Can we talk about Patke?

Why the **** do we need a Defensive minded HC, a DC (who coaches LBs), a DL coach, a CB coach, a S coach, and a ******* Striker coach.
Thats literally 6 coaches for the defensive side of the ball.

But Baker has been the most dissapointing coach. Our LBs have played like *** imo, and the overall defense has just been bad. He hasn't even gotten good play out of our DE's who should be easily the best in the ACC.

Patke and Banda can both go, and not a thing would change/worsen for our Defense. They have zero impact on our success.
 
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Special teams have contributed heavily to all three of our losses.

JT4 should have been instructed explicitly before the muffed punt not to field it if it is going to land anywhere close to the 10 yard line. There was zero upside to fielding that punt with UF players so close. All we really needed was to get the ball back (on Offense) and we likely win that game.

Patke absolutely is responsible for working with the Kickers & Punters. He should be learning kicking techniques from our old greats/pros and all other available resources. He should be monitoring Baxa's routine, form, leg swing & contact point on his foot religiously. Maybe he could use Impact Tape like golfers do to show where the ball is striking Baxa's foot. They should be trying everything to help Bubba (not just leave him alone to do his thing).

Just looking at the stats from last year (and the HS stats -- which were not good) should have given him reason to have a back-up ready to go (at minimum for shorter FGs & PATs) whether that was the other K on the roster or one found through open try-outs.

Baxa could still be used for longer FGs and kickoffs but we got to have someone else ready to kick FGs of less than 30 yards & PATs. It is almost criminal that we trotted Baxa out against Va Tech & he continued to miss legitimately easy kicks. The warning signs were blaring long before the Va Tech game. I can guarantee you that Nick Saban wouldn't have rolled Baxa out on those critical kicks against Va Tech.

The coaches have made a huge blunder saying: "Well, Baxa earned it because he had a great week of practice." That has literally nothing to do with anything at this point. A lot of this is MENTAL (and based on the game situation at this point). I'm rooting for the kid but he's struggling in games (when live bullets are flying). Practice performance therefore is not a good benchmark to use for expected game performance.

Patke gets an F- from me for not having a workable back-up plan on Day 1 (actually before the season even started). Kickers can lose confidence & you have to have a workable back-up at this level.

Hedley has a huge leg. Ask him to take three steps back and two to the left. Nod to the holder when ready. Ball is snapped and you plant your left foot first and kick the ball under the equator (about a third of the way up) with the high instep in the middle of your foot (soccer style). Ball sails up at a 43 degree angle (optimal launch angle based on extensive research) and through the uprights. Hedley clearly has the leg strength and I'm sure he could make the short ones (less than 30 yards). Why hasn't this been tried? Why haven't soccer players on campus been tried out? It's totally unacceptable to take 2-3 losses over simple short kicks.

Longer kicks are much more difficult but Baxa seems to be more relaxed about those. He's also pretty solid at kicking off. So, bifurcate the responsibilities and get this fixed TODAY (not tomorrow or at the end of the season but TODAY). We are paying these coaches a ton of money to produce outstanding results...not a $@!# show.

There have been other serious special teams blunders as well. There is no way UF's player should have run about 7-8 yards without even a hand being placed on him. Yes, a fake punt seemed unlikely in that situation but the design of the coverage unit alone should prevent a runner from getting more than 3-4 before hands are placed on him/the tackle is made. UF's player ran & ran & ran without anyone even touching him (which is an egregious error).

The muffed punt -- see above. Unless JT4 ignored instructions, that was a coaching issue as well. In critical situations like that, Patke should have been consulting at length with JT4 before he went out to field the punt.

Special teams have cost us potentially all of our losses to date. There's a reason legends of coaching have made special teams such a point of emphasis.
 
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Aside from Hedley, special teams is trash... blockers don’t know how to help the returners and we aren’t a threat when it comes to blocking punts or FGs either. We all know how garbage Baxa is as well.

Also no longer a fan of the Striker position .... maybe bc hes the coach. 🗑
 
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Patke isn't close to being any of the major problems on this team.

Our coverage units are improved from a year ago. Our punting situation is much improved.

Did Patke fumble the fair catch against Florida? Is he out here shanking extra points?

There's plenty wrong on this team to criticize, coaches among those reasons, but at the end of the day, the #1 problem are the players on the field.

When you lose to teams you're better than, talent wise, and it happens more than once, that tells me you don't want it bad enough.
 
Patke isn't close to being any of the major problems on this team.

Our coverage units are improved from a year ago. Our punting situation is much improved.

Did Patke fumble the fair catch against Florida? Is he out here shanking extra points?

There's plenty wrong on this team to criticize, coaches among those reasons, but at the end of the day, the #1 problem are the players on the field.

When you lose to teams you're better than, talent wise, and it happens more than once, that tells me you don't want it bad enough.

Im going to have to strongly disagree, it’s because of the players that we even made those comebacks. If players don’t know assignments or don’t perform well, my guess is coaching are doing a poor job of teaching and/or not earning respect of players (meaning players don’t buy what they are selling). Players are the easy ones to blame but it’s the coaches job to motivate and educate
 
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Patke isn't close to being any of the major problems on this team.

Our coverage units are improved from a year ago. Our punting situation is much improved.

Did Patke fumble the fair catch against Florida? Is he out here shanking extra points?

There's plenty wrong on this team to criticize, coaches among those reasons, but at the end of the day, the #1 problem are the players on the field.

When you lose to teams you're better than, talent wise, and it happens more than once, that tells me you don't want it bad enough.

Talent is only fully shown when coached and prepped properly
 
Im going to have to strongly disagree, it’s because of the players that we even made those comebacks. If players don’t know assignments or don’t perform well, my guess is coaching are doing a poor job of teaching and/or not earning respect of players (meaning players don’t buy what they are selling). Players are the easy ones to blame but it’s the coaches job to motivate and educate
The VTech TE went across the field across 4 different players' line of sight on the last TD, 2 of them being the senior LBs. You think at this point, it takes additional coaching for them to be able to shout out a man going across the field? I thought that gets taught starting in pee wee.

I guess we have different standards for the players, then.
 
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Yes absolutely. I said he knows his ****. But I also said he has zero experience and doesnt relate well to the kids. Anotherwords he has no clue YET how to implement his knowledge

Amazing to me that a young kid does not know how to relate to kids.

FWIW, I think STs has been a big improvement over recent years (Baxa notwithstanding).
 
Amazing to me that a young kid does not know how to relate to kids.

FWIW, I think STs has been a big improvement over recent years (Baxa notwithstanding).
Tackling yes. But just like Stroud &Barry & banda etc. They are responsible for any people and their actions under his watch. His special teams have directly cost us 2 games so far this year & almost 1 other. That's not an improvement
 
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