Why did Shoop not rotate more defensively against Georgia Tech?

Because Shoop are Poop

This is from Doug Matthews regarding some of what happened with the LB situation. The DT rotation isn't covered though and made zero sense to me. The first paragraph is regarding the LB situation in the Georgia Tech game. The rest are more notes regarding individual players.

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I really felt badly for this defensive staff. Starting last spring they put in and worked on a plan for Georgia Tech that featured three linebackers. That plan was worked in fall camp and into game week. Five linebackers were to be featured and then during game week Kirkland, Jr and Smith were injured. That left three with their best, Kirkland, Jr out for the year. Too late to change game plans the only thing to do was get the most they could out of a bad situation. Been there, done that and it ain’t much fun. We certainly must improve in many areas but if I were a defensive coach on this staff I would be damn proud of the job my unit did Monday night. They kept their poise, fought for 4 quarters and 2 overtimes and always believed they would win. You can win a lot of games with those type of players and coaches.

Stats aside, and they were bad, let’s look at individual players and what their play portends for the rest of the season. One bad statistical game means very little when you win. It’s how you react, how you coach, how you practice and if you learn from the lessons coming out of that performance. .In 1989 when I was the defensive coordinator LSU’s Tommy Hodson set the all-time single game total passing yardage record for the Southeastern Conference in Tiger Stadium. The “all-time” record. However we won the game and finished the season 11-1. It is how you react to a poor performance that counts. Also we moved Carl Pickens to safety the next Monday…..that helped a bunch.

INDIVIDUALS: Daniel Bituli….middle linebacker with power, strength and ability to make plays inside and outside. Love his competitiveness. Darrell Taylor….defensive end. not Derek Barnett yet but tremendous potential. Love his competitiveness. Nigel Warrior….safety. not Dale Carter yet but talented. Put him on the field and let him play. Cortez McDowell….outside linebacker. Looks to be quicker, faster plus can play man coverage on backs coming out of backfield. Rashaan Gaulden…nickel and corner. Physical get to the ball player. A hitter. Love his 100% every play mentality. Big play capability. Micah Abernathy…safety. Helped by an athletic Warrior and can be an excellent safety in this league. Smart and experienced. Jonathan Kongbo….defensive end. Will get better with playing experience. Played solid against Tech but needs Gaulden/Bituli attitude and may in fact have it. Hard to evaluate on one game. That’s seven out of eleven starters that are fully capable of winning in this league.

Additionally….Shy Tuttle is back at defensive tackle. Knock of the rust in the Indiana State game and get ready for the Gators. He is a proven SEC tackle. Kendal Vickers….solid fundamentalist. Proven in many SEC games. Khalil McKenzie…..defensive tackle….run stuffer/push pass rusher. Needs to be solid inside. Justin Martin….corner. a game day puzzle. Has been unable to take it from the practice field to the game field. Talented but if I am the defensive back coach he is running out of time. Emmanuel Moseley….corner. Adequate but the best we got right now. Todd Kelly, Jr….Valuable safety that can play well when called on. Colton Jumper…MLB and OLB. Valuable when playing as a backup. 

Need to come along (and should)……Quarte Sapp at OLB, Will Ignont at MLB, Shawn Shamburger at corner, Shag Wiggins corner (get healthy), Alexis Johnson and Matthew Butler at defensive tackle, Kyle Phillips and Deandre Johnson at defensive end, Theo Jackson at safety and Baylen Buchanan at nickel. These players just need playing time and should be contributors as the season advances.

Finishing the defensive side of the ball……Take the Georgia Tech tape, watch it as coaches, do your lessons and then throw it in the trash can. Enjoy, celebrate the win as they are tough to come by. If this staff gets the aforementioned players worked into a solid rotation by position this defense can be a good defense. What stood out in the Tech game was this…..given every opportunity to quit this unit played their butts off and on the final drive of regulation as well as the final play of the game found a way to make stops that led to winning a game that could have easily been lost. Over the years I have learned that Vol fans recognize and appreciate players/teams that never quit, bust their rear ends and never quit. That brings up the final Game Maxim…. “Carry the fight to Tech for 60 minutes”. They did and two over time periods to boot.

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For all the praise Butch gets for recruiting, he has done a poor job recruiting and/or developing linebackers.

Source: One guy gets hurt and Jumper is starting.

It sounds like they thought our top 5 LB's would plenty for the game. Then losing 2 of those 5 and our #1 guy a few days prior to kickoff threw a major wrench in the game plan. On the surface it looks like they didn't trust the guys behind them with that offense. We've got several guys behind those 5, but most are underclassmen (Ignot, Page, Reid) or still not at 100% coming off of injuries (Q. Sapp)

Per my sources, Lyle and Shoop spent all summer designing the trash can logo. This left little time for "contingency planning".

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For all the praise Butch gets for recruiting, he has done a poor job recruiting and/or developing linebackers.

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This is on Thigpen. And tbh, I thought Thig needed to go this past offseason and am not sure why he survived the staff changes. We've had some great OLBs but struggled at MLB when AJ (inherited) or Kirkland (recruited by CBJ - Michigan connections) wasn't in. The rest of the older LB class was recruited by Thigpen and they haven't worked out well Bates and Jakob (now a TE) for example.

If Jones is around another year I don't think Thigpen will make it this offseason, especially now that he's not hot on the recruiting trail.