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Baker goes in-depth on injury updates, roster construction, and recruiting

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Agree. Defense end is solidified with Rousseau and roche on the other end. What is this clown talking about!! Idiot Baker
 
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LuCane said:
We could play that game forever, though. We had an above average defense even compared to teams who faced similar teams we did. I realize you (and I) think it should have been better. I acknowledge the system has holes, generally. And, I acknowledge Diaz had to step in. I still don't think it's enough to fire the DC after last year.
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At the minimum, can you agree that Díaz could have hired a better candidate? Baker isn’t the answer for the Clemson’s of the world.

Baker’s and Diaz have that smartest in the room syndrome with their stupid gimmick stunts. That **** don’t fly with the elite programs.
 
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rgonzalez9824 said:
Lol, did he just say that Harvey will play at DE. Rousseau and Roche should never come off the field. What is he talking about ? This guy is a clown!!
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I think we need 4 DEs rotating all year. But gotta let the top producers dominate and get the burn. UCLA has to join the fray with GR and Roche. Add the next best option and Coach’m up. Use the 4th DE like we used Garvin as a Frosh.
 
Yea i agree. I just don’t like this clown saying stuff like that after he was barely playing Rousseau last year until the 3rd of 4th game in. Baker the Faker !!
 
Hurracanes said:
At the minimum, can you agree that Díaz could have hired a better candidate? Baker isn’t the answer for the Clemson’s of the world.

Baker’s and Diaz have that smartest in the room syndrome with their stupid gimmick stunts. That **** don’t fly with the elite programs.
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Listen, I’m no Blake Baker truther. Could he have hired someone better? Probably so. Nobody is saying he’s the 2nd coming of Christ. But who else would you have liked him to hire? He’s a defensive coach. If he’s going to have a vested interest in either side, it’s going to be the defense. Obviously. So in hiring a DC, you know he’s going to hire someone he aligns with philosophically.

Bottom line, if the 2019 offense and special teams are equal to the defense, Miami is probably 10-2 at worst, and this board (and opinion of Manny) is a LOT different.
 
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Stefan Adams said:
The Miami Hurricanes began spring practice hurting on the defensive side of the ball and particularly at LB, with Waynmon Steed, BJ Jennings, Sam Brooks, Tirek Austin-Cave, and Corey Flagg (plus safety Bubba Bolden) missing the only week of practice UM conducted in early March. Since then, the quarantines have changed how day-to-day life operates at Miami, but defensive coordinator Blake Baker has been pleased with the progress his injured players have made the past two months.

“It was a big concern for us not being able to get them to a doctor regularly,” Baker said. “But our physical therapist gets on Zoom and he’ll sometimes send me a video of Jennings or Steed. Truth be told, every guy we’ve had out with injury on the defensive side of the ball is probably to his estimation ahead of schedule. So that’s a tremendous accomplishment, a huge tribute to him and those kids. I’ll be honest, that was a big, big concern when this thing started, how this will all unfold. But he’s done a heck of a job.”

With UM looking to replace two 4-year starters at linebacker, Baker said he was encouraged by what redshirt freshman Avery Huff showed this spring and how the sophomore Brooks looked in his limited time on the field in 2019.

“Sam, when you talk about him having a much larger body of work when you go back to last season and how he developed, I’m really excited about his future, what he brings,” Baker said. “He’s really a smart, smart kid that is quiet by nature but it’s funny watching people’s personalities in my room kind of change, how much more vocal he’s become. For him to step into the bowl game, have 12 tackles, he really played out of his mind. There’s a bigger body of work compared to Avery.

“Avery is coming along nicely, has in my opinion further to go. But he brings a unique athletic ability, feel for the game. Those four days in spring ball, as fast as our offense goes, you can see the growth he was having in those four days. Both those guys will play a significant role in our defense next year. Both of those guys are long and can run. As good of a coach as some out there might think we are, we can’t coach speed.”

Bolden was starting to come on strong last season before he broke his ankle against FSU, and Baker expects the fully-recovered USC transfer to play a big role in the defense as a junior in 2020.

“He was recovering at a very fast pace and really for sure we would have got him the second half of spring,” Baker said of Bolden. “So I think he’ll be 100% ready to go for sure. We were just starting to see that glimpse of him last year, how good a player he can be. He’s much taller, longer than our other guys. Really does a great job with his hips, covering a lot of ground, and does it deceptively with how long he is. The sky is the limit for a guy like Bubba Bolden. With a full season and off-season, him getting comfortable we’ll see even bigger improvement out of him next year.”

With Trajan Bandy leaving early for the NFL, younger corners like sophomores Christian Williams and Te’Cory Couch will be relied upon more heavily in 2020; Williams actually began the spring running with the first team defense.

