Fireside Chat with your Dear Legend

[The Franchise]

In reality, he should be the slot. Smith and Redding need to start on the outside with Pope in the slot.

He could be anywhere, and he's still just going to be average. And why are you guys so worked up over Redding? Because he looks good in a sleeveless? He's a good prospect, but he hasn't done anything either.

 

[The Franchise]

I think we're at the point as a team that if we come in prepared, we SHOULD beat everyone else left on our schedule. A few bounces either way and yes, we could lose some of those games.

The thing I'm watching for is Diaz keeping this team focused for the rest of the season. Clemson was the litmus test and showed us where we truly are as a programme - a long way from the elite.

I don't think it's smoke and mirrors either - few teams have the players to take away our RB trio, Mallory and Brevin (plus the legs of King when he decides to scramble). A #1 WR that can consistently beat his man is what's holding us back on offence more than anything. Lashlee is just having to get creative to work around that.

You're right. We SHOULD beat the likes of NC State and Wake and UVA. But we SHOULD beat them every year, and we're always in one possession type games with them. I don't really see that changing this year based on what I've seen of those teams and what I've seen of us this year. We've improved a little, but it's still going to be dog fight city every week.

 

[The Franchise]

GT could not "very easily beat us." About 50 things would have to go spontaneously wrong and we'd probably need last year's kickers.

Not so much. Sims is a better QB than the guy who beat us last year. You will be fooled by the Clemson drubbing, but GT is better than last year, and Sims is the type of guy who could give us fits.

 

[OldhamA]

You're right. We SHOULD beat the likes of NC State and Wake and UVA. But we SHOULD beat them every year, and we're always in one possession type games with them. I don't really see that changing this year based on what I've seen of those teams and what I've seen of us this year. We've improved a little, but it's still going to be dog fight city every week.

I guess we'll see in a few weeks, but I suspect all those games are double digit wins. Lashlee is just too much of an upgrade over Enos to say we've only improved a little.

 

[Rellyrell]

Watching this 2020 UM team has me caught between "we're better than last year" and "we were so horrible last year that we can be better and still not be all that good." I watch about 10 full college games every weekend, and we are pretty average right now. We're ranked 11th, but if we played a weak SEC team like USC, I could see the game going either way.

Yesterday, we played a Pitt team without its best player and the heartbeat of its team, and it was another typical desultory ACC slap fight. Without Pickett, Pitt is total trash. Yet, they hung around the whole game, and their pop gun backup QB was making plays that he probably won't make against most of the other teams they play.

I make it a point to watch every ACC game, and, with the obvious exception of the super power Clemson and horrible Syracuse, all the rest of the teams are pretty interchangeable. GT lost by 300 to Clemson, who was clearly getting revenge for the 220 GT hung on Cumberland College, but that GT team could very easily beat us or any of the rest of the ACC.

Pros:

Our DTs got some push. Jade continues to be disruptive, and JHH is a future star.

Harvey stood out to me. He was active.

The freshman DB, Dunson, might have made the play of the game on the fake punt. He played that thing perfectly and snuffed out a potential game-changing moment.

Mallory stepped up. Still think he should be on the field a lot more and be a focus of the passing offense along with Jordan, Key Smith, and the RBs.

Don Jr. looked tough and fast before he got hurt. He's had shoulder issues, so I'm hoping he's not out for an extended time.

Restrepo at least looks confident and competent catching punts unlike Pope.

Cons:

Pretty much everything else. LOL.

King is either in a slump, or he's pretty much what I thought he was as a streaky passer. I thought he'd be a more dynamic runner though. Most of his best runs are off scrambles where he makes a couple great spin moves in the open field, but he's been completely ineffective in the read-option game. Seems slow in his get off and doesn't make great decisions in the read game.

John Campbell got disemboweled. By the end of the game, Patrick Jones was rendered less effective slogging through Campbell's entrails.

Wiggins and Pope continue to be weak. They're rapidly morphing into Khalil Jones and D'Mauri Jones without the artistic skills.

