forums

Below, At or Above Talent Level

bobbydigius said:
First thing I said is that we haven’t had the top line talent but we are consistently in the top 10 of schools with the most draft picks. Not enough to be elite but plenty good to dominate the Coastal and win more than one bowl game in 15 years…
Click to expand...
Too many people struggle to grasp the 'chain is only as strong as its weakest link' concept.

You need 40 kids playing solidly to have a good football team, and you need them to be relatively dispersed so you don't have terrible units. Especially on the lines. Having a few more marginal NFL players than some other team might look like a big deal in the talent rear view mirror if you're comparing draft picks, but the flaw in thinking is to think that draft picks are representative of the entire roster, let alone in any particular year and across all roster units.

UM has had huge deficiencies that competent opposing coaches have identified and hammered, for a long time. Bad QBs, bad OL, bad WRs, mediocre DTs too often, more recently LB and CB issues.

I've said this for ages but looking at a few good apples doesn't tell you about the bushel, and a few NFL picks doesn't tell you about the roster.

Hopefully Manny realizes this, because our OL won't be up to the rest of the team's standard in '23 if we don't focus on new talent fast.
 
Advertisement
rsa coral gables said:
For a decade and a half we have played at or below our talent level on a consistent basis. This is due in large part to poor coaching, poor schemes.
With last year's new offensive coaching staff and essentially a new defensive coaching staff this year, the number one thing I am looking for this year is whether the team will play below, at or above their talent level. I think we'll see in spurts.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
What you said.

We will lose to bagga. Hopefully not slapped.

Lose an important, but winnable game.

Goal is a Bowl win against a top 20 team.

Reality is this is our new bar.

I hope we make me look stupid, but not likely.
 
Dwinstitles said:
I think people over blown out talent that's the issue. I think we will play to our talent level imo. I think we always have besides the Doritos defensive scheme
Click to expand...
I gotta disagree to an extent. We overhype our guys for sure, but I can almost guarantee you that some of our jags coulda been better off elsewhere. I put that more on the coaches than the players. But I do agree that we will get the most out of our talent now. This coaching staff has some great minds on both sides of the ball.
 
The important thing is that we finally have broadly dispersed talent and reasonable depth. Maybe LB is an issue. DE could be better but it's not devoid of talent. Should be our best OL, WR and QB units in a long while. Deep RB, solid TE, deep and solid DT, S and okay at CB.

This is where coaching will show. We shouldn't be that obvious to scheme against, unless our coaches allow us to be. We will have to show we can set the edge, contain and cover on D. On O, if we can't score a lot this year, well, that's on the coaches.
 
Advertisement
determining whether we play below, at or above our talent level begs the question, what is our talent level? according to the those most familiar with the ACC and our returning talent, we have one player that is the best player at his position in the entire conference (this ranking doesn't take into consideration incoming Freshman talent, which appears to be excellent).

Teams that did better than Miami in the ACC pre-season ranking:

1. Clemson (8)
2. UNC (2)
3. NC State (3)
4. Boston College (3)
5. Virginia Tech (2)

2021 Preseason All-ACC team (Offense)

2021 Preseason All-ACC team (Defense)​

  • DE: Myles Murphy, Clemson (108)
  • DE: Amare' Barno, Virginia Tech (63)
  • DT: Bryan Bresee, Clemson (120)
  • DT: Tyler Davis, Clemson (53)
  • LB: Payton Wilson, NC State (99)
  • LB: James Skalski, Clemson (95)
  • LB: Nick Jackson, Virginia (37)
  • CB: Andrew Booth Jr., Clemson (86)
  • CB: Tony Grimes, North Carolina (55)
  • S: Bubba Bolden, Miami (100)
  • S: Nolan Turner, Clemson (85)
If we are going to go 10-2 or better (which is what many porsters here are predicting) we have to play above our talent level. Maybe with the return of the offensive coaching staff (which was a major upgrade last year) and the input of this year's new defensive coaching staff we can achieve what we haven't achieved in a decade and a half. Time will tell.

My prediction? We play above our talent level for the first time in a long time and we go 11-1. The difference will be the coaching. Go Canes
 
Last edited:
SayWhat said:
Conference play is typically tough in any conference unless you over match your opponent in talent combined with a grade A staff like Clemson.

Opposing coaches get to know their opponents tendencies. They're extremely familiar with opponents players talents, etc. That in itself is something that bends the level towards even. It literally is like a game of chess, you know your opponent, their tendencies, and then come up with a plan to defeat them.

A lot of the middle of the pack schools also aren't athletically super talented, but they get dependable players who know their assignments.

You run a sparq test and we'll do **** well. That doesn't mean crap though if our scheme sucks and we're not putting a product out there that maximizes that potential.

Talent is meaningless as I said above for those reasons. More talented, sure, on paper. That doesn't mean much though on building a great team.
Click to expand...
Well said. “On paper “ is right! But I can’t put it all on coaching. The players have been known to check out early. Last season was the first time we showed some fight throughout the season. I credit that to King.

This season we have a staff full of coaches with coordinator pedigree and an experienced team. It’s now or never.
 
Canes Stan said:
I gotta disagree to an extent. We overhype our guys for sure, but I can almost guarantee you that some of our jags coulda been better off elsewhere. I put that more on the coaches than the players. But I do agree that we will get the most out of our talent now. This coaching staff has some great minds on both sides of the ball.
Click to expand...
The only thing with this analogy is I used to think this but.....if players that don't get developed get NFL coaching when they leave and still aren't doing well then we did max out the player. If they aren't blowing the league up then they were who they were. If u have more Sam Shields destroying the big leagues then I can agree with this. I'm not saying our players were coached well though we had some very bad coaches
 
Advertisement
Canezum5 said:
I dont think we've " led ourselves to believe" anything unreasonable.


Majority of us know we aren't at the level of the Bamas and Clemsons.

The Georgia Techs and Dukes we have absolutely recruited better than.

The only reason those games have been close is because of bad coaching,schematics, and personnel placement
Click to expand...
Bingo!!!!
 
What are the two most important areas of a team that allow you to do away with the crappy teams and stay on schedule? Quarterback and offensive line. A bad qb that doesn’t convert easy third downs and throws picks will give life to the other team. A bad offensive line will allow the other team to get you behind the chains and sell out on third and long. It’s why even tho our 2017 team was talented we still had bad teams getting us off schedule and scaring us. If you can pound the rock for 4 yards at a time then you hold the cards.
 
Also I will add that our corner depth is dependent on the development of Clarke dunson and Curtis at the moment because we have a top four and then a drop off. And blades is still working his way back. Rumph recruiting killer that quality depth in a bad way. Yeah the 22 class is good so far but those guys won’t be ready for a while
 
Trench play and QB play will always be where football is won.

Last year, out of QB, OL, and DL, we finally had 2 of those 3 things clicking, and went 8-2.

Where we recruit well is the skill positions, which is awesome and still helps of course, but it all starts at QB and the LOS.

Funny because 12 out of 14 ACC teams would kill for a Jaylan Knighton type of RB recruit, meanwhile his success is limited because we don’t have the Alec Lindstrom or Garrett Bradbury type of OL guys that BC or NCST type of programs always seem to have.
 
Advertisement
Advertisement
Back
Top