Don't Panic! There is a path forward! (LONG)

[skibbyskibby]

Obviously this season is spiraling out of control and the fan base is panicking. Everybody’s looking for someone to blame. Some people want to blame Richt’s play calling. Some people want to blame Kaaya. Some people want to blame the offensive line. Yes, Richt’s play calling could be better and more creative. Yes, Kaaya has been off and could be playing better, or maybe he’s just not the right guy. Yes, our offensive line is terrible in every conceivable way. But, let’s be honest here, placing the blame on any of those issues is a lazy analysis. Those issues are not the root cause of our current struggles. The real culprits are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Sanctions and dismissals that left us with 76 scholarship athletes to start the season. Actually, the number is 75 because George Brown is ineligible due to the transfer rules. That’s 10 fewer scholarships than is allowed. If you’re recruiting well, that’s 10 NFL caliber athletes and maybe 2 or 3 first round draft picks missing from the roster.
2. Injuries that have left us with 64 available scholarship players at this point in the season.
3. An administration that failed to support the program properly, which resulted in poor facilities and program infrastructure that’s made recruiting and developing the best athletes much more challenging.
4. A previous coaching regime that made some downright horrible evaluations in recruiting, missed on a lot of talented players, failed to develop the talent it got, and generally sucked in every conceivable way.

Those are the real issues. That’s where this fan base should be focusing its angst. Not on a new coaching staff that’s still in the first stage of rebuilding this program. Not on the players that are busting their tails and sacrificing their bodies for our entertainment. The current coaching staff and players don’t deserve to have negativity focused on them when they aren’t truly responsible for where we’re at today. I’m calling for everyone to try to remain patient and positive because that’s what this program and this new coaching staff need from the fan base right now.

There’s a lot to be hopeful for with this program. Most of the issues I listed above have been addressed. The sanctions have officially been lifted entirely, which will restore our full allotment of scholarships. Massive facility improvements are on the way, which will help tremendously with recruiting and development, and more importantly, there finally seems to be a commitment to the program from this university. We have a legit coaching staff that brings a lot of credibility and name recognition to the recruiting trail. The program infrastructure has been enhanced across the board with improved strength and conditioning, nutrition, and support staff. The product on the field will get better, but we can’t expect the issues of the last 10+ years to be fixed overnight. The benefits of all of these things will emerge over time. After suffering for so long, it seems wrong to ask this of the fan base, but we need to be patient.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to address our current roster and what we should expect to see this staff do in order to tackle our talent deficiencies starting this year.

As I mentioned above, we have 76 scholarship athletes on the roster, and 12 of them are Seniors or Redshirt Seniors. So, with no other attrition, that gives us 21 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. That’s not nearly enough, not with the talent deficiencies we have on this roster. Richt and staff are going to need to clear more space. Here is what I’d like to see:

Scholarships that should not be renewed:

1. Hunter Knighton (OL)
2. Gus Edwards (RB)

Both are Redshirt Juniors and should have their degrees by this Spring, so nobody should feel bad about sending them on their way.

Players that should be strongly encouraged to transfer:

1. Ryan Fines (DT)
2. Jahair Jones (OL)
3. Tyler Gauthier (OL)
4. Brendan Loftus (OL)
5. Hayden Mahoney (OL)
6. Terry McCray (LB)
7. Terrance Henley (CB)
8. Trayone Gray (RB)
9. Darrell Langham (WR)

None of these guys are good enough to play at Miami and we need to upgrade.

Player that should be assessed for medical retirement:

1. Scott Patchan (DE)

While I think Patchan is very talented, I’m not sure he’s ever going to be healthy. Richt should give some serious thought to pushing for a medical retirement.

If everyone from these lists is cut loose, that would give us 33 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. I don’t know if we can sign that many because I don’t know how many we can carry back to the 2016 class with early enrollees, but we need to clear that space anyway.

