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I saw great things last night and the foundation of a great team is in place

The Svengali

The Svengali

Sophomore
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
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After big losses it’s hard for me to sleep; I toss and turn all night reliving the game and missed plays like a bad nightmare. It hurts to lose to the Gators, but last night I slept well. Why?

The team showed BIG heart and fought like **** to the bitter end. Nobody quit, and that’s encouraging. And think about this: as bad as our OL played (and that’s possibly the worst OL play I’ve ever seen) incredibly we had a legit shot at stealing the game. We were literally thiiiiiiiiuus close from stealing it.

We were in scoring position to win the game, even though we had 14 penalties for 118 yards (essentially a TD), 10 sacks allowed from a young OL with two Freshman tackles, a RS freshman QB, and after JT gave them 14 points

The things I saw last night are all FIXABLE and the players on the OL will improve with more experience.

Missed tackles on the gators 1st TD? Fixable; that’s what happens in first games.

11 of the 14 penalties were on the young OL? Fixable. Inexperience and jitters got the best of the young tackles

QB1 holding the ball far too long too often? Fixable. He will learn to throw it away as the season goes on

Enos not chipping and helping the OL? Fixable. Enos Didn’t call a great game in the 2nd half, but I think part of it was seeing how guys react in a game setting for the first time. He will improve and learn from this game.

The defense fought like **** and did everything in their power to win it, even though field position was bad most of the game. The had 4 turnovers and two huge 4th quarter picks that gave us a chance to win it on two occasions. That’s very encouraging, and the D will be even better when Trevon Hill and Roussau start eating into Patchans minutes. Put simply, I think Garvin should switch back to left and we should start Hill on the right. I like Patchan, but he should be a reserve, and not starting.

Lastly, I really like what Manny is doing and last night showed me he’s definitely the guy. He showed he can get the team to play hard and maintain intensity when facing adversity. The only two guys that were overwhelmed by it all were the Freshman tackles, and that was somewhat expected. The offense is young snd there are lots of young guys on D too.

The foundation for a great team and great program is in place, and i haven’t felt like this in 14 years. We are going to be OK
 
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Great analysis. Hope we see more of Hill & Roussau in NC (and Bubba B). Even with all of the mistakes if JT hadn't fumbled and/or Mallory had caught pass Canes would have won the game! A lot of good to be excited about after watching replay (along with the bad that will get cleaned up by NC) think it's going to be a great ride this year. GO CANES!
 
I agree on almost everything, especially the overall takeaways from the game. On the chipping in particular, I believe Manny was quoted as saying 2 things of note: (1) sometimes there was a call for chipping and we failed to execute it on the play (still a coaching issue in my book); and (2) the sacks are too often skewed to the OL (while they have to shoulder a healthy dose of the blame, JW did them no favors on a few of the sacks).
 
Also, we should all be encouraged by what we saw from Jarren. That guy stood in there, and did many good things in the face of a consistently collapsing pocket and intense heat. He showed huge heart, didn’t get happy feet, and I think he’s a championship caliber QB. As the OL comes along and as he gains more experience that guy is going to be tremendous.

His upside is near limitless, he was throwing with great accuracy while under duress, and he showed heart and toughness. He showed me a lot - many traits you can’t teach - and I think he’s a championship caliber QB
 
GOCanes4420 said:
Yes. Have you seen a worse Oline?
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Hard to say. They were playing a VERY good defense in a pretty hostile/loud environment. When do you think they will play again in a place that is that loud or against DEs that good? UNC may be loud, but not nearly as good. What maybe @ FSU in November?

I refuse to judge them based off of just that game. However, they obviously have a lot to work on. I just don't want to judge them based off of one game against a solid opponent. It will be interesting to see if there are changes made once tape is looked over by the staff.
 
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frostycane said:
Hard to say. They were playing a VERY good defense in a pretty hostile/loud environment. When do you think they will play again in a place that is that loud or against DEs that good? UNC may be loud, but not nearly as good. What maybe @ FSU in November?

