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My rational thoughts after stewing for some time

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AustinCane6688

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Make no mistake about it, last night hurt like **** and the manner in which we lost is a microcosm of the 'disease' that has inflicted our program the past 15+ years. There are a lot things to be rightfully upset about and I, like many of you, have considerable questions about this coaching staff just two games in. With that said, I have seen enough to be encouraged as well and with the next 5 games of our schedule at home, we have a chance to get momentum back going again:
  • I like the adjustments Enos made week over week and the growth Jarren has made from game 1 to game 2 was really encouraging. Our receivers were utilized properly and Brevin continues to eat. This is the best i've felt about QB play since Kaaya was here and JW's ceiling is considerably higher than that.
  • Kicking Scaife out to RT and sliding Clark into the starting lineup paid dividends. Our 1-2 punch of Dallas and Harris ran hard and effectively and Jarren was under pressure far less. UNC dominated an SEC o-line in week one, and at the very least, last night was a stalemate. I'm hopeful this is a formula for success moving forward.
  • We continue to struggle in the red zone but just south of 500 total yards should put you in a position to win games most of the time.
  • Defensively is where my concerns lie at the moment. We played really well as a unit in the 2nd and 3rd quarters but spotted them 17 points in the 1st and completely imploded down the stretch. That's a sign of poor preparation and not being mentally tough enough to finish teams off.
  • The strength of our defense is along the defensive line and our guys aren't getting up the field as much as they have the past two years. With that said, I refuse to believe that Baker is running a different scheme and perhaps this is simply being out-schemed. Again, that goes back to coaching.
  • Our Linebackers have always been a bit overrated nationally but the lack of east-west speed is extremely evident. Finley is the only guy out there that looks like a true Miami backer.
  • Our Secondary ultimately cost us on the final drive, and while it's easy to pile on Rumph, Banda, etc., let's not forget how young we are back there. Bandy is the only upperclassman that was out there (with Carter's ejection) and he probably had the worst game of any of the DB's. Hall and Ivey are true sophomore with limited reps, Knowles should be playing at FAU and Bolden still hasn't seen time yet. I'd like to see Williams and Couch continue to get snaps and Keontra Smith get worked in more as well.
  • Don't get me started on Special Teams. I have no idea how/why Baxa was ranked as high as he was and Patke has no business coaching this unit. Major mistake by Diaz to give him this responsibility and something he probably needs to be reconsidering.
Overall, it probably doesn't help that we started the year with a neutral site game against a top 10 team and then played an emotional road night game in-conference Say what you want about UNC and how much of a dumpster fire they were the last two years, but Howell is a legit QB and they may very well be ranked and 4-0 going into their matchup with Clemson. Ultimately, we are -7 after two games and could easily be 2-0 and ranked in the top 20 if our kicker makes two chip shot FG and we don't give up 4th and 17.
 