In terms of the current recruiting class, we have 19 kids committed right now. Below are what I see as our needs in this class:

OL – 7 I think 15 OL is the sweet spot, and with graduation and transfers (recommended above), we’ll be left with only 8 OL on the roster. However, I wouldn’t sign 7 for the sake of signing 7. We need to make sure we’re only taking talented players, so if that means taking less than 7, so be it. A class of Donaldson, Slaton, Herbert, and Telfort would be a grand slam even if we only took those 4, but we really need a high quality JUCO OL. I like Hillery as a developmental prospect, but I’d drop Dykstra.

DT – 2 Ford will turn into a solid and athletic DT.

QB – 1 Ecstatic about N’Kosi Perry. I would give Barnett a hard look but wouldn’t risk scaring Perry off.

DE – 3 Ecstatic about Johnson and Garvin

LB – 3 Really like Steed, not super excited about Jennings, but Diaz has done a nice job with other less talented LBs. Not too excited about Wilder, but if he can commit to football, he could be really good. A solid JUCO LB would be great.

CB – 4 I’m happy with Bandy and Dallas, not sure if we are recruiting Edwards as a CB or S. We need land Brini and/or Henderson. I would look for a solid JUCO CB too.

S – 2 I like Gibson. We need to land Carter.

RB – 2 Personally, I think we can do better than Burns. I really want McFarland.

TE – 1 I’d take 2 if we can get another in the mold of Herndon and Njoku.

WR – 7 Not super high on Dingle as I think we can do better. We need Smith and we need to find a way to flip Jeudy. This is another spot where I’d look for a solid JUCO prospect.

K – 1 I like Feagles.

 

[Consigliere]

1. Sanctions and dismissals that left us with 76 scholarship athletes to start the season. Actually, the number is 75 because George Brown is ineligible due to the transfer rules. That’s 10 fewer scholarships than is allowed. If you’re recruiting well, that’s 10 NFL caliber athletes and maybe 2 or 3 first round draft picks missing from the roster.
2. Injuries that have left us with 64 available scholarship players at this point in the season.
3. An administration that failed to support the program properly, which resulted in poor facilities and program infrastructure that’s made recruiting and developing the best athletes much more challenging.
4. A previous coaching regime that made some downright horrible evaluations in recruiting, missed on a lot of talented players, failed to develop the talent it got, and generally sucked in every conceivable way.

 

[Thoughtsoncanes]

Cliff Notes:

OP drunk on the homer ******* Kool-Aid

 

[Jaromir Jagr]

But ask them why Butch couldn't win for five years, and you'll hear "sanctions, injuries, bad roster".

 

[Consigliere]

Cliff Notes:

OP drunk on the homer ******* Kool-Aid

That was some of the best dogchit ever porsted.

 

[3rd-43]

Why are the Ra-Ra post always so mother ******* (long)?

 

[harphong]

Leading with the cloud. Wow.
Coach Rekt is doing less with the same talent. Diaz has pulled a Harbaugh on defense with the same/less talent.

The rest of your crootin projection analyses don't hide another corching hire that is plain to see right now.

It's not panic, it's simple resignation to another round of harsh reality.

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[Consigliere]

Leading with the cloud. Wow.
Coach Rekt is doing less with the same talent. Diaz has pulled a Harbaugh on defense with the same/less talent.

The rest of your crootin projection analyses don't hide another corching hire that is plain to see right now.

It's not panic, it's simple resignation to another round of harsh reality.

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

You have an elite porster in OP.

 

[skibbyskibby]

Leading with the cloud. Wow.
Coach Rekt is doing less with the same talent. Diaz has pulled a Harbaugh on defense with the same/less talent.

The rest of your crootin projection analyses don't hide another corching hire that is plain to see right now.

It's not panic, it's simple resignation to another round of harsh reality.

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

There is zero talk of the cloud in my OP. The scholarship reductions aren't a cloud, they are real. The cloud was the bull**** created by the NCAA while we were in limbo. The scholarship reductions have a real and substantial effect on the team. We are down 10 scholarships right now. That's almost 12% of our roster. We've lost another 12% to injuries. If you don't think that is having a huge impact on the quality of play then, you are just irrationally looking for other things to blame.

