Tennessee Postgame Discussion

[RedtheGOB]

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.

The last drive was easy points but we were in 4 down territory. Went 9 plays and 71 yards. That's normally easy points. That's 5 solid drives against a team that has us outmatched at every position with their Defense.

 

[Oakland]

One more thought, for Fran to specifically coach/work with the DBs, they are not up to snuff. I figured he would’ve been able to pick up some higher quality transfers there.

Losing Barnes in the off season really hurt us this game.

 

[SURules]

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

I’m watching replay on ESPN now. What I am seeing is a team growing up every series on Offense. I’m not worried now at all about the O even the OL as they will continue to get better.

The 2 TO’s really hurt and that was 14 points. Game set match. Those TO’s plus the 73 yard bomb with no safety help makes it 21 points.

The whole narrative that we got blown out is way overblown. Yes, Tennessee was the better team but we didn’t get blown out like some want to suggest.

We’ll still win a bunch of games and get to a bowl. That is the goal for this ‘25 anyway and next year is the year to make some serious splash on the national stage.

 

[Cuse House]

Offense will have a good year. We have playmakers and a good scheme. Let’s put 40+ up the next two weeks and roll the dice at Clemson. We should be competitive in every game. Heck even this game we had a chance to cut it to one score. My only concern is E-Rob, man refuses to blitz or play anything other than gap control defense. Works fine when you’re more athletic, but it won’t work much this year with our schedule.

 

[Idiocuse22&]

Willis had 23 carries to Nixon’s 9 but way to push a narrative.

Plus Nixon is a great receiver out of the backfield.

 

[RedtheGOB]

I’m watching replay on ESPN now. What I am seeing is a team growing up every series on Offense. I’m not worried now at all about the O even the OL as they will continue to get better.

The 2 TO’s really hurt and that was 14 points. Game set match. Those TO’s plus the 73 yard bomb with no safety help makes it 21 points.

The whole narrative that we got blown out is way overblown. Yes, Tennessee was the better team but we didn’t get blown out like some want to suggest.

We’ll still win a bunch of games and get to a bowl. That is the goal for this ‘25 anyway and next year is the year to make some serious splash on the national stage.

Samesies. I’m also reading a lot of articles about just how much damage we inflected on their defense. At least 2 starters multi year starters on D. Maybe others across their team.

I know we took some licks too but we def had the RT part down. We lost because of the DA and early on. 38 points given up in the first 33 mins of the game.

 

[dwilmont44]

Just remembered I predicted 45-28 in the thread

We're still giving out cash prizes for closest picks right???

 

[BillSU]

Me thinks Steve Angeli better Gird His Loins going forward, Collins too!

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Me thinks Steve Angeli better Gird His Loins going forward, Collins too!

For those who are not familiar:

 

[capeorange]

For those who are not familiar:

View attachment 254585

SEC officials would definitely throw a flag on that.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

SEC officials would definitely throw a flag on that.

"15 yard penalt-ah... offense... Illegal girdin' o' tha laaaaaaaaaawns"

 

[JaySU22]

Yesterday did nothing to change the feeling that 6-6 will be an uphill battle

 

[23Zone]

Weird. It just hit me. Not sure why it didn't resonate with me before... Our starting center last name is Collins, and our backup quarterback last name is Collins. Would be pretty cool to have Collins snap to Collins. Wonder if that has ever happened anywhere before, center and quarterback with the same last name

 

[OrangeXtreme]

For those who are not familiar:

View attachment 254585

We used to call that an "Atomic Wedgie".

 

[TommyA13]

I know this might not be the appropriate thread for this, but is anyone worried about losing recruits (like Calvin Russell) if this team goes 4-8?

 

[JKinUtah]

I know this might not be the appropriate thread for this, but is anyone worried about losing recruits (like Calvin Russell) if this team goes 4-8?

I'm not worried because we will win more than 4 games.

 

[TommyA13]

I'm not worried because we will win more than 4 games.

That was just an example, I guess I should’ve said if we don’t end up having a great record at the end of the season.

