AtlantaVol's Good, Bad, and Ugly

It was not an auspicious start for the Vols. A very week UCLA team stole one from under our noses. Its always tough to win when you pick off four passes and still lose. The Vols did little to help themselves last night. The ill-timed fumble by Arian Foster and poor QB play from Jon Crompton really stand out and could haunt this team later in the season.

Read AtlantaVol's Good, Bad, and Ugly.

"The GOOD, The BAD, and The UGLY


The GOOD

1) Nice night for FB in CA. Didn't look like a scorcher like we have seen with UCLA in the past.

2) Great FB uniforms by UCLA and I actually like the Orange Pants for UT on away games.

3) DL played very solid all night. Did kind of poop out in the 4th quarter and allowed 2 TD's with little pressure on UCLA QB. Chow id improvise and put his bewildered QB in spots where he could succeed and get some confidence though. Now sure the DL could have done much with the rollouts and quick slants except knock some passes down.

4) WR play. While not awesome and another dropped long pass by butterfingers Rodgers, they were "steady" and can't say they were BAD.

5) I am thinking REAL hard on any other "good" for UT and right now I can't come up with any. Challenging part is deciding on what is BAD and what goes all the way to UGLY.

The BAD

1) OC in Clawson. I will only give him a "Bad" instead of a "UGLY" for a few reasons. First, it was his first game EVER coaching Div 1 players. But mainly because the offense I saw tonight IS the UT offense of Fulmanders! I am not convinced this is the Clawson offense at all.

We saw the long low % Fade Passes. We saw the abandon the running game for the outside passing game. We saw very few quick slants. We saw TONS of screen passes to the point that you expected one every 4-5 plays it seems so no longer a surprise to UCLA. We saw very little over the middle of the field. We saw multiple jumping offsides and getting delay of game penalty's.

The running plays were basic runs up the gut for the most part where it seems the "UT System" still thinks it is mid 1990's and we can actually do this! Talk about beating your head on a brick wall!This is the EXACT offense under Fulmer as OC with

Randyman as "yes man" so I will not bump Clawson to UGLY just yet. I see many more series like the OT series though, and he will get spanked down to

2) You had the game in your hand with a TD but it is almost like they played for a FG and a tie. So is this Clawson or is this Fulmer?

3) RB play. I "might" have put this in the "GOOD" but Fosters fumble pushed it down. Very sad to say about Foster, as he will break the all time UT rushing record which is awesome, but his fumbles deep inside opponents territory has directly contributed to at least 3 big losses. Very rugged and good TB but the fumbles have been killers. I thought Hardesty showed very good quicks and I really liked the play of Cooper at FB which I wasn't expecting since FB was no longer a position under A Cut Below. Cooper blasted a few guys on blocks and caught a pass from the FB spot!

4) TE play. Warren and Stocker were just overmatched in the run game. Warren ran a poor route or two with passes thrown to him. Only had one catch that I can remember and it was in the first half. I have been saying that #220 Warren is a liability as a run blocker and it showed on the plays I watched him.

5) DB play. This is a hard one and many will disagree and say I should put it in the UGLY but with 4 First Half INT's, and INT for a TD, and even some batted down balls throughout the game, I simply could not put them in the UGLY. But lets face it, with the game on the line in the 4th quarter and a QB even worse than The Rooster of FSU NC game fame, they folded like a cheap suit! Now they had no help from the LB's in the passing defense in the 4th quarter with the TE catching passes (2nd string TE at that) and no batted down short slant passes. But a horrid UCLA QB drove down the field for 2 4th quarter TD's on the DB's.

6) LB play. Pretty darn solid in the first half of play but disappeared in the 4th quarter. Only got to the QB on one blitz (Wilson) that I can remember. Might as well not even been on the field with the passing defense in the 4th quarter. Did tackle better than previous years. Didn't hear McCoy's name being mentioned much at all.

The UGLY

1) OL play. This UT OL was AGAIN touted as being an awesome OL with experience at EVERY position and 2-3 backups who were said to be as good as the starters.

Got all kinds of pub about weight room feats. But on the field they stunk it up AS USUAL. Unlike last year they could not pass block and of course they couldn't run block when we needed to wear out the UCLA defense and take advantage of all the UCLA turnovers. As long as Fulmer is there I will go on record as saying UT will NEVER have a good OL. He did something circa 2000 that changed this unit forever. It doesn't matter the size of the UT OL. It doesn't matter the strength. It doesn't matter the agility. It doesn't matter if all have experience. Nope, this will always be a weakness of UT teams under Fulmer.

2) Kicking game. Blocked punt for a TD. Missed badly on long FG's. Missed the easy 34 yarder in OT after the UCLA guy smacks the 47 yarder.

3) QB play by Crompton. This guy has been at UT starting his 4th year now but he looked like a deer in headlights. It was mentioned by BV2 on OM and even on VC that he was forgetting to put his mouthpiece in on multiple plays. How many passes can he throw over a receivers head before they are picked off??? Maybe this is why they stopped passing over the middle?

How many times do you see announcers say point blank that a QB is "making bad throws". Blackledge said this about JC multiple times tonight. UCLA was down to their 3rd string QB and had no choice but to stick with him. What is the excuse for UT??? Virtually ANY college QB can make throws when given time to throw. But only the good ones can make throws under pressure, get away from pressure and make plays, and not make silly mistakes that kill your team. And make no mistake- Crompton is NOT a "good" SEC QB. There is a reason that he rarely saw the field under Cutcliff. Without a stupid face mask penalty on 3rd and 11 with 5 minutes to go then this might have gone down as one of the absolute worst opening games for a
UT QB EVER! As it is he was bailed out and UT drove down for the winning TD except.........

4) Chavis was there to snatch defeat out of a sigh of relief victory! I think it was 1.24 or so to play and UCLA marches down the field with Chow matching wits with Chavis in THE mismatch of the ages. The actual TD play was a master coach toying with a Pop Warner assistant coach! I am simply too tired and worn out on UT FB to rail any more on Chavis and Fulmer. Been there and done that with these same Groundhog Day moments with these two and they have beaten AV into submission. Blah Blah Blah!

5) Have to give Little Ricky at least a BAD or an UGLY for kicking off to UT with under 30 seconds and kicking it short which allowed an up back to return it out past the 40 and put UT within a few completed passes of getting into tying FG range, which they did to force OT. The UCLA defense also played passive on that last series and didn't bring the house at Crompton. It was like we threw Chavis at them for 25 or so seconds! There really is no excuse for letting a team have a chance at a win in OT when you are kicking off to them with under 30 seconds in the game.

6) At MbVols rec I will mention the Keystone Kop's Offense and DiscomBOBulation rearing its UGLY head once again. The sack on Crompton by Foster was a classic also. Got to get a new assistant coach in charge of sweat bands so we can dem der plays straight for the UAB game!

Not sure I have it in me to do this much this year. I won't even see the UAB game as no way in hell I am wasting money on PPV and no way in hell I would attend this game and waste my weekend.