Diaz is doing pretty **** well, but its not with lesser talent or even equal talent. Our DL is insanely more talented than our OL. The average star rating of our OL is 3.33. The average star rating of our DL is 3.54. That's significant. Additionally, in regime changes, the defense is almost always ahead of the offense. That's even more evident for Miami given the bull**** scheme we were running under Golden. Finally, this OL isn't really any worse than last year's OL. Both were atrocious. I don't understand why they haven't improved, but maybe the answer is that they simply aren't very good.

I think Richt could be calling better games right now, and I would think Searels could have done something more with OL, but at this point, it does no good for the fan base to pile a bunch of negativity on the program. Let things play out. This is year one. This is the baseline.

 

[harphong]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[skibbyskibby]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

 

[harphong]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

Pt1
New coach baseline reasonable regression?
Fuente

Pt2
Talent? You go w scholly #s and hypotheticals.

We have the same players and additions, A Richards, for ex., who produced more ppg last year w Foley, with less exp.


Pt3.
OL? See above and...
The almost exact same OL from last year with a year exp, under a supposedly better line coach, where almost every preseason analyst had it in the plus column because of those factors towards what was to be BK's Junior year breakout...under the vaunted SEC QB whisperer, who was going back to his rejuvenated, winning OC ways.... because he wasn't hampered by overbearing Admin/ boosters?

That OLine? Yeah. That OLine.



Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[harphong]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

And oh yeah, btw, I wanted to believe so badly, I chugged that koolaid in the offseason. Delicious!

I tempered my expectations on defensive improvements, despite the player evaluations vs. Previous scheme.

I considered the sources when the Diaz hire teeth gnashing began....but hoped kool would do kool things with our leashed beasts....and lo! He has!

I reasonably surmised that the offense couldn't possibly be significantly worse under a proven winner with a proven record, nevermind the dawg fans who warned me of those goldenesque 14-23/ 5-15 stats vs. Top 25/5, since he was gonna bring our inarguably talented offensive weapons at skill positions to bear with an updated FSU fast break offense that got him his bona fides...

And an online that couldn't possibly be worse than last year's.

I wasn't waiting to pounce on corch Rekt. But my eyes ain't lyin.

Round 4 on the corching carousel until proven otherwise.

17-21 ppg offense is what we are vs. teams that have a pulse.

Depleted defense is now suffering for that because of that.

Rekt has done less with the same. Less with the same.





Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[tcgrad1014]

Leading with the cloud. Wow.
Coach Rekt is doing less with the same talent. Diaz has pulled a Harbaugh on defense with the same/less talent.

The rest of your crootin projection analyses don't hide another corching hire that is plain to see right now.

It's not panic, it's simple resignation to another round of harsh reality.

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

There is zero talk of the cloud in my OP. The scholarship reductions aren't a cloud, they are real. The cloud was the bull**** created by the NCAA while we were in limbo. The scholarship reductions have a real and substantial effect on the team. We are down 10 scholarships right now. That's almost 12% of our roster. We've lost another 12% to injuries. If you don't think that is having a huge impact on the quality of play then, you are just irrationally looking for other things to blame.

Diaz is doing pretty **** well, but its not with lesser talent or even equal talent. Our DL is insanely more talented than our OL. The average star rating of our OL is 3.33. The average star rating of our DL is 3.54. That's significant. Additionally, in regime changes, the defense is almost always ahead of the offense. That's even more evident for Miami given the bull**** scheme we were running under Golden. Finally, this OL isn't really any worse than last year's OL. Both were atrocious. I don't understand why they haven't improved, but maybe the answer is that they simply aren't very good.

I think Richt could be calling better games right now, and I would think Searels could have done something more with OL, but at this point, it does no good for the fan base to pile a bunch of negativity on the program. Let things play out. This is year one. This is the baseline.

9 scholarship losses over 3 years is nothing. It's not even a slap on the wrist. Teams lose far more than that through normal attrition. Injuries are part of the game and are no excuse for losing to teams with clearly less talent. Do I think CMR will turn the program around? Yes, to an extent. We'll be a 9 win team under CMR. But this season has gone way worse than I could have imagined. The offense is Patrick Nix bad.

