Coaching staff

[BrandCanes]

I believe we do have gaps on the roster, but this is the best roster talent wise we've had in years. Now, a lot of this talent has to come to fruition and develop..

Do we have the current staff to put us on the right trajectory? Do we have the right X and O guys and developers? Those in the know, let me know.

 

[GhostRecon_Cane]

If Mario can just play his role as a CEO type head coach then I am confident in Shannon Dawson’s knowledge of the game. Corey Hetherman seems like a solid hire thus far as well. Overall this is the best I’ve felt about our staff in quite some time.

 

[TomAce]

Mario needs this…and the balls and conviction to listen.

 

[FuriousStyles]

If Mario can just play his role as a CEO type head coach then I am confident in Shannon Dawson’s knowledge of the game. Corey Hetherman seems like a solid hire thus far as well. Overall this is the best I’ve felt about our staff in quite some time.

That’s the thing… there’s all kinds of CEOs. You got some who just because the CFO has finance running like a well oiled machine that he thinks “well… my COO will figure it out because it’s his job to…” even after the clients are complaining left and right, people are quitting and quality is decreasing. And the CEO waits until earnings go down and the company didn’t meet earnings goals for 3 straight quarters before he fires the guy.

Then you have CEOs that after sh*t looks funny after the first month in the quarter he tells his COO… “it’s not looking good and I need to know what your plan is to fix it? And I’m giving you another month to get it back on track. And if you don’t we’ll have a different conversation as to what needs to done and that plan won’t be your idea.”

I think in any field people want autonomy if you have a level of expertise in what you do. With high autonomy (and high salary) often there isn’t much margin for error because “you know what you’re doing right?”. And if your COOs lack of planning, lack of control and/or lack of execution has the POTENTIAL to cost us ALOT of money or bad publicity as the CEO you can’t wait until you’ve actually lost money or you’re in the news for the wrong reason you got to jump in and fix it before the bad sh*t happens because fixing after creates more damage and thus more work.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I believe we do have gaps on the roster, but this is the best roster talent wise we've had in years. Now, a lot of this talent has to come to fruition and develop..

Do we have the current staff to put us on the right trajectory? Do we have the right X and O guys and developers? Those in the know, let me know.

 

[TpaBayFlyFisher]

We didn’t take a knee against Georgia Tech. Do you need more?

 

[mj33]

That’s the thing… there’s all kinds of CEOs. You got some who just because the CFO has finance running like a well oiled machine that he thinks “well… my COO will figure it out because it’s his job to…” even after the clients are complaining left and right, people are quitting and quality is decreasing. And the CEO waits until earnings go down and the company didn’t meet earnings goals for 3 straight quarters before he fires the guy.

Then you have CEOs that after sh*t looks funny after the first month in the quarter he tells his COO… “it’s not looking good and I need to know what your plan is to fix it? And I’m giving you another month to get it back on track. And if you don’t we’ll have a different conversation as to what needs to done and that plan won’t be your idea.”

I think in any field people want autonomy if you have a level of expertise in what you do. With high autonomy (and high salary) often there isn’t much margin for error because “you know what you’re doing right?”. And if your COOs lack of planning, lack of control and/or lack of execution has the POTENTIAL to cost us ALOT of money or bad publicity as the CEO you can’t wait until you’ve actually lost money or you’re in the news for the wrong reason you got to jump in and fix it before the bad sh*t happens because fixing after creates more damage and thus more work.

Too many words!

 

[AtlAtty]

Mario needs this…and the balls and conviction to listen.

Of course the analytics guy looks like this.

 

[3FW]

Freeman almost pulled a Mario when he had 10 men on the field for 2 consecutive plays against OSU with the game on the line in 2023. Sign of a good coach, they are self aware and fix things.

 

[AtlAtty]

Freeman almost pulled a Mario when he had 10 men on the field for 2 consecutive plays against OSU with the game on the line in 2023. Sign of a good coach, they are self aware and fix things.

Don’t forget that there was a timeout between the 2 plays, which were at the goal line, and OSU ended up scoring on the 2nd play. I could argue that this was as bad as not taking a knee, or worse because it was 2 plays. Hopefully our guy learned as well.

 

[bacane]

Freeman almost pulled a Mario when he had 10 men on the field for 2 consecutive plays against OSU with the game on the line in 2023. Sign of a good coach, they are self aware and fix things.

Ah, analytics guy can’t handle everything.

 

[Memnon]

On Offense, yes.

On Defense, TBD.

