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Fork in the Road

Hegemon said:
I'm going to execute you on the Hecht lawn as a sacrifice to banish whatever evil spirit this post just conjured up.
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Canes Legacy said:
The last 3 years we’ve lost or have been in dogfights with mediocre teams almost every week. It was a literal miracle we didn’t end up 8-4 last year with 2 improbable comebacks.

Why is this the year we start playing to our potential for a full season?
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that's the question to ask and the only way we know if we're actually "over the hump"...

win the games we're supposed to win in convincing fashion..
no dogfights against teams we're double digit favorites over...
compete with the "elite" teams even if we're supposed to lose to them (ND, Clemson)...

If we go 11-1 (lose to ND) but nearly lost 4 or 5 times during the season to very mediocre teams and get blown out by Clemson in the ACCCG.. then I still won't belive we're over the hump...
 
Canes Legacy said:
The last 3 years we’ve lost or have been in dogfights with mediocre teams almost every week. It was a literal miracle we didn’t end up 8-4 last year with 2 improbable comebacks.

Why is this the year we start playing to our potential for a full season?
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100% true… I think Josh Pate said we could go 9-3 and look better than we did last year which very true. We definitely got lucky last year. A 10-2 or 9-3 record would not indicate us being stagnant or regressing. That 10-2 record was fool’s gold.
 
FuriousStyles said:
100% true… I think Josh Pate said we could go 9-3 and look better than we did last year which very true. We definitely got lucky last year. A 10-2 or 9-3 record would not indicate us being stagnant or regressing. That 10-2 record was fool’s gold.
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sorry, but 9-3 regular season schedule in Year 4 for Mario is absolutely not acceptable and proof that Mario isn't "the guy"...
3 losses with this schedule is just "more of the same" that we've had for the past 20 years.. maybe it doesn't show regression from last year but it definitely doesn't show improvement and could indicate a ceiling for Mario...
 
DMoney said:
It's Year 4 of the Cristobal Era. We're entering the season as a Top Ten team. We've signed the best class in the conference three years in the row. We just produced the #1 pick in the NFL Draft, and we have the #1 player in America committed.

It's Year 4 of the Cristobal Era. We still haven't made an ACC Championship game. The whole nation laughed at us when we forgot to kneel the ball. We just lost the Pop Tart Bowl. We didn't sign a Top 10 class last year, and we don't have a Top 10 class this year.

All of that stuff is true at the same time. Now we've hit a fork in the road. Are we getting over the hump, or are we spinning in circles? This will be the most consequential season since 2000.
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Can anyone else feel the desperation through the words pleading with the Canes to get over the hump so DMoney doesn’t have to moonlight as a lawyer anymore?
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
How many coaches in the country are coordinator/assistant coach proof?

This just in, Head Coach needs good staff around him to succeed, more at 11:00.
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Like duhh as a HC you need good coordinators to succeed lol that goes for ANY coach unless you can coach a side of the ball yourself effectively...Marios problem so far has been finding the right combo..I feel good about the Dawson/Heatherman combo tho we'll see.
 
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CaneLife93 said:
Then we could be talking about possibly having 3 acc teams in the playoff. GaTech potentially at 10-2 (beating Colorado), Miami being 10-2 (split FU/DN), and Clemson also being 10-2 (beating LSU, losing to USCe) would probably have 3 top 15 teams all in contention.

Also dependent on SEC and B10 cannibalizing's itself.
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friends fail GIF
 
CaneLife93 said:
Then we could be talking about possibly having 3 acc teams in the playoff. GaTech potentially at 10-2 (beating Colorado), Miami being 10-2 (split FU/DN), and Clemson also being 10-2 (beating LSU, losing to USCe) would probably have 3 top 15 teams all in contention.

Also dependent on SEC and B10 cannibalizing's itself.
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"Quality losses count". "A 3-loss SEC team is better than a 2-loss ACC team" (ignores the fact the same ACC team beat the **** out of an SEC team)
 
CaneLife93 said:
Who are the two losses to?

Because I can't see Miami having one ACC loss and not making the ACCCG. And if we make it to the conference title game, there's a good chance we make it to the playoff as a 11 or 12 seed.

Only team that made a p4 conference title game but did not make the playoff is...Iowa State.
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10-2 loss ND and @SMU

SMU goes 7-1 owns tiebreaker
 
DMoney said:
It's Year 4 of the Cristobal Era. We're entering the season as a Top Ten team. We've signed the best class in the conference three years in the row. We just produced the #1 pick in the NFL Draft, and we have the #1 player in America committed.

It's Year 4 of the Cristobal Era. We still haven't made an ACC Championship game. The whole nation laughed at us when we forgot to kneel the ball. We just lost the Pop Tart Bowl. We didn't sign a Top 10 class last year, and we don't have a Top 10 class this year.

