Nussmeier lost this game, period. End of story

[GatorsFanYeah]

That was the absolute worst play calling I have ever seen in the second half. You torch their defense all first half long with no Cam Sutton and exploit the clear weakness in their defense, and you do the complete opposite in the second half and play Musschamp ball. Hell, scratch that, even Will Muschamp thinks that play calling was conservative. The defense blew chunks, no doubt, but they were on the field all game and having cramp issues - how about getting them some rest by actually doing something on offense? Awful.

And I'd say congrats to Vols fans, but we all know you gave up when you got down 21-0, anyways.

 

[NavigatorII]

That was the absolute worst play calling I have ever seen in the second half. You torch their defense all first half long with no Cam Sutton and exploit the clear weakness in their defense, and you do the complete opposite in the second half and play Musschamp ball. Hell, scratch that, even Will Muschamp thinks that play calling was conservative. The defense blew chunks, no doubt, but they were on the field all game and having cramp issues - how about getting them some rest by actually doing something on offense? Awful.

And I'd say congrats to Vols fans, but we all know you gave up when you got down 21-0, anyways.

Muschamp like. Calloway is a retard. Good that he is talented. This is on coaching. I've never seen a meltdown like this. Not even in 1994.

 

[oozie7]

Absolutely. Was the defense good in the second half? No. but UT could not stop us and our offensive coaches decided to take the air out of the ball and sit on the lead which left our defense on the field over and over. We threw TWO passes in the damn 3rd quarter. TWO! At about the 9 min mark in the 4th we had had something like 5 pass attempts. We were content to run up the middle over and over and punt and it cost us. No different from the last guy that was here. Absolutely pathetic. So much for us having an offensive genius.

 

[neoteric lefty]

Start a new streak next year...

 

[bradleygator]

8 yards in the third quarter. Defense was like playing punt rush on Madden every down. So long as they don't complete a pass, it's great.

 

[Gator Fever]

Nuss's 3rd quarter play calling is unacceptable. We don't have Bama's O line to get away with crap like that. The sh*t talking DBs have a lot of blame to take also.

 

[ocalaman]

McElwain had to be involved in the offensive plan for the 2nd half and I agree that it looked like their idea was to sit on the lead and be less aggressive. I saw several things at play here. UT played with much more focus and fire the 2nd half and eliminated the mistakes that cost them in the 1st half. Our offensive line flat out got whipped the 2nd half. Yes, the playcalling was too conservative, but we couldn't convert a 3rd & 1 on our first possession of the 3rd qtr. The O-line gave the QB no protection at all and missed blocks all over the place in the run game. And our receivers weren't getting open and dropped a couple passes of their own. Also, the D-line got very little pressure on Dobbs after the 1st Qtr., and gave up too much rushing yardage, especially the 2nd half. Plus our DB's got beat a lot in coverage and Dobbs had good reads and throws. Duke Dawson can't cover, period, and I say again, Jalen "Teez" Tabor is not playing like an All American. He missed several arm tackles and got beat in coverage a lot, especially when he' supposed to be a shut down corner. As much as I hate Tennessee, I give their coaches and players a lot of credit for hanging in there, making adjustments and making their own momentum, then building on it. Our side blew it, but I fault the players as much as the coaches. It was a total team meltdown, as I think they got too full of themselves after the 1st 3 1/2 games. With our schedule and Tennessee's, we still have a goo shot to win the East. UT loses to TAM & Bama, we beat LSU & Georgia and we're in.

 

[tnole903]

You can't blame your OC, solely. He doesn't operate in a vacuum.

 

[oozie7]

5 straight 3 and outs to start the second half. Something to keep in mind for those blaming the defense. UT was throwing everything they had at our defense and rather than give them support we ran 3 plays and punted over and over and over, they were going to break eventually. A coach with stones doesn't blow that lead. You either have killer instinct or you don't and our head guy doesn't have it. He pulled a Butch Jones today.

 

[Gator Fever]

I think I will officially use the term Nusschamp now after that mess today.

 

[Dannygator1989]

Could be that they adjusted to the backup QB

Or does that not matter wnymore.

 

[tnole903]

Could be that they adjusted to the backup QB

Or does that not matter wnymore.

UF ran between the tackles and put the kid in the pocket for the 2nd half. It was strange. They were moving the ball in the first half giving him some deep posts and moving the pocket. All that changed at halftime.

