Tennessee vs NC State Final Thoughts & Grades

welcome back y'all this is the Blue Chip breakdown and I'm your host bull today I just want to give you all my thoughts after staying up all night watching the film our Tennessee Volunteers dominate NC State Big Time week 2 matchup we won that one 51-10 and as always y'all please make sure to like And subscribe to the channel so the first thing that I would like to do is just give youall my four tiers of all the top college football teams up to this point in the season tier one I have us in Texas tier two I'm going to have UG and Ohio State tier three I'm going to have Old Miss Alabama and Missouri tier 4 we're going to have Miami USC and I hesitantly put Oregon into that mix very close games in first two weeks maybe they were just kind of overlooking guys they weren't fully focused I could definitely see that but they're very close to being down in that tier five and if they you know continue to play like this maybe even tier six I think there's a couple of other teams that might be knocking on the door that could maybe overtake Oregon so what does all that mean well it means that I look at our volunteers as one of the top two teams in this entire country I think that we proved that last night playing up against a very good NC State team now are they great no could they make it to the playoffs I think that in the ACC it's possible so let's talk about this team overall the number one thing that I took away just from watching the game live and from watching the film is that the mindset the mentality of this team is in the right place it's Championship caliber we play bullyball like we really want to play to the echo of that whistle we're flying around making plays maximum effort is what I'm seeing from every single body out there it's like you know this team just loves each other fighting for and with one another uh on every single snap I mean in waves everybody who comes out onto the field is doing that you absolutely need that moving forward um and then two you know I also love the way that the staff does a really good job of you know I would say mixing things up showing some versatility all week long we talked about running that 12 personnel which is just essentially playing uh offense with two tight ends that's more of a heavier you know like run set than what we have normally played up under coach hypo but that's a way I've always felt like to beat that 335 just because you can pull those guys uh and you know they get to the second and third levels and you can create some huge running lanes for your running back so the entire second half y'all I would say probably 85% of the time we were in 12 personnel and we ran the ball down Inc State's throats we were very very basic with our play calls we probably only ran at most 10 different plays so for us to show that dominance uh you know in that sort of a set and just being that basic versus a power for team like NC State in their uh you know in their home state I think that that was a huge huge statement for our volunteers um now I was want to you know focus on some individual position groups we're going to go through each one quickly not going to go too deep into it but I want to give a grade for all those groups and we'll start off with the front four on defense because I think that they stole the show last night and hopefully more the media will start to talk about our defense get a little bit of the uh you know um media attention off off of Nico because I think that you know it's good for him but he doesn't need any more of that I don't think that he necess I don't think he shots away from it I wouldn't say he doesn't like it but he's going to be happy for his teammates to get it and also because they've put in so much work I think that they all deserve some credit and I'm going to kind of go back to what I was just talking about with the overall mindset of this team with the way that we were prepared for this game the way that we were dowed in and focused you I mean it's so much time and work that has to go into it because these guys still have to go to class obviously have to practice they have workouts they have meetings but they're doing stuff outside of that and you can tell it's because we knew what NC State was trying to do on every single play and again man we played really really hard so anyway uh I would say that our front four on that defensive line man they played pretty much lights out I mean 13 tackles for loss three sacks we were in that back field all day long we're getting held it wasn't always getting called looked very very dominant and I'm talking about from Leo to strongside De everything in between that all of our tackles that came in I mean everyone that came in played very very well I was proud of them the only thing that I will say that wasn't perfect would be lining up off sides we can't have those types of penalties and then also it was a few times that our ends kind of got washed down and uh you know some of their schemes I do think that NC State did a good job with their schemes but also just really executing that we're going to have to play better than that on the edges and I'm sure that all of those things will be points of emphasis for our defensive line moving forward so I would give them a solid a overall uh as a unit but some of those guys played lights out you know they played A+ so I think that we're looking really really good still some room for us to improve and that's what you would expect early on in the season and as Vault fans you have to be happy about that because if we're this dominant this