D$ give our final thoughts and analysis on UM's 2021 season on offense, recapping the highs, the lows, and how Miami is positioned heading into the future.
A lot of our pressures came up the middle the last couple years. The g/c's were the biggest issues.Pass blocking definitely improved, but I think the main reasons for that were: (1) Zion played a lot better after UVA; (2) Williams played better than Scaife; and (3) Scaife was surprisingly good at guard.
Seymore has an opportunity at C. Hopefully he puts in the work. Mirabal recruited him at Oregon.
Zion was lights out after a rough start, Scaife played much better at G than he did last year, and Williams was a better RT than Scaife.Why do you think the o-line looked better when Clark got in or do you think it was mostly TVD
I think you're undervaluing some things Clark can do that Gaynor never showed. Namely, he got to spots. One of the reasons we got better in pass blocking was because Clark moved his feet on some of those A-gap blitzes. He's better moving off combo blocks, too, but I'm no OL expert. Just telling you what I saw on game re-watches.Gaynor isn’t what I thought he’d be. That ship sailed a long time ago. It’s a miss.
But we are comparing two limited players. Either three consecutive coaches had the same blind spot for Gaynor, or he was the best of bad options. The latter is much more likely.
I hope Clark improves with Mirabal and we finally get push. More than that, I hope we get a true talent in there and get CFP-level center play for the first time in a while.
Butch Barry would be the third one.Separately, who are the three coaches? Wouldn't it be Searels and Justice?
Clark was a clear upgrade especially in calling out blitzes and blocking shifts. Remember how much pass blocking improved when he was inserted into the starting lineup. That had everything to do with Clark.Our last two OL coaches thought Gaynor was better than Clark, and a third OL coach just brought him as a transfer to a P5 school.
Clark is fine and probably equal to Gaynor at this point. But if Gaynor cost us the UNC game like Clark did on that INT, people would be calling for his head.
The guy who would truly upgrade the center position is Scaife. If we strike gold in the Portal, I hope he gets a look there. Seymore is also a superior talent to what we’ve had the past few years.