Tennessee Postgame Discussion

[wfschrec]

You are seeing that with LB Bryant. LB Heard we got from WVU and has not made much of an impact.
I think CB/S we can pull from bigger schools, I agree with getting some edge rushes and LBs from G5s and FCS as they can be upgrades quickly.

We also grabbed Thomas from Marshall, Grant from Buffalo as well

 

[tbonezone]

I am super annoyed that SU never pressured their punter. He had all the time he wanted waiting there with the ball for UT's coverage to get down field before he punted it! It got really ridiculous when it was apparent about the only way SU could get back into the game would be a punt block to set SU up for a much needed short field to a TD.

There was no reason to not sell out and go for punt blocks since our returner was just fair catching everything anyway.

dude tumbled 3 of his 4 punts inside the 20. zero return yardage. his unorthodox deliver also froze many defenders cuz he held it long enuf to make you think pass/run. he was very effective. kudos.

 

[ECE '76]

The one thing about Angeli that concerns me is his running ability. For some reason I had it in my head that he was maybe halfway between Garrett and McCord (aka serviceable, like a Nassib) in that regard but he appears to be much closer to Kyle on that spectrum.

I think between the Penn State game and yesterday, he ran more than McCord or Nassib ever did. I actually don't want to see him end up unable to play like what happened with Shrader.

 

[ECE '76]

Man I miss Tony White.

Seeing FSU defense tee off on Bama makes me sad.

Remember, he didn't want to be the DC at Syracuse long term.

 

[GoSU96]

A. We have no clue how good that Tennessee defense is, one game is a tough sample size, if it turns out to be one of the top 2 or 3 defenses in SEC then we have to be thrilled, our OLine wasn’t great, but when they gave Steve any time he usually delivered. Willis is a monster, he maybe our next great back, our WR group did about as well as could be expected. This years schedule is brutal but IF this just turns out to be Tennessee is that good and basically had a home game, 2026 could be a sky’s the limit offense with all the talent we COULD have back,

B. Our defense is dumpster juice, and other than retention of current offensive players, we should spend every extra penny on defense in the transfer portal. I understand it’s next an exact science because rumor is Alabama has a 10 million dollar defense and they got absolutely bullied yesterday, but missed tackles is infuriating. Let’s hope Tennessee is a playoff team and we played a mistake filled game and still didn’t get run over.

I think we will know a lot more by end of next week, UConn isn’t going to be a pushover.

I’ve been saying for months, Survive in 25. Compete and develop.

It’s game one. You had a 17yr old out at corner and started a true freshman LB against Tennessee.

It will get better.

 

[ECE '76]

Looking back, I'm still struggling to come to terms with how bad of a performance this was defensively. Right now its looking like out of all Power 5 teams this week, we are going to have the most points given up by a wide margin ( even if we don't count the fumble return). Just completely unacceptable especially after a full off-season to prepare

Remember, there were 2 defensive scores by UT. That's 14 points not on SU's defense, ie, 31 points given up.

 

[ECE '76]

Rewatching some of the clips of the game McDonald did not have a good game at all.
Need to find some kind of blitz package and not this bend and break defense we are playing.
Offense looked pretty good for playing a top 5-10 defense.
Some good things out of the game and some things to really clean up or even change completely.

I heard somewhere that McDonald is playing through an injury.

 

[ECE '76]

Also, the entire fourth quarter, we weren't tackling. We were--intentionally--trying to go for the ball. It's clear as day the last two TN drives.

Interesting point. It seemed like Samuel could have tackled the WR before the goal line on that long TD, but instead he tried to rip at the ball.

 

[tbonezone]

rewatched the game this AM. pass blocking schemes are way off . tennessee able to bring pressure with just 4 by delays or deception.

 

[orangeinjersey]

Does anyone have a clip of the final SU drive? 1st and goal at the 9? particularly the 4th down play? My espn3 feed cut to technical difficulty and the ondemand replay stops before the drive even happens.

 

[rhcuse]

Rewatching some of the clips of the game McDonald did not have a good game at all.
Need to find some kind of blitz package and not this bend and break defense we are playing.
Offense looked pretty good for playing a top 5-10 defense.
Some good things out of the game and some things to really clean up or even change completely.

That’s because he is simply not top shelf P5 talent.

 

[upperdeck]

if it gets better the next two weeks we have a shot at the next two.

 

[swish7]

Read the comments from the tenny fans. Wow.

 

[ElwoodJBlues]

Won’t pile on the D comments more other than if ERob wants to prevent big plays, he needs to trust the secondary in press coverage if more blitzes aren’t going to be in the game plan.

• I thought Angeli was fine in his first start. bnoro noted at the half that Angeli was holding onto the ball too long and missed some open receivers going through his reads. I thought it improved later in the game to an extent.
• Villari was open a lot, Gill was finding holes and Cook was streaking open a lot.
• Thought Nixon and Willis looked great running the ball. They hit holes with aggression and fought for extra yards. The big chunk plays got dinged due to Tenn’s injury TOs.
• OL struggled with the delayed blitzes and stunts. It looked more like a lack of chemistry than lack of skill.
• I was extremely impressed with Russell’s blocking downfield. He pushed around a couple of LBs to help Yas and Nix get some extra yards.
• It looked like Stonehouse sped up his motion to get off his punts quicker. 49 yard avg with a long of 58 is such a game changer for field positioning purposes.
• Last thought on the game was how it looked like athletically, a lot of the positions weren’t all that below Tennessee. If the DL can figure it out, there’s a lot to be positive about.

 

[orangencpolice]

FSU fans are going to be insufferable this year.

