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How Do We Fix The O-Line?

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Run. The. Spread. It's so simple yet I bet we don't make the change. There is literally no other way to scheme around an O-line as atrocious as this one.

If we keep running plays under center we might as well just punt the ball as soon as we get it and hope we score solely on defense.
 
Ethnicsands said:
I have been patiently explaining to you and others for years and years that I don’t care about stars as such - it is EVALUATIONS that matter. When you want to claim we have talent you point to stars. Okay. And yet once again our talent was not close to sufficient where it mattered - ON THE FIELD. Youth is a convenient explanation, because it can’t be disproven for years. And if those guys don’t develop, then we’ll have some other young guys to hope the future on.

The reason, in any case, that we have so much dependence on youth is that our TALENT is deficient. We had Brown, the LSU transfer 4*, who left the team before this season, with eligibility remaining. I guess the 4*s weren’t enough. Boulware left early.

It doesn’t really matter at all whether we can be hopeful about some young guys who may or may not be good down the road. Let’s just agree we need more game ready talent on this OL or we wil not be competitive against the top teams.
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Actually, when l talk about talent I point to the NFL. You know, successful evaluations. You didn’t like those facts, so you went with stars until they started conflicting with your narrative.

Youth is not a “convenient excuse.” It’s a reality that we’ve been talking about all offseason. Offensive line is the ultimate development position. We will see what Barry is all about as these players get more experience.
 
Ive been against moving Scaffie to tackle, but it has to be done. I dont know what Nelson looks like at RT, but Campbell was ***. MUST switch to the spread. Jarren had an arm on him, and can be a very good QB. Enos better not show hes a stubborn ******, or Diaz will replace him in a hurry. Even though we had chances to win, offensive coaches did not do there job last night at all.
 
Gator Hatar said:
Lets be honest, there was pressure up the middle too. We can focus on Campbell and Nelson, but Gaynor, Scaife and Donaldson were getting pushed back too. We just don't have the OL talent and just have to hope they get better.
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The interior line played well considering the fact that they were going against a quality opponent. Donaldson had a very good game.
 
We all knew the OL was weakest point on team coming in. I blame that on recruiting previous 3 years than I do this staff. The puzzling part to me was the lack of help.and scheming in the play calling..Keep an extra blocker in. What good does it do to have the extra wide receiver when you do not have time to throw the ball.. Also puzzled with the slow developing plays called. Second half even the announcers talked about these issues in the second half.
 
WhatTheHell said:
Serious schematic/personnel discussions only.

Short of building a time machine and making guys like Evan Neal sign at gunpoint the last 3 seasons, what are our options?

1. Any chance Cleveland Reed be put at guard and Scaife/Donaldson be kicked out to Tackle? Are either of them versatile enough to slide out? How ready is Reed?

2. Herbert and Hillery should be given snaps vs UNC without a doubt. See how they respond in-game. I know people use this line a lot, but this time, it might actually be impossible to play worse than our tackles did last night.

3. Enos needs to go back to the drawing board. Spread the field, wider splits, stop trying to power run people like you’re at Bama. I believe our best runs of the night were made by DeeJay breaking 35 tackles out of the wildcat. We’re not bulldozing anyone in traditional offensive schemes.

4. Enos needs to help the tackles more. These guys were on islands a majority of the night. I think I saw some chipping and releasing toward the end, but let’s keep a tight end or a back in more often to help. Late in the 4th quarter, for example, DeeJay had one of the most beautiful blitz pickups I’ve ever seen.

5. I’d say more screens as an initial reaction to this issue, but I feel like we threw several.


So can we reconfigure the line and move a guard out to tackle? If not, Hillery and Herber have to get snaps vs UNC early. Find someone who can even put up a fight.

We allowed 16 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, and 5 QB hurries. Something has to change if we want any success in conference this year.

What’s your solution?
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Laying off the excessive play action calls and using shotgun would help. Probably need to put Scaife at one tackle spot and keep an in line TE next to the other tackle. I am curious to see if a defense like UNC can expose the tackles the way UF did.
 
DMoney said:
Actually, when l talk about talent I point to the NFL. You know, successful evaluations. You didn’t like those facts, so you went with stars until they started conflicting with your narrative.

