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Joel:
Hey, look, it’s the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast episode one fifty five. We are back from an undisclosed remote location where we were undergoing therapy and rehab after drinking too much whiskey and smoking too much crack. All of which was understandable because of the Vols two consecutive losses to open the season and because my wife and kids and pastor are all probably listening. I’m kidding. I didn’t smoke any crack anyway. I’m Will Shelton. Kidding again. I’m Joel Hollingsworth. I’m joined by Will Shelton. Will, did you spend any time in rehab over the past couple of weeks?

Will:
No. You know, we did one of these after the Georgia state game, and then a number of circumstances prevented us from doing what, after BYU? Was it like I was at the BYU game? I wasn’t at the Georgia state game. So I’m 100 percent convinced. If I was at both, I would definitely think Georgia State was worse than BYU. That obviously not a great way to go there at the end of regulation and a weird day we read about this weird not only for the unlikelihood of that last play, but also just man Tennessee control that game the whole time. I mean, you never once you saw they showed up to play. Never really thought they’d lose. And so I eat our nature of podcasting or not podcasting and suggests that we like felt worse after BYU. I still felt a little better. Was that year. Was that your take, too?

Joel:
I did feel better. Yes, I thought. I think Georgia State was a fluke. I think what happened there was that they their mistake was not taking them seriously and thinking it was a pre-season game and thinking, hey, we need to we need to use this as a scrimmage and figure out about ourselves and oh, no, it’s the fourth quarter and we’re about to lose and it’s too late. I think that’s what happened there. And I think who are we? We’re not we’re not the team that played Georgia State. We’re not the team that played UTC. But I think we might just be the team that played BYU, which is sort of a cusp B. Top 25 or have a chance against the top 20 to top 25 teams. I’m thinking that’s kind of where we’re at right now.

Will:
Yeah, they were you. I watched a lot of that USC game, like a lot of people hopefully hoping that they looked great and they did win. They offensively they had a lot more purpose against the Trojans than they did against Tennessee. And I’m hopeful that Tennessee’s defense was part of taking them out of that purpose, because like we said, I mean, they just Tennessee control that game from start to finish. And nothing that BYU use offense did in regulation was particularly frightening. They should get credit for a couple of great calls. They dialed up those reverse and around calls at the at the perfect time in regulation and in overtime. And kudos to those guys for that. But then is USC, they really looked like their offense had some purpose. So if you are if you want to lean optimistic about this thing, then maybe, Joel, what you’re saying is exactly right. Tennessee just didn’t show up at all against Georgia State. Certainly some of that was alignment. That’s what we were hoping two weeks ago. Turns out that was some of that, at least was the case when they get lined up. Right. They don’t have to give up four yards a carry to everybody. And you know that Tennessee’s defense looks better when Bertucci is on the field. We might get to find out if they look better. Bryce Thompson is on the field. No one’s exactly sure what’s going to happen there still. But yeah, I I feel better about the whole of of things. And I’m not sure if Tennessee beat Georgia State, you know, thirty eight to thirty seven and then they beat BYU 16 to 13 or whatever that was. I’m not sure. Like week to week in terms of Tennessee’s chances against the Gators on Saturday, I’m not sure I’d feel a whole lot different than where we are with Tennessee losing both of those games.

Joel:
I think that’s right. Yeah. And just to clarify, I was not, you know, wallowing in addiction or anything like that or I will also wasn’t just you know, it wasn’t we didn’t we didn’t have the we didn’t forego the podcast just because we were upset about football, that we had stuff going on. I got sick

Will:
Brett?

Joel:
For like always nasty sick. It was it was I don’t hope anybody ever gets that sick. It was nasty. Anyway, moving on. So the real season actually, I think begins now. The Vols head into the thicket of the SCC schedule. They get the gators this Saturday at noon on ESPN and then they get a week off before a gauntlet of get out my trusty magazine here. I did a smart thing this time. I actually put the schedule on the first page, so I didn’t have to look for it every time now. So, yeah. So we got Georgia in Knoxville and then Mississippi State and Knoxville. They go to Alabama, then they get South Carolina in Knoxville. A little bit of a breather, maybe hopefully against UAB for homecoming in Knoxville. And then they finish the gauntlet with a trip to Lexington to play Kentucky. So that’s that’s the gauntlet. But first up is, is Florida. And, you know, here’s the thing. They don’t look great, you know, but here’s the other thing. We always think that and then and then they gang up with the weirdness and they put a whopping on us. You know, I know we have 2016. Right. And, you know, I’m happy for that. I’m glad we have it. But it’s like one twelfth of our memories of, you know, of our recent memories. It’s like a it’s like a Boston cream, a single Boston cream and a box of like maple cake donuts. You know, no offense to maple cake doughnut lovers, but those things are terrible. You know, I do. Do you like maple cake? Doughnuts? You’re what? They’re probably your wife’s,

Will:
No.

Joel:
Like, specialty or something

Will:
No.

Joel:
That said

Will:
My

Joel:
That.

Will:
Wife does not do donuts, so you’re safe on that. No.

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
But I also am not a fan at all. Boston Cream. So I really wasn’t sure where you were going with that.

Joel:
Boston cream is like the best what? So. Okay, well, what is your what’s your favorite? What’s your Florida 2016 donut? And then what’s your. I hate Florida. Don’t it fills up the rest of the box.

Will:
Well, see, the Florida 2016 donut is the donut that you eat and you enjoy it so much and then you hate yourself the next day because of the rest of the donuts that were in the 2016 box after that, what the Hail Mary donut the next week. So

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
That’s that’s a good. So I feel like I can’t use my my my favorite favorite doughnut is a Krispy Kreme seasonally sometimes puts out a key lime donut,

Joel:
Oh,

Will:
Which

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Is one of the things that I’ve ever put in my mouth.

Joel:
You know,

Will:
So

Joel:
I’m sorry,

Will:
That’s

Joel:
But now

Will:
A.

Joel:
That now that I versus I think if we had this same conversation, my so stuck on doughnuts that I’ve asked you this question before.

Will:
Well, it could just be that I’m increasingly excited to talk about key lime, because

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
It’s also my wife who is a professional cake decorator, like she makes a key lime cupcake. That is also one of the best things I’ve ever put my mouth. So it’s probably just me talking, talking about key lime a lot. So

Joel:
Ok.

Will:
It would it would not be that it would be the like where you sometimes I feel like when you’re getting doughnuts that you can get to Krispy Kreme and places of that nature. You get to exotic and you get to doughnuts that have too many things going on and they’re too rich and filling in, like, say, you eat one. As was the case in 2016, you get the big battle of Bristol Donut like the big donut that you had before. And then you eat two other really good doughnuts and then you should stop right there and don’t eat anything else out of that box. But then you do you hate yourself for the next roughly three hundred and sixty five days. So that’s that’s that’s my take on that.

Joel:
So do you not have like a doughnut, you just will not eat because they’re so nasty?

Will:
I mean, they would have to be really weird. Krispy Kreme also made a. Oh, what’s the E? The peeps made a peeps doughnuts.

Joel:
Oh, okay. That’s.

Will:
So I won’t eat peeps, period. So that’s just that’s just by nature and proximity to a peep.

Joel:
So don’t tell me that you like cake donuts, because to me like cake donuts, they’re not really donuts. They’re not really cake. They’re like bagels. That, you know, a month before the high school reunion are trying to be doughnuts, you know. But they’re not quite getting there. So,

Will:
It’s a good analogy, too,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I enjoy. If it is Sunday morning before church or after worship in the little coffee and doughnuts section that all good Jesus loving churches have. I do enjoy like a cake doughnut hole in that situation

Joel:
Ok. All right.

Will:
Where it’s something light and all that. But I know, but the place that I eat, Krispy Kreme is when I’m on vacation at the beach. If I’m at the beach, I’m not purchasing any cake donuts. I’m going for the shit. You should eat two or three and then stop situation. There is no cake donuts in that box.

Joel:
I got an image of you sitting on the beach. Your pale white skin getting sunburned with a box full of donut holes.

Will:
Yet you and also the other rule about that is don’t eat donuts on the beach. Man, eat him. Eat him on the on the balcony of your hotel room. That’s just that’s a that’s a private moment with you and the donuts.

Joel:
All right. So let’s talk about Florida. So did you watch the Kentucky game?

Will:
I did. I watched it in full.

Joel:
Ok, first first thoughts when Philippe Franks went down.

Will:
Well, first thought was, man. That is a terrible. And, you know, it’s bad when they don’t go back and show it again. So my first thought was, I feel really bad for that kid even. And especially I mean, he’s done terrible things to Tennessee in 2017 and it certainly was an accomplice to Tennessee doing terrible things to itself last year in this game. But yeah, I felt terrible for him. My next thought was Emory Jones, and then we didn’t see him at all. So this this Trask kid was. I had heard that story, you know, about him being a backup in high school or whatever. But I I had never seen him or not paid any attention to the little bit that he had played before. So when they didn’t play Emory Jones at all. And then this kid comes out and. Those guys did a great job play calling for him, because with Franks, regardless of the ways that we talk ourselves into things in this Tennessee Florida game, the week leading up to it, it’s not just his fans that put forth a defense around Franks that is basically described as weird. I mean, we talked about this on the podcast before the Georgia state game. We’re going to encourage you to do something dumb, right? Like

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
We’ll give you a 12:00 play drive. We bet you’ll do something dumb on plays 1 through 11:00. So that defense didn’t work with with Trask. You’re going to need to blitz that kid more often and make him uncomfortable. I thought he had some happy feet, but he certainly is also 6 5 with a rocket arm. So my bigger takeaway now is when Mullin comes out and says, well, we got game plans for both and we’re going to play both of them, you know, it’s working. I genuinely don’t know. Is he just making Tennessee prepare for two guys, one of which was much more highly rated than the other? Or is this just you know, is it actually going to be. Yeah, we’re going to come out and roll two quarterbacks against Tennessee. So I think everybody is a little curious about whether or not it’s going to be just Trask or if they really do have the 6 5 rocket arm kit or the more athletic option. That’s that’s also going to play against Tennessee.

Joel:
I wonder if it really matters that much with more, and it seems like Mullen’s going to do his thing regardless of who’s under center or in the shotgun.

Will:
It’s a good one. Yeah, good point.

Joel:
So it’s just a matter of, you know, which guy you’ve got to you’ve got to calibrate based on, you know, which guy can run faster or or whatever. I don’t know. We’ll find out. But here’s the thing. As you said, the defense or. Well, let me say this first. It seemed to me like Kentucky started playing different for some reason. I don’t know whether that was really the case or whether Trask was just more efficient or something. But regardless, he he’s seen he played better. You know, the team was better under him. And I don’t know why that that is. Sometimes I don’t know whether because I ask you this question. And just second. But we were well acquainted with the plague of backup quarterbacks. Right. We’ve got rotten memories of backup quarterbacks. And I don’t know what happens, whether whether the defense is like, oh, good, their best guy is out. We can coast from here, you know, or whether the teammates of the guy who just went out are like, oh, no, we better step it up and they start playing better. Or, you know, whether the I don’t know, whatever it might be. Something happens when a new guy comes in. Maybe it’s because your whole game plan goes out the window now because you’ve got somebody new back there. But what do you think it is working? Do you have any explanation for why it is that that sometimes when backup quarterbacks come in, you don’t get the result that you think you should get? Because what you should get is that, hey, the best guy is out. The second best guy is in. We should be able to make something of that.

Will:
I think the simplest answer for all the ways we want to dress it up is when it happens in the middle of the game. The defense didn’t prepare for it and an offense almost by default simplifies because you haven’t been giving the backup as much of the playbook and enough reps in practice and all that stuff. And sometimes if a team is struggling on offense, as the Gators were at that point in the game and struggling, you know, they missed the chip shop field goal at the end of the first half. They had some other things that were. They were part of that, I think. But simplifying the offense. They did lots of quick throws with Trask taking advantage maybe of a defense that by default wants to be more aggressive against the backup. That sort of thing. I think some of it is just that. And then you see the next week. Hopefully this case that when you’re getting a full 60 minutes with this guy and it’s not asking a defense to change on the fly, then they don’t look quite so hot. But intimacy has seen both sides of that historically against backup quarterbacks. But again, I think Florida can negate some of that if they’re going to play both guys, because then you would have the same situation with Emyr Jones where you’re dealing with having to change it up on defense and adapt if Mullin is going to design kind of two different things for these guys. I think, again, you have to hope that now that you’ve seen a quarter and some change against this guy in a live fire situation and you’re ready for it as opposed to trying to be ready for what Franks does then in Tennessee, hopefully won’t have as much of a problem as Kentucky at.

Joel:
So I alluded to this earlier, but Tennessee’s had some bad experiences with this before. So what are your worst memories of backup quarterbacks as a Tennessee fan? Go.

Will:
Well, Matt, Mark is right is number one.

Joel:
That’s

Will:
I mean,

Joel:
Got

Will:
That’s

Joel:
To be number one. Yeah.

Will:
That’s at the top of everybody’s list. I was at that game and I probably said on this podcast and I know in writing that I was I was 20 years old then and a student at USC and all that stuff in 2001. And my three friends that I went to that game that we’re talking about, how can we rent an RV that drive that drive to Pasadena? None of us is old enough to legally rent a car, all that stuff at halftime. I think we said forwards to each other on the drive back to Knoxville on a car. So

Joel:
All

Will:
That

Joel:
Profanities.

Will:
That one and. Yes. And just more coughing than

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Talking. And that that went to it happened in Tennessee at a time when Tennessee’s defense was so elite that it was it was just chugging in there. I always try to make a point to say when we’re talking about that game, sometimes you just fumble. There’s lots of little things you can pick apart. And certainly Tennessee wasn’t prepared. They they were ready for a road hand debut. They weren’t prepared for Mark being more elusive. But also their two best offensive skill players, Travis Stevens

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
And Donte Stallworth, fumble in the fourth quarter. It happens. It sucks. But sometimes it happens and it’s you in battle dropped an interception. You know, we don’t need to relive that game or that. So, Mark, as one. I think the Kentucky won the Dooley, Kentucky one is too. Just because that’s the other end of the spectrum where you’ve had a bad year. Kentucky is worse. And trotting out the let’s try a wide receiver at quarterback today and it works for the first time in three plus decades. So that one is is certainly on the list in terms of what cost Tennessee, Jake Bentley at South Carolina a couple of years ago where, you know, that wasn’t an endgame switch and neither was Kentucky with what was that kid’s name? Rourke. That was the the wide receiver starting quarterback.

Joel:
I’ve I’ve repressed all that.

Will:
Yeah. I don’t want to remember.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So no need to notify us if we got that wrong. But you know, Bentley in South Carolina, who’s you know. Oh, he is he’s supposed to be at his prom and all this other stuff.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
And here in South Carolina and Tennessee, off the bye week just with everything in front of him, that that game. I know that I didn’t ever write this. My grandmother died the day before that game. And, you know, I often joke like that would have killed her if she lived another day. Because I mean, that that thing I just remember being in a hotel in Covington, Tennessee, where my son was named after for my grandmother’s funeral and watching the end of that game and just thinking, what are you doing to me to say it like this? This is to stop eating the doughnuts. Right. That that game, by the way, again, not to dwell on the bad, but but doing those historic lines with Tennessee lost to Georgia State. That’s that’s like the fifth worst upset that Tennessee has suffered in the last 30 years. So we probably didn’t give that. There was no overreacting to that. Let me say that any any reaction to that loss and I was like, say, my grandmother died. I was kind of out of the immediacy of responding to it in blog form. But yeah, those weren’t over reactions. That was those are appropriate reactions for 14 and a half point underdog. So those are the three that stand out to me. Let me say this, like some of this angst we’re fans are of, we have fans of ages now that don’t weren’t alive when we were great.

Will:
It’s not their fault they weren’t alive. But there is this this is turning a little too jinxed for my taste because we mentioned the good tasting donut of the 2016 Florida game. That was a backup quarterback. That was Austin Appleby in that game who threw a delicious interception in the midst of that. That that fourth quarter run by Tennessee, where I’m telling my wife I’ve been waiting all day for him to make that throw. And sure enough, you know, he added anything. So you have to hope for things like that with Trask, too, that if you get into that kind of situation, like just he’s he’s going to have something, he’s gonna have a bad decision in him. And hopefully that is what shows up there. So not it doesn’t always go bad against the gators. And there’s a one from 2014 as well where the you know, you’re up nine to nothing and then you give him the short field and they put in the backup and he runs one play and gets a touchdown. I’ve forgotten that guy’s name, too, but yeah. Those those Mark and then the Kentucky one. And I think Nick Bentley would be three on on my list.

Joel:
All right, speaking of quarterbacks, no. Had kind of a rough start, like the team for the first couple of games and then really bad first throw on on his first throw and against UTC, but then went what was seven of eight. He finished, looked really good, like he found a groove. It was Chattanooga. So we’ll see. But how are you feeling about Karen Tano at this point?

Will:
I feel like I would take the 2018 version of him in a heartbeat. Right now.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
The version that we all attached ourselves to in the offseason, the will be better because he’s a year older and we’ll be better because working with Jim Chaney version at this point, I’m willing to let that go. And I would just take last year’s version because I’m unsure what’s going on here other than to say that again. And good grief. We should know better.

Joel:
Yep,

Will:
I should know better.

Joel:
I know what you’re gonna say.

Will:
Don’t assume that new offensive coordinator is gonna mean smooth sailing right away. Like we should know that by now. But yeah, that is clearly not the case. So I hope again, for his sake. Can we simplify? Can we do something different? But if you give me the guy where you say, you know, your job is don’t make mistakes and give us a chance and give our excellent wide receivers who Pruitt said this week or last week, I feel like I know what I got at wide receiver and I’m not sure about anywhere else. He’s right. I feel like I know what we’ve got a wide receiver, too. Let’s give those guys a chance. You can’t expect the Auburn game from last year is so strange in terms of what Tennessee did on third down. You can’t expect that every time, especially against good defenses like the Gators in theory have. But the quarterback, that is not. I don’t know if he’s pressing. I don’t know if he’s just not. If he’s overwhelmed with with the scheme or whatever the case may be. But I mean, his interceptions are bad interceptions. You know, they are they are bad, bad interceptions. So I would I will go back to the 2018 version of him if that was offered to me right now.

Joel:
Do you watch the the sports source TV show? I know. I know you don’t want to live. But

Will:
Yeah,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I’d watch it on YouTube. I usually click through and watch the highlights. That depends on what game it was and what happened. But yeah, I click through the segments where the descriptions are of interest to me.

Joel:
So did you see the one where they talked about David Evans story in the athletic about the UTC staff identifying some tells the offense and the defense?

Will:
I did not. Because I. Because it was Chattanooga. I have not. I have not taken the time to watch any of it this week.

Joel:
Ok. Did you read the article?

Will:
I think it’s.

Joel:
Ok. So just if anybody is listening, hasn’t seen it. The gist of it is that David Alvin of the Athletic, who is fantastic. If you are not subscribed to that site, you should.

Will:
Yes, whole, whole we agree. We don’t know that dude. I don’t get a dime from them. You should subscribe to that. Absolutely.

Joel:
Yep,

Will:
And it

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
Just it supports a model of writing about sports on the Internet that you will not be surprised to know that Joel and I are fans of and believe them. So, yes, subscribe to them.

Joel:
Yeah. So he was embedded with the UTC staff the week before the Tennessee game and was privy then to their scouting of Tennessee. And they identified some tells, which I guess is what you do when your game plan, right. I mean, this is this is unique to guys who’ve never been in a locker room, but maybe is not so surprising to people who have. But it was really interesting in some of the things were like that, like the one they talked about on the sports source show was that if you follow Austin Pope, you will find the ball because Austin Pope, they run behind him every single time.

Will:
As

Joel:
And.

Will:
Opposed to running behind Dominick Wood-Anderson. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. So follow. Number 81. And you will find the ball. So I mean, it’s pretty interesting if you’d if you watch against see that’s that’s what happened. But the whole time that they’re talking about this. Sterling Hinton, is it. No, they’re smiling. Right. And when pendants and finally gives the floor to him, he’s like, you know what? They if if if it’s working, you don’t change it. Right. So you just keep doing it as long as it’s not working. And then you go do your counters. It’s all a game theory, man. Right. Of course, I should have said it like sterling hidden, which is, you know, 20 decibels more in a higher pitch in a lot more interesting and inspirational, which I love that dude. But anyway. So anyway, the reason I bring that up is just. Are you worried about a team in FC s team figuring out what Jim Chaney is going to do before he does it? Or do you side with Sterling Hinton, which is saying don’t worry about it, man, because when it stops working, he’s got a wrinkle.

Will:
I would need to see more data

Joel:
Dr..

Will:
In general. I’m not worried about Jim Chaney. It would take a lot here. A lot going wrong. I think for four. Reasonable Tennessee fans just get off the Cheney bandwagon, given over who’s been and what he’s done. And just look at the personnel and some of the talent deficiency. He’s working with here. I think it falls in line with what we’ve already talked about, which is the lack of seriousness with which they took Georgia State, which absolutely falls on Pruitt. But, you know, some of that stuff is the bit in there about and Jesse Simonton and I think it’s pointed on Volk West has pointed this out, too, that, hey, when Tennessee’s receivers are not Marquez Callaway, Jauan Jennings or Palmer on the field, they’re gonna run. I figured that out. You know, just just watching, being at the game and seeing, OK, there’s Ramel Keyton and there’s Cedric Tillman. This is gonna be a run. And and more often than not, that’s been the case. The backup wide receivers are in. It’s gonna be a run again. That’s the sort of stuff that was BYU. That’s the sort of stuff that you can get away with against some of these other teams that you will get away with way less against a team like Florida.

Will:
But I’m hoping that those are that’s why I say any more data. I’m obviously I’m not pleased that they overlooked Georgia State to the degree that they did. But I’m also hopeful that they’ve got a different bag of tricks in store here for for what they’re gonna get against the gators and falls in line with. What they did last year. I mean, they. They they beat YouTube. They really dominated YouTube statistically, but only scored, whatever, 24 points last year. I mean, they were very vanilla and all they had because they didn’t want to show. And then they came out. It didn’t work, but they came out so hyper aggressive against the gators with a very different set of things. And then they went to even more different and newer things, some of which worked a little against Georgia and worked better against Auburn. So, yeah, I need I need more data. If we’re still talking about running behind Austin Pope in October, then we got a problem. But I’m not ready

Joel:
I

Will:
To go there yet.

Joel:
Don’t know if we’re running 300 yards a game behind Austin Pope,

Will:
You.

Joel:
I’d be OK

Will:
Yeah, sure.

Joel:
With that.

Will:
But

Joel:
Yeah,

Will:
A.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah. I just think that tendencies that are actually good things. I mean, how do you how do you spring a really, really good play? You set it up with tendencies and then you break the tendency when they’re not expecting it. So anyway, I just I just think it’s if that’s all you can do, that’s a problem. But if you’ve got other things that you can go to after you said set up the other team, then that’s fine. So against Florida, what what do you think is the what’s the number one thing that you think Tennessee needs to do to get the upset against gators Saturday?

Will:
I don’t know. I have been trying to figure that out. Other than. So there is an answer here. That’s the magical Garen Tanto plays better. Sure. That would be helpful. But besides that and the magical when the turnovers by three or more. Yeah. Also would be helpful. I’m curious about. They beat BYU to death with outside runs because Tennessee has way better athletes than BYU. On the edge. Not true. On Saturday. So can they? No. When in doubt is the first truth of Tennessee, Florida is a team that runs the ball best since to win. So is there a version of this running attack that does work when you’re not dealing with a speed advantage on the outside? I hope so. I think that would be interesting and I’m curious to see that. But I mean, honestly, we’re recording this here on Wednesday nights and I’m trying to figure out what to write about this game on Friday, because all of the angles I just don’t know with with backup quarterback at Florida. I don’t know. They looks better. Tennessee’s defense look better. Like I say with Bertucci in there, I get Bryce Thompson back. Is that going to make a big difference? I don’t know. There’s just a lot that I’m really unsure of. And and we talked about this a little in the Tennessee Florida history piece earlier this week. We had that stretch there of basically 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 of those cities. You really have the better team. They were favored in that stretch. They should have won 14, 15, 16, 17. And then last year. Now the gators go on to have a great season because of the time when that happened. They were just a team that lost to Kentucky and then waxed Tennessee. And that was obviously not a good feeling for anybody. But as it turned out, Florida ten win team top 10. Great job. Mullins, a good coach.

Joel:
Kentucky

Will:
All that stuff.

Joel:
Is also

Will:
But.

Joel:
Good.

Will:
Kentucky also good, as it turns

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Out. But the game itself. What am I supposed to take from I living in southwest Virginia? I have this conversation about the battle at Bristol all the time where Virginia Tech fans are kind of like, well, you know, and I say, hey, if you fumble it to a six times we’re supposed to beat, you look like that’s what’s supposed to happen and we’re supposed to beat you by multiple possessions, which is what happened. So, like, I’m I’m not talking trash or anything. I’m telling you, if you put it on the ground six times. Thank you. And we will probably anyone will probably take advantage of that situation. So I really what I said at the time to my if there are any of my hockey friends that are listening to this, I would like to see that game again. Tech, as it turns out, was pretty good that you’re two. And it was not a if you fumble it six times, it’s not a fair representation of who you are. Not a fair representation. Tennessee wasn’t a good football team last year, but the Florida game wasn’t a fair representation of who they were. If you I mean, again, the first 10 drives ended in something other than a punt or a touchdown. That’s so weird. So I don’t know. I just I’m not going back to this mode of Tennessee. Actually have a better team. No, of course they don’t. But how much better really was Florida than Tennessee last year? How much better is Florida with a backup quarterback right now than a Tennessee that lost Georgia state? I’ve got no idea. So I honestly. Do you have one Joe Doyle? Do you have a. Here’s what I think is most important other than the pixie dust for Garen Santo.

