It seems that the Jalen Hurd situation could and should have been much better managed.
Jalen Hurd may or may not have been the consummate teammate or leader, but he was a special talent and he gave maximum effort on the field until things came to a head. He was a hero in many games and as painful as it is to say, the highlight game-winning play of the AP St. game was his fumble recovery, which was sheer effort and toughness. Coaches knew that his primary goal in life was to secure a good contract with the NFL. This was a business for him. He saw this as his one ticket to making a living. This is what he was born to do and worked diligently to do. Still, he chose Tennessee early and never wavered. His commitment was the turning point in recruiting at a time when Tennessee was rock bottom.
Jalen had limitations as a running back, but he had special talents and abilities and toughness in a combination that we have never seen at Tennessee. A worthwhile co-ordinator recognizes this fact and designs formations and plays to take advantage of those special talents. It's not necessary to redesign your entire system-- just work in some formations and plays to utilize your advantage. Almost every time that we threw downfield to Jalen, we had tremendous success. Go back and look. Yet, how often did we ever come back to those plays? Find different ways to get Jalen the ball with a running start and he was lethal. Use him out of the backfield in route combinations and teach the QB to make read progressions. We NEVER run route combinations. And we are not capable of teaching the smartest QB we have ever had to make basic college level progression reads. Instead, we built our entire high school offense around using Jalen as a battering ram (and some desperation 3rd and long pitch and catch with a slot or TE).
Add to this an offensive line that is not taught blocking technique and that runs ineffective blocking schemes that are continuously discombobulated. The hits to the head body back and shoulders mounted and Jalen's useful football life began to depreciate without a resume of yardage. I suppose that will give a person whose implicit contract with the team was to help him achieve his life dream a feeling of desperation.
Jalen Hurd may or may not have been the consummate teammate or leader, but he was a special talent and he gave maximum effort on the field until things came to a head. He was a hero in many games and as painful as it is to say, the highlight game-winning play of the AP St. game was his fumble recovery, which was sheer effort and toughness. Coaches knew that his primary goal in life was to secure a good contract with the NFL. This was a business for him. He saw this as his one ticket to making a living. This is what he was born to do and worked diligently to do. Still, he chose Tennessee early and never wavered. His commitment was the turning point in recruiting at a time when Tennessee was rock bottom.
Jalen had limitations as a running back, but he had special talents and abilities and toughness in a combination that we have never seen at Tennessee. A worthwhile co-ordinator recognizes this fact and designs formations and plays to take advantage of those special talents. It's not necessary to redesign your entire system-- just work in some formations and plays to utilize your advantage. Almost every time that we threw downfield to Jalen, we had tremendous success. Go back and look. Yet, how often did we ever come back to those plays? Find different ways to get Jalen the ball with a running start and he was lethal. Use him out of the backfield in route combinations and teach the QB to make read progressions. We NEVER run route combinations. And we are not capable of teaching the smartest QB we have ever had to make basic college level progression reads. Instead, we built our entire high school offense around using Jalen as a battering ram (and some desperation 3rd and long pitch and catch with a slot or TE).
Add to this an offensive line that is not taught blocking technique and that runs ineffective blocking schemes that are continuously discombobulated. The hits to the head body back and shoulders mounted and Jalen's useful football life began to depreciate without a resume of yardage. I suppose that will give a person whose implicit contract with the team was to help him achieve his life dream a feeling of desperation.
