The Junkyard

G, Mitchell is the backup for Swann. If he goes down Mitchell is in the game. It is critical that that he is ready. I hear what you are saying about the logic of him on offense but Swann position is critical if he goes down!

Would rather get the big scare over with early IMO. Don't think we'll face a team with more NFL talent (between Richardson, Stone, J. James, R. Neal, J. Hunter, C. Patterson) for a while. It's crazy because amidst all the turnovers and chaos, nobody is really gonna give Tennessee any credit. If a couple of those guys stayed after this season they could be hell.

This game had a plot that was eerily similar to the SC game of a year ago. Luckily the end result was different. Hopefully we got that out of our system and we'll be ready to go next week and play a mistake free game.

We have got a long way to go to get to a championship level. Nothing like winning a game while having your shortcomings exposed. I believe that really helps a team dial it in because they've had a little starch taken out of their britches, particularly the defense. With the talent on this team, making improvement each week is the key to getting where we want to go.

I've said it all year, that Tenn would be our biggest matchup problem defensively and it showed. I don't see another team on our schedule that will give us as many fits as the vols. Hope we fix the miscues then come out and make a statement next weekend. Gurshall is looking really special

Gentry you captured my general sentiment;
I think some of the defensive gaffes can be blamed on continuity and chemistry. If you don’t have the same 11 from the word go and know you are getting back some studs over the first quarter of the season, then your in a conundrum. You have to rep the guys you have AND rep the guys you don’t have to keep them from getting too rusty. You also have to shift around your personnel depending on who’s back and who isn’t. Thus you can’t build a good cohesive unit. That said, we simply aren’t tough on the LOS at the point of attack. I grudgingly can see this. It is as if our players are reading their clippings too much rather than making more stories for those clippings. and it was as if our players didn’t expect UT to fight back and played that way. Well this is the SEC teams are going to fight back and they don’t care what your record is or if your the defending MNC (see Ole Miss vs. Bama last night or UK vs. SCar).
Mentally we don’t seem as tough on defense. We also looked out of sync many times, at times taking ourselves out of plays, not being set on defense, poor angles and flat out blown assignments. I saw this yesterday which couple that with a QB like Bray who can sling it, and two NFL WR’s, and it can get interesting quick, as it did. I will also point out that it seems as if SEC refs have decided not to call the train wreck holding calls. I have noticed this over the course of the last 5 games for us, and it is usually on big plays for the other team. The block on Commings was a clip that they decided not to call.
Our defense needs to make their minds up and play hard nosed football again. They can as we know, but will they? I hope so or Shaw and Lattimore will light us up also.
THAT SAID: we are 5-0 and still have a chance at a very special season oh and we aren’t the NERDS!!!!