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interesting take on the offensive line after week 1 of camp

JHallCanes said:
Think Rodriguez is poised to have a great year (or maybe I’m just Bob Rossing myself)

He filled in for Matt Lee against Rutgers and was very good and then had a very good game against UiF before he was injured

It’s been a while since we have seen him but was going back a ways and he had some good games
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Yea im not really worried about center besides health and depth
 
LuCane said:
If that's really what we do, it makes no sense to me. We got into rock fights last year and won games on the margins. Why in the world would you want to do that with a more fragile OL? Why in the world would you TRY to "hold on" to leads (again)?

I think you're posting this so that I'm unable to go to sleep in peace. Good job!
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i agree & sorry to zap your sleep. I haven’t been to practice yet but speaking with people who have. One who was a former OL. We came off a generational OL last year.

This year we have really special pieces that are not super experienced. And overall this OL doesn’t have a ton of snaps together. We also have 4-5 rbs who could probably start or get meaningful snaps anywhere in the country.

Pass blocking is much more nuanced than run blocking and all the calls and slides can be tough for a new unit.

It’s a long season, it’s going to take time for them to gel. But at the end of the day, Mensah threw for 4k yards behind a shotty duke OL so maybe it doesn’t matter that much! 🤷🏽‍♂️
 
E1k said:
Yea im not really worried about center besides health and depth
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Yeah agree I’ve said it a bunch but the only sort of concern is Samson/McCoy/Rodriguez are keys to the OL this year and have struggled staying healthy. Maybe struggled isn’t the right word but since Mario has been here we’ve rarely missed snaps from our starting OL due to injuries

Rodriguez was a freak ankle injury IIRC? Probably not fair to label him injury prone (speaking to myself not you)
 
JHallCanes said:
Yeah agree I’ve said it a bunch but the only sort of concern is Samson/McCoy/Rodriguez are keys to the OL this year and have struggled staying healthy. Maybe struggled isn’t the right word but since Mario has been here we’ve rarely missed snaps from our starting OL due to injuries

Rodriguez was a freak ankle injury IIRC? Probably not fair to label him injury prone (speaking to myself not you)
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I'm kind of torn on this. I'm almost already tired of talking about this and it's only August 11th, what more can we say? But then again, it's only August 11th, what the **** else are we supposed to talk about?

But my brain keeps bouncing back and forth on....he was hurt in 2024 for essentially the season, and that was Year 4 for him. Redshirt Junior. But he was healthy enough in 2025, Year 5, for him to play in every single game. He appeared in all 16 games we played. But headed into the season, why did we go after Brockermeyer? We obviously didn't trust Rodriguez to man that spot. But, now we do?

If I want to be optimistic, I'll say the staff knew they had a championship contender, and didn't want to leave the center position to a kid coming off a season-ending injury, so they went and got a plug-and-play starter to anchor their line. Now that Rodriguez played all last year with no issues, they feel they can count on him, so they didn't dip back into the portal.

Remember, Brockermeyer committed in December 2024. Well before the staff would've known Rodriguez could play all of 2025. So maybe they just felt they couldn't take the chance, but now they have no concerns on him, and they're giving him the keys.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I'm kind of torn on this. I'm almost already tired of talking about this and it's only August 11th, what more can we say? But then again, it's only August 11th, what the **** else are we supposed to talk about?

But my brain keeps bouncing back and forth on....he was hurt in 2024 for essentially the season, and that was Year 4 for him. Redshirt Junior. But he was healthy enough in 2025, Year 5, for him to play in every single game. He appeared in all 16 games we played. But headed into the season, why did we go after Brockermeyer? We obviously didn't trust Rodriguez to man that spot. But, now we do?

If I want to be optimistic, I'll say the staff knew they had a championship contender, and didn't want to leave the center position to a kid coming off a season-ending injury, so they went and got a plug-and-play starter to anchor their line. Now that Rodriguez played all last year with no issues, they feel they can count on him, so they didn't dip back into the portal.

Remember, Brockermeyer committed in December 2024. Well before the staff would've known Rodriguez could play all of 2025. So maybe they just felt they couldn't take the chance, but now they have no concerns on him, and they're giving him the keys.
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I think your first paragraph sums it up perfectly

I was ready for the Wet Bulb and Bench Press weeks ago

Stanford is gonna get mauled that’s all I know
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I'm kind of torn on this. I'm almost already tired of talking about this and it's only August 11th, what more can we say? But then again, it's only August 11th, what the **** else are we supposed to talk about?

But my brain keeps bouncing back and forth on....he was hurt in 2024 for essentially the season, and that was Year 4 for him. Redshirt Junior. But he was healthy enough in 2025, Year 5, for him to play in every single game. He appeared in all 16 games we played. But headed into the season, why did we go after Brockermeyer? We obviously didn't trust Rodriguez to man that spot. But, now we do?

If I want to be optimistic, I'll say the staff knew they had a championship contender, and didn't want to leave the center position to a kid coming off a season-ending injury, so they went and got a plug-and-play starter to anchor their line. Now that Rodriguez played all last year with no issues, they feel they can count on him, so they didn't dip back into the portal.

Remember, Brockermeyer committed in December 2024. Well before the staff would've known Rodriguez could play all of 2025. So maybe they just felt they couldn't take the chance, but now they have no concerns on him, and they're giving him the keys.
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To me there was an urgency in the portal last year because was they weren’t gonna repeat what we did with the 2024 secondary. Mario after the year took blame, he’s not a db coach, he knew we should have brung more talent in.

Kinda why i wish there was another portal window..And id like to know what would be our targets
 
David Lake on his latest podcast basically took a blowtorch to all the @DMoney OL takes for the Spring/Fall.

He doubled down on his Cantwell blasphemy.

