… you’re hoping that a Willie Martinez-coached bunch can pull your fat out of the fire.
With concerns abounding with tremendous frequency along the front seven of the defense, the Volunteers will be forced, for better or worse, to rely upon an experienced secondary for leadership and production, particularly early in the season.
Get The Picture 
“Watch their pupils boys!” “When they get big, the ball is near, just wave hands in front of face and whatever you do, don’t turn around and attempt to locate the football in the air.”
-Willie M.
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To be fair, Martinez’ DBs were always decent if not great. In some cases, they were very, very good. The SEC championship game in 2005 would be a great example.
I’ll say this for him, he never put a Def. backfield as bad as the one we saw last year.
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Bryan Evans and Prince Miller were NEVER even in the same frame on tv as the receivers they were allegedly covering. I have heard of giving a cushion but damn!
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Bryan Evans was a total bust who was supposed to be a 5 star out of HS. Prince Miller wasn’t very good either. Was that in part because of sh!tty coaching ? Absolutely. But also Willie, both as DC and as DB coach, wouldn’t play the best players–he had some sort of “alternative universe” system for deciding whom to play that bore no relationship to reality. Willie is now at UT. All I can say is: “Good.”
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Poor guy got burned again and again. I don’t think I ever saw him knock a pass down.
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You can throw Jones in there too…..three awful guys in the secondary! Arguably, the worst in GA history.
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In fairness, Jones did have a reasonably good senior year. He played light out when we beat Tech in an upset in Atlanta in 09.
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should have said his last year..he left after his junior year
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Actually Reshad Jones was a good DB, poorly coached IMHO, who got drafted and is still playing in the NFL. He had good size and speed. Probably the best DB on the team that year.
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Did u just say: “beat tech in an upset.”?
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Tech won the ACC that year. Georgia looked all season long like the Dawgs would have a losing season but upset a good Auburn team, the best team Fish Fry has had at Tech, and beat Texas A&M in a bowl to get to 8-5.
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I dunno. The players admitted they didn’t know the coverage on that big 4th down play. And Auburn shredded us pretty bad all night. To me, that game and the Sugar Bowl were the first instances of Weak Willie defense.
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Yep, a foreshadowing of what was to follow.
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The bigger problem in that Auburn game was that they were the first team that year(although Florida did too so some extent), that realized we couldn’t stop the run. The more we sold out to stop it, the more those bootleg passes to the TE killed us. Willie was a decent position coach (unlike Janeck who was simply bad all around), who was promoted beyond his level of competence. He was was burned by some serious busts in recruiting.
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We did not pressure the QB well in the later years and that was the problem. He wasn’t a great DC. No doubt about that and it’s amazing to me that Jancek is back in the SEC as a DC. But he was a pretty decent DB coach.
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The Vols’ defense got a boost just by hiring Jancek, and once he puts them in the correct scheme and in a position to succeed, this unit will improve.
So, John Jancek is tasked with rebuilding the worst defense in Tennessee history into a winner. Who is he and where does he come from?
Jancek followed Butch Jones from Cincinnati after being the team’s sole defensive coordinator for just one season. Jancek was the co-defensive coordinator for two years with the Bearcats before Jones promoted him in 2012. Cincinnati finished with the 6th best defense in the Big East last season and finished 6th and 7th respectively in 2011 and 2012.
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I vote we call the Vol’s defensive backfield the “Lollipop Guild” in honor of Willie’s love of small DB’s.
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Watched the 2007 UGA Bama game we pulled out in OT. We were actually comfortably ahead in the 4 tth quarter when Brian Evans gave up a bomb of 60 + yards that spearheaded the Tide to come back to tie us up. That guy gave me nightmares all over again.
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I always thought Martinez adopted and taught a “zone tackling” philosophy. If the ball carrier was in your zone, have at him. Otherwise, stay in your zone and run parallel to him. Never leave your tackling zone!
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