Fireside Chat with your Dear Legend

[OldhamA]

If the 2nd tier is getting humiliated and emasculated by Clemson and not even competing with them and needing Pitt's QB to get hurt to beat them, then about 60 teams occupy that 2nd tier in your definition. At this point, we're about equal to Kentucky. Once the Big Pvssy starts playing, we'll slip down below several other teams and be at about the same level as a Minnesota.

Who said we needed Pickett to be hurt to beat Pitt? He's never beaten us as a starting QB.

 

[nvlahos]

I agree with all that.

It remains to be seen whether Manny can keep the team focused through November, and there are serious holes on the team. But through five games we have gotten the improvement we've been asking for.

My biggest concern is the staffs ability to keep players focused like you said, and the staff repetitively playing tenure over talent.

Those two things I think are Manny’s biggest flaws and the first 5 games have shown no evidence that its changed. Unfortunately i think it will cost us a game or two this year against less talented teams.

Like last year with the dancing on the sidelines, this years team is talking **** to a Clemson team that is beating our ***. Manny needs to be more stern and not let that happen. Set the tone

And obv as we’ve exhausted on this board, play the talent over tenure, especially when the tenure is making mental errors. It’s only limiting our players development

Brooks/Huff/TAC/Flagg over McCloud/Jennings

Fresh WR over Wiggins/Harley/Pope

Hall over Amari Carter

JHH over Ford

 

[RightSaidFred]

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I think most would agree Nelson has been the best this year. But also imagine King looking at Miami and saying, all I have to do is score 31 points and we likely end the season with just 1 loss. In his 20 games at the Houston starter, the team gave up 31 or more points 10 times.

Yeah that's a fair point.

 

[DMoney]

My biggest concern is the staffs ability to keep players focused like you said, and the staff repetitively playing tenure over talent.

Those two things I think are Manny’s biggest flaws and the first 5 games have shown no evidence that its changed. Unfortunately i think it will cost us a game or two this year against less talented teams.

Like last year with the dancing on the sidelines, this years team is talking **** to a Clemson team that is beating our ***. Manny needs to be more stern and not let that happen. Set the tone

And obv as we’ve exhausted on this board, play the talent over tenure, especially when the tenure is making mental errors. It’s only limiting our players development

Brooks/Huff/TAC/Flagg over McCloud/Jennings

Fresh WR over Wiggins/Harley/Pope

Hall over Amari Carter

JHH over Ford

This doesn't excuse it all, but COVID has played a role. Guys like Huff and TAC really needed spring and summer. Same for the receivers.

 

[80cane]

Every time I click on of the Franchise's "Legend" posts, I half expect to see Sniff in here...
(Sorry to be off-topic.)

 

[dolpterry]

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 every thing you said, but i was hoping you would go a little further and give your thoughts on why we are playing that way? Is it a lack of quality players, poor coaching or BOT just not putting the effort or money into the program to bring us back to a top 10 type of program.

 

[Macca21]

Agreed.

But, again, we can't ignore that THOSE PARTICULAR DROPS against Miami were in "wide-open" situations.

Yes, Pitt drops a bunch. But that shouldn't excuse our poor coverage on SEVERAL of those drops.

That is all.

Totally agree. 100%.

 

[919cane]

Good thread

 

[Macca21]

Had nothing to do with noise. More importantly, that was a play where Roche was dropping into coverage. He almost had an interception. Therefore, there was NO REASON to be up that close to the line of scrimmage. Roche was actually doing himself a disservice by being THAT CLOSE to the line when he was going to drop into pass coverage.

Oh bud, I didn’t mean actual noise. Poor choice of words on my part. I meant their ‘noise’ as in we are going to bring the noise and they are not ready for the anvil of pressure were are going to put on them as a football team.

noise meaning- we play in big games all the time and these clowns can’t stay on side so they are dead men walking.

 

[OriginalCanesCanesCanes]

Tier 1 -

Bama
Clemson
Ohio St
UGA

Tier 2 -

Oklahoma (Tier 1 before this year)
Penn St
Oregon
Wisconsin


We’re not in the same tier as these teams, at least not yet.. all 8 would beat us, prob pretty good too

LOL @ Tier 2

We may not be in your imaginary tier 2, but there really is no way to know. Let me explain.

We have no clue how Penn State and Oregon are this year because they haven’t played a single fūcking game. Same with Wisconsin. Oklahoma? I like our chances. Try again cowboy

 

[Macca21]

Had nothing to do with noise. More importantly, that was a play where Roche was dropping into coverage. He almost had an interception. Therefore, there was NO REASON to be up that close to the line of scrimmage. Roche was actually doing himself a disservice by being THAT CLOSE to the line when he was going to drop into pass coverage.

To follow up on your comment about Roche dropping in coverage. Great point. Throw clicker at TV moment for me... dude, why did you need to be that close, you dropped into coverage.

 

[CashMoneyCane]

No; gotta disagree. Pope is getting criticized b/c of lack of concentration, his inability to get open or make contested catches. He looks nothing, and I don’t say this lightly, but he looks nothing like his blue chip rating. There’s nothing about Pope that looks like a blue chip; not his route running, not his hands, not his YACs, not his ability to break an ankle tackle.

