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2016 Team

Geddy Lee

Geddy Lee

Living In The Limelight
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Dec 4, 2015
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I hate to bring up the past but man how didn’t this team go undefeated or win 11 games. Obviously, we were a couple bad breaks away but this team was so talented.

Kaaya, Yearby, Walton, Gus, Homer, Richards, Coley, Berrios, Njoku, Herndon all on offense and in the NFL except for Yearby, Richards and Walton most likely.

On D we had Joe Jackson, Thomas, Harris, Willis, Norton, Mac, Pinckney, Shaq, McCloud, Corn, Colbert, Redwine, Jenkins, Jackson, Johnson, Carter. All are in the league as well except for the 3 lbs who are obviously still here.
 
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Mklein13 said:
I hate to bring up the past but man how didn’t this team go undefeated or win 11 games. Obviously, we were a couple bad breaks away but this team was so talented.

Kaaya, Yearby, Walton, Gus, Homer, Richards, Coley, Berrios, Njoku, Herndon all on offense and in the NFL except for Yearby, Richards and Walton most likely.

On D we had Joe Jackson, Thomas, Harris, Willis, Norton, Mac, Pinckney, Shaq, McCloud, Corn, Colbert, Redwine, Jenkins, Jackson, Johnson, Carter. All are in the league as well except for the 3 lbs who are obviously still here.
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pretty sure we went 9-4. started off undefeated lost 4 straight than won like our last 4 or 5 games.
 
Kendall Boy Cane said:
OLine was really really bad that year in a pretty talented coastal. Recipe for disaster.

Took Richt until the Pitt game, where Kaaya thre for 450, to play to his strengths and spread everyone out.
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Exactly. Of all those names that he listed, notice that none of them were O-Linemen. You ain't winning sh*t with a bad O-line and a literal statue at quarterback. It also didn't help that Grace and Muhammad were kicked off the team before the season began.
 
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The O line wasn't capable of executing the power rushing game that Richt wanted to run. It took him until half time of what would be their fourth straight loss to realize that putting Kaaya in the gun and letting him sling it was the key to winning games. After the Notre Dame loss, they scrapped the garbage I formation crap and ran almost exclusively spread sets out of the shotgun and won out.
 
You answered your own question if you break down each player you cite individually.

Kaaya - Good, not great college QB. Poor man's Dorsey who rarely stepped up in the biggest moments. Had a good year in 2016 but we needed more vs. UNC and ND. The all time Cane greats would have offered more in this situations.
Yearby - Solid college RB, nothing special. Very average by UM standards.
Walton - Had a very good season. But nothing that stands out among the all time UM greats as far as overall impact.
Gus - Only realized his ceiling once he left. He had a few very good games but mostly underwhelmed here.
Homer - Hardly played in 2016 outside STs.
Richards - Had epic freshman season. Helped us win some games, no doubt. But we've had great WRs on less-than-championship teams before. Not even Wayne and Moss together could propel us to dominance on their own.
Coley - Very good WR with some big moments but hardly an all-time UM great.
Berrios - Didn't break out til his senior year. In 2016 I think he had less than 200 yards and 2 TDs all season.
Njoku - Busted out and was great. He's one type of guy you need to have a championship team. Notice all the other guys you mentioned not in this category.
Herndon - Great compliment as TE2 to Njoku. But wasn't at his highest level yet in 2016.

JJack- Very good undersized pass rushing specialist but no a complete DE at that point.
Thomas - I think he would even tell you he had not peaked yet in 2016.
Harris - Serviceable and very solid college player. Nothing more. It's like bringing up Matt Sweeney and wondering why we didn't win the NC in 1998.
Willis - Was just a preview of 2018.
Norton - Solid not spectacular DT in 2016.
Mac - Was very good, not great til the following year.
All freshmen LBs - They were very good, but a noticeable step below say the '91/'92 trio or say Vilma/DJ/Campbell. You're kidding yourself otherwise.
Corn - Was awesome. Championship level play. Again, one of few, not many.
Colbert - Wasn't dominant til 2nd half of season after fighting off some injuries.
Redwine - Was still a backup CB in 2016.
Jenkins - Very good safety, not elite. Not Reed or Blades, et al.
Jackson - Was not the MJ that was an NFL prospect til 2017.
Johnson - Was just starting to bust out by 2016. Blew up the next year.
Carter - See Jenkins

So, it speaks for itself. You have a lot of very good, not great players. If you want to see a more obvious comparison, look at any of the 2000-2003 rosters, and decide who from the 2016 squad would start on any of those teams. You'll find the answer is few to none.
 
MARK. RICHT.

And stop with the oline. Truth is they aren’t as bad as we make them out. It was the OC fault and him only. RUN RUN PASS. You knew that’s what we did, the opponent knew that’s what we were going to do and the world k we it was coming. Stone Age offfense produces Stone Age results. Trying to win games 6-3 doesn’t work. Thank god that clown is gone.
 
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caneholic88 said:
I don’t think I’ve ever been so livid about a game than after that fsu loss smh
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That game and the ND game did it in for me. Even tho we came back against ND. I have no idea how you don’t win or at least go to OT up a td with 6 minutes left.

I knew we were in trouble after Kaaya threw that pick in the end zone in the third. That honestly would have ended it cuz FSU was so out of it.
 
Mklein13 said:
I hate to bring up the past but man how didn’t this team go undefeated or win 11 games. Obviously, we were a couple bad breaks away but this team was so talented.

Kaaya, Yearby, Walton, Gus, Homer, Richards, Coley, Berrios, Njoku, Herndon all on offense and in the NFL except for Yearby, Richards and Walton most likely.

