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Good write up. It summarizes my feelings too.

I rewatched parts of the LSU-Clemson game Sunday and what I saw: Clemson came out the same with what seemed to me to be the same defensive attack (leave the CBs on an island and blitz LBs often). LSU got rocked initially but had the OL to give Burrow some time. LSU beat it with pinpoint slants and their WRs beating the CBs albeit not by much but with Burrow throwing them open. LSU's CBs were much more aggressive in taking away sideline routes too.

I don't know what is going on in practice but our ball skills for WRs and DBs is and has been atrocious. We don't seem to locate, react and fight to even average CFB levels.

Some of the problem correction is schematic in terms of covering more aggressively and nott his rigid sit back in a zone and react only t tackle a guy AFTER they make a 10 yard catch. Part is coaching up our ball skills and part is evaluating and recruiting WRs. Maybe we need to get some portal help at WR which would be an indictment of our staff's talent evaluation and development given that florida produces quality WR like we do oranges. I do think we're making some progress on OL though.
 
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Good write up. It summarizes my feelings too.

I rewatched parts of the LSU-Clemson game Sunday and what I saw: Clemson came out the same with what seemed to me to be the same defensive attack (leave the CBs on an island and blitz LBs often). LSU got rocked initially but had the OL to give Burrow some time. LSU beat it with pinpoint slants and their WRs beating the CBs albeit not by much but with Burrow throwing them open. LSU's CBs were much more aggressive in taking away sideline routes too.

I don't know what is going on in practice but our ball skills for WRs and DBs is and has been atrocious. We don't seem to locate, react and fight to even average CFB levels.

Some of the problem correction is schematic in terms of covering more aggressively and nott his rigid sit back in a zone and react only t tackle a guy AFTER they make a 10 yard catch. Part is coaching up our ball skills and part is evaluating and recruiting WRs. Maybe we need to get some portal help at WR which would be an indictment of our staff's talent evaluation and development given that florida produces quality WR like we do oranges. I do think we're making some progress on OL though.
Our starters recruiting numbers
Mark Pope #11 wr
Mike Harley #41 wr
Dee Wiggins #71 wr

Who we're bringing in.
Jacolby George #16
Romello Brinson #25

Find a few gems and this should help down the line.
 
Not sure why you think that because i'm not being critical of what you're being critical of I don't care. You can care without constantly focusing on what we think isn't working. And nobody disputes the bad offensive showing. Just saying we lost to a better and motivated team. Someone made a great point that we all just wanted a moral victory here. That is true. Deep down we all knew we wouldn't win but we wanted to believe that we were even closer than we appeared. We weren't. But were still on schedule.
Far from on schedule. On schedule would have been keeping it within 7-10 after 3, not being down 25 with the lone TD being a fluke kick block returned for a TD. It was a massive failure by the O.
 
Was having this exact conversation with my son yesterday, he's a Jr at UGA and we were talking about Smart. He knows some of the players and they fear Smart, therefore his team doesn't make countless stupid mistakes.

Manny wants to be buddies with the players and therefore you get that undisciplined mess you saw on Saturday. Manny is not the guy for this job and it is painfully obvious. We are a middle of the pack ACC team with this guy and that's just the truth.
Regardless of how ****** we played on Saturday and boy did we play bad, this idea that players have to be scared of the Coaches to play disciplined or have success is such a fallacy.
 
It looks like everyone's got a segment now, so this beatdown has probably been hot-taked to death already. So I'll be brief.

This was eerily similar wasn't it? We've seen this buildup and letdown so many times they should put the Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown image on the side of the helmet instead of the U. They toyed with us, and we were NEVER a threat. I don't understand how teams like UNC and Pitt and Syracuse can do things, but we couldn't even breathe in that game.

Quick takes:
Bubba Bolden is about the only guy who would start on Clemson's team. We were so clearly overmatched it was obvious from about 5 snaps in. 5 snaps in I'm thinking "Just don't give up and get humiliated and lose by 60." I knew they were better than us before the game and didn't expect to win, but I did expect us to not be the little kid getting straight armed to the forehead while he wails away at his dad's kneecaps and doesn't come within 5 feet of hitting him.