 

[Dawgcane]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

.

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

And oh yeah, btw, I wanted to believe so badly, I chugged that koolaid in the offseason. Delicious!

I tempered my expectations on defensive improvements, despite the player evaluations vs. Previous scheme.

I considered the sources when the Diaz hire teeth gnashing began....but hoped kool would do kool things with our leashed beasts....and lo! He has!

I reasonably surmised that the offense couldn't possibly be significantly worse under a proven winner with a proven record, nevermind the dawg fans who warned me of those goldenesque 14-23/ 5-15 stats vs. Top 25/5, since he was gonna bring our inarguably talented offensive weapons at skill positions to bear with an updated FSU fast break offense that got him his bona fides...

And an online that couldn't possibly be worse than last year's.

I wasn't waiting to pounce on corch Rekt. But my eyes ain't lyin.

Round 4 on the corching carousel until proven otherwise.

17-21 ppg offense is what we are vs. teams that have a pulse.

Depleted defense is now suffering for that because of that.

Rekt has done less with the same. Less with the same.





Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

What is this "rekt" you keep referring to?

 

[harphong]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

.

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

And oh yeah, btw, I wanted to believe so badly, I chugged that koolaid in the offseason. Delicious!

I tempered my expectations on defensive improvements, despite the player evaluations vs. Previous scheme.

I considered the sources when the Diaz hire teeth gnashing began....but hoped kool would do kool things with our leashed beasts....and lo! He has!

I reasonably surmised that the offense couldn't possibly be significantly worse under a proven winner with a proven record, nevermind the dawg fans who warned me of those goldenesque 14-23/ 5-15 stats vs. Top 25/5, since he was gonna bring our inarguably talented offensive weapons at skill positions to bear with an updated FSU fast break offense that got him his bona fides...

And an online that couldn't possibly be worse than last year's.

I wasn't waiting to pounce on corch Rekt. But my eyes ain't lyin.

Round 4 on the corching carousel until proven otherwise.

17-21 ppg offense is what we are vs. teams that have a pulse.

Depleted defense is now suffering for that because of that.

Rekt has done less with the same. Less with the same.





Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

What is this "rekt" you keep referring to?

Corch Mark Rekt....as in richt is getting/is wrecked as a coach

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

 

[clg003]

Obviously this season is spiraling out of control and the fan base is panicking. Everybody’s looking for someone to blame. Some people want to blame Richt’s play calling. Some people want to blame Kaaya. Some people want to blame the offensive line. Yes, Richt’s play calling could be better and more creative. Yes, Kaaya has been off and could be playing better, or maybe he’s just not the right guy. Yes, our offensive line is terrible in every conceivable way. But, let’s be honest here, placing the blame on any of those issues is a lazy analysis. Those issues are not the root cause of our current struggles. The real culprits are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Sanctions and dismissals that left us with 76 scholarship athletes to start the season. Actually, the number is 75 because George Brown is ineligible due to the transfer rules. That’s 10 fewer scholarships than is allowed. If you’re recruiting well, that’s 10 NFL caliber athletes and maybe 2 or 3 first round draft picks missing from the roster.
2. Injuries that have left us with 64 available scholarship players at this point in the season.
3. An administration that failed to support the program properly, which resulted in poor facilities and program infrastructure that’s made recruiting and developing the best athletes much more challenging.
4. A previous coaching regime that made some downright horrible evaluations in recruiting, missed on a lot of talented players, failed to develop the talent it got, and generally sucked in every conceivable way.

Those are the real issues. That’s where this fan base should be focusing its angst. Not on a new coaching staff that’s still in the first stage of rebuilding this program. Not on the players that are busting their tails and sacrificing their bodies for our entertainment. The current coaching staff and players don’t deserve to have negativity focused on them when they aren’t truly responsible for where we’re at today. I’m calling for everyone to try to remain patient and positive because that’s what this program and this new coaching staff need from the fan base right now.