Joel:
I just think it’s turnovers.

Will:
Yeah. Which is I mean, that’s the underdog playbook, right?

Joel:
It’s the underdog playbook, and it’s just I again, I would like to see last year’s game again without the turnovers. What happens? You know, I think I heard Pruitt say in some presser earlier this season that he thought turnovers basically were four points. So that’s 24 points right there. You know, I just I I think if they play clean and force turnovers instead of giving them away, then then they’ve got a shot. And the problem is that the weirdness has never been wearing our colors in this thing. So I don’t know if we could figure out how to send him to the medical tent. Let’s do that.

Will:
Yeah. It’s so funny because even the it’s weird statistically, the 30 minutes of glory there in 2016, but that wasn’t weird. I mean, Tennessee just whipped him for about real time and I mean, nothing Joanne’s catch on the sideline. Obviously, the juggling was that was weird. But, you know, Taber, as we all know, was quite beat on that play. So, you know, the other times that Tennessee has has one in this series there, 2004, there’s weirdness obviously at the end with the the missed extra point and rightfully so. Some complain about the personal foul call that went against the gators and wasn’t offsetting. That was that was a big deal. Two thousand three tests. They just whipped them up front and won that game. Hail Mary was helpful, but it wasn’t the margin. Tennessee just really dominated them up front and won that game. A one anybody. I mean, classic game. I play that game ten times. Each side wins five great game 98 as he wins cause they get five turnovers. So yeah, I mean sometimes you’ve got to have you’ve got to have that stuff.

Joel:
That

Will:
But a

Joel:
I’m sorry,

Will:
Good.

Joel:
That those those I don’t I can’t remember all five turnovers in that 98 game, but I’m not sure those weren’t unforced errors. Those were Al Wilson.

Will:
Yeah. Yeah. I would say the only one. Deon Grant, the incredible individual play, the one the first one where Florida is going in to take a 7 and nothing lead. And that thing gets punched out at the goal line. Not not weird for the play. Just for what a huge I mean, you got to remember at that point in time, Tennessee hadn’t had a lead. Tennessee being a top 5 team for three or four years in a row and had a lead on Florida since halftime of three years earlier. So when those guys are getting ready to go up 7 or nothing and punch it in and Tennessee instead punches that out, that that felt like a that and then a long Sean Brown and run. I remember thinking this is not how this usually goes, you know? And we could use. There was one of those in the 15 game in the swamp that Jauan Jennings passed back to Josh Dobbs had

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
A feeling of this isn’t how this usually goes. So, yeah, we need one of those that

Joel:
Yeah,

Will:
Would that would be helpful.

Joel:
Well, not when I say the weirdness, it’s it’s like I have never seen that before and it really hurts.

Will:
Yep, yep.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
And Florida does to Tennessee what Tennessee used to do to Kentucky, which is why you think you’ve run out of ways to have your heart broken. But surprise. We’re going to block this kick in overtime and those turn it back for a touchdown and then beat you two overtimes later. So, yeah, I mean, that’s that’s that. That tends to be how that goes.

Joel:
Yeah. All right. So a freestyle, anything that I haven’t asked that you want to talk about. And if you can give it a rhythm and make it rhyme. Extra points.

Will:
Right. No, I think this it maybe I’ll read about this like the lost to BYU. It was freeing in a way that I think now there is no choice left but to embrace the reality of the situation, which you can do. We can argue about what rock bottom is. But the first step in recovery is admit that you have a problem that’s beyond your control. So I think there was a level of admit that’s. Whatever Georgia state actually revealed to BYU, the end of that game made you swallow it whole. So I just. All that to say this if Tennessee. The last time we beat these guys in 2016, it was almost a relief. Not the way the game itself played out. It was a thrilling surprise being down when we were down and then coming back in that game. But at kickoff, it’s like beating them would have been a relief. More than anything else. And it was a statement on whether or not Butch Jones can get it done and whether or not he’s back. And then obviously that was incorrect. After winning that game. But now, because of Tennessee being 1 and 2, because we’re not doing bowl math here yet, because we have no illusions about winning the east or anything like that. This really feels like a standalone. If Tizzy somehow finds a way to win this game, there’s kind of a freedom in being able to celebrate and appreciate it just for what it is and not having to tie it into.

Will:
What it was for former in terms of literally and figuratively, the game that made the difference between being a national champion and not being in that conversation and not in 2001. And for Butch Jones where it was. Is this going to. Is just going to work for you or not? There are duly in 2012 is just going to work for you or not. There’s there’s just a freedom in it to say, hey, look, if Tennessee wins this game, we still got lots of problems and we’re still probably going to be more likely to get to five wins than six. But man, it would be great. And there’s a bye week after that. It would be really great. And so I think it’s it would just kind of be a stand alone when where the larger than the largest narrative at play here is Tennessee is in bad shape. And we got a ways to go and we need to measure progress from the bottom and not to the top butts. So I don’t know. That strikes me as being different this week. The feel of it is it’s kind of untethered from everything else that’s happening in Tennessee is so big. This isn’t a prove anything. Game 4 Jeremy Pruitt. It’s it’s just an opportunity to go out there and beat your rival and we can celebrate it appropriately if that’s

Joel:
And

Will:
What happens.

Joel:
That’ll do it for this edition of the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast. We appreciate you tuning in. And hey, if you feel so inclined, we’d love for you to give us a rating and maybe leave us a review. Bonus points if you include the secret phrase maple cake donuts, we might even send you a box. It’ll be the same one we got back in 2012. But trust us, they taste exactly the same now as they did back then. So for Will Shelton Joel Hollingsworth. And this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast.

Will:
I think back to my the like 2010 and 11, where I was traveling back and forth to seminary in the fall as well, like I did, I did many of these in my car in a parking lot somewhere because my roommate was not like it just wasn’t worth trying to explain to these people that I was only seeing a couple days a week what was going on. I was like, I’m just gonna go to the car for like an hour. So.

Joel:
He spoke.

Will:
Yep, this is breaking the covenant of the seminary.

Joel:
So what do you think about the game? My machine says 10.

Will:
You know, how would we feel about 10? That’s that’s the thing of. That would cover the spread. You’d be like, OK.

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Joel:
This is the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast, episode 154. I am Joel Hollingsworth and I am once again joined tonight by my brother in arms. Will Shelton, Will anything interesting happen this weekend?

Will:
You know, when in doubt, go back to the thing that you are best at and the thing that we are best at is group therapy. So here. Here we are. This is a different kind of therapy, I think, than than we’ve encountered. I know people want to go back to the Wyoming game, but that was a whole other you know, the deed was really done at that point. When Tennessee lost to Wyoming in 2008. And so I was I was a sophomore in high school when Tennessee lost to Memphis in 1996. Joel, what were you doing in 1996?

Joel:
1996, I had just started Tennessee Law School.

Will:
Ok. So you were around. But.

Joel:
I was around that was just just getting the just, getting the buzz and the bug.

Will:
Yeah. Fun fact about that game, too. That was the first Tyson Holyfield fight was that night. Later that night when Tennessee lost to Memphis, not the ear biting one, but the first one, there was actually a really good fight. So anyway, that’s that’s how long you have to go back to find. I think anything like this. And yet it’s it feels familiar just because of everything else that’s happened over the last eleven years. So, you know, there’s there’s a small part in here where us and other folks should we should never, ever say again, we don’t need to talk Georgia State or, you know, let’s let’s give that the old one hundred percent in the. The expected win total machine butts. Yeah. This is a this is a different conversation than I thought we were gonna have today.

Joel:
Yeah. And so, you know, just for posterity so we can make sure we have the context for for the time that we’re going to, you know, 10 years from now, we’ll want to come back and listen to this, I’m sure.

Will:
Sure.

Joel:
Right. So, yeah, it was they kicked off their 20 19 season season of much anticipation. It’s Jeremy Pruitt’s second year at the helm. We’re hoping for and expecting that infamous year to bump or riding high from solid recruiting class. Fully. Highly talented dudes. They filled need. We’re feeling good about a couple of splash coordinator hires stealing Jim Chaney from Georgia, you know, helping us and hurting them at the same time. Woo! And luring Derek Ainsley from the NFL as Oakland Raiders. We’ve got a more manageable schedule. We can ease into it a little bit before the real challenges come. And then Saturday we lost to the Georgia state Panthers at home 38 to 30. And really, it wasn’t even that close. Was it?

Will:
Oh, no. You know, I don’t know for people that didn’t watch the game. If you just saw the score and we’re kind of like, oh yeah, it’s thirty eight twenty three until there’s literally two seconds left in the game. So. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. So, you know, it’s basically was kind of like the unexpected gut punch that killed Houdini? You remember that?

Will:
I do.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I was I was a fan and my my growing up day as I read lots of books about that. It’s a good metaphor for this.

Joel:
It was, although, you know, it

Will:
His

Joel:
Actually

Will:
Muscles, it was that.

Joel:
Is what’s a.

Will:
He didn’t tighten his muscles. I read that version of it in one story when the guy hit him, he wasn’t set like he hadn’t locked up his core yet or whatever.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah,

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah. That’s what killed Houdini. Although, you know, they say there really was it was appendix, so there was something wrong, bad, wrong inside anyway. And it just got irritated by the sucker punch, which, you know, there might be some similar metaphor there as well. But anyway, you know, basically it was not a good day is what we’re saying. Right. Saturday was not not a good day. But actually, before we get too deep into that, I wanted to ask you, what is it that you do after a disappointing game like that? And how do you spend the rest of your Saturday, what you do on Sunday, to sort of cope in a healthy, mature. What are you, 38 now? Forty something.

Will:
Almost almost 38. Yeah.

Joel:
Almost 38 in a in a 38 year old way.

Will:
Well, you know, most folks this is this. No, my my real job is a United Methodist pastor. So, you know, I have to. I have to do this in theory. Some of my most important work on Sunday mornings. So that part has been helpful for me. I’m going to pastor as long as I’ve been well, 10 days longer than I’ve been a blogger. And so I’ve always had that rhythm of church starts at the same time, no matter what happens. And let’s stop the line. I’ve heard Wilkerson use, John Ward use. You know, it’s bad. Saturday is of of the past. And so that has been helpful for me since 2006 in terms of perspective and things like that. I hope this is maturity and not just age, but, you know, I have on the one hand, my son is getting ready to turn to and so that is my wife. Six years ago when we got married at the start of the Butch Jones tenure and then Covington, my son. So it’s really helpful to have them around and have family around that you love and care about and can spend time with. The flip side of that is, man. I did. I laid awake last night and thought about, you know, how in trying to think of how long is this gonna go on like this thing that is such a big part of my my life and was such a big part of my childhood in part because I grew up at a really good time in Knoxville.

Will:
But, Mike, is this thing going to be here for my son? You know, is this if we have we mess this up so badly that when he comes of age here in five or six years, to really start knowing what’s going on, that it’s just not going to be saying it’s not the same as it was when I was growing up is is an understatement. You know, I’m worried about are people going to show up for these games anymore? You know, are we are we in a really bad way? So, you know, I think family helps. I quit watching. I didn’t watch a second of Auburn or Oregon. I just wasn’t interested in football anymore. Yesterday I did. I watched the Braves. Today, I did go back to watching sports today, but I haven’t said right. Right now, I’m watching Rogue One on mute on TV. Yes. And not watching Houston and and Oklahoma. So. And the game tomorrow is not very good. So I don’t I don’t know that I’ll go back to to to watching it until Thursday. So that’s just kind of get people around you who make your life better no matter what. Tennessee does is the best piece of advice I can give you. And, you know, most people work Monday through Friday. They don’t get to get up and do something that they love and are passionate about no matter what happens on Saturday. So in that sense, I’m very grateful for my job.

Joel:
So not to make you more depressed, but you mentioning is this still gonna be here for my kids? I have that window is closed for on two of my kids already. Yeah. I mean, it’s been. What do I don’t know how far you want to go back to 2008, 2005, two thousand three, whatever. But you know, I got one who’s 23 now and she doesn’t remember anything but pain on Saturdays for me. And I tried to take my now 17 year old. We went to games for a couple of years. There was a lot of fun. You know, I mean, you can always enjoy a Saturday afternoon, right? So it’s still cool. But, you know, there’s very few memories that she was she was at the Florida game with me that we won. That was cool. Georgia, I think we might have had a memory or two with Georgia at some point. South Carolina, but that’s pretty much it. You know? So, yeah, sorry to depress anymore, but it’s a very real possibility that, yes, he may not know your joy.

Will:
Well, I would say that my people who are my age, if you if you’re in your late thirties and you grew up a Tennessee fan and a Braves fan, like we are the worst, because I know that I know both schools only won the big prize only once. But you the expectation of. Excellence. Every I mean, the first year I remember was 1988 when Tennessee started the season 0 and 6 and then won five in a row. Then they won two S.E.C. championships back to back after that. So that like that really didn’t matter. And then you just go from there. The Braves, you had to wait a little longer on until nineteen ninety one. But I mean it just it has taken me and you could see reading us for a long time, you can see it in my writing like I mean it just took me a long time to get out of the how. How quickly can we get back. A lot of the stuff I feel like I wrote when Dooley was here was still holding on to the sense of, OK, we’re just a second away from being back to what it should be. And the realization that that’s not how it works. But I will say to in terms of that, I have been Alex, my wife. Her family’s a big baseball family.

Will:
But she really wasn’t into football, hadn’t been around it, that sort of stuff. And that first year, that first Butch Jones year, we were married. The thing that sold her was a game we lost. It was that smoky gray Georgia game that first won the pig Howard. And overtime just being there and being around a sense of what almost was. And the energy and the environment in that stadium that that really sold her. And, you know, we we weren’t there yesterday, thankfully, but we’re gonna be there Saturday for BYU. So, you know, it doesn’t have to be championship winning stuff to convince people who are otherwise, you know, uninitiated to really fall in love with it, man. It can’t be losing a Georgia state and it can’t be eighty five thousand people announced in the stands. I mean, that’s that’s that’s not it. And so that’s the that’s the thing I worry about. You don’t have to win championships, but it needs that sense of this will always be here. And it’s something that not just me, but lots and lots of people look forward to and I’m to and invest in it. You know, I think that’s worst case scenario thinking still. But that’s that’s definitely what I was thinking when I was lying in bed last night.

Joel:
You mentioned with with Dooley, you know, thinking, oh, you know, when it was how quickly you were going to be able to turn around, right. And actually that was you know, I started the store in 2011. So I was I was pretty convinced, you know, that we were just right around the corner. And, you know, it was weird. I knew that I was going to have some very strong and conflicting emotions this season, regardless of how things turned out. But I will admit at one point, yes, yesterday I was here Saturday. I was glad that I hadn’t again purchased another 20000 inventory to try to sell.

Will:
Yeah, I keep looking. You know, I’m like a lot of people, my Facebook feed gets filled with, you know, ads of Tennessee merchandise, whatever. And I looked at those ads a couple times today and I was like, where’s the on sale category? It should be. Don’t be trying to sell this to me at full price today. Facebook algorithm like you,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You’ve got to find some deals and send them by way. Today.

Joel:
Yeah. So how I generally spend my stuff is I kind of pretend that it’s circa 2001 and there’s no Internet. That’s the first thing I do is I don’t go on the Internet. After a game like that, I just I’ve found that it’s not helpful to me. But then, you know, I just you whatever your hobby is or your other other passions are, you know, I just I spend some time with that. I spend a lot of time on Saturdays just monitoring my little SPM machine to see how it’s doing against the spread on other games and stuff. You know, just because I’d like to do that. It’s like my gardening or my woodworking or whatever. You know, I like to automate stuff and play with stats and fiddle around with mysql and php and stuff. Kind of a geek that way. So but once my mind’s right to, I may watch a few other games, you know, although there is some risk to that, you know, because watching the Auburn Oregon game is like everything was twice as fast as the one I just watched, you know, against Tennessee. I don’t know if we just look slow in anyway, but then, you know, church on Sunday and then I console myself with naps and food on Sunday afternoon. Basically, the Vols are the reason I’m fat, so.

Will:
Yeah, lots lots of us are feeling that way. My wife gave me a cupcake out of her inventory

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Today and that feeling feeling bad for me. But

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
That’s something we’ve said for a long time. It’s not about getting off the Internet. Like you you you don’t have to follow those people on Twitter, you know, like you can work a mute and curate a reasonable list. It is just you don’t have to follow people who it’s in good business interests for them to make you mad

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
At and phantoms like you. That has been helpful for me. Just something that I learned slowly over the course of doing this, as long as we’ve all been suffering with it for 10 or 11 years of, you know, run after game is not the best time to try to convince people that things are gonna be OK. I’m not

Joel:
Okay.

Will:
Saying things are going to be OK.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You know, sitting here talking to you. So I don’t know. But, you know, don’t. Make your Twitter feed as healthy as you desire it to be. Is is one piece of advice I can give.

Joel:
Yes. And mine is to turn it off. That that’s my healthy Twitter feed right there. So anyway, let’s talk about the game now that I’ve had my nap and my cookies. So you’re your post right after the game was OK. Did we just see the worst loss ever? And if I read it right. Because, you know, to be honest, I read it, you know, kind of quickly because I just want to get it over with.

Will:
Sure.

Joel:
But so I think you said that in your opinion, the Memphis from. When was that ninety six or something. What

Will:
Yes,

Joel:
Was

Will:
A

Joel:
Worse?

Will:
Six.

Joel:
So remind me what happened in that and no. Why was that worse than yesterday?

Will:
So let me say, I think everybody understands we’re making this conversation like worst is relative to all this. Everyone still agrees. 2001 LSU is actually the worst. Full stop. Like that’s that’s the worst. It’s because of what you lost and what was on the line. But when we’re talking about worst upset allowed those those three games, Georgia State on Saturday, Memphis in 1996 and Wyoming in 2008. Those are all games that Tennessee was favored between twenty four and a half and twenty seven points. So they’re all that’s the right category for those games. Some are talking about North Texas from the 70s. That’s before my time. And I covers dot com is where I get that. That’s those historical line data points from. So that only goes back to 1985, Wyoming and 2008. Like I say, the deed is already done. Former stepped down the first part of that week, Tennessee, the clock since it struggled all year that, you know, still a strange game and a strange loss. But the deed was done at that point. So I think that one to me, even though that by Vegas standards is the winner at minus 27 for Tennessee. I just I just have a hard time believing that one could be perceived as worse. The Memphis loss in 96, Tennessee had lost to the Gators at the start of that year. Tennessee was ranked second, got down thirty five in nothing to Florida, then weirdly scored the next twenty nine points and only lost thirty five, 29 nine.

Will:
But they hadn’t lost again. They beat Alabama and Knoxville for the first time in 12 years. Twenty to thirteen on Jay Graham’s long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. And at that point, Tennessee was ranked somewhere between like five and eight. And the Gators. That’s the year Florida won the national championship. So there wasn’t really an opportunity to get in there behind Florida and make it to Atlanta. But you were still talking about the opportunity to play and in what back then was the Bowl Alliance, the pre BCSE So Tennessee could have gone to, say, the Orange Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl or something like that. And it was Memphis man. It’s still the only time Tennessee’s ever lost a Memphis Memphis state back in the back in the day. And so if you have both my parents are from Memphis. If you if you have personal connections there that made it so much worse. Memphis ran a kickoff back for a touchdown that had instant replay existed, would have been called back. Guy got flipped upside down and landed on his elbow and kept running. You know, he was down, but they didn’t call him down. And they went on it did that just an off game. Payton had a couple of interceptions. I think he couldn’t run the ball on them. And just one of those you like yesterday, the whole time, you thought this isn’t really going to happen.

Will:
And and then it did. Unlike 2008, Wyoming, where you had seen lots of bad things happen already that year, bad things, it only happened in Tennessee in 1996 against the Gators and and really not against anybody the last two years. You know, at that point, Tennessee ran through nineteen ninety five at eleven and won and then ran through 96 with only losing to Florida again and so sudden to lose to Memphis just just bad. The worst part about yesterday is that it was at home, that Memphis game was at Memphis. You know this this one was in style and again, I was not there Saturday. So if you were in the stadium and you stayed the whole time, which is not. Not many folks, you know. Like I said, you’re I think whatever answer you want on this, you’re allowed to have, because all three of those are in the same category, the Memphis one, because of rivalry and because of who Tennessee was at that point in time to lose a game when you’re favored by 26, that when that went to me. So at worst but also, I’m experiencing that one as a 15 year old and I’m experiencing this one as someone theoretically a little more mature. So I would still take Memphis, if you really want to have the argument. But if you want Saturday and if you are a little younger than me. Saturday, is it for you, man? Saturday is is the bottom.

Joel:
See, I think the thing that was worse about yesterday was not so much that it was home, but that it was the season opener. Right. I mean, and you wrote about this post that you put up Sunday that, you know, you spend so much time and effort over the summer just anticipating what is going to happen. And you build up all these hopes and dreams and then all of a sudden it’s just all gone. You know, I go back to this. If people then follow for a while, I wrote this thing back in. It was September 2nd, 2008. We had just hired Dave Clawson and his magical flip, you know, a lineman offense. You know, this was a super shiny thing. It was like a Christmas present, you know, where we were looking at it all summer, picking it up and shaking it. It made magical noises. And then and then we opened it up on September 2nd. And it was just pants. It was just another pair of pants. The same thing that we’d always gotten before. And and to be honest, this was this was 2008, right? And it’s two thousand nineteen. And we’ve gotten pants and socks every year. You know, I mean, every once in a while we get a nice three pack of underwear, you know. So it’s the worst part is just, man. You just build it up. And we were looking forward to all this stuff. And, you know, Cheney and Annesley in year two and in the in the in the recruiting, the five stars on the offensive line. And we knew that, OK, those guys were freshmen. You know, this is a new scheme. We get to learn some new stuff. But still, man, there’s nothing like anticipating something magical and getting a rock. You know, it’s just it’s it’s terrible yet. I think a Forest Gump mom was wrong. Life is not like a box of chocolates because you never really just bite into a piece of crap, you know? So

Will:
It’s

Joel:
Wish that’s what

Will:
Not

Joel:
Happened.

Will:
On a.

Joel:
All right. So anyway, what what exactly do you think went wrong? Saturday.

Will:
I think and this is the biggest. This is a big problem. I think Tennessee’s bad on defense and I think that because they were bad on defense last year. If you if you look at advanced numbers from last year, the S&P plus those kinds of things, the defense grades at worst offense. We spent a lot of time talking about Tyson Helton and some. So that deserved. Just unwillingness to run or to pass on first down for a lot of the year being conservative, those kinds of things. But the truth is, Tennessee got behind so quickly in it’s just some of its strength of schedule. But there were so many games where Tennessee just got behind early and we didn’t have time to note that this defense is just bad regularly. You don’t necessarily want to jump to that conclusion when you’re playing Georgia and Alabama. And good grief. West Virginia, I mean, a dynamite offense that Tennessee went up against the very first game of the year and against the Gators, which was really kind of the only other big talking point. Tennessee turned it over a billion times and you couldn’t really make any judgment fairly about the defense then. Then they go to Auburn and they force a bunch of turnovers and they got a big fourth down sack in the drives and they win. And that, I think, kind of let us feel like, OK. Like, you know, this defense is not really an issue. But, man, if you look at the end of this, South Carolina in particular, Tennessee just couldn’t stop those guys in the second half. I mean, just could not get off the field. And then Missouri and Vanderbilt at the end really exacerbated it. The teams you don’t have to be spectacular to beat this defense.

Will:
You don’t have to take that. It is very concerning that you don’t have to take big risks to beat this defense, that you can just line up and get four yards and then have second and six and get four more yards and then have third and two and get a first down. Georgia State, the best thing they did for Tennessee’s defense in the second half was take chances. You know, when they were throw an on on first down, that was great for Tennessee because then you get him in second eight and you have a chance to to be ahead of schedule. But, man, they just lined up and got whatever they want. And so some of what’s making the rounds today is a different conversation about just a stunning lack of alignment and all that stuff. But I have a concern that if Georgia State can do that to you, that even if you’re lined up better, even if you have Daniel Bertucci back and he’s trying to help set the defense from the inside linebacker spots, I have a concern that Tennessee is just they just don’t have the guys on the defensive line. I just don’t have them, especially without Emmitt Gooden. And if that’s the case, he’s going to try to score a lot of points on offense to win this year. And I’m worried that they have a head coach that doesn’t want to do that. It’s not in his nature. And that is is I think that’s what happened yesterday. And I’m worried because it happened against Georgia State. It’s just not going to be favored by 28 again, against an FBI team. So, you know, that’s a concern that this might just be a problem that we talk about all year.

Joel:
So we talked a lot during the Butch Jones era, which I don’t know why that phrase just makes me so tired.

Will:
It’s five years.

Joel:
But yeah. Well, we talked about him being a tweaker. Remember it? Remember all the conversations about tweaking, you know?

Will:
His dad’s a police officer. He doesn’t do big change.

Joel:
He

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Doesn’t do a big change

Will:
Oh, yeah.

