Bob Shoop interview

[BuckyIsAB****]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.

[Bubb Rubb]

Don't worry. We have so much defensive talent next year that Ron Cooper couldn't screw it up.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Don't worry. We have so much defensive talent next year that Ron Cooper couldn't screw it up.

We'll see. Coaching for this team can be the difference in 8-4 and a NY6 bowl.

He did say some things that I didnt give him credit for though, he talked about bringing pressure, being in your face (at CB) and stopping the run, being disruptive. Thats great.

But its one thing to say it and another to do it. I dont wanna hear about injuries and all that, everybody has injuries

[bulldawg28]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.

I hate to break it to you but Green is no X-factor. If he's not careful he'll be X-ed out of the two deep.

[Coach34]

Green is a DE in an oversized LB body. He needs to gain 15 pounds and rush the passer and then work to gain more so he can play in the NFL. I hope that is what he is referring too- unless he tries to make a Mike out of him. Only 2 option for him

[Todd4State]

Tennessee was a dumpster fire under Butch Jones. I think Shoop will be fine. He was successful at Vanderbilt and Penn State.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I hate to break it to you but Green is no X-factor. If he's not careful he'll be X-ed out of the two deep.

I disagree. He was one of the most consistent players we had last year.

I'll admit we were all getting tired of hearing about what he could do and it was time for him to step up. He did, bc Grantham put him in a position to make plays.

Moving him out of it wouldnt be very wise. If he gets beat out on the 2 deep then that means we have the best front we have ever had. We very well could be

[Coach34]

Green, Rivers, Simmons, and Sweat rushing on 3rd downs would be hard to deal with- and would keep us from having to bring pressure as often

[Todd4State]

Green is a DE in an oversized LB body. He needs to gain 15 pounds and rush the passer and then work to gain more so he can play in the NFL. I hope that is what he is referring too- unless he tries to make a Mike out of him. Only 2 option for him

If that's the case wouldn't that mean that Sweat would be at OLB?

[BuckyIsAB****]

Green is a DE in an oversized LB body. He needs to gain 15 pounds and rush the passer and then work to gain more so he can play in the NFL. I hope that is what he is referring too- unless he tries to make a Mike out of him. Only 2 option for him

I'd do exactly what Grantham did with him. Stand him up, slant him, send him off the edge and drop him in coverage at times.

Put him in a wide 5 on 3rd down with Sweat, Rivers, Spencer on the other side and tell him to go get him

[BuckyIsAB****]

If that's the case wouldn't that mean that Sweat would be at OLB?

Sweat is better off with his hand in the dirt

[Coach34]

If that's the case wouldn't that mean that Sweat would be at OLB?

No- move Rivers down to DT in certain passing situations. Sweat and Green at DE. Get nothing but speed rushing in those situations. We are going to be a 4-3 team this Fall primarily anyway.

[Coach34]

I'd do exactly what Grantham did with him. Stand him up, slant him, send him off the edge and drop him in coverage at times.

Put him in a wide 5 on 3rd down with Sweat, Rivers, Spencer on the other side and tell him to go get him

Simmons is too good of a pass rusher to pull him out

[BuckyIsAB****]

Simmons is too good of a pass rusher to pull him out

I agree.

I was just saying any combo of those guys on the edge

[Count Istvan Teleky]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.


Was such a game-changer under Sirmon.

[Todd4State]

No- move Rivers down to DT in certain passing situations. Sweat and Green at DE. Get nothing but speed rushing in those situations. We are going to be a 4-3 team this Fall primarily anyway.

I figured Cory Thomas would be starting somewhere though.

[Dawg61]

I'm just gonna have to trust Moorhead on Shoop till I see it on the field. Part of Shoop's problem and it's a big part of it is he's having to follow Grantham who we all loved in his one year here but part of why we loved Grantham is because he followed Sirmon who was universally accepted as a total disaster. Grantham's defense gave up some really bad tds vs a very bad Ole Miss team. That was the last game Grantham coached for us. Don't forget that. Grantham's defense was ****ing atrocious vs Ole Miss and Matt Luke. It was also atrocious vs Georgia and Auburn but so was everyone else's. His defense was amazing in a lot of games too including Alabama. He atleast showed us the formula to beat Bama. Be more physical than them at the l.o.s. which isn't rocket surgery but we'd never successfully done it before till he came along. Then he gave up a touchdown with 30 seconds left. We should have beat Bama last year and we choked it. Anyways I am rambling now

[Ifyouonlyknew]

I figured Cory Thomas would be starting somewhere though.