Venables bent Lashlee over, ballgagged him, and gimped him. If we were ever going to take a run at Clemson's D with our O this was going to be the year with them breaking in all those new players. Not even close. They suffocated us like a giant boa constrictor squeezing the life out of a weasel. They were where we were supposed to be before we got there. It's like they knew our plays better than we did.

When we hired Lashlee, the one game that scared me was how FAU so thoroughly *** raped him in the bowl game. This game reminded me of that but 20 times worse. He had no answers for anything and seemed intent on forcing a running game that never stood a chance all game until he just started chucking it deep and hoping for PI calls.

Lashlee's still a big upgrade over what we had, but what we saw yesterday was atrocious. He was outclassed. UVA looked better against them than we did. I'd expect UNC to move it on them too and not look like Pee Wee rejects like we did.

Our WRs looked like punks out there too. Feeble. King threw some balls that they could have battled for, and they would just fall down instead and cry for a flag. They don't adjust to the ball in the air and have no dog in them whatsoever. I'd empty the bench immediately and see if any of the backups have any guts. I'd start with Keyshawn Smith because no one's come close to covering him this year. He's always five yards behind everyone he plays.

Where was the TE throw game? That's an advantage we should have had but never really attempted to exploit other than 2 or 3 throws. Lashlee outsmarted himself on that one.

Our OL is better, but they got their pussies stomped out. Clemson did them like we did FSU the week prior.

Defensively, we battled, and, like I said, I love Bubba B. But our LBs are sooooooo fcking slow and useless. And you can't beat or even compete with a team like that when you're giving up 3rd and 8+ over and over and over. Unlike the O, the D at least battled and had a pulse. Lawrence is a generational player, and he's going to make plays. I said going it that this was either going to be a shootout or a blowout because we weren't going to stop Lawrence. Well, we saw what happened.

We'll see what happens with Manny. I actually like the guy. Seems like a hard worker and he really cares, but he just might not have that ability to push the right buttons. THat's an art form, and most don't have it. That's why it's so hard to find a great HC. We'll see if it's what we all suspect it is coming up the next several weeks. If we get in another series of dog fights with the teams coming up, then it's just same old Miami. This can either be a blip in a season of progress, or it can be same old Miami.
The TE passing game was handled by the defensive scheme where they regularly had bracketed coverage. It goes back to your comment about our WR being trash and pussies. They don't have what it takes to compete and Venebles saw that and let his corners handle them one on one all game. If you can do that defensively the numbers then turn in your favor. Bracket the TE spy the QB and run blitz. Their LBers were living in the backfield.

The OL looked the worst it has looked this year but still much better than UFag last year- hard to comprehend how bad they were in that game- I think if the WRs even presented a challenge to the corners they would have had to play much more conservative in their blitz strategy and the OL would have looked better.
 
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The TE passing game was handled by the defensive scheme where they regularly had bracketed coverage. It goes back to your comment about our WR being trash and pussies. They don't have what it takes to compete and Venebles saw that and let his corners handle them one on one all game. If you can do that defensively the numbers then turn in your favor. Bracket the TE spy the QB and run blitz. Their LBers were living in the backfield.

The OL looked the worst it has looked this year but still much better than UFag last year- hard to comprehend how bad they were in that game- I think if the WRs even presented a challenge to the corners they would have had to play much more conservative in their blitz strategy and the OL would have looked better.
It’s sad when our WRs would rather fight with the refs for a flag than fight with the defender for the ball to make a play.
 
Far from on schedule. On schedule would have been keeping it within 7-10 after 3, not being down 25 with the lone TD being a fluke kick block returned for a TD. It was a massive failure by the O.
I'm not disagreeing with you about the offense. I am disagreeing with you regarding our progress.

