eye opening problem that we're still going to finish in the 80/90's at best in defensive stats in 3rd year...and all signs point to Stoops being loyal to DJ Elliott no matter what? I think this has no good ending on this side of the ball for UK.

10 years is a bit much but 3 is far too few. The players on this team that are seniors and redshirt junior are Joker's players. Look at the number of freshman and sophomores playing.
Elam is taught to play lower, he isn't playing as much because he still hasn't mastered doing so. I might add that his job isn't to explode through the hole but to clog the middle and keep blockers off of the linebackers.

We are recruiting much better but you aren't going to hit on every recruit. Nobody does but better recruiting gives you a bigger margin for error.
Hytchye is gone. Randolph has had his moments...Meant is a sophomore, Hugengtin is a Joker leftover. We don't know what CJ looks like this year because he didn't play last night.
Until we have a defense that is dominated by juniors and seniors...hopefully of the redshirt variety...it will likely struggle.

 

[ukalumni00]

5 years minimum to build a credible SEC defense given how bad the roster was when Stoops arrived. It took Pinkle several years to build the pipeline of talent, depth, and experience that Missouri has enjoyed the past few years. I am not sold on Elliott, but I am at the point that I am all in with Stoops because if he can't fix this program I truly believe no one can. So, if he feels DJ or anyone else is not getting it done he will make the change. Until then, we need to let these players develop more and hope the staff and continue to recruit good enough to fill the holes that are still on the roster.