A few things from the spring game...

[Hurricane23]

Dline and wr’s

 

[Rickd]

Whats up with Mallory? I see he is a sling, bad shoulder again? Since FSU 2020 he injured shoulder multiple times, I think this 3rd time? Shoulder injuries are tricky AF.. Hope he can recover, might be reason he sometimes seems scared to block or of contact, scared of getting hurt and catching blocks.. ends up hurt again..

?? He had shoulder surgery right after Spring Practice began. TE's were practicing with OL working on "physicality" ... then surgery. Labrum?

 

[TruCane81]

Not as knowledgeable as k9, but I would say the oline looked much better in run blocking overall...and the 1's were very good in terms of creating a clean pocket for TVD and Garcia. Sagapolu is small but plays with a mean streak. Zion did get beat by Davis a few times.

D-line needs alot of help (pls bring me Mesidor and Dorlus, etc.), and part of why the o-line looked pretty good. Lichtenstein flashed at times - think he'll be very solid. LT's 1st step was fantastic and you can see the talent, just correcting old habits from the Manuelita regime. Miller still isn't doing anything for me - wouldn't be surprised if he is added to the portal gang (especially if we bring in multiple DT's).

Man we need a block eating 300 pounder( two is better) but it’s hard to get quality guys like that from the portal.

It’s affecting everyone else in the front seven now that we are playing real football. The roster is unbalanced. We were playing the defensive version of the triple option.

 

[The U is back to work]

We need a better DL for sure. There should be enough kids we can force out and entice in the portal to come here given the recent success with guys like Phillips and Roche.

 

[CorniceCane]

I may be alone here, but I don’t think that’s what we saw today. I’m not saying we’re in a great spot, but I think our WR just weren’t focused today. I think they can (and hopefully will) play better this fall. Basically, I think we have the talent to be ok there, so it’s not a top concern for me at this point. Now if they somehow look this bad at the start of the season…

They are going to need to have a **** of an offseason to be what we need. Watching the TV recording right now. XMan is great but you cannot have the slot receiver be your best man or it will be wasting TVD’s arm ability. TEs were somewhat successful (Arroyo, Brantley). B Smith looked good on the second team, but he is another slot guy. I imagine that Gattis will use him creatively though but still, it will be YAC and not over the top. Where is Ladson? Definitely not looking like a difference maker which is what a big concern was.

We could use a Rambo type (not necessarily of his same accomplishment last year) to take attention off of K Smith and George. I can’t believe that WRs that are considering transferring aren’t drooling over the chance to catch balls from TVD. Lots of ability to throw out of the backfield and OLine got some push for Parrish and Franklin, but if that’s all we got from today’s showing, defenses will stack the box and we’re screwed. Need WRs to step up massively between now and start of fall.

 

[Gocanes1990]

- I got sun burned. Yeah, that's gonna irritate me the next few days

- I expect to see 2 and 3 TE sets from Gattis. Seriously, from Mallory, to Arroyo, to Brantley(who looked good), Mamms and Skinner, I try and get REAL creative with these guys. Especially if a true #1 WR doesnt' emerge

- Ivey was in a ton of press coverage today and I thought played well. Take that for what you will for Mr April. Overall, believe it or not, I like our defensive backs. Were actually good there

- We held out a lot of guys, so take that with a grain of salt. Guys like Campbell(who was dressed out) and Ty Stevenson didn't play (among many others)

- with that said, I still saw too many guys where I said, 'Yeah, this guy doesn't look like he belongs at UM.' We still need another recruiting class or two and heavy transfer portal action

- Thomas Davis can do some things as a situational rusher. Dont think he's ready to be a 3 down end Cy Moss flashed a bit, but he's skinnier than Lamar Thomas in 1991. Give him time with Dr. Feld

- I liked what I saw from Thad Franklin. He has a Lendale White quality to him as a college running back. As for the explosion plays, again, Rooster didn't play

- Still need a WR who can truly threaten the defense over the top

- Now Im going to watch the fights later on, and get some Aloe Vera.

Great insight, I know we agree TVD is special. But how the heck do we keep Brown off the field in certain situations. Guy is electric. If he can get more accurate he will give Garcia a run next year

 

[kryptonite]

They are going to need to have a **** of an offseason to be what we need. Watching the TV recording right now. XMan is great but you cannot have the slot receiver be your best man or it will be wasting TVD’s arm ability. TEs were somewhat successful (Arroyo, Brantley). B Smith looked good on the second team, but he is another slot guy. I imagine that Gattis will use him creatively though but still, it will be YAC and not over the top. Where is Ladson? Definitely not looking like a difference maker which is what a big concern was.

