Josh Pate Mail Bag 10/25

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I know this is a joke, but I genuinely think there are some people on this board who enjoy watching us lose. They would rather be right about their predictions instead of seeing the program find success.
That’s just not true…I don’t remember a whole lot of complaining happening in 2017. If you’re talking about trying to be overly optimistic before any tangible evidence, then that’s different
 
That’s just not true…I don’t remember a whole lot of complaining happening in 2017. If you’re talking about trying to be overly optimistic before any tangible evidence, then that’s different
Its a weird thought to have. Its not true at all. Alot of people are tired of the off-season hype with no results to back it up.

Like you said. Go back to 17 and read threads. Everyone was thinking possible playoffs. Look at the ND game. The entire fanbase was excited and thought we were on the way back.
 
It worked for Mich St last year. Cost them this season. Balance is key & probably hard to achieve when transitioning. For 8 million a year, a coach should be able to execute it.

I don't think you go get a bunch of portal players without balancing the team. I think you purge upper classmen and replace them with portal guys instead of bringing in a giant class of freshmen. I think by the start of next year you need the team to be heavily weighted towards Mario's guys, 2 recruiting classes and a giant portal replacement.

I think long term you reduce the number of project players you sign out of high school and go get proven portal players in their place.
 
I don't think you go get a bunch of portal players without balancing the team. I think you purge upper classmen and replace them with portal guys instead of bringing in a giant class of freshmen. I think by the start of next year you need the team to be heavily weighted towards Mario's guys, 2 recruiting classes and a giant portal replacement.

I think long term you reduce the number of project players you sign out of high school and go get proven portal players in their place.
its already 1/3 Mario guys. it will be 2/3s by fall kick. I think if youre digging into the portal vs recruiting you failed to an extent. I think its fine to fill a need here or there w the portal (see Bama w To To and Jameson Williams) but I think trying to fill 10+ spots is a failure on the past coaches recruiting and current class if the needs aren't filled there. I can be patient if youre recruiting young talent thats elite every year and the results are reflecting youth and inexperience.
 
I think if youre digging into the portal vs recruiting you failed to an extent.

But why? You are going to inevitably bust on kids, no matter the stars, so why not replace the busts with portal talent and not waste another 2 years of their lives and yours?

To me it's getting 20 kids in a class, 5-10 don't pan out, so those kids by the time they're sophomores or juniors are replaced by portal kids who you know are good. The ones that aren't busts continue through. That should be the cycle. It's replacing stale talent.
 
But why? You are going to inevitably bust on kids, no matter the stars, so why not replace the busts with portal talent and not waste another 2 years of their lives and yours?

To me it's getting 20 kids in a class, 5-10 don't pan out, so those kids by the time they're sophomores or juniors are replaced by portal kids who you know are good. The ones that aren't busts continue through. That should be the cycle. It's replacing stale talent.
its the same thing when Manny was here. its fine to get a spot starter or a guy who could push you over the top, but if youre depending on the portal to fill half the roster (obviously exaggerating) or making up for what your class lacks, its a failure.
 
its already 1/3 Mario guys. it will be 2/3s by fall kick. I think if youre digging into the portal vs recruiting you failed to an extent. I think its fine to fill a need here or there w the portal (see Bama w To To and Jameson Williams) but I think trying to fill 10+ spots is a failure on the past coaches recruiting and current class if the needs aren't filled there. I can be patient if youre recruiting young talent thats elite every year and the results are reflecting youth and inexperience.
you need older guys from the portal to balance the roster.
 
its the same thing when Manny was here. its fine to get a spot starter or a guy who could push you over the top, but if youre depending on the portal to fill half the roster (obviously exaggerating) or making up for what your class lacks, its a failure.

But the alternative is to keep guys on your roster who aren't good because you don't like the portal?