On D we had Joe Jackson, Thomas, Harris, Willis, Norton, Mac, Pinckney, Shaq, McCloud, Corn, Colbert, Redwine, Jenkins, Jackson, Johnson, Carter. All are in the league as well except for the 3 lbs who are obviously still here.
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Well, if someone could have kicked an extra point, it's not a stretch to say the season could have gone differently. Coming off beating a pretty good FSU team, I don't think all 3 of the VT, ND, and UNC games would have been losses.
 
0-3 in 1-possession games. With just a bit more luck we're probably an 11 win team, with a coastal title (at least).

But things usually even out: the next year we went 4-0 in 1-possession games. Richt's final year we went 1-3, bringing his 3-year 1-possession game record to 5-6, which is what you would expect in close games (.500 +/- a game or two).
 
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You guys are right about the OL how awful they were. Isidora was our best OL I’d say. Every loss was so winnable except the VT game. The d was so very depleted and I think Kaaya got sacked like 7-8 times.
 
We got Richted. Lost the FSU game we should've won due to Special Teams & began the 4 game slide.

Offensive line was god awful, Seashells had Nick Linder at Center & he was literally doing the splits vs Va Tech.

The UNC game was a horrendous foreshadowing of what the Richt Offense would eventually become.

Then of course the Notre Dame game smh... Eventually Seashells figured out that Gall/Gauthier needed to be injected in the OL in order for us to actually move the ball.

During the 4 game losing streak the Offense was struck with 3 out disease, extremely pedestrian subpar playcalling & failure to utilize the strengths of the team.

Then for Pitt, UVA, NC St, Duke & West Va Richt finally decided to realize that Kaaya hates the RPO & played more no huddle uptempo which lead to the Offense playing up to their capabilities, putting the ball in Ahmmon's hands more often & using Njoku a lot more. Vs UVA, NC St & Duke the Defense got it's confidence back & was playing at a high level as well.
 
Trav said:
You answered your own question if you break down each player you cite individually.

Kaaya - Good, not great college QB. Poor man's Dorsey who rarely stepped up in the biggest moments. Had a good year in 2016 but we needed more vs. UNC and ND. The all time Cane greats would have offered more in this situations.
Yearby - Solid college RB, nothing special. Very average by UM standards.
Walton - Had a very good season. But nothing that stands out among the all time UM greats as far as overall impact.
Gus - Only realized his ceiling once he left. He had a few very good games but mostly underwhelmed here.
Homer - Hardly played in 2016 outside STs.
Richards - Had epic freshman season. Helped us win some games, no doubt. But we've had great WRs on less-than-championship teams before. Not even Wayne and Moss together could propel us to dominance on their own.
Coley - Very good WR with some big moments but hardly an all-time UM great.
Berrios - Didn't break out til his senior year. In 2016 I think he had less than 200 yards and 2 TDs all season.
Njoku - Busted out and was great. He's one type of guy you need to have a championship team. Notice all the other guys you mentioned not in this category.
Herndon - Great compliment as TE2 to Njoku. But wasn't at his highest level yet in 2016.

JJack- Very good undersized pass rushing specialist but no a complete DE at that point.
Thomas - I think he would even tell you he had not peaked yet in 2016.
Harris - Serviceable and very solid college player. Nothing more. It's like bringing up Matt Sweeney and wondering why we didn't win the NC in 1998.
Willis - Was just a preview of 2018.
Norton - Solid not spectacular DT in 2016.
Mac - Was very good, not great til the following year.
All freshmen LBs - They were very good, but a noticeable step below say the '91/'92 trio or say Vilma/DJ/Campbell. You're kidding yourself otherwise.
Corn - Was awesome. Championship level play. Again, one of few, not many.
Colbert - Wasn't dominant til 2nd half of season after fighting off some injuries.
Redwine - Was still a backup CB in 2016.
Jenkins - Very good safety, not elite. Not Reed or Blades, et al.
Jackson - Was not the MJ that was an NFL prospect til 2017.
Johnson - Was just starting to bust out by 2016. Blew up the next year.
Carter - See Jenkins

So, it speaks for itself. You have a lot of very good, not great players. If you want to see a more obvious comparison, look at any of the 2000-2003 rosters, and decide who from the 2016 squad would start on any of those teams. You'll find the answer is few to none.
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The players listed were good enough for 10 or 11 win season. You simply failed to mention these players could not overcome a wretched OL.
 
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Swampcity said:
The players listed were good enough for 10 or 11 win season. You simply failed to mention these players could not overcome a wretched OL.
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Our OL was not a problem the last 4 games. Richt didn’t adjust til it was too late. U gotta know ur personnel. It was indicative of Richt trying to force a square peg into a round hole. The moment he found the square hole, our offense clicked.
 
Losing AQM, Grace, and Young hurt. We had zero depth at LB then had a bunch of injuries on the DL. Even though the D played well, that lack of depth really got exposed vs ND and VT
 
We were moving it against UNC until that downpour hit.
Carter recovers that fumble we beat ND
Make a PAT and we're in OT against FSU
V Tech was a throwout game. D was decimated and we got f-ed by the ACC who scheduled three games for us in 12 days.

Very good team that had some bad breaks, horrific schedulng and of course questionably conservative play calling before really getting it rolling.

Tough team for anyone to beat by the end of the season.
 
Rellyrell said:
Our OL was not a problem the last 4 games. Richt didn’t adjust til it was too late. U gotta know ur personnel. It was indicative of Richt trying to force a square peg into a round hole. The moment he found the square hole, our offense clicked.
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Relly you're simply uninformed ...
 
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