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Manny believes in the Defense

Mr. Dynasty1 said:
Don't think anyone is expecting Diaz to openly bash his players or Baker, that would be silly. Painting a picture of "much better play" especially at LB etc on the other hand is silly.
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Manny will always give the politically correct coach speak answer. No matter how bad a position group or player plays, he will never admit it to the press.
 
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Mr. Dynasty1 said:
"I asked Manny about defensive metrics he prefers to look at it and I think he has mentioned yards per play"

"Manny says he values the yards per play metric when he evaluates the defense. He says UM is fourth in the conference in YPP on defense."

"Manny Diaz says he is pleased with the way the linebackers played coming off the bye week. He says Bradley Jennings played better coming off the bye. He says the run defense got better as the game progressed."

"Diaz says Emeka Emezie made three "extraordinary" plays in which he tips his cap to them. Some of the fades were high level throw and catches, but he does say Miami can defend it better. Diaz says Emezie could play at Clemson and he is a high level player."

"Diaz believes defenses in 2020 have been hurt by the loss of physicality and practicing in the spring and then he says you can't be too physical in practice too because if guys get injured in practice AND guys are out with COVID, you might have to start cancelling games because of available bodies."

"Diaz says he isn't sure if football will ever be a defensive game moving forward. He says you can still play great defense, but how it is measure changes. He says we all have to understand how offense has advantages nowadays. Offenses have a ton of answers in modern times. He says the game still comes down to toughness and tackling. He says he takes even more pride in playing good defense nowadays because the challenge is greater."

"He is saying there was a lot of eye discipline issue."
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ItsACanesThing7 said:
This also makes sense when we consider the years that we had an elite defense even going just by the eye test or what you read on the boards. 2017 was championship level (or **** close), 2018 also insanely good. 2019 we took a step back, and this year the LB position and to some extent Dline play have relegated us to a slightly above average D

Question is, do you believe it's recruiting or Baker's playcalling? LB recruiting has been weak enough where you can justifiably blame either
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As usual, it's a combination of both, IMO. Things are rarely black and white, I say it all the time on this board. Most things lie in a gray area.

I do not think Baker is as good of a pure defensive coordinator as Manny is. I will leave that to guys who understand the nuances of defenses a little bit better to explain....I'm an offensive guy. But listening to people I trust and seeing what I see, I believe Manny Diaz as a DC is superior to Blake Baker. That doesn't mean Baker is horrendous. It just means IMO Manny is one of the better D coordinators in the country, and Baker is not there right now.

AND....he's being hurt somewhat by lack of talent at some spots. The unit overall is still talented, hence the numbers that DMoney keeps referring to. It's not a terrible unit, in part because the talent is not terrible. But I have said 500x on this board since the minute he was mentioned as a commit, Bradley Jennings is JAG. FSU didn't cry when he left, he was JAG then, he's JAG now. We all know Zach McCloud is #bad. Nice kid, team guy, will be a HS coach next year, not being paid to play football. We all had concerns about the #2 corner spot. Ivey is JAG, and even Blades seems to have regressed after such a strong year last year. Amari Carter gets kicked out of every game. Bolden has been nonexistent the past 2 games. Jon Ford is a guy you'd really like to count on, multi-year starter, and got passed up by a redshirt freshman already. JAG.

So, you combine overall above average talent with a step down in pure coordinator from Manny to Baker, you get what you get. Overall a pretty good defense, but one certainly with holes. I SERIOUSLY doubt Manny fires his buddy after this year unless the wheels totally fall off. We are 6-1 at the end of the day, and you don't usually fire a lot of coordinators off Top 10 teams. So what can you do to get better? Well, you better have some hits with the young backers. Flagg, Austin-Cave, Huff, Brooks...a couple of those kids better be studs or else it'll be more of the same. Leonard Taylor helps. James Williams helps. Hopefully getting Tae Williams back would surely help. Kam Kinchens helps. There's some elite level recruiting going on at the defensive level. Let's hope they can get the best out of those kids because they have a **** of a lot of God given abilities.
 
dirtyred786 said:
Yeah but Saban's team just goose egged Mississippi State. Defense can still be played effectively. Manny is making excuses for Baker.
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Kentucky also goose egged Mississippi State. No one plays defense at an elite level every week. Clemson just gave up a load of points to ND, and got lit up last year by LSU.

That being said, I'm tired of the defense we played in the 4th quarter against NC State waiting until the 2nd half to show up every week.
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
2016: 4.90 YPP allowed vs all FBS opponents (14th in the country), 5.45 YPP allowed vs Ranked Opponents (21st in the country)
2017: 4.75 YPP allowed vs all FBS opponents (8th in the country), 4.44 YPP allowed vs Ranked Opponents (3rd in the country)
2018: 4.52 YPP allowed vs all FBS opponents (3rd in the country), 4.55 YPP allowed vs Ranked Opponents (5th in the country)
2019: 4.86 YPP allowed vs all FBS opponents (14th in the country), 5.53 YPP allowed vs Ranked Opponents (17th in the country)
2020: 5.41 YPP allowed vs all FBS opponents (41st in the country), 6.35 YPP allowed vs Ranked Opponents (37th in the country) ** Only Clemson was ranked when we played them this year

So, really no validity to this padding the stats vs bad teams thing. The defense has pretty much been who it's been vs ranked or unranked opponents. Yes, there's a slight increase in YPP allowed to ranked opponents in every season except 2018. But you'd expect that...they're better teams. For example, last year Ohio State led the country in YPP allowed vs FBS teams....in 14 games vs FBS opponents, they gave up 4.14 YPP.