I refuse to judge them based off of just that game. However, they obviously have a lot to work on. I just don't want to judge them based off of one game against a solid opponent. It will be interesting to see if there are changes made once tape is looked over by the staff.
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Fsu doesn't even have the same pass rushers as uf. Kaindoh was highly ranked but hasn't did much.
 
252cane said:
No team on the schedule has DEs as good as uf.
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100% agree. And the OL and OTs will continue to grow and get better as the season goes along.

I know some are calling for a shakeup on the OL and for Scaife to move out to LT, but I disagree and I think that would be a mistake.

Let Nelson and Campbell continue to play / start and allow them to grow. The upside is there and they’ll get better. I think that’s going to be a championship OL one day.

Im a cowboys fan, and i remember Larry Allen’s first few games, and I was convinced he was the worst OLman I’d ever seen, even though JJ said he would be great one day. He was getting man handled out there and I was incensed.

With more experience he turned the corner, and Allen ended up being one of the best OLman the game has ever seen. I’m going to trust our coaches, here. All of them are high on Nelson, in particular, and Barry is a firmer NFL coach. I refuse to believe all of them are wrong about him. He needs time
 
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252cane said:
Fsu doesn't even have the same pass rushers as uf. Kaindoh was highly ranked but hasn't did much.
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I was just saying a far as crowd noise and possible talent. I agree I think it would be a potential ACCCG against Clemson. But I didn't want to seem like I was assuming anything, like us making that game. I just think we can make a legit run with what we have. I do think we will get better, I was let down but if I am being realistic not surprised that we struggled against that D. Gotta give them credit. Their Defense is good. Just like last year against LSU. Now its a matter of how do we react to adversity?
 
frostycane said:
I was just saying a far as crowd noise and possible talent. I agree I think it would be a potential ACCCG against Clemson. But I didn't want to seem like I was assuming anything, like us making that game. I just think we can make a legit run with what we have. I do think we will get better, I was let down but if I am being realistic not surprised that we struggled against that D. Gotta give them credit. Their Defense is good. Just like last year against LSU. Now its a matter of how do we react to adversity?
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OT - True Freshman
OG - True Junior
C - RS Soph
OG - True Sophmore
OT - RS Freshman
TE - True Sophomore
TE2 - True Sophmore
QB - RS Freshman
RB - True Junior
RB2 - True Sophmore
RB3 - True Sophmore


Look at that young core, with little to no experience, and we still HAD them beat (a veteran top 10 team)

How can anyone not be encouraged by this core group? Not to mention the young WRs we have (Wiggins, Hightower, Pope). That’s going to be a championship core

This is the best I’ve felt about the program in 14 years
 
Florida is coming off one of the worst off-seasons in memory and tried their best to hand us the game. And we still couldn't get it done because we couldn't do anything right or stay out of our own way. Can't say I understand being resoundingly optimistic as a result of watching our team play that game. Some good. Some bad. But nothing indicative of some big pendulum swing.
 
rokulika said:
Florida is coming off one of the worst off-seasons in memory and tried their best to hand us the game. And we still couldn't get it done because we couldn't do anything right or stay out of our own way. Can't say I understand being resoundingly optimistic as a result of watching our team play that game. Some good. Some bad. But nothing indicative of some big pendulum swing.
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Florida, a top 10 team, returned 8-9 starters on defense, their top 7 WRs, their top RB , their starting QB, and infused their defensive front with a beastly transfer from Louisville (high draft choice). All that veteran talent, yet we HAD that game won, despite being ridicoulsly young on offense with very little game experience from the QB position and OL (and we have many young studs on D too)

Now, Juxtapose Saturday’s game with UF against the LSU game last year...a game we featured a veteran offense and defense and got the doors blown off.

The loss hurts, but I’m optimistic. And Jarren showed me a lot
 
At this level, some things shouldn’t need fixing. Even during first game.

A D1 coordinator shouldn’t need much time to figure out how to help his OL w a pass rush
 
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