There’s a lot to be hopeful for with this program. Most of the issues I listed above have been addressed. The sanctions have officially been lifted entirely, which will restore our full allotment of scholarships. Massive facility improvements are on the way, which will help tremendously with recruiting and development, and more importantly, there finally seems to be a commitment to the program from this university. We have a legit coaching staff that brings a lot of credibility and name recognition to the recruiting trail. The program infrastructure has been enhanced across the board with improved strength and conditioning, nutrition, and support staff. The product on the field will get better, but we can’t expect the issues of the last 10+ years to be fixed overnight. The benefits of all of these things will emerge over time. After suffering for so long, it seems wrong to ask this of the fan base, but we need to be patient.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to address our current roster and what we should expect to see this staff do in order to tackle our talent deficiencies starting this year.

As I mentioned above, we have 76 scholarship athletes on the roster, and 12 of them are Seniors or Redshirt Seniors. So, with no other attrition, that gives us 21 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. That’s not nearly enough, not with the talent deficiencies we have on this roster. Richt and staff are going to need to clear more space. Here is what I’d like to see:

Scholarships that should not be renewed:

1. Hunter Knighton (OL)
2. Gus Edwards (RB)

Both are Redshirt Juniors and should have their degrees by this Spring, so nobody should feel bad about sending them on their way.

Players that should be strongly encouraged to transfer:

1. Ryan Fines (DT)
2. Jahair Jones (OL)
3. Tyler Gauthier (OL)
4. Brendan Loftus (OL)
5. Hayden Mahoney (OL)
6. Terry McCray (LB)
7. Terrance Henley (CB)
8. Trayone Gray (RB)
9. Darrell Langham (WR)

None of these guys are good enough to play at Miami and we need to upgrade.

Player that should be assessed for medical retirement:

1. Scott Patchan (DE)

While I think Patchan is very talented, I’m not sure he’s ever going to be healthy. Richt should give some serious thought to pushing for a medical retirement.

If everyone from these lists is cut loose, that would give us 33 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. I don’t know if we can sign that many because I don’t know how many we can carry back to the 2016 class with early enrollees, but we need to clear that space anyway.

In terms of the current recruiting class, we have 19 kids committed right now. Below are what I see as our needs in this class:

OL – 7 I think 15 OL is the sweet spot, and with graduation and transfers (recommended above), we’ll be left with only 8 OL on the roster. However, I wouldn’t sign 7 for the sake of signing 7. We need to make sure we’re only taking talented players, so if that means taking less than 7, so be it. A class of Donaldson, Slaton, Herbert, and Telfort would be a grand slam even if we only took those 4, but we really need a high quality JUCO OL. I like Hillery as a developmental prospect, but I’d drop Dykstra.

DT – 2 Ford will turn into a solid and athletic DT.

QB – 1 Ecstatic about N’Kosi Perry. I would give Barnett a hard look but wouldn’t risk scaring Perry off.

DE – 3 Ecstatic about Johnson and Garvin

LB – 3 Really like Steed, not super excited about Jennings, but Diaz has done a nice job with other less talented LBs. Not too excited about Wilder, but if he can commit to football, he could be really good. A solid JUCO LB would be great.

CB – 4 I’m happy with Bandy and Dallas, not sure if we are recruiting Edwards as a CB or S. We need land Brini and/or Henderson. I would look for a solid JUCO CB too.

S – 2 I like Gibson. We need to land Carter.

RB – 2 Personally, I think we can do better than Burns. I really want McFarland.

TE – 1 I’d take 2 if we can get another in the mold of Herndon and Njoku.

WR – 7 Not super high on Dingle as I think we can do better. We need Smith and we need to find a way to flip Jeudy. This is another spot where I’d look for a solid JUCO prospect.

K – 1 I like Feagles.

Your talking to people who were sure we were going to win the ACC and make the playoffs when every pro prognosticator said we would lose 4-5 games.

When finished last year fully aware of how awful our Oline was but everyone ignored it.

