When are we going to catch a break here? You could argue that Tennessee lost their best play maker officially yesterday when Pig Howard's departure from UT became official. It's a real body blow to this fan base in a week that's already been way too drama filled. It's really a damn shame.
Could it be more ironic that the Pig Howard charade finally ended yesterday when Butch Jones suddenly announced his departure from the football team? I believe Howard has been able to play for sometime but decided he wasn't about it any longer. I realize he had some issues but I believe that Howard wasn't quick enough in coming back and Tennessee finally lost patience with him. I would call it a mutual deal.
It's a shame Howard leaves on GA week because his heroic effort as a sophomore was lost in the shuffle of the young Vols balling out and coming very close to beating the Dawgs two years ago in Neyland Stadium. I think it's the best loss of the Butch Jones era. The Vols that day were loose, prepared, focused and fun to watch. Where has that style of football been under Butch Jones in games of consequence? He coached that game like a riverboat gambler. Where has this gone? I don't know why but I feel like UT has a real chance to upset the Dawgs on Saturday. Am I the only one?
We were looking at the video of Georgia last night and I must say that they are beatable. Play makers must make plays for the Vols on both sides of the line of scrimmage if they're to emerge victorious. Tennessee is going to have to negotiate against 12 personnel. Georgia will show the Vols 2 tight ends and attempt to run out of that power formation. If Tennessee doesn't take better pursuit angles, it's going to be a long night for the Vols. We expect that Tennessee will buckle up on defense and play better. Our belief last night in reviewing UT/Arkansas is that Tennessee had a serious hangover from the Florida game. I think we can all relate to that.
We've established that Tennessee will be without Howard for the rest of the season so who steps up? Can Jones and Co loosen the reigns of the offense? Will Tennessee get a spot to get Dormady in the game? It's past time to loosen up the offense. Let the kids have some fun. What does UT have to lose? It's now or never.
I'm not a psychologist but that quote from Butch Jones yesterday is all time. I get People that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I think we all understand that. Butch said 'People in glass houses get dressed in the basement.' And then he went on to say 'And I don't have a basement.' What does that mean? One thing is for sure, NOBODY at UT will go to this guy and ask him to please shut up. He makes it so much worse for himself at these press gatherings. Fans don't want to hear how the team is getting better. Whether it's fair or not, when you're in year 3 and you haven't won a game of consequence, most people don't want to hear about how you're close. I feel Butch's pain and I get what he's saying. In fact, I agree with it.
Look, I'm not with the Vol Colonel. I'm not a fire Butch Jones guy. I will say I'm concerned about his long-term viability as a head coach here. I see some serious cracks appearing in his foundation. He needs a win. We need a win. It's time to get a win. Can we at least have one signature moment from 2015 to savor around here? The opportunities for this are running out. Put it this way. Georgia, or Bama would be signature wins and NOTHING else left on the schedule would represent anything of the sort. Mark Richt has been good for a turd a year. Georgia is very capable of losing this game.
This is a tweet from John Lloyd. He punted for Butch Jones at Cincy. He's not impressed. In fact, he' s piling on. People are going to come out of the woodwork on him.
Pirates have no chance for a comeback unless Butch Jones takes over as Cubs manager after halftime
News Sentinel purchased by Gannett. That's bad news for a lot of local folks. Hope people don't lose jobs. Gannett is infamous for cost cutting and doing it on the cheap.
Stand With The Tony Basilio Show
Join the T Club
Progress Toward Goal
55%
Make a One-Time Donation
Send Us A T-Mail. Click Here.
Send a T-Mail
Click to subscribe on Apple Podcasts
The King Returns:
'Musings From the Throne (Which throne? You decide.)
How does it feel to be 2-3 and staring straight down the barrel of 2-5? It is a dark cloud over the collective UT fan base, and it is even worse for the UT players. They are giving their all and their respective college careers for UT, and are being short-changed by the coaching staff. The coaches on the other hand will never be short-changed because they are all overpaid for what they do in general, and especially for the results they are producing right now.
Let’s dispel several of the prevailing thoughts about this team:
The first one is that this team is too young to win now and we all need to be patient and wait for them to get older. If we wait any longer, our better players will either leave for the NFL or graduate. It is ridiculous to say we are too young, as there are underclassmen all over college football playing important roles for their teams. Florida and other well-coached teams are showing that you can win immediately with younger players at key positions.
Another popular theme is to blame it on the offensive line, which has been a convenient thing to do for too many years. I would argue that the scheme is more of the problem than the players. UT should go back to a drive-blocking, straight ahead scheme that allows our running backs to run downhill and create opportunities.
The line is better than they are given credit for and could be even better if our quarterback took better drops and was not restricted by the coaching staff.
Dobbs needs to be pulled. This is not the case, but Dormady does need to play to allow us to stretch the defense keep them honest, and give us an effective change of pace.
