Let's take inventory at LB

FrancisSawyer

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Jan 15, 2012
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We weren't exactly the deepest team at LB before Spring practice and now we are most definitely getting very thin there seemingly by the day. I would like to list what we currently have and put it in better perspective.

1. Shaq Quarterman. He is the heart and soul of the defense at Mike. Starter and will play a ton.

2. Mike Pinckney. The other half of our prolific LB duo. Great instincts and an elite playmaker. Starter at Will and will play a ton.

3. Zach McCloud. Starter at Sam when we have 3 LBs in the game. Experienced senior.

4. Patrick Joyner. OLB back at LB after trying DE as a freshman. Very little playing experience.

5. DeAndre Wilder. 3rd year player who has a neck injury. Is Wilder coming back?

6. Bradley Jennings. 3rd year player. Should be the 1st LB off the bench. Is it a groin or a knee injury? Will he be back by fall?

7. Waynmon Steed. Was supposed to play a lot to prepare to be the starter at Will in 2020. Tore his knee up and will miss the entire season.

8. Avery Huff. True freshman who enrolls this fall. Excellent prospect who will have every opportunity to play as a freshman.

9. Sam Brooks. True freshman OLB who is an absolute terror off the edge. Relentless big play machine who will also have every opportunity to play as a freshman. How long will it take him to adjust to the college game?

Now let's assume for a second that both Wilder and Jennings are out for the year. The good news is that we are basically for all practical intents and purposes a 4-2-5 defense as we usually only line up with 2 true LBs on the field at once with a Striker.

So we are looking at Shaq and Pink as the 2 starters at LB with depth being provided by a group of 4 consisting of Zack McCloud(when he is not playing striker), Patrick Joyner(who has practically no experience at LB here) and the 2 true freshmen Huff and Brooks. This is basically what it boils down to.

The big questions are if we plan on going after a portal transfer and the health of Wilder and Jennings.

Thoughts?
 
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We weren't exactly the deepest team at LB before Spring practice and now we are most definitely getting very thin there seemingly by the day. I would like to list what we currently have and put it in better perspective.

1. Shaq Quarterman. He is the heart and soul of the defense at Mike. Starter and will play a ton.

2. Mike Pinckney. The other half of our prolific LB duo. Great instincts and an elite playmaker. Starter at Will and will play a ton.

3. Zach McCloud. Starter at Sam when we have 3 LBs in the game. Experienced senior.

4. Patrick Joyner. OLB back at LB after trying DE as a freshman. Very little playing experience.

5. DeAndre Wilder. 3rd year player who has a neck injury. Is Wilder coming back?

6. Bradley Jennings. 3rd year player. Should be the 1st LB off the bench. Is it a groin or a knee injury? Will he be back by fall?

7. Waynmon Steed. Was supposed to play a lot to prepare to be the starter at Will in 2020. Tore his knee up and will miss the entire season.

8. Avery Huff. True freshman who enrolls this fall. Excellent prospect who will have every opportunity to play as a freshman.

9. Sam Brooks. True freshman OLB who is an absolute terror off the edge. Relentless big play machine who will also have every opportunity to play as a freshman. How long will it take him to adjust to the college game?

Now let's assume for a second that both Wilder and Jennings are out for the year. The good news is that we are basically for all practical intents and purposes a 4-2-5 defense as we usually only line up with 2 true LBs on the field at once with a Striker.

So we are looking at Shaq and Pink as the 2 starters at LB with depth being provided by a group of 4 consisting of Zack McCloud(when he is not playing striker), Patrick Joyner(who has practically no experience at LB here) and the 2 true freshmen Huff and Brooks. This is basically what it boils down to.

The big questions are if we plan on going after a portal transfer and the health of Wilder and Jennings.

Thoughts?

Jennings isnt for the year though. It's strange that posters make up lies like that. He pulled his groin and will be back for the Fall. It's almost comical how people overreact to any injury. So far Steed is the only guy on the whole team who suffered a serious injury in the Spring

Shaq and Pickney will start, McCloud and Jennings will probably back them up. Expect us to play mostly in a 4-2-5, especially to get Finley on the field as much as possible.
 
We weren't exactly the deepest team at LB before Spring practice and now we are most definitely getting very thin there seemingly by the day. I would like to list what we currently have and put it in better perspective.