But if you filter for all teams games vs ranked opponents, the number that led the country was 4.74 YPP. Makes sense. Everyone pads their stats against bad teams.
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Great info. I think YPP is the clearly more useful stat over Total Yards, but I still believe it needs to be used in conjunction with 3rd down % and RZ%.

So last year's D was very good in YPP, but shaky (53th) in 3rd down % and shaky (47th) in RZ% .
This year, we're 41st in YPP, but also 45th in 3rd down % and 42nd in RZ%.

For comparison, the last year Manny was DC, we were 3rd in YPP, 1st in 3rd down %, and 86th in RZ%.
 
If Miami was playing a ranked team, maybe I could buy it, but the defense just got dish ragged by a team that’s 4-3 and starting a back up QB....
 
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warpigs58 said:
If Miami was playing a ranked team, maybe I could buy it, but the defense just got dish ragged by a team that’s 4-3 and starting a back up QB....
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Thank you.

Waiting for him next to talk about how penalties are just up for everyone this year due to the limited number of practices.
 
AllAboutTheU said:
Coaches use YPP across the country. It’s the smart way to look at things versus total defense, which can be skewed by tempo. YPP is important but acknowledging huge holes in the defense is another. Saying you’re pleased with LB play right now is frightening.
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It's funny, I'm actually doing a school project arguing the exact opposite because of the ability of one bad play skewing the average.
 
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JD08 said:
It's funny, I'm actually doing a school project arguing the exact opposite because of the ability of one bad play skewing the average.
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I’d be curious to read about that but it seems like even with an outlier the numbers should balance out over a longer period of time?
 
Mr. Dynasty1 said:
"I asked Manny about defensive metrics he prefers to look at it and I think he has mentioned yards per play"

"Manny says he values the yards per play metric when he evaluates the defense. He says UM is fourth in the conference in YPP on defense."

"Manny Diaz says he is pleased with the way the linebackers played coming off the bye week. He says Bradley Jennings played better coming off the bye. He says the run defense got better as the game progressed."

"Diaz says Emeka Emezie made three "extraordinary" plays in which he tips his cap to them. Some of the fades were high level throw and catches, but he does say Miami can defend it better. Diaz says Emezie could play at Clemson and he is a high level player."

"Diaz believes defenses in 2020 have been hurt by the loss of physicality and practicing in the spring and then he says you can't be too physical in practice too because if guys get injured in practice AND guys are out with COVID, you might have to start cancelling games because of available bodies."

"Diaz says he isn't sure if football will ever be a defensive game moving forward. He says you can still play great defense, but how it is measure changes. He says we all have to understand how offense has advantages nowadays. Offenses have a ton of answers in modern times. He says the game still comes down to toughness and tackling. He says he takes even more pride in playing good defense nowadays because the challenge is greater."

"He is saying there was a lot of eye discipline issue."
Click to expand...

Were you expecting Manny to say "I don't believe in our D"???

We are not an elite team...

But we are better than 2019....

Good teams can make 2nd half adjustments to win....

We did that....and that's completely different direction for the team compared to the 2019 version...

What we need on D is MORE TALENT....

Stop all the coach-trashing you guys do year after year...

Miami hasn't had the talent from front to back in decades...

We get sprinkles of elite talent.... but nothing remotely close to the 2 and 3 deep that Bama, Clemson, OSU have been getting for 10+ years.
 
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Its not asking much but when i see other defemses shut down NC state and they score on will on us..thats a problem.. NC state isnt clemson or N Carolina on offense.
 
I just don't get the constant cuddling of players, particularly when it's pretty evident they're not playing well. Defense played like crap the first 45-50 mins of the game vs. NC St. and to come out after that performance and say he's pleased is mind-boggling. The defense has some talent and it's not translating on the field. To whom much is given, much is expected.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Manny was calling the defensive plays in the 4th quarter.

GO CANES!!!
 
i don't know why people put so much stock in coaches' comments. They have to be so guarded.
 
King of Allapattah said:
I just don't get the constant cuddling of players, particularly when it's pretty evident they're not playing well. Defense played like crap the first 45-50 mins of the game vs. NC St. and to come out after that performance and say he's pleased is mind-boggling. The defense has some talent and it's not translating on the field. To whom much is given, much is expected.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say Manny was calling the defensive plays in the 4th quarter.

GO CANES!!!
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Cuddling? Cecil Collins ain't on the roster.
 
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