Vandy/UT Spread
- Thread starter Teetim
- Start date
I would love for Vandy to win.....mainly because I work with a guy who is a UT fan and its fun to give him a hard time.
Might be a close game if Vandy plays the way they did against Ole Miss, but if UT's offense keeps clicking the way it has lately, and Vandy plays the way they did against Missouri . . . then it will be the SOS in Nashville.
Vol fan here...I think what will make it a tough, close game is Vandy needing the win to become bowl eligible. They have a good RB in Ralph Webb, and we've struggled stopping the run since losing our starting DT's Danny O'Brien (dismissed from team) and former 5 stars Kahlil McKenzie and Shy Tuttle all suffering season ending injuries several games ago. OLB Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who made tackles all over the field his entire career, was lost for the season to injury early too. We've had to outscore opponents since. Vanderbilt plays solid defense, so it could be a close game.
Stop whining about injuries, you've had a string of Top 5/10 recruiting classes. You've got the #1 JUCO DT available now that he's beaten a sexual assault charge plus the #1 JUCO DE. Plenty of talent, maybe your coaches need to step it up.
I don't know about embarrassing,but it certainly would be another in a never ending line of head scratching games in which a team we beat wins a game against a team we can't get within 2 or 3 touchdowns of beating.
This season alone Vandy,Missouri,Miss St and South Carolina all play teams that we can't touch much tougher than we do .I've watched stuff like this happen for years and just don't understand it,I think I have a decent understanding of sports and football in particular,someone explain their take on this. It is not just this coach or coaching staff(although they do seem to have more than their share of these games) it has been happening for years at UK.
For the record I don't see Vandy wining this one but I almost guarantee they will play UT better than we did.
It's galling the way UK plays vs UT. And it doesn't matter who the players are, who the coaches are, where the game's played or when...it just seems UK seldom knows which end is up vs them. That was never more true than this years game, it looked like UK's D was totally lost and UT was playing against air. If Dobbs could've played against UK every game during his career he'd have a string of 4 consecutive Heismans. A good college QB who UK made to look like a Hall of Famer.
Your Dobbs comment is spot on,and the UT games over the years defy logic,it is like we are scared to death of the Big Orange(like Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin)
Back in the days when we had freshman football teams,I think we once beat UT something like 72-0 but never beat the varsity at all.
I'd rather be UK with wins over being a closer loss to Tennessee.
And the answer is we lost Jordan Jones early in the game. He's our best defensive player. He erase a lot of big plays they made. He plays, we still lose but it's closer.
Jones makes some difference,and yes I would much rather have the wins but you have to wonder how we were able to get them in the first place and yet play so badly in other games.
Its all about matchups. UT has a great back, Hurd quitting probably hurt UK's chances. He wasn't near the back Kamara is and never will be, don't blame him at all for wanting to play TE, probably AA talent for a TE, or a rush end on D. But their rushing attack played directly into UK's weakness of rush defense. Dobbs being the wildcard, barely serviceable as a passer but bigger, stronger and faster than he appears and not easy to get on the ground. Plus as a runner he has excellent vision, if he has a future in the NFL wouldn't surprise me if it isn't at WR or a 3rd down back. Really surprising at how well he sees the field as a runner and it doesn't carry over as a passer.
As to the Dobbs issue you are correct,he is a terrible match-up for us (as is Jackson)my confusion goes beyond Dobbs to any number of "hump" games with UT,UGA Miss St(recent years) and probably others.We can't get over the "hump" we can't even stumble over it accidentally once in a while
It might work in basketball, but it doesn't work quite that way in football, bub. Our JUCO DT you're referring to missed a lot of time while being suspended during the sexual assault investigation. He hasn't been in football shape since coming back and probably won't be until next year. Kongbo, the JUCO DE, is raw as can be and was forced to play DT due to the aforementioned injuries at that position. He's clearly undersized. Again, that's why you and Missouri were able to gain so many yards on the ground. Not having Cam Sutton and JRM against Alabama hurt us too.
In basketball, one or two players can solve everything. Not so in football.
I've said since day 1 that Hurd would be lights out as a TE. He has the prototypical size, good hands, and is a great blocker. He's physical in the open field as the UGA defensive back he clobbered can attest, and has enough speed to get open. He was on pace to become our all time leading rusher but could have been a first round TE in the draft. Hopefully for him, he'll see it and make the move at his next stop.
So you're saying our defense wouldn't be playing any better right now with a healthy McKenzie, Tuttle at DT, and Jalen Reeves-Maybin at OLB and an available O'Brien at DT?
How are their season ending injuries on the coaching staff? They're being forced to use a patchwork defense.
You guys act like no other team has injuries...
UF missed their QB in the UT game...UF missed 3-4 starters vs. LSU and still won
UGA missed Chubb in their game vs. UT
UK was w/o starting QB, DE, DT early in season and then in UT game our best defensive player is hurt, two DBs go down.
Everybody has injuries...UT has had a worse year than most but still is no excuse for crapping the bed they way you guys did this year. Besides...teams were running on UT early in year (Appy St, Va Tech, UGA, etc) before the injuries mounted.
Are we the first team in the history of college football to ever lose a game we should've won? Butch in his first year at UT (5-7 and by far his worst team) beat Steve Spurrier and his best ever 11 win team at South Carolina. Iowa beat Jim Harbaugh and Michigan. Lowly at the time Memphis upset one of Coach Fulmer's best ever teams at UT. Coach Fulmer went on to bring home the crystal two years later. Crapping the bed from time to time happens. I'm just pointing out the reason why we gave up the rushing yards we did to you and Missouri and the reason Vanderbilt will get a lot too.
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Hurd's feet just aren't the feet of a good RB, nor his quickness, yes he trucked our DB in Ktown last year, but a kid he outweighted 60lbs knocked him to last week, caused a fumble and apparently put him in Butch's doghouse in Athens this week. I really hope the concussion he was reported to have didn't happen on that play because he played later in our game. But back to the point, like you said, a great blocker, enough size and top speed for a TE. Getting the ball in the secondary he would have been devastating, now he has some size, but not sure he has enough quickness or speed to get away from a CB, he needs to work against S and LB where he would be a mismatch every snap.