Fireside Chat with your Dear Legend

[Dwinstitles]

Fam, I am not talking about this game alone. You do the same mopey thing win lose or draw. I am not sure who you're referring to as a snowflake but I know that def not what I am. Its funny though, cuz you do the same as blind moping as the ppl who you claim blindly follow. How are you any different?

nah u trippin i ben good when we win, this is the first game im like yea we won but we didnt feel like we won. Yall just read what u want

 

[Go Canes!!]

Pitt also had quite a bit of dropped passes and silly penalties. Game could have easily gone the other way. You can’t say that here though. Our Defense only allowed 19 against Pitt; therefore, all the other issues are automatically dismissed.

Our defense didn’t allow 19 points to Pitt it allowed 9. Our offense gifted them 10 points.

That’s something we could never overcome before.

 

[Canes2082]

I think you're giving Pickett way too much credit for what hes done this year in comparison to what he did against us the last 2 times against us
In 2018 he had 63% completion rate for 130 yards passing. -34 rushing yards. 3 points
In 2019 he had 56% completion rate for 146 yards and 2 INTs. 22 yards rushing. 12 points.

In both of those years, he had really good game against most of the other teams he faced. Mark Whipple is still his OC.

This is what Ive been alluding too.... people can go back and find my post from Saturday around 11am when I said I hope Pickett plays vs Yellen because we actually have played Pickett well. Also this Yellen actually had good game experience vs USC last year where he put up way better numbers in that game than he did vs us.

I hear ohh we got lucky because they dropped balls? Well that argument goes both ways because how many balls did our guys drop too?? Yeah we could have had more points and this game looks different

In 2017 our offense lost us the game at Pitt...

This is Pickett career stats vs us in 3 games: 50/83 passing for 469 yards and 1 touchdown 2 interceptions... he rushed 31 times for 47 total yards 2 tds...

 

[The Franchise]

Good ****.

I think King is over-processing and since they're asking him to stay in the pocket and make the necessary reads, he's leaving a touch later than he normally would when he wants to scramble. We need to just let him play.

As it has been said, 83 and 88 need more reps. We're not running the triple option here. This means - we need a **** WR to become "that dude" in order for the offense to be anywhere close to what it should be. Can't just live off of TE and RB throws an entire game.

I'm wondering if 15 is attempting to overcome a physical wall. Played, got seriously injured, walked away from the game, lost a ton of weight, regained the weight plus more muscle, and is now the starting DE. I think we probably should split his reps a little more so he doesn't time out down the stretch. But, I'm just speculating...

We need to get Chaney more touches, IMO. He runs HARD. We need that toughness at RB. Cam doesn't run hard enough for my liking (sorry), and he doesn't have great vision. We miss a lot of runs out there between his poor vision and King's bad reads.

Agree - Lashlee has to make Mallory more of a focus in the passing game. I'm a little surprised they haven't done that already. It's a no brainer to me.

If Baker would cut out the ****** zone stuff, and stop having 5, 26, or 21 cover the team's slot player from 10 yards away, our pass defense would be 50% better. Our concepts are so fugged up sometimes. We literally had our Saftey covering the **** slot guy, and being the only person coming up to attack a dump to the RB. LBs are lost AF in pass coverage. We (oftentimes) have them doing nothing in coverage. Our zone is awful. Just get Couch on the field vs 3-wide sets and man the fugg up.

As it has been mentioned by others here - we give up WAY too many easy dump passes.

We have a long way to go. But, I'll take the win. We're not that far off from losing to FIU, UNC, VT, GT, Duke, and LT. So... I'll take the win and hopefully we can clean a lot of the crap up. Yesterday.

Excellent stuff, Mr. M. Did you see the play late in the game where McCloud dropped into coverage, and Pitt dropped a short pass over him to Addison I think? McCloud just had to turn around and cut Addison off, and it's a 5 yard gain. Instead, he looked completely lost, took a putrid angle, and Addison was off to the races.

You're right about King too. Seems like he's a little slow to react. With a guy like that, maybe it's better off he takes off a little sooner instead of holding the ball too long and taking sacks or having any escape lane taken away.

I'll never figure out why we refuse to take advantage of the mismatches Mallory gives us, and he's a giant target for King too unlike some of our midget WRs.

 

[423Hurricane]

The reality is that we didn't become the powerhouse we were in the 80's and 90's overnight. And we didn't become who we are today overnight. The team we see today is a reflection of many decisions - good and bad (mostly bad) that transpired over a number of years. Adding a new OC, new OL coach, a new WR coach, and a transfer QB was not going to transform this team into a powerhouse overnight. All the aforementioned additions on the offensive side did create more challenges simply by the changes in the system coupled with a limited practice schedule thanks to Covid.

This is the reality I see. I think the OL has improved but still needs a lot of work. King is pressing and needs to settle down. Lashlee is still trying to figure out what this offense can do best.