Ideally, you are not waiting for bad players (either fit or talent wise) to graduate to replace them. If you know by year 3 this player is not going to be a contributor why would you not try and replace him with someone who can contribute? It's extremely inefficient to accept poor play for years as you wait for an underclassman, who also may not actually pan out, to replace them.

Your assumption is once you get rolling you will always hit on recruited players but the reality is even Saban recruits guy who don't pan out. He's lucky enough that he has 5 highly rated guys behind him that he can try out but only 3 or 4 teams in the country have that luxury. We're often in positions that if this guy or that guy doesn't pan out we're stuck in a hole.
 
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The reality is, this program has been a national embarrassment for 20 years.

It’s understandable that the fan base has grown impatient and hyper critical.

But Mario deserves time. He was not in my top 10 choices to replace Diaz, and yet, here we are. It’s not fair to give up on him or the program so early into his tenure. He bleeds orange and green and he’s probably just as angry as us about the losses.

Let him rebuild this program the right way. There are no short cuts when your team has sucked *** for so long.

And yes, of course we could have hired someone like Lane and won some more games in year 1, but Mario is building this for the long haul.

I think, as a fan base, we need to rally around the program and support them the best we can. I know that’s asking a lot, but they need us. Throw year 1 out the window and pray that we demonstrate some progress next year. But for God’s sake, don’t judge him after half a season.

Let’s hope he makes the necessary changes in the offseason, mainly on the offensive side of the ball.
Let’s be honest, He was nobody’s top choice but the BOT. I’m sure if it was Kiffin, Stoops, or somebody like Matt Campbell we as a fanbase would’ve been happy but BOT pretty much sat there and hunkered down to Mario. There definitely criticisms that need to be passed around but look at what he’s coaching. Cry top 15 classes all you want. At the end of the day what matters is that those classes are fat from top 15 in talent in every facet and they need to infuse this place. It’s gonna take years to do that.
 
I’m fine with the portal. It’s a way of the game now. But win the portal, don’t show up late and risk getting what’s behind door number 3 like it’s let’s make a deal
 
No real fan enjoys losing but on the other side, be willing to admit Mario fu6ked big time by hiring a stubborn dunce like Gattis inspite of warnings from those who worked with him....

Bum spends all spring and summer trying to shove his archaic misfit O down the players throats.... and now that it got blown up, he starts throwing the ball 100 times a game with the entire O confused and discombobulated.

All he had to do was keep the offense humming from last year, with Heisman contender coming back. Nope, he had to *** it up. Then blame the players midseason, after he screwed it up with his misjudgment.

It is no wonder we are seeing what we are seeing. It was evident from game 1 that this f001 was stubborn as he11, including running the ball into the teeth of the defense over and over again. He is clueless ....and stubborn.... a killer combo last seen from D'No.

If Mario doesn't get rid of him... we will see a repeat of the last 10 years
I, and most people on here, agree that Mario made the wrong choice at OC. It’s the constant victory lapping around that has become obnoxious. Saying Gattis sucks is acknowledging the sky is blue. Everyone knows we need to make some changes this off-season.
 
Let’s be honest, He was nobody’s top choice but the BOT. I’m sure if it was Kiffin, Stoops, or somebody like Matt Campbell we as a fanbase would’ve been happy but BOT pretty much sat there and hunkered down to Mario. There definitely criticisms that need to be passed around but look at what he’s coaching. Cry top 15 classes all you want. At the end of the day what matters is that those classes are fat from top 15 in talent in every facet and they need to infuse this place. It’s gonna take years to do that.
Im just tired of no real coaching search. They locked onto richt. He retired and they lock onto manny. Then they talk to mario and only mario.

Hopefully it works out with Mario but **** talk to other coaches.
 
The thing is, they weren’t sunshine pumpers. Lol.

The most “fans” that I witness say 10 win or bust, ACCCG or bust yr 1 weren’t objective, nor were they sunshine pumpers. They were fans who had their own agendas in either wanting Manny to remain here b/c “the guys played hard, so let‘a give him another year” or Lane Train fans. They never wanted Mario here; same ones were openly rooting against him while he was at UO. So for them, it’s vindication & I “told u so” high.