Youth is not a “convenient excuse.” It’s a reality that we’ve been talking about all offseason. Offensive line is the ultimate development position. We will see what Barry is all about as these players get more experience.
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That is an untrue narrative. You trolled the nfl point without serious analysis. Zion Nelson may end up in the nfl. Doesn’t mean he was prepared to play last night. An OL requires experience, depth, and preparation. Having a kid or two who one day will play on Sunday doesn’t make it talented in any way that has meaning on Saturdays, and you know it. Moreover, recruiting projects with upside might help your future nfl stats, but it may not be a good way to get a talented OL to perform successfully in college.

Youth is an excuse if you are claiming we have enough talent. Playing unprepared freshmen is what you have to do when you lack talent, sadly.

Maybe they’ll all mature and turn out to be great. I sure wouldn’t bet my career on that if I were Manny. We need better recruiting and better evaluations at OL. We need capable upper classmen who can populate the majority of the two-deep. We should never be relying on a true frosh 2* recruit to start at LT, and if we must, we should easily agree that talent is a problem.

As I have been saying since 2003 - it’s not talent or coaching - it’s BOTH coaching and talent that has been lacking. Talent as in experience, depth, game ready talent. We haven’t even had a full roster in ages. We lose our best juniors. We lack competition for key positions. Roll that up, and it’s a lack of talent relevant to the University of Miami in 2019, even if some of our kids will play in the NFL in 2024.
 
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Ethnicsands said:
That is an untrue narrative. You trolled the nfl point without serious analysis. Zion Nelson may end up in the nfl. Doesn’t mean he was prepared to play last night. An OL requires experience, depth, and preparation. Having a kid or two who one day will play on Sunday doesn’t make it talented in any way that has meaning on Saturdays, and you know it. Moreover, recruiting projects with upside might help your future nfl stats, but it may not be a good way to get a talented OL to perform successfully in college.

Youth is an excuse if you are claiming we have enough talent. Playing unprepared freshmen is what you have to do when you lack talent, sadly.

Maybe they’ll all mature and turn out to be great. I sure wouldn’t bet my career on that if I were Manny. We need better recruiting and better evaluations at OL. We need capable upper classmen who can populate the majority of the two-deep. We should never be relying on a true frosh 2* recruit to start at LT, and if we must, we should easily agree that talent is a problem.

As I have been saying since 2003 - it’s not talent or coaching - it’s BOTH coaching and talent that has been lacking. Talent as in experience, depth, game ready talent. We haven’t even had a full roster in ages. We lose our best juniors. We lack competition for key positions. Roll that up, and it’s a lack of talent relevant to the University of Miami in 2019, even if some of our kids will play in the NFL in 2024.
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As I said before the season, we are feeling the effects of a goose egg in the 2016 transition OL class. Having UF in the first game and going against two fourth-year DEs exposed that gap.

By any objective measure (NFL, star ratings), we will have more OL talent than any team on our schedule. But we are young at a position that requires age. The true test will be the progress over the course of the season.
 
DMoney said:
As I said before the season, we are feeling the effects of a goose egg in the 2016 transition OL class. Having UF in the first game and going against two fourth-year DEs exposed that gap.

By any objective measure (NFL, star ratings), we will have more OL talent than any team on our schedule. But we are young at a position that requires age. The true test will be the progress over the course of the season.
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Claiming our OL problems are a result of one recruiting class strikes me as incredible. I cannot imagine that you seriously believe that.

And you need to rethink your definition of talent if you believe your second statement. You sound fixated on random future nfl outcomes as a measure of talent, as if it means anything to us this year, or any year. A true frosh who is forced to play before he’s ready isn’t talent for our purposes, even if he has a future in the nfl. We need game ready talent with experience. As a unit, moreover, not just some individuals. I do not care one lick if they play pro afterwards or not. They need to be talented in the sense that they can help us win in college. Coming back in 6 years and telling me that we started a talented line against florida because nelson made the nfl is the sort of unhelpful statistic we are debating, I guess. We all know the line we started last night was not talented for the purposes of that game, irrespective of what those kids mature into years down the road.
 
You can shuffle the deck if you want. In whatever combination they will struggle. The good news is they have a coach with nfl experience. They need starts together, and a yearly infusion of talented Jimmies and Joes. Progress won’t be overnight or linear. It’s gonna be a rough ride. And Enos has to help out anyway he can.
 
