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Manny believes in the Defense

OrangeBowlMagic said:
There are 130 FBS teams and every single one has multiple coaches give interviews every week. How many of those have an occurrence where a coach blatantly calls out a player or specific group? Less than 1%?

This board is so funny with this nonsense. "Can you believe Manny said he's happy with the linebackers? This guy sucks!!"

Fellas....if you don't think what is said in coaches meetings vs what is said to Susan Miller Degnan are VASTLY different discussions, you need to get off this board and stop analyzing this football team immediately.
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Yep, so funny. They're the only linebackers he currently has.
 
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Jesse Pinkman Reaction GIF by Breaking Bad
 
NO ONE WANTS MANNY TO BASH HIS PLAYERS.

Can we stop this bull**** trope already?

All some are asking for is at least some kind of acknowledgement of reality which is the defense is lacking right now. This can be done without saying a single players name, and it can be done in an absolutely non confrontational, calm manner.

4th in the ACC isn't really much to brag about. Neither is 40th in the nation which is where we really are using his metric.

And then when you consider we've been playing hobbled teams starting their back up qbs? Even worse.

Give us some coach speak bro. "We're not where we need to be. Gotta get better and I think we will. I believe in our guys."

Everyone knows the defense is weak.
 
Stats can lie to your face. Yards per play are great only if you keep a team from running a certain number of plays and scoring.

A team like VT that averages over 250+ per game will naturally have a lower yards per play unless they're ripping off some big runs. They will also run more plays.

If a team averages 3.5 yards per play but runs 100 plays, then you're getting smoked.

The 4 most important stats of a defense are:
1) points per game - Do you give up more than your offense scores?

2) 3rd down efficiency - Do you get off the field?

4) forced turnovers - Do you give your offense more opportunities?

4) red zone efficiency - Do you force field goals ot stops in the redzone?
 
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supersaiyanshel said:
NO ONE WANTS MANNY TO BASH HIS PLAYERS.

Can we stop this bull**** trope already?

All some are asking for is at least some kind of acknowledgement of reality which is the defense is lacking right now. This can be done without saying a single players name, and it can be done in an absolutely non confrontational, calm manner.

4th in the ACC isn't really much to brag about. Neither is 40th in the nation which is where we really are using his metric.

And then when you consider we've been playing hobbled teams starting their back up qbs? Even worse.

Give us some coach speak bro. "We're not where we need to be. Gotta get better and I think we will. I believe in our guys."

Everyone knows the defense is weak.
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Why should he care what “some are asking for”?

I know I wouldn’t.

I personally never care what the fūck he says anyway tbh. I don’t get why people are so preoccupied with it. I only care what he does.

Defense looked like dogshīt Friday. His next test is Saturday at noon. No agonizing over his coachspeak on my end.

Maybe I’m just different. I watch the games and rarely listen to more than a minute or two of press conferences unless I’m looking for something specific like an injury status. Otherwise, it’s all generic coachspeak as far as I’m concerned.
 
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RedSquare said:
the top three metrics our defensive staff used to use when i was in college, and i still believe in these numbers strongly:

1) YPP ("yards per play" = total yards/total plays) - shows average yards per play over the course of the game. the lower the better

2) PPP ("plays per point" = total plays/total offensive points scored) - how many plays to generate each point scored in the game - special teams and opposing defensive scores are removed from the denominator. the higher the ratio, the better

3) TDC ("third down conversion" percentage) - self explanatory. They also used a companion with this: FPP ("first downs per possession" - total 1st downs/total possessions) - when both of these are used together, it's the best measure of how fast the defense is getting off the field. and yes, a score (TD/FG) counts as a "first down" in this metric.

I haven't calculated the numbers for 2 and 3 above, but i would be curious as **** to see where we stand on those.
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I'd be interested to see the FPP one. I gave you the TDC one in my post. Or, is it a different one?
 
Who cares about coach’s speak? I hardly pay attention to that and focus on what I see on the field week after week. Are we performing better against good offenses or not? Stats can and are skewed and misinterpreted all the time.
 
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DMoney said:
The problem is our eyes don't watch every team. I'd wager 95% of the fanbases in the country think their defenses suck. 2020 football is a different game.

IMO, we are what the stats say we are. The 4th best defense in the conference (behind Clemson, ND and Pittsburgh) and a Top 35ish unit overall. We don't suck but we aren't good, and the biggest reason is poor LB recruiting.
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Have to disagree. I don't think the LB quality is a problem. I'm 99% confident that if an elite LB coach was hired to coach LBs, at least 4 LBs on the roster would be studs. Now is that enough depth for a 4-2-5? Arguable either way. IMO the biggest reason that the defense doesn't look as good as in the past few years is that Miami just doesn't have the same dynamic DL as it did in past years. That's the thing with a havoc-based defense. Your front 4 have to actually create havoc for it to work. Roche and Phillips are good, but Miami had a top 5 draft pick as a DE last year, who also would move inside on 3rd down and be a nightmare with pressure up the middle. Before that, we had some big disruptors at DT. We're not hugely lacking talent in the front 4, IMO they just aren't quite as good as in past years.They aren't getting into the backfield like they used to. Previous years, the LBs tended to have cleanup roles- the DL would flush out the QB or cut off a RB run lane, then LBs could flow to the ball carrier and finish the play. It required a lot less thinking. It wasn't as big a deal if the LBs weren't perfect because the offensive players were running for their lives.