“That to me is the biggest difference from last year to this year defensively - I don’t know if anyone has a job secured, where last year when I got here, there were four, five, six guys that had played a lot,” Baker said. “If I remember correctly going back to those four days (of spring practice), I’m not sure Christian didn’t start two, maybe three out of the four days. He was having a great spring camp and TC (Couch) was doing a lot of good things too. The thing for me is the competition and amount of depth we have across the board is much greater than last year. Whenever guys feel they have a fair shake to compete for a job, they compete that much harder. I’m excited for those two, they’re nipping on the two older guys’ heels (juniors Al Blades and DJ Ivey).”

Baker also spoke on last season’s freshman defensive ends who both redshirted: Jahfari Harvey and Cam Williams.

“I think for sure when you talk about defensive end, right now [Harvey] is in the two-deep so he’s going to play,” Baker said. “He’s going to play a ton. He’s different than those other guys in a good way, is super twitched up. And he has a little bit different skillset than those other guys. When you talk about pure speed, he can run better than any of those other (DE's). He uses that to his strength, his speed to power. And he has really, really good hips.

“That’s something defensively we talked about with our four down personnel, being able to drop a defensive end in some situations and bring in a fourth or fifth rusher from another spot. He has a knack for that. I think Jahfari is going to have a big year next year, is going to contribute quite a bit to this defense.”

“Cam came in at 255 (pounds), but it was a lot of bad weight, is now at 225, 230,” said Baker. “He does some good things coming of the edge and really has a mean steak that you wouldn’t necessarily know talking to him in the hallway.”

According to Baker, the quarantines have led some Miami players to keep in shape in interesting ways and it’s been difficult from a coaching perspective to be more hands-off the past few weeks.

“Some players have a full weight set at home, but some have a broom stick with water jugs on the end,” Baker said. “It’ll be interesting to see what guys come in from a strength standpoint, but they all should be able to find 100 yards somewhere. Get out there and run and run and run.”

UM was luckily able to get most of their freshman class enrolled early for spring ball, but Baker says the planned summer arrivals will be a bit behind at least in terms of school credits.

“Right now, everything has kind of just been put on hold for those new guys because we can’t get in the office, we’re not allowed to work out with them,” Baker said. “We send them workouts, so it’s no different, just they’re not going to be able to get their six hours of summer school.”

The constant battle to get the roster as close as possible to the 85 scholarship ceiling has been made more difficult in recent years by the relaxing of transfer restrictions, but Baker feels UM is making progress in this area overall.

“From an overall standpoint, our depth and our numbers are better than they were last year,” Baker said. “As a defensive staff, we’re kind of deciphering exactly what we want that ‘striker’ body-type or position to be. And we can predicate our defense and design our defense based on what his skill set holds most. We have to get maybe a little bit deeper in that category from what we’re looking for. But overall from a numbers standpoint, a great job managing the roster. Our numbers are in pretty good shape on that side of the ball.”

Since Baker joined the Miami staff at the beginning of last year, the former Louisiana Tech DC has leaned heavily on his Louisiana connections and has hit the state hard, and Baker expanded on what he looks for in players when recruiting to UM.

“Guys that can run, documented speed,” Baker said. “Some of the guys we signed last year, Marcus Clarke had a documented 4.5 time at one of the combines and his film backed it up. We have to do a good job trusting our own evaluations. Some recruiting services may not agree with it, but we have to trust what our eyes tell us. You see `Oh he’s a 4-star, a 5-star,’ but is he really that much better than a 3-star off what your eyes are telling you? That’s something we take a lot of pride in, I can tell you that.”
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Baker just flat out doesn't get it and most likely he never will. Instead of learning from the fact that he was in way over his head last year Baker is just going to double down on and continue to rely on the same abysmal gimmicks he did last year. Sad. Just sad. We desperately need real coaches on the defensive side of the ball.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Excellent, excellent post. I'd pay a lot of money to be on a board with people like you and others here who are rational, intelligent, knowledgeable football heads.

What people simply cannot grasp here is the first 3 sentences. My god. IT WAS AN ABOVE AVERAGE DEFENSE. And of course, could have been better. But you don't ******* fire coaches, especially at this school, for what Baker and his defense did last year. I mean, not that we should ever settle for anything remotely close to this, but we watched Mark D'Onofrio coach defense here for FIVE GOD**** SEASONS, and we think what we've seen the past 4 years should cause people to lose their jobs on the defensive side of the ball? Is the defense elite? No. Is it a good defense? Yes. Can it be better? Of course it can. But the defense has been so much better than the offense and special teams since Manny was hired it's actually comical. What people cannot understand is if you gave Miami an offense just equivalent to the defense, we'd be the 4 time defending coastal champions and possibly be giving Clemson at least a hint of a run in Charlotte. Without a doubt.

I get that it's the off-season and we're in a quarantine and there's nothing to talk about, but Jesus Christ page after page blasting a defensive coach for going on the radio after what the defense has PROVEN to be, at worst, very good over the past 4 years is absolutely asinine.

Baker has a lot to improve on. To say he should be fired after what we saw last year is typical Miami fan nonsense.
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solid post Mann. Some people have no clue on here.
 