I think he's referring to strictly pass situations.

[Liverpooldawg]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.

Good lord we haven’t even seen a spring game or heard a rumor from practice yet. Isn’t it a bit early for this?

[QuadrupleOption]

I'm just gonna have to trust Moorhead on Shoop till I see it on the field. Part of Shoop's problem and it's a big part of it is he's having to follow Grantham who we all loved in his one year here but part of why we loved Grantham is because he followed Sirmon who was universally accepted as a total disaster. Grantham's defense gave up some really bad tds vs a very bad Ole Miss team. That was the last game Grantham coached for us. Don't forget that. Grantham's defense was ****ing atrocious vs Ole Miss and Matt Luke. It was also atrocious vs Georgia and Auburn but so was everyone else's. His defense was amazing in a lot of games too including Alabama. He atleast showed us the formula to beat Bama. Be more physical than them at the l.o.s. which isn't rocket surgery but we'd never successfully done it before till he came along. Then he gave up a touchdown with 30 seconds left. We should have beat Bama last year and we choked it. Anyways I am rambling now

I don't think our defense played exceptionally well in against Alabama. We limited them to 10 possessions because our Offense had the ball for 38 minutes.
In those 10 possessions, they had 4 punts (3 in the first half), 4 TDs, and made 1 of 2 FGs. If their defense hadn't been ravaged by injuries they would have scored 45+ just like Auburn and Georgia.

[Gutter Cobreh]

I don't think our defense played exceptionally well in against Alabama. We limited them to 10 possessions because our Offense had the ball for 38 minutes.
In those 10 possessions, they had 4 punts (3 in the first half), 4 TDs, and made 1 of 2 FGs. If their defense hadn't been ravaged by injuries they would have scored 45+ just like Auburn and Georgia.

Bingo!

[Turfdawg67]

I don't think our defense played exceptionally well in against Alabama. We limited them to 10 possessions because our Offense had the ball for 38 minutes.
In those 10 possessions, they had 4 punts (3 in the first half), 4 TDs, and made 1 of 2 FGs. If their defense hadn't been ravaged by injuries they would have scored 45+ just like Auburn and Georgia.

Ah... assumptions.

[Turfdawg67]

I'm just gonna have to trust Moorhead on Shoop till I see it on the field. Part of Shoop's problem and it's a big part of it is he's having to follow Grantham who we all loved in his one year here but part of why we loved Grantham is because he followed Sirmon who was universally accepted as a total disaster. Grantham's defense gave up some really bad tds vs a very bad Ole Miss team. That was the last game Grantham coached for us. Don't forget that. Grantham's defense was ****ing atrocious vs Ole Miss and Matt Luke. It was also atrocious vs Georgia and Auburn but so was everyone else's. His defense was amazing in a lot of games too including Alabama. He atleast showed us the formula to beat Bama. Be more physical than them at the l.o.s. which isn't rocket surgery but we'd never successfully done it before till he came along. Then he gave up a touchdown with 30 seconds left. We should have beat Bama last year and we choked it. Anyways I am rambling now

First statement is true, second one is absolutely not! We shut them down except for a few horrible plays.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Good lord we haven?t even seen a spring game or heard a rumor from practice yet. Isn?t it a bit early for this?

Excuses dont fly in this business

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Excuses dont fly in this business

Didn't sound like excuses to me. Sound like he was telling them what went wrong. Like he said he's been a DC 9yrs. 7 of those he coached a top 25 defense. Imo he was giving reasons why he didn't have 1 the last 2 seasons. We all hear different things though.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Didn't sound like excuses to me. Sound like he was telling them what went wrong. Like he said he's been a DC 9yrs. 7 of those he coached a top 25 defense. Imo he was giving reasons why he didn't have 1 the last 2 seasons. We all hear different things though.

UT wasnt the only defense with injuries. I get it Butch was bad. Im not down on him, Im concerned bc theres so much riding on him. You could argue without Brent Pry he hasnt been as good.

We will find out if its true. He said some good things as well but excuses aren't what you want. Not me at least.

If you make an excuse one time it will happen again. Dont pass the buck.