The main questions this year Offensively will be
1) Who is the real Carsun Bext?
2) Can Lyle take the next step & commandeer the RB1 role?
3) Can the WR's elevate their game?
4) Can Markel Bell live up to unwarranted hype?
5) Can Elija Lofton beat Superman in a fist fight without using Kryptonite?

On Defense,
1) Can the DT's step up & stop the run?
2) Can the Portal LB's give good ROI?
3) Can the Safeties solidify their spots?
4) Can the CB group live up to the hype?
5) Can any of the Young Guns at EDGE step up & make a name for themselves?

From an X's & O's standpoint, Dawson's Creek is top of the food chain as a versatile play caller. He tailor's the Offense around the strengths of the personnel. He's had both run heavy & pass happy Offenses in his career & has excelled at both.

Heatherman is a smart & aggressive play caller. Small sample size from his stint at Minnesota, but they had a very good Run Defense. However, it is skewed by the fact playing against below average offenses on a regular basis in B1G conference play tends to boost B1G Defenses numbers, but with that said, from a philosophical standpoint he maximizes the middle of the Defense with his front pressures that make it easier to stop the run.

A lot of what he does is predicated on sound gap assignments & instinctive LB play.

If we can get that out of our group, the Defense should be improved.

The biggest question for me personally, is personnel groupings in the Secondary.

 

[U_Canes]

On Offense, yes.

On Defense, TBD.

The main questions this year Offensively will be
1) Who is the real Carsun Bext?
2) Can Lyle take the next step & commandeer the RB1 role?
3) Can the WR's elevate their game?
4) Can Markel Bell live up to unwarranted hype?
5) Can Elija Lofton beat Superman in a fist fight without using Kryptonite?

On Defense,
1) Can the DT's step up & stop the run?
2) Can the Portal LB's give good ROI?
3) Can the Safeties solidify their spots?
4) Can the CB group live up to the hype?
5) Can any of the Young Guns at EDGE step up & make a name for themselves?

From an X's & O's standpoint, Dawson's Creek is top of the food chain as a versatile play caller. He tailor's the Offense around the strengths of the personnel. He's had both run heavy & pass happy Offenses in his career & has excelled at both.

Heatherman is a smart & aggressive play caller. Small sample size from his stint at Minnesota, but they had a very good Run Defense. However, it is skewered by the fact playing against below average offenses on a regular basis in B1G conference play tends to boost B1G Defenses numbers, but with that said, from a philosophical standpoint he maximizes the middle of the Defense with his front pressures that make it easier to stop the run.

A lot of what he does is predicated on sound gap assignments & instinctive LB play.

If we can get that out of our group, the Defense should be improved.

The biggest question for me personally, is personnel groupings in the Secondary.

I feel like this a big year for Jason Taylor and Bain. Barron disappointed last year and Bain didn’t play up to the hype post injury.

Our secondary has talent this year. If Bain plays like a first round draft pick he’s hyped up to be we’ll be in good shape.

Also it’s time guys like Blount, Pickett, Lowe, Lightfoot start showing their potential. They’re young, but if they can come in and show flashes and Bain get back to form we could have one of the top pass rushes in the country along with a much better secondary and feels like things will mostly fall in place.

If our D-Line doesn’t show out this year we’ve got some questions to be raised about our development imo

 

[Damiencane86]

I feel like this a big year for Jason Taylor and Bain. Barron disappointed last year and Bain didn’t play up to the hype post injury.

Our secondary has talent this year. If Bain plays like a first round draft pick he’s hyped up to be we’ll be in good shape.

Also it’s time guys like Blount, Pickett, Lowe, Lightfoot start showing their potential. They’re young, but if they can come in and show flashes and Bain get back to form we could have one of the top pass rushes in the country along with a much better secondary and feels like things will mostly fall in place.

If our D-Line doesn’t show out this year we’ve got some questions to be raised about our development imo

Very curious to see how Blount specifically is used and how much improvement we see in the secondary, especially the communication + alignment. The talent infusion in the back is legit now they just gotta gel as a unit.

 

[BrandCanes]

On Offense, yes.

On Defense, TBD.

The main questions this year Offensively will be
1) Who is the real Carsun Bext?
2) Can Lyle take the next step & commandeer the RB1 role?
3) Can the WR's elevate their game?
4) Can Markel Bell live up to unwarranted hype?
5) Can Elija Lofton beat Superman in a fist fight without using Kryptonite?

On Defense,
1) Can the DT's step up & stop the run?
2) Can the Portal LB's give good ROI?
3) Can the Safeties solidify their spots?
4) Can the CB group live up to the hype?
5) Can any of the Young Guns at EDGE step up & make a name for themselves?

