Tennessee beat writer offers consolation to Georgia fans, urging patience for better days ahead.
A fast recruiting start alone doesn’t take you where Georgia wants to go. But the Bulldogs are at least headed in the right direction.
You just couldn’t tell it against Ole Miss. And you probably won’t be able to tell it against UT, either.
You know, I’m really starting to dislike this season.
Jesus, Booch, give it a rest, man.
It’s natural to assume that Tennessee, and sophomore defensive tackle Shy Tuttle in particular, might have some extra motivation this week.
With No. 11 Tennessee (4-0, 1-0 SEC) visiting No. 25 Georgia (3-1, 1-1) on Saturday at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga., Tuttle and the Vols will get their first shot at the Bulldogs since he was injured last season on a low block from behind by Georgia center Brandon Kublanow.
Tuttle suffered a broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments on the play, which sidelined him for the rest of his freshman season and resulted in a lengthy recovery that ultimately forced him to sit out the Vols’ season opener this year.
But Tennessee coach Butch Jones said Monday that Tuttle and his teammates won’t have revenge on their minds when they cross paths with Kublanow and the Bulldogs on Saturday.
“Again, it’s unfortunate that, that happened, but Shy has recovered from it,” Jones said during his weekly Monday press conference. “And you can’t focus on that. You have to focus on the task at hand and winning your one-on-one matchup and your preparation. I don’t even think he’s thinking about that, and neither are we.
“Again, it’s a new game. It’s a new season. It’s a new opportunity, so I don’t see that even entering in the thought process.”
The Vols clearly haven’t forgotten about the play, though. Jones referenced Kublanow’s hit on Tuttle earlier this month when he spoke to the Knoxville Quarterback Club, calling the block “unacceptable.”
I mean, if we’re gonna get into what’s unacceptable, let’s go through all of Georgia’s injuries in Knoxville during the last two visits, starting with Keith Marshall’s.
Your team’s favored and on a roll, Georgia’s reeling a bit and you want to gnaw over a football injury? I guess it beats having to discuss other painful topics.
If you want my advice, though…
Unfortunately for Tennessee’s opponents, he makes up for that shortcoming as a runner.
Tennessee is scoring touchdowns 80% of the time in 2016 when Dobbs carries twice on a drive. These aren’t gimme touchdown drives either, as all of them were more than 50 yards long…
Dobbs being enough of a threat to run that he actually does run at least twice opens up the offense enough that it makes for a 2.3 yards per play difference.
Georgia’s defense had better be ready for that. Of course, it wouldn’t hurt if Debord were to live down to Michael Elkon’s expectations.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
Evidently, Booch has time for this shit.
Butch Jones said Monday that the sky is not falling on Knoxville, and he’s keeping track of people saying it.
Sure, the Vols are 3-0, but they’ve struggled at times in all three wins. Statistically speaking, they’re No. 69 in scoring, No. 73 in yards per rush, No. 84 in sacks allowed per game and No. 71 on third down offense. They’ve also been hit with injuries to several top defensive players.
But Jones says there’s been overreaction, and he’s noting it in a journal.
“Each week, there’s something that is the major issue, it’s a catastrophe, it’s blown out of proportion,” Jones said. “I’m charting week to week what we blow up in the media, the main issues. At the end of the year, I’m going to go back and relive those. We spend so much time creating things that really aren’t there. We make them real when they’re not real…”
You’ve got a football program to run, a division to win, recruits to chase and you’re keeping a record of journalists who piss you off? That’s some serious multi-tasking, dude.
I just hope he calls a presser in the offseason to share his reliving with the rest of the world.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
Gus dropped it and Booch found it.
The Vols have also been lucky. In theory, that’s not something they’ll be able to count on. They recovered three second-half fumbles against Appalachian State, when recovering only two of three might not have allowed them to take the game to OT. And on Saturday, there were seven fumbles (five by VT, two by UT) … and they recovered all seven.
… Tennessee has recovered 10 of the 12 fumbles in its two games. The Vols have been sloppy in fumbling six times, but they’ve lost only one. This is crazy, and it won’t last.
I know when I’d like to see the Vols’ luck run out.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
Would it surprise you to learn that one of the stars at the Tennessee-Virginia Tech game is a garbage truck converted into a tailgating vehicle?
Donald Greene got the idea about eight years ago. The company he works for, Waste Connections, had retired a fleet of residential recycling trucks, and he thought it would be fun to retrofit the whole thing to serve as a tailgating vehicle…
Price tag on the renovation?
“Unknown,” Greene said.
That’s one way of putting it.
Filed under Because Nothing Sucks Like A Big Orange
Michael Elkon makes the case for Georgia winning the SEC East this season:
The Dawgs have the best player in the division (Nick Chubb), the biggest coaching upgrade at offensive coordinator and no road games against top contenders Tennessee and Florida.
Smart may not prove to be an upgrade over Richt, but his first season in Athens sets up nicely.
I have to give him major credit for one thing — he was off the Schottenheimer bandwagon last year before it even got started, so I give a lot of weight to his criticism of Tennessee offensive coordinator Mike DeBord (folks who’ve had crappy stints at Michigan usually give Michael a little extra schwinngg!, but his points about DeBord certainly have merit) — but I think he ignores something that’s a huge factor in Tennessee’s favor, the offseason hiring of Bob Shoop as its new defensive coordinator.
Chaney may very well turn out to be a significant upgrade over Schottenheimer, but I believe Shoop represents an even bigger step up from John Jancek. If that turns out to be as key a move as I believe it is, then DeBord’s margin of error grows exponentially. As Elkon notes, “When Michigan had great defenses (1997 and 2006), DeBord was passable.” Passable may be all Booch needs out of his offense.
That may be especially true when you consider that Tennessee appears to have a significant advantage over Florida and Georgia in the area of special teams. Bill Connelly’s revised S&P+ rankings for special teams have the Vols coming off a 28th finish last season, compared to Florida’s 95th and Georgia’s 103rd. That may not seem like much, but when your analysis takes in Tennessee having to travel to Athens as a factor in picking who wins the division, every little bit counts.
