Part II: Hello from Big Orange Country

[shieldpacal]

I think this games hinges on what Tennessee does on offense. If they want to line it up and run it down our throat, they can unfortunately. However, I suspect they will want to have the entire offense flowing as they prepare for their second week opponent so I don't think they will run it on us exclusively until they had to.

So I'm hoping for some week one growing pains with the receivers and quarterback that will allow us to get off the field and/or create some turnovers in the first half. If this happens we have a chance.

They have a talented defense that will cause problems but we have a talented offense with a ton of experience.

Of course it's all speculation and most of us hope for the best as would a Volunteer fan.

The problem with Tennessee last year was that we actually had a hard time initiating a sustained running game. That was probably a function of our young and inexperienced offensive line. But our main running back (Hurd) was also young and just beginning to learn college level offensive schemes. Our other running backs were (to be quite plain about it) inconsistent, unreliable, and not very good. The hope is that Hurd will be better, the O-line will be better, and that Kamara, a former Alabama running back, will make the running game go this year. But like I said, the O-line is still a huge question mark, and our best players on that line are getting long-term injuries in practice. I am not sure what Butch Jones is doing in practice to make so many people get injured---wide receivers are banged up too. This was one of the biggest criticisms of Johnny Majors when he was the Head Coach at Tennessee. He would practice players to death for a big opponent, and on game day, a Civil War amputee's convention would show up to play the game. I remember fans being really upset about that. Do you guys ever see some version of that happening in practice at BGSU?

[kdog27]

Well I hope your running game sucks

Still I've seen it enough to know over the years that this is where we are easily beaten in games like this. A team with a much more athletic and physical line just absolutely wears us down by the second half and does what they want.

[OhioVol]

Afternoon y'all. Thought I may just stop by to give another view on my Vols. While shieldpacal did a good job for the most part, he may have over/under stated some parts of the team.

Aaron Medley was the PK last year as a true freshman, and went 20-27 on FG, and 42-43 on xpt (just a little bit better than hitting the farm). The punting will be handled by a new face this year between a Fr, RsSo, and RsSr transfer from Maryland. As far as I'm aware, there hasn't been a decision made yet.

While UT, like any team, could give up a big return on ST last year they were 11th in punt return defense, and 23rd in kick return defense in FBS.

As shield stated, the TE should be one of the go to receivers for Dobbs this season, but the TE position is inexperienced after starter Ethan Wolf and Alex Ellis.

The RB situation for the Vols is interesting as well. Jalen Hurd is big for a RB these days at 6'4" 240, but after him the only RB to have seen the field in the FBS is Ralph David Abernathy IV. Alvin Kamara is a transfer from Alabama via Hutchinson CC. From all accounts he is extremely talented, but hasn't played a FBS game yet.

Hoping for an injury free game for both teams.

[shieldpacal]

Sorry OhioVol. I just remember when George "Bad News" Cafego was the kicking coach---like forever. I tend to judge our kickers by the Fuad Reviez and Jeff Hall perceptive standard. You know---one missed extra point out of 311 is a disaster. One missed field goal out of 90 is a disaster. Yes, being something of a perfectionist myself, I guess I tend to judge as "questionable" or "wanting" what most other people would judge as pretty good. My apologies to you and the BGSU folks. Still, I thought mine was a pretty good overall rundown too---not too far off base.

[shieldpacal]

Hey---just for fun. Tennessee almost always does a well-known, single play as its first offensive play of the game. The ball is centered, the QB takes a quick step back, throws the ball to a receiver standing behind the line of scrimmage on the far left or right side near the out-of-bounds line. Receiver catches ball and gets immediately creamed by the opposing defense---lose a yard or two. My son and I look at each other and say, "Not that play again!!! That play never works." And it rarely ever does work. I think the offensive coaches for the past two seasons have seen it as just a conventional opening move to see how the defense is lining up. It is probably kind of like playing chess against a new person, you have the first move, and so you just shrug and do something decidedly unspectacular---like move a pawn forward just one square. With a new Offensive Coordinator, that might be gone from the Tennessee playbook as a first move now. If not, feel free to join us in unison by saying: "Not that play again!!! That play never works."

However, on a more ominous note, Butch Jones likes to include 2 or 3 trick plays in just about every game---something you would have never caught Johnny Majors or Phillip Fulmer doing---conservative to the bone---sometimes too conservative. I expect to see a couple of those in the BGSU game. Two of our wide receivers came to Tennessee as top quarterback prospects and got moved to wide receiver. One thing Butch Jones likes to do is let the QB take the snap, a wide receiver drops back rather than doing a route downfield. The QB gets the ball quickly into the hands of the receiver and the receiver (who was formerly a QB) throws a 50 yard bomb downfield for a catch---or a touchdown. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. But the BGSU defense needs to be alert for these trick plays.