All of that stuff is true at the same time. Now we've hit a fork in the road. Are we getting over the hump, or are we spinning in circles? This will be the most consequential season since 2000.
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Mope….
 
gacaneaddict said:
10-2 loss ND and @SMU

SMU goes 7-1 owns tiebreaker
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Good point, well that could be one unfortunate scenario.

The contrarian in me says there could be 3 top 10 teams in the ACC this year.

SMU lone loss to Clemson (wins against Baylor and TCU)
Clemson undefeated or one loss (LSU or USCe)
Miami with losses to potential top 10 ND and SMU. Could have quality win against a SEC team.
 
FuriousStyles said:
100% true… I think Josh Pate said we could go 9-3 and look better than we did last year which very true. We definitely got lucky last year. A 10-2 or 9-3 record would not indicate us being stagnant or regressing. That 10-2 record was fool’s gold.
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Every single advanced metric you can find on Miami will show you they were, at worst, a Top 15 team. 10-2 isn't fools gold. We lost 2 games by a total of 9 points. We outgained both teams we lost to. Yes, we beat VT by 4 and Cal by 1. We absolutely obliterated everyone else we played.

So we *could* have been 8-4. And we *could* have been 12-0. 10-2 isn't fools gold. That's absurd.
 
Canes Legacy said:
The last 3 years we’ve lost or have been in dogfights with mediocre teams almost every week. It was a literal miracle we didn’t end up 8-4 last year with 2 improbable comebacks.

Why is this the year we start playing to our potential for a full season?
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I firmly believe that every team and season is distinct, and that prior seasons are not instructive.

That said, your thought process is exactly the same one that is blocking me from embracing the idea that we finish better than 9-3. There just always seems to be some stumbling block.

Hopefully, we bulldoze any obstacles this year.
 
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CreamCityCane said:
I think GaTech would have to be the team getting in on a tie breaker vs Miami since we do not play head to head. They would probably lose to Clemson and have to run the table the rest of conference play. The tie breaker would be win percentage vs common opponents (Pitt, VaTech, Cuse, NC State).

Whether you think they can do it is another question, but plenty of people think they could be a dark horse ACC candidate.
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A little early for the:

“How we can still win the ACC” threads isn’t it?
 
FuriousStyles said:
100% true… I think Josh Pate said we could go 9-3 and look better than we did last year which very true. We definitely got lucky last year. A 10-2 or 9-3 record would not indicate us being stagnant or regressing. That 10-2 record was fool’s gold.
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
Every single advanced metric you can find on Miami will show you they were, at worst, a Top 15 team. 10-2 isn't fools gold. We lost 2 games by a total of 9 points. We outgained both teams we lost to. Yes, we beat VT by 4 and Cal by 1. We absolutely obliterated everyone else we played.

So we *could* have been 8-4. And we *could* have been 12-0. 10-2 isn't fools gold. That's absurd.
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I agree with Pate that 9-3 in '25 could actually "look better" across the board than 10-2 in '24.

10-2 wasn't fools gold. We won a couple close ones and lost a couple close ones. We just weren't "national contender" level.
 
If the defense is just slightly better, I think we’re in a good position.
I think Beck is gonna make some people look silly. He’s not Cam Ward, but I think he’s easily one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the country.
 
Brains said:
I agree with Pate that 9-3 in '25 could actually "look better" across the board than 10-2 in '24.

10-2 wasn't fools gold. We won a couple close ones and lost a couple close ones. We just weren't "national contender" level.
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Definitely not. We were exactly who we wound up being. One of the 10-12 best teams in America, because we had the singular best offense in the country, paired with a well below-average defense. When you're off the page efficient on one side, you're most likely going to be a very good team, regardless of how the other side is (within reason). It was a truly horrible defense, but it's not like every single team just manhandled us. When we played equal bad offenses (FSU, Wake, USF, most of the Duke game), the defense looked competent. But when we played good offenses (Syracuse, Louisville), we got ******* obliterated.

But it was nowhere near "fool's gold". We didn't need multiple lucky plays to win games. We didn't need total ineptitude from other teams, like GT did to beat us in 2023. We just played offense for 60 minutes, and that was good enough to win all our games, except we had one game where the offense wasn't absurdly prolific (GT), and we lost, because our defense couldn't get off the field.

The team ended up exactly who they were. A very good football team, a very deserving 10 win team, but not a national title contender because the offense was light-years better than the defense.

If we can slide slightly back on offense while sliding decently up on defense, the team can be even better this year. National championship contending good? We'll see. But I see no reason why the team can't be at least as good as last year, and last year was a very good TEAM.
 
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