We just got a look at what it would be like if we played a championship caliber playoff team and we got beat down true enough. But what would have happened if this were last years team? Clemson would still be scoring on us right now. No field goals, no 80 yard run by King no blocked kicks.(2 is awesome!)

We are better than last year. I think by a wide margin. Honestly no team ranked from #6 back would have kept in within 10 in Clemson. If we lose to Pitt then yes, I'll reevaluate my position.
 
Regardless of how ****** we played on Saturday and boy did we play bad, this idea that players have to be scared of the Coaches to play disciplined or have success is such a fallacy.
Disagree, there needs to be fear of repercussions for continually making stupid mistakes, e.g. lining up offsides, committing your 100th targeting penalty. Whether it's fear or respect for the coaches, our players don't have it and it showed itself clearly on Saturday.
 
Critically important that the team finish out the rest of the year strong so we maintain recruiting momentum. Manny is heading in the right direction (overall). He deserves our support for the rest of the season. This upcoming recruiting class (together with D'Eriq's decision to stay or go) will largely determine Manny's fate as HC. Gotta put this loss behind and finish the season strong. Go Canes.
Manny doesn't "deserve" anything other than that to which he is contractually entitled. If he takes care of business the rest of the season, then he should get our support and keep building. If he doesn't, then we need to BBQ his *** in molasses.
 
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My biggest concern despite the usual bad defensive coaching, penalties, now weekly return gaffe, and Wr issues was just that Lashlee didn’t even try to adapt in the second half.

we got a gift on the blocked kick and were down by only 11 after they totally dominated with like 85-90% time of possession in 1 half.

second half with the ball to start expecting some wrinkles, targets to the tight ends, actual diversity of routes, and it was exactly the same as the half we got raped.

I know Clemson has more talent at most positions but the lack of offensive adaptability and maintenance of the KISS principles was beyond idiotic.
Live by simplicity; die by simplicity. It's why Washington killed Leach every year.

With this sort of offense, if you don't get in a groove and get to take advantage of tempo, you're cooked. Venables and his players knew what we were doing before we did it, and they were waiting on everything we did. We were just a slow, simple offense on Saturday, and better players and good coaches destroyed it.
 
My question is why. Did Lashlee not prepare? Or did he prepare but the players failed to execute? Or did he prepare and the players executed as he gameplanned but Clemson was just so much better than Lashlee expected, it caught him by surprise? I don't know if it's one of the three or a little bit of each. Its difficult to explain. I think we'd all feel better if Lashlee came right out and said, "I f*cked up and choked on national TV. I didn't make the right adjustments or call the right plays. My gameplan didn't survive first contact but I was too stubborn to adapt. It won't happen again."
As I said this is the 1st time I've seen Lashlee fail. Maybe he needed this humiliation to make him reassess the team and make changes (like taking Pope and Harley out of the lineup and going with Smith and Redding). It's better it happened now and he got thoroughly embarrassed by the best team in the country than if it happened against UNC or VT.
If this is the first time you saw Lashlee fail, you were fortunate not to watch the SMU/FAU bowl game from last year. He failed similarly in that game.

I think that the reason we were playing faster and better early in the season was because of the simplicity of Lash's offense. Unfortunately, with a simple offense like ours, if you don't get it rolling, you become a slow, simple offense. And a slow, simple offense is easily ramrodded by Venables and his band of merry marauders. They were flying at the LOS on run plays making it impossible, and we never adjusted.

We also looked scared and quickly dejected on offense. I think the D played with a little more heart and toughness. The O looked like it just rolled over and peed on its own stomach.
 
I've seen Venables struggle with some tempo spread teams in the past and felt we had a shot to at least put some numbers up in a loss, but we never threatened them. The offensive game plan became toss it deep to scrawny WRs who would never come back for the ball and hope that their flailing an stumbling would be construed as PI.
Chise, we've had a problem with an abundant amount of players leaving for the NFL that had no business in doing so. This is the first time I'm hoping our WRs keep that consistency. We need to start shifting towards the younger guys and seeing what they got.
 