Hard to believe that they went 2-10 last year to this…

 

[wiseman3]

Well, I finished my rewatch (besides the last Offensive drive, its nowhere to be found since they switched to ESPN news).

Offense Observations- My 2nd watch has me feeling very good about the O. O line rarely got beat 1 on 1, and all but 1 sack were due to free runner blitzes that were not picked up. Very solid run blocking, especially in the short yardage situations. For Angeli, I'm also feeling much better after rematch. He missed a few throws obviously, but for the most part on the sacks/pressures he had zero chance. Free rusher to the face immediately, most of which had zero options open or the routes were long developing and had not turned ( 1 specific sack looked like 4 verts for our WRs, and none had even gotten 10 yards downfield or even came close to looking back). He made some great throws as well, layering in the Johntay Cook 4th down conversion in the 1st was beautiful. Really only 2 throws where the ball was put in harms way. He also had 1 incredible play avoiding the blitz on 4th down and somehow getting the ball to clement, and ran for a good 1st down 10 yards. Gill was mostly locked up by Hood all game, kudos to him on the coverage. Overall, a solid performance that he can grow into. I dotn think I really need to talk about Willis, our run game was awesome and we should continue to feed him. We will score points this year for sure.

Side note- Johntay Cook appeared to be stepped on late in the 3rd quarter. He played 2 plays after to try and gut it out, but did not look 100% and came out. He didn't play the rest of the game. To me it looked like a slight eversion ankle sprain, when he got stepped on it rolled in a little bit. Might be limited vs UCONN but he should be back and ready to go. We could even rest him and be fine, I think he may play though. Just my 2 cents

 

[Justlooking]

dude tumbled 3 of his 4 punts inside the 20. zero return yardage. his unorthodox deliver also froze many defenders cuz he held it long enuf to make you think pass/run. he was very effective. kudos.

I am super annoyed that SU never pressured their punter. He had all the time he wanted waiting there with the ball for UT's coverage to get down field before he punted it! It got really ridiculous when it was apparent about the only way SU could get back into the game would be a punt block to set SU up for a much needed short field to a TD.

There was no reason to not sell out and go for punt blocks since our returner was just fair catching everything anyway.

TN’s punter Jackson Ross is very hard to pressure and I’m sure Syracuse’s coaching staff seen film. He’s from Australia and punts with either foot. He runs a sub 4.5 40 and so far has been very good at taking off from pressure

 

[Maisel123!]

I love that HCFB said that "moral victories are for losers" or something to that effect. I was afraid of this game - basically a home game for a very, very good SEC team. Playing good teams is the path to becoming a good team. That said, I hope the team takes UConn seriously and continues to improve. Years ago Orange fans took pride in having a tough schedule.

 

[wiseman3]

Continueing with the Defense. My major observation was that we rotated the LBs EVERY DRIVE. From start to finish, the same 2 LBs did not play back to back drives all game. Every drive was a new pairing. I saw:
Bryant- Deslauriers
Bryant- Sparrow
McDonald- Deslauriers
McDonald- Bryant
McDonald- Sparrow
And others that im surely forgetting
Reese mixed in as well, and James Heard got in at least one drive.
Overall this concerned me, ideally I'd like to see some continuity. I know we like to rotate, but not having the same LBs even once for 2 drives in a row says alot. McDonald was not good as mentioned, and Sparrow was bowled over multiple times. Deslauriers didn't have too many coverage snaps but looked OK there. He rushed the passer alot and for run fits crashing the line. Bryant seemed good and didn't stand out in a bad way for any plays.
For the huge play at the end of the half, Tank missed a tackle, then Grant missed, then unfortunately safety Braheem Long took and awful angle and didn't even come close to touching the RB. This completely changed the game. Our CB coverage was decent. Not great but serviceable, besides the obvious Samuel miscues. My one other concern is the D Line. Zero times we even came close to sacking Aguilar and the DEs and DTs got next to no pressure. I saw zero stunts as well, most pressure came from thd few blitzes we had. Only 3 tackles for loss is also concerning. I think the Offense can carry us, but the D needs to get figured out ASAP

 

[hoopsupstate]

Remember, he didn't want to be the DC at Syracuse long term.

White is just chasing the money!

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Remember, there were 2 defensive scores by UT. That's 14 points not on SU's defense, ie, 31 points given up.

I remember the fumble return for a TD but I don't remember a second defensive score.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Remember, there were 2 defensive scores by UT. That's 14 points not on SU's defense, ie, 31 points given up.

I remember the fumble return for a TD but I don't remember a second defensive score.

They had a 17 yard drive in the 3rd after an Angeli pick.

That should still count against the D.

 

[Justlooking]

I remember the fumble return for a TD but I don't remember a second defensive score.

There wasn’t

 

[Dick_in_MI]

They had a 17 yard drive in the 3rd after an Angeli pick.

That should still count against the D.

Of course it should.

So it has come down to this; we have to grade a poor defensive performance on a curve by calling TD's given up by the D as something else?

Good defenses force a FG attempt in that situation instead of giving up a TD. It comes with the job.

If you want to say that...morally speaking...the defense was handed a likely FG, OK fine. I'd even give them many props if they had held UT to 3 in that situation. But to wipe the entire 7 points from their responsibility is pretzel logic at best and flat out incorrect otherwise.

 

[Dcuse]

We had 4 scoring drives. - none of which were on a short field. We got consistent push in the run game. 4 of the sacks were on stunts not picked up. That could have been on communication gaffes or on the RB. It was an encouraging game for the OL in my opinion Not perfect by any means but against possibly the best defense we might see this year….I’m not getting this Oline criticism.This was all on the sieve which is the Syracuse defense.