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AustinCane6688 said:
Make no mistake about it, last night hurt like **** and the manner in which we lost is a microcosm of the 'disease' that has inflicted our program the past 15+ years. There are a lot things to be rightfully upset about and I, like many of you, have considerable questions about this coaching staff just two games in. With that said, I have seen enough to be encouraged as well and with the next 5 games of our schedule at home, we have a chance to get momentum back going again:
  • I like the adjustments Enos made week over week and the growth Jarren has made from game 1 to game 2 was really encouraging. Our receivers were utilized properly and Brevin continues to eat. This is the best i've felt about QB play since Kaaya was here and JW's ceiling is considerably higher than that.
  • Kicking Scaife out to RT and sliding Clark into the starting lineup paid dividends. Our 1-2 punch of Dallas and Harris ran hard and effectively and Jarren was under pressure far less. UNC dominated an SEC o-line in week one, and at the very least, last night was a stalemate. I'm hopeful this is a formula for success moving forward.
  • We continue to struggle in the red zone but just south of 500 total yards should put you in a position to win games most of the time.
  • Defensively is where my concerns lie at the moment. We played really well as a unit in the 2nd and 3rd quarters but spotted them 17 points in the 1st and completely imploded down the stretch. That's a sign of poor preparation and not being mentally tough enough to finish teams off.
  • The strength of our defense is along the defensive line and our guys aren't getting up the field as much as they have the past two years. With that said, I refuse to believe that Baker is running a different scheme and perhaps this is simply being out-schemed. Again, that goes back to coaching.
  • Our Linebackers have always been a bit overrated nationally but the lack of east-west speed is extremely evident. Finley is the only guy out there that looks like a true Miami backer.
  • Our Secondary ultimately cost us on the final drive, and while it's easy to pile on Rumph, Banda, etc., let's not forget how young we are back there. Bandy is the only upperclassman that was out there (with Carter's ejection) and he probably had the worst game of any of the DB's. Hall and Ivey are true sophomore with limited reps, Knowles should be playing at FAU and Bolden still hasn't seen time yet. I'd like to see Williams and Couch continue to get snaps and Keontra Smith get worked in more as well.
  • Don't get me started on Special Teams. I have no idea how/why Baxa was ranked as high as he was and Patke has no business coaching this unit. Major mistake by Diaz to give him this responsibility and something he probably needs to be reconsidering.
Overall, it probably doesn't help that we started the year with a neutral site game against a top 10 team and then played an emotional road night game in-conference Say what you want about UNC and how much of a dumpster fire they were the last two years, but Howell is a legit QB and they may very well be ranked and 4-0 going into their matchup with Clemson. Ultimately, we are -7 after two games and could easily be 2-0 and ranked in the top 20 if our kicker makes two chip shot FG and we don't give up 4th and 17.
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Good write up. Agree with everything you said.
 
AustinCane6688 said:
Make no mistake about it, last night hurt like **** and the manner in which we lost is a microcosm of the 'disease' that has inflicted our program the past 15+ years. There are a lot things to be rightfully upset about and I, like many of you, have considerable questions about this coaching staff just two games in. With that said, I have seen enough to be encouraged as well and with the next 5 games of our schedule at home, we have a chance to get momentum back going again:
  • I like the adjustments Enos made week over week and the growth Jarren has made from game 1 to game 2 was really encouraging. Our receivers were utilized properly and Brevin continues to eat. This is the best i've felt about QB play since Kaaya was here and JW's ceiling is considerably higher than that.
  • Kicking Scaife out to RT and sliding Clark into the starting lineup paid dividends. Our 1-2 punch of Dallas and Harris ran hard and effectively and Jarren was under pressure far less. UNC dominated an SEC o-line in week one, and at the very least, last night was a stalemate. I'm hopeful this is a formula for success moving forward.
  • We continue to struggle in the red zone but just south of 500 total yards should put you in a position to win games most of the time.
  • Defensively is where my concerns lie at the moment. We played really well as a unit in the 2nd and 3rd quarters but spotted them 17 points in the 1st and completely imploded down the stretch. That's a sign of poor preparation and not being mentally tough enough to finish teams off.
  • The strength of our defense is along the defensive line and our guys aren't getting up the field as much as they have the past two years. With that said, I refuse to believe that Baker is running a different scheme and perhaps this is simply being out-schemed. Again, that goes back to coaching.
  • Our Linebackers have always been a bit overrated nationally but the lack of east-west speed is extremely evident. Finley is the only guy out there that looks like a true Miami backer.
  • Our Secondary ultimately cost us on the final drive, and while it's easy to pile on Rumph, Banda, etc., let's not forget how young we are back there. Bandy is the only upperclassman that was out there (with Carter's ejection) and he probably had the worst game of any of the DB's. Hall and Ivey are true sophomore with limited reps, Knowles should be playing at FAU and Bolden still hasn't seen time yet. I'd like to see Williams and Couch continue to get snaps and Keontra Smith get worked in more as well.
  • Don't get me started on Special Teams. I have no idea how/why Baxa was ranked as high as he was and Patke has no business coaching this unit. Major mistake by Diaz to give him this responsibility and something he probably needs to be reconsidering.
Overall, it probably doesn't help that we started the year with a neutral site game against a top 10 team and then played an emotional road night game in-conference Say what you want about UNC and how much of a dumpster fire they were the last two years, but Howell is a legit QB and they may very well be ranked and 4-0 going into their matchup with Clemson. Ultimately, we are -7 after two games and could easily be 2-0 and ranked in the top 20 if our kicker makes two chip shot FG and we don't give up 4th and 17.
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All this translates to we are a bad team. I agree with everything you wrote. We need a lot of work man hopefully we get this **** together by the Vag Tech game.
 
