I think we all know that the team heading into yesterday's game was injury-ravaged to the point of being basically a lower-mid level SEC team, not the team that housed VT and UF and won in Athens. Some on here don't want to acknowledge that, and that's fine. But when you're dressing <70 players at home; starting a 4th-teamer and a walkon at LB; starting a true freshman at CB; starting an OL that is missing 4 opening game starters and burning a RS on a 265 OL, etc. etc....you're going to get your ass whipped by the #1 team in the country. Period.
The good news is the following:
The team will obviously have to avoid and further catastrophic injuries (KMac news doesn't sound good so nothing more like that) and keep focused. My prediction is that we win out and face Bama again in Atlanta, this time with a much healthier roster featuring Kirkland and Sutton along with the rest of the MASH unit listed above and just as importantly nothing to lose and everything (perhaps a Playoff berth) to gain.
Should be a fun October and November. Go Vols!
The good news is the following:
- We have a bye week to get healthy and will get back 3 starting OL (Kendrick, Wiesman and Robertson) and maybe a 4th (Hall), a starting DT (Vickers), an all-SEC LB (Kirkland) and a backup/starting LB (McDowell), a starting DB (Foreman) and the aforementioned freshman DB (Buchanan). That's a ton of players who helped us beat UF and UGA, plus a stud LB who we didn't even have for those games in Kirkland. And we get Sutton back as early as TTech, i.e., before the last 3 SEC games and Atlanta
- The silver lining of these injuries is that they have forced us to build depth. Guys like Elliott Berry, Jumper, Picou, Phllips, Richmond, Boulware, and Tatum have gotten a good amount of SEC reps in the last 4 weeks. That will pay huge dividends for the final 5-game stretch and then into 2017
- Speaking of depth and the bye week, the staff has two weeks to accelerate the development of BOTH the young players above (and there are a ton of them, as you can see) as well as other younger players who have played a little so far this season and have a chance to help this team in the stretch run. Guys like Brandon Johnson, Kongbo, Osborne, Griffin, and Warrior...seriously talented players who can impact the last 5 games
- This is stating the obvious, but the schedule gets a ton easier. The game in Columbia is probably the toughest, so having it be the next one means the staff should be able to spend a ton of time gameplanning. We are immensely more talented than they are at literally every position, but it's a road SEC game so we'll have to be ready. The fact that the Cocks game is followed by TTech is all the more reason to spend that much more time on SC
- Speaking of TTech, I sincerely hope the staff takes full advantage of that one being on the schedule and treats like a bye week AND a treats the game as a wonderful opportunity to rest starters and make it basically a developmental scrimmage
- Lastly, and the injuries plus playing against Bama makes it easy to forget, but this is a damn good team with a ton of fight and spirit. A team that has persevered through a ton, both during games and off the field with unprecedented bad injury luck to multiple NFL players and depth players alike. We have scored a ton of points and when we get a lot of defensive players back we are a good defensive unit that will now be deeper than we ever thought due to injuries.
The team will obviously have to avoid and further catastrophic injuries (KMac news doesn't sound good so nothing more like that) and keep focused. My prediction is that we win out and face Bama again in Atlanta, this time with a much healthier roster featuring Kirkland and Sutton along with the rest of the MASH unit listed above and just as importantly nothing to lose and everything (perhaps a Playoff berth) to gain.
Should be a fun October and November. Go Vols!