early on imagine where we're going to be at come playoff time we should be clicking on all cylinders now let's take it back to the second level with the linebackers I think that they played very well also if you look at how they played this weekend um you know last night versus last weekend versus UT chat I think that man we stepped up in some major ways the Run fits looked a whole lot better we playing a little bit more loose especially Keenan P who I think had a you know damn near perfect game outside of that uh you know personal foul penalty that he got which you're not too mad at him for it it's because he kind of sent uh their their tight end Justin Jolie flying and I think that that was funny but also man maybe he just couldn't tell if he was down whatever but you need for your guys to do that it just goes back to that bulletball mindset that you need it's okay to get a few of those every now and then as long as it doesn't hinder or you know hinder you from being able to play especially Keenan pH uh so you know I was just happy that he didn't get you know tossed out of the game for that and I don't think that it was necessarily intentional but he's just a dog he's just a warrior so it just kind of showed through on that play but again I think that he played a pretty much perfect game outside of that I cannot wait to break down the film of our defense just to show you him several other players uh for the members on this channel and also while we're just talking about that we would love to put a little something out for everyone else that is not a member of this channel just to give youall a taste of what the members get so let us know who you would like to see a film break down on from our game last night um or you know maybe what position group whatever we will try to get that out for y'all Maybe by tomorrow but don't you know I'm not making any promises on that because I have a whole lot of work to get done but uh you know again thank y'all as members and everyone else that's liking subscribing sharing our videos thank y'all so much for all of the support we greatly greatly appreciate it now um just kind of finishing up with the rest of the linebackers I think that AC Aron Carter he played well he definitely played better than he did versus UT Chattanooga but he still has to kind of work on not necessarily getting to his run fix because I think he knows where to get to but maybe how to get through the blocks like the different angles and things to take uh with those blocks you know how to kind of scrape over or scrape under some of the offensive linemen that are getting up to that second level he wasn't always great there again it was better than it was last weekend so he is getting better that's what you would expect and hope keep in mind y'all he's only really played linebacker for like you know two and a half Seasons maybe yeah I would say about two and a half seasons and that's dating all the way back to high school so I mean he has a whole lot to learn missed half of last season so he's getting a whole bunch of mental reps but he's going to continue to get better he's another one that I would say about playoff time he's probably going to be I would say you know one of the best linebackers on this team is going to be him and Keenan phy right now I think that Keenan phy and Jeremiah Tander might be our best two guys just from top to bottom I think that JT played beautifully now again he wasn't perfect either you know he made a few mistakes kind of missing some run fits maybe scraping over being a little bit too slow to get to his run fit but I think that he's looking good he knows where to get to plays with his hair on fire he does a better job of getting off blocks than Aron Carter does at this point in the game also going back to AC I want to point this out really quickly he's got to do a better job of blitzing off of The Edge and setting that strong Edge we kind of talked about our ends getting washed down on one play with Hollywood Smothers they that was a really nice Lane I want to say Jason Jenkins was playing it in and then we see Aron Carter coming off of the edge and um Jason Jenkins gets washed down he actually kind of gets pancake he was probably getting held but you know they're not going to call that nine times out of 10 and then we have AC coming off of the edge trying to get to the quarterback but he gets washed out a little bit too far outside he's got to be able to recognize run kind of set that anchor and not to go too far into all the you know details of the scheme things like that but you know just kind of pointing out that he's got to do a little bit better job in some instances also man we got to see Jaylen Smith get some burn out there he looked really good I mean he looked a lot better than what we saw from him in Spring practice so he is coming along kind of like the same thing I would say he's about on the same level of getting off blocks as maybe JT but at the same time he is choosing his holes incorrectly on you know every now and then but he is going to get better and he has gotten better ID say that he improved from week one to week two so again by the end of the season those guys should be ready to rock and D on Roll What's My overall grade though that's what y'all are waiting on I would give them a solid a minus uh just because again it was better than it was last weekend but we can still improve in some very small areas so uh you know just really really proud of what they did out there um last night now let's talk about our secondary and the first thing that I would like to do is just address will