Now the penetration from the DL isn't there like it was and the LBs have to be much more disciplined because the offenses have more time. Discipline comes from good coaching and game experience.

If the LBs aren't getting good coaching, then they aren't going to get better from game to game. It is related to the old saying- Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. In other words, a guy can be a starter for four years, but if his coach isn't helping him improve after each game, you will end up with the same player you started with. I can't fairly judge whether the LB recruiting is sub par until I see them playing behind a disruptive DL (which is how the Diaz defense works) and with a better LB coach. If they are still bad after those changes, then I'll sing a different tune.
 
bdcane4eva1 said:
psych 101...ya'll are crazy if you think he's gonna come out and publicly bash the D and have it all over social media how the D is to blame for everything...foh with that.
he needs to be a silent assassin about this anyway and clean some house after the season...what we got aint changing mid season..please.
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We’ll see. Would it surprise you if he brings all the coaches back? He’ll say Covid and based on the evaluating the entire season the coaches did great considering all the adversity.

There were plenty of grounds to terminate Rumph last year but here we are.
 
DTP said:
You are correct about the numbers being down. Specifically the analytics he likes to track. However, this is not a new system. They've been running it for 5 years now with mostly good results. Why are they down in the important categories this year if they're playing the same system?

Points allowed is obviously the most important but it's not necessarily a great indicator of how well your defense is playing. A pick six or a special teams touchdown still counts against you even if your defense had nothing to do with it. Field position can also play a big factor. If your offense turns it over inside the redzone and the defense holds the opponent to three and a field goal, that 3 points still counts against your defense.
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Maybe without Golden players Manny cant get same results? He been here 5 years and had to redshirt Golden least talented lb trio to stay one more year when we only put two on field anyways. We got transfers plugging holes at bookend. who knows, he needs to get it fixed.
 
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RedSquare said:
the top three metrics our defensive staff used to use when i was in college, and i still believe in these numbers strongly:

1) YPP ("yards per play" = total yards/total plays) - shows average yards per play over the course of the game. the lower the better

2) PPP ("plays per point" = total plays/total offensive points scored) - how many plays to generate each point scored in the game - special teams and opposing defensive scores are removed from the denominator. the higher the ratio, the better

3) TDC ("third down conversion" percentage) - self explanatory. They also used a companion with this: FPP ("first downs per possession" - total 1st downs/total possessions) - when both of these are used together, it's the best measure of how fast the defense is getting off the field. and yes, a score (TD/FG) counts as a "first down" in this metric.

I haven't calculated the numbers for 2 and 3 above, but i would be curious as **** to see where we stand on those.
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YPP, as I mentioned earlier, is down slightly. Down meaning it’s higher, and worse. We’re currently giving up 5.41 a play, which is 41st. No defense since Manny has been here has finished a season worse than 14th, so we’ve got some work to do.

Plays per point stands at 3.05 plays per point. We’ve faced 510 plays, and given up 167 points (really 174 but I took the 7 from the kickoff return last week out).

For comparison’s sake, the best scoring defense in Manny’s tenure was 2016, we gave up 238 points, which was 19.8 a game. Plays per point that year was 3.97 plays per point. So, down about 22% from that year. Not great.
 
Roman said on OBB that we don’t have a LB in the ACC top 50 in tackling for the first time in a long time. Also we’re like bottom of the barrel in giving up 10 yard or greater plays. How can we be that poor on giving up 10 yard plays, yet be #4 in ypp? Any math Gods out there? Lol
 
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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According to CIS, only Miami plays well against bad teams. Which we don't because all the QBs look like Heisman winners according to CIS
 
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skyman said:
Maybe without Golden players Manny cant get same results? He been here 5 years and had to redshirt Golden least talented lb trio to stay one more year when we only put two on field anyways. We got transfers plugging holes at bookend. who knows, he needs to get it fixed.
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Shaq and Pink were signed by Richt. Golden was recruiting them but he got fired before they ever stepped on campus
 
gatorsSUCK! said:
Roman said on OBB that we don’t have a LB in the ACC top 50 in tackling for the first time in a long time. Also we’re like bottom of the barrel in giving up 10 yard or greater plays. How can we be that poor on giving up 10 yard plays, yet be #4 in ypp? Any math Gods out there? Lol
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Because they are near the top in negative plays. You give up a ten yard play and then get a five yard loss on the next play and the math is simple.
 
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