Chuck Smith blaming the collective defensive unit for Robert Ayers having only three sacks? I’m highly mixed on that, because on the one, yeah we weren’t great up front…but didn’t we have the 4th best defense in the country?

Great for Taylor and Briscoe…people see what they want to see, and if you want to see this as more evidence that Fulmer wasn’t getting the most out of his guys (or however one would phrase something like that)…well, you know…

You can find a bunch of players who were productive and reliable. Taylor for instance had 73 catches for 1000 yards. So its not totally shocking to see that these guys have talent. This year we may start to realize how crippling that Clawfense really was.

For instance, both of those guys are clocking faster than Percy Harvin did. Something about a wind tunnel, hand timing, and stuff like that. Either way, these guys clearly have speed and, in Taylor’s case, have really bulked up.

It will be very interesting to see how last year’s seniors do in the draft this year. Like Hooper, I don’t want to bash the previous staff, but I think it is becoming more and more apparent that they weren’t getting as much as possible out of some of the players. It’s almost like, if you wanted to work really, really hard (Eric Berry, Elix Wilson, Robert Ayers), the tools were there for you to be very successful and the coaching staff would encourage and help you as much as they could. However, if you felt like just eeking by (Morley, Vinson, Myers-White, apparently), you could definitely do so.

I’d like to think we can discuss the pros and cons of a given staff without worrying that people are thinking we’re bashing them.

A couple of things I’ve thought of. For one, perhaps the old staff was too nice to some of them and didn’t hold their feet to the fire – especially during the preseason – for conditioning. It could explain the sudden jump in performance once these guys had new trainers.

For another possibility, I remember something about some of the seniors complaining (well after the season) that they weren’t getting enough practice time because Clawson wanted to train the players who would be available for his second year. That might also explain the receivers – perhaps they weren’t motivated enough to stand out. Or perhaps they weren’t utilized enough for us to notice.

I think we can all safely drop the fears of our thoughts being criticized as anti-Fulmer. Nobody’s perfect, and this is a great discussion topic.

Speaking of Talent blowing up after leaving UT, look at Mayo, I mean yeah I knew he was good and led the SEC in tackles and stuf like that, but I never thought he was Rookie of the year in the NFL good, I mean I am happy for him just surprised thats all. So did the staff not get his full potential when he was here? Another thing I had never really forgotten about was on a radio show one day I think it was Marvin Mitchell would said he was greatful to Fulmer for letting him start and play his senoir year even though Mayo was behind him and was better and should have been playing…I am glad that that type of Coaching is gone away. No offense to them or Marvin but its about winning these days
  Lots of players have surprised me in the NFL . Shawn Bryson doing what he did as a tailback and not a Fullback, Eric parker in SD, he never really played that much here. Witten in Dallas, yeah another guy I knew was good, but not the best TE in the NFL good. The whole Clawfence story will unfold this year and next when we see what happens at Bowling Green. Also I am really interested in seeing how Chavis does down in the big easy.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction."