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Kellen Wiley Jr, LB Progress

LoyalCane24 said:
Cristobal has proven that we can trust him to fix any of our problems with hiring. Almost all of our current coaches have now proven that we can trust them with development. Only 2 position coaches/position group coaches left to earn their trust. 1. Viti. 2. Special teams coach (idek who our guy is). Very confident Viti will turn our tight end room around sooner rather than later. Still don't understand our special teams operation. Why don't we get an NFL guy to run that group? Why don't we recruit kickers and punters with the same ambition as the rest of our team? We have so much depth that our special teams should be the best in America. We have absolute freaks all over our roster who are backups at their positions, but should be studs in special teams. I just don't get it.

Edit: I guess you could put Favian Upshaw and Jefferson in this mix too. But RB development is easy and Jefferson is proven at this point.
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I’m with you

No one more sick about that special teams play against Indiana than Mario I’m sure. I would expect a lot of improvement
 
KingB02 said:
You completely missed the fact that I said blowouts also. If we’re in dog fights, the best guys will play. We expect to blow out most of these ACC teams. Mario will not make the mistake of not stepping on people’s throats again! You said Ideally Chase would get less snaps than last season (or stay the same? I don’t remember). But what I’m saying is that he has proven he can play in PLAYOFF atmosphere. Experience speaks volumes. That’s what prompted me to say this is not NCAA 27. So far none of the young guys have proven anything or played any meaningful snaps in games except Bonner the previous season at NC State. I didn’t do all the numbers like you did. I’m hoping the young guys can step up and push the senior citizens and make the next man
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When we were in dogfights last yr Chase Smith and Popo both played dawg. Neither was proven for jack **** entering the year, neither were the talents the young guys we currently have were entering the year, and neither were the starters…. Yet they combined 550 snaps basically. That’s wasn’t in much “blowout” work. Chase Smith had been here like 5 yrs and played a total of like 200 snaps ENTERING last season. This idea that you’re running with that we can’t expect young guys to take a big jump in snaps just because they are CURRENTLY unproven is a terrible one. And using Playoff experience is another bad one, when the more snaps we give the young guys the more they will ALSO be ready for this next playoff run we all hope we make.

I said Toure should get Less snaps than last season by a marginal number and specifically said because of more blowouts as one of the main reasons.

I also specifically predicted Chase Smith to get like 400 snaps vs his 250 last yr. So I said an increase. I had him getting more snaps than our LB3 last yr by quite a bit. I just don’t think he should be a starter the entire season. It is absolutely best for us if Wiley and/or especially Pruitt tbh due to his coverage ability to earn significantly more.

It’s fine to disagree, nobody is going to convince me Chase Smith is some stud LB or proven to be a great player. Can he be? I guess we will see since he appears to be the starter entering the season… his job to lose. I just think he will ultimately lose it.
 
JHallCanes said:
I’m with you

No one more sick about that special teams play against Indiana than Mario I’m sure. I would expect a lot of improvement
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Another example of "trust the coaches". Mario has proven he fixes mistakes. I trust him to fix special teams. Its been remarkable the way hes turned around his mistakes. Terrible offense and defense with Gattis and Steele - fires the whole staff. Dawson pans out - keeps him and his staff. Guidry doesn't - fires him and whole defensive staff minus JT. Heatherman pans out - retains his staff. Terrible clock issues - gets a time management coach. I have a feeling the strength and conditioning change was needed too even though Mario clearly kept that hush hush.
 
rsa coral gables said:
Let’s hope so. Hasn’t been special in a long time
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Blocked punt vs Indy was catastrophic & probably cost us the game. Kid had a brain fart. Otherwise could argue special teams play has been decent. Don’t recall many other blocked punts or FG attempts against us. Our punters & kickers last 5 years or so have been above average. Kicks are mostly going into end zone so we’re not returning & few others are, either. We’ve got threats as punt returners. Our coverage teams have been ok. Not blocking any punts, but could also be more focused on returners breaking one. Roster is to a point where we’re loaded with young DBs & LBs, so trust in Mario have special teams at a high level.
 
I believe this is the year we see some improvement. Part of that is coaching for sure. But a big part of it is talent and depth. Not that you throw the elite of the elite to the wolves. But ultimately depth as far game changers go mitigates the risk of being one special teams play away from losing elite for an extensive period or the season. Perfect example is when Duke was our return man and you’d hold your breath praying for no injuries. He was single handedly responsible for not losing another 10 games at least while he was here.

The “brain fart” as far as the blocked punt goes definitely did cost us the game. As a guy who is motivated by fear of failure as opposed to success, I’ll never understand how that can happen in any moment, much less the national championship game. I guess what I’m saying is having a depth chart with guys who are not only physically capable but always have their head screwed on on straight is just as big a deal.
 
No idea how to explain the “brain fart,” so will let others weigh in. This wasn’t the season opener or even the 10th game of the season. He’d been tested & coaches trusted him to be in the position for championship game. Not sure what was going thru his mind or what he saw. Still puzzling.
 
bacane said:
No idea how to explain the “brain fart,” so will let others weigh in. This wasn’t the season opener or even the 10th game of the season. He’d been tested & coaches trusted him to be in the position for championship game. Not sure what was going thru his mind or what he saw. Still puzzling.
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I think Lofton had been in that up back spot and then got hurt vs Ole Miss so Bauman was new to that role.
 
LoyalCane24 said:
Another example of "trust the coaches". Mario has proven he fixes mistakes. I trust him to fix special teams. Its been remarkable the way hes turned around his mistakes. Terrible offense and defense with Gattis and Steele - fires the whole staff. Dawson pans out - keeps him and his staff. Guidry doesn't - fires him and whole defensive staff minus JT. Heatherman pans out - retains his staff. Terrible clock issues - gets a time management coach. I have a feeling the strength and conditioning change was needed too even though Mario clearly kept that hush hush.
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I think there was a bit of a misconception that Mario would be too stubborn to change

That’s clearly untrue

He’s still a relatively young guy for a college head coach. He’s been around but only had 10 years experience before he got to Miami (and really only a couple as far as big program experience). Still tons of learning to do and to his credit he has shut me and many others up completely
 
bacane said:
No idea how to explain the “brain fart,” so will let others weigh in. This wasn’t the season opener or even the 10th game of the season. He’d been tested & coaches trusted him to be in the position for championship game. Not sure what was going thru his mind or what he saw. Still puzzling.
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Wasnt brain fart, he did same thing earlier in game and special teams coach with ipad in hand allowed it.. Its on film and the player who barely tried is on record saying **** it Ima shoot my shot..
 
The whole sequence of events that lead up to the blocked punt is a massive "what if". In no way does this absolve the **** poor effort from...(I refuse to say his name), but what if the punt return call is never made, or any one of the decisions thereafter? The atrocities I would have committed that night would've required TOC-level defense.
 
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Its Time
 
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