Terrible.

by wvvol on Sep 2, 2008 12:44 AM EDT Comment 10 comments

That's how Jonathan Crompton played in the UCLA game.

When a team hands you 4 interceptions in one half and you convert them to 7 points, you'll lose more than you win.

When you can't hit an open receiver with an effin 2 x 4, you'll lose more than you win.

When you stand with the ball like a statue in your offensive backfield until someone from the other team knocks you on your ass, you'll lose more than you win. (I'm sorry I ever doubted you Erik Ainge, you quick-throwing sonofabitch)

When you have a 4 point lead with 2 minutes left and decide -- despite mountains of evidence to the contrary (at least 3 hours of videotape for Florida games alone) -- that a prevent defense is the best way to win the game, you'll lose more than you win (and you should).

Here's how I would rate the position play:

QB: F - Just terrible all-around. Nerves might have explained the terrible start, but he never got better. Inaccurate throws, holding the ball too long, looking like a moron with his mouthpiece stuck in his facemask, terrible from start to finish.

RB: C - Arian Foster's fumble keeps this from being a B. Hardesty came in and provided a change of pace.

FB: B - Cooper made a few plays from short passes

WR: B - Did well when they could touch the ball. Too often the passes were terribly off-line: short, long, high, inaccurate.

TE: C - Caught a few balls, but like the WRs weren't able to showcase their talent.

OL: C - Much was written about how great this offensive line is. I think they've spent the past few weeks reading it. That being said, if the QB wouldn't have held the ball so long

DL: B - Held UCLA to 29 yards rushing. Ran out of gas because the QB was unable to keep them off the field in the 2nd half.

LB: C - Really didn't have a standout game, but I noticed few unforced breakdowns. Spent too much time on the field in the 2nd half.

DB: B - Three picks, one TD. A few punishing hits. Played pretty well until they started to run out of gas in the 2nd half. And then the "John Chavis Prevent Defense ™" put them in a no-win situation.

Special Teams: C - One dumbass formation allowed the blocked punt deep in UT territory. 2 50+ missed field goals gave UCLA good field position and the missed 34 yarder in overtime lost the game. Grade would be much worse were it not for some great returns by Gerald Jones and Eric Berry.

Coaching: F - "Clawfense" hampered by terrible execution from the QB, but the DC still managed to screw up a definite win with his Prevent Defense. Won't satisfy any diehard Vol fan.

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wvvol...

You’ve got a fan in me buddy. Competent and thorough analysis. The thing that impressed me most is when you noticed my mouth piece reference. You recognized that Crompton puts it in his mouth when HE IS going to run the ball. Someone SERIOUSLY needs to let the coaching staff in on this one because this ORANGE mouth piece on a white helmet is a give away for any astute def. coord. for an opposing team

Here’s my take on what I saw.

I only saw (while blogging w/you folk) the second half. It hasn’t been 24 hours yet, but darn near close, so I feel I can provide a somewhat objective opinion to what I witnessed last night.

Ball possession was almost completely dead even at the end of regualtion but it felt like Tennessee’s Defense was on the field the entire second half.

It is very difficult for a Def. Coord. to make adjustments during a half, but Chavis failed by staying w/the 4-3 and rushing 5 on almost every UCLA possession. Craft and the offensive line would led the D through, dump to a TE or someone else w/in 5 to 15 yards over the middle. How can you play zone D and have the LB’s line up so far off the line of scrimmage? Every first step the LB’s took was backward. Not laterally nor forard. Always backward. Granted, it looked as if the UT Defense owned this game at halftime (defensively) so there was no adjustment to be made AT halftime. I do not blame the players for being exhuausted. They played as hard as they could. I blame the coaching staff for this one.

Crompton takes WAY too long to make a decision. This will come with time, so I’m a bit reticant to put too much blame on this kid. But someone in the coaching staff must have noticed how long it takes this kid to make a decision. Is Tennesse using timing routes or not? It looks to me as if they’re not or else the ball would be out of the kids hand sooner. Is UCLA’s secondary that good that they can cover us so well? I wish I were home in time to see the INSTANT classic that ESPN is showing of the game, that way I could pay attention to see what D-fense UCLA was running.

(last one) Hardesty is much more impressive than Foster. Is Foster averse to hitting or getting hit. He seems to be waiting on K-Trans for a ride to the end zone. Foster…HIT THE DANG HOLE! Drive your body into the area you want to go to, stop looking for a way around players. The game is just too fast to wait for something to develop in front of you. Hardesty appears to have more natural speed and more of a forward momentum type of style. My vote is for Hardesty. Indirectly, why, o why does Phil feel like he needs to pass when he’s got plenty of time on the clock and he’s down by less than a touchdown?

The coaching staff has a lot to learn from this one.

"Phenomenological ontology? The Dude abides."

by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Sep 2, 2008 4:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good points, LOU!

It would be nice to be able to say UCLA was fired up for their first game under a new coach with a new attitude and just blew our doors off. Sadly, that wasn’t how it happened.

It would be nice to say we had a brand new QB who had never stepped on the field, but Crompton has played enough to not be nervous for a whole football game.

It was so frustrating to see the offense get 4 yards on first down and then two incomplete passes later have to punt and put a tired defense back on the field. Quit making the game harder than it is.

