Everything hinges on PITT and not just because they are next

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Cristobal would have had us much better prepared coming off a bye week. Probably still an L but not an embarrassingly bad showing.
Cristobal would have had us much better prepared coming off a bye week. Probably still an L but not an embarrassingly bad showing.
Lol trust me 1 year here , y’all would be asking for him to be fired
 
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I'm curious to see how the team responds. Gonna say a lot about Manny and this team. Manny needs to quit being buddy buddy and crack some got dam heads.
 
Thought I'd circle back to this post since it was all about this PITT game and its importance to Manny and his staff. So, how did they do?

As has been pointed out on other threads, a win is a win and especially one against a feisty opponent after a blowout loss.

The Good news? We won, we played some frosh who performed well (especially Flagg), and we've found ways to win with these players and these schemes. We didn't penalize ourselves to death - no one was ejected for targeting. AND, we didn't have a let down game after a loss. The secondary appears to be slowly getting better, the DT's (especially the younger backups) keep flashing and improving and Flagg might very well shore up at least one spot, which is no small thing.

The bad news? Now that the dust is settling and we're seeing the Lashlee offense, it's disappointing that he isn't adapting better and using the players that we do have to their maximum. I know I harped about this on another thread, but we have a 5'9" QB who has elite speed and quickness for a QB and yet, he keeps calling these slow developing, 7 step straight drop back plays. We don't have the OL for it, and King doesn't have the height for it, along with largely eliminating the very thing that gives us an advantage - his ability to move around in the backfield.

The coaches? IMHO is if we had lost that game, Diaz would be on the death spiral now and, not unlike every coach after Butch, would never recover to have a HC job at a legit program. He ain't out of the woods yet and he still has two games that could absolutely bite him in the tail: VT & UNC, but he survived for another day.

Lashlee's rep is getting dinged. It's by far not too late for him and if he will start using King in a way that accentuates his abilities as opposed to limit his abilities (ditto to featuring non WR's in the pass game as opposed to WR's), he can actual improve his stock from the beginning of the season.

I know there are a lot of you who will rip me for this, but so be it - Blake seems to be improving. I really thought Blake's ouster was in that death spiral I wrote of earlier and it was absolutely inevitable. Now? Ehhhhh, I'm not as certain that he MUST be replaced. Still lots of games to go, but I have to say, I'm not finding myself ****ing and moaning over as much on D as I used to. He still needs to go with more of a youth movement on his side of the ball (Flagg, Couch, #81, etc.) but I'm actually more concerned with Lashlee adapting to our player's strengths and weaknesses than I am Blake's. Although, yeah, Brooks and Flagg need to be our starters stat!

The future? Now, that we've gotten past the toughest D's we will face the rest of the reg season, we simply have no business losing more than one more and honestly, we really shouldn't lose anymore. We need 10 wins in order to keep some of our elite recruits and hopefully add a couple more who can see our progress and trajectory.

Lashlee - The current system works better for TVD than King. Either give TVD significant burn or (hopefully) adjust to the realities of our QB and our WR's. I'm rooting for him. I hope he learns and changes.

Blake - I was actually rooting for him to get fired so we could just get on with it already, but now, I'm curling back and hoping that he continues getting better - no more 4th and 17's!!! Play the youts!! Flagg, Brooks, Couch, Harris-Huntley(Sp?), etc.

Manny ain't dead yet. Is he our longterm answer? No one really knows yet, but I can tell you, if he at least holds onto the current recruits, wins 10 games and continues to be the offseason maestro of the portal, and most importantly - continues to learn and adapt, he will be on his way to possibly being the answer at HC that we've needed for 2 decades. We shall see...
 
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