Far cry from Cantwell had LT locked down and would be best OL in the ACC by November.

Hopefully Lake is just being the mopey Debbie Downer **** he loves to cosplay.

Rachel Dratch Television GIF by Saturday Night Live
 
Mirabal wants the best 5 OL on the field together. We haven’t really seen this group together, in pads, running plays yet. Clearly McCoy, Okunlola, and Rodriguez are fairly locked in. Rodriguez is a Center but McCoy and Okunlola can play G or T. The real question is who are the other 2 best players in Mirabal’s eyes and who are the next 3 guys who might be needed to fill in somewhere.
Once those guys are identified you have to figure out who works better together and which players are better as a G or T? There is a group of young guys who we have heard positive things about through Spring, Summer workouts and now early Fall Camp. Hard to tell how things will shake out between Cantwell, Congdon, Buchanan, SJ, Wilkerson and even Ervin. Not many people take SJ as seriously as some others but Mirabal has consistently gone out of his way to praise him. Of this group, SJ and Buchanan are the only interior players exclusively. All others have been T’s.
Can’t wait to see how this OL comes together and how much rotation there might be. I don’t expect young guys to play entire games early on. The schedule sets up where we should have the ability to play lots of guys in the first 4 games.
 
Gocanes1990 said:
Pass blocking is much more nuanced than run blocking and all the calls and slides can be tough for a new unit.
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I'm gonna say it again for the folks in the back:
Pass blocking is much more nuanced than run blocking and all the calls and slides can be tough for a new unit.

This is why I agree with you that we will remain a run first offense, at least until we get a few games (and more importantly, game tape) under our belts. We can then analyze the tape, adjust and correct. Hopefully we pass a lot more the second half of the season. I also fully acknowledge that I'm not an insider, nor a coach. I could be completely wrong. However, my eyes, age and experience tell me that what's been outlined in these few sentences historically stands true with young OL - they're just better at road grading than they are finessing.

Being run first also does not guarantee low scoring games.
 
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ageezy said:
i've said it over and over ... they better get us now because we're about to have "alabama in their prime" oline play
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And…Might have better skill players than the great Bama teams. Especially if we continue to lock down South Florida. The portal makes it so much easier to fill holes with proven players. Mario takes full advantage of it. Miami could go on a run like college football has never seen.
 
TrumpyCane said:
Trumpycane thinks Samson is the opposite of a typical 5* college football player these days

Kid could have easily transferred anytime in the last 3 years, especially his first two but the kid grinded, trusted Mario and Mirabal and now has the opportunity to showcase his talents at a high level instead of transferring to some **** hole like FSU
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I think he's a darkhorse to be a 1st rounder. He has everything you need.
 
D_G87 said:
Congdon is more ready to play than Cantwell? Interesting
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If you don’t start Cantwell you are committing coaching malpractice. McCoy was awful at tackle. Let Cantwell take his lumps like Francis. I’d rather see that than watching McCoy struggle.
 
JHallCanes said:
D_G87 said:
Congdon is more ready to play than Cantwell? Interesting
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Not gonna play the “told you so” game but Cantwell was always a long ways off. I commented this a bunch when he was being recruited (same as the kid that went to USC) and a few people were bold enough to agree

His ceiling is almost unmatchable though it’s actually encouraging to me he’s already in the mix. Might be some growing pains but I think he’s ahead of schedule still
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He will start by end of the season we paid he way too much to sit on the bench. Also risk the portal too.
 
SIBCanes said:
He will start by end of the season we paid he way too much to sit on the bench. Also risk the portal too.
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Agreed though I think he starts game 1

Some combo of Samson/McCoy/Cantwell/Rodriguez and who wins from Congdon or Buchanan

Feel like Ervin will push for playing time. There’s no one on Cantwells level as far as pure potential but wouldn’t be the most shocking thing to me if Ervin was the one that gets drafted highest. His high school tape is bigtime. Meriweather is a bit of a wild card just because of the injury

Lots of uncertainty but lots to like as well right?
 
Gables Canes said:
Who is the backup RT? Wilkerson?
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On paper? Or if our starter actually got hurt in a game?

On paper probably Wilkerson. In actual game the OT job for both sides is likely to be 2 of McCoy/Samson/Cantwell regardless. Wilkerson likely 4th up.

At this point I’m assuming Samson and McCoy will be the starting OTs with Cantwell being both guys’ primary backup while ALSO starting the season at LG. And the two starting guards will be Cantwell and Buchanan with Congdon being the primary backup Guard for both spots. SJ likely gets some rotation at Guard spots as well (even though undersized and should be center exclusively) as serving as the primary backup center

So like the reality of the OLine depth chart is more like:

Lt: Okunlola / Cantwell / Wilkerson /
LG: Cantwell / SJ or Congdon / Meriweather
C: Rodriguez / SJ / Buchanan / Woodrow
RG: Buchanan / Congdon or SJ /
RT: McCoy / Cantwell / Wilkerson /

Where you prioritize OT and Center if effected by health, and THEN you fill Guard spots after that.
 
JHallCanes said:
SIBCanes said:
He will start by end of the season we paid he way too much to sit on the bench. Also risk the portal too.
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Agreed though I think he starts game 1

Some combo of Samson/McCoy/Cantwell/Rodriguez and who wins from Congdon or Buchanan

Feel like Ervin will push for playing time. There’s no one on Cantwells level as far as pure potential but wouldn’t be the most shocking thing to me if Ervin was the one that gets drafted highest. His high school tape is bigtime. Meriweather is a bit of a wild card just because of the injury

Lots of uncertainty but lots to like as well right?
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It is a good problem to have I think we will also see heavy lines with an extra end too since we don’t have a huge blocking TE
 
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