We likely have our youngest starting D ever and lost our two best upper class-men defensive players right before the season and the coaches talked about depth in just about every single interview. But yet they still expected the best.

They have been convinced that our only problem is the coaches. Its like they have never seen the makeup on one Miami championship team in their lives. Or for that matter the makeup of any team that has won anything like they expected Miami to win this year.

They also basically crowned themselves ACC champs just for beating App State.

For the most part your seriously talking to the most biased or uninformed people on planet earth. They think if you call someone a name then you must be right... Well how is that working our for you guys?

 

[skibbyskibby]

Fair enough, but this as a baseline? No thanks.

Richt should be getting at least what Foley did, so again, for all your points on talent gaps, and school redux, I just don't buy it

Sent from my SM-N930V using Tapatalk

Is it really that uncommon for a new coach's baseline to be similar or even worse than the last year of the previous head coach? It's not. Richt brought in a new staff. He didn't bring in new players.

In terms of talent. Each year stands on its own. We have 65 scholarship players available to us right now. That is less than Golden had available to him at any given point in his tenure. Think about that. We are down 20 scholarship players. If you are recruiting well, that is probably 5 or 6 first round draft picks and several other NFL players that aren't on the field. That's significant.

This roster is depleted in key spots. Most notably, the offensive line. I think we could probably be doing better with what we've got, but there is no sugar coating how bad this OL is. Outside of the talent deficiency, we only have 6 total OL that we are willing to even put on the field and the 6th guy is Alex Gall.

And oh yeah, btw, I wanted to believe so badly, I chugged that koolaid in the offseason. Delicious!

I tempered my expectations on defensive improvements, despite the player evaluations vs. Previous scheme.

I considered the sources when the Diaz hire teeth gnashing began....but hoped kool would do kool things with our leashed beasts....and lo! He has!

I reasonably surmised that the offense couldn't possibly be significantly worse under a proven winner with a proven record, nevermind the dawg fans who warned me of those goldenesque 14-23/ 5-15 stats vs. Top 25/5, since he was gonna bring our inarguably talented offensive weapons at skill positions to bear with an updated FSU fast break offense that got him his bona fides...

And an online that couldn't possibly be worse than last year's.

I wasn't waiting to pounce on corch Rekt. But my eyes ain't lyin.

Round 4 on the corching carousel until proven otherwise.

17-21 ppg offense is what we are vs. teams that have a pulse.

Depleted defense is now suffering for that because of that.

Rekt has done less with the same. Less with the same.





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First, Richt deserves credit for the improvements we've seen on the defensive side of the ball. He hired Diaz. He hired Kool. Those were great hires on Richt's part.

I agree that this OL hasn't improved even though it's the same guys, and I'm sure some of that is coaching. They are learning new techniques after all. Kehoe was notorious for getting criticized by NFL scouts for the lack of technique his OL displayed coming out of college. Maybe, just maybe, Searels is trying to teach them to use real technique and these kids just aren't picking up it well, or just aren't good enough to do it properly. If that is the case, should Searels just abandon proper technique for the sake of a few extra wins early on? The answer is no.

As far as play calling goes, I think Richt could do better. However, I'm not going to get down on him because he's feeling his way out right now. The guy has a long track record of really good offenses. He'll figure it out.

Bottom line, it's year one, and fans would be well served to support and lift up the program rather than add negativity.

 

[skibbyskibby]

Leading with the cloud. Wow.
Coach Rekt is doing less with the same talent. Diaz has pulled a Harbaugh on defense with the same/less talent.

The rest of your crootin projection analyses don't hide another corching hire that is plain to see right now.

It's not panic, it's simple resignation to another round of harsh reality.

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There is zero talk of the cloud in my OP. The scholarship reductions aren't a cloud, they are real. The cloud was the bull**** created by the NCAA while we were in limbo. The scholarship reductions have a real and substantial effect on the team. We are down 10 scholarships right now. That's almost 12% of our roster. We've lost another 12% to injuries. If you don't think that is having a huge impact on the quality of play then, you are just irrationally looking for other things to blame.