1. Shaq Quarterman. He is the heart and soul of the defense at Mike. Starter and will play a ton.

2. Mike Pinckney. The other half of our prolific LB duo. Great instincts and an elite playmaker. Starter at Will and will play a ton.

3. Zach McCloud. Starter at Sam when we have 3 LBs in the game. Experienced senior.

4. Patrick Joyner. OLB back at LB after trying DE as a freshman. Very little playing experience.

5. DeAndre Wilder. 3rd year player who has a neck injury. Is Wilder coming back?

6. Bradley Jennings. 3rd year player. Should be the 1st LB off the bench. Is it a groin or a knee injury? Will he be back by fall?

7. Waynmon Steed. Was supposed to play a lot to prepare to be the starter at Will in 2020. Tore his knee up and will miss the entire season.

8. Avery Huff. True freshman who enrolls this fall. Excellent prospect who will have every opportunity to play as a freshman.

9. Sam Brooks. True freshman OLB who is an absolute terror off the edge. Relentless big play machine who will also have every opportunity to play as a freshman. How long will it take him to adjust to the college game?

Now let's assume for a second that both Wilder and Jennings are out for the year. The good news is that we are basically for all practical intents and purposes a 4-2-5 defense as we usually only line up with 2 true LBs on the field at once with a Striker.

So we are looking at Shaq and Pink as the 2 starters at LB with depth being provided by a group of 4 consisting of Zack McCloud(when he is not playing striker), Patrick Joyner(who has practically no experience at LB here) and the 2 true freshmen Huff and Brooks. This is basically what it boils down to.

The big questions are if we plan on going after a portal transfer and the health of Wilder and Jennings.

Thoughts?
Joyner is playing DE rn, not LB.
 
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Jennings isnt for the year though. It's strange that posters make up lies like that. He pulled his groin and will be back for the Fall. It's almost comical how people overreact to any injury. So far Steed is the only guy on the whole team who suffered a serious injury in the Spring

Shaq and Pickney will start, McCloud and Jennings will probably back them up. Expect us to play mostly in a 4-2-5, especially to get Finley on the field as much as possible.
I just think that nobody really knows the true extent of Jennings injury and people naturally fear the worst. I certainly hope Jennings is 100% for fall camp as we will need him to give our starters a breather. He is very valuable depth.

I wonder what the status of Wilder is. A neck injury is very serious. Hopefully he can get fully healthy. If he is able to play that is a bonus. I'm certainly pulling for the kid.

The injury to Steed is just heartbreaking for the kid. To hurt the same knee that you did in high school two years ago is a tough pill to swallow. Hopefully Waynmon can fight his way back.
 
High hopes for both true Frosh to come in, use those modern LB attributes, eat deer antler, and serve as depth/rotational options by midseason.
 
Depth is embarrassingly bad in year 4 of Manny's tenure. Awful. And I like Manny...I'm a Manny fan. But you've got to be real here. This is pretty abysmal.

The crazy part, since it's April and we've got time on our hands, is there was a VERY real possibility that Shaq and Mike both went to the league this year. Can you imagine? The backers would literally be McCloud, who is a situational player and isn't great, Jennings, and 2 true freshmen, neither who EE'd. Holy Christ. So, 2 things: 1. Thank 55 & 56 as often as you can not only for their careers thus far, but for staying. They literally saved the entire football team with that decision. 2. Pray to god neither of those kids gets dinged up as to even miss a snap this season.

Lastly, the pressure is REALLY on Manny now in recruiting. Big programs reload when they have a situation like this. The really good recruiters sell this and kids bite. Look at FSU after Dalvin left....they convinced Akers, Laborn, and White all to come in the same class. Look at Hartley after losing Njoku then Herndon. He convinces the #1 TE in the country to come in along with another Top 10 player at the position in the same class. This is what good programs and recruiters do. I've heard the excuse on here for the past 2 years that it's tough to get kids to come in at LB knowing Shaq/Mike/Zach were here and had all this playing time, blah blah. OK, fine. That's not an excuse, but for argument's sake, I'll buy it. Now there are NO excuses. You should be able to convince 3-4 ELITE kids to come here in this class. A kid like Justin Flowe is starting for this team before his LOI gets through the fax machine. So, there's still time, but right now Miami has 0.0 LB commits. They've got a lot of work to do between now and December.
 
