Summer Workouts
Beginning at the end May returning players start reporting back to campus to begin voluntary workouts and under the supervision of the strength staff, begin strength / conditioning for the season. By June most all of your incoming recruiting class will begin to report to campus to start getting acclimated to summer school, workouts, conditioning and adjusting to life away from home for the first time. This is the most critical time to have veteran leadership on your team, as this is the time those veterans will guide, tutor and integrate the new guys into the team. Usually, there will be lots of support staff on campus to help guide the young guys through the new rigors of college life. This is also a time when medical staffs will re-evaluate players coming off preseason surgeries, to see how they have healed, check for limitations from surgery and adjust rehab regiments if necessary.
As June gives way to July, usually the remaining freshmen and transfers finally arrive on campus for involuntary workouts, conditioning and second session of summer school. July is such a key month to get the final strength numbers up for the season and to really get the physical conditioning to peak levels. Absolutely time that can not be wasted, especially when returning a lot of second and first year starters at the play maker positions. The norm will become 7 on 7 drills, voluntary group meetings and diving head first into the play book to be mentally prepared for the open of fall camp and season. The 2 hours the coaches get with players, may not seem like a lot, but for young guys learning new positions. Those times really are valuable to the players and their mental progression.
2020 Summer Workout Effects
Players having to stay home and not getting to report back till second week June and having to do make shift workouts at home IMHO really set back the physical development of these second and first year players starters. While all teams faced the same type restrictions and loss of nearly a month on campus, all teams are not affected the same way. Being monitored by strength coaches is time lost that is critical to all teams and it's especially critical for young teams IMHO. UT could not afford this lost time, considering the nature of the roster and with so many young and inexperienced players being expected to play bigger roles on the team. Honestly, every season has it's own adversity for every team, but the more veteran laden teams seem to always weather these storms better the inexperienced ones.
Roster
The 2020 roster honestly IMHO has a lot of great young talent on it and has some great talent right now committed to the 2021 class. I believe the 2019 recruiting class will have it's greatest impact next season with guys like To'o To'o, Crouch, Morris, Wright, Gray, Burrell, Middleton, Simmons and Harrison making their biggest strides. I will always wonder what could have been with this group had they had a normal spring and off season. So, many things go into having a quality and competitive roster at the SEC level, talent, experience. depth, size, speed, maturity, leadership and mental toughness are what all great rosters consist of on consistent winning teams.
When I look at this roster and figure in all the attributes I mentioned, I honestly think this team is 2 years away from being able to contend for the SEC East title. It really does have some star power and mixed in with some kids that started to develop into quality SEC players last season. Honestly, I believe the only thing holding this team back roster is a capable QB and a consistent pass rusher or two. This freshmen class really brought in some future play makers to this team, Hyatt, Holiday, Calloway, Wideman, Small, Beckwith, Spraggins, Mayes, Robinson and Bailey on offense. While the defense boast some young players in Thomas, D. Bailey, Baron, Joseph, Eason, French, Slaughter and McDonald. This roster is better than it has been and will only get better as these guys gain experience and develop more physically.
This roster is better than when Pruitt arrived at Tennessee, although a lot of the players that are in key positions are not multi-year starters and that makes an abnormal year of lost practice, even more critical for young teams. Some will say, but it's his third year and how can it still be a youth problem and inexperience . Well, simply put, when you change coaches every 3 to 5 years, by the next coach's 3rd year all the inherited JRs and SRs are gone. So you are left with true JRs, RS Sophomores, Sophomores or Freshmen usually all playing as starters in their 1st or 2nd season. I'm sorry guys it just takes rebuilding a roster 4 to 5 years, especially considering a roster that was built in a way completely opposite of new coach schemes.
2020 Roster Effect
This is simply my personal view after looking at the roster and the experience in key positions on the effects this abnormal season has had on it. Although, Gaurantano is a 5th year starrer, losing a second full spring in the system probably only magnified the issues he already constantly showed in the past. Most everyone before the season wanted to see how he would improve coming out of his second go around with Chaney, well that didn't happen and honestly i believe he regressed. To compound the QB room even more, the guys behind him had little to no experience and it is obvious that lost time in practice has hurt their individual development greatly.
Another place on this roster that could ill afford lost time was the 2 returning true freshmen tackles and the O-line that needed to continue reps to build depth, continuity and chemistry. Crouch and Banks both needed all the reps they could get to be able to play the ILB with any type of consistency and to build confidence playing the position. Though, this roster I believe has some truly potential future play makers at WR and TE, they all needed a normal summer and fall camp to progress to be to contribute in a meaningful way this year. However, coaches jobs are to find ways to get talent on the ballfield in meaningful situation to help the team. Especially a team in dire need of explosive play making type athletes, with the ability to change the dynamic of your team.
Whether Pruitt and his staff is here next year or not, this roster will be better than the one he inherited 3 years ago. Technically, this roster was 2 INTS and busted coverage in the 4th qtr from being 10 and 3 last year. That's why to me the lack of success this year has come from this roster not getting a second year of true development, than it has from coaching. Though, to be clear, I believe there has been many coaching mistakes this year and I'll touch on that in my final part.