Disagree, there needs to be fear of repercussions for continually making stupid mistakes, e.g. lining up offsides, committing your 100th targeting penalty. Whether it's fear or respect for the coaches, our players don't have it and it showed itself clearly on Saturday.
There needs to be accountability, for sure. I just don't agree with a "fear" based approached to leadership. You don't have to be afraid of a coach to perform well.
 
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Clemson went out and executed their game plan. They force teams to cover in space with athletes game in and game out.

Miami did not
 
Frankly I never expected this to be a close game. Clemson is one of the nation's stellar programs. They are loaded throughout their roster with highly ranked future NFL players. Their coaching and game preparation is unmatched in college football.

We were projected to be one of their strongest opponents, and they prepared accordingly. Even though they had only one week. We were also hyped and had TWO weeks to prepare. Even so, only a very few experts or realists IF ANY actually thought we could actually go toe to toe with them. Everything would have had to fall in perfectly in place for that to occur...including officiating, extreme player motivation causing player's to play beyond their abilities, no turnovers and few player errors, combined with exceptional game day coaching. Not surprisingly that didn't happen. We are not in Clemson's league yet...very few teams are. They beat us soundly. We have to recover, look ahead not look back....and learn from that

Face it, its extremely difficult to go from outhouse to penthouse in one year. While I feel were improved, this game showed us that we still have a long way to go in most areas of football. Our two weeks of preparations showed little or no impact on the field. Clemson has a multitude of players who will play on Sundays in the future, we have two maybe three...not counting Rousseau. As some have pointed out, few, if any of our players would be starters at Clemson. I'm not into casting blame at the players. A good coach knows their player"s limitations and plans accordingly. We were not prepared nor did we have the personnel to beat them.

The real proof of how much this team as improved over last year and our future trajectory will come in the games following this loss. We are fully capable with no excuses of winning out our schedule. Whether we do so or not will tell us how much progress has actually been made.
There's a giant chasm between "expecting to beat them" and "expecting not to get anally raped."

I saw what Old Urine did to Alabaga after losing the last 3 games to them by a combined score of 180-40. After getting humiliated 3 straight times, they went in there with a brand new staff and competed all night. We went out and looked like a diarrhea spigot just spraying all over our own sideline.
 
All I got from him prior to the Clemson game was his ability to talk about how long it took Clemson to become Clemson. His players heard that. I don’t care what he tried to say afterwards. What he was saying initially wasn’t good enough for my ears. I don’t think he believed he could compete. And quite frankly that’s how they coached!

I’ll say this if it wasn’t for Bubba, 3, and 8, our defense wouldn’t have shown an ounce of fight to me. We have to get Brooks on the field!

We gave up 32 first downs? We could never get off the field on third down. We literally gave a chunk play, after chunk play, after chunk play. We literally gave up anywhere from 3&8 to 3rd and 20. Clemson left about 20 points on the field with their starters, and benched them with 4 minutes left?

They could have scored 60.

Between our offense not doing anything and not having the ability to convert a third down, and our defense not ever being able to get a third down stop, it was a recipe for disaster.

Lashlee called quite a few 50-50 balls while at SMU. He would use those to get himself out of a jam at times. His receivers there would actually compete for the ball. Somehow, we found a way to recruit the softest South Florida players in college football. We have to get the youngsters some burn. Unless you’re going to run the option, there’s no way you can run a competent offense without at least one receiver being able to play the game.

They bracketed Brevin, stacked the box on first, and dared us to throw to our ***** *** WRs. The rest is history.






Note: notice how Mike’s coaching isn’t the topic of discussion anymore? Notice how number five and number 26 have been swallowed up by Bubba’s shadow? Neither of those guys are playing top ACC level ball, and they have been around a lot longer than Bubba. Notice how Clemson used it’s running backs and their TE against us for most of their chunk plays, or anytime they wanted to move the ball. Baker is the weak link. Our linebackers will continue to cost us games until we coach them up and put the right personnel on the field.
I see how Manny soft-stepped into this game, and then I see who Kiffin went at Baga with his nuts out. Different approaches. Both underdogs lost, but at least they showed up and didn't look intimidated. Leadership can NEVER be underestimated.
 