Our offense is slumping. We're all out of whack now that we're playing some competent defenses. We look disjointed and are very easy to defend. Teams are ganging up on the run game, which seems super basic, and forcing King and our WRs to beat them. And King and the WRs are failing pretty hard. Nice job by Lashlee sneaking Cam and Will out on those fake QB draws. Other than a couple big plays, we were pretty awful and couldn't sustain anything.

Defensively, we're just too easy to throw on. Guys are open all over the place. Old Yellen missed some wide open guys and they had some horrific drops when he did hit them. They bailed us out more than we stopped them.

Phillips has been nowhere near the pass rusher I thought he'd be. In fact, our overall pass rush is pretty weak.

Honestly; this assessment is genuine and authentic. I see nothing, and I literally mean nothing wrong with anything you’ve said. Like I said in another thread, we’re 4-1 but it feels uneven. You can go back to the Game Thread & me yelling “Thank you Pitt” for wide open dropped balls, or just missing wide open receivers.

If Lashlee knows King struggles w/ the long ball, it’s time to call more slants, or get King in rhythm running the ball, then slipping the RB or TE out.

Right now, Chise, I’m just all about the W’s. I already know we are not in the upper echelon of football teams. So I rather fight and get an ugly W than an disappointing L. I’m not so sure if Pickett plays we win. There were teenager acne prone craters in our def, that any decent QB would’ve exploited. It also helped that Mark Whipple slowed down the game when Pitt was peppering us.

But a Dub is a Dub, and we get to feel good for another week.

 

[The Franchise]

Honestly; this assessment is genuine and authentic. I see nothing, and I literally mean nothing wrong with anything you’ve said. Like I said in another thread, we’re 4-1 but it feels uneven. You can go back to the Game Thread & me yelling “Thank you Pitt” for wide open dropped balls, or just missing wide open receivers.

If Lashlee knows King struggles w/ the long ball, it’s time to call more slants, or get King in rhythm running the ball, then slipping the RB or TE out.

Right now, Chise, I’m just all about the W’s. I already know we are not in the upper echelon of football teams. So I rather fight and get an ugly W than an disappointing L. I’m not so sure if Pickett plays we win. There were teenager acne prone craters in our def, that any decent QB would’ve exploited. It also helped that Mark Whipple slowed down the game when Pitt was peppering us.

But a Dub is a Dub, and we get to feel good for another week.

I'll take the dubs too, Rell. I'm just giving my honest takes and ain't interested in false narratives. Too much of that **** every year. I'm still loving the games and happy they're playing, but this team is pretty deeply flawed right now.

I built King up a little too much in my mind, and that's not his fault. He's a great kid and a good steady leader and tough guy. I love him, but he's not been playing well lately.

If we're going to beat a team like UNC, we're going to have to get the offense cranked up because they'll score a bunch on us.

 

[252cane]

Facts facts facts thank u bro hopefully people can see through the bs. Our dbs are bad besides Bolden our linebackers suck jade and Hunt are the only two I like. Wideouts suck....mallory should see more time and king is a smarter and faster Rosier. And your right we would lose to a lower sec school....good u say it cause the minute anyone else does they are a "sec slurped"

The truth is the truth and I'm glad u fuqin said it's bravo sir....I also like me and u can disagree at times as men and not hold it against each other and talk later on like it's G. U the man bruh

King way better than rosier as a passer. I watched rosier go half of games completing only 2 or 3 passes

 

[Da Jumbo Mutombo]

What he did was pretty much nothing. He caught 4 short passes and gained a few yards after. That's the kind of **** anyone should be able to do. There's nothing explosive about his game.

ok, but I thought he did his job this game. Caught every ball thrown his way and gained some YAC. No complaints from me for THIS game regarding Pope.

I get the criticism if its regarding his season. Just didnt think this game was bad enough to call him out on it. Wiggins deserves the criticism. Maybe even Payton. Guy is out here slipping out of his shoes and creating no separation on his deep shot.

 

[252cane]

I'll take the dubs too, Rell. I'm just giving my honest takes and ain't interested in false narratives. Too much of that **** every year. I'm still loving the games and happy they're playing, but this team is pretty deeply flawed right now.