Same thing on defense, if they are less than 7 points down the other team (any other team) drives the ball down the field running the same play over and over, and our players are never put in a position to stop it. We rely on the other team making a mistake – bad throw or dropped pass – to stop the drive. I like Chavis, he’s been a great coach and a loyal servant, but I think his defense no longer works against FBS talent.

Some will say “It’s early, don’t get down on them yet.” Well, it’s the same crap as last year and the year before and the year before that. If it was a fluke, I wouldn’t worry, but this is truly the definition of insanity.

by wvvol on Sep 2, 2008 7:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey, Vols - Bruin here

First, I think the Bruins were very fortunate to come out of this game with a win. You have some very good players, and they played well most of the time. I can only shudder at the thought of what might have happend if your coaching staff elected to run the ball down our throats.

Second, in the words of our former president, I feel your pain. We endured five freakin’ years of a Reign of Error under an alleged coach whose name I cannot bring myself to speak or type. He was dazzled by the West Coast Offense which sounds to me exactly like what your new OC is trying to put in. Our last five years of ineptitude produced miserable results, but lots of “hey, we’re improving” or “we’re turning the corner” and more cliches like that. He, and probably your Clawfense guy, firmly believe that the WCO cannot be stopped if it’s executed properly. And that may be true if you have Peyton Manning at QB and offensive players who can spend 16 hours a day learning it, then have three or four seasons of on the job training. College kids can’t do it, as Callahan learned at New Braska.

My advice for what it’s worth? Go back to basics with your O. Knock people down. You have a bunch of brutes on your O-line, and your guys sure look like they can just beat the crap out of people. But start your campaign now to get rid of the WCO, or you will follow in the footsteps of the ’Huskers and the Bruins of the last five years.

I hope you guys win out, or at least beat Florida. I’m a Bruin in exile living in Florida, and I am so sick of Gator football …, well, I can’t think of a good figure of speech but I’m really sick of the Gators. I hope you beat them to something beyond smithereens.

But do yourselves a favor – do whatever it takes to get rid of the WCO. It won’t work in college. The last five seasons of Bruin football are testimony to the folly of that concept.

by Fox 71 on Sep 2, 2008 5:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Maybe the Gators will be overconfident.

That’s our best shot.

Or maybe Meyer will leave Tebow in against Miami with the score 49-0 like he did against Hawaii and one (or several) proud ‘Cane will show him why that’s a bad idea.

by wvvol on Sep 2, 2008 7:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks.

You Bruins fans have been very classy about the game, and we really appreciate that in our moment of pain. I’ll give Clawson this much; before the game, nobody knew what his offense was. Now that the game’s over, we still don’t know what his offense is.

We’d be more than happy to help your team out with their strength of schedule by beating Florida. (I know that’s not why you wished us well, but it was too much fun for me to write.) ;-)

by Hooper on Sep 2, 2008 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Heard from Phil

Some of our second stringers have no clue of how to play football at this level. Seems like some of his coaching staff fits that bill also.

by NO1UTVF on Sep 2, 2008 9:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Half the time I don’t think Crompton knew what he was doing. He has a great arm, but he just couldn’t get into the game. How many times did he get sacked? I counted about 5 or 6. That’s not good. Defence was good, but offence was a little shakin. OK they were horrible. I still think that Crompton could at least get us a touchdown in overtime. Licoln didin’t have a good night either. Over all it was a pretty sucky ball game. I was just waiting on us to get a rush of energy and just shove the ball down their throats like we usually do after halftime. It seemed like we ate the football.

by volfan7291 on Sep 3, 2008 8:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Special Teams C?

I read the disclaimer about berry and jones’ returns, but the best way to grade that is with a whole new catregory “talent”. Because talent is the only thing that kept us in the game monday night! if not for hardesty, berry, and especially jones’ talent that game would have been lost by 10 points.

Special teams gets an F easy, No incompletes or withdraws are offered on this report card because they were indeed that bad. Not only did we have to sit and watch two guys go untouched to block a punt, but Daniel Lincoln was down right awful. I know i will probably catch some slack for this because of that national attitude that pours sympathy out onto every college football kicker. The truth though, is that Lincoln lost that game for us, and he lost it in the offseason not on Monday night.

You get recruited to play D-1 SEC football to make the big kicks not the long extra points, and when you miss from 34 yards, it is your fault and you should have to carry some stiff blame. But i say this was lost in the offseason because Lincoln made no adjustments from last season, or at least couldn’t figure out his middle of the field stigma. See, Lincoln had the leg on all of his kicks, plenty of leg to be exact. Remember the big florida kick, great leg but where did he kick from? Go back and look guys, Lincoln is less than 30% when he is not in the middle of the field, he is absolutely horrible from the hashes. Perhaps crompton should have thrown it away instead of run to try for the first down and it would have practically been a 35 yard chip shot, the ones that 40 yr old overweight, marketers make at half time of bowl games for $15,000.

I think it’s sad to see that after a whole offseason, his problems from the hash seem to have no improvement after all he was 0-3 from the hash monday and 1-1 from 52 (middle of the field)!

"I will give my all for tennessee today"

by CT4UT on Sep 7, 2008 11:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs