Big Orange Report 9-8-08
By Warner Agee
What's going on out there?
Following yet another spring and summer buildup, Phil Fulmer promptly took his Tennessee football team to the west coast and laid another big old egg. A banged up and bruised UCLA squad kept it close until the fourth quarter and then John Chavis took over. The same soft, loose defense that has handed a dozen or more games over to the opposition this decade worked to the Bruins' advantage. Presto, Fulmer and Chavis had once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Tennessee lost this game because of three major reasons. One, the offense failed to turn three of four first half pass interceptions into points. Two, the aforementioned Chavis defense, or lack of same, transformed a struggling quarterback into a can't miss pro prospect in one quarter of football. And three, Tennessee blundered its way to nine penalties for 55 yards while UCLA was only flagged twice in the entire football game. Poor preparation, lousy discipline and shoddy execution will get you beat every time out.
There was no lack of effort from the football players, they competed valiantly. No, this loss belongs to the coaching staff and the CEO, Phil Fulmer.
Rating the coaches
There are several venues that rate the performance of the football team by position. We would prefer to offer our opinions on the work done by this coaching staff by position. Coordinators will have two grades, the first will be concerning their position players and the second will be the grade for their job as coordinators.
Steve Caldwell-Defensive Ends- Grade F--Starting defensive ends Wes Brown and Robert Ayers combined for an under whelming four total hits. Brown had two unassisted stops and Ayers, the projected all-star candidate, was credited with two assists. Loss of containment was an item and the fact that they were facing one offensive tackle with a broken hand and another who was playing tight end in the spring only magnifies the failures here. Caldwell, a veteran, career assistant, ought to be very ashamed.
Dan Brooks-Defensive tackles--Grade B-- Dan Williams and Demonte Bolden accumulated eight tackles and seven of those were primary stops. They clogged up the middle nicely against the running game and both dropped two Bruins each behind the line of scrimmage. The drawback here is when the game was on the line in the fourth period, these two guys were probably almost out of gas because the team has no quality depth at this position except for Walter Fisher. Consequently, they could not barge in when UT needed a pass rush desperately.
Larry Slade-- Defensive backs-- Grade B minus-- In the first half, Slade's secondary looked very much like it would live up to all the pre-season hype. Four interceptions in one half should be close to a Tennessee record. Strong safety Eric Berry delivered a bone-jarring tackle in the first half. But in the third and fourth quarters, this same secondary got torched. This was not Slade's fault, as he has to follow the orders of Chavis. His grade was reduced by half a point for trying to place blame on players last week.
John Chavis-- Linebackers/Defensive Coordinator-- Grades B/F-- Middle linebacker Ellix Wilson led the Vols in tackles with 11 and 10 of those were solo stops. Nevin McKenzie had an interception and Adam Myers-White logged three unassisted tackles. But where was all-star candidate Rico McCoy? Most likely he was lost in pass coverage much of the time. Still the linebackers deserve a B. As a coordinator, this story line has become all too familiar. Chavis' retreating pass defense let a shaky, unsure quarterback get in sync and turn the tables in the fourth period. It was up to the defense to hold on and win this game, but because of the coordinator's scheme, they could not. The two safeties might as well have been soccer goal tenders in the second half.
Jason Michael-- Tight ends-- Grade C-- Luke Stocker and Brandon Warren caught one pass each. The blocking was a plus most of the time on running plays. But Vol fans were led to believe that the tight end would become an viable part of the offense. They simply did not in this game.
Greg Adkins- Offensive line-- Grade B-- The run blocking was very good early in the game. Of course, it is difficult to make a complete judgment on run blocking because the run game was abandoned far too often. Pass blocking was spotty if not downright weak at times. This line was supposed to be the strength of this football team, but it was not much better than average against a very fast UCLA front seven.
Latrell Scott-- Wide receivers-- B plus-- Scott's receivers got open but the quarterback couldn't get them the ball about half the time. The wide receivers gave a decent effort on blocking. When they got their mitts on the oval rock, they usually held it. By and large, Scott did a good job in his first Division 1 game.
Stan Drayton- Running backs-- Grade A-- Arian Foster and Montario Hardesty combined to rush for 162 yards from the tailback position and that is a good day's work in anybody's book. Foster's fumble, which did not get this team beat, kept this grade from being an A plus.
Dave Clawson-- Quarterbacks/Offensive coordinator-- Grades D/B minus-- Clawson can't be totally blamed for the failure of the quarterback to hit open receivers. He has only been the coach since last spring. Still, the starter at QB looked more like a red-shirt freshman than a junior. As far as the play-calling goes, Clawson sent in some plays that had folks open and waiting for the ball. Of course, we don't know as yet if Clawson was in complete control or if Fulmer injected himself into the play-calling again as he did with Randy Sanders.
Phil Fulmer-- Head Coach-- Grade F-- This team was not prepared to play, looked disorganized and disjointed at times and had nine back breaking penalties. And when he needed to assert his authority over Chavis in the fourth quarter and direct him to get after the Bruins, Fulmer again did nothing. Fulmer likes to spout off about pressing the kicking game, but in this one, the Vols had a punt blocked and missed three vital field goals. He was completely out-coached and out-foxed by Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow.