Now we can move on to the Georgia game. This will be a tough game for us to win if Georgia gets the running game on track early and often. If they do, our offense will have to score at least 31 points to win. Based on what we have seen thus far, that will be hard to do unless we do the same thing to them and run the ball down their throats. We have the ability to do this if our HC/OC will just do it. I believe we will have to make the hard choice to stack the line of scrimmage and force Georgia to beat us through the air. Then it will be 50/50 whether we can get the pass rush/sacks and the coverage we need to expose their quarterback play.
Special teams, with the exception of field goals, should give us an edge and be a difference- maker. We can negate our FG issue by better play-calling that results in scoring touchdowns. Coach Jones has to keep himself from calling plays to set up Medley and, instead, call plays that allow Hurd, Kamara and Dobbs to score TDs with their athletic ability. Who knows, we may even be able score a TD through the air.
Defensively, we have to stack the line of scrimmage and get better linebacker play. Translation, our linebackers need to make tackles that limit Georgia to short gains and set up down-and-distances that force Georgia to throw the ball. The problem with this is if we do not bring pressure on 3rd and long or Georgia continues the trend of opponents gaining big yardage on draw plays.
Finally, this is a pivotal game as a loss will pave the way for us to be 2-5 going into Lexington at the end of October. That will test the mindset and fortitude of our players and will continue to raise doubts about this coaching staff. Let’s hope we end Georgia’s run of success against the Vols and things get better both on and off the field.
'Tony - I've been all in on the obvious issues that have cost us these games lately. However, looking back at it there is another issue that gets a little discussion (relatively) but I'm wondering why it isn't discussed more often:
In 2 of the 3 losses (OK, FL) Aaron Medley has missed a FG that was definitely make-able and would have changed the outcome of the game. In the AR loss, he missed a very make-able FG that would've changed the approach to the last few minutes of the game.
Five games in, our FG record is 8-13 with only a single FG over 40 yards all season (45 yds vs. AR). From a percentage standpoint, that's 61.5% success and it ranks Medley at only # 80 in the nation.
That just straight up sucks. I could see it getting a pass if he were asked to make crazy long FGs that were outside of his range, but he's not being put in that situation much at all (he showed his leg strength on that last missed kick vs. FLA). I am inclined to think that if the coaching staff wasn't such a dumpster fire, this would be getting much more scrutiny.
Recap:
vs. BG: made only 1 of 3 (hit from 26 yards)
vs. OK: made 1 of 2 (hit from 19 yards, basically an XP)
vs. WC: made 2 of 2 with long of 31 yards
vs. FL: made 2 of 3 with long of 37, miss from 55 had PLENTY of leg (he kicked the crap out of that ball)
vs. AR: made 2 of 3 with long of 45, but doinked a chip shot
Now look at the three losses:
vs. OK went to OT where we lost. His early miss (plenty of leg but missed BADLY) would've later prevented OT and given us the win in regulation.
vs. FL down by 1 at end of game he had the game winner SLAMMED with a heckuva kick, but once again his line was off (wind may have contributed, but PLENTY of distance).
vs. AR that doink would've had us down 1 point late instead of trailing by 4, changing the late game strategy (using a different column on the Standard Football Chart of American Football) and giving us a much better chance to win.
Look I'm not saying Medley lost us these games, but in the OK and FL games he certainly had opportunities to win those games for us IN SPITE of the poor coaching by the Standard Football Chart.
I hope this is getting some attention from the coaching staff b/c anytime you have an opportunity to carry out a fundamental play that you have practiced a million times to win the game, but you fail at it, that certainly needs to be addressed. We all know Medley is a great kicker with a terrific future, but he's having issues that are pretty fundamental and need to be corrected ASAP, because this team is not good enough to miss golden opportunities to score and still win the big games. My fear is that the coaches are so caught up in everything else that they've just written down Aaron Medley's name and put it in their back pocket, which won't help anything.
Keep up the good work Tony. GO VOLS!
- Shoalcreekvol'
SCV: This season is torturously close to being special. Then again, we can't have nice things here. I'm convinced for now that we just can't. Maybe those kicks will get in there in the next couple of weeks.
'Been chewing on this for the last couple of days… Tony, have you ever tried to make “mamaw’s spaghetti?” Mamaw can write down that spaghetti recipe and give it to you. She can go into as great a detail as you could ever want. She could even swear on a stack of bibles that it’s the whole recipe and she has left NOTHING out of those written words… But you know and I know when you bite into that spaghetti, it’s not “HER” spaghetti. Why? Because you can’t deny that her spaghetti has her love in it.
Same reason when you go to the family reunion that there is never any doubt that uncle (fill in the blank) is going to be the man on the grille, EVERY TIME. Uncle (fill in the blank) brings his love of “meat craft” for his family to the soirée’ every time and no one wants a substitute in there.