The defense is what the defense has been. I am encouraged that we're seeing a lot of the young guys get PT - especially at LB and CB.

In no way am I saying Manny is the answer - at least not yet. He has made some changes that were obviously needed. We need to see continued improvement week to week and beat the teams we're supposed to beat on a consistent basis. On to UVAG.

 

[The Franchise]

Pickett hasn't done a thing to hurt us in two previous games.

He ran for 30 yards and passed for 146 with two INTs last year and was sacked 4 times. The year before he passed for a whopping 130 yards with no TDs and ran for negative 34 yards on 9 carries while being sacked six times.

So in your opinion we were lucky to dodge a guy who in two games has never thrown a TD pass against us, gets sacked 5 times a game, throws for about 135 and has a cumulative rushing total of zero yards?

I'm talking about Pickett this year, not last year. And he did a pretty good job beating us in 2017 as a freshmans playing his first game.

You can be a wise guy, but if you watch and follow college football, you would know that Pickett was having an excellent year and is infinitely better than Yellen is right now. So, yeah, we were absolutely lucky he didn't play. I don't get why that's such a hard concept for you guys to swallow. He is their leader and is a very good college QB with a ton of experience unlike Yellen. He would have picked up a lot of yards with his feet that Yellen left out there and extended drives. He's also a much better passer right now.

 

[Ironmanfootball]

So the best team in the land and a top ten defense that we eclipsed their previous season high in points given up in regulation. Pitt plays great defense and a style that directly exacerbates our biggest offensive weakness. WRs. No shock that the two most uneven/bad offensive performances came against these two teams. Teams that force the outside WRs to make plays over and over again.

Before Miami, Pitt had played offensive juggernaut Syracuse (110 SP+), L'ville (15), NC State (60), BC (45). Not exactly a tough slate. Miami is 37th, BTW

 

[The Franchise]

What do you think is the reason for us being an average ACC team. if one looks at the annual ranking of our recruits, the only team to consistently do better is clemson. I shake my head at the this. We don't look like the players are developing in mass on our team.

I think we've struggled to hire good coaches, who are alpha dog leaders, to put it mildly. Manny's a good dude and a hard worker, but I'm not sure he's a leader of men. We shall see. He still has a chance to turn the corner.

 

[The Franchise]

We aren't an average ACC team. We are undefeated (3-0) in ACC play and have mandhandled all three of our opponents.

We manhandled one ACC team. We were in a dog fight with a Pitt team playing its backup QB with zero experience. And we were back and forth with UL until the 4th quarter, and they hung over 500 yards on us. If that's manhandling, it's the type of manhandling that Magic Johnson's son does. The UL game wasn't a beat down at all.

 

[NJshoreCane]

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.

Our O line is mediocre and will struggle with very good defenses.
I believe Pitt and Clemson's D lines are a step or 2 above competent.

I disagree on your comment that the rest of our games will be dogfights.
One or two, yes. Not the rest of the way.
The good thing is we wont have to wait too long to see.

Picketts numbers are skewed. They can't run , so they have to throw.
If Picket played the results would have been slightly better than the last 2 years. I'll gift him a TD on one of those FG drives and I'll throw in another FG for good measure. The gifted TD would have been Picketts first TD drive against us our D in 3 years.
While we're on gifting....if King doesn't gift them 10 points...

Speaking of King....there should be a "real" pct. completion stat.
One that takes into consideration the distance of the throw.
Something like a jet sweep "pass" calculated in as the equivalent of 1/4 of a completion (or less), while some of those works of art that Clemson QB was throwing last weekend count for double. That stat would show King around 50%.
Against average defenses where he'll kill it with his legs, we're good. Against very good defenses, no bueno.

The defense gave up 3 FG drives and 300 total yards.
The 280 pass yards came on 47 attempts. That's 5.8 ypa, which I'll take all day.
The drops? Well, that's what they do. They've lead the country in drops the last 2 years.
Just like giving first downs on penalties (4 of them this game) is what we do.

I go into these games expecting our D to allow teams to move the ball between the 30's, this way I don't get agita.
If we can keep our TD % less than 50% when teams get into the red zone we'll be ok.

Gotta give Hedley some ink in the "Pro" portion.

You've got your obvious top tier teams.
There's 10 or so second tier teams.
We're lurking among the upper crust of the third tier IMO.

Appreciate the write up.
Two very winnable games (NC St. QB out) coming up in the next 12 days.
I see both of them in the 38-41 to 17-24 range.
I think the fireside by the fire will be a bit warmer when we slide into that second tier.

!!!!!GO!!!!!
!!CANES!!

 

[The Franchise]

I think we’re too quick to criticize Phillips. He’s played all of five games since nearly quitting football due to injuries. He’s not GR15 but has been disruptive as a pass rusher with a good first step. He needs to work on his technique in order to finish these plays with sacks. He has generally played the run well. I’d want to see him progress as the year continues, and hopefully return for 2021.