[OhioVol]

Sorry OhioVol. I just remember when George "Bad News" Cafego was the kicking coach---like forever. I tend to judge our kickers by the Fuad Reviez and Jeff Hall perceptive standard. You know---one missed extra point out of 311 is a disaster. One missed field goal out of 90 is a disaster. Yes, being something of a perfectionist myself, I guess I tend to judge as "questionable" or "wanting" what most other people would judge as pretty good. My apologies to you and the BGSU folks. Still, I thought mine was a pretty good overall rundown too---not too far off base.

Your rundown was pretty good, I just wanted to include some current names. Jeff Hall was one of my favorite Vols.

I am curious to hear what falcon fans thought of the claw-fense.

[factman]

It was pretty darn good after it got established and found a good QB, good enough to win a MAC championship. You guys don't have much patience!

[OhioVol]

Patience definitely isn't a common trait in our fan base. It didn't do him and favors to try and replace a coach like Cutcliffe.

[shieldpacal]

It was pretty darn good after it got established and found a good QB, good enough to win a MAC championship. You guys don't have much patience!

You are right on the money there factman---and I think that works against Tennessee too. In retrospect, it was probably wrong to fire Fulmer like we did. Although I will have to say, just my opinion, that a Fulmer without a Cutcliffe was a lesser Fulmer. Those two guys together had some sort of transcending synergism that neither of them could ever have had as an individual. People can say that Fulmer was old, too fat, lazying back on his laurels, or whatever. But I sometimes feel that Fulmer's biggest and most insurmountable problem--perhaps his only problem---was simply the loss of Cutcliffe at his side---and that ended everything.

We are too impatient. It takes time to do good recruiting and turn a bad team into a good one. I think Tennessee fans need to understand that, and I hope they will give Butch Jones 7 or 8 years of trying like they did with Johnny Majors. And yeah. Word does get around fast. Michigan, Southern Cal, and Ohio State get big name replacement coaches fairly easily. Tennessee has the same time depth and equal football traditions. But no big names come in falling all over each other wanting to be our new coach. Why? Well, the pay might have something to do with it. However, I think most of the big-time college coaches know that Tennessee fans are impatient and a little bit insane. You know. "You go 12-0 your first season here, or we are going to have your head on a platter." Its really like that to a large degree on the conservative talk radio stations in the Knoxville area when they do a local sports call-in show on Tennessee football. People scream for blood. And some unknown fan really did pay the bill and sent a huge moving van to Coach Bill Battle's house in the 1970s. We need to clean up our act on stuff like that and be more patient as fans. As every really good craftsman knows, a quality job takes some time. Good point!!!

Is Clawson still at BGSU or did he move on? I do not keep up with coach fortunes and their assorted travels from one school to another.

[Flipper]

Clawson always struck me as being a meticulous coach with the patience to adhere to multi-year plan. You get the sense that a lot of early success would have been as unnerving to him.... if not more so..... than a lack of success if the plan assumed a lean year or two.

I don't think his value as a coach was truly appreciated until the last five weeks of his time here.

[footballguy51]

Clawson has since taken his talents to Wake Forest. Some people felt he played boring football and weren't disappointed in seeing him go, but I missed the hard nose football we played with him. That defense was a thing of beauty, and once the offense came into form it earned us a MAC title. As long as Wake is patient, they may have the dominant defense of the ACC in a couple years.

[factman]

I believe OhioVol was referring to his offense while he was the OC at Tenn, although "Clawfense" would be a great name for a defense.

[OhioVol]

I was referring to his offense, and never realized that he was known for his defense when he was at BG.

[Schadenfreude]

I don't think his value as a coach was truly appreciated until the last five weeks of his time here.

And I do wonder if the Falcons would have repeated as MAC champions had Clawson stayed another year.

(I'm not in the anti-Babers camp at all, but the Falcons were in transition in all kinds of ways last year.)

[jpfalcon09]

I was referring to his offense, and never realized that he was known for his defense when he was at BG.

I truly believe Clawson was never meant to be a coordinator in any capacity. He demonstrated at the FCS level (and eventually at BGSU) that his comfort zone was that of a head coach, where he had some control over who gets recruited where and the implementation of schemes. I think he was in a tough situation at Tennessee and honestly wasn't given much of a fair chance and became the whipping boy for the team's struggles.

He had top-20 defenses his last two seasons at BG. I believe in 2013, BG went something like almost 9 games before allowing a made field goal. He made the defense a strong point so when the offense came around, the total team would click. We saw that in the MAC Championship game when the team put up 47 on NIU and largely shut down Jordan Lynch.

He did a lot to repair this program by instilling pride, discipline and accountability in the players. While some will say he played boring football, he knew what his team's strengths were and tailored his game plans to that. He made second half adjustments, something the coach proceeding him had no knowledge of doing.