Am I correct in saying Tennessee had 71 scholarship players this season? I have also seen it was 78 with the super seniors, not sure how that compares to other teams scholarship numbers.
Regardless, Heupel was playing with a pretty short deck from day 1. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for Purdue being short handed in the bowl, we were short handed all year.
Give Heupel 14 (or 7, whichever is accurate) more scholarship players and a few years to install his culture and his system, we’re going to be just fine.
We are always going to have solid QB play and score points as long as he’s here. I would venture to guess this will be his worst roster he ever coaches here, and we set a school record for points.
On the offensive side of the ball, we need to play more people, which will be easier as we add depth. Short yardage, we need to diversify the play calling there a good bit. And clock management needs to improve as well. Heupel knows this better than I do and it’ll get better.
Defensively, I’m at a loss. On one hand I want to blame it on roster issues. Undermanned at LB big time. Safety play is just not good enough. CB opposite Taylor isn’t good enough. On the DL, other than some salty veterans playing above their ability level there isn’t much legit SEC there either.
Transfer portal needs to be out friend on defense, and Heupel needs to invest heavily on that side of the ball, in recruiting and coaching. If we can find 3ish starter level transfers, that would be huge.
Next year, I expect more shootouts. It’s going to take more than one offseason to build a legitimately good defense. BUT, and this is a big BUT, if guys like Young, Baron, Banks, Charles, Thomas, can improve AND we get some portal help… that’s those 2-3 plays a game the defense needs to make to allow our offense to win the game.
Regardless, Heupel was playing with a pretty short deck from day 1. I don’t feel the least bit sorry for Purdue being short handed in the bowl, we were short handed all year.
Give Heupel 14 (or 7, whichever is accurate) more scholarship players and a few years to install his culture and his system, we’re going to be just fine.
We are always going to have solid QB play and score points as long as he’s here. I would venture to guess this will be his worst roster he ever coaches here, and we set a school record for points.
On the offensive side of the ball, we need to play more people, which will be easier as we add depth. Short yardage, we need to diversify the play calling there a good bit. And clock management needs to improve as well. Heupel knows this better than I do and it’ll get better.
Defensively, I’m at a loss. On one hand I want to blame it on roster issues. Undermanned at LB big time. Safety play is just not good enough. CB opposite Taylor isn’t good enough. On the DL, other than some salty veterans playing above their ability level there isn’t much legit SEC there either.
Transfer portal needs to be out friend on defense, and Heupel needs to invest heavily on that side of the ball, in recruiting and coaching. If we can find 3ish starter level transfers, that would be huge.
Next year, I expect more shootouts. It’s going to take more than one offseason to build a legitimately good defense. BUT, and this is a big BUT, if guys like Young, Baron, Banks, Charles, Thomas, can improve AND we get some portal help… that’s those 2-3 plays a game the defense needs to make to allow our offense to win the game.