I love Phillips. I'm just pointing out what I've observed. It's not "too quick to criticize" when we discuss things we're seeing in the games. Phillips doesn't look as sudden to me as he did a couple years ago, and I'm wondering if it's the massive weight game. Or maybe he's getting used to playing again, or maybe he's playing too many reps.

 

[The Franchise]

Which teams are you watching? I see Alabama, Clemson and then a litany of deeply flawed teams. Georgia is the third-best team and they have a walk-on at QB. Notre Dame just struggled to put up 12 against Louisville. North Carolina just lost to FSU. If we're average, who is above average?

The key to this season will be beating the bad teams consistently. So far, so good with a lot of season to go.

I'm watching pretty much every game that's on. And we're average based on what I've seen. Georgia has a walk-on at QB, and they'd kick the fck out of us.

No one expected UNC to win every game. They're average too, but they'll give us fits because they'll take us more seriously than they did FSU, and they have guys who will give us fits.

 

[DMoney]

Phillips reminds me of Olivier Vernon. He is all tools and motor right now. Like Vernon, Phillips has had a lot of stops and starts in his career which hindered his development.

Vernon ended up signing the biggest DE contract ever at the time and has 54.5 career sacks. I think Phillips is better and will have a better career as a Miami Hurricane.

 

[AllAboutTheU]

nah u trippin i ben good when we win, this is the first game im like yea we won but we didnt feel like we won. Yall just read what u want

We can find like 10 different threads across the board at minimum with you moping right now. It doesn’t matter if we win or not. It’s not like you make some insightful posts it’s just plain moping.

 

[The Franchise]

I'll say this much, with the exception of a brief 2 minute stint against Louisville we haven't trailed anybody but Clemson this year at any point in time. Beating Pittsburgh after getting our **** kicked in a week ago I think proves better locker room leadership and a stronger mental makeup of the overall team. Everything we have on O is still new. New Qb and OC. I think its not unreasonable to expect improvement each week.

I feel like we got a little better this week. But that could just be me still high from winning a game I was concerned about(and seeing Tua finally).

I wouldn't read too much into beating a Pitt team we should beat after getting humiliated by Clemson. If Pitt had its QB we likely would have lost that game, and the wheels would be coming off again. We got lucky that Pickett missed the game, but I'll take luck. We got lucky that NC State just lost its QB too.

We had a little streak last year when everyone thought everything had changed too. Remember beating FSU on the road and then smashing UL? This team looks a little better than last year, and that's good too. But the bar was set so low last year that looking better was an equally low bar. It's like 600 Pound Life when one of those 678 pound chicks chisels herself down to a svelte 450 pounds. She looks better too. Folden gave us that "trending upward" **** too after setting the bar so low his first year.

It's OK to be honest about what we see. We don't have to cheerlead all the time. I'm one of the biggest homers on this board, but I wasn't impressed with that Pitt game at all. And we got embarrassed the previous week.

 

[TemplarCane]

I love Phillips. I'm just pointing out what I've observed. It's not "too quick to criticize" when we discuss things we're seeing in the games. Phillips doesn't look as sudden to me as he did a couple years ago, and I'm wondering if it's the massive weight game. Or maybe he's getting used to playing again, or maybe he's playing too many reps.

I’m not arguing with your assessment. His bulk to 265 may have been too fast, and 250-255 might be a better playing weight at this point in his comeback. He would have been better off coming off the bench behind GR15, and starting in 2021.

 

[DMoney]

I'm watching pretty much every game that's on. And we're average based on what I've seen. Georgia has a walk-on at QB, and they'd kick the fck out of us.

No one expected UNC to win every game. They're average too, but they'll give us fits because they'll take us more seriously than they did FSU, and they have guys who will give us fits.

If Miami is average and UNC is average, who is above-average?

Everybody knows about the Clemson, Alabama and Georgia tier. Who currently belongs in the next tier?

 

[WIN]

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.

I agree with most of this post, well done! Although I think our defense played better than most fans think. Our defense is more about keeping teams out of the endzone vs shutting a team completely down, and we did play a lot of young guys too.

 

[Go Canes!!]

We manhandled one ACC team. We were in a dog fight with a Pitt team playing its backup QB with zero experience. And we were back and forth with UL until the 4th quarter, and they hung over 500 yards on us. If that's manhandling, it's the type of manhandling that Magic Johnson's son does. The UL game wasn't a beat down at all.

We were up two touchdowns at half against Louisville and three touchdowns at the beginning of the fourth.

 

[AllAboutTheU]

If Miami is average and UNC is average, who is above-average?

Everybody knows about the Clemson, Alabama and Georgia tier. Who currently belongs in the next tier?

Georgia isn’t even in that tier. It’s Clemson, Bama (and likely OSU). Then Georgia, and then the field.