Joel:
In that actually resonated with me. That’s kind of the way I am because I think one of the, you know, a big problem sometimes is is over correcting, you know, because I thought Bush could change. He could fix stuff when something was wrong. He is sometimes fixed it, but too often he would also break something in the process. And that was just because there’s there’s just too much going on. Anyway, so anyway. The reason I’m bringing this up is that. Pruitt only has one year as a head coach under his belt, and he made some major changes just after his first year. And it was widely heralded as as a wise move. And I think that largely it was I mean, basically it came down to this. He was he he looked himself in the mirror. OK. That’s good. He figured out that, you know what? I can’t I’m not a defensive coordinator anymore. I’m a head coach. And if I’m trying to actually coach the defense, then I have to ignore the offense or I have to do everything poorly. Because when you’re coaching the defense, you know, it’s not just calling the plays, making sure the guys are lined up, talking to the guys, you know, while they’re on the field. It’s also when they come off the field, you have a debriefing and instructions for the next set, for the next drive. Right. And so that means that you can’t spend any time on the on the offense. And of course, he probably thought, well, I can’t do that. So we spent some time on the offense and then he’s just doing poorly at defense. And so trying to do all that. He he came to the conclusion that he needed to delegate.

Joel:
And one of the things he did was he delegated the entire offense to Jim Chaney, which I think is a brilliant move. Cheney is a proven commodity, is really good. And I think that was just a there was a great move. But the other thing he did that I was I was kind of wondering about even over the summer, although I never mentioned it, was that he also gave up the defense and gave it to Ansley. Now, word is that Ansley is awesome. And maybe he is, but we don’t know, you know, and what we do know is that Pruitt is awesome at defense. And I think that his delegation of the defense to somebody who is maybe a younger version of him was possibly an overcorrection and that he probably or maybe should not have turned loose of the defense. Now, this is just a theory. At this point, it’s just one game is just Georgia state. But that’s the thing I’m going to be keeping my eye on, is whether or not that move turns out to be a real mistake. Not not because Ansley’s terrible, but because Pruitt can do it, should have done it already relieved himself of the offensive responsibilities. And now we got two new coordinators and there’s always a learning curve. Even if you’d you know it, even if it’s easy, you still have to get used to new personalities, some stuff. And there was a whole lot of change on that coaching roster. So anyway, that that’s one of the things that I’m going to be looking for. You have any thoughts on that? Am I crazy?

Will:
No. Well, listen, I don’t think anything is crazy right now. Truly, I mean, it is we need more data. We need a whole lot of these conversations. It’s not fair to ask anyone to push pause on anything they’re feeling right now because Tennessee just lost to Jordan State. But. Some of this. We need more data. And in that sense, it’s good. Tennessee is playing a real life team Saturday. Aside from the team that just beat them on

Joel:
Yes.

Will:
Yesterday.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
But yeah. So, I mean, we’ll get some more of these answers. I think a couple of things about that. I think we spent a lot of time talking last week and I spent a lot of time talking this summer about why did Tennessee run to your place in the country than any team last year? I think Pruitt has a bent to protect defense and to value defense. And one reason you don’t go fast on purpose is because you’re trying to slow the game down to keep your defense safe, to give the other team fewer opportunities, less time of possession, fewer snaps, that sort of stuff. When things were sunshiny and happy in the first half, I was celebrating the fact that Tennessee had a 16 play drives. That’s kind of awesome. But what’s not awesome? It’s not awesome if you’re trying to have a 16 play drives because of folks tell you man stuff goes wrong all the time,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Fumbles happen, penalties happen, that sort of stuff. You can’t bank on a 16 play drive. So it’s cool if it happens every once in a while because it’s unique and fun. And, you know, you flexed on these guys for basically the same way. Georgia State, Tennessee, a little later in the game with their own 16 play drives. But that that initial thing was disconcerting to me. Now, maybe they go hyper conservative early because they threw a fumble slash interception on the second play of the game. Maybe I can buy that. And they think it’s Georgia State. We can just do our thing and be fine. And it worked for those 16 plays. But now looking back at it, there’s a part of me that thinks again, are we. Is Tennessee trying to just take the air out of the ball to protect the defense that Pruitt knows and would know better than anybody isn’t very good? And wasn’t very good last year. And that’s not going to work. I mean, it’s just not going to work and it’s going to work. It’s not going to work in ways that are less fun than trying to score as many points as you possibly can because your defense is bad. And some of that gets back to the offensive line question of, you know, you want to take shots down field.

Will:
You have to trust the quarterback and the offensive line enough to pull that off. And I don’t know that anybody’s feeling super hot about Jerry Garen Santo or that offensive line after that performance on Saturday. So, yeah, I mean, you’ve still got the dudes at receiver. I think that’s nobody played better. No position group was better than those guys. But I don’t know that you have the rest of the pieces of that puzzle that you feel great about to say, hey, let’s just drop him back in shotgun or do seven step drops every time and take our chances going down seal. But they’re just not a if we’re right about this and the defense is just bad. There’s not a great solution to that. If you’re going to struggle to stop teams getting four yards on first down every single time, the best solution that I know of is you better outscore them. And again, there are some reasons that I think Tennessee might be hesitant to try to go that route. The Annesley thing is, is one, it’s a lesson for me and everybody else to never, ever say, oh, a new coordinator. But that’ll be fine. It’s just

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
It’s a big adjustment. Every time.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Every time. And so whether you’re bringing in, you know, Bob Shoop, who was a great defensive coordinator before and was coordinator of the year at Mississippi State last year, or you bring in Larry Scott, who’s never really done it before. But he was the interim coach in Miami. So that’ll probably be fine. Like, that’s one lesson I feel like I’m still learning is. Oh, yeah. Like this guy hasn’t really done this before. And that’s a big deal. I mean, that’s that’s the idea we’re going to do later. Like, what are the things you’re most afraid of? There there’s a part of me that’s like angelic maybe sucks. Like maybe he’s just airboat this. And anyways, having the personnel issues and the substitution interactions and that sort of stuff. I know it’s week one, but that was terrible and alarming and speaks to a lack of institutional control issue. So like Sanjay, all is Ainsley is terrible. On the one hand, it’s good news because you’ve got a head coach who is one of the best people in the free world, that being a defensive coordinator before he was Tennessee’s coach. But on the other hand, it just makes for a bad that micromanaging stuff. Even if it’s on the defensive, even if it’s on the side of the ball, he knows best. That’s just not ideal and not a great, great look there for Ainsley and in game one of his tenure.

Joel:
This is off topic, but I wanted to mention it just real quick that that corner blitz on the the sack and fumble, that was just an awesome call, I thought, because, you know, maybe Guarantano should have seen it, but it was an empty backfield. He had no back there to help protect him. It came from his blind side on the clear other side of the field. There’s no way that he could have seen him unless he actually, you know, purposely looked over there. So I just thought that was just a really good call. Bye bye, Georgia State. It’s just the right time, too, because we we’d been without any we’d been empty backfield for several plays in a row. So I thought that’s what they were thinking. But anyway. Yeah. This this. This is us thing that you mentioned. This is a great idea. I. I think I remember seeing this. I kind of quit watching that show. I don’t maybe I haven’t seen it in like a year or anything. But I do remember them saying at least one time, let’s say aloud the worst thing we’re thinking. And

Will:
Yes.

Joel:
That’s that terribly frightening. But let’s do it. So what what is the the worst thing that that you’re thinking right now? Well.

Will:
Here, here’s the sequence of worst things that I’m thinking. 1 And Ainsley is in way over his head and we have to deal with those issues of micromanaging and that sort of stuff. And I’m not sure where the resolution to that is coming. And if he’s in way over his head, you’re gonna have somebody else you have to buy out or reassign or something like that. The lack of. Man, I hate reading. Maybe David. David, Evan in the athletic or somebody else about Trey Smith begging people to show some pride and that sort of stuff. I am afraid of the prickly personality parts of Jeremy Pruitt that we kind of knew about before or we hired him are true and or worse than we thought. And people are not. Players are so beaten down from what they have been through the last X number of years. We’ve already seen them lay down once. They didn’t show up to fight in the week 1 opener. Are they going to bounce back from this? What if they don’t? Fans just stop coming after, you know. Tennessee loses to Florida and Georgia in embarrassing fashion. And this thing gets real bad. Then recruits have to figure out why they’ve committed to come to Tennessee when Tennessee goes, say, three and 9, which is a realistic possibility at this point in time. And then we’re left figuring out, do we bail on this? Do. After two years, we went three and nine or is all of this just going to happen again because you tried to start it over again? Do you give him a chance to. To do all that. Yeah. That’s that’s and. And my son grows up and never cares about football. That’s the word. That’s that’s the worst thing I’m thinking.

Joel:
Okay, so this sounded like a good idea. But I don’t like it.

Will:
Yeah, it’s usually hard to.

Joel:
So, yeah, I mean, yours yours are kind of. They’re like this season or maybe the next couple of seasons. Mine is more like Armageddon ish. You know, it’s like my biggest fear is that is never going to actually be any better. It’s been a long time. And and the reason for that is the thing that I’m scared about is that the reason for that might be that having the right perspective and the right priorities and the right values, all these things that I really desire to see in the guys, in the team and the program that those things are and will always be at odds with sort of achieving all of your wildest dreams of success. You know, honestly, if I had to make that trade, I’d make it and I’d be mostly glad about it. But man, do I hope that it’s possible to do both. You know.

Will:
Well, on that point, maybe it’s a little different cause it’s a different sport. But on that

Joel:
It’s

Will:
Point,

Joel:
Basketball.

Will:
I would say

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Barnes. Yeah, that’s good. And we’ve seen it’s you know, we’ve seen that go to different ways. I think I mean, I’ve thought about a lot of the highs and lows the last 10 years today. I will say for folks who were like, that’s it. Screw it. I’m out, man. That’s a number one takeaway from from the last console, Martin here is don’t don’t bail before there’s like nothing left. You know, you can bail. I just wouldn’t bail on Week 1. You know, there were times 2017. Plenty of reasonable points to get off that ship before, you know, Brady Hoke was on the sideline like that. You know, it’s OK. And there’s some self-preservation in there, honestly, of bailing in the middle of October of that year, I’m sure. But don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the kinds of Martin story from that last season that ended up a bad marriage call away from the Elite Eight is don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy something. So you need more data. We need and we’re going to get it soon. And then we’re really going to get it when they go to the gators. So, you know, I feel like nothing. And there is nothing off the table. Well, I think Tennessee blowing out BYU is probably off the table, but BYU blowing out Tennessee. I mean, I can see that. I can see it. Tennessee, who, by the way, still two and a half point favorite against the Cougars on Saturday. Tennessee winning up, actually had two. So we need more data. You may have good reason to bail on this thing, but I would say let’s let’s let’s see week two and see how it goes. But yeah, the again, man, especially if you’re in my demographic, that whole or this is never going to be what it was when I was a kid. Oh. I

Joel:
You

Will:
Do not like that,

Joel:
Know, as.

Will:
And that’s that’s why that’s why we follow sports is not just for the it’s bandwagon stuff to follow for the wins and losses. But I worry about this thing. It sells, you know, like a hundred thousand people showing up at the game. People being excited, people being invested in the outcome. It’s the apathy perspective of of Knoxville is a different town win. Tennessee is winning. And I like that about Knoxville. And so those are the those are the kind of vulnerabilities that I worry about. And we did all this in the offseason to say that Tennessee, of the 15 winningest programs in college football history, the only program that has been through a stretch like the last eleven years of Tennessee in terms of length of time, not any final top 20, the only program that’s been through a stretch like this before is us in the late 1970s and early

Joel:
This

Will:
1980s.

Joel:
Is us.

Will:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Just like I planned it. So. So, you know, it’s in our nature to say, let’s step back and realize that we’re not Tennessee. The University of Tennessee football team is not always the 1990s. The 90s are what we are capable of. The 50s are what we are capable of. The late 60s and early 1970. That’s what we’re capable of. That’s what we aspire to. But, you know, you’re gonna have you’re gonna have some nine and three in there that you’re gonna have to say. Ninety three was OK. And that was awfully hard for people in the second half of former’s tenure. But you know that you’re going to have some of that. That’s OK. But that’s my worry now is that when are we getting back to nine and 3 10 again? Tennessee hasn’t finished a season with less than four losses since 2004. At this point, they would have an 0 7 if they didn’t lose any SCC championship game. So that’s you know, it’s still the last eleven years what we’re really talking about, but. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all of that is all that’s concerning. You have to come back to this thing for more than the wins and the losses. But I’m worried about the very essence of it being being a little bit vulnerable here.

Joel:
Yeah. So how much does this game actually impact your expectations for the four for the season? I think this is a really interesting question because if you only go on the data we have. Then what you’re looking at is, OK. We just lost the game I felt most comfortable about. Right. And

Will:
Right.

Joel:
So therefore, I probably am going to think that we should lose every other game to just logically speaking. Right. But you don’t really feel that way because you kind of feel at the same time that something will get better. Maybe. Maybe. But so that I can say if you only go on Saturday, you can’t feel good about the rest of the season. But somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re also thinking that, well, we’re gonna we’re gonna be able to get a fix that. That that was a fluke. Can’t happen again or won’t happen as much is as we think. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to lose every single game. That’s what I’m saying. So how does that all impact and follow fallout for you?

Will:
Well, here I think the our friend the the win expectancy machine there it it’s that thing is your friend right now. If you’re worried about Tennessee going one in eleven, it’s not your friend if you did it before this week, because I did it yesterday and I went from I was seven, almost seven on the money before kickoff. So saying I think they’re going to go 7 and 5 and I think 8 and 4 is just as likely as 6 and 6 2. Now I’m in a shade over four and a half. We’re just saying. So, yeah, that’s that’s a drop in part. It’s because I put Georgia State at a hundred percent. Don’t ever put anyone at a hundred. Don’t put Chattanooga 100 percent in that thing. So you know part of me. Yes, it’s a drop from seven. It’s also a reminder that even as pessimistic as I am about things right now, I don’t think they’re actually going to go one and eleven. I think that they are still a football team with a pulse and some good athletes and some coaches that didn’t get stupid all of a sudden. And we’ll find a way that I think five and seven barely is the most likely outcome at this point. But I’m open to four and eight or three and nine and that sort of thing. You know, we’ve talked a lot on the blog and you mentioned earlier with the past those UCLA games in 0 8 and 0 9 really stand out to be the one in 0 8 4.

Will:
How how much more serious I was when Tennessee lost that game than I am now. And I don’t know if that’s perspective or apathy, but the one in 0 9 has some similarity to OFS dynamite coaching staff. You know, a Kiffin played one double a team back when they were one day in week one, and then he got UCLA in week two a game. A lot of us spent the whole offseason talking about Tennessee. He’s got to win. And not only did they lose it, they were out coached, just poorly played bad, looked bad, looked bad in a way that made you feel like, are we going to win any games? And what is this coaching staff that we paid all this money for and why didn’t they do anything good? And obviously, Kiffin and those guys, it took him till mid-October and a close loss to Auburn in there, too. But they got it together. They only lost to the Gators by 10 and everyone was convinced they’re going to lose by one hundred and maybe, you know, there was gonna be actual murder on the field with that. So, you know, we need more data. But but that particular point of, hey, man, I thought these coaches were really good. We’ve we’ve seen them bungle that right away. That happened to Kiffin and those guys against UCLA. So those those two in particular I have thought about a lot today.

Joel:
Well, with that, that’s going to do it for this edition of the Game Day Rockstar podcast. We’ll be back later this week with a preview of the BYU game. Make sure you keep along with the blog this week. Will will open up the expected win total machine again tomorrow. We’ll have all the regular weekly stuff. And if you’re having conversations about the game this week with folks who might appreciate a little different perspective, put in a little plug for us and tell them that game day, our archetype is a community of reasonable fanatics. We’re not sunshine and rainbows and unicorns this week, but we also haven’t seen our pitchforks in years. So. So until next time for Will Shelton. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the game day Rocky Top podcast.

Will:
I will. I will say that I had my pitchfork at Florida loss in 15. I had I had my pitchfork there it was when we were talking about malpractice last week. That’s when that came to mind that the end of that game was called malpractice.

Joel:
Which one was that? That was the.

Will:
That isn’t that great. Like we shouldn’t

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Get the name of this podcast, which lost was that that was that was the up twenty seven fourteen and didn’t go for to do and then gave

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Up

Joel:
Fourth,

Will:
Then thirteen

Joel:
And.

Will:
And whatever it was and then went down the field with the worst and most excruciating clog management of all time. And we’re left with a fifty five yard field goal that almost went in that would to be again like we’re just in the throws of historic losses. That one to me is still worse than the hob nail boot. I put that. That’s the third. I’ve put a 1 LSU right there at the top 90 Alabama, which you have to be a certain age for. But that one of being ranked in the top five and Bama being unranked and lining up to kick the game winning field goal and having them block it and it bounces thirty five yards the other way and then they kick the game winning field goal instead to be united six. That one is special. That went that was my first real taste of we’re gonna beat Alabama. Oh, no, we’re not gonna beat Alabama here.

Joel:
What year was that?

Will:
Nineteen ninety is.

Joel:
Yes. I don’t. I wasn’t.

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Robo-Transcript below.

Pardon the errors, as the bot understands neither southern accents nor football.

Joel:
Welcome to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. Welcome back to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. I’m Joel Hollingsworth. And as always, I am joined tonight by the ever awesome Will Shelton. Will, how you doing this evening?

Will:
I’m doing fantastic, man. Good to be back. Good to be with you. How are you?

Joel:
I am doing well. It’s been I think all these little minor health annoyances have been ravaging their way through our house this week. And so I am slightly medicated. So I apologize in advance or or maybe I should charge extra. I don’t know. But yes, let’s. But. But it’s all good. We’re we’re working it all out. I was up at 445 this morning taking our youngest daughter to a procedure. She had to get bought Botox for her, for her hand. That is has a little bit of C.P. in it. And so that was fun being up so early from that day. They had to put her under and everything, I guess, because, you know, it’s like 30 shots in an arm for an eight year

Will:
Oh,

Joel:
Old.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
That’s a lot.

Will:
Well, for thirty, almost thirty eight year old, I would go under for that too. So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I understand.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I was up at six, but only because my one year old felt like getting up at six. There was no legitimate reason for it. So, yes.

Joel:
They tend to do that. They kind of rule the house in the sleep schedules department.

Will:
Yeah. I’m figuring that out. So this is it. This is 9 0 8 in the p.m. when we’re recording this and I’m standing in the kitchen drinking coffee. So that’s kind of how it’s going.

Joel:
So you won’t sleep at all and then he’ll wake you up again at 6:00 tomorrow.

Will:
Now, I’ve just I’m immune. I feel like I’m just doing like any good addiction, it’s just for the routine of it. Like I feel like it has no effect on my life at this point.

Joel:
All right, so so the podcast is back. School is in session, kick off just a few days away. You remember back in the day and I’m sure this just wasn’t like an Illinois thing. I’m I’m hoping it wasn’t. But you the first thing had to do when you got back to school in the fall, you had to write a paper or give a speech or something on what you did over the summer vacation. What do I do with my summer vacation? Right. So.

Will:
Yes, that in the Alocoa city school systems as well in Tennessee. Yes.

Joel:
All right. Good, so you got some reps in. So before we get into football, what was the coolest thing about your summer? That was not related to football.

Will:
So my my wife is a cake decorator, slash dessert chef. More a she was a dessert chef, more in Tennessee

Joel:
Wow.

Will:
And more of a cake writer in Virginia. And like her,

Joel:
You married

Will:
Her

Joel:
Well.

Will:
Business is. Yeah. Listen, she. She acquired that skill after we got married, actually.

Joel:
Whoo!

Will:
So I

Joel:
Bonus.

Will:
Finished it. You had some had some some free time after finishing a degree and before we had our son. And so she took a class on a random Saturday about five years ago. She made a smoky gray Tennessee cake, which was exciting in 2014 and less exciting in 2019. But anyway, she

Joel:
Just like the

Will:
Turns

Joel:
Uniforms themselves.

Will:
Or they they will sell you a game. Used helmets, smokey grey helmet for a thousand dollars, literally a thousand dollars right now.

Joel:
Well.

Will:
So I don’t I don’t know how many of those who have left the showroom there. But anyway, she. Business is booming for her. So we are spending a lot of time out. I spend a lot of time the summer at farmer’s markets here in southwest Virginia and selling cupcakes and taking money telling people have a nice day and all that stuff. So that was that’s been fun, too. There’s a new a new wrinkle in our lives.

Joel:
And gaining weight because you have a dessert connoisseur in the house or dessert,

Will:
Well.

Joel:
Master chef.

Will:
Well, I’ve. I have managed all all the working out and running I do is just to break even. Because of that factor.

Joel:
That’s the way to

Will:
So,

Joel:
Do it, though.

Will:
Yeah, I joke I joke with people all the time. And so I can drink coffee with three servings of creamer at 9:00, 10:00 at night. But I joke with people that like when she’s in the kitchen and I hear her go, dang it or something more exciting.

Joel:
You

Will:
That’s

Joel:
Celebrate

Will:
The best

Joel:
Like

Will:
Move

Joel:
Pavlov’s

Will:
For

Joel:
Dog. That’s like, yes. Like that one can’t be sold. But I will eat it. I will take that to the team. So she does so well like that. She’ll try out new flavors and stuff. And I’ll meet her over at the farmers market to be like, oh, man, I really wanna try one. And then she’ll sell out. I’m legitimately bummed.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
If you’re in the south West Virginia area, come check us out on Tuesday night’s.

Joel:
That’s right, because you can not eat a dollar.

Will:
That’s right.

Joel:
So that would totally bummed out, too. So what was that address again? The the farmer’s market in where?

Will:
So we’re yeah, we’re in. We’re in Pulaski, Virginia, home of the Pulaski Yankees 2019 Appalachian League East Division Champions. Been doing a lot of baseball too this summer. But, yes. Anyway, we’re. I have no idea. Anyone actually listens to this in southwest Virginia. But if you do come by and say hi on first and third Tuesdays at the farmer’s market, at the train station. That’s that’s what I’ve been doing all summer. What have you been doing all summer?

Joel:
Okay, so the two coolest things I did well, my my wife and I had our 25th anniversary, which was cool. And so well, that was back in May. And it took me until August to actually get get something scheduled. We went to a Daufuskie island. You’ve ever heard of Daufuskie?

Will:
I have not. That sounds made up.

Joel:
It does. I made up in it. You know, it it’s almost like it should be because it’s this island that is just south of Hilton Head. And you cannot get there by car. You have to take a ferry and you drive around on golf carts. And there’s like almost nobody there, especially this time of year. There’s 400 people that live there. And then, you know, anywhere they get to restaurants. Third, they’re convenience stores like half of a Weigel’s, you know. And most of its T-shirts and

Will:
Half

Joel:
Hats.

Will:
My goals.

Joel:
Yeah. So anyway, we went there. That was really cool. Also, the guys that I used to play in the band with way back in junior high and high school and a couple of years out of high school, we hadn’t played together in like 30 years and we all got together in Nashville for a little jam session and we learned some of the old songs. We had a draft for the songs we were going to learn re-learn. And then we got together and sounded bad for a couple of days and it was a lot of fun.

Will:
A couple of days.

Joel:
So,

Will:
That’s serious business right there.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
That’s not just we’re gonna play a few. And thank you, everybody. Good night. Let’s say a is does this. Does this exist online somewhere?

Joel:
There was a Facebook post where somebody recorded a little bit of us practicing. So we didn’t actually play in front anybody. I mean, we knew better in that way. We’d been asked to play like at homecoming for the thirty thirty first anniversary or reunion, you know. But I was like, you know what? Let’s get together and see how we sound before we play in front of people. There was a good thing. Two of the guys have actually been playing for a while in other bands stuff, but two of us were really rusty and it did start coming back. But there were some songs that we thought we could play that day that we turned out to be wrong about it.

Will:
Right.

Joel:
All right. So let’s let’s tie this summer thing into football. What was the what was the best thing you heard about the football team this summer and fall camp?

Will:
You know, I think that this is the quietest somebody of for one on the air. We’ve been doing this under this since 2006. Joel, year 2005. I

Joel:
Yep,

Will:
Think. Right.

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
I came I started at Rocky Top Talk right after Lane Kiffin got hired, which is say it’s like it’s a great career starting point there on the on the big time blogs is right when it went bad for your whole football team. But

Joel:
Yet we’re to blame for everything.

Will:
Yeah, it’s fine. I can take it. But I I think this is by far like the quietest offseason that we’ve had. Some of that is basketball. The basketball conversation lasted so much longer because success of Team Plus Rick Barnes flirtation with UCLA, plus incredible recruiting like it’s just it’s just more fun to talk about basketball and football right now. So I think it’s that’s OK that it’s quiet about football at the moment, I think. Former’s presence, at least to me and probably of people of my late thirties generation. There’s just so much more trust there with the big picture, with him in charge that there’s there’s less of an need to be anxious going into Pruitt’s year, 2. Then I feel like there was with Dooley good I at this point with Butch Jones, we were so sold on the recruiting that it really didn’t seem fathomable that you could recruit the way he was recruiting and actually get all those guys to actually sign here in February and then have it turn out the way that it did in terms of just not developing that talent. And so I think that’s the biggest takeaway with the football team this offseason, is that there really wasn’t a big takeaway. That’ll all change here in three days, of course. But I just think it’s been quiet. And that’s not that’s just not altogether bad at this point. That’s one of my biggest offseason things, too, is the bar. The bar is both low and also more realistic than it’s been at any point that I’ve been doing this in 14 or 15 years. So like seven and five or eight and four is gonna go a long way with people. That’s what they end up doing. So I think it’s it’s that’s just kind of it’s kind of a cheating answer. But my biggest takeaway is that I really don’t have one. And I think that’s I think it’s all right. I think it’s a good, healthy ish reflection, both of where basketball has been for for a lot of a summer months, but just also kind of where the football team is now.

