For any of you that were complaining about Butch Jones after the Texas A&M game, skip this. My guess that isn't many people.
I am as much of a Tennessee fan as anyone. I am disappointed with an 8-4 season also. We had some close games that could have gone either way. But, people seem to forget where we came from. When Butch came, we had little talent, no leadership and the team didn't have a competitive bone in their body. Under Dooley, if we were down by 10 points the team gave up and had their heads down. This team fought back when down against good teams.
If pre-season, we were told that Maybin, Sutton, Kirkland, McKenzie, Tuttle, O'Brien, Hurd and others would be out for most or some of the season, we wouldn't have expected to be SEC East Champs. We wouldn't have expected to beat Florida , Georgia or go into double OT at A&M considering A&M turned out to be pretty good with Trevor Knight.
Maybe you wished we had hired Charlie Strong instead of Butch. How would that have turned out? If you think he would have done any better at the real UT than Texas, you are kidding yourself. We are better off with Butch than if we had Strong.
I'm not saying that our D looked good the past games. It was a combination of things. One not having enough DT to field a D line. Our D showed for one thing a lack of depth when our starters were out. We clearly shouldn't give up the yards that we did in the second half of the season. Hopefully Shoop is as good as everyone thought when he was hired and can get it fixed.
We had a top 10 team when everyone was healthy pre-season. I believe our record would be better if everyone was healthy for the season. But that wasn't the case. It shows we need more depth so we can reload. We aren't there yet.
Everyone wants to see the team continue to improve. How about instead of complain about the coach for all the recruits to see, show some support so recruits see a supportive fan base that they might want to come play for and we can get to where we can reload. Or we can complain and let the recruits see all the negative comments and wonder why they would want to come play for UT.
I am as much of a Tennessee fan as anyone. I am disappointed with an 8-4 season also. We had some close games that could have gone either way. But, people seem to forget where we came from. When Butch came, we had little talent, no leadership and the team didn't have a competitive bone in their body. Under Dooley, if we were down by 10 points the team gave up and had their heads down. This team fought back when down against good teams.
If pre-season, we were told that Maybin, Sutton, Kirkland, McKenzie, Tuttle, O'Brien, Hurd and others would be out for most or some of the season, we wouldn't have expected to be SEC East Champs. We wouldn't have expected to beat Florida , Georgia or go into double OT at A&M considering A&M turned out to be pretty good with Trevor Knight.
Maybe you wished we had hired Charlie Strong instead of Butch. How would that have turned out? If you think he would have done any better at the real UT than Texas, you are kidding yourself. We are better off with Butch than if we had Strong.
I'm not saying that our D looked good the past games. It was a combination of things. One not having enough DT to field a D line. Our D showed for one thing a lack of depth when our starters were out. We clearly shouldn't give up the yards that we did in the second half of the season. Hopefully Shoop is as good as everyone thought when he was hired and can get it fixed.
We had a top 10 team when everyone was healthy pre-season. I believe our record would be better if everyone was healthy for the season. But that wasn't the case. It shows we need more depth so we can reload. We aren't there yet.
Everyone wants to see the team continue to improve. How about instead of complain about the coach for all the recruits to see, show some support so recruits see a supportive fan base that they might want to come play for and we can get to where we can reload. Or we can complain and let the recruits see all the negative comments and wonder why they would want to come play for UT.
