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Little concerned we didn't do enough work in portal..

skyman said:
I honestly think we got caught flat footed with playoff run and then no second portal (We used to do DAMAGE with second portal Martinez, Keionte, Jakobe, Toure, Keelan, etc.).. But the things I was pushinng for during portal seem to be there at moment. You cant spend 40 mil on roster and 6+ mil on QB and then pumpfake on Seaton, I dont think we should be depending on freshman on oline. Spending the extra 500k to 1 mil would have been worth it, elite olineman are soo rare in portal you have to make exception to whatever rules you have, especially with a bridge oline (2026 oline was always gonna be a rebuild, Bell going to NFL for cheaper to sit one year anyway made it even more imperative to get to 2027). You have to go all in.




I said it at time BEFORE Mensah/Barkate, I said it AGAIN after they came and now that BOTH didnt crack opening day rotation, bringing in two midlevel WR when they really like '25 class (Mali, Upshaw, Moore) made absolutely no sense. Dumb strategy, I said it at time, consolidate their NIL and go get a real DOG that can help. Getting 2 guys who started on their team but you have guys you like and gonna play politics with and then say hey you can be depth is dumb and can mess up a room. Get a dog who can actually make defenses pay for focusing on Mali. We bought two guys in and not in rotation opening day, just burned money.

Go look at portal TE thread, we were in there EVERYDAY with names saying they could help. I will say, I was encouraged with what I saw tho at stanford. I know the politic$ of NIL and walkon but now bauman gone and injury, they have no choice but to play Ruskavich as we have heard him being effective since last year, atleast he seem like capable blocker. We still could of used a Vet weapon as this is another developmental position to let the freshman develop on normal track but yea.

We could of went after a legit LB, we had the Pitt LB scheduled, Texas dropped the bag and reap the benefit, but we didnt seem to have plan B and just said **** it change Chase Smith number and maybe he play like a elite transfer.



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This made me lol.

Dude other teams have NIL, recruit, have NC aspirations and solid coaches. And last but not least, some kids just don’t want to come here.
 
Novacane32000 said:
Here is what will doom us !

If Mario starts to bask in his recruiting success and ignores or minimizes the Portal -then we in trouble. He has already said that QB recruiting Is where it needs to be so we are not dependent on an NIL QB moving forward. Hopefully true but we don't know yet.

Clemson is the poster child of what happens when you ignore the Portal. 2023 they had the #11 Recruiting class and again in 2024 the #12 Class, Yet they are barely a top 25 team.

Like the OP said-- I also feel like the OL is a significant downgrade from last year's version. (Did we think our recruiting was good enough)


Bottom Line-You need both but NIL> Recruiting.
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It's been one game with 5 brand-new starters, lol. It's way too early to say this OL is a significant downgrade. Also, comparing it to last year's unit is irrelevant. It's about how we stack up against other units in the country
 
E1k said:
Im not sweating it but i do wonder what we would have done if their was another spring portal this year. I think that window pushed our roster over the top last year
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Probably very little. Maybe they would have brought in a depth LB or O-line. It would mostly be fillers for the pieces that decided to move on
 
Da Jumbo Mutombo said:
Whats the point of complaining about this now lol.

Mario is the best coach at talent acquisition we have had since Butch. He made the best roster he could have made.

You cant force Rasheem Biles to come here, if he wants texas. Same for Seaton. Money is not unlimited (you think Texas and LSU dont have massive amounts of money either?)

I will never doubt Mario when it comes to talent acquisition or recruiting. Give puts max effort to build the best team he can, kts not always possible to just get everyone you want. These are human beings making decisions for themselves.

But ideally speaking, yes, we can always use more talent. Every team in America is feeling the same way right now.
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This is what people don't seem to realize about LSU and Texas. They have oil money on top of the state school funding. My brother used to manage money for a portion of Texas' athletic nest egg. They have tens of millions of dollars just sitting around that they can put into a hedge fund to play around with. We could never afford a coach buyout like LSU and then turn around and drop what they did on their roster. We just can't throw bags the same way they can. Not to say we're not competitive with our pay, but we have to be much more selective with how we spend. Mensah took up a lot of our budget, which I'm fine with.
 
My only two real concern positions are TE and rotational DE. It’s hard to say with DE because Lowe left after the portal ended, but a run defense first rotational piece is needed. TE was a weakness even before Luka’s injury, I wish we went after a grad transfer blocking TE like Hunter Welcing. But yall don’t give enough credit how well we did in retaining our talent.
 
I'll put it to you this way - I wouldn't trade our roster for anyone else in the country.

Every team is dealing with and/or will deal with exactly what you mentioned - no second portal window, injuries, etc. Everyone has warts. We just have less of them.
 
ST26 said:
Probably very little. Maybe they would have brought in a depth LB or O-line. It would mostly be fillers for the pieces that decided to move on
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I think they get a couple starters like last year..I don’t think they risk entering the year with this much inexperience on the oline
 
Snoop said:
You can’t discount the fact that more starters portaling in probably means guys that are playing now would have portaled out.

The roster could always be better. I’m sure every team in America feels the same way.
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True.
It runs both ways.
 
E1k said:
I think they get a couple starters like last year..I don’t think they risk entering the year with this much inexperience on the oline
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A couple of starters? The QB, RB, WR, Dline, LB, Safety, and CB starters were all solidified before spring practice even started.

Also, the staff was fully aware of the risk of entering the year with an inexperienced o-line back in January. Yet, they still chose to roll with the guys they had. The staff loves this room, so they need more than just one game to mesh together
 
ST26 said:
What do you want, 50 DE's on the roster? The depth on the edge is probably the deepest in the country
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I'd take our 1-3 over most and hopefully but there is a wide gap between them and 3rd. Now that our 2 best man corners are down, they're gonna see lots snaps too.
Add to that, theyre small.
 
Sabetta said:
I'd take our 1-3 over most and hopefully but there is a wide gap between them and 3rd. Now that our 2 best man corners are down, they're gonna see lots snaps too.
Add to that, theyre small.
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Our next two, Scroggins and Pickett, would probably start on every single ACC team. I wouldn’t categorize either of them as small lol
 
Should have gone out and brought in a top flight LB to pair with Toure.

A top flight nickel to replace Scott.

A top flight center.
 
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