Déjà vu

DMoney
DMoney
5 min read
I didn’t expect to be here this fast. Richt isn’t Golden, but this is a Golden season. We just flipped sides of the ball.

What hurts the most is hearing the spin regarding talent. It sounds like the Golden era, minus the sanctions excuse. The class is collapsing and a quick fix (i.e. an offensive version of the Manny hire) is unrealistic. Richt came here to call plays and he is going to see it through. This is a bad time to be a Hurricane fan.

Some scattered thoughts:

- Richt has botched the QB position, and we shouldn’t be surprised. That’s what got him fired. Personally, I focused on his prior successes and hoped the way it ended in UGA (with Greyson Lambert and Faton Bauta) was an aberration. It wasn’t. This might just be who Richt is in 2018. When I watched Cam Newton and Deshaun Watson win games on Sunday, it only drilled home that point. There is a disconnect between Richt and the modern game.

- It’s even more concerning to hear Richt talk about Jarren’s redshirt. Now, Jarren isn't going to save the offense. He might not even be ready to play. We don't know. But the redshirt shouldn’t be entering Richt’s mind. If Jarren is good, he won’t be here in five years. If he’s bad, he won’t be here in five years. Or he’ll be Malik. Either way, the fifth year should be irrelevant. I’m worried Richt’s mind is stuck in another era that no longer exists.

- The fans have been screaming for more motions and jet sweep action since last year. Richt dismissed it. But in Week 10 of the season, there it was. He is reacting, as opposed to getting ahead of the trend. And as you'd expect, everything looks haphazard and thrown together. Darrell Langham, who can't run, faked the jet on multiple snaps. Why not use Homer, Dallas, Harley, or Pope? We have guys that can scare people, but we don’t use them in a manner that scares anyone. And when we lined up for a jump ball to end the game—the classic Langham scenario—we pulled him and sat him on the bench. I just don’t see any reason or rhyme to what we do.

- Deejay Dallas is another example. Duke scored on us with a jump pass. Meanwhile, we have one of the most versatile players in the country being utilized like a one-dimensional runner. Where is the throwing threat? Where is the receiving threat? He might as well be Gus Edwards.

- Much has been written about how we ran out of time with four minutes left and two timeouts. It was an embarrassment. And it’s just a continuation of what we’ve seen the last two games. Why is there no urgency coming from the QB position? Can you imagine Drew Brees or Baker Mayfield carrying themselves like our guys? It’s not an experience thing, because Malik is even less urgent than Perry. It is coming from the head coach and the quarterback coach.

- We need to do a better job of self-scouting. Everybody knew Malik’s limitations going into the year. And on our pre-camp podcast, me and Lu spent a good chunk of the time describing how Mahoney and Jones were not talented enough to start for us. We had an absurdly easy stretch after the LSU game. Why didn’t Scaife and Perry start until conference play? Why were we so consistent with our first-team offensive lineup early in the season? If the upperclassmen aren’t talented enough—which was obvious before the season—we need to fast-track the young talent and take our lumps early. That did not happen.

- One last thing on the talent spin job. You are seeing it all over Twitter from the media and staff. The New Orleans Saints played the LA Rams yesterday. Biggest game of the year. The Saints have one of the best QBs of all time, the best OL in the league, and two RBs that combined for 3,000 scrimmage yards last year. If anybody can line up and “out-dude” the opposition, it’s them. But on a crucial fourth and one, Sean Payton called a reverse pass to put the ball in the hands of Taysom Hill. It worked. Nobody is just lining up and beating guys man-on-man. The state of football is too advanced. You need to always be looking for an edge. We aren’t looking for that edge right now. We are just looking for excuses.

Anyways, I'll be watching on Saturday. This November, like so many other Novembers of the past decade, is about seeing young talent develop and learning from failure. I thought we were past this stage.
 

Comments (157)

Right on, Danny. Especially the part of Richt being stuck in a different era mindset. Everything from placing very high value on a redshirt to doggedly going with the same upperclassmen over and over. The sad thing is that I think Brown is also a disciple of that thinking which makes offensive playcalling that much more disastrous.

The question I do have is isn't this the same system, theoretically that we had back in 2016 where we were tearing it up on offense the last several games of the year? I don't have the memory (too many sleepless kid nights) to remember if it was a personnel issue or what.
 
The question I do have is isn't this the same system, theoretically that we had back in 2016 where we were tearing it up on offense the last several games of the year? I don't have the memory (too many sleepless kid nights) to remember if it was a personnel issue or what.