Joel:
You know, the other thing we’ve learned over 14 or 15 years of doing this is that even though you go into the season thinking that 7 and 5 is OK when you actually have to experience it, it’s really not OK and everybody gets mad anyway.

Will:
Well, there’s there’s a particular like if you if you’re trying to figure out how they get to 7 and 5, the easiest path is they’d be Kentucky, they beat Vanderbilt, they beat BYU. And you get South Carolina in Knoxville. That means you’re gonna lose four in a row in the middle. I mean, you’re going to lose Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama. And yeah, I agree, no matter what we told ourselves about 7 and 5 being OK, if you lose four in a row that a with a bye week to some five weeks without a win. That’s

Joel:
Mm hmm.

Will:
Not going to be pleasant for anybody in the middle of that stretch.

Joel:
Yeah. So for me, one of the things that I’m most excited about and most excited to see the results of is this idea. And I think it’s documented and verifiable that the team is a lot bigger and heavier and presumably stronger because of all that. I think it’s I think it’s really important. And I think I’m hoping that it really can matter a lot. You know, it’s kind of cool to hear Pruitt say sometime during fall camp that, you know, part of the problem with the O line last year wasn’t it wasn’t as much talent as it was asking them to play before they were before their bodies were ready, you know? And presumably now they’re more ready. Not just the new guys. We didn’t just recruit new, bigger guys, but the guys who were there got bigger themselves, you know? Tatum, I think he’s doubled in size in two years. Right. So if he’s holding off Darnell Wright over there. Right. Right tackle. You know, he’s he’s doing something right. And maybe it’s, you know, largely due to the fact that he’s bigger, heavier and able to do what he’s being asked to do. So I’m looking forward to seeing whether that makes a big difference. Hope it does.

Will:
Yeah, and there’s an interesting. The guys you recruit at the top of your list are always the guys you expect to come in and perform right away. It doesn’t always work that way. I think Malik Grey was was Tennessee’s highest rated signee and one of those late Butch Jones years and he just left the program and never did anything here. So it doesn’t always work. But to these two highest rated signings were where Wright and Morris, your offensive tackles. So it’s natural to expect those guys are going to come in and be great right away. But man, offensive tackle is like the last place where you can really expect a freshman to come in and really be strong. Sometimes you just you do what you gotta do. I also think Trey Smith is not doing anybody any favors here because you’ve got this memory of where he came in and was great as a freshman. But man, it’s not fair to expect these guys to be Trey Smith in 2017. So that’s just a weird spot. The good news about that is there’s other freshmen, Eric Grey, Henry Toto. I’m glad I got to be the first one on the podcast. You shut

Joel:
Well,

Will:
Up.

Joel:
done.

Will:
Thank you. Hi there. So there’s other guys you can be excited about if you don’t get to see those guys. But I think this is the big storyline in the last 10 days or two weeks is are they really going to rotate? Eight to 10 guys on the offensive line. Is that really what’s best for business? I think that’s you know, just because just because Marcus Tatum is the starting right tackle against Georgia State or even BYU and beyond, doesn’t mean that your two highest rated recruits were a bust. It just means, man, it’s awfully hard to play true freshman at those positions when you’re getting ready to stare down that barrel of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina. That’s just that’s a big ask. So they’re gonna get opportunities. But I don’t I’m not convinced. It’s like the worst thing in the world if they don’t just come in here and start right away and play all these snaps. Tennessee has better options. That’s a good thing, because, man, you’re a freshman is your best option at tackled, and that’s problematic.

Joel:
Yeah, and if there’s nothing behind them, but it sounds like we’re not just too deep, but maybe even a little bit more than that along the line, which is which is nice, especially with some of the attrition that we’ve had there too. So.

Will:
I mean, that goes back to there, you’re not just saying about Bush, you’re talking about Dooley recruiting a class of those guys without any any linemen. And so, yeah, that’s that’s a long term problem that Tennessee is just now. Really next year, I think, is when we’ll be able to say, OK, now we don’t have to worry about this as much as we have for the last six or seven years yeah.

Joel:
So I’m kind of allergic to hyperbole, but the more I hear, the more I’m reminded of Dooley’s no offensive line class. That’s just malpractice. That’s just terrible.

Will:
You hate that word, too, I have used that word before or use it in a post and you’ve been like, I don’t like that word. Like as a lawyer,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You know, like you

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Have the right to say that. And so that’s that’s Joel’s use of malpractice should be taken very seriously.

Joel:
That is is very strong for me. Yes.

Will:
Yeah. And you know, some of that is you look back on that now and I just wonder how much those guys had riding on. You know, if they’d done well in 2012, if they hired a different defensive coordinator or promoted Lance Thompson or whatever, and they won, you know, eight or nine in 2012, which probably would’ve felt like a big deal. You could have dodged Butch Jones, but I’m still not sure it would’ve been what was best for Tennessee in the moment going forward to have another year of Derek Dooley. So you just what we do this in the more Tennessee loses along the way. You know, you just kind of I. I spent a long time saying we don’t have enough information about Derek Dooley. And it’s affected the way I look at folks going forward in terms of trying to be a little more objective and things like that. But yeah. That’s that set Tennessee up for failure in ways where, you know, Butch, his first year, they still had all those Tyler Bray offensive linemen. But after that, man, I mean, and this is to tie this into this year. This is a really big question for me about this year’s team. And Jim Chaney too, Justin Worley got destroyed in a half a season twice because they were playing him behind an offensive line that wasn’t ready, that was having to go against get, you know, Coleman Thomas against Oklahoma in 2014.

Will:
Like there were lots of just bad situations out there. And they put him, especially 2014 with those younger guys. They were trying to win games. And so they were taking a lot of shots downfield and putting Worley in a lot of positions where he was going to get hit a lot. And I’m curious to see with this particular offensive line, how much are they going to do that with Guarantano, who got knocked out of a bunch of games behind a bad offensive line last year? Some of this I still wonder, is this why Tennessee ran fewer plays in the country than any team last year? Because they’re just trying to do risk management or survive or whatever the case may be. But I’ll be curious to see how many times if they really feel like they’ve got the receivers and they’ve got the potential to take some shots downfield. Is there a part of them that says, man, that’s another shot Guarantano is going to take? And how how willing will they be to put him in harm’s way, especially against the teeth of that schedule there in October?

Joel:
So I was going to I already praised you for saying To’oto’o. Name the next test was going to be saying the quarterback’s name, but you’ve already failed twice.

Will:
Yeah. Guarantano. Yeah. It’s bad. It’s my bad.

Joel:
Of course, we’ve had lots of failure there over the years. So,

Will:
We all have. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah. I wonder why he didn’t correct anybody. He’s just, you know, you know that the lack of leadership that he’s finally going into his fifth year or fourth.

Will:
That would be great if I hadn’t written that idiot optimist piece yet. And he’s finally worked up the nerve to tell us his name, his real name. It’s got to be worth two wins. Just makes it. He made the joke today about being called Guantanamo. That was

Joel:
Yes.

Will:
A was an Idiot Optimist joke from two years ago. The beaches of Dormandy and

Joel:
Yes,

Will:
Guantanamo.

Joel:
I

Will:
Garrett

Joel:
Remember

Will:
Taught

Joel:
That.

Will:
Him obey or whatever. So.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Yeah. Yeah. Again, we’re all where? I’ll plead. I mean, I won’t plead the fifth. I’ll just I’ll just say, hey, man, we’re all guilty of that one. I’m very sorry that we did not have the correct knowledge on the correct pronunciation of your name.

Joel:
Don’t ask us all dogs to do those new tricks right now. Yeah. All right. So big picture, meaning like just from a wins and losses standpoint right now. We’ll get in the details in a minute. But what do you. What do you hope to see this fall? What what are the most important games?

Will:
Well BYU. I mean, that just feels like a game that you have to win. And we’ve seen us a couple times and seen it go a couple of different ways that Kiffin first year UCLA. It was a game. Well, we’re Tennessee’s got to win that game. And they didn’t. And they and they lost and in particularly frustrating fashion. But still, they got things turned around in October. They got a big meaningful win. And by the end of that year, nobody was still really chirping on that UCLA loss. So I’m not saying if they lose to BYU, then everything’s out the window. But that’s that’s just a big win to get. We’ll see two. I mean, we’re gonna see those guys late tomorrow night. I’m going to see those guys early Friday morning. Like, you know, just how I know we’re gonna talk about the gators here in a minute, but like that’s gonna make a big difference. We haven’t really had a year like this. Tennessee hasn’t played a cupcake in Week 1 since Butch Jones first year because we ran into that stretch of Utah state with Chucky Keaton and then Bowling Green and then Appalachian State and Georgia Tech and West Virginia. So it’s been a minute since we really don’t have to be overly concerned with Tennessee in week one. And you’re getting to shop before we take a snap. You’ve got a you’ve got a colorful opinion about the gators now. And you’re gonna get a good one with BYU here on on tomorrow night against Utah. So that could change if BYU wins that game. I think that may change folks opinion about the winnable nature or the percentage in our expected win total machine that you put on BYU.

Will:
But I think getting that one allows you to survive whatever happens against Florida and whatever happens against Georgia. And I say whatever happens, I think it allows you to just kind of roll with the punches of a competitive loss to Florida and whatever happens with Georgia. Florida is the biggest opportunity on that on a schedule. You know, if you get that game, that’s going to mean a whole lot to a whole lot of people. But in terms of just what’s important for progress, BYU at the start, Vanderbilt at the end, especially if we’re in this business of six and six, is a realistic outcome. Then you could come to Vanderbilt at five and six and you just no matter what happens the rest of the year, you would lose some sense of opportunity by losing to those guys. It would knock it down a peg and bowl standings. It would be four years in a row, which seems incomprehensible, but it would be true. So those two to me, if you get those two games, then we’re assuming, you know, Tennessee just needs to pick up one more. Kentucky, South Carolina, somebody in there to get to six to get two more of those. You’re at seven. So that to me, Florida is always going to be your biggest opportunity available since I don’t think we’re ready to count Alabama in that conversation yet. But BYU and Vanderbilt at the beginning and the end, you get those I think you’re going to come out of this thing with at least an okay sense of how the season went. If you get both of those games.

Joel:
All right. So that was all very compelling.

Will:
But.

Joel:
But yeah, I just I don’t really care about BYU, really. I don’t know why.

Will:
Oh, oh, oh, no. No. Well, go ahead.

Joel:
You know, it’s a non conference game. And I think are we we have to figure out how to compete in the SEC, you know, and that’s a long road because we’re a long ways away from winning the SEC championship. We’re a long ways even from winning the SEC East. And we’re actually a longer a ways away from even getting lined up with Florida and Georgia to compete for the east. I mean, we’re so far down that we got to worry about just not losing to Vanderbilt anymore, you know? And so I just I just don’t think I’m just more focused on the SEC. And I also think that we’re probably going to win for some reason. So I’m just not worried about it and I don’t really care. So it’s probably bad combination. So don’t tell the team that.

Will:
I

Joel:
That.

Will:
Think I’m looking at it more from the sense of getting one early that you really were allowed to feel good about for

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
More than that.

Joel:
Yeah. That.

Will:
And I think the way things have gone, I think they can survive a competitive loss with Florida and still go into the byway, get three and one excited about not the future, but excited about what the rest of this team could do, because we just haven’t had all the good that they did with Cincinnati, who is probably a comparable opponents. I’d have to go back and research that more. But that Cincinnati team, Butch Jones, Cincinnati, and seeing that they beat in ’11 probably comparable situation to a non power five team coming in. But everything good about that just got tossed when Justin Hunter blew up his ACL in the first

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Drive of the Florida game. So sometimes that happens. But you know, NC State, the good you felt about that, another maybe comparable to BYU kind of situation. You can’t give up a thousand plays of 80 plus yards against the gators a couple of weeks later in that year, in a year three when you’re supposed to pay it off. I just I just think you need a Tennessee needs a win

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
And not not Georgia state, you know, and to get one before. This was Butch’s problem before 2016 is that his big wins came in mid-October or later and they were more stop the bleeding wins or change the narrative wins. It would be nice to get one in September that really counts and matters. And to do that before you have a payoff year before you have like a like a Battle at Bristol where you’re almost relieved to win the thing instead of just kind of being a right, we’re moving in the right direction sort of thing. So that’s that’s just kind of if you get BYU, I think it puts you in a better frame of mind as a fan and a healthier place to try to go. Get South Carolina. Kentucky. Vanderbilt. The games you’re talking about.

Joel:
Yeah, I agree with all of that, the the the lingering impact, positive or negative, will be important just from the from the final result. It just doesn’t feel like something that we can’t recover from. I wouldn’t think into me that my whole analysis of the season going in is just sort of okay, let’s win the non conference. And I know, you know, if we don’t get BYU, then that’s, you know, an assumption that you’ve already made that you’re wrong on and that’s going to feel bad. So I understand that, but I’m just sort of assuming those four and then, you know, assuming three losses, Alabama, Georgia, probably Florida. And so I think the whole season comes down to those other S.E.C. East teams. And I’m I’m ignoring Mississippi State for now, too. But I think it comes down to the other SEC east teams because you got to get out of the cellar. You have to get out of the second tier of the SEC east. And I think that’s a first order of business. And so you get you got to not lose to Vanderbilt. That’s nonsense. Don’t do that anymore. And then you got to get two of the other three. South Carolina, which we haven’t beaten for much too long, too. And then Kentucky and Missouri get get two of those three. And I think that’ll be a success there. So that’s sort of how I’m running it down. Hope it works out that way.

Will:
It’s interesting. I mean, you did a good job in our magazine pointing this out. There’s the scheduling really works to Tennessee’s favor against Missouri and really works against Tennessee when it comes to Kentucky, which there is a whole and I subscribe to this, too, I have even do it. And that win expectancy thing of. I just assume we’re going to beat Kentucky

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Because Kentucky couldn’t beat Tennessee. I mean, couldn’t compete with Tennessee last year then. You know, I don’t I don’t see it happening up there this year when they’re kind of in a rebuild reload. I know some of their fans want to call it reloading and we’ll see about that. But I just I just I’m more confident about Tennessee beating Kentucky at Kentucky than I am Tennessee beating South Carolina in Knoxville or Vanderbilt in Knoxville, for that matter. Just because of that, that sense from a Tennessee perspective, I know they beat us two years ago, but because of everything that was happening with Butch Jones, you just kind of forget about that one. So, you know, that’s. But it’s a good spot on the schedule to catch Tennessee there. But see, I think a lot of this conversation when we talk about record in which games are going to win and which games you’re going to lose. If if Tennessee finds a way somehow to sneak around and beat the Gators or beat Georgia, I know Georgia is off the bye week, too. But let’s. I just don’t think that’s a 0 percent. That’s not at Alabama. Georgia.

Joel:
Yeah, Georgia to us is like Florida against us. No matter how different the teams are in in talent, Tennessee always has a chance again against them

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Or

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
They tend to blow it against us. I guess I’ll put

Will:
Yeah,

Joel:
It that way.

Will:
I think all of that is true, and I don’t think anyone would argue with that. Listen to this podcast. And so if you if Tennessee finds a way to get one of those, it just prevents that saying of where you go seven and five. But you feel like at the end of the year that you didn’t beat anybody because again, this is a lot of the Butch Jones narrative. You need to make memories and then you need to make them last. And can Tennessee go 7 5 and beat BYU, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and the other three non conference teams and be seven and five and say, OK, that was that was a tip of the cap to that year. Sure. But, you know, what are we going to be talking what are we going to remember out of that group at the end? Maybe it’s the bowl game. I don’t know. So you just I think the staff understands that all these guys been around big, big, big time college football long enough to know like some games just matter more than others. And so that, you know, that to me really is a piece of that puzzle, too. Yes. Tennessee needs to win all of those games that you’re talking about. Yes, that is the next step. You have to take it. You’re trying to make progress in the SEC East! But man, it would be really nice to get to get the gators or hey.

Will:
Mississippi State has an outside chance of rolling in here undefeated. If they can beat Auburn, especially the week before they come to Knoxville, there is an outside chance you’re playing Mississippi State as a top 15 team. So that one also could be a potential bulls and board, you know, sort of sort of win. And Missouri certainly and and win to let out. Missouri has an outside chance of being whatever that is. Eight, no. Nine. And before they hit that stretch of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. And if they split those two, they would still be ranked very high before they played played the Vols. So it doesn’t have to be get the gators or get Georgia. New opportunities arise all the time. None of us thought beating Kentucky would be such a big deal last year until it was. So you just got to. They just need to find seven and five would be a tip of the cap at a job well done, like I say. But oh, it would be so much better if it included at least one in there where we could go back and relive it at the end of the year and remember it fondly and not remember it like last season where you had two really memorable wins. But the moral of the story is you still went five and seven.

Joel:
Yeah, and not just five and seven. Those last two games man, those were just catastrophes. All right. So apart from the big picture, let’s talk about some details. You did this thing over the summer, which I loved so much that I basically plagiarized it a couple of weeks ago. So not just looking at it like wins and losses and what’s teams we’re gonna beat and all that stuff. The things I’ve been calling lead measures, these are things that lead to winning before you get there. I tied them together. As you see, I put more third and short conversions. We’re going to do that more yards per carry regardless of down. We got to get more takeaways or get to get more sacks. We got to get better in the red zone on on defense. And we got to keep Guarantano out of the medical tent. So tell it. Tell us more about those things that you spent a lot of time on them over the summer. But let’s talk about some of those. What do you think are the most important ones? And what do you give me looking at early on?

Will:
So the thing Tennessee was very worst that last year was running on third and short. That’s third and 1 through 3. The average is something like twenty one carries for twenty yards. You know, you remember you watch these games where early in the season, especially if it’s third and one it’s Pruitt, you know, he’s going to say let’s just get a yard and Tennessee just could not do that. So Tennessee was the only team in the country to average less than a than a yard and a half per carry on third and short and they average less than a yard, period. So.

Joel:
That’s not very good, right?

Will:
No, that’s very bad. Very, very bad. And there will be a point not. I mean, look, if Tennessee can’t line up and get a yard against Georgia State, then we don’t even need to have this conversation anymore. But I’d be curious to see against BYU, against the Gators, who clearly have some dudes on the defensive line. If it’s third and one, how many times is Tennessee going to run it into the interior and get stuffed before they decide? All right. Let’s do something else.

Joel:
But

Will:
Help

Joel:
Let me stop

Will:
By.

Joel:
You there just for a second, just because this popped into my mind, you know, Pruitt, it took him a long time to learn that last year.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Right.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Does Chaney have to relearned that to where are we gonna have to wait for him to learn it now?

Will:
That’s a good question. I don’t think Cheney would be afraid of first time offensive coordinator. It’s gonna be in their nature a little bit to two. First, the offensive coordinator for some play caller and like Helton was last year in that kind of situation. The old shotgun on third and one is so easy. You’re such an easy target when you do that and you don’t make it that. I think it’s easier for someone like Chaney, who’s so well established to be to get like we all hate shotgun on third and one. But that was a better option for Tennessee last year

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Than that. Lining it up and just go in. So I would trust Chaney in that situation. Maybe you got it figured out one game. But, you know, hopefully these guys can. These guys are paying for the fancy advanced version of the stats package that I’m just getting for free and compiling stats. So hopefully they know all that. But that’s that’s the big thing. The good news about that is if you’re in if you’re in third and 1, you did an all right job on the first and second. Now you know, you’re on schedule, as they say. So Tennessee was okay if they didn’t go backward on on first down. If they if they did something that didn’t wasn’t a sack or a blow up behind the line and there were fewer of those last year than there were the year before then they did okay. It’s just they couldn’t they couldn’t do what really should be the easiest piece of that. I mean, this is all in the piece I wrote. But statistically, it was better. It was better for Tennessee to be in third and medium and pass than to be in third and short and run. So that’s got to change or you just run less on third and short. So that’s the area for most possible improvement. The most interesting one to me as the business is about running fewer plays than anybody in the country.

Will:
I just don’t know. I have got some guesses in terms of trying to protect Pruitt, trying to protect the defense. That really wasn’t good. Really wasn’t good. All year. They were good at creating turnovers against Auburn. And they were they were good enough to be sure against Kentucky. But Tennessee just got behind so quickly and so many of those other games, I think we really undersold how bad the defense was at times last year. And so one way you protect that is you just shorten the whole thing. And so I will be curious to see. I don’t expect Tennessee to run fewer plays in any team in the country this year. How much faster are they going? How many more plays are they? Are they taking? So that one to me is the most interesting in terms of if you’re still trying to keep Guarantano alive and upright. That’s that’s part of that equation. If your defense is behind your offense because you’ve lost significant contributors on your defense, your defensive line is you have no idea what’s going on up there right now. If you need to win games, if it’s easier for you to win games by scoring a lot of points this year and your head coach is one of the best defensive coordinators of this decade, how how’s that going to work? You know, is Pruitt going to be willing to say, all right, screw it, let’s win this thing? Forty five.

Will:
Forty four. That’s not what he desires, but it may be what Tennessee’s best opportunity to win looks like. So those two, to me, are the most interesting. There are some others just just generally. You’ve got to create more turnovers. Think gets 15 and each of the last two years, that’s not doing you any favors. And just more explosive plays in the running game. Tennessee just didn’t have a lot of that last year. It’s there on the passing game, but wasn’t there in the run game. And also some of those pieces worked together in terms of being more explosives means you run fewer plays, but your your plays are more successful. If Tennessee can be good enough to get in a lot of third and short, again, just being a little bit better, little little improvements. And this is kind of the theme of our magazine, little improvements here and there. This is really good on special teams last year. It doesn’t matter when you’re getting beat up by 26 points by everybody. But some of those pieces of the puzzle are already in place. So, you know, just a little improvements and a couple of those areas could end up making a big difference for this team this year.

Joel:
So this is one of the many reasons I love you, because that was like the most diplomatic way of saying you left out the most important thing that I wrote in my plagiarized version of a year earlier one. What about the number of plays? I wasn’t quite sure how to add a you know. I mean, are you. Are you going to be watching to see how fast they run or how many plays they run each game and all that stuff for that? That’s not really going to measure or just something you’re you’re sort of interested to see as a philosophic kind of change.

Will:
I think I think it’s more philosophy than anything. I think that. Those guys were so aggressive against the gators last year and none of it worked.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah,

Will:
You know, like

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Like so hyper aggressive and I think hyper aggressive in measurable ways, not just because we’ve been watching Butch Jones for five years and we’re used to that stuff. I mean, everything was go for the throat. I think, again, these guys understand that some wins are worth more than others. And it just, you know, in unusual and surprising ways backfired on them. And then, you know, the team didn’t respond well when it backfired on him. It just the hole got much deeper, much quicker. So I wondered about that from from there going forward. But also, there’s still there’s just such a big jump from the Gators to Georgia and Alabama that, you know, against Georgia last year, their playing it mostly down. And that all had one. It was one big splash play. Right. They threw it to Ty Chandler. I think if I’m remembering this game. Right. And it was my son’s first birthday party that day last year. So I don’t have all the I got other memories going on there. But a.

Joel:
Well, probably better ones.

Will:
Yeah. But, you know, going into the fourth quarter there, they’re down, what, twenty four to twelve. So, you know, there is some merit to let’s play a certain kind of game and keep it close. Kentucky that that game plan really worked. It shouldn’t be Kentucky by more if they don’t fumble in the second half. So I’ll just be curious to see. I think Chaney can do it any way you want it. I don’t think he has to do up tempo and let’s try to score a touchdown on every play. And he hasn’t been that guy in his first year at places. He’s been much more. You know, we’re building something here and that kind of stuff. Now, I’m not sure any of the first places he’s been in the first year had that kind of talent coming back at quarterback and wide receiver that Tennessee has now. So if they can block it, I think you can do lots and lots of things. And again, we may look we may come to this thing the week after the Florida game and say they can’t block it like it’s just what it is. They still can’t walk. We can talk for hours and hours all we want. But if you can’t block it, you can’t do it.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Yeah, I’m just I’m just interested philosophically in how are they are they going slow on purpose to protect the defense? Again, that may not have it all put together. Are they are they going slow on purpose to limit the number of times that their quarterback is going to get hit when they don’t have anybody behind them? And really, we didn’t get to see this a whole lot last year. We saw it against Kentucky and we saw it for a second against South Carolina. What do they do when they get up 10 points on somebody? What what sort of urgency or put the foot down on people? Do they do they really put the foot down on Kentucky with a blocked field goal and turnovers in the red zone? It wasn’t really the offense that did it. It was a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. And then just kind of, you know, keeping it together as much as you could with Auburn. They they went into conservative mode against Auburn at the right time, like all that worked out well and fine. But there’s just some stuff that these players just don’t know. These guys don’t know a whole lot about playing with a lead on a good team. So, yeah, I don’t I don’t. That’s a long and rambling answer to say I don’t know. I think it’s fascinating. I think it’s it’s really fascinating that Tennessee ran fewer plays in the country than any other team. But I don’t know how much that’s going to change this year. And I’m really interested to find out.

Joel:
So speaking of, if you can’t block it, you can’t you can’t run it. We got a glimpse of Florida against Miami to kick off the season last Saturday. Defense looks good, but it was sloppy in the line, as I said, looked vulnerable. I mean, for both teams, me them getting getting them both confused. But I think they both looked bad on the offensive line. And Feleipe Franks is becoming one of my least favorite rivals ever. Quickly. But he looked rattle-able. So what do you think? Was it was that just first game rust that you’re probably noticing more because they were playing a good opponent on the first game? Or are maybe they not quite as good as advertised?

