Former Players' Words Scarring An Already Injured Program

Those of you that are thinking the sky is falling need to get a grip. Especially the players that are saying they are done, well if you’re done then pack your boom box and get out of Knoxville. We should be enraged that players have been tweeting about how they are done and how they quit on Dooley, they just don’t get it, they quit on themselves and their teammates. I say they should identify who they are and be given a quick escort right out of town. See if another program want’s their loser attitudes and lackluster effort. I don’t care how good of a player they are if they can’t be a good team member then they are worthless. Coaches don’t win or lose football games, players do! Read this close if you are a current VOL player, IT IS YOUR FAULT! Suck it up you little cry babies or get the hell out of town. Get in the weight room, work on your skills, show up to practice and make a damn effort! This current group of players has every reason to be embarrassed, this is your mess and if you aren’t man enough to clean it up then go home to your mommas with your pants hangin below your butts and let those that do care about what it means to be a VOL …fix it. Think about it you little babies, when you first said this year "man coach is this or coach is that" you were the problem! If you’re a senior and you condoned this kind of behavior from your fellow team members then good riddance I can’t wait for you to leave! Look in the mirror you know who you are, yes you were the problem!

Couldn’t agree more. Negativity breeds negativity and it is very hard to get stopped.

I’m as disappointed as the next guy over this season, but I honestly don’t think a change of the head coach is the answer. That would just make things worse in my humble opinion. I’m in agreement with the “at least one more year” crowd.

Not an expert by any means, but I’m not seeing the current situation overly difficult to fix:

Offense: Run blocking and a return to UT hard-nosed football at the line of scrimmage. The RB’s didn’t have anywhere to go 90% of the time this year. A ground game would open-up the passing routes and I do have confidence in Bray and the receivers. They looked unstoppable to me in the Cincy game.

Defense: Improved this year. Wilcox is doing a much better job than Chaney. They can get the opposing offense off the field, provided they aren’t on the field ALL GAME LONG because UT’s offense can’t manage to get a first down. They sometimes appeared to give up after the 3rd or 4th stop, which is a problem.

Special Teams: Am I the only one with a feeling of impending doom any time I see Palardy trot onto the field, or when UT is about to punt? These kickers were highly touted, but dang this needs to be fixed. I saw a great spark in the return game when Devrin Young came onboard, but that seems to have fizzled as the season progressed. It looked to me like folks lost heart in blocking for him. Slow motion and in some cases just avoiding blocks.

If it takes replacing Chaney or hiring an OL or RB coach I’d be all for it. We have to run the ball, and if we do, I think we’d see improvement everywhere.

Am I over simplifying here? A running game and some tweaks/better effort in special teams. Continued growth on the defensive side and we’re winning more games.

Also that the ex Memphis coach has been contacted

fwiw given the silly season we are now in

- when the 2008 recruiting class closed with such a thud
- when the 2007 class started hemorrhaging players
- when Kiffin bolted in the middle of the night
- when Kiffin’s ‘top 10’ class started hemorrhaging players
- when you looked at this year’s schedule
- when our best LB went down in summer workouts, when our best defensive player burned his last chance and finally when our best offensive player went down followed by our QB

Dooley’s crime was getting this talented, young and untested bunch to actually be competitive at times and teased us into believing he could actually pull out a winning record…I fell for it to. But in the end after a some reflection with George Dickel I came to the realization that this is exactly where this train was headed, anyone paying attention could see it coming like a huge hurricane, but all wanted, hoped we’d escape the certain destruction until it finally hit.

The other way to view this year…it could have been a lot worse.

Now Dooley better get this team to 8 wins next year or else my long suffering patience will have ended.

“Father-figure coach Phillip Fulmer ", never should have been replaced, and if he was replaced he should have been replaced by David Cutcliff. You can place the blame of the downward spiral on Fulmer but he was never to blame. Everyone jumped the gun on COACH NEEDS TO GO. Well you got what you wanted and now its time to enjoy the benifits you have gained because of it. In all the years coach Fulmer was there we always made a bowl bid and most the time a major bowl bid. Well where did we go with Kiffen? All I need say is the city of Knoxville came very close to naming a sewer treatment plant in his name. Now along comes Dooly on his shining horse and is going to take us back to the “Fulmer” greatness we had before? What did you people think was going to happen when Fulmer was fired? As a football player its hard enough to find leadership on a team but when you have no father figure to run the ship the ship flounders and all is lost untill you find that leadership. SO REAP WHAT YOU SOW>

what do you think Cutcliff could have done with such a QB? Patton did not have such a record as Brey when he first started. I live in VA. now less than 40 miles from Lane stadium I know the VT coach and have done work for him and at Tech as well. They didnt fire him when the going got rough and that is why he has record he has with them.

I’m brewing a beer in dedication to this season. It’s a peach IPA. a little sweet, but very bitter.

But has anyone else noticed since Fulmer left, the number of players getting arrested has decreased? With the Great Pumpkin, our win to arrest ratio was probably around 1 to 1.5 and with Dooley, I’d say it’s around 4 to 1 because all I remember is Austin Johnson’s drunken rampage on The Strip whereas with Fulmer, it was always a list! Maybe our fan base should consider that if Dooley really is going with more “high character guys”, it will take us longer to get up whereas if he recruited criminals-in-training, we’d return to glory faster. I’m okay giving Dooley some slack if he keeps his team out of trouble and has a more gradual return to glory than immediate satisfaction with people that rob a Pilot gas station and the only guy acquitted is the one that stays in the car because he’s too busy enjoying his reefer!

Quick, someone call a WHAAAA-bulance for all the self-distructing Vol fans. You played with fire when your former Krispy Kreme loving coach conspired with the NCAA to try and bring down Alabama and now you’re boo-hooing about getting burned. Live with it. How did that tearing Alabama down go by the way?

Give Dooley some support and stop all the whining – every streak comes to an end, get over it.

Anyone?

I started seeing what looked like a high school attitude on the sidelines during the Alabama game. Bray and Hunter were in the mix but not focused in any way. After the Arkansas game Dooley pointed out that he was giving the wrong advice to Justin W. That was a bad sign that no one was leading. Tauren should’ve taken over that huddle but he struggled to deliver decisive runs himself.

I am just saying that there was no leadership from any of the kids on the team. Malik, maybe. Simms was good for leadership. He was serious and fun in the right mix. He just couldn’t make the throws — ever. Bray is a bit of a hot shot but in the QB position he needs to be a voice of reason and motivation, not a brash kid mouthing off or cut-throat-gesturing.

I believe the solution is in the sophomore class somewhere. One of these guys on offense and one on defense needs to step up and be what Nick Reveiz was last year (or how about an Al Wilson). Maybe one of the O-linemen will take charge, or Tyler Bray will grow up.

Ultimately Dooley must develop this in select personnel. The team needs characters to play leading roles. Every championship team finds one or two individuals shoulder’s to stand upon. We need our leaders, the faces of those whom we remember for next years success.