Ha Ha! UT O-Coordinator Chaney Says Bray Did Watch Film

September 20th, 2012 09:17 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Schools: Tennessee
Tags: Either Bray, Jim Chaney, NFL, Tyler Bray

Two days ago, Tyler Bray said that the second half of the Florida game wasn’t representative of the Tennessee football team. “That wasn’t our team,” the quarterback told the media. He then said he didn’t even watch the second half of the 37-20 loss on tape.

When a few Vol fans had a rather natural poor reaction to that revelation and a few in the media raised their eyebrows at such a statement — including this site — The Knoxville News Sentinel went to Vol offensive coordinator Jim Chaney to see if Bray was telling the truth.

He wasn’t. At least not according to Chaney yesterday:

“‘He’s not telling the whole truth,’ Chaney said with a smile. ‘We watched the game together.’”

Interesting. So should fans believe Chaney or Bray from now on? Either Bray fibbed to the press (and therefore fans) just… well, just because. Or Chaney is bending the truth now because he knows how bad Bray’s initial statement looks and sounds. Which one should be trusted the next time he provides an answer on something as simple as “Did you watch film today?”

As we stated yesterday, Bray has an NFL-caliber arm but his decision-making — on and off the field — will be highly scrutinized by scouts and general managers before next April’s draft if he comes out early. You can now add his decision to claim that he didn’t study the second half of a loss to the list. Some personnel folks are going to ask him if he does actually watch tape of his own bad plays to learn from his mistakes. And if so, why would he want to tell the world that he does not?

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BonzaiB

I work in a community where we do a baseline polygraphs for some positions. I guarantee you, from what I have been reading about this guy, four questions in on a baseline test by even an average tester, and there would be red flags popping up, and red flags generate very simple but penetrating questions you cannot dodge. The question after, "Did you break that windshield" would be, "Did you go back and vandalize her car again." Not saying he did it, just saying, there is a lot of smoke around this guy. I would not bet millions on him if I was an NFL team without some more data.

memphispete

Shows how gullible people are these days. Bray was obviously engaging in deadpan sarcasm. Sticking with the criticism above because you got duped is just silly. NFL GMs, aren't stupid enough to believe that Bray didn't watch film of the game. If the California kid simply says to the NFL GMs that he was really bummed at how he played and was tired of the reporters questions so he gave a sarcastic answer, they'd understand because they get dumb questions all the time. Dooley and Chaney and the rest of the assistants obviously have film study of the previous game, reviewing the mistakes as "teaching moments". Going from a lead of 20-13 and stopping a fake punt in their territory with 3+ min to play in the 3rd quarter to losing 37-20 provides an awful lot of those teaching moments - on both sides of the ball. I'm sure Chaney and Bray had a lot of quality time together that film study day.

John at MrSEC moderator

memphispete?

Duped? NFL GMs will ask Bray about busted windshields, Jet Skis, why he lied about watching film, multiple rumors of misbehavior -- from people inside the Tennessee athletic department -- and anything else they think they can use to get under his skin during those interview sessions.

Interestingly, the last time Tennessee fans got on me for "blowing out of proportion" a player's antics the kid's name was Da'Rick Rogers. I've yet to have one person return to say, "You were right, I was wrong."

I don't expect that to happen in this case, either. But Bray's words and deeds off the field will absolutely, 100% come up when he's interviewed at the NFL combine... either in 2013 or 2014. Ryan Mallett dropped three rounds due to nothing more than rumors. Reputations count.

But what say we just let this one play out? I stand by every word I've written. If Bray becomes a leader and stays out of the headlines (for the wrong reasons), I'll have no problem writing about that. I hope for Vol fans' sakes and the player's that he does.

Past history, however, suggests he won't.

Thanks for reading,

John

memphispete

@John at MrSEC John, I agree completely that Da'Rick was one of those entitlement types with huge ability on the field and a complete head case off the field. We hate to lose a 5 star player but he was disruptive and not worth the trouble in the end. I hope he overcomes the drug issues and gets paid to play football for a living at the next level (or at least make something of himself as a college grad). I didn't defend Da'Rick here, but you called it right.

I also agree that Bray needs to grow up or it will cost him money. Legitimate questions about his maturity will bother GMs. Hotdogging on the JetSki wasn't a big deal by itself (not a unique activity for a teenager in the summer) but doing it in front of the authorities is stupid. Tossing beer bottles off the balcony is something more than a few college students have done during the boring summer session, but tossing them onto someone else's car is also stupid.

Bray's work ethic in the film room will never be confused with Peyton Manning's but it has reportedly improved over last season. The JetSki, the beer bottle incident and the poor big game performances are legitimate questions. But a joke about not looking at the game film isn't, especially when a little thoughtful analysis would let reporters see thru that. Maybe his joke wasn't in good taste because Vol fans are so deflated after the late game collapse at Florida. And, maybe it's being blown out of proportion because he was an idiot on other occasions. But I think there are more legitimate things to hammer Bray on than this one.

I too hope Bray grows up off the field. I also hope that he delivers in the clutch during big games. The early returns aren't looking good in either case.

Like your work and appreciate the site.

GeoffDawg

It’d be highly unusual for a coaching staff to not require film review, especially in light of how badly they played in the second half. Given the recent history, Bray has very little credibility on this. I don’t necessarily think that Chaney was trying to throw Bray under the bus either but it would reflect poorly on him and Dooley if the public legitimately thought that they’re not trying to help the team learn from their mistakes. Bray may be struck with a case of foot in mouth disease.

John at MrSEC moderator

GeoffDawg...

I'm guessing the kid watched it once with the squad or with the other QBs and then didn't take DVDs home to study as might usually be the case. Either way, he's brought an either/or credibility issue down upon himself and his coaches.

Thanks for reading,

John

db20207

@John at MrSEC @GeoffDawg I think maybe Bray just didn't want to answer any more questions about the end of the game, and he decided to avoid that by saying he didn't watch the film. Anyway, I think it was overreaction theater all around

GeoffDawg

@db20207 I think that could be a reasonable assumption but in his position as a team leader, Bray needs to realize that his words have impact and, fairly or unfairly, will be parsed and evaluated and used to make judgments about the program. The fact that he doesn’t yet realize this or understand the impact means that he’s still got a lot of growing to do regarding the mental aspects of his game.

Trackbacks

Some notes from practice - Page 6 - VolNation says:

September 20, 2012 at 2:05 pm

[...] Originally Posted by SlipKidVol Who really cares. Obviously alot of people care. It shows whether Tyler is committed to doing what it takes to get better. I had initially posted that according to an interview that I heard Tyler didn't watch the 2nd half film. I didn't make a huge deal out of it but then I get called out twice by Vollygirl for posting inaccurate information which I didn't do. I personally heard the interview and I posted it. I think even worse then Bray not watching the film is Bray lying about not watching it if he really did. That would be just another sign of his immaturity. Homepage | MrSEC [...]

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