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Lines of Scrimmage

Cane30 said:
The staff has done great. Mario walked into a bad situation his 1st year. We have had great OL's the last 2 years. As our OL sits right now, we definitely aren't going to sniff the Top 10 in pass blocking this season. Why can't people be honest? Most people can't honestly break football down, but you don't need to be versed in coaching to read obvious things. Last year going into the season, run D up the middle was a legit concern. This year, their is reason for concern for run D on the edge's. It might be fine. If so, we don't need people claiming victory, I told you so. It is embarrassing. I don't care what is being pushed with coach talk, their is legitimate pass blocking concerns now. That is the truth. It may be okay., but this talk, OL is never a concern with Mario, is BS. We have legitimate concerns now. You don't have to be on one side all the time, negative or positive. Of course when you aren't given legitimate facts, you better have a contact or be able to read some things yourself. This OL isn't going to be anywhere near comparable to last season. Fact! The DE's as good as the room is, isn't going to be comparable to 2 Top 21 picks last season. Just live in facts. I think next years OL will be legit, again. This season, not so much. Good enough for ACC play, though.
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We don't want good enough for ACC play. We want good enough to get over that hump and win it all.
 
S.CarolinaCane said:
Now this is a point worth discussing. We get good offensive linemen, and have been every year since Mario has been here. Not to mentioned how good we are at plugging holes and developing guys. The injuries that our current guys have sustained and not overcome in a timely manner, is definitely concerning.

@jsy might have a stroke if we do not get every highly rated OL recruit mentioned on this board....regardless of what our performance grades are for those position groups.
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Going back to 2023 I think, we’ve had an absurdly good run with the starting line staying together. We’ve had some inconsistency at one of the guard spots with Samson and McCoy being injured quite a bit. We just haven’t really had our depth tested since 2022 which was a disaster.

It’s not a panic button thing but lack of experience and some injury history on OL is about the only thing with this team that I can find to be concerned about
 
Cane30 said:
The staff has done great. Mario walked into a bad situation his 1st year. We have had great OL's the last 2 years. As our OL sits right now, we definitely aren't going to sniff the Top 10 in pass blocking this season. Why can't people be honest? Most people can't honestly break football down, but you don't need to be versed in coaching to read obvious things. Last year going into the season, run D up the middle was a legit concern. This year, their is reason for concern for run D on the edge's. It might be fine. If so, we don't need people claiming victory, I told you so. It is embarrassing. I don't care what is being pushed with coach talk, their is legitimate pass blocking concerns now. That is the truth. It may be okay., but this talk, OL is never a concern with Mario, is BS. We have legitimate concerns now. You don't have to be on one side all the time, negative or positive. Of course when you aren't given legitimate facts, you better have a contact or be able to read some things yourself. This OL isn't going to be anywhere near comparable to last season. Fact! The DE's as good as the room is, isn't going to be comparable to 2 Top 21 picks last season. Just live in facts. I think next years OL will be legit, again. This season, not so much. Good enough for ACC play, though.
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You're totally contradicting yourself. You said last year the interior run defense was the concern. People were freaking out about it, I remember it well. And we turned out to be one of the best defenses in the entire country. So sure, people were concerned in the spring and summer, and it was all hot air.

Now you're concerned about pass blocking. That's fine, people are just to be concerned about things. I'm concerned about the edge run defense. But your concerns are predicated on spring ball. We have 4 months before we play a game. Our offensive coaches have proven, 3 years in a row, to be able to put out a more than competent product. In Years 2, 3, and 4 here, we have been Top 10 in the country in pressure rate allowed. And that was with 2 completely immobile QBs (Cam stuck in the middle of that). I think the staff deserves the benefit of the doubt at this point. Could it wind up being worse than last year? Sure, I mean, we were #1 in the country. Kinda only one way to go from there. I'll believe that Alex and Mario trot out an offensive line that can't pass protect when I see it. It's certainly possible, but I trust we'll put out an OL capable of beating anyone we play for the entire season. We did in 2023, 2024, and 2025.

My concerns about the edges are literally the body types. We simply do not have kids with bodies like 3 and 4. So, can we be good enough? Yeah. But I have a lot of pause in saying we won't have a pretty significant drop-off because I don't care how good of a player you are and how good of a coach you are, if you are significantly smaller, it can be a problem. The OL doesn't have that issue. We have behemoths everywhere. Again, will it be worse? Very possible. But the ceiling is much higher there because we have the size and athleticism, we need reps and coaching. I trust that will happen between now and Clemson, which is when we need it to be ready.
 
