Week 1- (L) UT 41 vs Maryland 51

Welp, it looks like I might have to eat crow. I Did not factor in losing to Maryland in the 9 wins or more prediction.

Unfortunately, this week (and next week) will be my two busiest weeks at work, and like I've said, I don't get paid to do this (unless you buy some stuff on Amazon via the site - do it!). So unfortunately, I'm not providing the usual thorough breakdown with GIFs. I mean, I can't just sprinkle some pixie dust on this thing and expect the analysis to be well done with GIFs.

^See what I did there.

What a tough loss. I think most UT fans felt a loss could happen, but I doubt anyone saw us getting blasted.

The 3 things I hated the most:

1. Everything

Kidding, well not really, but, I'll be more specific.

1. Giving up 8.6 yards per play. 
- We actually got off the field some in the 3rd quarter, but otherwise, I couldn't believe how easily they moved the ball on us, and in large chunks. It wasn't tricky either - zone reads that have been around for years, and that's commonly run in high school.

2. The offensive play calls and personnel calls
- All the horizontal crap, screens, and so on just looked like a lesser version of a gimmicky offense than what we ran last year. I was missing Gilbert during this game. I couldn't believe how we couldn't run the ball either.
- If I see Garret Gray and Chris Warren split out this weekend, I'm going to find out where Tim Beck lives and do nothing, but I'll seethe and imagine I would do something. 

3. The penalties and poor in-game management
- I harped on how this team was going to be better in the details of the game, because I was eating up everything Herman had been preaching. Sadly, I caught myself rubbing my eyes to see make sure I was watching a Herman-coached team and not a Strong-coached team - it looked that similar.

As far as silver linings go, there wasn't much. 

I guess you could say the 3rd quarter provides some hope, since we outscored them 20-7. Watch from the 3rd quarter again if you want to some hope of what we could maybe look like for a full game this year.

Reggie Hemphill-Mapps looked like a player, so that's cool. (But, I can't just help but go back to the fact that Garret Gray and Chris Warren were getting more plays split out than what seems to be our nice depth at WR, ugh.)

Finally, we can only go up from here. (I hope!)
You've probably heard it in so many ways this past week about other coaches first game with a new team, and so on and so forth. That's up to you if you buy it or not, I've got mixed feelings about comparing Herman to Saban, Harbaugh, etc. (or even the Pats bad loss on Thursday).

I have readjusted my outlook on the season, and now I'm hoping for 7+ wins and constant improvement throughout the season. The sad thing is it now looks like we could start out 1-3.

Apologies for not having GIFs of the game this week, and unfortunately it probably won't happen next (work conference all week), but I'll be back at it for USC, OU, and beyond. Well, I'll give you some GIFS...


If you're like me, and feeling like this about UT football:




Remember, it's only been 1 week:




Who knows, maybe we'll end up like this!

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