 

[oozie7]

Could be that they adjusted to the backup QB

Or does that not matter wnymore.

I'd buy that argument if we had kept being aggressive on offense but we didn't. At like the 9 min mark in the 4th we had attempted something like 5 passes in the second half. They didn't stop our passing game our own coaches did. Then we tried to pass when UT was up two scores and unsurprisingly the passing game looked like shit after being on the shelf the entire second half.

 

[Gator Fever]

Could be that they adjusted to the backup QB

Or does that not matter wnymore.

They didn't adjust to crap that 3rd quarter. We only threw 2 frickin short passes I think. They did start crowding things some when they saw we weren't passing the ball down the field any longer.

I am officially calling Nuss "Nusschamp" now - that was a frickin joke.

If this continues I hope you don't defend Nuss like you did Muschamp's offense.

 

[HardeeWildcatFan]

Defense, I don't care how good you are, can only stay on the field. This is why its called having a BALANCED Offense and Defense. If the defense stays on the field too long, like they did the WHOLE 3rd qrt because of the conservative play calling, this is what is reaped...

Nuss saved Butch Jones his job IMHO....

 

[Countygator]

Something that won't be discussed much is field position. That was huge in today's game. At one point late in the 2nd half ut average field position was the 42 and Florida was the 14. That was a difference maker too. So many short fields for the vols.

 

[zengator]

We have a bad team. It's going to take years to erase muschamp from this program

 

[oozie7]

The defense was bad the second half but he offense played a big part in that. Again...5 straight three and outs to start the second half. FIVE. How long was the defense supposed to hold? And during that time we threw all of 2 passes while continuing to run up the gut into a 9 man front series after series just content to punt and burn clock. The playcalling was gutless and it lost the game. The offense went to hell and the defense wore out and couldn't get their wind back and the floodgates opened.

 

[PacoGator19]

I think blame can be passed around to some offensive and some defensive. Not sure this can be pinned on just 1 thing in particular.

Hell I'll be honest I figured 21 points would be enough to win the game.

 

[Dannygator1989]

They didn't adjust to crap that 3rd quarter. We only threw 2 frickin short passes I think. They did start crowding things some when they saw we weren't passing the ball down the field any longer.

I am officially calling Nuss "Nusschamp" now - that was a frickin joke.

If this continues I hope you don't defend Nuss like you did Muschamp's offense.

I'm misspelling words.

I literally have one eye open.

Let's take a wild guess about my over attitude that began at 10:30 this morning.

 

[bradleygator]

The defense was bad the second half but he offense played a big part in that. Again...5 straight three and outs to start the second half. FIVE. How long was the defense supposed to hold? And during that time we threw all of 2 passes while continuing to run up the gut into a 9 man front series after series just content to punt and burn clock. The playcalling was gutless and it lost the game.

Strange because we came out so aggressively, taking the ball first and attacking down the field. We didn't have the guts to keep it up though. We need a bully. Spurrier was a bully. Meyer was a bully. They would get you down and pile it on because they knew they were better. tonight we were just hoping for the clock to run out.

 

[Countygator]

Strange because we came out so aggressively, taking the ball first and attacking down the field. We didn't have the guts to keep it up though. We need a bully. Spurrier was a bully. Meyer was a bully. They would get you down and pile it on because they knew they were better. tonight we were just hoping for the clock to run out.

Certainly seemed that way.

 

[bradleygator]

I think blame can be passed around to some offensive and some defensive. Not sure this can be pinned on just 1 thing in particular.

Hell I'll be honest I figured 21 points would be enough to win the game.

I did too. So did mcelwain, apparently.

 

[Gator Fever]

I'm misspelling words.

I literally have one eye open.

Let's take a wild guess about my over attitude that began at 10:30 this morning.

Yep just like we didn't know Muschamp was screwing things up and it would be alright soon enough. I will always be an optimist on the season until things are pretty close to being assured but this was not a good sign at all today. Nusschamp needs to get in the box again if that had anything to do with this today.

 

[oozie7]

Strange because we came out so aggressively, taking the ball first and attacking down the field. We didn't have the guts to keep it up though. We need a bully. Spurrier was a bully. Meyer was a bully. They would get you down and pile it on because they knew they were better. tonight we were just hoping for the clock to run out.