Will:
The best comment on that game I can remember is somebody on Twitter had it looks like this game is being played in a monsoon and there’s not a drop of rain out there like that. My favorite, favorite comment about that game. The good news about the Gators is you’re gonna get another live fire. I don’t know who they got. They’re off this week. I don’t know who they got next. But then they got Kentucky. So you will at least we’ll get another data point on them before before we see them,

Joel:
Do they

Will:
Because

Joel:
Have three

Will:
The.

Joel:
byes because of that? I should look at that.

Will:
I think they they should, right, because they’re playing a week early on and they’ve got the same. They’ve got they have a week one by, you know. Nobody else has that weak one by other than them in Miami and I’m sure Arizona. But yes, I’m sure there’s there’s other buys built in there, probably one before Georgia because that’s how it works for them. But now I feel like in talking with other Tennessee fan, in talking, it’s fun being in southwest Virginia because you get, you know, objective opinion on games like that that everybody’s watching. But these folks don’t care if the Gators win or lose. And the objective opinion was just what a ridiculous like perfect week zero game it was. But I feel like among Tennessee fans and I can be talked into this, too, there’s this school of thought after being so aggressive against him last year. Like, maybe we should just wait for them to do something dumb. Looks like they seem they seem eager to be dumb on offense

Joel:
Well,

Will:
And

Joel:
Defensively

Will:
Maybe.

Joel:
To you and the cornerbacks at the end of the game.

Will:
Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. But I mean, like maybe, maybe, maybe we just sit back and are like, all right. Like, here you go. If you don’t score on us, it’s gonna be a twelve play drive and we think you’re gonna do something dumb on plays one through eleven. So, you know, it’ll be interesting to see. That’s the old again, we’re old guys doing this. The team that runs for the most yardage wins this game in Tennessee with with the one exception of of Dobbs and all those guys there. And then really weird 2016 game. Every time Tennessee tries to outgun Florida, they lose in this rivalry. So I appreciate the aggressiveness, even though it failed spectacularly last year. I appreciate that that mentality. But that’s why we just need we need to see him against Kentucky, because I feel like that’s kind of what you’re talking itself into now as well. Franks is going to throw a two stupid interceptions against us. He might, but he might not.

Joel:
So one of the things I find really interesting about that Florida game is that, you know, the commentators were saying there’s you know, it’s it’s sloppiness because there is no preseason in the college game. And so, you know, people them in that have been thudding don’t know how to tackle yet. And they’ve got a lot of rust and stuff to knock off. And I just think you’re more likely to see that against a good team than you are maybe against, say, a cupcake. All right. So we got to we’ve got to wrap this up. But is there anything you want to say about Georgia State before we conclude sorry, Georgia State fans.

Will:
No. No. I mean, I’m even struggling. I’m still more interested in big picture conversation about Tennessee than what’s going to happen against Georgia State this week. So. Even the even the interesting things of which like is Eric Grey going to be the first substitute for Ty Chandler? That’s interesting a little bit.

Joel:
Mm hmm.

Will:
But the other stuff, if you’re if it’s much more interesting beyond that and a couple of other kids, even questions like how many offensive linemen do they rotate some of that? We’re just going to say, well, it’s because we were playing Georgia State or is that really how it’s gonna be? So there’s there’s very little of that and more just about again, let’s enjoy our first week one cupcake since 2013. And let’s take a look at some of these other teams and let’s keep everybody healthy. And as long as Tennessee looks, you know, they’re favored by three or four touchdowns. As long as they do that, then I think we’re just kind of still in a holding pattern. And we’ll see what BYU does on Thursday.

Joel:
So you think we cover? My machine is saying no.

Will:
I think it’s I think it’s about right. It’s trending down, it’s trending. It was twenty five and a half. Maybe it’s the last time I saw it. So, again, one one question that is interesting in the big, big picture, how fast they put the backup quarterbacks in there. At what point are you comfortable with that lead? So I think that that could if Tennessee is up 20 one late in the third quarter and they go ahead and put the backups and then, you know, the fact that they don’t cover if they don’t cover from that point, I think that’s not really fair. But I think it’s about right. I think it’s, you know, twenty twenty seven, twenty eight four possessions. I think that’s I think that’s fine.

Joel:
Well, that would be just fine with me. So you have my approval to set that line right there. So.

Will:
I think what I picked up picks contests was something more like thirty five because it’s week one and I’m feeling good. But yeah, I you know, we haven’t earned the right to complain about this. This isn’t Butch Jones, year four. We haven’t. We haven’t earned the right to complain about being a Georgia state by only twenty five or whatever.

Joel:
All right. Well, there you have it. Our back from summer edition of The Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. Live from Daufuskie with no Internet. Actually, that’s not where I’m at. I’m back. I’m back from Daufuskie. I made it home on the ferry. So we will be back. We’re planning on a recap that we post maybe Tuesday morning podcast and then maybe a preview that we’ll probably post Thursday morning. But we’ll be playing a little bit by ear because we got youngins running the household and waking us up at 6:00 and making us drink caffeine with cream at nine thirty on the kitchen counter. So all subject to change. But as always, thanks for listening to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. We will see you next time whenever it is. And for Will Shelton, I’m Joel Hollingsworth. And thanks for listening.

Joel:
And of course, then it went through, it just didn’t want to hear my thing about her, about Florida.

Will:
That’s the trigger language about week zero announcers and all that good stuff.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So.

Joel:
Hey, do you mind if I turn it off, though, and try calling you back on Google Talk? Just in case we need

Will:
Nuts.

Joel:
That as a backup.

Will:
That’s fine.

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Robo-Transcript below.

Pardon the errors, as the bot understands neither southern accents nor football.

GRT Podcast 9.21.18

NOTES

[00:02:56] Does this week still feel like a regular Tennessee-Florida week?
[00:07:25] Will’s prediction for the game.
[00:12:13] Hilarious transcription error here.
[00:15:05] Will’s list of priorities for the Vols this weekend against the Gators.
[00:21:43] Will’s answers to the Guessing Game questions.
[00:25:33] The odd strategy that Will has used to secure the overall lead in the GRT Pick ‘Em contest after Week 3.
[00:27:46] This portends the end of the world, as both Joel and Will admit that they’ve picked Vanderbilt over South Carolina this weekend.
[00:29:38] Will’s take on Rick Barnes, the Tennessee basketball program, and the addition of a five-star point guard to the mix.

TRANSCRIPT

Joel: [00:00:14] This is the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast Episode 152. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and I’m with Wil Shelton again this evening. How you doing Will

Will: [00:00:22] I’m doing all right. How are you.

Joel: [00:00:24] I am doing great. We are on big episode 152 so you know Brad missed the big milestone a couple of episodes ago and he said he felt terrible about it. Actually he didn’t say that but you know it was it was a big deal. And now we’re like sorry I’m repositioning and got way too close to the microphone. So you know we’ve been racking them up this this week so we’re we’re going to roll this odometer over to you know we’re going to be at 1800 in no time flat.

Will: [00:01:02] Right.

Joel: [00:01:03] So yeah.

Will: [00:01:03] Only if Tennessee wins though like we’re not doing that many podcasts if we keep losing.

Joel: [00:01:07] That’s true because they’re much more difficult to do when they’re losing or they actually

Will: [00:01:12] Yes

Joel: [00:01:12] They do turn in sort of a therapy session. So those are kind of good. They tend to be longer and sadder and probably a lot less fun to listen to but they’re good for us you know. So that’s what counts right.

Will: [00:01:28] Well and longtime listeners of the podcast will recall that we didn’t we have we had a sports psychologist on once

Joel: [00:01:34] We did.

Will: [00:01:34] And

Joel: [00:01:34] Yes.

Will: [00:01:34] Liked to have a 2011 when things were really dark and dreary. And I also remember you’re doing one in 2010 we were and Tennessee was playing Ole Miss. The last time he won an SEC West game. And I remember being sitting outside a friend’s house. I was in Knoxville for that game and I was sitting outside a friend’s house we were doing like an hour and 15 minutes on Ole Miss and we were three and 6 and I was like. Internally I was asking anyone listening to this probably probably not. So

Joel: [00:02:09] Yes.

Will: [00:02:09] We asked if we can if we can avoid any other sports psychologist in our future. That would be it would be a really good sign.

Joel: [00:02:16] That would be a good sign. I will say that according to one metric there’s like twenty five thousand downloads over the course of 152 episodes so you know that sounds like a lot of people I guess.

Will: [00:02:31] Yeah. Yeah. And there were some. I think sometimes too about we did that one. It would have been 2009 where like on the same podcast we had Clay Travis

Joel: [00:02:44] Yes.

Will: [00:02:45] Spencer Hall

Joel: [00:02:45] Yeah.

Will: [00:02:46] Holly Anderson

Joel: [00:02:46] Yeah.

Will: [00:02:47] And the little old you and me. So. So you know like it’s you know that’s pretty cool

Joel: [00:02:56] Yup.

Will: [00:02:56] These days regardless of everyone’s changing opinions about Clay Travis or whatever the case may be. So yeah we’ve had we’ve had all kinds of fun throughout the years despite the the on field football products not necessarily being all kinds of fun and so hopefully that is a play this is a this is a fun week. It’s still like I still feel the same about this week right now as in just about any other year. Like another coaching change and going 4-8 last year given be by West Virginia and even Florida losing in Kentucky like I still feel the way I’m accustomed to feeling on the Thursday night before the Florida game or do you feel do you feel the same way like I. That’s that’s warm and welcoming to me that still feels like everything the Tennessee Florida game should be in terms of what what’s on the line for fans that sort of stuff. Does it feel the same to you.

Joel: [00:03:47] It actually does and I’m a little surprised about it because you know when we talked a couple of nights ago it was you know is this a race for the bottom of the SEC East. You know. And so if that’s the case you know you’re like well you know nothing. Nothing really matters. But you know what. When I saw that video which have you seen it yet the

Will: [00:04:08] Admiral Schofield video.

Joel: [00:04:10] Yes

Will: [00:04:10] Yeah.

Joel: [00:04:11] That is awesome. So after watching that that really finally kicked me into regular Tennessee Florida hate week mode. So yeah I’m excited. And you know what. It’s not just because it’s Tennessee Florida and I want to beat them and we owe them and we get all this revenge stuff and all the record of wrongs. Remember when we used to do that.

Will: [00:04:32] Yeah yeah.

Joel: [00:04:33] There’s a lot of stuff there you know it’s all pent up. But it’s not just that because as Brad was mentioning last night. This is this is sort of a game where you can think that whoever wins sort of has the inside track to competing with Georgia for the SEC East probably not this year but seems to be the team that’s going to be favored to be the one to to compete with them in the immediate future. So I don’t know. Maybe that’s reading too much into it and of course if we lose I’ll say well it won’t matter you know.

Will: [00:05:18] No I agree with that though I think that’s I’ve read some interesting stuff from the Florida perspective this week talking about. Because they’ve already lost to Kentucky if you lose again here for them. Is that sort of the a reality check that they their administration the powers that be in Gainesville might need to say hey this is way worse than we than we thought it was. And even in their moments when they thought things were going poorly for them before whether it was the end of Ron Zooks tenure or you know the sort of the last Urban Meyer year that led to the first Will Muschamp year when things weren’t necessarily great they still had the potential to bounce it right back you know Urban Meyer won a national championship in his second year. Will Muschamp almost won the SEC in his second year got him. I think it was the sugar bowl it was a BCS. Yes. You know at large bid for them in his in his second year so even when they’ve had down moments I think the Gators are used to, we can turn this around almost overnight. Year two we can win. You know 13 plus games in the national championship. And I think if Tennessee wins this game Saturday it’s going to almost help is the word I want to use. It’s going to help them realize like hey this is this is more down than we have been previously and it’s going to take more time I think than Florida fans might want to Because you know you lose to Kentucky maybe Kentucy’s good who knows. You know maybe Kentucky this is a 9 or 10 win Kentucky team maybe probably not but maybe. But I think if you lose here to a team you’re still accustomed to beating I’m sure and to a Tennessee team that also has won four games last year. That may this may be a reality check for the Gators that sort of last year and really a much longer period over the last decade for Tennessee fans. I think we’ve already kind of gone through that that process says that’s kind of how I look at things.

Joel: [00:07:25] Yeah. I asked Brad this last night because my my statsy preview machine spit out after some eyeball and gut adjustments a one point Tennessee win 23 22. That’s my prediction. And Brad completely independently without any prior discussion. His prediction was Tennessee 24 Florida 23. So we’re both expecting really close games. What are you expecting Saturday

Will: [00:07:58] Well independently as well I can tell you in the in the confidence points picks contest I picked Tennessee 21 20. So I think we’re we’re all either we’re all brilliant or we’re all idiots. And you know again longtime listeners of this podcast can come to their own conclusions on that. But no I think the biggest thing to me is this. It really does feel like a toss up. It’s I think it’s still hard to get a really good read on either of these two teams because you got one bad performance and then you’ve got competition that is just kind of hard to I think Colorado State a lot of people thought it was going to be better than what Bobo and John Jancek and those guys put together and so it’s hard to look at what Florida did last week with any kind of real confidence or merit. So I’m not convinced this is when people talk about is going to be a rock fight and two really bad teams and whatever the case may be I’m not convinced of all that. I don’t think this is you know if we go back to 2013 Butch Jones first year that that the infamous Nathan Peterman game. Those were two really bad offenses really bad offenses in that game. I don’t think the offenses are that bad when we’re talking about this year. And there was you know we’ve seen some ineptitude Tennessee certainly last year was was really inept at times offensively in terms of execution inside the 10 yard line and all that we remember so I don’t think that this is destined to be a 16 13 18 punts sort of sort of game. But I do think it will. It will be lower scoring and until you see Tennessee’s line protect against a better sort of defense than what they have faced this year. You can’t really I have a hard time picking Tennessee to score 28 30 points until I see the line stand up. But I don’t

Joel: [00:10:01] Yeah.

Will: [00:10:01] Think it’ll take 20 or 30 points to win this game. So yeah I think a toss up given given the toss up nature I still am going to write about this for Friday morning. I just default back to the same thing I’ve been saying for the last two or three years which is I think Tennessee is better. I think Tennessee has been the better team four years in a row at this. And finally we asked this question we were talking about Spencer Hall a minute ago we used to have him on the podcast when we were at SB Nation here every week and every year when Tennessee played Florida. And I feel like for years we would ask is Tennessee feels like Tennessee is the better team is Tennessee the better team or at least caught up and the recruiting rankings really didn’t ever bear that out regardless of what Muschamp was or wasn’t getting out of the Gators. But now that really has changed because of. You’ve got three years of Jim McElwain’s recruiting you’ve got a kind of a tough transition class with Dan Mullen and so. The Athletic did a good piece this week. Just looking at. Yeah like Tennessee in recruiting going back over the last three or four years is equal to or better than Florida. Now some of those guys at Tennessee transferred out didn’t pan out. Preston Williams those kinds of guys were really highly rated. And Florida I’m sure has got some of that too but I just feel like in every measure that generally speaking in terms of who gained the most yards in these games recruiting those kinds of things that Tennessee has been better than Florida in the last four years and that it’s not. Again I’ll I’ll get into this more in-depth and in writing it out but it’s not homer fan optimism crazy talk to say that Tennessee has had to have some spectacularly strange things happen to them. Many of them self-inflicted

Joel: [00:11:57] Right.

Will: [00:11:58] To lose in 14 15 and 17. And Florida fans will probably say hey we had some spectacularly. You know what happened in 16 was weird. All of the games have been weird. I think we would say what happened in 16 was

Joel: [00:12:10] We just beat

Will: [00:12:11] Tennessee.

Joel: [00:12:11] You

Will: [00:12:13] Yeah and if Tennessee had had their stuff together the first half would have been way worse. But you know Tennessee was capable of just beating Florida in at least 15 as well and really dominated, dominated seven eighths of the game in 14 the one they ultimately lost 10 to nine. And last year Tennessee didn’t dominate that game but Tennessee was play for play. I would say was better than Florida in last years game and just spectacularly weirdly passed the ball inside the 10 yard line a bunch of times. Again you don’t need me to tell you that, you remember but. I just default to I think these are evenly matched teams in terms of. 2018. And when I think something is close I often just go back and say look I think Tennessee has been the better team the better. Even now. Equal to or better than Florida in recruiting and overall talent which is something that’s almost never been true in the history of this robbery [KEEPING THIS ERROR FOR FUN!]. And so all that being the case I tend to lean Tennessee’s way. Now all that stuff can go right out the window if you get that sort of coaching ineptitude because I was saying that about Tennessee and Georgia up to the kickoff of that game last year where Tennessee and Georgia had played one possession games 2011 through 2016. And so regardless of anything else kept going back and saying look these these teams are not that far apart. And as it turned out the difference between Kirby Smart and Butch Jones made them incredibly far apart. So you know I’m open to be wrong about this as as I am most things but I think this is a toss up. If you asked me how confident I am I would say five out of ten. And you know you hope that it’s 5.1 out of 10 and Tennessee they will find a way to get this done.

Joel: [00:14:13] Yeah. That’s interesting that you mentioned the Georgia thing because the difference there I think still goes back to recruiting because it was always pretty clear that Georgia had better players and then it was just a matter of the coaches sort of evening things out. And I think with Florida it’s almost like we have about the same kind of players and where we lost was on coaching. Even though McElwain got fired too you know we just made some. It seemed like coaching blunders were sort of the primary culprit for those for those losses. And you’re hoping that with the coaching change that a little more discipline a little more football knowledge a little more you know hey we know what’s going on here maybe makes the difference. So anyway that’s kind of what I’m thinking.

Joel: [00:15:05] But what do you think is the list of priorities for Tennessee on Saturday.

Will: [00:15:13] I think first of all it is for Jeremy Pruitt and Tyson Helton establishing some sort of rhythm offensively that gives you your best chance of victory which is to say how much more are they going to ask of Jarrett Guarantano without asking too much of him. It’s quarterback that hasn’t thrown an interception yet he’s been hit on a lot but not necessarily been put in terrible positions by the play calling a lot of deep shots have been with max protection and that sort of stuff. So when you have to be a little more exotic than that against the better defense and an SEC opponent how much more are they going to rely on Guarantano to do things for him and the passing game without relying too much without us coming back next week and talking alright Guarantano had three picks in this game and what do we do and that sort of stuff. And then right alongside that what’s the balance in their run game. If Tennessee is the next to worst rushing team in the country in the first quarter this year. If we’re bad running the ball in the first quarter again. How. How patient are we going to be this got Philip Fullmer some years with Florida where when we talk about the team that wins the rushing battle wins this contest. If Tennessee has one of these you know 35 carries for 70 yards that’s too many carries at two yards a carry.

Will: [00:16:39] You know at some point you need to try something else so how. How willing is a head coach as a defensive guy that we all I think kind of assume is more conservative and would like to run clock and have his defense be the one that dictates the game. What’s the sweet spot there in terms of how aggressive you’re going to be. How patient you’re going to be with the run game if it struggles early. All that sort of stuff so I think figuring out what that rhythm is offensively that gives Tennessee the best chance to win. To me that is the most. Important thing. You know other other things we’ve talked about before are important. If this line can’t block. Not much of this matters. If Tennessee can’t get pressure with just their front four guys then we’re back to the West Virginia conversation of alright here comes a bunch of blitzes and if he gets it off. Cross your fingers that you know our freshmen back there are going to be able to to not get beat and that should be an easier task against Florida. But that’s you know those things to me are just kind of simple. If we can’t block out a lot of these matters and if we can’t get to Felipe Franks cross your fingers.

Joel: [00:17:53] Have you heard Brad’s a stat on that I can’t even repeat what it is. But it’s but the gist of it is that apparently the numbers so far this year show that Felipe Franks is worse if you don’t pressure him.

Will: [00:18:10] So the idea there is right is such a bad decision maker

Joel: [00:18:13] Yeah.

Will: [00:18:13] That you want to have him sit back there and try to read the field and and pick it out. And you know I’ve heard Brad say that I’ve heard some other folks I read on Tennessee have made that point. I’m intrigued by that. You know I have the memory of this guy bombing a Hail Mary on us last year so there is a part of me that’s like well let’s put that guy on the ground if we can. But you know this too I think that will be telling a little bit about Pruitt is I don’t necessarily think that Pruitt is super overly aggressive by trade but he he has tremendous experience going against quarterbacks that are far better than Felipe Franks when he was in Alabama and Florida State and Georgia and trying to find ways to minimize what they were able to do. But Pruitt talks a lot about turnovers. You know you talked a lot about it again this week and

Joel: [00:19:06] Yeah.

Will: [00:19:06] So that’s that’s one of the things I think that that Chavis was really good at when he was here. Not all the turnovers that Tennessee got were about getting pressure on the quarterback. Some of them were. We got real good athletes and we’re going to put them in the right radar area on on the field and we’re going to trust that they’re going to go make a play. And I think again you’re seeing Pruitt play freshmen because he trusts that these guys have abilities to make plays that maybe some of the Butch Jones upperclassmen just just don’t have as much ability there even though they got more experience so you know I’m intrigued by that. I don’t I don’t know that you can build a whole game plan around that. The trust Felipe Franks to do something dumb game plan. I don’t know if that works or not

Joel: [00:19:52] Yeah.

Will: [00:19:52] But I mean again to see this rivalry. It’s so funny to look at and talk about because that the 15 game like those were two good teams that Florida with Will Grier was a really good team. And Tennessee as we all know in 15 was just a team that lost really close games to the east champion and other teams that made the playoffs so that 15 game was two really good teams going at each other. But the other times in these games you know we’re seeing Felipe Franks and Austin Appleby in 2016. And the guy where they made the change in 14 right and brought the kid and off the bench that got the one touchdown drive for him after a turnover. What was a kid’s name Harris or something like

Joel: [00:20:42] I don’t remember.

Will: [00:20:44] But so like we haven’t we haven’t seen sterling quarterback play outside of Will Grier in 2015 from from Florida in this rivalry. So is that part has changed obviously significantly from from back in the day and from Tim Tebow. So I don’t know. I think that’s just the sort of recent history weighing on me of saying well we’ve already been beat by Felipe Franks once and you know beat by in 2014 by bad quarterback play and we’re down 21 to 3 to Austin Appleby in 2016. So you know that is maybe I got a little too much scarring for that but this is where I part of the thing about having a national championship defensive coordinator is your head coaches. I don’t have to worry about that. I trust Jeremy Pruitt’s smart enough to figure out what to do there.

Joel: [00:21:34] Yeah. All right. So we’re we’re sort of running a little late here but you get a little extra time.

Will: [00:21:42] Yeah sure.

Joel: [00:21:43] Ok. So I just wanted to run through the guessing game questions. Just real quick I know you probably haven’t seen these yet or unless you read. OK. So you can you can defer if you want or just answer quickly or as with as much detail as you want but I’m going to run through them quick. So first one is which is greater Tennessee’s rushing yards or Florida’s passing yards.

Will: [00:22:09] I feel like the answer to that has to be Florida’s passing yards. If the answer is our rushing yards it’s going to be a real good night. But I think as much as Tennessee has struggled to run the ball with consistency. I think Florida will find opportunities and enough opportunities in the passing game even if it’s Felipe Franks for for the Gators to be the answer on that one.

Joel: [00:22:34] Ok. Does it change your answer. If I told you that Charleston Southern ran for 222 on them.

Will: [00:22:42] No see I don’t know enough about . . . like Kentucky. I think Benny Snell is a better running back then than anybody that we have on our roster. And also Kentucky the way they run the football is just different than the way we seek to run the football in terms of philosophy different enough anyway. So like not knowing enough or anything about Charleston Southern, no it does not. That does not change my mind on that. But again if that is the answer I think things are going to go extraordinarily well for Tennessee.

Joel: [00:23:18] Ok. That is exceptional infallible logic and I’m going with Tennessee’s rushing yards. So. All right.

Will: [00:23:26] They’re your questions. Yeah.

Joel: [00:23:28] So who scores the first touchdown for the Vols. Ty Chandler, another running back. A wide receiver or somebody else.

Will: [00:23:39] Well somebody else would be fun if we’re talking about all that stuff. But I will go with a wide receiver. I think I think Marquez Callaway is great. I think they intentionally didn’t really go to him a lot against against UTEP. I think Jauan Jennings obviously is someone that has a lot of history and success in this rivalry. And I’ve been impressed with Josh Palmer. Brandon Johnson was good last year. I think there are a lot of options. Tyson Helton as we read about in the summer USC and at Western Kentucky he involves three and four guys almost every game. It was really diverse in terms of the number of receivers out there so I would not be surprised to see one. I think Callaway maybe, when Tennessee’s offense is on the field I think Callaway may be the best player on the field. No offense to Trey Smith but then 2, just some wrinkles and there again if you’re going to lean on Guarantano more are there ways to change them up and slip something in there to Jordan Murphy or you know those those kinds of things so I will I will go with a wide receiver on that one.

Joel: [00:24:45] All right. I’m going with another running back just the field against Ty Chandler I think it’s going to be a running touchdown first and I’m just going with the field versus Chandler and the somebody else, that’s basically a spot for Dominick Wood-Anderson. So.

Will: [00:25:02] Right. Or Jarrett Guarantano on a roll out keeper.

Joel: [00:25:06] That’ll work. Yeah. Ok third question who leads at half time the Vols the Gators or nobody

Will: [00:25:15] If the action is juiced toward nobody I mean if you’re giving me more points for nobody I

Joel: [00:25:20] Probably

Will: [00:25:20] May I may

Joel: [00:25:20] Am.

Will: [00:25:20] Actually yeah I may pick that and the actual contest but I’ll say Tennessee. I mean again if if were saying it’s 50/50, Tennessee’s at home and said as he had been better the last few years I would lean towards Tennessee.