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Depth is embarrassingly bad in year 4 of Manny's tenure. Awful. And I like Manny...I'm a Manny fan. But you've got to be real here. This is pretty abysmal.

The crazy part, since it's April and we've got time on our hands, is there was a VERY real possibility that Shaq and Mike both went to the league this year. Can you imagine? The backers would literally be McCloud, who is a situational player and isn't great, Jennings, and 2 true freshmen, neither who EE'd. Holy Christ. So, 2 things: 1. Thank 55 & 56 as often as you can not only for their careers thus far, but for staying. They literally saved the entire football team with that decision. 2. Pray to god neither of those kids gets dinged up as to even miss a snap this season.

Lastly, the pressure is REALLY on Manny now in recruiting. Big programs reload when they have a situation like this. The really good recruiters sell this and kids bite. Look at FSU after Dalvin left....they convinced Akers, Laborn, and White all to come in the same class. Look at Hartley after losing Njoku then Herndon. He convinces the #1 TE in the country to come in along with another Top 10 player at the position in the same class. This is what good programs and recruiters do. I've heard the excuse on here for the past 2 years that it's tough to get kids to come in at LB knowing Shaq/Mike/Zach were here and had all this playing time, blah blah. OK, fine. That's not an excuse, but for argument's sake, I'll buy it. Now there are NO excuses. You should be able to convince 3-4 ELITE kids to come here in this class. A kid like Justin Flowe is starting for this team before his LOI gets through the fax machine. So, there's still time, but right now Miami has 0.0 LB commits. They've got a lot of work to do between now and December.
The irony here is as much as the past O staff left a lot to be desired schematically, they sure left the cupboard fill with talent. Even OL had been recruited rather well ranking wise, some of them havent hit their potential for one reason or another but the point remains. The Defensive staff on the other hand is definitely open for some critique regarding recruiting the last 4 years.
 
Depth is embarrassingly bad in year 4 of Manny's tenure. Awful. And I like Manny...I'm a Manny fan. But you've got to be real here. This is pretty abysmal.

The crazy part, since it's April and we've got time on our hands, is there was a VERY real possibility that Shaq and Mike both went to the league this year. Can you imagine? The backers would literally be McCloud, who is a situational player and isn't great, Jennings, and 2 true freshmen, neither who EE'd. Holy Christ. So, 2 things: 1. Thank 55 & 56 as often as you can not only for their careers thus far, but for staying. They literally saved the entire football team with that decision. 2. Pray to god neither of those kids gets dinged up as to even miss a snap this season.

Lastly, the pressure is REALLY on Manny now in recruiting. Big programs reload when they have a situation like this. The really good recruiters sell this and kids bite. Look at FSU after Dalvin left....they convinced Akers, Laborn, and White all to come in the same class. Look at Hartley after losing Njoku then Herndon. He convinces the #1 TE in the country to come in along with another Top 10 player at the position in the same class. This is what good programs and recruiters do. I've heard the excuse on here for the past 2 years that it's tough to get kids to come in at LB knowing Shaq/Mike/Zach were here and had all this playing time, blah blah. OK, fine. That's not an excuse, but for argument's sake, I'll buy it. Now there are NO excuses. You should be able to convince 3-4 ELITE kids to come here in this class. A kid like Justin Flowe is starting for this team before his LOI gets through the fax machine. So, there's still time, but right now Miami has 0.0 LB commits. They've got a lot of work to do between now and December.

I don't necessarily disagree with anything you're saying but I think (and it's not necessarily a great alternative in this instance) that Manny would've pounded The Portal to death for any grad transfer LBs available anywhere if Shaq and Pinckney had declared.

The only other thing to consider is that by going heavy toward a 4-2-5 defense that it might hamper creating massive quality depth in recruiting at the LB spot but we absolutely shouldn't ever be remotely this thin there again in the future.
 
We weren't exactly the deepest team at LB before Spring practice and now we are most definitely getting very thin there seemingly by the day. I would like to list what we currently have and put it in better perspective.

1. Shaq Quarterman. He is the heart and soul of the defense at Mike. Starter and will play a ton.

2. Mike Pinckney. The other half of our prolific LB duo. Great instincts and an elite playmaker. Starter at Will and will play a ton.