Cane30 said:
The staff has done great. Mario walked into a bad situation his 1st year. We have had great OL's the last 2 years. As our OL sits right now, we definitely aren't going to sniff the Top 10 in pass blocking this season. Why can't people be honest? Most people can't honestly break football down, but you don't need to be versed in coaching to read obvious things. Last year going into the season, run D up the middle was a legit concern. This year, their is reason for concern for run D on the edge's. It might be fine. If so, we don't need people claiming victory, I told you so. It is embarrassing. I don't care what is being pushed with coach talk, their is legitimate pass blocking concerns now. That is the truth. It may be okay., but this talk, OL is never a concern with Mario, is BS. We have legitimate concerns now. You don't have to be on one side all the time, negative or positive. Of course when you aren't given legitimate facts, you better have a contact or be able to read some things yourself. This OL isn't going to be anywhere near comparable to last season. Fact! The DE's as good as the room is, isn't going to be comparable to 2 Top 21 picks last season. Just live in facts. I think next years OL will be legit, again. This season, not so much. Good enough for ACC play, though.
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Im more worried about the OTs pass pro than the interior pass pro. People forget bell didn’t allow a sack, idk if francis did either. Francis and bell were the offensive versions of bain/mesi last year, they played lights out all year

I think samson and max can be better than mccoy and coop, run blocking on the right side will take a hit of course tho

I dont think anyone should be expecting us to replicate what we did last year. That just doesn’t happen overnight, thats years of development and experience. You don’t just lose multiple starters and have that level of trenches again the very next year
 
ShadowSpring said:
Samson didn't start. We have OL on the roster who are very highly rated but not 5*. Like I said it's basically the same as it's been the last 3 years. If we get the same results nobody will be too upset if we don't get Matthews.
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Samson played 493 snaps at LG. He didn't start, but that's over 42% of the snaps at LG this past season. That is significant.

And so we are all on the same page, here's what we've had at OL during that period:

2025:
Bell (4* JUCO)
McCoy (3*) / Samson (5*)
Brockermeyer (4*)
Cooper (3*)
Mauigoa (5*)

2024:
Rivers (4*) / Bell (4* JUCO)
McCoy (3*)
Carpenter (3*)
Cooper (3*)
Mauigoa (5*)

2023:
Rivers (4*)
Cohen (4*)
Lee (3*)
Cooper (3*)
Maugoa (5*)

Mario/Mirabal's OL formula the past 3 years has been to combine elite and blue chip talent at OT, large, mean men with traits at OG, and the best transfer OC available in the portal.

This year will likely mark a somewhat different approach, mainly because of OC and RT. I expect we'll take a step back in pass protection, while taking a step up in run blocking. We'll see.
 
ShadowSpring said:
Our line moving forward is basically the same as it's been. We have the 5* and then a bunch of scary dudes as 4*. Our reality may be getting the 4* and spotting the ones who can blossom. That's how Miami typically won championships, it wasn't based on 5* players. It was kids like Fitz and Baby Jesus who just ended up being champions. I'd love to get top 5 classes each year but we just may not be able to match the Texas schools year in and year out.
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I can't like this post enough! During our glory years (85-91 and 2000-2002), our recruiting classes were typically ranked in the 5-10 range. The only #1 class I remember was Shannon's - I can't remember which year. And we all know how that turned out. About as bad as Texas A&M's #1 class in 2022.

And during our glory years, plenty of local studs went elsewhere.

I'd love to get every 5 stars we're after, but that's not happening and it never has.
 
No_Fly_Zone said:
Samson played 493 snaps at LG. He didn't start, but that's over 42% of the snaps at LG this past season. That is significant.

And so we are all on the same page, here's what we've had at OL during that period:

2025:
Bell (4* JUCO)
McCoy (3*) / Samson (5*)
Brockermeyer (4*)
Cooper (3*)
Mauigoa (5*)

2024:
Rivers (4*) / Bell (4* JUCO)
McCoy (3*)
Carpenter (3*)
Cooper (3*)
Mauigoa (5*)

2023:
Rivers (4*)
Cohen (4*)
Lee (3*)
Cooper (3*)
Maugoa (5*)

Mario/Mirabal's OL formula the past 3 years has been to combine elite and blue chip talent at OT, large, mean men with traits at OG, and the best transfer OC available in the portal.

This year will likely mark a somewhat different approach, mainly because of OC and RT. I expect we'll take a step back in pass protection, while taking a step up in run blocking. We'll see.
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Actually we will be rated on average slightly higher per crootin rankings with a 4* replacing Cooper and Samson actually starting....?
 
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