Joel: [00:25:33] All right cool. You’re actually like you’re in the lead overall for the pick em contest this year is that right.

Will: [00:25:44] I am it’s very strange to me. I got again longtime listeners and readers will know I’m a gut person but I’m also like I pick teams that I like. I don’t like to be conflicted when I’m watching the games.

Joel: [00:25:59] Yeah.

Will: [00:25:59] I don’t like to think oh I really like this team to win but I picked this other team so one way I got ahead of a lot of people early is I had Virginia Tech over Florida State in week one

Joel: [00:26:08] Ok

Will: [00:26:08] And that’s a that’s a game where a lot of people I know put a lot of points on Willie Taggart and company down there

Joel: [00:26:16] Yeah.

Will: [00:26:17] And they should not have done that. So that’s not the Virginia Tech is my point Willie Taggart may turn out to be fine but that was a I’m back in my house now is about 20 miles from Lane Stadium. So I am I’m a little biased in that direction anyway but. That was that game had the total makings of a game that Virginia Tech wins which is what happened so I say all that to say I tend to do as well as Tennessee does

Joel: [00:26:45] Yeah.

Will: [00:26:45] In a given year in these things. So

Joel: [00:26:47] That’s what I was going to say if Tennessee ever wins the national championship you’re going to also win the pick em.

Will: [00:26:52] That’s right. Exactly yeah. So so far I am in first. But I had us to beat with Virginia. I’ve certainly got Tennessee not I don’t know know I think the confidence points on West Virginia I had like 3 I think I’ve got Tennessee at like 9 this week.

Joel: [00:27:10] That’s

Will: [00:27:10] So

Joel: [00:27:10] Pretty high for

Will: [00:27:11] You know

Joel: [00:27:11] A one point

Will: [00:27:12] It’s

Joel: [00:27:12] Game.

Will: [00:27:13] I’ve got some other some other things in there though that I’m interested in. And it makes me look so smart. But last week another reason I’m in front is I picked BYU to beat Wisconsin. You know why? It’s because we play BYU next year. And it’s better for us nationally if they’re good so.

Joel: [00:27:30] That was not infallible logic.

Will: [00:27:33] No. It’s like I said it’s my heart and my gut. I had I had it with like one confidence point but I bet lots people had Wisconsi at like 18 confidence points so

Joel: [00:27:43] Yeah, that was me.

Will: [00:27:44] Is that right.

Joel: [00:27:46] Yeah.

Will: [00:27:46] Yes. So I just pick those thing I pick that game because it’s of interest to Tennessee and because we play BYU next year. And I pick BYU to win because even joked about it on Twitter. It’s better for Tennessee if BYU is better next year and then we beat them. So you know I’m that’s I don’t think I have anything I’d have to look at it. I think I have anything really crazy this week. I had a real hard time like this is the weird world we live in where the two most interesting SEC games this Saturday are probably the best one is Mississippi State and Kentucky which I don’t know how that happened but like truly that’s the best SEC game this week and the hardest one to pick to me outside of Tennessee Florida is South Carolina Vanderbilt.

Joel: [00:28:33] Yeah yeah

Will: [00:28:34] Like

Joel: [00:28:34] I got Vandy

Will: [00:28:34] That’s

Joel: [00:28:35] In that one actually.

Will: [00:28:35] I’ve got Vandy too. And it’s so weird like I don’t know how many times I’ve said the phrase I’ve got Vandy in that one in my life let alone against the team that was going to be the second best team in this division.

Joel: [00:28:47] Yeah.

Will: [00:28:48] And I think it’s in Nashville and Vandy may even be favored like it.

Joel: [00:28:51] No they’re

Will: [00:28:51] I

Joel: [00:28:52] Not.

Will: [00:28:52] Think

Joel: [00:28:52] But it’s close. I think is like two

Will: [00:28:53] It’s like two

Joel: [00:28:53] And a half

Will: [00:28:54] And a half. Yeah. So I don’t know man this is this is weird but no joke I mean I feel bad for Alabama and Texas A&M is the 330 game and all that but Bama sis till at 27 and a half point favorite in that

Joel: [00:29:09] Yeah

Will: [00:29:10] Game. The

Joel: [00:29:10] Yeah.

Will: [00:29:10] Best game this week like that is in a totally fair world. Mississippi State and Kentucky is the 330 CBS game this week. But instead I’m sure it’s like ESPNU or something like that.

Joel: [00:29:25] So if you’re looking for a way to win the pick em you just have to change your strategy and figure out some way to go with Will’s gut. That’s basically the lesson I’m learning from this

Will: [00:29:36] Through the first

Joel: [00:29:36] Sir.

Will: [00:29:36] Three weeks yeah.

Joel: [00:29:38] All right. Quickly last question because I wanted to get to this if we if we still had time. You’re the basketball guy. So do you have anything to say about the hoops team landing five star point guard Josiah James.

Will: [00:29:53] Well you know I think everyone who you just can’t assume about things everyone assumed things about Rick Barnes over the course of X number of years he’s kind of doing what he did at Texas which is build the program his way establish his culture and then here comes the big money recruit. I mean again this is lots people have said this on Twitter I tweeted this to in the history of recruiting rankings this is the third highest commit to ever sign with Tennessee. Only Tobias Harris and Scotty Hopson have have been higher. So you know this is a big time player like Tobias Harris may only be around here for one year. But I think Barnes also learned with all those guys at Texas which led to a bunch of earlier exits in the NCAA tournament than than they were seeded for. You know it shows me that he’s not afraid to still go after the very best players that we’re not trying to be Virginia or no offense to Virginia. They were incredible last year in the regular season. We’re not trying to be South Carolina in our conference who we’re going to do it our way or we’re going to recruit kids and only play our way like it. Barnes is still more than happy to take a five star kid if he fits what we’re doing and we’ve been in on other five star kids as well. So now it’s I me will be interesting to see as we go from here how many more of these one and done ish players is Barnes going to go after and try to get.

Will: [00:31:28] But I think you got to feel so good about the culture at Tennessee right now and where you know we’re in a year where You know you’re going to lose Admiral. Grant’s a junior. You might lose him, you might lose Kyle Alexander. When you were trying to figure out OK is next season is 2019 20 going to be a rebuilding year. Well no. Now it’s going to be. We might have an NBA lottery pick on our team. So you know that’s that was a great thing. I think for Tennessee’s future so just goes to show you man all the things that all the things in terms of on court success that I thought Tennessee lost when Bruce Pearl left and I wasn’t sure if they would ever get back. Barnes, still got to get to the Sweet 16 or the elite eight with Tennessee, but Barnes has Tennessee competing and recruiting at those same levels right now. And that’s that’s an incredible testament to him so we can’t get back the shirtless painted chests whatever. But we also we also can’t get back or should want to get back lying to the NCAA. So you know it’s. It is. As a long suffering Tennessee basketball fan I am thrilled that it certainly appears that what we’re seeing right now isn’t just oh man we’ve got a really good mix of players and we’re going to be really good for two years and we’ll see that you know Barness is setting this thing up to keep Tennessee at the table for a long time and I think that’s tremendous.

Joel: [00:33:03] I will forever maintain that Bruce Pearl didn’t get fired for lying to the NCAA. As much as he did for admitting it which is a shame because that’s what you should do when you do something wrong. You should admit it but all the people who just maintain their lie when everybody knows they’re lying. They always get a pass. I hate that

Will: [00:33:22] Yeah. Oh yeah I mean it’s Clay Travis. We mentioned him earlier as one of the first people I saw say hey this this whole thing with Pearl is like no one will ever come clean to the NCAA again I promise

Joel: [00:33:35] Yes.

Will: [00:33:36] You that because you get a 3 year show cause for it. So you know. Good good for Bruce. He’s again I’ve written about this Bruce is at Auburn, legally or illegally. I have no idea but he’s doing great things at Auburn and good for him. Cuonzo is at Missouri doing great things good for him like you know everybody can be Rick Barnes doesn’t need Cuonzo Martin to suck for him to be successful and thanks be to God we don’t have to have you know here’s Bruce Pearl cutting down nets and meanwhile we’re four and 14. Can you imagine if we hadn’t hired Barnes or if you know whatever had happened and we actually finished 13th last year and Pearl won the SEC . Can you imagine. I mean just it would have fit really well with the rest of the decade. But you know I am I am as bad as things have been in football to have had to have had as good as we had it with Pearl for six years and now two two have come back to a place where it feels like anything is possible with this basketball program. Again that’s an incredible thing. And if Tennessee does not play well Saturday night and they lose to the Gators. Chris Chris Pendley and I were talking about this earlier today that it may be the first time in the history of ever that Tennessee is quicker than Kentucky to say wait till basketball season baby but basketball season is coming. So that’s that’s good news on the back end.

Joel: [00:35:10] That’s Will Shelton and that’s going to be a wrap for episode 152 of the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. As always please subscribe rate and review bonus points if you use the phrase.

Joel: [00:35:25] “I’m going with Will’s gut” in the review. That’s the secret phrase for this.

Will: [00:35:32] Next week the secret praise will be I trusted Will’s gut and I shouldn’t have

Joel: [00:35:38] I’ll remember them or write that down.

Will: [00:35:39] Yeah.

Joel: [00:35:41] And so for Will Shelton I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast.

Joel: [00:35:49] Have you noticed that the robo-transcript always calls it the Gameday Iraqi. Actually I’ve been I’ve been

Will: [00:35:56] Not

Joel: [00:35:56] Correct

Will: [00:35:56] Saying

Joel: [00:35:56] In it.

Will: [00:35:57] That

Joel: [00:35:58] Gameday. Iraqi. Podcast. Iraqi Top.

Will: [00:36:03] Yeah there are real because that typically is how I hear the podcast that I’m not on is by reading the transcript on my lunch break or something like that and I have. There have been some real gems in there. So whatever whatever whatever service you’re using to translate it I would not change it because I really enjoy it.

Joel: [00:36:23] I’ve been actually correcting most of them but if they’re really good I’ll just leave them and make a note of what was the hilarious one from yesterday.

Will: [00:36:30] Like a standard woman rush or something

Joel: [00:36:32] Oh yeah

Will: [00:36:33] Like that

Joel: [00:36:33] It was.

Will: [00:36:33] Or

Joel: [00:36:34] He tried to say a four standard four man rush. Is that standard woman rush. Yeah that was

Will: [00:36:41] Yeah

Joel: [00:36:42] A good one.

Will: [00:36:42] You’ve got to watch out for that. Yeah.

Joel: [00:36:45] I know I was gonna say you said you know having him cut down the nets at Auburn while we’re 4 and 14 that would be kind of like if Saban retired they promoted Butch Jones and he hoisted the crystal trophy over there.

Will: [00:37:01] Seems unlikely.

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GRT Podcast 9.19.18

NOTES

[00:03:55] Quick takes on the news items of the day.
[00:07:07] Our game predictions, and why.
[00:10:47] The list of priorities for the Vols against the Gators.
[00:19:10] Brad’s answers to this week’s Guessing Game questions.

TRANSCRIPT

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:12] This is the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast Episode 151. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and I’m with Brad Shepherd tonight. Brad you. You missed the milestone episode 150. What do you have to say for yourself.

Brad Shepard: [00:00:29] I feel like I’ve probably been a part of about 50 of those maybe 70 of those and

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:36] That’s a big . . .

Brad Shepard: [00:00:37] Since I’ve been blogging we’ve been pretty bad. So I would say probably 50 of those were sad podcasts so I hope you guys were a little bit uplifting on your 150

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:51] We did our best. We were talking about UTEP mostly so that helped. Although

Brad Shepard: [00:00:55] That does.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:56] We did get into a little bit of Florida but yeah it was a big milestone. We’re trying to figure out you know what is the gift for 150. Will thought it was candy I thought it was a sack of potatoes. Do you have an opinion.

Brad Shepard: [00:01:09] Oh sack of potatoes is a great answer because I love the sack of potatoes as we all know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:16] I was spreading that rumor all over Twitter you know.

Brad Shepard: [00:01:22] Because of because of our head coach. Now I would say that a scan of the scan a can of Skoal or a scan

Brad Shepard: [00:01:29] Of coal. I don’t know what I don’t know what a scan of coal is but a can of Skoal was I think the gift for 150 podcast should be

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:37] Scan of coal. You know I mean that’s you know you just put it on the copier or you press the button and you send it to your e-mail. You know

Brad Shepard: [00:01:45] Scanned at Kohl’s maybe. I don’t know.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:47] There we go. All right. So anyway we’ve got we’ve got several Vols related things to get to tonight. So I want to get the warm up question out of the way first. Brad what is the what’s the best game that you’ve ever been to in person Vols or not. Do you have one that comes immediately to mind

Brad Shepard: [00:02:06] 1998 Tennessee Florida and I mean you know I’ve been to a lot of games a lot of good games but that game was it was the outcome that we all wanted. It was just you know the I mean history has has has really made it kind of stand out but from an atmosphere standpoint after game standpoint and it was just you know it was loud it was intense it was constant and then we were rewarded for it. It was just great. And as much as as much as the Arkansas game was awesome at the end that game was not fun at all.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:44] Is

Brad Shepard: [00:02:44] The

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:44] Arain

Brad Shepard: [00:02:45] Game

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:45] Right.

Brad Shepard: [00:02:46] It was it was awful. And even though you know it’s a little bit lesser on the scale but you know Tennessee Cal 2006 was was a whole lot of fun because the stadium was raucous and ready and and Tennessee really kind of poured it on. So there have been some good games and or been several of them but nothing really compares to 98 Tennessee Florida. For me

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:13] Yeah I was at that Cal game too and it was at the game where the guy from Cal was saying oh you know Neyland can’t be nothing. You know we have fans here too. We even have car flags or something like that.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:24] Yes.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:25] So

Brad Shepard: [00:03:26] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:26] We ramped it up just a little bit just for him. Actually I had a young child in 98 so I didn’t see and I’m not sure I saw any games live that year except you know on TV live. So the one that I was at was. Was it 2016. Jauan Jennings Florida that was a good one. When we just finally started rolling against them that was that was awesome.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:55] Sure.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:55] So they were a bunch of stuff happened today. Defensive lineman Kingston Harris is moved to offensive line quickly. Good. Good move bad move just short answer.

Brad Shepard: [00:04:10] Not I’m not sure I mean I’ll like Kingston Harrison’s potential at defensive line. I think this is something that you know Pruitt is going to be known for his time at Tennessee I think that he’s going to look going to give guys extended positions to see if they can help and Harris definitely fits the bill from a size standpoint and Tennessee needs some help on that offensive line. If he’s ever going to be able to help this year. But you know what if he goes over there and he’s all of a sudden very good tennis he did that with Jashon Robertson and he pretty much

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:43] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:04:44] caught on immediately and became Tennessee’s best offensive lineman for a while. So I got no problem trying it out especially considering Harris was not in the defensive line rotation as it was

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:54] Yeah it sort of really shines a light on the loss of Kennedy too. Maybe it’s just a numbers thing. He just needed another body over there. But you know I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. Also the hoops landed a five star point guard and Josiah James I don’t know anything about him yet except he’s a five star point guard. And if Rick Barnes can do what he’s done with the guys that he’s already had you start adding some blue chip talent into that lineup and watch out that’s going to be awesome. Quarte’ Sapp apparently will return to action this weekend. He’s been filling in I guess mostly and backup duty. Is that right. But having him

Brad Shepard: [00:05:35] Has been he’s had a bone bruise

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:05:36] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:05:37] And

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:05:37] So he’ll be there and ready to help. But apart from the news you know the big thing is the Gators come to town this weekend. So it’s it’s a rivalry

Brad Shepard: [00:05:47] Pretty

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:05:47] Game

Brad Shepard: [00:05:47] Important

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:05:48] That is pretty important. It’s right up there with . . . I don’t know, class. And you know the things you’re supposed to say. So anyway the game.

Brad Shepard: [00:05:59] Yeah. There’s class.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:00] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:06:01] It’s not quite as big as psych 101 but you know it’s pretty big

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:07] Well it’s not like you know if it was finals maybe maybe a different deal. But this seems

Brad Shepard: [00:06:11] Right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:12] Like finals in the fourth week of the season. You know that’s kind of what Florida does to us. Right. So it’s a rivalry game it’s a night game. The schools released this awesome hype video with Admiral Schofield narrating that is just spectacular. Have you seen that yet.

Brad Shepard: [00:06:27] It is great. It’s great

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:29] It is awesome. He

Brad Shepard: [00:06:30] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:30] Did

Brad Shepard: [00:06:30] I’m

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:30] A fantastic

Brad Shepard: [00:06:30] A big fan

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:31] Job.

Brad Shepard: [00:06:31] Of.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:31] He’s like a little actor or something that dude on that little bit you know.

Brad Shepard: [00:06:35] I mean that guy he is. He’s impressive at whatever he does. He’s just a just a top notch all around kid an ambassador to the program. I mean it’s it’s it’s very cool. Yeah everybody needs to watch that.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:06:48] Yeah love that dude. Everybody needs to watch that two or three times every day until Florida until the game. So on top of that it’s payback time. You know times two or four I’ve kind of lost count at this point. How many revenge things we owe them. But basically it’s

Brad Shepard: [00:07:07] Times 12 out of 13.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:07:07] A big game. Times 12 out of 13 that’ll do it. It’s a big game. So my my statsy preview machine I ran it tonight. It’s weighed in it’s calling for a close one. It says Tennessee 23 Florida 22 win for the good guys. So that’s that’s that’s going to be my prediction it goes live in the morning. So Brad what are you expecting he expected a close one. Not a close one yet another new and thrilling way to develop nausea. What do you think.

Brad Shepard: [00:07:40] It’s really unbelievable that that’s what the machine spit out that that’s what you’re predicting because I literally just finished writing my locks and keys column because I’m out of out of pocket tomorrow night and probably night. So I went ahead and got that in the hopper and of course as longtime readers know up with a prediction in there and predicted it. Tennessee 24 to 23. So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:03] All right. Well there

Brad Shepard: [00:08:05] That’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:05] You go.

Brad Shepard: [00:08:06] Pretty crazy that it’s that close. I mean so I’m feeling at one point close victory like that. You know it’s I mean it’s it really could go either way. And that’s what that’s what’s great about the game this year. And you know everybody wants to talk about well this could be could be the battle for last in the EAst and we talked about that last week

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:27] Know

Brad Shepard: [00:08:27] In a couple days ago actually feels like last week. But you know I mean move beyond that is still Tennessee still very important to us. Very important to them. It’s actually in my opinion. And I called this out too. I think it’s probably the most important Tennessee Florida game in in several years and it’s not because it’s for the east but it’s really because we know that Tennessee and Florida are the two programs in the east that have the resources that have the the pedigree to have the history that have you know the recruiting ability to step up and play with Georgia and they’re not going to this year. But this is step one toward reclaiming that status and whether it be Florida wins and they use that as a catapult and you know start recruiting better. And you know it look good for Mullen’s you know kind of a notch in his belt for his first season or whether Pruitt can kind of get an early signature win I call it what you will. This might not be a really good Florida team but it’s still Florida. So an early signature win in Tennessee you can use that on the recruiting trail. But you know the bottom line is is that these teams needed for bowl eligibility more than anything especially

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:45] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:09:46] After Tennessee loses to West Virginia and Florida loses to Kentucky. When you look at those upcoming schedules you know Florida’s got LSU you every year like we’ve got Alabama every year and those look like definite losses this year for both teams and so when in Tennessee obviously has to play Auburn and in Georgia. And you know it’s it’s just it looks like and with Kentucky and for Kentucky and Vanderbilt and Missouri and South Carolina being better than what they’ve been in recent years if Tennessee loses this game you’re looking at having to win three out of four. And that’s that’s tough. I mean that’s I don’t want to say it’s impossible but it’s improbable at this point. So the winner of this game both of these teams need a win not only to get the program started not only to look good in recruiting not only to make your fans feel better about the hire you made but to make it to the postseason this year. I think it’s a vital game for both programs.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:47] So what does the list of priorities look like for the Vols this weekend. Maybe top three. What’s at the top of the list.

Brad Shepard: [00:10:57] The top of the list is protecting Guarantano because you know that’s Jarrett’s proven that he can throw them that he can throw the ball he’s actually look good against pressure this year at times. But we all saw what this offense could be like in the first few snaps of that West Virginia game. If they don’t get you know good proper protection. And I feel like this Florida pass rush is much better than West Virginia’s pass rush. So you know it’s to get C.C. Jefferson. But I mean he was back last week but he comes back in full strength this week. They’ve already got Jabari Zuniga over on the other edge. So they’ve got two legit pass rushers not elite pass rushers but legit pass rushers they can get pressure on Tennessee and quite frankly as I talked about in the locks and keys column tomorrow. I mean Drew Drew Richmond and Trey Smith. Neither been very good this year and that’s something that Tennessee has really desperately got to improve on the edges in this game to protect Gurantano and if they do feel like that Guarantano has enough weapons and has proven he can make all the throws that Tennessee can really get some things in the passing game because or are secondary. It’s not what we’re used to Florida’s secondary being. So if if he just has time to throw the football. Tennessee is going to be able to make some plays downfield and that’s going to be vitally important to not only maintaining these drives but also some of those flash plays that Tennessee not had against Florida. They did a couple years ago but they’ve not consistently had this long period of you know being worse than the Gators. So I think that that’s important. The offensive line, number one. Number two.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:44] Let me

Brad Shepard: [00:12:44] I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:44] Stop

Brad Shepard: [00:12:44] Know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:45] You

Brad Shepard: [00:12:45] That.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:45] Right there just for a second.

Brad Shepard: [00:12:45] Yes. For sure

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:47] You mentioned that Florida’s secondary is not what we’re used to. Why is that because a lot of us are just focused on Tennessee. Can you elaborate on Florida’s secondary.

Brad Shepard: [00:12:57] Well they’re just younger. I mean they’re not. There’s not a lot of proven players out there and you know they’ve got they’ve got some guys back there. But you know they don’t have the they don’t have the really elite players back there that they’ve had in the recent past. And it’s and it’s. And frankly McElwain you know even struggled to recruit those guys in the last couple years so some of the guys that they’ve got back there that are young and talented are not quite as talented as we’ve seen in the past so you know they’re they’re kind of scrambling around back there too. Now they’ve got some players. I’m not I’m not I mean Florida’s always going to have players were always going to have athletes but you know they’ve got some guys. I mean Kentucky has a JUCO quarterback Terry Wilson who’s a sophomore who is really been one of the bright spots in the SEC so far this year so I’m not taking anything away from him but his knock coming in to UK was was accuracy and that kid shredded Florida. I mean he had time to throw the football. Of course, he’s a mobile quarterback. So he moved the pocket around and was able to kind of create some space for himself and really just dissected that defense and that secondary. So you know Guarantano can move his feet around around a little bit. We saw a little bit of that in the UTEP game if he can kind of get in some passing lanes and see some some receivers clearly. I mean I think Tennessee is going to be able to move the football through the air against Florida.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:14:26] All right. Thanks for that. Second priority then.

Brad Shepard: [00:14:30] Second priority. I know that we talked the other night about about Felipe Franks and how he’s actually been better against the blitz but I’m never going to go into a game say it as he doesn’t need to pressure the quarterback. They’ve got to get more pressure on Franks than what they’ve done with the other quarterbacks. Yeah and make him make quick decisions because I just don’t think that he’s consistently going to be good at that. And Tennessee Florida Florida doesn’t have a lot of the game breaking receivers. They don’t have the Antonio Calloway on their team. They don’t have the Percy Harvin from the past. They’ve got good possession guys. Freddie Swain who Tennessee lead for for a long time in the recruiting process is probably Florida’s best receiver and he’s kind of I don’t want to say he’s a possession guy because he also returned last week for a touchdown but he’s not your game breaker player that you’re used to Florida having so you know I think that if Tennessee can to Frank he’s going to go to a safety valve a lot more. And you know Tennessee could make some plays on the back end if they’re if they’re fortunate. They do you know they kind of are the opportunistic team they were against ETSU Florida is by no means ETSU. But you do want to try to get Franks in a situation where he feels like he’s got to get rid of the ball quickly. And when that happens I don’t see him consistently being a good quarterback and then

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:55] I

Brad Shepard: [00:15:56] You know to me.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:57] I feel

Brad Shepard: [00:15:57] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:58] I feel compelled to point out that Tyrie Cleveland looks like maybe he can get behind a defense and

Brad Shepard: [00:16:04] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:04] Just

Brad Shepard: [00:16:05] She

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:05] Have just

Brad Shepard: [00:16:05] Does. But but but he’s inconsistent. He does. And you’re right I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:11] He’s the

Brad Shepard: [00:16:11] Kind

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:11] Guy

Brad Shepard: [00:16:11] Of

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:11] That

Brad Shepard: [00:16:12] Glossed

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:12] Did it last

Brad Shepard: [00:16:12] Over

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:12] Year

Brad Shepard: [00:16:12] Cleveland.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:12] I had on the last play.

Brad Shepard: [00:16:14] Yeah. I mean

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:15] Ok.

Brad Shepard: [00:16:15] But but he’s he’s so yeah. I just kind of blocked that from my mind.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:20] Good for

Brad Shepard: [00:16:20] But

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:20] You.

Brad Shepard: [00:16:21] He got

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:21] That’s

Brad Shepard: [00:16:21] Behind that he got behind the Butch Jones defense. So I mean I’m not you know whatever but

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:25] Ok.