Brooks because I know some people said that I need to uh you know tell him sorry for whatever reason I'm not 100% sure on it I think that people are misunderstanding what I was saying about will Brooks and it's not just will Brooks that I called out at several players and if we're just talking about safes we could talk about Andre turntin too so number one with Andre turntin my knock on him was will he be physical I trust him in coverage versus you know I would say the highest caliber of players that we're going to face throughout the entire season and that in includes playoffs that includes in the national championship and keep in mind y'all we have been thinking about the championship this entire time the whole offseason we felt like this was a team that could get there now I think more and more people are starting to buy into that so that's our mindset it's not about oh you know they can play well versus NC State who I think is a very good uh you know power for team but or I wouldn't say very good I would say that they are a good solid power for team but they're not you know the guys that we're going to face that are in those top one and two tiers that we mentioned at the start of this video so that's that's what we're looking at can they play well in these different categories versus those types of teams so with Andre turnon it was will you come down and be physical in the Box everything that I've seen from him so far the season says that he will do that he has come up and run support uh beautifully he's filling his uh you know run lanes and all that excellent so I love that but I you know I have to see it versus SEC teams before I will know that it's real so still kind of holding out on that can he do it versus the teams that'll come up and smack you in the mouth that's what I want to know from him now as far as will Brooks goes I've said that listen he's a very good player he knows what to do he's great in uh you know great getting off blocks great in run support period but my question has always been will he be able to hold up if he gets isolated versus you know we'll say like a Luther Bon okay or we'll say uh you know versus a Jeremiah Smith just throwing out names that y'all understand that's what we're talking about because that's what's going to come in the playoffs and I think that that's still yet to be seen now in last night's live stream if y'all missed it we talked about will Brooks's pick six um and and I said I think that he was in the wrong spot but that was actually cover three after I went back and watched the film I saw that it was cover three and he was in the correct spot because he's supposed to be playing Carol the flat that's exactly where he was at and listen whenever you do the right things the ball does tend to find you so I'm happy for him I'm ruing for him I'm ruing for all of our guys I am a Tennessee fan y'all should know that by now I love all of our guys uh guys and gals whatever if you are a Tennessee V if you are a Tennessee VA I have love for you so I'm rooing for him I think he is a great story obviously his teammates love him so don't get that Twisted don't take it wrong like I think that he can't play or something like that because that's not the case but it's still yet to be seen how is he going to handle if he gets isolated one1 versus some of these better athletes I don't think that he proved that last night with that interception I don't think that any of that proves it he was playing in a Zone coverage and it was an underneath coverage that he was playing in so that's that's just kind of like that's part of my point is that if you don't trust him to play some of the deeper coverages or to play man then guess what the offense is going to to know especially if they've got a week or two to get ready for you they're going to know okay if Will Brooks is out there you know playing coverage versus this look we know that he's going to be the underneath guy so we're going to be be focusing on targeting you know this guy that guy that guy it's easier for you to dissect what we're doing on defense and I know that that's a little bit more intricate and it's deeper but I want to make sure that we're all on the same page with that uh moving forward but overall y'all I think that our safety's play well I think that both of I mean both of those guys obviously they had a really good game I think that Kobe Thomas came in he played well saw some of our young guys um coming in playing well also John Slaughter uh you know all of them I mean I think that our safeties looked really really good about 90% of the time so I would give them a very solid a for their performance not just in coverage not just in knowing what to do but also coming down filling their Lanes all that you know we missed a couple of tackles we missed a couple of fits but coming downhill that's not necessarily a safety specialty I'm more so concerned about are you willing to get down there are you flying with your hair on fire and I think that our guys definitely did that now let's talk about the start position I think that both of those guys bu Carter and Christian Harrison played well they came up it's like they understood what to do uh they might have missed a couple of tackles you know uh there wasn't perfect there but yeah I think that they play with the proper leverage also feel like that one play that was drawn up specifically for bu Carter that NC stay did I mean obviously they had been you know waiting on that one the perfect down distance all that good stuff where they get into this weird set this weird uh formation all that just to