 

[orangecuse]

it's a tough school to get into. admission test requires 25 consecutive minutes of tomahawk chops with both arms.

Its like the old rick majerus line when he said he could get a plant into fsu.

Yeah. Although, FSU ranked #54 in the latest US News & National Report rankings, whereas SU is #73, still a bit more difficult than the “knock knock who’s there, orange, orange who, aren’t you glad I didn’t say banana” SU admission test requirement.

 

[nocohalo]

Once you get past the top 30 or so the rest of the rankings are largely based off of the amount of merit aid given. Cuse having private school tuition will obviously matter more in that regard in comparison to a state school. There's really not much difference between 54 and 73 in terms of academics besides the usual **** measuring contests th at parents of prospective undergrads and alums partake in online.

 

[orangecuse]

Once you get past the top 30 or so the rest of the rankings are largely based off of the amount of merit aid given. Cuse having private school tuition will obviously matter more in that regard in comparison to a state school. There's really not much difference between 54 and 73 in terms of academics besides the usual **** measuring contests th at parents of prospective undergrads and alums partake in online.

Perhaps, however, one thing for certain is a fact. That being, 54 is 19 numbers closer to 30 than is 73, no matter how you choose to slice it.

 

[anomander]

My biggest concern is that the defense just doesn’t have any dudes. The good news is guys like Samuels and Antoine should improve as the season goes on, but there is nobody that flashes. Tennessee had so many 10 yard plus plays. ERob gets a ton of ish and he should, but a lot of the time it’s players just missing tackles.

The offense will be fine, especially the run game. Have to improve pass pro, but that sounds like an annual thing.

Major concern are there are no east conference games. When BC and Pitt are the most winnable games it may be a long year. We’ll know a lot more next week. UConn is no slouch. I’ll feel better if we hammer them.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Just shows you how bad we were to start the game. Whether you blame the team not being prepared to start, or the D having no clue. This happened a few times last year too.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

My biggest concern is that the defense just doesn’t have any dudes. The good news is guys like Samuels and Antoine should improve as the season goes on, but there is nobody that flashes. Tennessee had so many 10 yard plus plays. ERob gets a ton of ish and he should, but a lot of the time it’s players just missing tackles.

The offense will be fine, especially the run game. Have to improve pass pro, but that sounds like an annual thing.

Major concern are there are no east conference games. When BC and Pitt are the most winnable games it may be a long year. We’ll know a lot more next week. UConn is no slouch. I’ll feel better if we hammer them.

I had major concerns about our D talent going into the season. We better be hitting the D hard in the portal, otherwise we will be stuck in a Dinoesque 2021-23 type of loop.



Edit

Looking at the roster we should be good next year at LB and CB, assuming the young kids pan out. We lose our depth on the DL and at S. As of now we will have young kids taking over in those spots. They might be more talented than the guys they replace, but they are too young. So next year should be rough too. Maybe in 2027 we will see a decent D, assuming the kids turn out to be good. So IMO we need to get 2-3 DL portal guys and 2 Ss too.

 

[Eric15]

The one play from Saturday that I can't stop thinking about is that long run towards the end of the first half. It was 24-14 with 1:30 left, and we had them 2nd and 10. I was feeling good going into the half. I thought maybe we could even get the ball back for one last possession.

We have their RB in the backfield for a loss, he breaks the tackle (first pic), then we have him completely surrounded and just take miserable tackling angles (second pic), and he breaks free for a 50 yard run. I completely lost my mind after this play.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

The one play from Saturday that I can't stop thinking about is that long run towards the end of the first half. It was 24-14 with 1:30 left, and we had them 2nd and 10. I was feeling good going into the half. I thought maybe we could even get the ball back for one last possession.

We have their RB in the backfield for a loss, he breaks the tackle (first pic), then we have him completely surrounded and just take miserable tackling angles (second pic), and he breaks free for a 50 yard run. I completely lost my mind after this play.

View attachment 254610
View attachment 254611

Same. We had a flicker of momentum and gone in a flash.