3. Zach McCloud. Starter at Sam when we have 3 LBs in the game. Experienced senior.

4. Patrick Joyner. OLB back at LB after trying DE as a freshman. Very little playing experience.

5. DeAndre Wilder. 3rd year player who has a neck injury. Is Wilder coming back?

6. Bradley Jennings. 3rd year player. Should be the 1st LB off the bench. Is it a groin or a knee injury? Will he be back by fall?

7. Waynmon Steed. Was supposed to play a lot to prepare to be the starter at Will in 2020. Tore his knee up and will miss the entire season.

8. Avery Huff. True freshman who enrolls this fall. Excellent prospect who will have every opportunity to play as a freshman.

9. Sam Brooks. True freshman OLB who is an absolute terror off the edge. Relentless big play machine who will also have every opportunity to play as a freshman. How long will it take him to adjust to the college game?

Now let's assume for a second that both Wilder and Jennings are out for the year. The good news is that we are basically for all practical intents and purposes a 4-2-5 defense as we usually only line up with 2 true LBs on the field at once with a Striker.

So we are looking at Shaq and Pink as the 2 starters at LB with depth being provided by a group of 4 consisting of Zack McCloud(when he is not playing striker), Patrick Joyner(who has practically no experience at LB here) and the 2 true freshmen Huff and Brooks. This is basically what it boils down to.

The big questions are if we plan on going after a portal transfer and the health of Wilder and Jennings.

Thoughts?
My thoughts are that our recruiting at this position, like most, is an absolute joke. The guy that has been running the defense the last few years should be fired.
 
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I mean players aren’t dumb. LB’s In the portal know Shaq and Pinck aint coming off the field much.. it’s hard to get an impact transfer LB that can play right away knowing that... we need 5 or 6 that can function.. Shaq, Pinck, McCloud, Jennings, 2 Frosh. We only play 2 LB’s for the most part. RELAX
 
no real depth, but those Freshman LBs are going to be a problem in the future with all the burn they are going to get this year
 
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The irony here is as much as the past O staff left a lot to be desired schematically, they sure left the cupboard fill with talent. Even OL had been recruited rather well ranking wise, some of them havent hit their potential for one reason or another but the point remains. The Defensive staff on the other hand is definitely open for some critique regarding recruiting the last 4 years.

Well we all saw this coming, really. In the 2018 class, which we were all thrilled with, it was a heavy offensive class. So, once the confetti was cleaned up that February, we all said that the 2019 class needed to be heavy on defense to balance out the talent we got on offense in 2018. That didn't exactly happen the way we planned. We obviously signed some kids, but the 2019 defensive class wasn't even close to the 2018 offensive class. There's a reason we brought in 4 defensive transfers.

Specifically talking LB, I really liked Huff as much as anyone we were recruiting at backer last class. He's going to be excellent, although I think he needs at least a year or two to develop. Brooks I've been very much on the fence on. I think he's a lot like Patrick Joyner. He's a tweener. He's not big or strong enough to play on the weakside with his hand in the dirt, and he's not quick enough to play Pinckney's spot. Clearly his strength is as a pass rusher, so I'm not really banking on him being a LB. Hence the reason we need AT LEAST 3 true LBs this class, if not 4 if you want to throw in a hybrid/striker player.
 
I mean players aren’t dumb. LB’s In the portal know Shaq and Pinck aint coming off the field much.. it’s hard to get an impact transfer LB that can play right away knowing that... we need 5 or 6 that can function.. Shaq, Pinck, McCloud, Jennings, 2 Frosh. We only play 2 LB’s for the most part. RELAX

The problem is we don't have a "Mike Smith" who can provide Shaq a breather and be dependable not to F anything up in the process. That is why there should be cause for concern. Same with Pinckney. Who is his reliable backup? We cant depend on them to play whole games especially against team that will require them to chase.
 
I don't necessarily disagree with anything you're saying but I think (and it's not necessarily a great alternative in this instance) that Manny would've pounded The Portal to death for any grad transfer LBs available anywhere if Shaq and Pinckney had declared.

The only other thing to consider is that by going heavy toward a 4-2-5 defense that it might hamper creating massive quality depth in recruiting at the LB spot but we absolutely shouldn't ever be remotely this thin there again in the future.

Agree....they were talking about trying to land a LB transfer before the Steed injury. If 55 & 56 bolted, you can guarantee Manny would've landed a transfer. Would that be any good? Very questionable. Thank god we don't have to find out, but I still think you'll see a transfer LB brought in for this fall to replace Steed.
 
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