There is a point in time… a magical, artistic, non-pinpointable point in time when mamaw’s love literally drops out of her heart and into the sauce pan. A point in time when lightning shoots out of Elidio's fingers and into that dough. A point in time when uncle (fill in the blank), the charcoal, the basting brush, and the cuts of meat become one. Magical ART is the result. Intangible, unquantifiable, instantaneous art.
Football, especially college football, for all of its strategy and statistics is an artistic endeavor. We as fans watch so that we can feel we are a part of the art that is created each Saturday. The very best parts of any particular game are artistry, not metrics. Underdogs winning, one handed catches, moving the pile, kick-off and punt returns, long field goals in a swirling wind, pick-sixes, individual effort against 2, 3 or more defenders… all of it, ART.
Football art also derives from love, and passion. But not rah, rah passion. I’m talking about a love and passion from another place. Each participant saying I am going to do MY THING right here, right now. It’s individual (I know, that word). It’s personal.
How else do you explain Les Miles? He’s a kook, but there is no denying he does it all his way and he has passion. And he’s successful. James Franklin was successful at Vandy, VANDY! Because he said I don’t care what Vandy is supposed to be… I’m doing this thing MY way. Spurger’s fun-n-gun? You can’t do that. Spurrier said, “watch me.” Fulmer’s love of Tennessee… sure, too slow and steady for some of us, but ultimately it made him a success.
Butch Jones, God love him, strikes me as a man with a recipe. He keeps reading and re-reading that recipe. Probably writes it down on a new, clean white sheet of paper every couple of days. He knows the recipe is good. (we keep telling him it sounds delicious) He has absolute, unshakeable faith that if he just sticks to the recipe it will come out great. Problem is without personal passion, without being genuine, you are just going to get a plate of noodles with sauce. You will never get mama’s spaghetti.
I don’t know where Year1Butch went. That guy seemed to bring a brand of “my way” to the game. But here in year 3 somehow none of us really seem to know who Butch is. I would IMPLORE HIM at this point to crumple up the recipe, rip up the script. In short stop hiding behind the harder than rocket science and brain surgery combined wizard of oz curtain.
Be you Butch. Stop following the recipe. It’s not working.
TZ, Memphis'
TZ: Great stuff! I love that! In fact my late great Uncle Bob made some amazing Italian chicken on the grille. It was amazing stuff. And nobody knew how he did it. You're reading my mind. I want year1Butch back for this week. Let's have some fun this week. He needs to unbutton those top two buttons and let his hair down. It's time for Butch to put his records on. Extra bonus points for using an Italian analogy. This goes a long way with me! Mucho Graze!!!
Tee Mail Returns!
865-544-VOLS -(8657)Call and leave a voice or text message!
It doesn't make much sense to play 162 games for it to come down to 9 innings of baseball. Cubs win 4-0 to win their first playoff game in 12 years. Go Cubs Go!!!
Although my Mets will defeat the Dodgers and will beat the Cards in the NLCS.
In the American League I like the Blue Jays over the Rangers while the Astros will beat the Royals in an upset.
Four great series of baseball! It wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit to see the Astros or even the Rangers win it all.
Friday night’s Iowa-UConn Final Four game had 14.2 million viewers. That’s more than any women’s college basketball game, ever. More than every 2023 NBA Finals game and more than every 2023 World Series game. ESPN has had the rights to NBA games since 2002. But the Final Four game between Iowa and UConn was the networks most-watched basketball game, men’s or women’s, pro or collegiate EVER.... [more]
Friday night’s Iowa-UConn Final Four game had 14.2 million viewers. That’s more than any women’s college basketball game, ever. More than every 2023 NBA Finals game and more than every 2023 World Series game. ESPN has had the rights to NBA games since 2002. But the Final Four game between Iowa and UConn was the networks most-watched basketball game, men’s or women’s, pro or collegiate EVER.... [more]
The Vols did what they were expected to do against UConn. There's not really much to say about that game. The game this Saturday in Columbia, Missouri will decide whether or not this season is a failure in my opinion. If they Vols lose, they are staring at 8-4 and probably the Gator Bowl. Maybe Reliaquest..... [more]
The Vols are coming back to Neyland Stadium and I am returning after a discretionary bye week. I'll be honest with you. This year it seems like I've been writing the same preview over and over because the formula to win has been the same pretty much every SEC game. I didn't want to sound like a broken record so I needed a bit of a break from that.
I'll start with some general observations..... [more]
FISH Hospitality Pantries (a.k.a. Hospitality Pantries, Inc.) operates four pantries
in East, South, Northwest and West Knoxville. They currently provide food to approximately 8,000 families every month.
FISH focuses on what more can be done to help ensure that everyone gets enough to eat.
Get the Droid App!
Share This Blog