I’m disgusted over the game but this is still a good post.

Losing Johnson and Redwine was my biggest fear and the everyone kept saying “Gurvan this and Gurvan that”

That’s great. Gurvan may leave here a superstar but you still can’t lose that much leadership and experience and no expect a drop off.

Willis changed the game last year too.

Defense is still plenty good enough but we’ve got some guys that need to grow up fast
 
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NC_Canes_11 said:
This is where mine and a few other posters concerns about losing to UF spiraling comes into play. I believe if we had won 2 weeks ago we would’ve won last night. This team is still mentally soft
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Completely agree and Manny alluded to it all summer and after the UF game. Not being mentally soft takes more than 2 games to change.
 
JHallCanes said:
I’m disgusted over the game but this is still a good post.

Losing Johnson and Redwine was my biggest fear and the everyone kept saying “Gurvan this and Gurvan that”

That’s great. Gurvan may leave here a superstar but you still can’t lose that much leadership and experience and no expect a drop off.

Willis changed the game last year too.

Defense is still plenty good enough but we’ve got some guys that need to grow up fast
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Bubba coming back will certainly help and we need to be giving Keontra Smith meaningful snaps as well. The loss of Derek Smith the week before the season started was huge.
 
Canefish09 said:
We gave this kid a scholarship after he went 4/10 as a high school senior and 9/19 over his entire high school career. Absolutely mind boggling.
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Our top 2 kicking recruits on the board in 2018 were Evan McPherson and Cameron ****er (both studs) and once we missed on them, Hartley got lazy and targeted the next guy on the Kohl kicking rankings. Have no idea how Baxa was on there.
 
I agree with all you said. I know we have talent on this roster. But individual talent is different than talented TEAM. We do not have a talented team. In fact this team is trash right now. We often talk trash about multiple other teams out there and most definitely had tons on here Uber confident about how we would dominate unc because they were trash. But realistically it cuts both ways. Isn't it possible that our team is trash.? I have read alot of posters IF this & IF that statements, but we all know what IF means..... (grandma, ********s, etc.). Diaz has a short window here to identify the solutions and implement a plan to prevent this young squad from throwing in the towel. He CANNOT allow the inter-squad bickering to take hold in the locker room allowing the blame game to erupt like Richt had. Diaz must keep this team together like a true family and continue to support and fine tune his approach and staff in order to strengthen the bond amongst the players. Once they quit believing in one another, this thing is toast. Let's pray our young head coach is up for the challenge and not just a talented salesman.
 
Mklein13 said:
I’d be absolutely thrilled if Miami cut Bubba loose next year, grabbed a grad transfer for a year, then have that dude who is committed in the 2021 class come in and hopefully do a job.
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Would have to think we target a grad transfer kicker in the portal for next year if Baxa continues to flop.
 
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AustinCane6688 said:
I don't think you fire Patke unless the LB's continue to regress, but what's wrong with bringing in a guy to be dedicated ST coach?
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Manny doesn’t have any connections with dedicated ST coaches. He doesn’t know anyone to hire.
 
It’s amazing people want to change our culture and give Manny less than 9 months to do so and two games.

We have a bunch of dudes posting their highlights after a ****** loss, teammates retweeting things putting their teammates back and then wonder why we are losing close games.

Some posters can ***** about the upcoming recruiting class and how we don’t have 10 5* but you have to build a foundation of a culture that kids buy in and you hold accountable or you end up like Coker’s classes.

Look at Butch he recruited a bunch of hungry football players and slowly developed a culture of hating to lose.

I don’t think these kids hate to lose, like mentioned before they rather post their stupid highlights after a loss.
 
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