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6 Games In....What Have We Learned

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STs is a joke...

Hartley is da gaw with TE crooting and coaching it seems...

But holy **** at our STs seriously not even being MEDIOCRE most games!! Bubbas isn't awful... but STs coverage units are bad, punting has been beaten down already. Seems like we don't even give but maybe 15 mins a week tops to the position every week
 
Rellyrell said:
Beating FSU any time is great, but the dramatics behind our last two victories have been nothing short of glorious and refreshing.

For years, we've had to suffer, being on the exact opposite side. Now? We get to have the last laugh, and trust me, I have 8 long years to catch up to my fill of laughter with the FSwho fans.

However, now that the storm has settled, we have some major clean up work, namely Play Calling, ST, and OL coaching.

Play Calling-

The Good:

Perry is a gamer.

The Bad:

Perry is still being handled with training wheels.

This game shouldn't have been this close, honestly. There were many exploitable alignments that FSU gave that we just didn't take advantage of. Posters on the "Game Day Discussion" thread were begging for us to get the ball the TE. Why? B/c FSU was selling out on the run, leaving one-on-one match ups with our TEs against their undersized LBs with the middle of the field more open than Superhead in the early 2000's!

As much as the defense willed us to victory, there were many head scratching offensive play calls that left us flabbergasted that could've easily snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. I think we've learned that it's time for Richt to either switch from his Blockbuster Video approach to the new age of Netlfix (shout out to @k9cane for that analogy) or simply hire a real, innovative OC that will best utilize both Perry and J Will's strengths while covering their weaknesses.


As much as we love some Coach Hartley, and he deserves a pay raise for his recruiting ability and development of the TE's, he ought not to coach another ST possession!

ST-

The Good:

Feagles is one the bench

The Bad:

Nothing has changed

Our ST could easily be the reason why we are 4-1 instead of 5-0, and this is not a one year itch. Our ST cost us games toward the end the season last year, as well. Whether it was a shank'd punt from Mr. Feagles, the ever so inopportune missed kicked from the Jersey Shore cast-off Michael Badgley, or lanes not being opened for kick returns, our ST has been less than stellar (and that's being very diplomatic in calling this unit out).


Now I see why Searles has lasted no longer than 3 yrs at all the schools he's coached at.

OL-

The Good:

Finally moving Donaldson back at guard

The Bad:

Giving up 5 Sacks 14 TFLs and avg. 3 ypc (ouch)

Remember when J Harris became no good b/c he was always in fear of getting hit w/ that OL....yeah, we're that bad again. Perry has now been sacked, I believe, 10x now in 2 1/2 games. That's no good. The fact that our OL can't generate a decent and consistent run game, and now we have teams literally chomping at the bit to crowd the L.O.S b/c we can't make them pay for it. Can Richt help with this? Of course...throw more quick screens. Throw more running back screens. Run some motion, run a real RPO...but the fact is, our OL has not been good no matter who was at the helm, and that's an indictment on their position coach.


So what have we learned? We've learned that this team is on the precipice of being really special. Year's past, it was our offense that would hang 35 ppg on an opponent, just for the defense to give up 38. Defense wins championships, but so does a competent offense and special teams unit. Richt is starting to show he's willing to play the best players regardless of class. Perry was a beginning of him moving out of his comfort zone. Moving Donaldson back to guard is another start. I also think Hightower should be starting over Cager. No way nephew (shout out to @Brooklyndee) drops the first TD on 3rd & goal in the 3rd qtr or that gimme slant in the 4th that would've put us up 8.

All in all, I like this team. Yes, we need to finish strong, obviously; but if Richt can secure our remaining recruiting targets (which should now include a punter), renovate his playbook (maybe add, I dunno, motion from time to time or a real RPO system), and get someone else to run ST's, we have chance to be really special for years to come.

Just my .02
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I'm gonna leave out any of the negatives. Which I'm sure means everyone will fill in the gaps. Leaving this strictly at the positives (and for alot of us this was a huge one) manny really quieted alot of criticism towards him in this game. I say that because I was 1 of many people beginning to question if manny is a 1 trick pony. Our defense previously was so heavily reliant on blitz packages & zones that kids were scared to play instinctively and enjoy the game. He had struggled heavily to make in game adjustments & inferior teams & coaches were exposing our defense as the blitz getting home was our only way to thrive. Very little creativity in play calling. He answered the bell in this game (especially in the second half) & showed why our front 7 is considered elite. Alot of double eagle & stunts finally. We have elite book ends. Let them show that. Same with willis. He very much impressed me in this game. I thought the defense as a whole really stepped up in the second half... that's the positive I have to say & I'll leave it at that.
 