WhatTheHell said:
Serious schematic/personnel discussions only.

Short of building a time machine and making guys like Evan Neal sign at gunpoint the last 3 seasons, what are our options?

1. Any chance Cleveland Reed be put at guard and Scaife/Donaldson be kicked out to Tackle? Are either of them versatile enough to slide out? How ready is Reed?

2. Herbert and Hillery should be given snaps vs UNC without a doubt. See how they respond in-game. I know people use this line a lot, but this time, it might actually be impossible to play worse than our tackles did last night.

3. Enos needs to go back to the drawing board. Spread the field, wider splits, stop trying to power run people like you’re at Bama. I believe our best runs of the night were made by DeeJay breaking 35 tackles out of the wildcat. We’re not bulldozing anyone in traditional offensive schemes.

4. Enos needs to help the tackles more. These guys were on islands a majority of the night. I think I saw some chipping and releasing toward the end, but let’s keep a tight end or a back in more often to help. Late in the 4th quarter, for example, DeeJay had one of the most beautiful blitz pickups I’ve ever seen.

5. I’d say more screens as an initial reaction to this issue, but I feel like we threw several.


So can we reconfigure the line and move a guard out to tackle? If not, Hillery and Herber have to get snaps vs UNC early. Find someone who can even put up a fight.

We allowed 16 tackles for loss, 11 sacks, and 5 QB hurries. Something has to change if we want any success in conference this year.

What’s your solution?
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You don’t fix it. Your players are who they are. Hard to judge them off one game.

One game I played in our offensive line got destroyed. Our line made mental mistakes and used poor technique

The next game we dominated upfront and the offensive line became a strength of the team

With that being said. I would wait to judge them. You upfront is hard to over come.

There will be mistakes and sometimes being physically outmatched
 
DMoney said:
Interesting that you go back to the star system. We have more 4 star OL than the rest of the Coastal combined, and started a higher rated OL than UF. Our OL was actually rated higher out of high school than UF’s DL.

We have one junior and no seniors in our top 10 OL. That is unheard of and can’t be stressed enough. We are incredibly young on offense and it showed yesterday.
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And while we are young now and crap, in two years we will be experienced crap.no excuse for this level of oline ineptitude ..
 
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The U Code said:
Laying off the excessive play action calls and using shotgun would help. Probably need to put Scaife at one tackle spot and keep an in line TE next to the other tackle. I am curious to see if a defense like UNC can expose the tackles the way UF did.
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You nailed it. Scaffie at LT with Irvin next to him, with J Will in the shotgun.
 
Canesfan1899 said:
Who says Clark is ready to start? We’ve tried Donaldson at tackle and he doesn’t have the feet. I agree with Scaife to LT and Reed at LG.
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Agree on Donaldson, way too slow on the outside. Even if tackle isn't DJ's best position, we're not even looking for 'good' out of those spots right now. All we're looking for is "only gives up 1 or 2 sacks a game" as opposed to six or seven.

Scaife-Donaldson-Gaynor-Reed/Campbell-Zion/Campbell/Lou Hedley/A scarecrow
 
Hillery is not the answer for anything at OT. He is not a University of Miami caliber player.

Would love to try Donaldson at center if our coaches stick to Zion/Campbell at OT. Reed at G. Gaynor was just as bad as Zion and Campbell.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
caneworld said:
Start with going shotgun primarily...
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I mentioned last week I had concern with a play action based offense because the OTs wouldn’t be able to hold their blocks.

I was at the game so I need to rewatch it on tv, but I will say that we likely won’t see DEs as talented as UF for the rest of the year. Maybe FSU, but they lost burns. I’m gonna take a look at the pre-season ACC unit rankings when I get a chance. The teams with the best DLs are where we need to make adjustments.

The rest of the teams are gonna have to blitz more. Jarren is accurate. I think we will see him pick apart lesser squads fairly easily. We also aren’t gonna face any CJ Henderson caliber DBs in the coastal.

I, for one, am happy we went to a power blocking scheme (if that’s what we did). The zone blocking **** hasn’t worked. Again, the quality of the opponent matters. Freshman tackles simply aren’t gonna push around the gators in week 1. The schedule wasn’t kind to us.

We have a 3 game stretch to let them sharpen their teeth and get prepared for the meat of the conference play. I think we will see the proper adjustments made, whatever those are.
 
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