[Leroy Jenkins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdWpyg0mZK4

[Political Hack]

Sweat is better off with his hand in the dirt

Standing in a 3-4 or hand down in a 4-3 isn?t important. As long as he?s on the edge he?s fine.

[QuadrupleOption]

Ah... assumptions.

I think it's a valid assumption. Our offense was effective running the ball because Bama's top three or four LBs were out with injuries. I'm not saying they would have completely shut us down but we wouldn't have held the ball for 38 minutes. And our D wasn't very good in the second half of that game especially. We didn't stop shit.

[Liverpooldawg]

Excuses dont fly in this business

He hasn't even coached one practice here yet, jeez.

[HoopsDawg]

Don't worry. We have so much defensive talent next year that Ron Cooper couldn't screw it up.

Yes, we have a ton of talent. Any idiot could coach us to a Top 25 defense. But we need Shoop to maximize our talent b/c this is potentially a Top 8 defense.

[Todd4State]

UT wasnt the only defense with injuries. I get it Butch was bad. Im not down on him, Im concerned bc theres so much riding on him. You could argue without Brent Pry he hasnt been as good.

We will find out if its true. He said some good things as well but excuses aren't what you want. Not me at least.

If you make an excuse one time it will happen again. Dont pass the buck.

I counter the Brent Pry argument with the only time he hasn't been good is with Butch Jones as his head coach.

People forget that Grantham had similar questions about him last year too.

[HoopsDawg]

I counter the Brent Pry argument with the only time he hasn't been good is with Butch Jones as his head coach.

People forget that Grantham had similar questions about him last year too.

Grantham has always been able to stop the run wherever's he's been. He never had a year like Shoop's last 2 years.

[yjnkdawg]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.




I heard the interview earlier today, and I didn't interpret it like you did. If Coach JoeMo thought there were any red flags from Shoop's stint at TN then he would have never been offered the DC position. Everybody knew that TN was a dumpster fire. I really didn't hear all those excuses that you said you did. On Green and some other players, Shoop didn't indicate that he was going to make major changes in job positions, but that several players were versatile and could be used in certain situations. I think you are over thinking this or worrying over something where we haven't actually seen what he is referring to on the field. If you are that worried, then maybe you need to join the "Sky is Falling" club that has a few members on here. I imagine they have another membership opening.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I heard the interview earlier today, and I didn't interpret it like you did. If Coach JoeMo thought there were any red flags from Shoop's stint at TN then he would have never been offered the DC position. Everybody knew that TN was a dumpster fire. I really didn't hear all those excuses that you said you did. On Green and some other players, Shoop didn't indicate that he was going to make major changes in job positions, but that several players were versatile and could be used in certain situations. I think you are over thinking this or worrying over something where we haven't actually seen what he is referring to on the field. If you are that worried, then maybe you need to join the "Sky is Falling" club that has a few members on here. I imagine they have another membership opening.

He clearly said they dealt with injuries the last 2 years at TN.

Who knows how high or how low shoop was on his list. I do know no other schools were beating down his door to get him.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Grantham has always been able to stop the run wherever's he's been. He never had a year like Shoop's last 2 years.

Exactly

[BuckyIsAB****]

I'd say 7 out of 9 years with a top 25 D is a trend and thats great. Im not saying fire him or that hes going to be terrible.

But we have every right to be concerned after the last 2 years

[Homedawg]

Dont know how to link it or I would but Shoop interviewed with the press for the first time. Our twitter page put it out.

Some may think I'm overthinking all of this but if you're gonna judge then go ahead.

He talked about how his scheme adjusts to his players not the other way around, and thats great. But he did make hella excuses about what happened at UT. I didnt like it.

Another thing that worried me is he said Gerri Green would play a different role than he played last year. I dont like it. I think Green is the X factor on our defense and we all saw how good he could be in the right spot.

He did go on to say we would do some things with him and the guys like him (Spencer, Sweat, Rivers etc.) and that we would be multiple at times but mainly we'd be a 4 down team. We all expected that.

Maybe I'm being too hard on him but the one thing coaches dont like is to hear excuses, he made some. One of the best seasons in State history is riding on this guy. I'm all for him, hope he can handle it.
Must've listened to different interview. Didn't sound like excuses to me...

[Bothrops]

No hawk tackling bullshit, please. Our defense this year really is the difference between the Texas or Belk Bowl and the Sugar.

[1bigdawg]

I think it's a valid assumption. Our offense was effective running the ball because Bama's top three LBs were out with injuries. I'm not saying they would have completely shut us down but we wouldn't have held the ball for 38 minutes.