get bu Carter isolated with their best player that's a a very hard route to cover it's almost impossible but I think that bu Carter did a good job of at least making that tackle though you have to feel good about your true freshman going out there making a play like that pretty much outside of that man you know I think that they played very very solid I'm going to give them a solid B so now let's move on to our cornerbacks I think that man they played light out Jamal McCoy is shut down Ricky Gibson is shut down especially given the different types of coverages that they were playing in and they also played like dolls I saw them kind of throwing bodies around coming up you know being physical stuff like that that's so important because man like whenever you have your quarterbacks who are pretty much looked at as maybe the least physical players on your team whenever they're being physical that should tell you a whole lot about your team but I think that they looked really good that one pass interference call on uh on Ricky Gibson that was an absolutely in total joke I would love to get that crew down or whoever threw that penalty and I would love to you know Play a clip of that side by side with every single play that Georgia secondary has had over the past three or four seasons and say okay tell me why what Georgia is doing is not a penalty and while what we did is a penalty that was literally beautiful anytime that you stay on top of a route and you push a guy all the way out of bounds with one arm okay that is textbook coverage so I think we have two lock down shutdown cornerbacks also man J man coming in he looked really really good in coverage coming up making uh plays things like that he looked really good I would give our quarterbacks a solid A+ for their performance last night now let's flip it on over to the offensive side of the football starting off up front offensive line looked beautiful I mean I mean just getting down the field uh you know on the second level sometimes third level making great blocks in our running game but also man pass protection was lights out all night now some of it was with extra guys into block you know we talked about that 12 Personnel sometimes we had two tight ends still sitting in there to block and a uh running back so you know that's part of the reason that it looked as good as it did but I'm fine with that as long as they're holding up that's cool uh also man you know we see them you know driving people all the way over to their sideline and just dropping them so that's big again playing Bully ball man I saw I saw Andre Carrick man pushing around 10 and stuff kind of after the whistle just a little bit but they are enforcers very very proud of them for the most part it was very very clean now there was a few times that the blocking wasn't perfect especially on Nico's second interception it looked like right there sprag just kind of gave up some speed to his outside got to be better there um you know I would say that that interception was about 80% on sprags and maybe about 20% on but either way man I would give our offensive line a solid a a solid a minus I would say um you know still some stuff that we need to get fixed but I feel very confident with us moving forward versus any front that we're going to see throughout the course of this season uh now let's talk about our tight ends I think that they looked really really good especially in uh you know blocking period whether it's run blocking whether it's pass blocking there was a couple of plays actually I want to say it might have been DeCamp who scored on this one where as we had talked about before man you know getting into that two tight said kind of you know pulling guys around uh you know we had a tight end blocking down I want to say that was kman gets to the second level and he's blocking a linebacker then we have um Holden stays coming around gets to the third level at a safety and man just a huge hole for desent to run through so great job there and also just going out making plays uh as pass catchers man beautiful job I want to say that we had two tight ends score touchdowns and really M Kitman should have had two of course we had an offensive lineman down the field which I don't fault them too much for that that's kind of hard to do on plays when niik scrambling uh you know you're just kind of engaged and you don't really recognize where you're at on the field but maybe we can clean that up some but I think that on that play really nice job by kitsman of just being aware and and getting to the open spot on the field and then Nico find him so I love what our tight ends did man I would give them I would say a solid a a couple of things you know maybe just a few blocks that we could have did a little bit better with our body placement with but yeah I would say very solid a from all those guys also Ethan Davis looked good on the catches that he had just getting open and actually with with holding stays on his touchdown that's the exact or that's one of the exact same plays that he scored on with Notre Dame on NC State last season next let's talk about our running backs D Sam is a dog beautiful job just being patient setting up his blocks exploding through uh I mean just fighting through tackles falling forward getting as much as he could possibly get I'm so proud of him I think that he's going to turn into a household name as well he deserves a lot more credit than he gets he is an NFL running back and he's going going to be special I think for a very long time I'm expecting for him to have a monster season for us also feel like Bishop