Beginning at the end May returning players start reporting back to campus to begin voluntary workouts and under the supervision of the strength staff, begin strength / conditioning for the season. By June most all of your incoming recruiting class will begin to report to campus to start getting acclimated to summer school, workouts, conditioning and adjusting to life away from home for the first time. This is the most critical time to have veteran leadership on your team, as this is the time those veterans will guide, tutor and integrate the new guys into the team. Usually, there will be lots of support staff on campus to help guide the young guys through the new rigors of college life. This is also a time when medical staffs will re-evaluate players coming off preseason surgeries, to see how they have healed, check for limitations from surgery and adjust rehab regiments if necessary.
As June gives way to July, usually the remaining freshmen and transfers finally arrive on campus for involuntary workouts, conditioning and second session of summer school. July is such a key month to get the final strength numbers up for the season and to really get the physical conditioning to peak levels. Absolutely time that can not be wasted, especially when returning a lot of second and first year starters at the play maker positions. The norm will become 7 on 7 drills, voluntary group meetings and diving head first into the play book to be mentally prepared for the open of fall camp and season. The 2 hours the coaches get with players, may not seem like a lot, but for young guys learning new positions. Those times really are valuable to the players and their mental progression.
2020 Summer Workout Effects
Players having to stay home and not getting to report back till second week June and having to do make shift workouts at home IMHO really set back the physical development of these second and first year players starters. While all teams faced the same type restrictions and loss of nearly a month on campus, all teams are not affected the same way. Being monitored by strength coaches is time lost that is critical to all teams and it's especially critical for young teams IMHO. UT could not afford this lost time, considering the nature of the roster and with so many young and inexperienced players being expected to play bigger roles on the team. Honestly, every season has it's own adversity for every team, but the more veteran laden teams seem to always weather these storms better the inexperienced ones.
Roster
The 2020 roster honestly IMHO has a lot of great young talent on it and has some great talent right now committed to the 2021 class. I believe the 2019 recruiting class will have it's greatest impact next season with guys like To'o To'o, Crouch, Morris, Wright, Gray, Burrell, Middleton, Simmons and Harrison making their biggest strides. I will always wonder what could have been with this group had they had a normal spring and off season. So, many things go into having a quality and competitive roster at the SEC level, talent, experience. depth, size, speed, maturity, leadership and mental toughness are what all great rosters consist of on consistent winning teams.
When I look at this roster and figure in all the attributes I mentioned, I honestly think this team is 2 years away from being able to contend for the SEC East title. It really does have some star power and mixed in with some kids that started to develop into quality SEC players last season. Honestly, I believe the only thing holding this team back roster is a capable QB and a consistent pass rusher or two. This freshmen class really brought in some future play makers to this team, Hyatt, Holiday, Calloway, Wideman, Small, Beckwith, Spraggins, Mayes, Robinson and Bailey on offense. While the defense boast some young players in Thomas, D. Bailey, Baron, Joseph, Eason, French, Slaughter and McDonald. This roster is better than it has been and will only get better as these guys gain experience and develop more physically.
This roster is better than when Pruitt arrived at Tennessee, although a lot of the players that are in key positions are not multi-year starters and that makes an abnormal year of lost practice, even more critical for young teams. Some will say, but it's his third year and how can it still be a youth problem and inexperience . Well, simply put, when you change coaches every 3 to 5 years, by the next coach's 3rd year all the inherited JRs and SRs are gone. So you are left with true JRs, RS Sophomores, Sophomores or Freshmen usually all playing as starters in their 1st or 2nd season. I'm sorry guys it just takes rebuilding a roster 4 to 5 years, especially considering a roster that was built in a way completely opposite of new coach schemes.
2020 Roster Effect
This is simply my personal view after looking at the roster and the experience in key positions on the effects this abnormal season has had on it. Although, Gaurantano is a 5th year starrer, losing a second full spring in the system probably only magnified the issues he already constantly showed in the past. Most everyone before the season wanted to see how he would improve coming out of his second go around with Chaney, well that didn't happen and honestly i believe he regressed. To compound the QB room even more, the guys behind him had little to no experience and it is obvious that lost time in practice has hurt their individual development greatly.
Another place on this roster that could ill afford lost time was the 2 returning true freshmen tackles and the O-line that needed to continue reps to build depth, continuity and chemistry. Crouch and Banks both needed all the reps they could get to be able to play the ILB with any type of consistency and to build confidence playing the position. Though, this roster I believe has some truly potential future play makers at WR and TE, they all needed a normal summer and fall camp to progress to be to contribute in a meaningful way this year. However, coaches jobs are to find ways to get talent on the ballfield in meaningful situation to help the team. Especially a team in dire need of explosive play making type athletes, with the ability to change the dynamic of your team.
Whether Pruitt and his staff is here next year or not, this roster will be better than the one he inherited 3 years ago. Technically, this roster was 2 INTS and busted coverage in the 4th qtr from being 10 and 3 last year. That's why to me the lack of success this year has come from this roster not getting a second year of true development, than it has from coaching. Though, to be clear, I believe there has been many coaching mistakes this year and I'll touch on that in my final part.