I am SO tired of this. Everybody has injuries through the season. State was missing all of our starting receivers. When someone plays Alabama close or beats them, all the talk is about their injuries. Yeah, they had injuries and had to play backup 5 star guys. Everyone else that has injuries and has to play three star guys if they are lucky. Equal injuries should work to Bama's favor and injuries are usually about equal. What Bama has is a better relationship with the media because they are always good and the media feels as though they have to suck up to Bama.

[Tbonewannabe]

I am SO tired of this. Everybody has injuries through the season. State was missing all of our starting receivers. When someone plays Alabama close or beats them, all the talk is about their injuries. Yeah, they had injuries and had to play backup 5 star guys. Everyone else that has injuries and has to play three star guys if they are lucky. Equal injuries should work to Bama's favor and injuries are usually about equal. What Bama has is a better relationship with the media because they are always good and the media feels as though they have to suck up to Bama.

It also depends on where the injuries are. We weren't dependent on our WRs for the most part. We were able to get around it because of how good our run game was. If you have injuries in some key spots then it makes it a lot harder to be successful.

[MedDawg]

Tennessee was a dumpster fire under Butch Jones. I think Shoop will be fine. He was successful at Vanderbilt and Penn State.

Vandy went from the #85 scoring defense the season before Shoop to #33 under Shoop then #20. Penn State went from the #52 scoring defense the season before Shoop to #4 the first season under Shoop.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

2016 Tennessee absolutely had a ton of injuries on D, even more than Bama did this year. yes "every team has injuries", but us loosing Dez is not as bad as if we had lost Dez, Sweat, Durr, etc.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/10/20/13322306/tennessee-volunteers-injuries-2016

That was written in late October. Tn D had lost: 2 starting LBs, and both backups. They had 2/6 of their initial 2 deep still healthy. They also lost 2 starters in the secondary. Things only got worse as the season went on. They also lost both starting DTs and the main backup.

But really though, put our top 10 D from last year in those shoes: Starting LBs Green and Harris go down, as do their backups Spencer and Thompson. We have to go through SEC games with only Leo Lewis , Tim Washington, Willie Gay, and walkons off the bench. Durr and Abrams go down, meaning more time for Rayford and Bryant in the secondary. Simmons and Thomas go down, as does Hoyett, meaning our starting interior DL is now Tre brown and Grant Harris, and we probably burn the shirt on Autry to have 1 guy to rotate.

Can anyone in here really say wit a straight face that the D I just described would finish above 50th?

Really, TN lost 6 starters by mid october. 4 starters and 3 backups from the front 7 alone. That's far worse than what Bama dealt with last season. Citing injuries might sound like an "excuse", but it's 100% accurate

[TrapGame]

2016 Tennessee absolutely had a ton of injuries on D, even more than Bama did this year. yes "every team has injuries", but us loosing Dez is not as bad as if we had lost Dez, Sweat, Durr, etc.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/10/20/13322306/tennessee-volunteers-injuries-2016

That was written in late October. Tn D had lost: 2 starting LBs, and both backups. They had 2/6 of their initial 2 deep still healthy. They also lost 2 starters in the secondary. Things only got worse as the season went on. They also lost both starting DTs and the main backup.

But really though, put our top 10 D from last year in those shoes: Starting LBs Green and Harris go down, as do their backups Spencer and Thompson. We have to go through SEC games with only Leo Lewis , Tim Washington, Willie Gay, and walkons off the bench. Durr and Abrams go down, meaning more time for Rayford and Bryant in the secondary. Simmons and Thomas go down, as does Hoyett, meaning our starting interior DL is now Tre brown and Grant Harris, and we probably burn the shirt on Autry to have 1 guy to rotate.

Can anyone in here really say wit a straight face that the D I just described would finish above 50th?

Really, TN lost 6 starters by mid october. 4 starters and 3 backups from the front 7 alone. That's far worse than what Bama dealt with last season. Citing injuries might sound like an "excuse", but it's 100% accurate

Don't bring facts and common sense into this!! How dare you!!

[QuadrupleOption]

I am SO tired of this. Everybody has injuries through the season. State was missing all of our starting receivers. When someone plays Alabama close or beats them, all the talk is about their injuries. Yeah, they had injuries and had to play backup 5 star guys. Everyone else that has injuries and has to play three star guys if they are lucky. Equal injuries should work to Bama's favor and injuries are usually about equal. What Bama has is a better relationship with the media because they are always good and the media feels as though they have to suck up to Bama.