One correction- Baxa is the kicker, not Badgley. Also, I don't know if FSU had Richts playbook or if his playcalling is that predictable- on first and goal in the 3rd quarter, one of the announcers said, "Richt loves to run QB draws here. " Sure enough, he runs a qb draw and FSU stuffed it. Might need to rethink the strategy when Brock Huard turns into Carnac the Magnificent and can easily predict your plays.
 
Richt calls plays like he has a dominant OL that can destroy anyone. That’s the style of football he wants, and that’s okay in principle, but that’s not what we have. And his OL recruiting has not been good. There are two OL from the last three classes contributing. That’s it. We do not have the personnel to run the offense he is trying to run. We have outrecruited 95% of the country when it comes to WRs RBs and TEs. So we need to lean on them instead of asking the OL to beat players better than them. They are not good enough and we don’t recruit well enough at that position.
 
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Another issue with Richt as a play caller is that he's too conservative to start and end games. Usually most OCs have a set script to start games but we always start RB dive, RB dive and then throw on 3rd down and punt. Then in the 4th when he has to chance to put teams away he just runs the ball. We we're in FSU's territory back to back drives up 1 and the first drive we ran it 3 times and punted. Next drive we got a good run by Homer when he took 2 Nole defender's soul but then we run conservative plays after, not taking a shot in the end zone. Obviously Cager should have caught that 3rd down ball and fell into the end zone but I would have liked to see us be more aggressive and not waiting until 3rd down.
 
moshated305 said:
Another issue with Richt as a play caller is that he's too conservative to start and end games. Usually most OCs have a set script to start games but we always start RB dive, RB dive and then throw on 3rd down and punt. Then in the 4th when he has to chance to put teams away he just runs the ball. We we're in FSU's territory back to back drives up 1 and the first drive we ran it 3 times and punted. Next drive we got a good run by Homer when he took 2 Nole defender's soul but then we run conservative plays after, not taking a shot in the end zone. Obviously Cager should have caught that 3rd down ball and fell into the end zone but I would have liked to see us be more aggressive and not waiting until 3rd down.
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in those situations if you wait till 3rd down to pass it, well, any element of surprise is basically gone
 
Brooklyndee said:
I'm gonna leave out any of the negatives. Which I'm sure means everyone will fill in the gaps. Leaving this strictly at the positives (and for alot of us this was a huge one) manny really quieted alot of criticism towards him in this game. I say that because I was 1 of many people beginning to question if manny is a 1 trick pony. Our defense previously was so heavily reliant on blitz packages & zones that kids were scared to play instinctively and enjoy the game. He had struggled heavily to make in game adjustments & inferior teams & coaches were exposing our defense as the blitz getting home was our only way to thrive. Very little creativity in play calling. He answered the bell in this game (especially in the second half) & showed why our front 7 is considered elite. Alot of double eagle & stunts finally. We have elite book ends. Let them show that. Same with willis. He very much impressed me in this game. I thought the defense as a whole really stepped up in the second half... that's the positive I have to say & I'll leave it at that.
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100. Manny definitely proved something to me.
 
moshated305 said:
Another issue with Richt as a play caller is that he's too conservative to start and end games. Usually most OCs have a set script to start games but we always start RB dive, RB dive and then throw on 3rd down and punt. Then in the 4th when he has to chance to put teams away he just runs the ball. We we're in FSU's territory back to back drives up 1 and the first drive we ran it 3 times and punted. Next drive we got a good run by Homer when he took 2 Nole defender's soul but then we run conservative plays after, not taking a shot in the end zone. Obviously Cager should have caught that 3rd down ball and fell into the end zone but I would have liked to see us be more aggressive and not waiting until 3rd down.
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Did you fine folks realize that our avg starting drive Saturday was on the 38.5 yard line? That means we had, on avg. 62 yrds to score. That's a phenomenal field position avg. Yet, we didn't do much with it. I need Richt to take off the training wheels and just let it go. We're too buttoned up on offense, imo.
 