No killer instinct. Guys like that don't win big. It's what happened to Zook and what happened to Muschamp. They didn't have the balls to go and grab victory, they got a lead and just prayed to hang on.

Consider this....the last time we blew a 10 point lead at the half? 2008. Almost a decade ago. Not even Muschamp managed to have a collapse like this. Pathetic.

 

[sadgator]

Team loss...oddly, sadgator saw some pretty good things today. We're better than we played. We'll keep gettin' better...

 

[ocalaman]

I said before the season started that this year's team would be better than last year's, but could have a worse record than last years because that team won 3-4 games it could have, and probably should have, lost. Horrendous field position limits play calling, but the offensive line has been and still is the primary problem with this offense. And I don;t agree that the defense got worn down. Time of possession and the number of plays run was almost identical between UF & UT. Our defense got manhandled the 2nd half, plain and simple. Little to no pressure on the QB, receivers getting open all over the place and gashing runs with a lot of missed tackles. To me, the blame goes all around - coaching, offense, defense, special teams. Team loss.

 

[Gator Fever]

I said before the season started that this year's team would be better than last year's, but could have a worse record than last years because that team won 3-4 games it could have, and probably should have, lost. Horrendous field position limits play calling, but the offensive line has been and still is the primary problem with this offense. And I don;t agree that the defense got worn down. Time of possession and the number of plays run was almost identical between UF & UT. Our defense got manhandled the 2nd half, plain and simple. Little to no pressure on the QB, receivers getting open all over the place and gashing runs with a lot of missed tackles. To me, the blame goes all around - coaching, offense, defense, special teams. Team loss.

I blame the offensive play calling the most but you are right it was bad overall. Heck our defense held teams some in most of the games last year when we were doing nothing on offense and didn't really unravel until the Bama game.

 

[Countygator]

I said before the season started that this year's team would be better than last year's, but could have a worse record than last years because that team won 3-4 games it could have, and probably should have, lost. Horrendous field position limits play calling, but the offensive line has been and still is the primary problem with this offense. And I don;t agree that the defense got worn down. Time of possession and the number of plays run was almost identical between UF & UT. Our defense got manhandled the 2nd half, plain and simple. Little to no pressure on the QB, receivers getting open all over the place and gashing runs with a lot of missed tackles. To me, the blame goes all around - coaching, offense, defense, special teams. Team loss.

I agree mostly, but look at the number of plays toothless hillbillies ran in the 2nd half compared to us. We had 5 consecutive 3 and outs in the 2nd half. A lot of that was the product of field position.

 

[Gator Fever]

I agree mostly, but look at the number of plays toothless hillbillies ran in the 2nd half compared to us. We had 5 consecutive 3 and outs in the 2nd half. A lot of that was the product of field position.

I think they only ran one more play than us in the 2nd half somebody said but I haven't actually looked. All of their drives including the scoring ones were just 3 or 4 plays after their first scoring drive of the 2nd half.

 

[Wuerffel2Doering]

5 straight 3 and outs to start the second half. Something to keep in mind for those blaming the defense. UT was throwing everything they had at our defense and rather than give them support we ran 3 plays and punted over and over and over, they were going to break eventually. A coach with stones doesn't blow that lead. You either have killer instinct or you don't and our head guy doesn't have it. He pulled a Butch Jones today.

You nailed it & this staff will never win a National Championship.

 

[Michi-Gator]

5 straight 3 and outs to start the second half. Something to keep in mind for those blaming the defense. UT was throwing everything they had at our defense and rather than give them support we ran 3 plays and punted over and over and over, they were going to break eventually. A coach with stones doesn't blow that lead. You either have killer instinct or you don't and our head guy doesn't have it. He pulled a Butch Jones today.

The defense held them to 3 points in the first half AND intercepted a pass on the opening drive of the second half. Sorry, at some point the offense has to their job. Out staff laid down and handed this to them.

 

[oozie7]

Exactly. And that's the frustrating part about all this. It's not as if we couldn't move the ball, we ran up 300 yards of offense on them in the first half. And we did that by airing the all out and attacking their weak secondary. Then in the third quarter we threw TWO freaking passes. Even when UT started making a run we still stuck to that stupid hope and pray formula and kept running up the gut three times and punting thinking our defense was going to save the day because hey that's what they always do! UT didn't stop us, our coaches stopped themselves by calling the game like cowards. There was zero reason to take the air out of the ball like they did. The field position excuse is crap because our field position was just as awful in the first half.