Diaz is doing pretty **** well, but its not with lesser talent or even equal talent. Our DL is insanely more talented than our OL. The average star rating of our OL is 3.33. The average star rating of our DL is 3.54. That's significant. Additionally, in regime changes, the defense is almost always ahead of the offense. That's even more evident for Miami given the bull**** scheme we were running under Golden. Finally, this OL isn't really any worse than last year's OL. Both were atrocious. I don't understand why they haven't improved, but maybe the answer is that they simply aren't very good.

I think Richt could be calling better games right now, and I would think Searels could have done something more with OL, but at this point, it does no good for the fan base to pile a bunch of negativity on the program. Let things play out. This is year one. This is the baseline.

9 scholarship losses over 3 years is nothing. It's not even a slap on the wrist. Teams lose far more than that through normal attrition. Injuries are part of the game and are no excuse for losing to teams with clearly less talent. Do I think CMR will turn the program around? Yes, to an extent. We'll be a 9 win team under CMR. But this season has gone way worse than I could have imagined. The offense is Patrick Nix bad.

If we only lost 9 scholarships, that wouldn't be a problem. But that isn't where we're at. We're much worse. The sanctions alone should have us at 82 scholarships. Instead, we are at 76 (75 not counting the OL transfer who isn't eligible). There's a big difference between being down 3 scholarships and being down 10. Pile on top of that the 11 players that are currently unavailable due to injury and we're playing with 20 less players than our allotment. I agree that injuries happen, but sometimes teams get hit with the injury bug worse than normal and that is the case with this team this year. That said, I think we could absorb the loss of 11 players due to injury in a normal year, but when it's 11 injuries after your already down 9 players, that's tough to swallow. Any team is going to struggle when they've only got 65 scholarship players available, even the Alabama.

 

[skibbyskibby]

Obviously this season is spiraling out of control and the fan base is panicking. Everybody’s looking for someone to blame. Some people want to blame Richt’s play calling. Some people want to blame Kaaya. Some people want to blame the offensive line. Yes, Richt’s play calling could be better and more creative. Yes, Kaaya has been off and could be playing better, or maybe he’s just not the right guy. Yes, our offensive line is terrible in every conceivable way. But, let’s be honest here, placing the blame on any of those issues is a lazy analysis. Those issues are not the root cause of our current struggles. The real culprits are as follows (in no particular order):

1. Sanctions and dismissals that left us with 76 scholarship athletes to start the season. Actually, the number is 75 because George Brown is ineligible due to the transfer rules. That’s 10 fewer scholarships than is allowed. If you’re recruiting well, that’s 10 NFL caliber athletes and maybe 2 or 3 first round draft picks missing from the roster.
2. Injuries that have left us with 64 available scholarship players at this point in the season.
3. An administration that failed to support the program properly, which resulted in poor facilities and program infrastructure that’s made recruiting and developing the best athletes much more challenging.
4. A previous coaching regime that made some downright horrible evaluations in recruiting, missed on a lot of talented players, failed to develop the talent it got, and generally sucked in every conceivable way.

Those are the real issues. That’s where this fan base should be focusing its angst. Not on a new coaching staff that’s still in the first stage of rebuilding this program. Not on the players that are busting their tails and sacrificing their bodies for our entertainment. The current coaching staff and players don’t deserve to have negativity focused on them when they aren’t truly responsible for where we’re at today. I’m calling for everyone to try to remain patient and positive because that’s what this program and this new coaching staff need from the fan base right now.

There’s a lot to be hopeful for with this program. Most of the issues I listed above have been addressed. The sanctions have officially been lifted entirely, which will restore our full allotment of scholarships. Massive facility improvements are on the way, which will help tremendously with recruiting and development, and more importantly, there finally seems to be a commitment to the program from this university. We have a legit coaching staff that brings a lot of credibility and name recognition to the recruiting trail. The program infrastructure has been enhanced across the board with improved strength and conditioning, nutrition, and support staff. The product on the field will get better, but we can’t expect the issues of the last 10+ years to be fixed overnight. The benefits of all of these things will emerge over time. After suffering for so long, it seems wrong to ask this of the fan base, but we need to be patient.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I want to address our current roster and what we should expect to see this staff do in order to tackle our talent deficiencies starting this year.

