Didn't see the game, but the stats and the score are impressive and a great start to the season. Congratulations!!
I base my verdict of improvement on several facts readily evident from the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters. #1, I saw zero overthrown passes. Last year, Crompton habitually overthrew his receivers. #2, The offensive line blew open holes for the running game. Last year, no matter who the opponent, the running back was always hit behind the line and had to break tackles just to get to the line of scrimmage. #3, The receivers and the QB were on the same page every play. Last year, they were doing good to be in the same zip code. #4, Which goes along with #2, the running backs didn't pussyfoot toward the line. They ran North and South and hit the line hard. This is only 4 improvements... I'm positive that I could find many more.
I agree with the areas that you cite as improved but I would be cautious still as for instance CFN had WKU predicted to go 1-11 this year and ranked them #119 out of 120 FBS teams. These types of cupcakes...as Charleston Sou. was for Florida do not show much....due to all kinds of factors one being that your team is usually playing a vanilla gameplan offensively and defensively and not showing it's hand. The one thing that I would watch for next week vs. UCLA is the mistakes and execution by Crompton early in the game. I suspect if LK thinks he is drifting that way that you may just see a lot more of Hardesty and Brown.....who by the way reminds me of James Stewart. All in all it seems as if the Tenn offense has more direction and spark and the Tenn. defense is as good as I thought they might be. My recent prediction of 23-10 UF over Tenn.....somewhat tame....is what I will stick with for now.
After the terrible season last year I think Tenn fans can look at this game in a very positive manner. I will be watching next week to see how they do. But Tenn looks like they might be a lot tougher than a lot of people thought.
MCG, #'s 1 and 3 have very little to do with what defense were were playing. I agree that 2 and 4 could. The lowest grade on the reportcard given by the KNS shows a B. This from a source that readily gave Fs in abundance last year. KNS rates the FootVols first game
I know it was only WKU... The one thing I saw from the entire game yesterday that did give me a reason to smile is: The entire team seemed to get better as the game went on. In years past there was seldom a consistent improvement or coaching adjustments through out the game. And it didn't matter if they were winning or losing. It didn't matter if they were playing Florida or NIU. They were just bad and the sidelines showed it. That's what gives me a little hope. Do I think we won't lose a game? Please!!! I'm caustiously optimistic, not crazy. But I do think this team will be a little more fun to watch this year.
As someone with no dog in this fight, I thought you guys looked very good. Keeping your QB confident will be key to the season. Kiffen's defense will be a force to be reckoned with. He always has a way of maximizing the athletic ability of what he has to field, and this defense looks no different.