Yeah, I know there’s plenty of it out there and I don’t want to discount it entirely, but every time I see a comment like this one…
We learned two things about Tennessee’s quarterback situation a year ago. One, the answer at the position isn’t Matt Simms but Bray, with the offense turning a corner late – diminished playbook or otherwise – after Bray took over under center. He stepped into the starting lineup on Nov. 6 and led the Volunteers to a perfect final month, snapping a four-game losing streak and leading U.T. to bowl play with a .500 mark.
… I keep coming back to what happened with Bray’s passer rating after he was named the starter. And that wasn’t the result of facing off against college football’s elite secondaries, either.
Get The Picture 
(cough) John Brantley (cough)
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Bray looked both really bad, and very good depending on which plays you were watching. If you were a TN fan you would have to be optimistic because he gives you hope, and is clearly better than Simms. The last games were against terible defenses but he still showed he is capable of making some difficult throws. He also showed that he was a freshman who would panic and make really dumb passes at times. So what happens when Bray faces extreme pressure with tight coverage simultaneously? No one can know that answer until the season unfolds but it makes for the usual off-season bantering.
Vol fans have to feel better going into 2011 than they did at this point last spring with no QB that had taken a snap playing behind an OL that was raw. This season they have some hope that the OL will be improved, and there is a proven RB to take some pressure off a QB that they have to admit hasn’t passed a really tough test yet. I saw signs of the old “Eric Ainge panic syndrome” in Bray last year, but he may learn those lessons faster than EA since he may not have killed enough brain cells yet with pain killers. Don’t really care so long as he saves his worst games for the Dawgs.
I see TN playing a spoiler role in the East this year, feel they are good enough to beat one of the contenders but doubt they are competitive over the course of the entire season.
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You could’ve said the same thing about Rick Clausen compared to Erik Ainge in 2004. He closed out that season perfectly. Of course, it always helps to have that November schedule UT does.
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kckd
is right, there couldn’t be an easier November Schedule anywhere for a major conference powerhouse.
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Bray is the perfect UT QB a real Ahole. Following in the foot steps of the other UT QB aholes, Casey “One Arm” Clausen, Erik “Dope Head” Ainge and Rick “Not good enough for LSU” Clausen. What quality guys all around. If the SEC Ref don’t call the little SOB for taunting this year the crew should be suspended.
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There is a two-word refutation for anyone who tut-tuts at a true freshman’s passer rating: Matt Stafford.
Before we mock UT fans for hyping Bray, just remember how enthused we were about the Texas kid who tossed for a nifty 108.98.
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I was thinking the same thing. I thought Staff’s numbers were lower than Bray’s, thanks for clarifying.
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Exactly. Its not like Simms wouldnt have had a similar passer rating vs those crap teams.
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I thought that the Sims kid got a raw deal. Dooley played Sims against all the difficult teams in the first half of the season and he got beat all to hell, then Dooley benched him and played the freshman when the schedule got easy. By comparison of their records it made Sims look like he was a shitty QB and Bray was the next incarnation of Sammy Baugh. If I were Derek Dooley I sure as hell would be certain not to be anyplace where I had to be around Phil Sims.
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I’m a UT fan. Am I supposed to be concerned that his QB rating dipped all the way down to 134 in his last game of the season? Because I thought that was still pretty good, no?
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130 is the average passer rating in college.
I don’t know about concern, because I expect Bray will be better with more experience, but it’s not good that his passer rating steadily declined, either.
By the way, I think Justin Hunter will be an absolute stud for you guys this season. I’m really impressed with him.
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