came in and looked a lot like d Sam just in being patient setting things up running hard fighting for those extra yards super proud of him don't know what's going on with Cam Seldon hopefully he will be able to come back at some point but I would still say just based off of whatever his injury is I think it's an upper body deal I don't know if it's the same shoulder whatever it is but I would say we can hold him out because I feel like we do have a good stable of running backs that are ready to rock rooll now as far as Payton Lewis and Keith they ran a lot more behind like the second and third string line so they didn't look as productive but I do trust those guys as well hopefully next week vers pin State they can get a little bit more confidence get them into the game pretty early uh and you know just let them see what it feels like whenever you got an offensive line really uh you know making those holes open up for you so I think that they'll be fine running backs looked good catching the football out of the back field whole lot of that shuttle pass which I mean that's something new I know we're setting something up with that for sure probably for the Oklahoma game because We've ran it so much but it looked like NC St was actually sitting on that and we were still making plays so again going back to D Sam just being a playmaker he's definitely one of the biggest Playmakers on this team super proud of that room I'm really only going to be grading the first two because it wouldn't be fair for me to throw pton Lewis and Keith into this mix I'm going to give the first two I'm going to say a very solid a close to an A+ the only reason it's not going to be in uh an in plus it's going to be just because D did kind of miss a gap you know he kind of ran backwards on one play and for it to be an A+ in my mind it's got to be perfect it was not perfect just because of that one play but I think the desent more than made up for that so we're going to give the running back group a solid a now on to Nico yamal Ava what's his grade going to look like well I think that he played well for the most part man just managing and operating our offense uh I would say about 85% of the time he just took what the defense gave to him now on his first interception he was kind of forcing it so as what he just kind of talked about you know in that uh in that 12 person no sometimes we had as many as eight people in there blocking for Nico and if I'm not mistaken on that play it was probably eight people blocking and it looked like NC State dropped at least seven so we only have two guys going out for passes right there so the windows weren't really there for Nico to try to fit it into so on the front side of it you hate that he threw that pick just because that can cost us um you know in the playoff games and Championship Games things like that we just can't have those types of Errors I think that Nico gets that at this point I don't think he's going to make the same mistake twice even coach Hy is about that but On The Backs side of it you love the confidence in himself and in his teammates to be able to thread that needle and that's a throw y'all that window was so tight that I mean maybe 1% of the people walking around on the face of this planet would have been able to make that throw and that includes NFL players that was an extremely tight window and it was almost there either way uh you know that Nico has very great arm talent and that he can get things done now as far as that second interception that was mostly on sprags is because obviously nik's arm does get hit but at the same time Nico probably could have and should have stepped up into the pocket though that's something that I'm sure that coach hypo coach Hosley everyone that's you know involved with that will tell him I think that Nico is going to get that moving forward again don't expect for things like that to be happening again might have been better for him to maybe even just use his legs to run maybe extend the play just a little bit but we're going to be fine with Nico moving forward again I think that he did a really nice job just of taking advantage of whatever the defense was giving to him making plays with his legs you know running through tackles uh you know it's kind of setting the tone and getting in people's face I was very happy and proud to see his teammates backing him up with all that so man this team just plays with a really good attitude and a lot of that is going to start up front on the line of scrimmage but if your quarterback is playing physical like that you know that everyone else is going to be doing the exact same thing I would give Nico in this game a solid I'm going call it a b just because you can't give anything higher than that if you throw two interceptions and one is a pick six again even though the pick six wasn't his fault uh you know I think that he's going to be just fine moving forward and expecting some really really big things from him over the next couple of weeks especially versus Oklahoma at the end of the day y'all this team played very well but there still is some room for improvement everywhere y'all let me know y'all's thoughts uh down in the comments section about you know what y'all saw from this team if y'all got to kind of watch the game over or even just what you saw live let me know how you feel about it down in the comments section as always thank you for sticking all the way to the end please make sure to like subscribe hit that notification Bell share with your friends family and other volunteer fans we'll see y'all on the next one thanks peace