Would he just hire an OC in title but still call plays and stuff?

***Turn on CC for unspoken comments...always with SEC Shorts.***

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Pays to be a middling CFB coach, I’ll say that.

Mentioned it in his opening statement because he knew he would be asked

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Most of the info here. Seeking clarity on some of the buyout stuff

Sweet retribution would be beating Tenner and keeping them from the CFP!! (I remember the drubbing at Farout last year) First thing first all you doom and gloom wet blanket PMers keep your snarky remarks to yourself. I prefer to bask in my optimism this Wednesday.. I welcome all optimists to join in!! If you can't cheer on a Mizzou epic win.. then cheer on a Tenner CFP fail!!

He's going to make 6 million next season. More after that. I'm trying to make sense of the buyout info right now.

He said he feels like a broken record with all the tough losses. He said there were some mess-ups including from him on Saturday but he's proud of the team and his defense.

He is proud of the fan turnout.

He said Tennessee's tempo is a mental and physical and battle. "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."
He said they had a couple of tempo periods for the offense and then he threw some wrinkles in to simulate the tempo. He said from his days at Texas when the BIG 12 is very tempo heavy.

When he looks at the tape from last year he said the defense never had their cleats in the ground when they faced Tennessee last year. This was his point of view from afar.

The key to getting QB pressure and getting opposing offenses behind the chains is the defense buying into the scheme. He said the philosophy and style of play help create havoc. Baker said it will be critical this week.

Baker said that signing the extension was a no-brainer. He said he loves the town and community. He loves the fan base and believes big things are in store.

He said he will celebrate the extension after the season.

Baker said he knew he always wanted to coach after his playing days at Tulane.

He said this is probably the best WR unit across the board (without having watched the whole FBS' WR units).

He said that he pays some attention to how Georgia limited Tennessee last week but because they are built differently schematically it's not a copy-and-paste job.

He said it's a cat-and-mouse game with Hooker and that o-line. He said he coached against Hooker when he was in Miami and Hooker was at VA Tech, but he said that he's much more accurate now. He said his biggest improvement is his accuracy and that he's way more comfortable in the scheme this season than he was last season.

He said Tennessee does a great job reading routes. If the DBs are playing soft they're going to take what's underneath and if they're pressing they'll take you deep. "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't."

He said he'd take CBs Kris Abrams-Draine and Ennis Rakestraw to match up with any WR unit in the league.

Baker said that Kristian Williams' success is because of how he prepares. He said he's impressed and surprised with how he has played.

He said Josh Landry is 100% but once he got the unsportsmanlike penalty they didn't want further action to happen. It wasn't disciplining him but Baker/Drink wanted to be cautious with him.

He said Darius Robinson has just played and practiced better and that's why he's back in the starting lineup.

Next up is Ennis Rakestraw.

Rakestraw said he's extremely confident going out there knowing Baker is D.C.

He said Wyatt can take the top off. He said Cedric Tillman is obviously a bigger receiver and uses his hands well.

Rakestraw said it means a lot to get a chance to redeem themselves.

To get better prepared for the tempo he said communication has sped up.

He said they have to be physical, be physical in the trenches like the d-line always does, and limit the WRs.

Next up is Joseph Charleston.

He said the biggest thing he sees is they go fast and score fast.

He said the biggest thing about tempo offenses is getting the call and getting lined up.

He said they have to handle the tempo well and that is what he thinks is key.

He said he is working on his tackling ankles and making sure he's getting his hip square. He said one of the keys for this defense is locking in at practice and making sure they are practicing with intention.

Apparently, no one is talking about last year's beatdown to UT. Again, because this is a new team.

He said the team has to keep the same mindset each week. Yeah, they played UGA and held them down to 26 points but its the SEC -- every team brings a new challenge. Overall, this defense is confident in itself because of how they've played all season not just how they played against then-top-ranked UGA in week 5.

Is there an extra motivation knowing you've played a top offense before and held them down to

Next up is Kristian Williams.

He said he feels that UT's offensive line is the best O-line they have and probably will face this season. He said as long as they execute then that shouldn't be a problem.

He said everyone is intentional with what they did at practice vs UK and that helped them get 6 sacks last year.

Baker said Williams gets to practice before everyone else. Williams' response is that "early is on time."

He said being locked in and coming to practice early and ready to go has played a role in his play this season.

He thinks the keys defensively are setting the tone, get aligned and being prepared due to UT's array of weapons. He said Mizzou's defense has to start and maintain the tempo they want the game to be --- not how UT wants it to be.

He said the challenge as a defensive lineman against tempo is longevity and endurance, but he said it all goes back to prep. Williams said that tempo scenarios help stimulate that.

Okay, to be fair, they have the potential to be good. Couple of thoughts from the game.

1 - That is a lot more fun style to watch than the last few years. It will also, I’d bet, be a lot easier to recruit to as well.

2 - We are who we thought we are. Small, but aggressive. We will struggle with good bigs, we won’t struggle with getting the ball past half court against the press. We are a little more athletic than I imagined, as the new guys, particularly Gholston and Hodge, are SEC level athletes. The talent infusion is real.

3 - The team certainly appeared to enjoy playing together. Watching the guys interact with each other was fun to watch. They owned their own play, but took joy in seeing the other guys succeed. In particular, Shaw, and Gomillion were leading from the bench and on the court.