I think there are a couple things missing from 2016. For one, Kaaya is much better than Malik. I've always been a Kaaya guy, but that should be an obvious fact by now.

Second, Richt adjusted after the four-game skid to call quicker pass plays and mitigate our pass protection issues. I don't see any meaningful adjustments now. Maybe four losses is the sweet spot before we change anything.
 
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"Nobody is just lining up and beating guys man-on-man. The state of football is too advanced. You need to always be looking for an edge."

Unfortunately, CMR is never going to grasp this concept...... Lots of truth in this quote....

Signed,

Peruche
 
@DMoney How would you fix this? What would be your 3,4,5 step plan on fixing the offense starting this week and into the offseason?
 
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The talent spin job is nauseating and clearly nonsensical, but what's to come on the talent front is a very harsh reality.

Most seemed to assume that Richt would, at the very least, overhaul the roster and have it in far better shape for whenever the next coach takes over. Instead, recruiting was already trending way down even before this disastrous season against a cakewalk schedule. The offense is unexciting, unwatchable, painfully predictable, horribly mismanaged, and downright cancerous to any premier recruit wanting to have their skills showcased for the next level.

The 2019 class will be Golden-level atrocious and it's only going to get worse from here. Our only hope is a complete overhaul that will never happen, which would include Blake being fired, Richt retiring, and an inspiring hire being made that can capitalize on this program's biggest advantages. That's not going to happen, so we're f*****.
 
Richt is an underachieving, no energy, fossil. The game passed him by many years ago.

That's why it was disgusting to see everyone fellate Flake James a few years ago over an easy, uninspiring hire that was destined to fail.

You've been objective on the Richt hire the entire time. I remember your posts when Richt was mentioned as a candidate ... And you've been proven accurate.

I knew what he was at UGA, too. But held out hope the change of scenery and desire to prove UGA wrong would be to our benefit. Doesn't appear that will be the case.

Now, I'm just hoping he makes the right call on the next OC ...
 
@DMoney How would you fix this? What would be your 3,4,5 step plan on fixing the offense starting this week and into the offseason?

Not D$ but there are only 2 ways to fix this.

1.Fire HC Richt, hire an innovative Xs and 0s offensive guy
2.Fire the offensive staff, hire an innovative Xs and 0s OC and give him full control of the offense. Make Richt a figure head.

Both aren't happening and Richt's ego would probably cause #2 to fail.
 
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Richt is going to end up being THE most damaging hire we've made. When you factor in how much he is being paid and how much more difficult it will be to make him go away.......the 3 predecessors look like kitty cats in comparison.

Would be nice to see the BOT and/or our puppet AD take some responsibility for what has happened....but we know that will never happen.

I think the answer here for Canes fans is simple. Take a temporary break. Enjoy your wives and kids and forget about college football just for a while. Don't spend any money on tickets or merchandise. Combine that with some banners and billboards and hopefully they'll act sometime in the next century.

Self inflicted wounds. It will end up defining the last 20 + years of this program's history.
 
I will always watch the Canes take the field, but recently I’ve been watching with absolutely no emotion whatsoever. The good, the bad, it just happens. I don’t expect anything from the rest of this year, but as stated above, I wanna see our young talent take the field and gain experience.
 
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Richt is going to end up being THE most damaging hire we've made. When you factor in how much he is being paid and how much more difficult it will be to make him go away.......the 3 predecessors look like kitty cats in comparison.

Would be nice to see the BOT and/or our puppet AD take some responsibility for what has happened....but we know that will never happen.

I think the answer here for Canes fans is simple. Take a temporary break. Enjoy your wives and kids and forget about college football just for a while. Don't spend any money on tickets or merchandise. Combine that with some banners and billboards and hopefully they'll act sometime in the next century.

Self inflicted wounds. It will end up defining the last 20 + years of this program's history.

100% agree.
 
Richt is an underachieving, no energy, fossil. The game passed him by many years ago.

That's why it was disgusting to see everyone fellate Flake James a few years ago over an easy, uninspiring hire that was destined to fail.

Yeah. It seems that way and what not. Miami's AD made a MAJOR FATAL error when he gave Marky Mark that contract extension.:rolleyes: OUCH! Now, Miami is in HARMS WAY regarding the " buyout " situation when it presents itself. And believe or not. The " situation " will eventually raise it's ugly had and all that.:youre-nuts:
And because Marky Mark knows he's in a COMFORTABLE situation he ISN'T going to change one **** thing regarding the offense and what not. Yikes. Which means Cane fan is going to WITNESS Golden Light II.:youre-nuts:
 
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