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The defense played like ****.

They did not play like champs in consideration of anything! They could never get off the ******* field! Our offense could never convert a third down and our defense could never stop them on third down! Didn’t Clemson have a 17 play drive? We couldn’t get off the field.

Both the offense and the defense played like ****! We gave up 32 first downs!
You know how I know we got stomped? Our fans are back to trying to congratulate one side of the ball. LOL. How many 3rd and longs did Clemson convert? We never got off the **** field. As abortions go, the defense was a tidier one while the offense had baby blood and guts spraying all over the operating room.
 
Its as simple as this, Clemson has more talent than us AND they are always highly motivated to kill us! Whatever Virginia was able to do doesn't matter. Remember we beat #3 ND 41-3? We certainly weren't talented enough to do that but we were motivated enough to do that!

Motivation matters and Clemson truly hates our guts. They never show respect and they never take their foot off the gas. They humiliated us by destroying our TO chain on tv right after demolishing us. If they could have shut us out on Saturday, they would have. If they could have scored 60 they would have. We're not business as usual for them. Ever. We always get their best shot

Moral victories aside I believe that we closed the gap a little score wise and defensively. We played against a team with 2 day 1 guys on their offense and shot ourselves in the foot more than once.

We're on schedule guys. They're going to beat us again in December lets see if we've closed the gap further.

As an aside I've added Clemson to the teams I despise right along with FSU, ND and OSU!

Fvck Daboo!


O yeah and King needs to just come on back next year. After this game his stock dropped.
You're contradicting yourself. Clemson's talent advantage was a minor factor in this game. They were better prepared schematically in all aspects. Their motivation was to remind us of their dominance, not from any intrinsic hate for us. They don't consider us a rival.

As far as improvement, who's to say, this beat down was worst than the 2017 ACC championship game by any measure.
 
Live by simplicity; die by simplicity. It's why Washington killed Leach every year.

With this sort of offense, if you don't get in a groove and get to take advantage of tempo, you're cooked. Venables and his players knew what we were doing before we did it, and they were waiting on everything we did. We were just a slow, simple offense on Saturday, and better players and good coaches destroyed it.

With Clemson's supposed sign stealing prowess, it's very well possible they did know what was coming. Not saying that's not part of the game and would have mattered toward the end result... but it did feel like they knew exactly what was coming didn't it?
 
Live by simplicity; die by simplicity. It's why Washington killed Leach every year.

With this sort of offense, if you don't get in a groove and get to take advantage of tempo, you're cooked. Venables and his players knew what we were doing before we did it, and they were waiting on everything we did. We were just a slow, simple offense on Saturday, and better players and good coaches destroyed it.
I know it’s early to evaluate him as OC (here at least) but Venables clearly found a blue print for shutting this style/lack of adaptability down regardless of their talent.

My concern wasn’t as much the talent differential and players that Clemson had, but whether teams with ‘good enough’ defensive talent who generally use the same defensive approaches Venables did (isolate cbs on wrs who don’t catch, fight, or run any interesting routes; play their ends closer to the tackles eliminating the inside runs, etc) can also neuter this offensive approach with a guy who can’t make in game adjustments.

Some teams we play the rest of the year have defenses who’ve gotten scored on a lot but they also have intelligent defensive minded head coaches or dcs (Narduzzi (they are 12th/75 in scoring defense), Bateman).

I was thrilled in games 1-3 that he didn’t overthink things like idiotic Enos. But I hope having to deal with strategy from a defense with ‘any discernible p5 talent’ won’t derail us more. Or maybe Lashlee is a guy who is good enough to beat the teams we’re supposed to beat (so technically still improving. Just not a world beater, etc.) and instead of 6-7 wins per year we can get to 9-10.
 
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