He caught 4 balls, and ninjas are forgetting that this may have been his best game in 3 yrs! And the 4 balls went for what? 56 yards or so?? Lol. Meanwhile True Frosh, Jordan Addison for Pitt, w/ a backup QB, and who played primarily S in high school is still somewhere running past our def for a 20 yrd catch & run. Smh.

No no no, hold on. We're saying the same thing. Pope is not very good. Don't get me wrong there. I'm talking specifically about this game, relative to the other WR's, who played as bad as I've seen receivers play in 30 years of watching Miami football. I think he's getting lumped in with the heap from this game (even though he actually played fine) partly due to his horrific stint as a PR.

He's fast. That's it. He's not even shifty.

 

[CashMoneyCane]

No. Pope is getting criticized because he’s so average, and I have been one of his biggest supporters since he’s been here. At some point, a guy either has to start making some electric plays or get replaced.

And yet he had the best game among the WR's vs. Pitt. Look, I called to bench Pope after his first PR fumble in game one. And I still think all the three starters need to be shown the door. But to lump Pope in with the disaster Harley and Wiggins put together VS. PITT is pretty dumb.

He's bad. He wasn't that bad vs. Pitt.

 

[nvlahos]

The 2020 class looks like a good one, and the 2021 class looks better. The names to know there are DT Leonard Taylor and ATH James Williams. Both are five stars who could've signed anywhere.

Manny can def sell the vision of the program. And we have a staff of mostly great recruiters

If he wants to get serious about making this a consistent top team Manny needs to replace Rumph and Patke and bring in a CB and LB coach who can recruit with the best

 

[k9cane]

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.

As I stated in another thread, just winning the games they are supposed to, or should, is a step forward for this program. Im not looking for any real blowouts or great games ( I think FSU is as good as it will get for us this season, which is OK), but just keep battling and have a good enough season where the recruiting wont suffer

 

[nvlahos]

This doesn't excuse it all, but COVID has played a role. Guys like Huff and TAC really needed spring and summer. Same for the receivers.

Im sure that’s true for those two but c’mon you can’t tell me McCloud should be playing major minutes still. He’s lost on 75% of the plays and it’s been on film for years now.

And what about Amari Carter, tackling with his shoulder constantly, not wrapping up and getting kicked out of games.

Or in previous years (non COVID effect). Sitting Rousseau behind Patchan. Gurvan behind knowles

The proof is in the pudding that the staff plays Senior favorites or doesn’t trust their own ability to get young players ready and that’s on them as coaches

 

[AllAboutTheU]

Last year they began working in the younger guys as the season progressed on the defensive side of the ball — it’s obvious that Flagg and Brooks have to play more, Harvey needs more snaps, Hunte needs starter level snaps, and the WRs need to be immediately given opportunities.

 

[Hurricanestorm]

First, they signed Deshaun Watson. By that point, Clemson had three straight years of double-digit wins and had the 12th highest scoring offense in the country. But were not on the championship level. In fact, the true title contender in the conference (FSU) beat them 51-14 at home. It was Clemson's upward trajectory that helped them land the player that would vault them over the top.

Second, they just signed better players at every position. Between the 2011-2014 seasons, they had 5 guys drafted in the first or second round. Over the next four years, they had 10 (including 4 first round DL).

When you win double-digits and play exciting football, you can recruit even more impact guys to put you over the top.

We need this and for upper class men to return to play another year. If we continue to lose mid to late rounders to early departure, it’s going to be even more difficult to sustain success.

 

[Hurracanes]

A realistic goal is the Clemson teams from 2011-2014.

Those teams won double-digits every year but were 7-9 against ranked teams. Some of those losses were every bit as discouraging as our loss in Death Valley. They steadily improved their recruiting and jumped to Bama's level in 2015 after four years as a "very good not great" team.

That's attainable. The first step is consistently beating the bad teams.

This is probably your best post yet. Fair assessment and goal. However, Diaz needs to modify certain things on Defense if he wants to reach that level.

 

[The Sphinx]

Im sure that’s true for those two but c’mon you can’t tell me McCloud should be playing major minutes still. He’s lost on 75% of the plays and it’s been on film for years now.

And what about Amari Carter, tackling with his shoulder constantly, not wrapping up and getting kicked out of games.

Or in previous years (non COVID effect). Sitting Rousseau behind Patchan. Gurvan behind knowles

The proof is in the pudding that the staff plays Senior favorites or doesn’t trust their own ability to get young players ready and that’s on them as coaches

My guess is the staff is afraid of losing the locker room having a bunch of dejected, checked-out upperclassmen. It's a coach's way of keeping the upperclassmen engaged and not having a fractured locker room. Their fear is they don't want to push the upperclassmen completely aside and play the younger guys only to have to go crawling back to the older guys when the younger guys get hurt or wear down later in the season.

But by doing this, they run the risk of losing the underclassmen who want to see the field. They will just leave if they don't get burn.

My honest sense is they are not stupid. They can see where the talent lies, and almost across the board our underclassmen have better upsides than our upperclassmen. Which is a good sign that we are upgrading our talent. The young guys will get more burn as the season goes on and the upperclassmen are more expendable.

Our problem is we still have many holes in our roster so we have to rely on average talent upperclassmen in the short term.