4 - You can’t help but watch and feel like Brazille is a missing piece. Put him on this team (and he plays like he did the last 10 games even) and we are a tournament team. Too bad he didn’t stay, this style would be perfect for his game. Last time I mention him this year, but you can’t avoid that elephant in the room at least once.

5 - We will get better defensively as the year goes on. You could see the effort, but the cohesion was not there. Also, Coach Gates was pretty vanilla in defensive sets, and that was purposeful based on his post game comments, I’d expect to see us changing up looks more often against better teams - it will be something to watch for anyway.

Looking forward to the ride this year, knowing full well there will be some big bumps as we are a flawed team, but a fun one!

I tend to agree with the LA RAMS SUPERBOWL MVP COOPER "THE GOD HANDS" KUPP

How many football players have lost seasons or careers because of non-contact injuries caused by turf?

Football is meant to be played on grass.

Recreational Marygeejuana has passed.

If we can get sports gambling legalized I’ll never leave the house.

First I think he had a conversation with Drink who told him yeah don’t start the guy all the fans want to see. It is really fun to watch people lose their minds. I am not losing my mind over it but the only more obvious starters than Mosley are Honor and Kobe. The good thing is Mosley didn’t seem upset by not starting or barely playing in the 2nd half. I get that coach has his guys he learned to trust at Cleveland St but none of them should be the reason Mosley is not getting the maximum run. I suspect this will even out over the season but we will see.

Aiden Shaw is the real deal. Again a little confused why such limited run with the way he performed but damn the kid looks good. He looks slightly ahead of Brazille in his first game. Which ugh he tore it up for the piggies. This would be a tourney team for sure if we could have ponies up the cash to keep him. But back to the guy who is here. If he sticks around for 3-4 years he has the potential to have his name in the record books in multiple categories. Just looks to be so well rounded.

Speaking if sticking around 4 years Kobe is a beast. The biggest problem with college basketball (football has this problem too but no where near as bad) is you don’t get to watch the guys grow. Kobe went from hmm he can play a little bit to a guy who is talented enough to win Confrence POY award. He won’t because Mizzou won’t be good enough but I am not sure there are more than a couple of guys in this league that can hope to contain him. We really could have used him as a tight end football this year.

People are freaking out about the defense but not sure what the hell they expected. You have almost an entirely new roster. Sure there are three returners but only one plus significant minutes. Defense is something you do as a team. They need time to gel. If the defense plays like this after the calendar turns yeah it is a problem but I suspect we will see some big improvements and be at least acceptable.

Finally with in his first year of crootin he put together a really good class. The best one since Zo’s first and I suspect when it is said and done it will be better than that as they only need one of the guys to stick around to graduate and one more good year from another to match that class. He continues to be in on top guys. As we have seen with Drink just signing highly rated kids is not enough but everything about the way this staff goes about things seems to be the right way. Super excited and hopefully we can have a great season because the Blues are making me want to cry and football is giving me a stroke every week.

Just wanted to round out the game one Trinity of posts

Gates rolled out the same starting lineup

Nick Honor, DeAndre Gholston, D'Moi Hodge, Noah Carter and Kobe Brown were Mizzou's starting five in the exhibition last week and they were the starting five again for the season-opener. It makes me doubt that Dennis Gates really picked that lineup right before the scrimmage like he said he did. Either that, or he just really liked the look of it (which would be surprising because they didn't come out strong in either half of the exhibition).

Isiaih Mosley came off the bench again...

...but it's clear he's still a big part of the game plan. He didn't shoot it all that well, but made a couple of big plays on defense (two steals, two charges). I do believe Gates when he says the starting lineup could change based on the matchup -- and I do believe there will be matchups that require Mosley to be among the starters.

Aidan Shaw is ready

Gates seemed really content with a three-forward rotation, with Shaw spelling Kobe Brown and Noah Carter. I was pretty surprised by the lack of playing time for Mizzou's other bigs. Ronnie DeGray got spot minutes after not coming off the bench in the exhibition and Mo Diarra and Major Mabak didn't come off the bench after playing spot minutes in the exhibition. The Tigers got away with playing small lineups tonight, but I'm curious to see how they fare against a team with size -- USI had double-digit offensive rebounds.

Still, Shaw played his role about as well as you could've asked. He had nine points without missing a shot with under five minutes to go and went 1-2 from outside. That's a solid first game for someone making their college dbut.

Mizzou shot poorly from outside again

USI did in the first half, too, but then flipped the switch and suddenly couldn't miss from deep. I don't necessarily think this team will shoot 28% for the season again, but I don't think they have flamethrowers spotting up along the arc either. On the other hand, Mizzou was elite finishing in the paint, which was the book on a lot of guys coming in. And they did respectably shoot over 70% as a team from the free throw line. That alone will keep them in most games. I mean, they nearly scored 100 points and only 21 of them were from 3s. They'll need to find their range if they want to do better, though.

Kobe Brown is that guy

I don't think I need to elaborate very much on this. He's going to be a really critical piece for this team.

Let me know what you have available. Thanks

The absolute highlight of the night. I expected him to contribute this season. But he was getting key minutes down the stretch and looked like he belonged on a D1 court.

He could be a difference maker in terms of the expectations for the team if that is what he is going to bring most nights. That was no fluke. He let the game come to him and didn’t force anything. You almost never see that from a freshman.

Thoughts from @Clint Cosgrove and me

Vols by 20 O/U 62