I built King up a little too much in my mind, and that's not his fault. He's a great kid and a good steady leader and tough guy. I love him, but he's not been playing well lately.

If we're going to beat a team like UNC, we're going to have to get the offense cranked up because they'll score a bunch on us.

Yea I was watching some houston stuff and king did look more explosive there than he does here. And he was hitting deep balls too there.

 

[Rellyrell]

I'll take the dubs too, Rell. I'm just giving my honest takes and ain't interested in false narratives. Too much of that **** every year. I'm still loving the games and happy they're playing, but this team is pretty deeply flawed right now.

I built King up a little too much in my mind, and that's not his fault. He's a great kid and a good steady leader and tough guy. I love him, but he's not been playing well lately.

If we're going to beat a team like UNC, we're going to have to get the offense cranked up because they'll score a bunch on us.

Facts; again, my hesitation w/ King was are we getting 2018 King or 2019 King. My other reservation was King is now stepping up against better competition, so how would he fare.

That was my ? regarding Lashlee as well; I know Gus took play calling away from him, and I know what he did at SMU, but SMU is still humming, so was that Lashlee or Sonny? Regardless, it’s pretty evident that we are going to be in some dog fights probably for the remainder of the season, & that’s OK as long as we’re the top dog to help w/ a nice ending to bring in quality players to start filling out our roster.

 

[AmherstCane]

I got mad respect for the Legend, but this is a Mopey take.

Defense held Pitt to 22 TOTAL rushing yards and under 6 YPA passing. Yellen isn’t Pickett but he’s also not garbage. Dude was tough and threw some well placed balls (even if they did flutter).

Considering what Pitt has on the DL, our line did better than expected - even accounting for Campbell’s (really bad) performance.

King had a rough day... his accuracy just wasn’t there even when he had time.

We still scored 31 points and won the game by 2 scores.

Assuming the freshman wideouts continue to improve and gain trust, this offense will get a lot better as the season progresses.

this is a flawed team, sure (eyes at the backers and then WRs)... but it’s a **** of a lot better than anything we’ve had to root for in many years.

 

[rok]

John Campbell got disemboweled. By the end of the game, Patrick Jones was rendered less effective slogging through Campbell's entrails

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Not so much. Sims is a better QB than the guy who beat us last year. You will be fooled by the Clemson drubbing, but GT is better than last year, and Sims is the type of guy who could give us fits.

Bro, I think I posted this a couple of times but it bears repeating. If you take out the two miracle catches in 2017, that's an 8 win team. You know and I know that was at best an 8 win team that got exceptionally lucky twice. That means we got steadily worse each year Richt was here. 9, then 8, then 7 wins. And Diaz's first year continued that spiral with 6 wins. How much of that was Diaz and how much was Richt? Well, if you go back to RedSquare's post from last week, his NFL scout friend said that Al Golden left Richt a better team than Richt left Diaz. That would be a problem for any coach, especially a first timer.

Fortunately it took just one year for Diaz to dump most of what Richt did in the toilet. The bad news is that he's stuck with most of the same personnel for now. The good news is that the player evals in recruiting are getting much better. Which player in the secondary was getting a lot of praise after the Pitt game? 3* Couch. Who was the most disruptive defensive line player? 3* JHH. Which LB looked surprisingly rock solid? 3* Flagg. Who is the best OL? 2* Nelson. Which receiver looks like the biggest receiving threat now? 3* Smith. The non-transfer upperclassmen are generally disappointments, but Diaz is playing the hand he's been dealt. Speaking of which, you are right that Campbell was getting worked. I don't think he would have been in the rotation if Williams was healthy.

Yes, that Pitt game might have been different if Pickett played. It would also have been different if Brevin Jordan and Williams had been healthy. You saw how much Mallory was targeted. Having him and Brevin together would have made Kings life a lot better. Oh, and the outcome would have been even more different if Greg Rosseau hadn't opted out.

I'm not white knighting Diaz. He's got a lot of work to do. But the first step to turning the program around is winning the games we are supposed to win. So far so good. I might be the outlier here, but I don't care if we win all the rest of the games by one point. Is that fools gold like 2017? Maybe, but the way that gets disproven is to do it again next year, except instead of winning all the games by one, we win them all by double digits (which we have in every game this season but Clemson, btw).