 

[MJWilliamson]

If someone told me we would score 28 points yesterday, with a backup QB, I would have guessed this is a win. With our defense.

The defense fell apart in the second half. The conservative play calling aside, the loss is on the second half defense

 

[oozie7]

From my POV the defense didn't really collapse because they never really stopped UT in the first place. The goal line stand was great but UT also shot themselves in the foot a bunch of times. How many wide open balls did they drop? They dropped two in the endzone for example. They should have had another 14 points minimum and probably another 100 yards at the half. Which to me makes the decision to go conservative even worse because it's not as if they weren't moving the ball, but maybe the plan was to hope that UT was gonna keep dropping wide open passes. IMO nothing really changed except UT just stopped killing themselves. The defensive gameplan was exactly the same...sell out to stop their run and make them beat us in the air. When they cleaned that up they moved the ball almost at will.

 

[Gator Fever]

It was worse than I thought. We only threw short passes to the RBs on our first 3 drives and didnt even thow a pass to our TEs until the 4th drive it appears in the 2nd half. We basically didnt even try to use a WR until our 5th drive in the 2nd half. No excuse for crap like that. That is Muschamp style ball trying to sit on a lead.

 

[sadgator]

You nailed it & this staff will never win a National Championship.

Lol...wonder what you were thinking when urban's offense got its teeth kicked in by LSU in year one and he cried...

Everybody is overreacting. The collapse sucked, but it is not indicative of anything greater.

 

[oozie7]

Lol...wonder what you were thinking when urban's offense got its teeth kicked in by LSU in year one and he cried...

Everybody is overreacting. The collapse sucked, but it is not indicative of anything greater.

Disagree my boy. We are now 0-4 in our last 4 game against ranked teams and one of those losses was the worst bowl game loss in program history. A game where said head coach gave upperclassmen the option of whether to play or not (wtf does that?). Now that doesn't mean we need to run him out of town now and he at a minimum should get the next two years to put his stamp on the program. But there are tons of troubling signs if you want to see em. That second half gameplan was Muschamp-esque, epic collapse.

 

[sadgator]

We were on the road...underdogs (with a back-up starting qb)...and we were supposed to lose. Would it have been better if Tennessee had kicked our ass from the opening gun?!?!

At least we put up a fight...jeez...

Good Lord, we are 4 games into year 2 after the dark ages and we are already talking about how long someone should be given...ssh

 

[oozie7]

I just disagreed with your opinion that it isn't indicative of anything greater...that's all. The play it safe mentality is exactly how Muschamp lost games, why is it now not a sign of anything? And as I mentioned there are tons of troubling signs excluding this game. How do those just get dismissed? Especially when we harp on those things for rival coaches, now suddenly they don't mean anything when it comes to our coach. And I only mentioned the fact that he should get 2 years more at a minimum because whenever anyone questions anything on here there is always someone to intervene with "you think the sky is falling you wanna fire the coach!" nonsense to kill criticism. I already made it clear he should get to make his stamp on the program, doesn't mean you can't point out areas of concern in the meantime.

 

[Gator Fever]

Lol...wonder what you were thinking when urban's offense got its teeth kicked in by LSU in year one and he cried...

Everybody is overreacting. The collapse sucked, but it is not indicative of anything greater.

It does back up what people said about the hiring of Nuss. It backs it up 99% as of right now- it looked just like the same mess he did at Michigan after leaving Bama. I hope this doesn't turn like last season where after we really out schemed Ole Miss in that game our offense came right back down to earth for the rest of the year. People forget Grier didn't look great at all in that Missouri game and the defense is the only reason we scored a little. I hope we aren't easy to nail down on tape once we show our wrinkles some. Vandy might be a telling game with the offense despite their standing. I am really going to get nervous if our offense has issues with them.

 

[oozie7]

Not a Nuss fan but I won't put that all on him. Anyone who thinks Mac didn't approve that second half game plan is crazy. He even said as much in the presser saying that he was 'nervous.' It was a conscious decision by him to muzzle the offense.

Anyway, we'll roll Vandy because they're not a good team and everyone will forget our issues until they pop up again against the better teams.