Brad Shepard: [00:16:26] But you know he’s he’s so inconsistent. I mean he’s he’s the kind of player that can be too sure. I mean you can but he’s not he’s not the blazer that’s going to go down there and be open five or six times downfield he’s just not that guy. And so you know I mean I feel I think Tennessee matches up fairly well with Florida’s receivers really especially when they’ve got their more athletic group out there. I may not I’m not on the Baylen Buchanan train by any stretch of the imagination but you know I wonder if Tennessee is so they’ve had two really good Bryce Thompson gangs in a row. Alontae Taylor even though he’s let receivers get behind him a couple times he’s shown some flashes. I’m not sure that this is not the game where they just put those kids out there because they’re the better athletes. I mean so we’ll see. I mean I’m not saying Buchanans not going to have a role in this game. Absolutely. But you know Tennessee is going I’m not sure that Tennessee’s going to blitz a ton. And so they’re going to try to get pressure with four or five and then you know kind to kind of lay back because I’m not sure that they feel like Florida can beat them passing the football. If Florida can more power to them but I’m not sure Florida can either. So that’s that’s going to be an encouraging or encouraging that’s going to be an interesting chess match to watch there. And then the third the third thing is really this is the most important thing we’re talking about my keys but you guys still need to read the column tomorrow.

Brad Shepard: [00:17:51] But but the most important thing is Tennessee absolutely has to get out to a quick start to a quick start. You score a touchdown early. That crowd that game at Neyland stadium that that 12th man kind of thing. I mean everybody’s going to be lathered up and excited and it’s going to be you know kind of hot. I mean it’s just going to be it’s all this just all of that kind of momentum. I mean that place is electrifying quickly especially in a game like that. So I mean if Tennessee. You know the crowd is going to be into it early. And if they keep the crowd into it you know Florida’s offense is bad and that offense already being bad is going to struggle to get any kind of rhythm going. If they can’t hear themselves think as we all know Neyland has that ability to get that loud and to stay that loud especially for a game that’s this important so I think it’s it’s very important for the fans to get their brand full voice and be ready and I think they will be because I think everybody realizes this this year is not going to be quote unquote special but this is a very important game to maximize the potential of this season. And I think that you’re going to hear that tomorrow I’m sorry Saturday not in Neyland Stadium

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:19:10] All right. So we do this guessing game on the website for the community on Fridays. So I got the questions here and I know you’re going to you’re going to field these cold so we won’t hold you

Brad Shepard: [00:19:23] Oh

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:19:23] To

Brad Shepard: [00:19:24] My

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:19:24] It. But just wanted your sorta off the cuff responses to these so the first question is which is greater Tennessee’s rushing yards or Florida’s passing yards.

Brad Shepard: [00:19:39] Oh well I would say Florida passing yards. Tennessee’s I think Tennessee established a run against UTEP established that they want to run the football and that they expect to run the football that they know they’re going to have to run the football to be to win these important games. I think Tennessee will do an ok job running the ball. But you know what’s an OK job against Florida. I mean you know I see Tennessee maybe rushing or you know 140 yards maybe. I mean if that’s if they I think if Tennessee rushes for 140 yards, 140 to 150 yards they win the football game and you know Florida. Even though Florida is not going to blow Tennessee out of the water passing the football you’ve got to think against that young secondary they’re going to go for more than that so I say Florida passing yards

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:20:32] All right. You know I think as I was researching this I’m pretty sure that I came across the fact that Charleston Southern ran for 222 yards on them and

Brad Shepard: [00:20:45] Oh my gosh.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:20:46] I know I looked at that and I fact checked it three times and I still think it’s wrong. I still think that I must have read it wrong because that sounds really high. So before it actually goes live tomorrow I’m going to check it again. But if that’s right then you know there is some promise there. So anyway

Brad Shepard: [00:21:05] Sure. Absolutely.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:06] It’s is probably wrong because you know it’s late it’s late on Wednesday night as we’re recording so you know and I’m old

Brad Shepard: [00:21:12] We’re going with it being right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:14] There you go. All right. Next question who scored the first touchdown for the Vols. Ty Chandler, another running back, a wide receiver, or somebody else.

Brad Shepard: [00:21:25] Oh man. Whoscores the first touchdown for the Vols. Oh that’s a great question. So many options. I think Tennessee. I think Tennessee is going to hit a pretty big play early. I’m going to go with Marquez Callaway

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:43] All right a wide receiver I didn’t even make you choose a guy just anybody in the receiving corps except

Brad Shepard: [00:21:48] Yeah we’re going to go with the receiver

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:49] All

Brad Shepard: [00:21:49] And

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:49] Right.

Brad Shepard: [00:21:49] I’m going to go I’m going to be specific. I’m going to say Callaway on a deep ball from Guarantano.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:55] Right. You know Palmer’s

Brad Shepard: [00:21:56] Maybe not a

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:56] Been

Brad Shepard: [00:21:57] Ball but you know more

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:58] Because

Brad Shepard: [00:21:58] Than 15 yards

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:59] Palmer’s been getting the deep balls. Right. But

Brad Shepard: [00:22:02] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:02] You

Brad Shepard: [00:22:02] Well

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:02] Know

Brad Shepard: [00:22:03] Both those guys yeah. I mean that’s that’s encouraging. Tennessee’s got a couple of deep threats.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:07] Yeah

Brad Shepard: [00:22:07] I think

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:08] I think when I

Brad Shepard: [00:22:09] Really

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:09] Answer this

Brad Shepard: [00:22:09] Like Palmer’s progression.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:11] Was the

Brad Shepard: [00:22:12] They are really like Palmer’s progression. David Johnson is the truth at wide receivers coach. He’s already getting more out of those guys than we’ve seen over the receiving corps since the Dooley days.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:24] Yup yup he’s good. Scuse me I think I’m going to go with another running back

Brad Shepard: [00:22:32] Who are

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:33] Just because it’s the field against Ty Chandler I guess so.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:38] You know I wanted to say Banks but I’m not you know I’m not sure Banks is going to get the ball after that fumble. I mean this kind of game he will some think he’s going to have a role but I like that pick. I think that Tennessee could give it to Madre down there at the goal line.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:52] Yeah. Or you know Jordan too.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:55] To

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:56] All

Brad Shepard: [00:22:56] Be

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:56] Right.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:56] Jordan tap dances a little too much for me around there but whatever

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:23:00] He does. Yeah they got after him for bouncing it outside too much too right. And that’s.

Brad Shepard: [00:23:06] Yeah man this is going to be this is going to sound terrible but I’m an offensive lineman. I mean dude run straight up my tail. That is what you need is a running back. Push me into the end zone like I’m blocking for you

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:23:19] That’s

Brad Shepard: [00:23:19] Run

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:23:19] Why

Brad Shepard: [00:23:19] Over me

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:23:20] That’s why I think that Banks started getting so many carriages because Jordan was down there against. I think it was ETSU. Yeah. And so he bounced something outside at the goal line he got yanked immediately yelled at and Banks went in there and ran it straight up the middle and got a touchdown. And then he did

Brad Shepard: [00:23:40] Absolute

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:23:40] It again on the next one. So yeah but that’s the great thing about competition is is it provides coaching and learning opportunities to your guys because I bet Jordan is going to learn that. So. All right. Third question who leads at halftime the Vols the Gators or nobody.

Brad Shepard: [00:24:00] I think Tennessee’s got to score early and keep that momentum to win the game and since I picked them to win the game I’m going to say Tennessee leads at halftime. I think they’re going to lead. You know I think it’s going to be a good little lead and you know Florida’s going to score early in the second half and kind of make it a football game. But I mean if I’m going to stick with my Tennessee prediction I say the Vols lead at the break.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:24:23] All right. Well we’re out of time. That’s Brad Shepard and that’s going to do it for the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. As always please subscribe. I said please please rate please review. Those things are are all nice for us and we like them very much. And you also get bonus points if you use the phrase does a duck pull a truck. Let’s use that one tonight. That worked. What was that there was two years ago.

Brad Shepard: [00:24:54] It was two years ago.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:24:55] All right. OK good. So for Brad Shepard I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast.

Brad Shepard: [00:25:13] Going to be fishing on Friday and a concert that night and so I’m not gonna be

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:17] Are you going to

Brad Shepard: [00:25:18] Out

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:18] See

Brad Shepard: [00:25:18] Of pocket.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:18] Taylor Swift

Brad Shepard: [00:25:18] So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:18] Again.

Brad Shepard: [00:25:20] I’m not I’m going to send Jason Isbell in Asheville and John Moreland too. And that’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:27] In

Brad Shepard: [00:25:27] He’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:27] Asheville.

Brad Shepard: [00:25:28] He’s awesome

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:29] How long of a drive

Brad Shepard: [00:25:29] Asheville

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:30] Is that

Brad Shepard: [00:25:30] North

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:30] For

Brad Shepard: [00:25:30] Carolina.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:30] You.

Brad Shepard: [00:25:32] It’s five hours.

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Pardon the errors, as the bot understands neither southern accents nor football.

GRT Podcast 9.18.18

NOTES

[00:00:49] Favorite novels: Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, Harry Potter, Michael Crichton, Dr. Suess, and Shel Silverstein.
[00:04:43] How does Will feel about the 24-0 score against UTEP?
[00:08:30] Those moments in the stadium with pockets of fans intently watching other games that matter.
[00:12:02] The race for the SEC East and where Tennessee and Florida fit in as of right now.
[00:17:04] Is Tennessee improving?
[00:21:55] Pruitt’s, and coaches’ generally, communication with fans.

TRANSCRIPT

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:13] This is the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast, episode 150. That’s a big mark there isn’t

Will Shelton: [00:00:19] Wow.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:19] it Will. That’s

Will Shelton: [00:00:21] I’m honored to. I mean I’ve been on most of them but I’m honored to . . . apologies to Brad for being on episode 149. I’m happy to be on episode 150 here.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:31] Yeah. Does anybody know what the special gift is for 150

Will Shelton: [00:00:37] I don’t know it’s probably like a piece of candy or something

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:40] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:00:40] Something like that.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:42] It might

Will Shelton: [00:00:42] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:42] Be a sack of potatoes.

Will Shelton: [00:00:44] Yeah. I have to treat ourselves tomorrow to a peppermint or whatever.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:49] All right so I got three seconds in before I got sidetracked. So yeah I’m Joel Hollingsworth and I’m with Will Shelton tonight. So we got lots of stuff to get . . . . We’re going to run through basically the same questions with Will that we ran through with Brad last night including the off topic question which Brad and I just are talking about books last night for some reason. So Will’s short answer Do you have you have a favorite novel.

Will Shelton: [00:01:20] Oh man. A favorite novel. Man I have. I have lots of favorite things. I really like. I like Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse when I was growing up. That’s kind of a coming

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:36] I’ve never.

Will Shelton: [00:01:37] Of age of a different sort of religious perspective.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:39] Ok.

Will Shelton: [00:01:40] Never. Never read it didn’t have. Didn’t have to read it in school anything like that.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:44] Me

Will Shelton: [00:01:44] Like

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:44] I’ve

Will Shelton: [00:01:45] I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:45] No

Will Shelton: [00:01:45] Had to read it for school. Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:46] I’ve never even heard of that. It must be

Will Shelton: [00:01:48] Never

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:48] Like

Will Shelton: [00:01:48] Even heard

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:48] Alcoa

Will Shelton: [00:01:48] Of it.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:49] Thing or something.

Will Shelton: [00:01:50] Maybe we are. Alcoa was an A+ class school system in the state of Tennessee when I was there. My I don’t remember if it was like freshman year or it was a high school year that it was required reading but it’s like, it’s Hermann Hesse it’s like a Near Eastern sort of coming of age thing is one of the first things I read from a like a non white Christian perspective but also still very spiritual about this guy that sort of looking for meaning in all kinds of different ways. And that was a helpful book to me when I was someone who was also looking for meaning outside of the sort of normal judo Christian sort of answers that are given there so I really like the answer that I want to give when I want to sound smart and distinguished. I really like Harry Potter

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:42] It

Will Shelton: [00:02:43] So you know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:44] Worked.

Will Shelton: [00:02:44] Like right now I can I’d be happy to talk about Harry Potter as well. So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:49] I’ve never read those. I probably should.

Will Shelton: [00:02:51] Really

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:52] Yeah

Will Shelton: [00:02:52] Man

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:52] I really have. Have

Will Shelton: [00:02:54] They

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:54] Not

Will Shelton: [00:02:54] Are it’s for me. I came into them later on like I think the first book now is a bit of a challenge because the kids are so young in the first book. So you’re dealing with like I think 11 year olds in the in the first book but then every next book is another year at the Hogwarts school and so by the time it gets like three or four they get really good. And she is just a fantastic writer. So really like I’m trying to cover all my bases

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:23] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:03:23] Here. I really like some of the less famous Michael Crichton Books like Sphere. It was made into a terrible movie after they had tried like five of his other books into movies. But that is a really good interesting interesting book. So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:42] Very cool.

Will Shelton: [00:03:42] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:42] See you guys were way too smart for us in public school in Edgington Illinois. You know our required reading was like Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein.

Will Shelton: [00:03:56] Yeah Where the Sidewalk Ends is I mean it’s not a novel but also a favorite. Sure.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:01] I once memorized Sarah Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out. That was fun. So anyway and I just want to mention too, I thought I heard you say Judo Christian which I found like really really funny for some.

Will Shelton: [00:04:15] Like karate Jesus

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:16] Yes.

Will Shelton: [00:04:17] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:17] There you go.

Will Shelton: [00:04:18] Yeah. I do. I’m a fan of. I like talking about karate Jesus in sermons. In terms of like when they came to arrest him to be crucified could he not have just turned into karate Jesus and taken everybody out so

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:33] Wax on wax

Will Shelton: [00:04:34] That

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:34] Off.

Will Shelton: [00:04:34] Maybe that was a Freudian slip there because I really do enjoy the image of karate Jesus.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:40] It’s very

Will Shelton: [00:04:40] So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:40] Good. Yeah I like that. All right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:43] So Vols. Yeah that’s why we’re

Will Shelton: [00:04:46] Right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:46] Here.

Will Shelton: [00:04:47] Right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:04:48] Ok. So we beat UTEP, but the score 24 to 0. Lots of people sort of grumpy about that. How’s your emotional level about a score of 24 0 versus UTEP.

Will Shelton: [00:05:04] I think you could kind of see it happening as the game was unfolding. I mean I know I saw it happening on my Twitter feed of people reliving the angst of scores that were far too close against inferior competition in the last few years. But this one was so different from those in terms of the way Tennessee actually dominated the opponent in yards per play and S&P+ those kinds of things. So you know we’ve covered the offense both as it happened and I know you wrote about this that when you fumble at the one yard line and when you have a chop block callback another touchdown. And when you’re coaching staff like it wasn’t that they didn’t seem disinterested in doing anything the way that Butch Jones and those guys often did when they were playing the North Texas of the world. But they certainly didn’t see they seem very confident that Tennessee was going to win the game as they should have been. And so you know they were efficient without trying to be overly explosive I’m not sure they thought they were going to score a touchdown on that little toss to Ty Chandler there even though it was the I think the first play of the second half right. So I think they coach that exactly the way they wanted to plus or minus a fumble at the one yard line so offensively you know Tennessee went up like 17 spots in S&P+ this week. And UTEP is literally the worst team in college football in that metric so you really have to handle them well to make that big of a jump when the the you know that system expects you to really dominate them.

Will Shelton: [00:06:40] I think the other thing too is the defense dominated in a non exciting way which is to say reminded me of some high school games that I’ve seen where the other team has just so much better that every drive is a punt. And like that’s not exciting there’s no interceptions there’s no goal line stands or turnovers or anything like that. But I mean it was just a complete boring. It was as dominating as you can be defensively while also doing that in the most boring way possible. So yeah like it wasn’t memorable you’re not going to at the end of the year say Oh remember this big play or whatever but still I mean incredibly impressive not that they shut them out but just that they made them punt on every single drive. That’s really good and impressive so yeah I think it was. I think if we don’t see the last couple of years of Tennessee struggling with UMass and Ohio I mean there’s a long list. You know UMass Ohio North Texas Southern Miss last year kind of things had already gone off the rail but even Indiana State last year was was closer play for play than it should have been. So if we hadn’t been through all of that the last couple of years I think folks would have really not had much to say about this game other than that is what happens when you fumble the one yard line.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:07:57] Yeah there’s something to be said about boring forgettable wins too. I remember watching a few weeks ago John Pennington had a bunch of 98 players on and they couldn’t remember that. I think it was Jeff Hall he said you know somebody said something about our win over who was at UAB that year and he said we

Will Shelton: [00:08:19] Yes.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:19] Didn’t play we didn’t play UAB. And Will Overstreet said that he didn’t remember the game either. So you know 20

Will Shelton: [00:08:28] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:28] Years

Will Shelton: [00:08:28] That

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:28] Later

Will Shelton: [00:08:28] Was.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:29] But.

Will Shelton: [00:08:30] Well no that was that day was the day that Ohio State lost to Michigan State and so like I was in the stadium at Tennessee’s game. This is back. Back when the only way you could follow other games is if you had a radio or maybe you like five people in the stadium brought one of those portable handheld TV sort of contraptions. You know if you’re under the age of 20 you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. But anyway like people I think we beat UAB like 37 to 13 or something like that. But all anyone was interested in was watching Ohio State struggle and then ultimately watching them lose that game which meant Tennessee was number two going into the day which then Tennessee went to number one and they of course played Arkansas the next week. But yeah I remember being in the stadium that day and it was one of those games where once you got up two touchdowns on UAB you knew you were going to win. And then that slow trickling is Ohio State really going to go down to the Nick Saban’s Michigan State team. And finally what had happened seeing pockets of the stadium. I used to love this. It doesn’t happen as much anymore. Pockets of the stadium where people have radios or TVs celebrate when there was an interception. I think late in that game. So like I say I do the things I remember most about that they are not what Tennessee did against UAB. It’s that emotion of oh my gosh we’re going to be number one tomorrow so I can I can forgive Jeff Hall and Overstreet and those guys for forgetting as UAB. I think Houston was the other way that we beat Houston 42 to 7. So yeah those are those are not the games anyone thinks of when they think of 1998. It’s alright.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:05] I guess it’s fair to say that Hall and Overstreet probably didn’t have Ohio State Michigan State or whoever it was on on their little TV things done on the sidelines

Will Shelton: [00:10:15] They could have

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:16] Either.

Will Shelton: [00:10:16] Had the. The Bobby Denton update. That was the greats. You know how most of the stadium found out back then when you don’t have twitter or anything else is waiting for the P.A. announcer to to announce it over that thing. This happened a couple of years ago I think I wrote about this two years ago when we needed LSU to beat Florida to win the East. And we were playing Missouri. The fact that now not everyone’s phone the Wi-Fi in the stadium is terrible and not everyone’s phone was refreshing at the same time and so I know the game ended with LSU getting shut back shut down twice at the one yard line. But before there was a play before that that LSU like hit a big pass or something

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:59] Yeah

Will Shelton: [00:10:59] Where they got down to the 5 yard line or something. And I remember sitting there in the stands and seeing people all over the stadium start celebrating. I mean I remember saying over and over something good is happening. You know LSU must have won the game. Something good is happening but it was instead just people were delayed with their people were celebrating something that actually happened five minutes earlier. And then you know other people obviously were not jumping up and down realizing that Florida had won that game. So that’s just an interesting. That’s how things have changed inside Neyland Stadium when you’re trying to pay attention to other games that have a huge impact on Tennessee. It is. It has changed and the fact that we can’t all . . . we all needed a radio. No. No

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:40] Yeah

Will Shelton: [00:11:41] One had a radio. That’s what we needed and that moment was a radio. But technology was not our friend that day.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:46] Yeah. There are no more radios everybody streams over the phone and you know everybody. Like you said different time shift. So anyway I had to ask Brad another question about UTEP. But we’re done with UTEP. We don’t care about UTEP

Will Shelton: [00:12:00] Right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:00] Anymore. Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:12:01] Yeah not going to matter.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:12:02] All right. So Florida. I know I I’m berating myself for even asking this question because it just it sounds like a terrible question but I think there’s some value to it. So is the game Saturday between the two worst teams in the SEC East. And if so how depressing is that.

Will Shelton: [00:12:30] Maybe I think I think this division is close enough that at the end of the year you’re going to have like 3 2 and 6 teams or something like that. I don’t I don’t think there’s going to be honestly unless it’s unless it’s us unless it’s Tennessee. I don’t think you’re going to have you know a couple of oh and a couple of one in sevens and then some separation. I think you’ll probably have a handful of teams that are two in six or three and five or something like that. But in terms of again in terms of S&P plus right now these are the two worst team in the division. I know Tennessee was the worst team in the division last year. And you can probably argue that Florida was the second worst team. I mean maybe Vanderbilt but not at the end of the year. So so yeah. And I think the others it’s too early to judge South Carolina. South Carolina is kind of like Tennessee where you thought hey maybe they can sneak up on somebody that’s much better than them. And it turns out not at all. But I don’t know that we know a whole lot else about South Carolina other than they’re not nearly as good as Georgia much like Tennessee. They’re not nearly as good as West Virginia but I don’t know what else.

Will Shelton: [00:13:40] But Kentucky better than we thought should have beaten Florida by more than they did. Vanderbilt very real. You know Vanderbilt is such a fascinating as we go and talk about the way things used to be. Not too terribly long ago it was still you’d never pick Vanderbilt ever. Doesn’t matter who they are playing don’t pick Vanderbilt. They won’t win and now I mean they have hammered. It’s not like they’re hammering UTEP. They hammered Middle Tennessee and hammered Nevada which are teams that have programs that have had a pulse recently. And I mean one was 28 points and the other one was 31 points I think I mean just hammered those teams and had every right to beat Notre Dame in South Bend. That was a legitimate close game. I thought Shurmur is a really good quarterback and not just a really good quarterback by Vanderbilt standards so now all of a sudden I think when we start talking about Tennessee. It’s not even so much of oh Vanderbilt or oh South Carolina or whatever just the matchups. Vanderbilt not a particularly good looking matchup for Tennessee right now Missouri. Not a good looking matchup for Tennessee. I mean that looks like all kinds of West Virginia. So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:14:54] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:14:54] Now if you’re if you’re trying to find so Tennessee needs to go three and five in the U.S. to get bowl eligible and then the other three wins come in the nonconference you know given if they beat Charlotte. So you’re trying to find three here. You know it’s not going to be Georgia Alabama and probably not Auburn. There’s a little bit of wiggle room. Go ahead. I think I had Auburn at 15 percent in the old win calculator machine this week. You had them. You had a noticeably higher than Alabama or Georgia right like there was

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:24] Yeah

Will Shelton: [00:15:24] There was a little separation there now. Yes. So

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:26] Yup

Will Shelton: [00:15:27] We got the bye week. It’s a potential trap game for Auburn. These are all things we’ll talk about in a couple of weeks. Auburn’s got Mississippi State the week before and Ole Miss the week after maybe a little trap space but probably not. So now you’re talking about. We’ve got to get three out of the rest of the East. Even if you get this one this is not the happy conversation we want to get. Even if you get the gators. All right. What’s the next easiest one. I don’t

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:56] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:15:56] Know how to answer that question. You know like Kentucky

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:00] Maybe

Will Shelton: [00:16:00] Legit

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:01] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:16:01] Good. Vanderbilt legit. And you know on the road. It is not Missouri

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:10] No

Will Shelton: [00:16:11] I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:11] No

Will Shelton: [00:16:11] Promise you that. Not right now. So then they’re back to South Carolina. The one that some people are even still looping in with that stretch so nothing is I expect all five of those games to be toss ups. So there’s nothing that can happen in Tennessee Saturday that can guarantee an outcome in terms of both eligibility to me win or lose against Florida. You’re going to have four more of these toss ups and if you when you’re going to still need to win two of them and if you lose you’re going to win three of them which obviously is a greater challenge. So yeah it is. Are these the two worst teams in the SEC East. Maybe by some metrics right now. They are but I don’t I just don’t think there’s a lot of space there between South Carolina and Tennessee and the rest of the division outside of Georgia and the middle there. I just don’t see a whole lot of separation right now.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:17:04] Yeah and you know it’s weird because it does seem like Tennessee is improving. And you know your knee jerk reaction is well it’s it’s the opponents right that that’s why you feel like they’re improving but there’s something about it that even accounting for the level of competition just makes you feel a little better about the team doesn’t it. Is that just me.

Will Shelton: [00:17:29] No I think the I think Tennessee’s weaknesses are the things that they don’t do well right now are much more understandable than they were under Butch Jones when when. Like when I watch this team and I watch the secondary get dusted by West Virginia. I understand why that is. It’s in part because we’re choosing to play freshmen and West Virginia’s got really good players. So you can not like the answers about the pass rush but those especially you really find out this week. But the answer just may be hey we don’t have the players for that. And that’s going to be a recruiting issue. And that means to get pressure on the quarterback we’re going to have to blitz our tails off. And hope that those freshmen back there in the secondary are getting better. As. The year goes along When they don’t do things well offensively. So far. That has typically been because of a breakdown on the offensive line. And. I get it. Like I don’t like it but I get it I understand. So it’s not what we’ve seen recently where either Tennessee’s play calling is just really really frustrating and borderline ignorant or were intentionally just doing a whole bunch of crap behind the line of scrimmage and a lot of it goes backward and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of purpose.