Experience matters too. There's a reason why those guys were running 3rd or 4th team and it wasn't because they were freshmen. If you don't think injuries impact games then go back and watch the Egg Bowl. Injuries in the wrong places can and do impact a unit's performance significantly.

Again, I don't think Bama would have shut us down, but a healthy Bama would have prevented us from controlling the ball for 38 minutes. Credit to Mullen for seeing the weakness and exploiting it, but our success in the Bama game was mostly due to our offense, and NOT our defense. Especially in the 2nd half.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/game?gameId=400933916

[Prediction? Pain.]

2016 Tennessee absolutely had a ton of injuries on D, even more than Bama did this year. yes "every team has injuries", but us loosing Dez is not as bad as if we had lost Dez, Sweat, Durr, etc.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/10/20/13322306/tennessee-volunteers-injuries-2016

That was written in late October. Tn D had lost: 2 starting LBs, and both backups. They had 2/6 of their initial 2 deep still healthy. They also lost 2 starters in the secondary. Things only got worse as the season went on. They also lost both starting DTs and the main backup.

But really though, put our top 10 D from last year in those shoes: Starting LBs Green and Harris go down, as do their backups Spencer and Thompson. We have to go through SEC games with only Leo Lewis , Tim Washington, Willie Gay, and walkons off the bench. Durr and Abrams go down, meaning more time for Rayford and Bryant in the secondary. Simmons and Thomas go down, as does Hoyett, meaning our starting interior DL is now Tre brown and Grant Harris, and we probably burn the shirt on Autry to have 1 guy to rotate.

Can anyone in here really say wit a straight face that the D I just described would finish above 50th?

Really, TN lost 6 starters by mid october. 4 starters and 3 backups from the front 7 alone. That's far worse than what Bama dealt with last season. Citing injuries might sound like an "excuse", but it's 100% accurate

Great points. I've been as cautious in my reaction to Shoop as anyone here, and I still am to some degree. (In 2016, a 4 - 8 Missouri team ran on them for 420 yards and gained over 700 yards of total offense. That's hard to explain away for a D that finished in the top 25 the year before and had 4-star-or-higher caliber players returning across the board.) But the injuries in 2016 really were ridiculous. According to Phil Steele (https://www.seccountry.com/tennessee/345395), TN had the most injuries on its team among any school in a Power 5 conference in 2016 -- it lost 52 starts due to injury. Or, as another article noted (https://www.seccountry.com/tennessee/tennessee-football-bob-shoop-defense-analysis-2016), look at it like this -- by the end of the 2016 season, only two defensive players had started every game because of all the injuries. Let that sink in -- two dudes on the entire defense started every game. Two. They lost 4 of their top 5 DTs to injury, so by the end of the season they were rotating back-up DEs on the interior of the line. That's a recipe for disaster.

Now, I still think that the buck stops with Shoop and 2016's horror-show was his to own. And he did (https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/Article/Defensive-coordinator-Bob-Shoop-I-was-too-stubborn-running-Tenne-53022931), at least back then:


Bob Shoop turned the page on his first season as Tennessee's defensive coordinator months ago.

Until the Vols take the field again in another couple of months, though, he's going to continue to answer questions and reflect on what went wrong during the final month of his maiden season at Tennessee.

That was the case at the Big Orange Caravan stop at the First Tennessee Pavilion here on Saturday, when Shoop acknowledged his role in the stunning collapse Tennessee's injury-ravaged defense endured last November.

No defense is going to play well when it's forced by injuries to play reserve defensive ends at defensive tackles and multiple star players are either out or playing at less than 100 percent as was the case with the Vols at the end of the 2016 season, but Tennessee still shouldn't have reached the historic lows it did.

Shoop showed candor on Saturday when said he didn't do a good job of adjusting his defense on the fly as the injuries took their toll.

"I think at the end of the year you always critique yourself and you quality control your personnel, your philosophy, your scheme, your execution and your personnel," he said. "I relate to Jonathan (Kongbo) on that. I think I might have billed it (with) some unrealistic expectations, and when we got guys injured, maybe the guy calling the shots was a little bit stubborn right there, me. I really wanted to force-fit, this is my style of defense or whatever. I probably didn't do a great job at times of tailoring things."

