On Leaders and Followers and Choosing Wisely
by Joel Hollingsworth on Jan 26, 2012 8:36 AM EST
in Rocky Top Talking Points
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PrintQuote of the Day. From Cuonzo Martin: "One day, this team will be the last team standing. I really feel that. I don't say that jokingly, I don't say it, like, 'Oh, man, give him another year on his contract.' I say it because I truly believe it.'' I'm not exactly sure how I can believe that so wholeheartedly when the team is 9-10, yet somehow some way, that statement stirs me.
A Leader Emerges. Being the silver lining in a black cloud like Jeronne Maymon was at Vandy has a way of elevating you into a leadership position. Maymon's first words to his troops? Stokes, get your elbows up.
We Figured, but Still. Camouflaged in a recruit's comments is this slightly more definitive indication that Tennessee's defensive coaching changes will bring a change to the scheme: "It was good. We talked about their defense that they're about to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4, how they need more d-linemen, more big d-linemen. They kind of introduced me to Tennessee because I don't know anything about them. So, that was basically it," Briscoe said.
Smokey's Got a New ACL. "The surgery went well with no surprises," said Dr. Darryl Millis, orthopedic surgeon and surgery section chief at UT Veterinary Medical Center. "Smokey is a very fit dog with good muscle tone." Good dog.
How to Break the News. This is a bit insidery, but anyone who's publishing in new media, including both the new dogs and the old dogs with new tricks, should read Black Shoe Diaries' Breaking the News and MGoBlog's Never Be The First To Report Someone's Dead.
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That's why some are stars and some are role players
is the other great quote from today’s article over at GVX.
Zo was talking about the mental and physical toughness to go into a hostile environment and excel. He admits that all of our guys don’t fit that (Cam among others) and may never fit the role of a star because they are (implied) soft.
Besides toughness, we have to have the talent. That’s the other piece of the article. Very good recruits, post-Stokes, are now knocking on our door. Let’s face it – we need an upgrade in talent.
But I love Zo. He’s going to be a great one (and I say this at 9-10 following a whipping like the one received by a disobeidient step-child).
Stokes'd about ZoVols - don't care what the record is.
I heard (second hand)
Zo use the word “fragile” to describe Tatum. Which is a little different than soft, but equally prevents him from stepping up in a leadership role.
I’ll feel better with Jeronne as the senior leader than with Cam and Renaldo. But it’d be nice to get a guard join him. It’s a little harder to lead from the frontcourt sometimes.
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:22 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed, a guard leader would be good.
Our Georgia and Memphis kids should be tougher, but I don’t see that either.
Another year of Zo teaching our guys about toughness from a guy who personifies toughness because he lived it (East St Louis, recovery from knee injury in school, surviving cancer, star himself) will be a very good thing.
Stokes'd about ZoVols - don't care what the record is.
if we get there
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:22 PM EST up reply actions
I keep reminding myself to stop predicting
But with Auburn, @ UK, UGA, USC in the next 4, you’d like to expect 3-1. That gets us back to .500 and then we’ve have to hold our own from there. I can’t really believe we’re going to the postseason until we win a game on the road.
I like Tennessee and Vanderbilt. There aren't many like me, and they're probably better off for it.
same here
also until we actually win three straight “supposed to win” games.
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:50 PM EST up reply actions
Future years, implied. Zo could not have been talking about this year. He's a realist.
Stokes'd about ZoVols - don't care what the record is.
I certainly don't mind the love for Smokey,
so long as we don’t start sounding like Georgia fans when another UGA dies.
Man, Counzo has won my heart this season.
"Do the Titans have a miracle left in them in what has been a magical season to this point? If they do, they need it now. Christie kicks it high and short. Gonna be fielded by Lorenzo Neal at the 25; he dishes it back to Wycheck; he throws it across the field to Dyson. 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, endzone...touchdown, Titans! There are no flags on the field! It's a miracle! Tennessee has pulled a miracle! A miracle for the Titans!"
by TennesseeTyrants on Jan 26, 2012 10:11 AM EST reply actions
I'm not sure we've ever had a men's basketball coach say that
It’s in part because of what Pearl did, but even Pearl’s message was always more about making people care about the product than winning it all. It’s refreshing to hear because we’ve been so used to coaches having to come in here and talk about rebuilding, which is what I think we thought we’d be hearing from Cuonzo right about now.
To be fair to Pearl,
he always spoke with the assumption that winning would be involved. He even made a point of it a couple years back when the team was struggling in SEC play, reminding everybody that he had always come in first or second within his conference and that was what he expected out of every team.
by David Hooper on Jan 26, 2012 2:23 PM EST up reply actions
Right
and Pearl couldn’t really talk about winning National Championships when he first came here because no one would’ve taken it seriously.
I just remember staying for the first Kevin O’Neill postgame show when we beat Directional State U. and the first caller asked about how soon we would be back in the Top 25, and O’Neill was like “…one thing at a time.”
by Will Shelton on Jan 26, 2012 2:39 PM EST up reply actions
There is a part of me that would be amused to see an O'Neill team play a Martin team.