We could use a Rambo type (not necessarily of his same accomplishment last year) to take attention off of K Smith and George. I can’t believe that WRs that are considering transferring aren’t drooling over the chance to catch balls from TVD. Lots of ability to throw out of the backfield and OLine got some push for Parrish and Franklin, but if that’s all we got from today’s showing, defenses will stack the box and we’re screwed. Need WRs to step up massively between now and start of fall.

I just disagree about us not having the tools right now, I think these guys can be good. Everybody is overvaluing one pretend game and assuming they won't get better.

 

[SpikeUM]

View attachment 182311

Exactly, although I am of course much handsomer!!!!

 

[kryptonite]

Great insight, I know we agree TVD is special. But how the heck do we keep Brown off the field in certain situations. Guy is electric. If he can get more accurate he will give Garcia a run next year

How do we keep him off the field? By realizing that the ability to do silly-good things rarely outweighs the likelihood of doing silly-bad things. This is a mistake fans are always making...thinking the guy on the bench is the answer because he's got a skill the guy in the game doesn't have. The kid is going to be mistake-prone at this point, so he's as much a danger as a help. Give him time to develop and we'll see what we have, especially because there's literally no need for him to play. If we see him outside garbage time, something's gone awfully wrong.

 

[CorniceCane]

I just disagree about us not having the tools right now, I think these guys can be good. Everybody is overvaluing one pretend game and assuming they won't get better.

I appreciate your opinion and believe that if you are to be correct, they are going to need to sharpen their skills to be what you are hoping for them to be. I do think that we have some skill and athleticism in the WR room but some of it is overlap (Restrepo and Brashard) and some of it is not what we expected (I truly expected more of Ladson). I get that this is a small sampling size but this also against our DBs minuet TS. We have been historically bad in the DB position and while I can appreciate that we may have improved from other’s feeling about how they performed, another opinion is that we may not have done enough from the WR side and made the DB side look good. It is my concern that if we are not ready at WR, we run the risk of minimizing TVD’s abilities and also create a bottleneck in the QB room that we aren’t expecting and then potentially suffer the consequences of a transfer or two if TVD has to stay to be draftable. They need to get better period, I think we all can see that.

 

[JD08]

Exactly, although I am of course much handsomer!!!!

 

[k9cane]

heard something interesting this past weekend in Miami -- that Mario has banned any alcohol in the football building.

The days of kicking back, drinking a few at the office, etc is over. Even the alumni event was alcohol free

There is MUCH more of a business-feel to this program now

 

[Jassid82]

heard something interesting this past weekend in Miami -- that Mario has banned any alcohol in the football building.

The days of kicking back, drinking a few at the office, etc is over. Even the alumni event was alcohol free

There is MUCH more of a business-feel to this program now

Banning alcohol at the place of business I can see..but none at the alumni event? Errrrrr...lol! I guess.

 

[Rellyrell]

- I got sun burned. Yeah, that's gonna irritate me the next few days

- I expect to see 2 and 3 TE sets from Gattis. Seriously, from Mallory, to Arroyo, to Brantley(who looked good), Mamms and Skinner, I try and get REAL creative with these guys. Especially if a true #1 WR doesnt' emerge

- Ivey was in a ton of press coverage today and I thought played well. Take that for what you will for Mr April. Overall, believe it or not, I like our defensive backs. Were actually good there

- We held out a lot of guys, so take that with a grain of salt. Guys like Campbell(who was dressed out) and Ty Stevenson didn't play (among many others)

- with that said, I still saw too many guys where I said, 'Yeah, this guy doesn't look like he belongs at UM.' We still need another recruiting class or two and heavy transfer portal action

- Thomas Davis can do some things as a situational rusher. Dont think he's ready to be a 3 down end Cy Moss flashed a bit, but he's skinnier than Lamar Thomas in 1991. Give him time with Dr. Feld

- I liked what I saw from Thad Franklin. He has a Lendale White quality to him as a college running back. As for the explosion plays, again, Rooster didn't play

- Still need a WR who can truly threaten the defense over the top

- Now Im going to watch the fights later on, and get some Aloe Vera.