The results were gruesome.

Tennessee allowed 353 and 409 yards rushing to Texas A&M and Alabama before playing well enough for the Vols to win at South Carolina, only for the offense to play its worst game of the season.

It was after the shutout of Tennessee Tech that it really got ugly for Shoop and the Vols.

Kentucky racked up 635 yards, including 443 on the ground.

Missouri rushed for 420 yards en route to a 740-yard performance, the most yards ever allowed by a Tennessee defense, replacing the dubious mark set against Troy by the Sal-Sunseri-led disaster defense of 2012.

It got lower for Tennessee when Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur torched the Vols' inept secondary as the Commodores scored 45 points, their highest against an SEC opponent since 1970.

My only real qualm with his press conference the other day is that I wish he would've repeated some of the stuff I just quoted re: 2016 instead of glossing over it with quick references to a bowl game and 9 wins in 2016 to imply that he was successful that year, too. UT won in the back half of 2016 in spite of its D, not because of it. But that's a pretty minor gripe. It's a press conference.

[NCDawg]

Experience matters too. There's a reason why those guys were running 3rd or 4th team and it wasn't because they were freshmen. If you don't think injuries impact games then go back and watch the Egg Bowl. Injuries in the wrong places can and do impact a unit's performance significantly.

Again, I don't think Bama would have shut us down, but a healthy Bama would have prevented us from controlling the ball for 38 minutes. Credit to Mullen for seeing the weakness and exploiting it, but our success in the Bama game was mostly due to our offense, and NOT our defense. Especially in the 2nd half.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/game?gameId=400933916

I tend to agree with you. Most everybody seemed to be sad when Mullen took Grantham with him to Florida. Maybe I'm the exception, but I don't think Grantham was the great defensive coach that everybody seem to think he was. In addition to the Alabama game loss, which we could have won if we had better defensive play, we also were blown out by Georgia and Auburn. I'm anxious to see what Shoop can do with the defense.

[RocketDawg]

I tend to agree with you. Most everybody seemed to be sad when Mullen took Grantham with him to Florida. Maybe I'm the exception, but I don't think Grantham was the great defensive coach that everybody seem to think he was. In addition to the Alabama game loss, which we could have won if we had better defensive play, we also were blown out by Georgia and Auburn. I'm anxious to see what Shoop can do with the defense.

That national champion and 2 top 10 teams (were top 5 for a lot of the year). Can't really knock him too much for those, although the blowouts were pretty bad. Still, if there is such a thing, those were "good" losses.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Shoop can put all that whoa is me crybaby crap behind him. We demand perfection, I don't give a crap if you are coaching middle school girls softball with a ton of injuries. Perfection, zero TDs allowed is what I want.

[preachermatt83]

UT wasnt the only defense with injuries. I get it Butch was bad. Im not down on him, Im concerned bc theres so much riding on him. You could argue without Brent Pry he hasnt been as good.

We will find out if its true. He said some good things as well but excuses aren't what you want. Not me at least.

If you make an excuse one time it will happen again. Dont pass the buck.

Great post.

[Coach34]

No excuses for our D in 2018

[BuckyIsAB****]

No excuses for our D in 2018

This is basically all I was trying to say.

And yall can slice it and spin it however you want to defend him, I get it I want him to be good as much as anyone. BUT he did make some excuses.

Nobody wants to hear that. If you allow that you wont win

[Liverpooldawg]

This is basically all I was trying to say.

And yall can slice it and spin it however you want to defend him, I get it I want him to be good as much as anyone. BUT he did make some excuses.

Nobody wants to hear that. If you allow that you wont win

But he hasn't even coached a practice here and you are already bashing the guy. That is SO MSU.

[BuckyIsAB****]

But he hasn't even coached a practice here and you are already bashing the guy. That is SO MSU.

He coached lots of practices and gave up 700 plus to a 4-8 Mizzou team and 630 plus to Kentucky.

Color me concerned. Sorry if this bothers you

[Liverpooldawg]

He coached lots of practices and gave up 700 plus to a 4-8 Mizzou team and 630 plus to Kentucky.

Color me concerned. Sorry if this bothers you
I just don't get bashing a guy before he has done anything here. His record everywhere except under Butch Jones is stellar. I guess you are a Butch Jones fan, or possibly Butch. Only thing that makes sense.