First to 40 wins!
by David Hooper on Jan 26, 2012 2:51 PM EST up reply actions
Some of my favorites from O'Neill's final season in Knoxville (96-97):
Penn State 42 Tennessee 41 (OT)
Memphis 57 Tennessee 47
Tennessee 54 ETSU 40
Kentucky 74 Tennessee 40
South Carolina 73 Tennessee 41
Auburn 43 Tennessee 35
Tennessee 60 Wofford 41
And remember, he left us for Northwestern – he made the NIT the year before when we had some offensive threats like Steve Hamer, so 11-16 (4-12) didn’t put him on the hot seat at all. It was ugly but it had the potential for great beauty; made the tournament the next four years with his recruits.
by Will Shelton on Jan 26, 2012 3:17 PM EST up reply actions
Im not subscribed to volquest
Do we have a legit chance of pulling the briscoe kid away from Miami?
Eat. Bray. Love.
it's my understanding
that Briscoe is a backup if we don’t get Kirven (who is choosing between us, VT, and Bama, with rumors of a Vol lead). Could be wrong though. And I know he’s good buddies with Bourque
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:25 PM EST up reply actions
(Briscoe is friends with Bourque, I mean)
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:25 PM EST up reply actions
The first year of a 3-4 defense
is usually pretty bad, is it not (see Georgia)? If so, does Dooley have that kind of leeway?
I've wondered the same thing
Alabama shifted to the 3-4 in 2006 and got a coach fired.
However, I think we’ve been recruiting towards a 3-4 for a while now, so it might make the transition go smoother. I think looking up 3-4 transitions is going to be a summer project of mine
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 12:26 PM EST up reply actions
Yep.
I think with our Juco D-lineman coming in, we have the linemen we need to step into a 3-4 right away.
We just have to find another inside backer, since Santos is going to be a longhorn.
"Do the Titans have a miracle left in them in what has been a magical season to this point? If they do, they need it now. Christie kicks it high and short. Gonna be fielded by Lorenzo Neal at the 25; he dishes it back to Wycheck; he throws it across the field to Dyson. 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, endzone...touchdown, Titans! There are no flags on the field! It's a miracle! Tennessee has pulled a miracle! A miracle for the Titans!"
by TennesseeTyrants on Jan 26, 2012 3:23 PM EST up reply actions
I really see us fitting into a 3-4 quite nicely.
The only issue you I forsee is being thin at MLB, needing Crump or Propst to platoon there. I’m not longer sold on Santos, being that the Longhorns is where he will likely land. We got plenty of interchangable parts on the d-line, it think it will take some time to figure out who works best where.
I think it may take the guys a bit learning the new 3-4 scheme.
"We've got weapons, we've still got weapons... That's terrible, I apologize."
- Bruce Pearl
don't forget Harris
see what he can do after a redshirt year.
If I cared more about my UNC side, I'd call myself "Tar Volon," and that'd be awesome.
Bolts, Canes, Preds (now in different conferences!). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity
Rocky Top Talk
by Incipient_Senescence on Jan 26, 2012 1:24 PM EST up reply actions
Totally forgot he since his redshirt
Yeah add him to the list of potential ILBs
"We've got weapons, we've still got weapons... That's terrible, I apologize."
- Bruce Pearl
I forgot about him in my post above, too.
Either way about it, that’s our one huge question mark in the front 7, I think.
The other hard part will be shaking out where the tweeners land. What DEs move to OLB, what tackles play nose, what tackles slide out to end, etc.
"Do the Titans have a miracle left in them in what has been a magical season to this point? If they do, they need it now. Christie kicks it high and short. Gonna be fielded by Lorenzo Neal at the 25; he dishes it back to Wycheck; he throws it across the field to Dyson. 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, endzone...touchdown, Titans! There are no flags on the field! It's a miracle! Tennessee has pulled a miracle! A miracle for the Titans!"
by TennesseeTyrants on Jan 26, 2012 3:25 PM EST up reply actions
I should probably proofread this next time, WOW.
It’s what I get for trying to write after 2 and a half of my Anatomy Lab, at 730 am.
/needmoarcoffee
"We've got weapons, we've still got weapons... That's terrible, I apologize."
- Bruce Pearl
I think the perception might be little skewed by teams under pressure firing their DCs
and picking up somebody ‘hot’ (a lot of whom like to run odd fronts), which then causes a rough patch while the recruiting catches up. I think I_S is right in that we’ve been recruiting in this direction pretty much since Dooley showed up, though, so hopefully it’ll be a little smoother. The learning curve is what worries me a bit- in any case, I’d be really surprised if we suddenly start playing an odd front every down next year. I think Dooley wasn’t just being evasive with his ’we’ll be multiple’ comment.
BTW, I"d love to see/do some stats on 4-3 to 3-4 transitions. Getting enough solid data would be tough sledding, though. FWIW, Bill C. over at the Study Hall has started putting together some data on which teams are running what, but like I commented over there, there’s so much variation amongst schemes it’s all a touch like collecting data on which teams are running the “spread”: interesting, but not terribly useful.
I don't think the "multiples" front was just coach's speak, either.
Plus, we did run some different looks last year. Not just a ton of them, but we did show some different stuff. So it shouldn’t be completely new to our guys.
And I think we’ve been recruiting for one, big players, and for two, versatile players since Dooley got here. Those are both key to making the switch to a 3-4 base.
"Do the Titans have a miracle left in them in what has been a magical season to this point? If they do, they need it now. Christie kicks it high and short. Gonna be fielded by Lorenzo Neal at the 25; he dishes it back to Wycheck; he throws it across the field to Dyson. 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, endzone...touchdown, Titans! There are no flags on the field! It's a miracle! Tennessee has pulled a miracle! A miracle for the Titans!"
by TennesseeTyrants on Jan 26, 2012 3:28 PM EST up reply actions
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