For Tennessee, yes, while Lebby kinda choked the game away, I don't hold it against him too much. 9 days ago, I was arguing against the anti-Lebby crowd.If we are talented enough to beat Florida, Texas and Tennessee, I think you have to give Lebby at least some credit for identifying that talent. I don't believe we've been outbidding SEC teams for many of those guys. I'm pretty sure there's not a recruiting service that would tell you we're as talented as any of those teams.
Of 31 players that have started a game for us this year, 17 signed with Lebby. (14 transfers and 3 JUCOs). I'd love to break it down by snap count, but I don't have that information.
It's certainly fair to blame Lebby for not closing out games. But he has to also get credit for us being in position to win. And I'm not suggesting it's good enough just to be in the ballgame. But the improvement between last year and this year is unmistakable, and as of right now I'm not willing to give up on him.
We should definitely be better at the QB position. That's Lebby's deal and there's no excuse.
But then Lebby blew the game against a Florida team who had already thrown in the towel and blew a big lead against a super overrated Texas team that has been underperforming all year, and I've flipped sides.
I think in the modern NIL/Portal era, it's going to be rare that we have a real chance to beat Florida and Texas - we'll have to catch them in a down year where their talent doesn't want it as much as we do, and then we'll have to execute the whole game and get it done. We need a head coach who can at least win the games where the other team basically hands it to us, and two weeks in a row now, Lebby has failed an opportunity for a signature win.