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That I am worried about our run game. I still don't like the playcalling could be those 3 3 runs and out I saw Mark call.
 
k9cane said:
My biggest disappointment with Richt in terms of his offensive approach is that I thought we'd be getting a version of the Fast Break that he help coach during his days at FSU with a quick tempo component. But we are the slowest 'no-huddle' team Ive ever seen - to a point it actually defeats the purpose of it

Go back to 2016, Miami broke out of that mid-year malaise vs Pitt by basically going to the full blown spread that game and throwing it all over the place. Why weren't they doing that the whole season?
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We currently do not have the athletes that fsu had during Richt’s fsu tenure to have a quick tempo offense. Richt plans his offense based upon the skill level of his players and their capabilities. Perhaps in the future with an elite offensive line we will be able to have a more dynamic offense.
 
Rellyrell said:
Exactly, why I say we're on the precipice of being a perennial contender for a playoff spot.

Honestly, I think Richt can help out the OL with his play calling. In 2016, we started to gain rhythm against WVU w/ the quick WR screen passes. It loosened up the defense. I feel we've regressed in that area.
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We stopped doing that because rosier throws dirt passes on screens. We should do more of that with perry
 
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k9cane said:
My biggest disappointment with Richt in terms of his offensive approach is that I thought we'd be getting a version of the Fast Break that he help coach during his days at FSU with a quick tempo component. But we are the slowest 'no-huddle' team Ive ever seen - to a point it actually defeats the purpose of it

Go back to 2016, Miami broke out of that mid-year malaise vs Pitt by basically going to the full blown spread that game and throwing it all over the place. Why weren't they doing that the whole season?
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We likely aren't doing anything like the back half of 2016 because the last two starting QBs aren't close to Kaaya when it comes to be being consistently accurate. We all know about Rosier. He could be wildly inaccurate on a play to play basis. The FSU game for Perry probably looked a lot like those closed scrimmages we would get numbers from. He was consistently under 50% in those things and the spring game was the same deal. People who were there at the spring game talked about his ability to throw the ball. Some of his throws would show his obvious talent. "Make throws that Rosier could never make" was written plenty. I think @Lance Roffers wrote it once in his writeup about the FSU game too. Then you look at his numbers from the spring game and he's 11-26 or something. We had about 40 drop backs and completed 13 passes against the Noles. Not exactly the numbers you want for an offense to start throwing it around.
 
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Brooklyndee said:
I'm gonna leave out any of the negatives. Which I'm sure means everyone will fill in the gaps. Leaving this strictly at the positives (and for alot of us this was a huge one) manny really quieted alot of criticism towards him in this game. I say that because I was 1 of many people beginning to question if manny is a 1 trick pony. Our defense previously was so heavily reliant on blitz packages & zones that kids were scared to play instinctively and enjoy the game. He had struggled heavily to make in game adjustments & inferior teams & coaches were exposing our defense as the blitz getting home was our only way to thrive. Very little creativity in play calling. He answered the bell in this game (especially in the second half) & showed why our front 7 is considered elite. Alot of double eagle & stunts finally. We have elite book ends. Let them show that. Same with willis. He very much impressed me in this game. I thought the defense as a whole really stepped up in the second half... that's the positive I have to say & I'll leave it at that.
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after that screen on the 1st drive, where FSU converted on a 3rd and 14 to McKitty, the rest of FSU's screens were basically snuffed out. It was impressive how they were diagnosed quickly on all three levels of the defense and how everyone rallied to the ball. That's a credit to Diaz
 
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k9cane said:
My biggest disappointment with Richt in terms of his offensive approach is that I thought we'd be getting a version of the Fast Break that he help coach during his days at FSU with a quick tempo component. But we are the slowest 'no-huddle' team Ive ever seen - to a point it actually defeats the purpose of it

Go back to 2016, Miami broke out of that mid-year malaise vs Pitt by basically going to the full blown spread that game and throwing it all over the place. Why weren't they doing that the whole season?
Click to expand...
TB
 
k9cane said:
after that screen on the 1st drive, where FSU converted on a 3rd and 14 to McKitty, the rest of FSU's screens were basically snuffed out. It was impressive how they were diagnosed quickly on all three levels of the defense and how everyone rallied to the ball. That's a credit to Diaz
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That's a credit to manny & the entire defensive staff...
 
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