Injuries, Juco kids, and MTSU

November 1, 2011 Mike Mozingo No comments

Another Tuesday, another round of Dooleyisms: This is one of the few things that can make a loss bearable:

On South Carolina

Brent Brewer tore his ACL so he is out for the year. (It’s) unfortunate, but we have to put the next guy in and go play. We are going to start Justin (Worley) again this week. Justin obviously didn’t play great. He made some good throws. He did some things that we felt good about and then he made some really bad decisions and some throws that he could have thrown better. Hopefully, we will see a little improvement in his play. I think we will. I think there were a lot of nerves out there that affected him especially early on. I don’t think anybody really played well around him and that was probably the disappointing part. Everybody has to do their part, play a little better around him and I think we will be fine…We feel like in practice that he has delivered the ball very well, more consistently and more accurately. I don’t want to get into comparing the two. Matt Simms does some things better than Justin and really a lot of it’s unknown what he does better. We just made the decision to go with Justin based on how we have performed as a unit when Matt has been in there.

Clearly the right call now is to start Worley again against MTSU. Hopefully their defense isn’t as advanced as South Carolina’s it shouldn’t be as talented.

On Second-Guessing

Well I don’t know what the result would have been if I didn’t start him. If I knew the result was we would have won the game, then yeah it was a terrible decision. If the result was going to be the same, I don’t know. If we would have gotten blown out then it was a good call. I don’t know what the answer is. But I can’t look back now. I guess only time will answer that question.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. You make your own bed, and then you lie in it.

On the South Carolina Game plan:

We might have put too much on him as coaches and that is the first thing we always do is (ask) where did we screw up. We probably put too much on him when I look back on it because he gives you that confidence. He handles it in practice, but you forget what is like when you step out there for the first time.

I think we sometimes forget that players are people, and young ones at that.

On Tyler Bray’s thumb

Tyler says he is coming back Arkansas. That’s what everybody told me, but how does he know? He is sitting there in a cast. The projection all along has been maybe by the Vanderbilt game. There has been no indication to challenge that, because you just don’t know. They have to go a certain amount of time, take it out and see where it is strength-wise. We have to see whether he can hold a ball or not. The key is going to be can he put pressure on the ball, then how much pain, what’s the risk, how’s the bone healed. It’s kind of week to week, I don’t know.

Vintage Dooley right there. Let’s talk about what we do know, and not speculate. Not enough of those people in the world. Unfortunately most of them aren’t entertaining to listen to. See: Saban, Nick

On the Secondary:

Yeah, we really don’t have many options. We have to move Prentiss Waggner back and put some corners in. They have to go play better. Brian Randolph will go play where Brent (Brewer) was playing…He hasn’t done it. We are going to have to try and make it simple for him. It’s all how you put your game plan in. Were they dramatically different with Brent (Brewer)? Yeah, because we never really had him in the deep middle. He was always kind of the down guy. We make mix it up a little bit now with Brian to make it easier. It just depends on how you shape it for the week and who you’re playing. That’s probably the biggest thing.

Brian Randolph has been a pleasant surprise. One thing you can’t fault this staff for is finding immediate help.

Brian Randolph has a bright future in orange

On first year defensive players:

Mo Couch played his best game and got player of the week this week on defense. I’m proud of Mo. He’s starting to come on. He’s a hard to block guy and we need about three more Mo Couch’s inside. He’s doing a good job progressing. A lot of these guys, these first year guys, especially on defense. You look at Izauea (Lanier), Mo, Brian (Randolph), A.J. (Johnson), Curt (Maggitt). Who else do we have in the first year of the program? And Byron Moore is starting to come on. They are starting to show progress and that is what we need from them. They have to keep playing better and we have to try and get five more next year and then you get five more after that and then here we go.

The future is bright Vol fans. Patience, patience.

On fixing the bad habits of Juco players

Well high school guys have them too. We spend a lot of time with all our players on bad habits in all areas of life

This is where, in my mind, Dooley separates himself from the rest of the coaches we’ve had, and that I am familiar with. The Vol-For-Life program is worth keeping the guy for.

On throwing and catching.

There’s not much juice outside doing stuff. We had some opportunities to make some plays and didn’t do it. We’ve just got to play better everywhere. We’re not getting much. What’s been hard is we don’t have that vertical push guy, so it hamstrings the other guys a little bit. It doesn’t stretch them out and now they’re not as good as they would have been. Hey, look what got us going last year – it was pushing that ball down the field to a fast guy. When you do that, things tend to open up. And when you don’t have that, things start suffocating.

Or in other words: We miss Tyler Bray and Justin Hunter.

On his own playing career at Virginia

I think we could do a lot better when we get challenged. The route-running’s fine until some guys get on us and we have to get open. That’s what matters. It’s when you’re contested. That’s why I couldn’t play today. I was really good when I played. They played Cover 3 and Cover 2, and you could wiggle around, find a little open area, catch it and fall down. And they said, `He’s a pretty good little receiver.’ Well, when you get challenged, what happens? Whether it’s man or a match zone and they’re on you and you’ve got to separate, you’ve got to get open and create a throwing lane for the quarterback. And we can do better than that. We’re not doing as well as we need to. We get stuck on guys sometimes.

I don’t remember his playing career, but it seems like a guy who could catch the ball and fall down might not be a bad thing to have. It seems like more than some of our receiver can do sometimes.

On MTSU

They run spread, fast pace, which we have to do a good job with that. It’s hard to prepare for. Defensively, I think they are extremely athletic, fast to the football and aggressive. They’ve have had some bad breaks. They’ve had three teams – should have beaten Purdue. A couple other teams they had beaten and they did get the breaks right down the stretch. I know this: they are good enough to beat us, every bit. If we don’t figure out a way to score some points, we will be in next week not feeling too good either. All these guys, they want to come prove it and it’s a great opportunity. Look, I think it is great for the state. I do; I’m for these games. What’s the risk? Yeah, they can go out there and pluck you. It doesn’t look good. But it’s good for the state, it keeps a lot of money in the state, it’s a great opportunity for those guys to come take advantage of how we’re playing. So we better strap it on.