Most objective fans, would say this team would be an 8-9 win team, where we would see some growing pains. ****, even if u said 6-8 wins, that was still reasonable & objective.
everything had to break right for 10 wins. we started slow and then injuries piled up. At this point it's about seeing who wants to be here, maintaining the culture and continuing to reshape the roster.
 
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A part of the problem is in an attempt to **** all over a coach they hated, many posters used things like “with a competent coach” this team wins 10 games…

So now after spending $14M on “competent coaches” we are hearing … complete rebuild, etc - while watching just horrible play and coaching…

AND during the hiring “process” there were heavy pushes for Mario and criticism for everyone that questioned anything - timing, loss of coaches, hiring of coaches, portal misses, etc (Gattis and Addae were specifically touted as massive wins, Raymond miss dismissed)

SO NOW as the concerns re: Mario - which were - he’s not a great game day coach, offensive philosophy, QB, passing game - have been actively in play since game 2, posters are coming back around to question what the **** is happening and why…

Bottom line: we finished 5-1, had a positive and exciting offseason, and then poor coaching destroyed the season within 4 weeks and it is getting worse.

People aren’t running to the board *****ing for no reason - there is probably just as much or more excuse making or culture threads which prompt a negative reaction.

Duke with their own first year coach dominated us and did a conga line in the locker room - after we crushed them last year without a “competent coaching staff”… excuse time is over.

Just win!
THIS^^^^^ 100% . We went a total 180 degree turn. Specially and arguably the highest paid coaching staff in all of college football!! Man (SMDH) I was already making plans for The ACC Championship game. I was telling my mother, brothers, exes to not plan anything with me for the Holidays because I"m going to be watching my beloved CANES, in The ACC Ship game. Folks we could've won arguably 9-10 games last year with Manny as our HC :ROFLMAO:think about that!! But, now it's a total rebuild? you can't make this **** up man only in MIAMI. Over 20 years of losing an they expect us and media to stay calm and collected? F***k no..Not happening, everything is up for discussion MARIO so BUCKLE THE FK UP an earn your money.
 
everything had to break right for 10 wins. we started slow and then injuries piled up. At this point it's about seeing who wants to be here, maintaining the culture and continuing to reshape the roster.
I think the schedule was really soft that even a top 40 scoring offense gets us to 9 wins at least. this was one of the easiest schedules we've had in like 20 years imo esp w how bad the division and conference is. that factored into the predictions. obviously, injuries took hold so it sucks. we held UNC (one of the nations best offenses to sub 30 points, VT to 14, tAMU to 17, etc. thats good enough to win fairly easily in modern day CFB w how the game is geared towards the offense.
 
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Nah it's not about enjoying watching the team lose, it's about feeling justified and vindicated after being dragged and negged on here (and other sites) for daring to be cautious regarding new hires and not immediately slurping the kool-aid and falling a victim to off-season hype. This was especially the case with Mario (and maybe Richt) where if you weren't constantly sunshine pumping and predicting an ACCCG appearance in year 1, your fandom/dedication to the team was questioned and you were told to "go root for UF or FSU." I was in a Canes fan group on fb and predicted anywhere between a 6-8 win season for Miami (no ACCCG appearance) and i even predicted that TVD would struggle a bit adjusting to a new offense/coordinator and had blind fanboys come at me. So while it sucks that the team is 3-4 and a current laughing stock (especially from Oregon fans), at least i can take slight comfort delighting in the misery of sunshine pumpers who lacked any real objectivity.
i can take slight comfort delighting in the misery of sunshine pumpers who lacked any real objectivity.

I'm not a sunshine pumper, and certainly not a mope.
Like many other aspects of life, I try to stay even keel and consider all sides, but.....

I just don't get the above statement.
There's no comfort in our ****** play on any level.
Yeah, I just don't get it.
 
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