They are tougher by virtue of the fact that Linda is gone.
Having no depth and being forced to play injured players is why Linder performed so poorly, when will people acknowledge that?
And losing experienced upperclassmen to transfers is not going to improve that depth.
I'm all for depth, but these guys transferring out and leaving early with the exception of Njoku and Kaaya have done so because they lost their starting job. What kind of impact can you honestly expect from players who would rather go somewhere else than stay at Miami and work for their position? Depth is great, but that kind of depth, the kind getting passed on the chart by freshmen, is the kind that we don't need. Especially on the O-line. They commit stupid penalties and get other players hurt. How many times did Linda get beat and the DT hit Walton as soon as he touched the ball? How many times was Odogwu flagged for a false start coming out of a timeout?
I'm going to stop you right there.
So many people on this board are completely clueless as to what is meant by "depth". It is about more than just who is first-string and who is second-string on Saturdays.
Most people on this board have never been to a college football practice, or know how they are run in the limited time that we have.
Just because a guy is first-string doesn't mean he takes all the reps in every practice. Even third-stringers play important roles in practice, an offensive lineman, no matter how good he is, is not going to get every rep at his position for every practice.
I realize that maybe only 60 guys will play important roles in games, but every player plays a role at practice, either as competition, or to give other guys spells where the coaches can coach certain players face-to-face while the rest of the practice session continues. And that's not even getting into the fact that guys leaving the program are upperclassmen, who provide a lot of guidance and teaching. I don't care if you sign a class of 50 great freshmen, even the upperclassmen who will eventually be beaten out for their jobs have a value in providing depth for the team.
Guys on this board like to act like coaching a college team is like playing a game on X-Box. There's a **** good reason why the best in the business (Saban, Meyer, etc.) work so hard to stay at 85 RECRUITED SCHOLARSHIP players. Not "73 and a dozen walk-ons"...
If people think that it is better to have a walk-on running back pushing Trayone Gray for 3rd string...INSTEAD OF HAVING GUS...they need their heads examined.
And that has NOTHING to do with how many reps Gus was going to get or whether he was going to the NFL, or anything else. We didn't replace Gus with a better scholarship player, and Gus was going to be gone before we sign Storm 18. We would be better off, as a TEAM, having Gus on scholarship rather than turning to a walk-on. Same with Linder.