It seems like this has been the general view of all of us, including seeing a re-cap from ITU. Great write up bro, take care of that sun burn.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I appreciate your opinion and believe that if you are to be correct, they are going to need to sharpen their skills to be what you are hoping for them to be. I do think that we have some skill and athleticism in the WR room but some of it is overlap (Restrepo and Brashard) and some of it is not what we expected (I truly expected more of Ladson). I get that this is a small sampling size but this also against our DBs minuet TS. We have been historically bad in the DB position and while I can appreciate that we may have improved from other’s feeling about how they performed, another opinion is that we may not have done enough from the WR side and made the DB side look good. It is my concern that if we are not ready at WR, we run the risk of minimizing TVD’s abilities and also create a bottleneck in the QB room that we aren’t expecting and then potentially suffer the consequences of a transfer or two if TVD has to stay to be draftable. They need to get better period, I think we all can see that.

We need to stop going after Ladson as if he is some failure.

A YEAR AGO...Rambo didn't look like some big success...then he set the ALL-TIME single-season receptions record at Miami. That is not a comparison between Ladson and Rambo, it is a comparison between expectations and eventual performance.

If Ladson works as hard in May and June and July and August as Rambo did, we will be fine.

 

[aleahy]

We need to stop going after Ladson as if he is some failure.

A YEAR AGO...Rambo didn't look like some big success...then he set the ALL-TIME single-season receptions record at Miami. That is not a comparison between Ladson and Rambo, it is a comparison between expectations and eventual performance.

If Ladson works as hard in May and June and July and August as Rambo did, we will be fine.

I really hope they try to drop some weight. I think he is too big right now. He has talent.

 

[CorniceCane]

We need to stop going after Ladson as if he is some failure.

A YEAR AGO...Rambo didn't look like some big success...then he set the ALL-TIME single-season receptions record at Miami. That is not a comparison between Ladson and Rambo, it is a comparison between expectations and eventual performance.

If Ladson works as hard in May and June and July and August as Rambo did, we will be fine.

Your mouth to g-d’s ears! And I was not going after Ladson. I was pointing out that the WR room needs to step up and especially as a point so as to not waste what we have in TVD. I was expecting Frank to have been further along after 15 spring practices as an upper classman coming in. That is why I singled him out. I just want to see tremendous competency out of this group though as we stand the most to lose by them not performing (and OL but they did look noticeably better).

 

[Colombie]

- I expect to see 2 and 3 TE sets from Gattis. Seriously, from Mallory, to Arroyo, to Brantley(who looked good), Mamms and Skinner, I try and get REAL creative with these guys. Especially if a true #1 WR doesnt' emerge

I would love to see it quite frankly.

We can dominate ACC teams just by running the football physically with our stable of backs and getting the ball to all of our TEs in key moments.

 

[JHallCanes]

They are going to need to have a **** of an offseason to be what we need. Watching the TV recording right now. XMan is great but you cannot have the slot receiver be your best man or it will be wasting TVD’s arm ability. TEs were somewhat successful (Arroyo, Brantley). B Smith looked good on the second team, but he is another slot guy. I imagine that Gattis will use him creatively though but still, it will be YAC and not over the top. Where is Ladson? Definitely not looking like a difference maker which is what a big concern was.

We could use a Rambo type (not necessarily of his same accomplishment last year) to take attention off of K Smith and George. I can’t believe that WRs that are considering transferring aren’t drooling over the chance to catch balls from TVD. Lots of ability to throw out of the backfield and OLine got some push for Parrish and Franklin, but if that’s all we got from today’s showing, defenses will stack the box and we’re screwed. Need WRs to step up massively between now and start of fall.

Ladson definitely is not the guy

We’ve got some great depth at WR I think but there’s no top end currently. A big group of guys that are all basically in the same mold

I know George has been getting good marks so far but I think the receiver with the most potential is Key Smith. He’s a big play guy so hopefully he can keep improving over the summer

 

[AtlAtty]

What a shame we have a QB like TVD and no depth at WR.

We felt the same way at this time last year. For anyone who remembers the 2021 spring game, Rambo was not special at all. Most people were wishing Harley would already have left the program.
But one guy stepped up his game from Spring to Fall and the trajectory of the position group changed with Rambo.
X is already a better slot receiver than we have had since Berrios.
We just need one of George, Bronson and KeShawn to become more consistent catching and we will be in good shape because our TE’s and RB’s will catch 10 passes per game. And in 5-8 for X and we need the outside receivers to make 12-15 catches per game. I think that is more than achievable and frankly, a rather pedestrian ask of that group.
TVD won’t just make money for Gattis, he will make money or his receivers.