I feel like the thing Baker caught the most grief for (3 DL on third downs with Rousseau at nose) is what he did the best in 2019. I hope we see substantially more 3-3-5 looks to maximize the final year of college ball for Rousseau, Roche, Phillips. You can't have Phillips rotating in with Roche and Rousseau at DE. Those three have to be on the field as much as possible and together.
 
Gransapo said:
Man, Blake Baker is a ****face. This guy couldn’t call a defense to save his life last year and thinks that things are going to turn around this year with the quarantine. Most importantly, he seems to think that the injured players are some how going to get better via ZOOM therapy. Get this imbecile the **** out of Miami, please.
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Soon as bruh said body type for the stricker and building the defense around that uh lost me smh. Only thing I did like was seeing Brooks and Huff standing out i hope they start!
 
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Dude said:
Are you saying I cant man up and blitz both LBs outta the nickle on every down in real life? I mean... has anyone ever tried it to know for certain? 🤣
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Ran this exact defense on madden and only gave up 13pts so yeah it legit lol
 
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rgonzalez9824 said:
Lol, did he just say that Harvey will play at DE. Rousseau and Roche should never come off the field. What is he talking about ? This guy is a clown!!
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🙄 You want us to only use two DE's the entire season?

Plus Rousseau slides inside in our pass rushing package...which would leave Harvey and Roche playing DE.
 
Empirical Cane said:
Yeah yeah.

Incredibly high risk, low reward.

In addition the safety was obligated to the other receiver.

Miami's halfback pass in the snow was also designed to result in a TD.
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It's not high risk at all when you consider that the Rams are sending 4 defenders off the same side of the OL and the QB will have approximately 2 seconds to throw.

This is the type of blitz you run versus an empty set on 3rd & medium.
 
Baker is a really nice/cool guy but he gave one of the most awkward defensive clinics I've ever seen.
Homie was talking about "void pressures" (blitzes where they basically leave a certain zone wide open aka "voided"). He showed film of plays where receivers were completely wide open. On many of the plays there were MULTIPLE receivers wide open. Everybody in the clinic was just looking at each other like 🤔
Basically they're banking on the blitz getting there before the QB figures it out. I mean, it's cute when it works, but if you're ever wondering why a receiver catches a 5-yard shallow route and gains 20 yards ...there's your answer.

One of my buddies asked if they spot drop or pattern match. He said they do both. On some plays they tell their guys to simply spot drop to give them a "mental rep off". In other words, giving their brain a break from the complexity of pattern matching.

Umm, okay. 😐


I've seen some pretty good defensive coaches give clinics over the last 13 years. Saw Saban twice, Pruitt, Shannon, Muschamp, etc...plenty of other guys from big-time programs, guys with a lot of experience. None of them were as complex or gimmicky as what I've seen from Baker/Diaz. I don't recall any of the big-time guys voluntarily leaving a zone wide open, as most of them placed more of an emphasis on being sound instead of being "****".

That's basically why we get tons of TFL's and sacks but often let opposing offenses score on their first drive of the game... or allow a mediocre QB to have a career game.

I don't think Baker (or Diaz) is a bad DC, I just think they get too cute sometimes. Some of the stuff they do up-front is really cool though.
IMO our defense always looks better when we're vanilla but sound. Scale it back, let the kids play fast and make the opposing offense beat you. (don't give them gifts)
 
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Coach Macho said:
Baker is a really nice/cool guy but he gave one of the most awkward defensive clinics I've ever seen.
Homie was talking about "void pressures" (blitzes where they basically leave a certain zone wide open aka "voided"). He showed film of plays where receivers were completely wide open. On many of the plays there were MULTIPLE receivers wide open. Everybody in the clinic was just looking at each other like 🤔
Basically they're banking on the blitz getting there before the QB figures it out. I mean, it's cute when it works, but if you're ever wondering why a receiver catches a 5-yard shallow route and gains 20 yards ...there's your answer.

One of my buddies asked if they spot drop or pattern match. He said they do both. On some plays they tell their guys to simply spot drop to give them a "mental rep off". In other words, giving their brain a break from the complexity of pattern matching.

Umm, okay. 😐


I've seen some pretty good defensive coaches give clinics over the last 13 years. Saw Saban twice, Pruitt, Shannon, Muschamp, etc...plenty of other guys from big-time programs, guys with a lot of experience. None of them were as complex or gimmicky as what I've seen from Baker/Diaz. I don't recall any of the big-time guys voluntarily leaving a zone wide open, as most of them placed more of an emphasis on being sound instead of being "****".

That's basically why we get tons of TFL's and sacks but often let opposing offenses score on their first drive of the game... or allow a mediocre QB to have a career game.

I don't think Baker (or Diaz) is a bad DC, I just think they get too cute sometimes. Some of the stuff they do up-front is really cool though.
IMO our defense always looks better when we're vanilla but sound. Scale it back, let the kids play fast and make the opposing offense beat you. (don't give them gifts)
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Defense takes a dramatic step back this year. Book it.
 
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