Will Shelton: [00:18:53] And they’ve got unnecessary constraints on the guy who’s one more play away from being the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers right now. So I think Tennessee’s weaknesses are apparent but they also are reasonable like it makes sense to me why we’re bad at the things we’re bad at and that helps me be able to say like hey yeah I like Missouri that’s a bad situation for us because we can’t put pressure on the quarterback and we’ve got freshmen on the back end. So like I’m not mad about it is what it is. You know so some of that stuff is is I think it’s just more understandable situations happening right now and it’s you know Jeremy Pruitt’s had one recruiting class so you can’t say oh we should’ve got better players in here. So that that to me has made things I think more than anything it just makes things a little more simple. With this team and that’s why we talked about leading into the season and what we see in these first three games is hey look look at every play look at progress. And I see. And I think everybody sees baby steps of progress you just also see in some places. Hey we’ve we’ve still got a really long way to go.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:20:04] Yeah you keep hearing Pruitt talk about consistency being the thing. And you know what. He’s right you know because they can do some things really well at times. But when you don’t get you know all 11 doing it right each time then that’s one weakness that can blow up a whole play and you blow up enough those plays. They start adding up and you get real problems. So anyway the other thing I was going to say you know those freshmen back there by the time we play Missouri and if they get torched everybody will say well they’re not freshmen anymore which is one of my favorite things ever for people to say because you know what they are still freshmen. Everybody else got older too. You know. So

Will Shelton: [00:20:48] And there too it doesn’t even matter so much about . . . . If we still can’t generate a pass rush up front and you’re going against I mean Drew Lock is an NFL quarterback. Hey Kyle Shurmur might be. I don’t know. We’ll see. But you know you can generate pressure at some point you can only cover those guys for so long. And some of that is on Pruitt. And I think this is another area of progress. Is learning how risk averse he should or shouldn’t be when it comes to calling a defense against an offense that’s got some firepower. This one Saturday should not fall into that category as much. But you know he’s learning too here’s how much I can ask of these guys and sometimes the consequence is like I mean I think he’s even said there isn’t times against West Virginia we’re like hey our guys were where they were supposed to be and just get beat like they’re guarding better players. So you know I really I can I’ve heard a couple of people say this and I wrote about it a little bit.

Will Shelton: [00:21:55] I like that Pruitt admits his own mistakes and his own flaws. He’s learning how to do this too. I think there’s a whole, when we’re talking before we started recording about Brad’s podcast and talking about Derek Dooley like there’s a whole fascinating thing of Tennessee coaches and how they communicate to us as fans because we’ve seen so many different guys in so many different personalities over the last ten years and both football and basketball that you know like I think Bruce Pearl ruined us all in this regard because he

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:26] Yeah.

Will Shelton: [00:22:26] Was both incredibly entertaining and also won a lot of games. But you know Dooley was Dooley was usually correct in what he said about his team. It’s also his job to make those adjustments that he never really made. But you know I think hearing especially after Butch Jones hearing Pruitt talk about hey I could have done this better hey I’ve got to do this better. After five years of a coach that within his personality or whatever reason did not want to admit any mistakes even when mistakes were obvious that that is refreshing to me. You know Pruitt will have to learn. Tyson Helton will have to learn fast enough to keep their jobs and so on and so forth as far as all that goes. And this is I wrote about it already this is a big test this week for Pruitt and Helton both to say how how long are we going to be patient with the run game against these guys. How much are you going to trust. Guarantano against the best defense he’s seen all year. You’re going to need more from him to win this game. So we’ll learn more as it goes but I think within reason those guys are off to a good start and I have enjoyed Pruitt talking fairly candidly it seems like about his team and individual players and himself in ways that after Butch Jones and knowing this guy came from Nick Saban. I wasn’t sure we were going to get that. You know I thought we might get again the Cuonzo Martin School of we lost this game because we didn’t make shots. Yeah I know that. But please elaborate. And I think he’s. Done. Barnes is good at this too. You know. Doing a good job elaborating on some things And being honest while also doing so in a way that’s not throwing your own team under the bus a little bit as Dooley could do sometimes. So I was I have been more encouraged just by what he says and admitting some flaws and admitting his own growing pains that has been refreshing to me and I’m I know I’m not the only one on that

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:24:29] That’s Will Shelton. That’ll do it for the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast this evening we’ll have another one where we talk more about Florida later on this week. Brad is up the next day and then Will the night after that. So please subscribe so you don’t miss anything. Give us a rating. Give us a review. Make it a good one. Bonus points for using the phrase I guess we’re going to go with Dooley’s Sack of Potatoes again because that was from last night. And that was good enough. So for Will Shelton I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast.

Will Shelton: [00:25:11] S I D D H A R T H A Hermann Hesse

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:16] Is that Indian.

Will Shelton: [00:25:18] Yeah I feel

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:18] Buika

Will Shelton: [00:25:19] Like I should like the shout out. I think my freshman English teacher because we did a lot of Shakespeare there but that was also a required reading in high school. And so shout out to either Ms Scruggs freshman year or Dr. Clark sophomore year for putting that in front of me.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:25:42] So Will are you saying that Derek Dooley is like the doctor who says hey you have cancer. Good luck.

Will Shelton: [00:25:50] I have I just have this image not the image I have the audio of Dooley. We may be talking about this before the end of 2011 when he was so tired of getting asked about when Tyler Bray was coming back and he just goes. He has a broken thumb like like exasperated because you know we were getting hammered by everyone we were playing and Matt Sims and Justin Worley were not inspiring any confidence and so it’s like a fanbase will Tyler Bray to come back for that Vanderbilt game you know. But I love you know he he Dooley was great at press conferences and all that stuff.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:26:28] There’s probably an upper level communications course that should be taught by Beverly Davenport. That that is basically you know the what you should do when you’re communicating with fans is the new coach is what the other guy who just got fired didn’t do. So you do that you’re going to be fine. There’s your 400 level course. I’ll take my billion dollar paycheck and go retire on the Tennessee River.

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Robo-Transcript below.

Pardon the errors, as the bot understands neither southern accents nor football.

GRT Podcast 9.17.18

Bookmarks:

[00:03:21] Did the 24-0 score against UTEP bother you, and if so, how much?
[00:08:16] The UTEP criticism sandwich: One good thing about the game, a bad thing, and another good thing.
[00:11:34] Hilarious robo-transcript error here. 🙂
[00:16:50] Looking ahead to Florida. Is the game for last in the SEC East?
[00:21:18] Brad’s unnatural fascination with Derek Dooley.

TRANSCRIPT

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:13] This is the Gameday on Rocky Top podcast episode 149. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and I’m with Brad Shepherd again this evening. Brad how you doing.

Brad Shepard: [00:00:24] Great. How are you doing.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:25] I’m doing just fine. I’m not texting and driving unlike some people I know. So

Brad Shepard: [00:00:30] Oh I was at a red light so

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:31] Ok.

Brad Shepard: [00:00:31] You know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:32] All right. All right.

Brad Shepard: [00:00:34] Grey

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:35] Well

Brad Shepard: [00:00:35] area there

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:36] Yeah well OK. You know they got cameras of those red lights now though. So you know

Brad Shepard: [00:00:44] Whether they’re probably. Yeah I’m going to plead the Fifth here. I don’t know what you’re talking about

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:49] It’s too late for the fifth man. Who is your attorney.

Brad Shepard: [00:00:55] Joel Hollingsworth

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:00:57] He’s terrible. Don’t rely on him. All right. So we got several Vols related things to get to tonight but I wanted to get the off topic question out of the way first something you mentioned on your Twitter timeline. I guess it was probably several weeks ago caught my eye and I’ve been meaning to ask you about it since. But you mentioned the book Boys Life by Robert R McCammon and I didn’t know that anybody else knew who Robert R McCammon was. So tell me about boys life into why you like that so much.

Brad Shepard: [00:01:28] Well I just I mean it’s it’s really probably if it’s not my favorite book I’ve ever read it. It’s in the top five. I mean I’ve read it probably five times in my life seeming seemingly every three or . . . since the time I first read it when I was 14 just get this urge to reread it it’s a great summer read it’s probably the best novel coming of age story. I’m still love The Body which was

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:56] Yeah

Brad Shepard: [00:01:57] Made in the movie Stand By Me by Stephen King.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:01:58] Right.

Brad Shepard: [00:01:58] But it’s probably the best you know full length novel a coming of age story that I’ve ever read. It’s just it’s just beautiful writing. It’s just everything that’s magical about being a kid growing up in the south and it’s just. I mean you know it’s it’s perfection. I mean I really can’t describe it any other way. Every

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:20] Wow.

Brad Shepard: [00:02:20] Time I read it I find these other things and it’s just it’s just great. It’s a great fun book to read.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:27] I have to go back and read that because I like McCammon Swan Song was actually one of my favorite books for a really really long time. Have you read that one?

Brad Shepard: [00:02:37] I have. I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:38] Oka

Brad Shepard: [00:02:38] Have already gone south. Those

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:39] Ok

Brad Shepard: [00:02:39] Are the three

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:40] Yeah

Brad Shepard: [00:02:40] That

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:40] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:02:40] I’ve actually downloaded a couple more. those are a good man. Is really good

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:46] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:02:46] As fallen off the face of the earth a little

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:02:49] I always thought he was like a pen name of Stephen King there for a while because it seemed like Swan Song was basically like another draft of The Stand you know.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:00] Yeah you’re right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:02] So anyway.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:03] And

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:03] But

Brad Shepard: [00:03:03] I think they were they were good friends I mean they were you know they were both huge parts of that horror boom in the 80s. But this is not you know this is not a horror book it’s a just a it’s really just you know it’s it’s his masterpiece. I love it.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:21] I’ve got to go back and read it again I don’t remember it so. But oh I have to do that. So anyway the Vols. I guess that’s why we’re here right. So

Brad Shepard: [00:03:30] Yeah.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:31] Ok.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:31] Yeah that was.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:32] So the Vols beat you up this past weekend. The score though was 24 to nothing and that seems

Brad Shepard: [00:03:39] Either

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:03:40] To have caused some consternation among some Vols fans. I have some things to say about that but I was wondering first does that score bother you and how much if it does.

Brad Shepard: [00:03:54] You know. Yes. No. I mean they should have been 38. Nothing. You know if it wasn’t for the fumble that in my opinion was not a fumble then the chop block that will have been and we felt a little bit better about 38 than 24 I mean the course UNLV hung 50 on them so but you can’t play that you know you can’t play that game but that is it you know it wasn’t pretty. I mean I think that that’s kind of why I wanted to see head into Florida and you want style points and you want to you want everybody to have the warm and fuzzies and you want things to look great. But you know the bottom line was it was thorough. I mean there was never it was not like UMass last year worker you never comparable to it. You know the team was a player to say well the whole. I mean the same issues that have cropped up that we that we have at which is the offense. And the Astros are like there. But you know it was last week against ETSU Tennessee created a lot of mistakes and capitalized and turned those two into points. And this week that didn’t happen. Matter of fact it kind of went the opposite way and Tennessee kind of shot itself in the foot. And I think that that’s where your points are made. So you know Tennessee made another couple plays oldies dance. You know it could have could have led to some points had they not made those at least two bad mistakes at crucial times. Well that’s what I’m you know going back and watching it wasn’t nearly as bad as I felt during the game.

Brad Shepard: [00:05:40] I think that you know Tennessee looked good run in the football which was encouraging as I should have against UTEP and then the and so even though it didn’t. I mean it’s even you know even though it didn’t create turnovers it’s still played very well. I mean you know it’s encouraging to play that those guys are the second level. And and in the in the defensive backfield even even though the defensive back. So it is not right. There you see them in the wrong place. And that’s something that we did not see ever during the Butch Jones era. And you know I saw a lot of development from just players being in the right place. No one no one where to be knowing what to do. And we’ve seen growth and that even from game 1 to game 3. Also when you see them in those positions you can still see the talent deficiencies Tennessee has. But that’s going to come what I have been encouraged by the progression in the development of guys seemingly knowing what’s going on and that think that those are the little things that we’ve all talked about that we need to look for. So it’s not perfect. Lots of room for improvement. But I mean it was 24 did nothing but it was it was a thorough 24 to nothing and it very easily could have been 38 or even you know 45 at Tennessee not a stop really trying to score in the fourth quarter

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:07:07] Yeah that’s mostly what I was thinking. The if you look at the yards the nonpoint stuff the first downs you know it was like you said pretty thorough beating. There’s probably should’ve been 35 to 0 because you know we do get three out of that one with the chop block but still there

Brad Shepard: [00:07:26] Right

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:07:27] Were there were several other drives that got stalled out by penalties as well and then we also gave what three or four possessions to Chryst which sort of interrupted the continuity. And I wonder how much to with switching quarterbacks whether that can actually lead to more penalties along the offensive line if they’re different too you know they’re used to a different cadence or whatever you know. So anyway I think there were more points on the board there I’m really not all that concerned about it. It would have been nice to go in with another 53 to something you know but hey it it also gave Pruitt the opportunity to be really unhappy afterwards which is probably going to pay dividends this week. So

Brad Shepard: [00:08:15] Right.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:08:16] All right. So the criticism sandwich like we did last time now you probably already mentioned a bunch of stuff but just so we can get it in a pretty little package. Want one good thing about the game a bad thing in the middle and then another good thing

Brad Shepard: [00:08:31] Yes. The best thing I saw was Ty Chandler. Right you know wrote about that yesterday and I think that we’ve all been encouraged by the running backs and how they looked so far win when Chandler goes down in the first game you’ve got Tim who comes and looks like he’s an SEC running back for lack of better terms. I mean I’m not saying he’s wrong in that Alabama group or anything but the kid can play ball. He’s got three years left and we should be excited about that. Of course Banks comes in and you know runs like his hair’s on fire against yes

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:03] He’s got a

Brad Shepard: [00:09:03] You

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:03] Lot of hair

Brad Shepard: [00:09:03] And

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:04] Too.

Brad Shepard: [00:09:04] He does have a lot of hair. And you know that looks like and that looks like an exciting future that you gotta get the one or two yards if they need it. You know be kind of a guy that’s going to be a really good player for Tennessee. He’s going to learn to hang on football. And let’s face it Lots of freshmen have that issue. It’s frustrating but it’s it’s it’s freshmen

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:28] That

Brad Shepard: [00:09:28] Those

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:28] Was probably

Brad Shepard: [00:09:28] Frustrating

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:29] The

Brad Shepard: [00:09:29] Freshmen are synonymous.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:31] Probably the perfect place to learn that lesson. Not when Pig

Brad Shepard: [00:09:34] Sure

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:34] Howard learned

Brad Shepard: [00:09:35] Absolutely.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:35] It but would bet against UTEP

Brad Shepard: [00:09:38] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:09:38] Yeah.

Brad Shepard: [00:09:39] But Ty Chandler man I mean we know we’ve been hearing that each day brings a different level of other athlete to Tennessee. We didn’t really get to see it last year because the offensive line was so bad. And the receivers blocked so terribly and I wrote about it yesterday. You go back and watch the one yard touchdown run it’s a thing of beauty because everybody had a hat on their man. I mean the great block by POpe to spring it. Everything worked perfectly. But then you go but you take that run away and he’s still had 11 carries for 77 yards which you know a seven yard for carry average against anybody is pretty darn good. So I like what we saw there. I think he’s that kind of player that Tennessee has hit the ball 20 times against Florida and he’s not going to help you beat Georgia or Alabama this year. But you know neither is Bo Jackson. I mean so it’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:32] Well

Brad Shepard: [00:10:32] It’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:32] Bo’s over the hill a little

Brad Shepard: [00:10:33] Yet. I’m talking like prime time Bo Jackson. You know he he can help you win games like we’ve got coming up this weekend. So that is encouraging. Tennessee’s not really had a game breaking running back like him since Coker. And then you know the negative thing is I’m going to talk about that now. Are we going to wait or even talk about it.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:57] About

Brad Shepard: [00:10:57] What

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:57] Which

Brad Shepard: [00:10:57] Do you want me

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:10:57] Think

Brad Shepard: [00:10:57] To do. Yeah you want me to say the negative thing now.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:00] Yeah yeah go ahead do the negative and then yeah. You can’t have

Brad Shepard: [00:11:03] Yeah

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:03] Just

Brad Shepard: [00:11:03] You

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:03] A

Brad Shepard: [00:11:03] Know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:03] Piece

Brad Shepard: [00:11:04] I’m

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:04] Of bread. Man you’ve got to have the whole sandwich

Brad Shepard: [00:11:05] Telling you

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:06] All at once.

Brad Shepard: [00:11:06] I’m telling you I’m I’m bummed out about the pass rush. You know I just got to do something there. I don’t know what they can do. Maybe you can’t tell me that there’s not one kid on that roster. The pressure on the quarterback. I don’t I don’t understand it. And that’s

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:23] How many times

Brad Shepard: [00:11:24] The

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:24] Have they blitzed though. I mean are they is that vanilla that we’re seeing. Or is it

Brad Shepard: [00:11:31] Maybe.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:11:31] Really just not able to do it.

Brad Shepard: [00:11:34] You know it’s I think it could be. But Jesse Simonton from Volquest had a great tweet today. It kind of makes you think twice it’s like you would think that Felipe FranksFlorida’s quarterback would really struggle against the blitz and apparently his numbers this year are something like 14 of 19 with five touchdowns when blitzed and like three of 14 for 22 yards when he faces a standard women [LEAVING THIS ERROR BECAUSE HA!] rush then somebody had a great comment on Volquest it was like hey if if if is blitzing him it’s not the right answer them with my play right into our hands because we’ve not got any pressure on them. You know that’s something that you know but it’s it’s funny it’s almost like when I’ve watched a lot of football this year and it’s almost like when Franks’s got time to make plays and run through his progressions he doesn’t do a very good job. So you know maybe maybe this is the top game where Tennessee can give a little bit of help on the back end and maybe just try to get some pressure with the four man rush. I don’t like that and that’s never that never needs to be part of your game plan. Hey we’re not going to pressure the quarterback at all in play. But you know it really might play into Tennessee but they’ve got to get that fixed. I mean they’ve got up on somebody. Deandre Johnson had some had some glimpses up all out even though he’s not.

Brad Shepard: [00:12:58] And even though you know this guy that I’m going to mention is not a pass rusher per se but I thought Will Ignont had a good game on Saturday. You’ve got some talent and athleticism that’s kind of flashing a little bit for Tennessee now. I mean I just know what it is that they’re doing. I mean you know it might be some of those guys just don’t know that yet. But I don’t see I don’t see what Kongbo give you on the field right now personally and it’s very much like Drew Richmond on offense I mean I’m I don’t want to pick scabs and throw darts. But you know Tennessee’s got to go a different direction because he’s not. But so anyway the pass rush is the thing to me that that just is more frustrating than anything. I think that I’ve seen thus far and then the final the other good thing. I mean I think that we should all be encouraged by Guarantno’s development. I think I think his ability to throw the ball is something that we’ve not really seen a lot. I mean Dobbs could throw the ball and then he didn’t get an opportunity to do that enough Bray could throw a deep ball. No it really it was it was just kind of weird and the intermediate game. Neither of those guys were very were very accurate. And Guarantano’s done a lot of good things.

Brad Shepard: [00:14:19] And yeah. Yeah. I mean he’s still he’s still young he still makes mistakes he still sometimes stalls drives by not you know not really. Knowing what to do with the football but it’s it’s few and far between. I mean he looks to me like he’s like he’s really gonna be a good player and that we can really rely on him. Of course we’ll know more about that this week because Florida does get the quarterback and you’ll have to face some some duress this week. Is that internal clock that we’ve talked about a lot with him. There is I don’t know we’ll know for sure this week whether whether that’s progressed and improved. But he can make all the throws every single throw. He can make the outs, he can throw the deep ball, he can throw the crossing patterns. He’s you know he everything has looked really good to me so far. And I did not expect to see that at this point of the season so I’m very encouraged by that. I think that if Helton would let’s say. But we haven’t really seen it yet. It’s Helton can get into a groove in a play calling and really and I think that that also could just be you didn’t really know what he had going into season but if he if he can get into a groove with his playcalling I believe Tennessee’s offense has got a chance to be pretty good.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:15:43] Yeah I agree with that. And continuity is a little hard to achieve when you’re devoting a certain number of possessions to the other guy to try to get him ready so you know hopefully that they can get things roll in that way and like you said earlier the defense actually you know I know that we’ve played ETSU and UTEP but the defensive numbers look pretty good. And and that’s that’s also you. If you’re going to if you’re going to try to poo poo it by saying Well look we’ve played. Yeah well look we played West Virginia’s on there you know and those guys are probably pretty good. So having the numbers where they are right now. I think that’s pretty encouraging. I think it shows that yeah Pruitt probably knows what he’s doing now. They’re going to take a hit because we got some elite level competition coming up probably after this week. But yeah it’s I’m encouraged. We’ll find out this week I think. How much further we still have to go.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:16:50] But you know and so since you know since we’re talking about Florida a little bit we’re going to talk more about them on the next podcast. We’re going to try to have we’ll on tomorrow and then you again the day after that. But so save some stuff to talk about Florida later but I wanted to ask you quickly before we got off on this one and I don’t mean to be negative or anything but is this game this Saturday between Tennessee and Florida a game between the two worst teams in the SEC east.

Brad Shepard: [00:17:32] I would say at this point. Yes. And

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:17:35] That

Brad Shepard: [00:17:35] Now

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:17:35] Depressing

Brad Shepard: [00:17:36] You know it’s it’s pretty depressing. And you know what I want to go back and talk about you know just to say one thing regardless because I feel like that this answer I’m about to does need a buffer. But my dad said something on Saturday that I would be I would be remiss not to repeat because I think it’s something that we can all be encouraged by. Even though you know Tennessee struggle a little bit on the scoreboard and didn’t scores as many points we would have liked. He said Well you know at least we’re watching football and I thought about that. And you know what I mean. We are. And that’s something that we can be encouraged about because what I talk about from a defense standpoint you know Tennessee lining up in the I formation on offense and they you know they’ve got some some motion they’ve got some some lead blocking. I mean they are throwing the ball downfield are mixed with their you know the run in some toss suites and then the run off tackle and it looks like football and not an unfolding rusty lawn chair off the fence that Butch Jones had. You know I mean it’s true. I’m encouraged by both sides of the ball and the coaching of what Tennessee wants to ultimately actually do. I just don’t think that the players are there yet to quite do it. But but yeah I mean you know a SEC Power Rankings article every week for Bleacher Report. And and right now you know Arkansas is number 14 team Ole Miss is on Number 13 team Tennessee’s number 12 team and Florida is number 11. So I think that I would be lying to you. I didn’t think that if I didn’t tell you that yeah it’s the two worst things right now do I think that Tennessee will be one of the two worst teams in the SEC east by the time they play Kentucky in Vanderbilt.

Brad Shepard: [00:19:21] I’m not sure it really depends on how Tennessee weathers the gauntlet that they’re about to go through from an injury standpoint. And how much these young kids get better. But until you know kinda my reasoning for that and I know that we want to know that we all want to and need to move on from last year. But Tennessee is 0 and 8 until they’re not. You know I mean they they lost to Vanderbilt they lost to Kentucky they lost to Missouri. And then and until they prove that they can beat any of those teams there’s no reason to rank Tennessee higher than those teams especially considering that all of those teams have looked better than Tennessee has looked so far this season. So you know to me Yes but that doesn’t mean that out think that Tennessee is going to go 0 8 again and that Vanderbilt Kentucky and Missouri and South Carolina are all. Worlds better than Tennessee and Florida. I don’t. I don’t think those things are. I think they’re all kind of right there. It’s like Dooley’s sack of potatoes you know. I mean. They’re all kind of right there. In the. In the sack. And whoever. Emerges as the you know. The. You. Know not. The least rotten potato and. You know they get to be third in the. East but. It’s it’s. It’s not it’s not great right now but. You know I don’t think it’s That doomsday scenario that we were looking at last year either.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:20:47] All right. That’s Brad Shepard and that’ll do it for our Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast this evening. Please remember to subscribe via iTunes or Google Play. Give us a rating. Give us a review. Give us a good one. Bonus points for using the phrase Dooley’s sack of potatoes. Because that is such an awesome phrase.

Brad Shepard: [00:21:12] I’ll never get it out of my head. It was just a great quote It was a great quote.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:16] Well I had written

Brad Shepard: [00:21:17] I

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:17] In

Brad Shepard: [00:21:18] See. I love seeing Derek Dooley. I watched Missouri game just to see it. He cracks me up. I just I don’t know.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:21:27] Does he do postgame media.

Brad Shepard: [00:21:30] He doesn’t. But you know and I want to just you know he’s he’s so he’s such a smart dude but you know every time I see him I think that’s our fool not to see him and I think there’s that guy. We all know that guy. They show him up at the press box and it’s just like yeah I just picture him. I want to see him put his whole hold his hands up to his eyes like the binoculars the Rommel binoculars.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:00] Once again that’s Brad Shepherd. Huge Derek Dooley fan, stalker, practically.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:06] Huge.

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:07] And so for Brad. I’m Joel Hollingsworth and this has been the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:16] I don’t love Derek Dooley but

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:18] Matthew

Brad Shepard: [00:22:19] You know

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:20] I’m

Brad Shepard: [00:22:21] I’ve

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:21] Going to

Brad Shepard: [00:22:21] Learned

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:21] Record

Brad Shepard: [00:22:21] To

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:21] That and so you know you won’t be able to do anything about it. I got the editing controls

Brad Shepard: [00:22:27] Embrace

Joel Hollingsworth: [00:22:27] Here man.

Brad Shepard: [00:22:28] I’ve learned to embrace the embarrassment. It’s been it’s been so many years of it that it just becomes part of you. And if you can’t look back at it and think wow you know one of the most storied football programs in college football hired Derek Dooley and Butch Jones back to back then. If you can’t come to terms with that and that can’t help you digest where we are as a football program right now then nothing will.