As I mentioned above, we have 76 scholarship athletes on the roster, and 12 of them are Seniors or Redshirt Seniors. So, with no other attrition, that gives us 21 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. That’s not nearly enough, not with the talent deficiencies we have on this roster. Richt and staff are going to need to clear more space. Here is what I’d like to see:

Scholarships that should not be renewed:

1. Hunter Knighton (OL)
2. Gus Edwards (RB)

Both are Redshirt Juniors and should have their degrees by this Spring, so nobody should feel bad about sending them on their way.

Players that should be strongly encouraged to transfer:

1. Ryan Fines (DT)
2. Jahair Jones (OL)
3. Tyler Gauthier (OL)
4. Brendan Loftus (OL)
5. Hayden Mahoney (OL)
6. Terry McCray (LB)
7. Terrance Henley (CB)
8. Trayone Gray (RB)
9. Darrell Langham (WR)

None of these guys are good enough to play at Miami and we need to upgrade.

Player that should be assessed for medical retirement:

1. Scott Patchan (DE)

While I think Patchan is very talented, I’m not sure he’s ever going to be healthy. Richt should give some serious thought to pushing for a medical retirement.

If everyone from these lists is cut loose, that would give us 33 scholarships to fill in the 2017 recruiting class. I don’t know if we can sign that many because I don’t know how many we can carry back to the 2016 class with early enrollees, but we need to clear that space anyway.

In terms of the current recruiting class, we have 19 kids committed right now. Below are what I see as our needs in this class:

OL – 7 I think 15 OL is the sweet spot, and with graduation and transfers (recommended above), we’ll be left with only 8 OL on the roster. However, I wouldn’t sign 7 for the sake of signing 7. We need to make sure we’re only taking talented players, so if that means taking less than 7, so be it. A class of Donaldson, Slaton, Herbert, and Telfort would be a grand slam even if we only took those 4, but we really need a high quality JUCO OL. I like Hillery as a developmental prospect, but I’d drop Dykstra.

DT – 2 Ford will turn into a solid and athletic DT.

QB – 1 Ecstatic about N’Kosi Perry. I would give Barnett a hard look but wouldn’t risk scaring Perry off.

DE – 3 Ecstatic about Johnson and Garvin

LB – 3 Really like Steed, not super excited about Jennings, but Diaz has done a nice job with other less talented LBs. Not too excited about Wilder, but if he can commit to football, he could be really good. A solid JUCO LB would be great.

CB – 4 I’m happy with Bandy and Dallas, not sure if we are recruiting Edwards as a CB or S. We need land Brini and/or Henderson. I would look for a solid JUCO CB too.

S – 2 I like Gibson. We need to land Carter.

RB – 2 Personally, I think we can do better than Burns. I really want McFarland.

TE – 1 I’d take 2 if we can get another in the mold of Herndon and Njoku.

WR – 7 Not super high on Dingle as I think we can do better. We need Smith and we need to find a way to flip Jeudy. This is another spot where I’d look for a solid JUCO prospect.

K – 1 I like Feagles.

Your talking to people who were sure we were going to win the ACC and make the playoffs when every pro prognosticator said we would lose 4-5 games.

When finished last year fully aware of how awful our Oline was but everyone ignored it.

We likely have our youngest starting D ever and lost our two best upper class-men defensive players right before the season and the coaches talked about depth in just about every single interview. But yet they still expected the best.

They have been convinced that our only problem is the coaches. Its like they have never seen the makeup on one Miami championship team in their lives. Or for that matter the makeup of any team that has won anything like they expected Miami to win this year.

They also basically crowned themselves ACC champs just for beating App State.

For the most part your seriously talking to the most biased or uninformed people on planet earth. They think if you call someone a name then you must be right... Well how is that working our for you guys?

Great post!