Cheer up, amigo. We're on the right track.

 

[jkdood]

I tried to give the OL a compliment in another thread, at least on passing plays. Certainly much improved if not fully capable, though many disagreed. As a result, I noted the same thing about King; he looked to have ample time on several plays, just failed to do the reads or throw a good pass.

I hope he just had an off night. I fear he's losing confidence because of the WR problems, and perhaps is second guessing himself when to try and scramble. He looked a little lost out there at times, though not exactly the deer in headlights we have had to put with in recent years. Maybe Mallory becoming his go-to guy will be a way out of the sometimes mess, and of course a healthy Brevin.

 

[The Franchise]

I got mad respect for the Legend, but this is a Mopey take.

Defense held Pitt to 22 TOTAL rushing yards and under 6 YPA passing. Yellen isn’t Pickett but he’s also not garbage. Dude was tough and threw some well placed balls (even if they did flutter).

Considering what Pitt has on the DL, our line did better than expected - even accounting for Campbell’s (really bad) performance.

King had a rough day... his accuracy just wasn’t there even when he had time.

We still scored 31 points and won the game by 2 scores.

Assuming the freshman wideouts continue to improve and gain trust, this offense will get a lot better as the season progresses.

this is a flawed team, sure (eyes at the backers and then WRs)... but it’s a **** of a lot better than anything we’ve had to root for in many years.

My dude, the difference between Pickett and Yellen is bigger than between King and Perry. I wouldn’t have felt confident going into this game if King wasn’t available for us and Pickett was fully healthy.

 

[The Franchise]

Bro, I think I posted this a couple of times but it bears repeating. If you take out the two miracle catches in 2017, that's an 8 win team. You know and I know that was at best an 8 win team that got exceptionally lucky twice. That means we got steadily worse each year Richt was here. 9, then 8, then 7 wins. And Diaz's first year continued that spiral with 6 wins. How much of that was Diaz and how much was Richt? Well, if you go back to RedSquare's post from last week, his NFL scout friend said that Al Golden left Richt a better team than Richt left Diaz. That would be a problem for any coach, especially a first timer.

Fortunately it took just one year for Diaz to dump most of what Richt did in the toilet. The bad news is that he's stuck with most of the same personnel for now. The good news is that the player evals in recruiting are getting much better. Which player in the secondary was getting a lot of praise after the Pitt game? 3* Couch. Who was the most disruptive defensive line player? 3* JHH. Which LB looked surprisingly rock solid? 3* Flagg. Who is the best OL? 2* Nelson. Which receiver looks like the biggest receiving threat now? 3* Smith. The non-transfer upperclassmen are generally disappointments, but Diaz is playing the hand he's been dealt. Speaking of which, you are right that Campbell was getting worked. I don't think he would have been in the rotation if Williams was healthy.

Yes, that Pitt game might have been different if Pickett played. It would also have been different if Brevin Jordan and Williams had been healthy. You saw how much Mallory was targeted. Having him and Brevin together would have made Kings life a lot better. Oh, and the outcome would have been even more different if Greg Rosseau hadn't opted out.

I'm not white knighting Diaz. He's got a lot of work to do. But the first step to turning the program around is winning the games we are supposed to win. So far so good. I might be the outlier here, but I don't care if we win all the rest of the games by one point. Is that fools gold like 2017? Maybe, but the way that gets disproven is to do it again next year, except instead of winning all the games by one, we win them all by double digits (which we have in every game this season but Clemson, btw).

Cheer up, amigo. We're on the right track.

The only fly in the “Diaz got stuck with terrible players by Rick” is that Diaz was an autonomous DC and had everything to do with the defensive players he “got stuck with.” He’s done a good job evaluating and signing DL and a mediocre job pretty much everywhere else on D.

 

[CashMoneyCane]

Not so much. Sims is a better QB than the guy who beat us last year. You will be fooled by the Clemson drubbing, but GT is better than last year, and Sims is the type of guy who could give us fits.