From an X's & O's standpoint, Dawson's Creek is top of the food chain as a versatile play caller. He tailor's the Offense around the strengths of the personnel. He's had both run heavy & pass happy Offenses in his career & has excelled at both.

Heatherman is a smart & aggressive play caller. Small sample size from his stint at Minnesota, but they had a very good Run Defense. However, it is skewered by the fact playing against below average offenses on a regular basis in B1G conference play tends to boost B1G Defenses numbers, but with that said, from a philosophical standpoint he maximizes the middle of the Defense with his front pressures that make it easier to stop the run.

A lot of what he does is predicated on sound gap assignments & instinctive LB play.

If we can get that out of our group, the Defense should be improved.

The biggest question for me personally, is personnel groupings in the Secondary.

Good stuff! Thank you

 

[hoops156]

I feel like this a big year for Jason Taylor and Bain. Barron disappointed last year and Bain didn’t play up to the hype post injury.

Our secondary has talent this year. If Bain plays like a first round draft pick he’s hyped up to be we’ll be in good shape.

Also it’s time guys like Blount, Pickett, Lowe, Lightfoot start showing their potential. They’re young, but if they can come in and show flashes and Bain get back to form we could have one of the top pass rushes in the country along with a much better secondary and feels like things will mostly fall in place.

If our D-Line doesn’t show out this year we’ve got some questions to be raised about our development imo

barron was who he was at tenn last year. he did exactly what he did his entire career. feasted on weak teams and then play slumped off when the season went on.

bain got hurt so early on so impossible to know how hurt he was when he came back. what we do know now after he admitted to dropping weight for this year is that he was too big to play DE last year and slow.

if we are okay with dropping top end recruits after a year, then the young excuse is gone. they need to flash immediately on the DL group.

im worried about our DL tbh. i think secondary will be fine with the new additions, but i wouldnt be surprised to see the flip of last year (Tbh, our DL wasnt even good last year either)

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Considering we had the best offense in the country last season, by a mile, and the entire offensive staff is back, yeah I'd say we have good enough coaches on that side to be OK.

This team is going to go as far as the defense allows. The offense will be very good. Not 2024 good, but that's totally fine. It'll be very good.

If the defense is in the Top ~30 or so, we'll be a double-digit win type team.

 

[ICANEDOIT]

Not sure how anyone can say our roster is more talented than last year. We lost 1) a once in a lifetime, generational QB talent who pulled multiple houdinis out of his hat to win games (Va Tech; Cal; Louisville); 2) all time leading receiver in UM history; 3) beast at RB; 4) beast at TE; 5) very talented #2 WR; 6) very talented #3 WR. I am hopeful, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[ST26]

Not sure how anyone can say our roster is more talented than last year. We lost 1) a once in a lifetime, generational QB talent who pulled multiple houdinis out of his hat to win games (Va Tech; Cal; Louisville); 2) all time leading receiver in UM history; 3) beast at RB; 4) beast at TE; 5) very talented #2 WR; 6) very talented #3 WR. I am hopeful, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This is the deepest roster we've had in 15-20 years. When you compare rosters (top to bottom), we're stronger at oline, Dline, LB, and DB. Personally, I think we're deeper at TE, but nobody on the roster is as good as Aaroyo, so I'm fine with calling that even.

Flo said it perfectly on his show the other day. From a statistical standpoint, yes, we probably take a step back from last year. However, from an efficiency standpoint, we have a very good chance of being better. The way this team is built, we're way more balanced on offense. Also, I think it's literally impossible for our defense to be any worse than last year

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Not sure how anyone can say our roster is more talented than last year. We lost 1) a once in a lifetime, generational QB talent who pulled multiple houdinis out of his hat to win games (Va Tech; Cal; Louisville); 2) all time leading receiver in UM history; 3) beast at RB; 4) beast at TE; 5) very talented #2 WR; 6) very talented #3 WR. I am hopeful, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Now do the defense.

If it's better, you don't have to be Houdini to beat Cal or Louisville.

I'm not saying the offense didn't lose talented, it clearly did, and I'm not saying this iteration will be more talented. It's likely not.

But the case for there being overall more talent is, Beck is still an NFL QB, Martinez was a 7th round pick, none of the receivers were drafted, the OL will likely be even better, and the defense was significantly upgraded, especially in the secondary. Besides Barrow and Mauigoa, is there a single kid we lost on that side who we will even mention once during the season?

So IMO the offense might be close to as talented, but not as good as last year. And the defense *should* be significantly more talented, especially in the back 7. Put it all together, you've got a shot to have a better overall team.