A lot of people were saying the same things about Louisville. I don't think anyone is getting fooled by that drubbing.

 

[CashMoneyCane]

I guess we'll see in a few weeks, but I suspect all those games are double digit wins. Lashlee is just too much of an upgrade over Enos to say we've only improved a little.

And King is too much of an upgrade over our entire QB room from last year.

 

[Dude]

Watching this 2020 UM team has me caught between "we're better than last year" and "we were so horrible last year that we can be better and still not be all that good." I watch about 10 full college games every weekend, and we are pretty average right now. We're ranked 11th, but if we played a weak SEC team like USC, I could see the game going either way.

Yesterday, we played a Pitt team without its best player and the heartbeat of its team, and it was another typical desultory ACC slap fight. Without Pickett, Pitt is total trash. Yet, they hung around the whole game, and their pop gun backup QB was making plays that he probably won't make against most of the other teams they play.

I make it a point to watch every ACC game, and, with the obvious exception of the super power Clemson and horrible Syracuse, all the rest of the teams are pretty interchangeable. GT lost by 300 to Clemson, who was clearly getting revenge for the 220 GT hung on Cumberland College, but that GT team could very easily beat us or any of the rest of the ACC.

Pros:

Our DTs got some push. Jade continues to be disruptive, and JHH is a future star.

Harvey stood out to me. He was active.

The freshman DB, Dunson, might have made the play of the game on the fake punt. He played that thing perfectly and snuffed out a potential game-changing moment.

Mallory stepped up. Still think he should be on the field a lot more and be a focus of the passing offense along with Jordan, Key Smith, and the RBs.

Don Jr. looked tough and fast before he got hurt. He's had shoulder issues, so I'm hoping he's not out for an extended time.

Restrepo at least looks confident and competent catching punts unlike Pope.

Cons:

Pretty much everything else. LOL.

King is either in a slump, or he's pretty much what I thought he was as a streaky passer. I thought he'd be a more dynamic runner though. Most of his best runs are off scrambles where he makes a couple great spin moves in the open field, but he's been completely ineffective in the read-option game. Seems slow in his get off and doesn't make great decisions in the read game.

John Campbell got disemboweled. By the end of the game, Patrick Jones was rendered less effective slogging through Campbell's entrails.

Wiggins and Pope continue to be weak. They're rapidly morphing into Khalil Jones and D'Mauri Jones without the artistic skills.

Our offense is slumping. We're all out of whack now that we're playing some competent defenses. We look disjointed and are very easy to defend. Teams are ganging up on the run game, which seems super basic, and forcing King and our WRs to beat them. And King and the WRs are failing pretty hard. Nice job by Lashlee sneaking Cam and Will out on those fake QB draws. Other than a couple big plays, we were pretty awful and couldn't sustain anything.

Defensively, we're just too easy to throw on. Guys are open all over the place. Old Yellen missed some wide open guys and they had some horrific drops when he did hit them. They bailed us out more than we stopped them.

Phillips has been nowhere near the pass rusher I thought he'd be. In fact, our overall pass rush is pretty weak.

Great post. All of this stuff is why I was so angry that we hired Manny. I didnt think Miami fans deserve to go through growing pains.... but now that we are here, this is what we signed up for with every ugly win towards 10 helping us in recruiting and getting our coaches their much needed ojt. Just like Clemson, this is gonna take a lot of time to get to the top, so I feel like we need to enjoy the wins so that we can really enjoy the recruiting wins down the road. Maybe in 5 or 6 years Miami can be an actual power.

 

[CashMoneyCane]

ok, but I thought he did his job this game. Caught every ball thrown his way and gained some YAC. No complaints from me for THIS game regarding Pope.

I get the criticism if its regarding his season. Just didnt think this game was bad enough to call him out on it. Wiggins deserves the criticism. Maybe even Payton. Guy is out here slipping out of his shoes and creating no separation on his deep shot.

Pope is getting overly criticized as a receiver because of his gaffes in the PR game. Not that it's saying much, but he's been our most reliable WR to this point. He did what we needed him to do vs. Pitt, which is saying a lot more than Harley or Wiggins.