My takeaways after yesterdays game plus an outlook for the future.

[Hurracanes]

If guys don’t fall down going in for scores , drop first down catches and their qb can hit wide open guys we lose. That was a very lucky win for manny , that’s why he looked like he just got caught banging his secretary by the wife after the game. His coaching life flashed in front of him.

Beautifully said.

 

[ssvir]

Diaz celebrating a 5 yard TD in the first quarter against App St tells you a lot about his actual expectations

Was he not supposed to celebrate a TD after the D had the INT early in the game? JFC you're reaching.

 

[TriStarCane]

Started to rewatch a little bit. My take away is that offensively we are limiting our play calls e(maybe due to personnel?). Lashlee does get us in some good calls, but then we don’t execute. The Mallory drop is a good example. That’s a possible TD. I also still don’t know if King has a real RPO; it’s common for him to hand the ball of and just ignores a numbers advantage on a bubble. Like a dozen times per game. Offense seems like a bad mixture of personnel deployment and half-****ed play calls. King isn’t a fit and Lashlee isn’t adjusting.

Defense is a whole different story. Basically the exact opposite. We “only” gave up 15 offensive points because they had key (I’m talking move the sticks or chunk play) drops that helped. They were bashing our heads in on inside zone. Just allowing your guys to slant out of the play and then hit whatever crease they leave behind. We have zero pass rush. Our coverage scheme is broken. App St should have scored two more TDs to be honest. Our defense basically just depends on them ******* up. Our best play is dropped pass. This won’t get better this year or any year

I’m more pessimistic than ever. On top of the above, we are the worst tackling, pursuit, leverage, and key reading team I’ve probably seen. We have had elements of this before, but not rolled into one

tl;dr we are bad. MSU might curb stomp us. We will have to fight to have a wining record this year. Fire Blake. Fire Manny. Start over

 

[ssvir]

If guys don’t fall down going in for scores , drop first down catches and their qb can hit wide open guys we lose. That was a very lucky win for manny , that’s why he looked like he just got caught banging his secretary by the wife after the game. His coaching life flashed in front of him.

Meh. You could also say if King doesn't trip in the open field, we don't give up a KO return, we don't get a FG blocked, we don't have illegal formation and get the TD instead of a FG, the cat splats on the ground, etc.

We had just as many if not more woulda-coulda-shoulda plays. Just from above is 17+ points and if we win by more than 20 the mood is different (who am I kidding the mood would be the same in here).

 

[Cribby]

Meh. You could also say if King doesn't trip in the open field, we don't give up a KO return, we don't get a FG blocked, we don't have illegal formation and get the TD instead of a FG, the cat splats on the ground, etc.

We had just as many if not more woulda-coulda-shoulda plays. Just from above is 17+ points and if we win by more than 20 the mood is different (who am I kidding the mood would be the same in here).

Missing guys wide open , tripping going in for a td and dropping a bunch of easy catches that win the game is unforced errors , meaning we didn’t make it happen. They whipped out butts in every facet while being far less talented , and a lot smaller.

Coaching is an issue , at this point I can’t believe people are defending the last three years. It’s almost like Scientology lol. All we can go on is what we’ve seen for three years and bad coaching is the one constant. Luckily we have more talent than most teams we’ll play.

 

[Noliaboi]

There was a time, long time ago, I watched 3-4 practices a week. I used to watch Butch’s practices all the time. I’ve seen a lot of teams practice and written a bunch about it over the years. You can even tell how a team will play by that week’s practice. The most glaring example being when I predicted we’d struggle against GT in ‘05. This was coming off that big VT win. We took a week of lack of focus and lost that game in the OB. *All that to say I believe practice and game-like prep are key elements to success - perhaps weighted more than what others would weight those factors.*

Every insight I offer now is merely second-hand info from guys way closer to the program than I’ve ever been. But, when I ask questions about practice, they either vent about not tackling enough to the ground or going live enough (and this has been for some time), or how we do not sufficiently prepare for game-like scenarios and physicality. So I’ve harped on this since the time of Kaaya and Richt. I don’t have practice access anymore. Some others on here would have to validate what half a dozen others have mentioned to me.

And this right here is why we can’t tackle and are not physical. Trying to hard to protect the roster from injuries.

 

[ajkreider]

Can't believe people think the defense is our main problem.

Also, if this is the worst team at fundamentals you've even seen, watch the last 6 seconds of the FSU game.

 

[Bender]

Can't believe people think the defense is our main problem.

Also, if this is the worst team at fundamentals you've even seen, watch the last 6 seconds of the FSU game.

thats a bad play call. go to prevent and nothing happens.

 

[ladycane]

If guys don’t fall down going in for scores , drop first down catches and their qb can hit wide open guys we lose. That was a very lucky win for manny , that’s why he looked like he just got caught banging his secretary by the wife after the game. His coaching life flashed in front of him.

Hopefully he sees changes needs to be made and makes them!!! Too many losses and close calls!! When will he get it?!?!

 

[crossover22[]_[]]

Depends on what you call practice. I’ve harped on this for a full year now.

So we arent practicing?

 

[Cribby]

So we arent practicing?

nope at least not tackling. It’s mostly thud, not to the ground tackling. Which explains why we’re awful at it

 

[ladycane]

nope at least not tackling. It’s mostly thud, not to the ground tackling. Which explains why we’re awful at it

But why?

 

[Cribby]

But why?

**** if I know

 

[Bender]

We arent practicing live action enough... thats the lowest of the lowest.

 

[ScharfCane]

**** if I know

Should we be worried about LT potentially entering the portal?

 

[crossover22[]_[]]

nope at least not tackling. It’s mostly thud, not to the ground tackling. Which explains why we’re awful at it

Are you serious???


App st tackled so much better than we did. They looked like the better team.

 

[Cribby]

Should we be worried about LT potentially entering the portal?

He’s not a happy camper right now. I hope he doesn’t.

 

[ScharfCane]

He’s not a happy camper right now. I hope he doesn’t.

welp.

 

[Cribby]

welp.

There’s a long way to go, hopefully they eventually get him on the field.

 

[scrantoncane]

Manny officially lost me last night. Many will say I waited too long, but I am never the "Fly the Banner" guy - a new coach always means your recruiting class falls apart and it then becomes a total rebuild, which we haven't had any success with. I was (am still am) rooting for Manny to turn it around, but both sides of the ball are simply a mess.

The inside zone run over and over, into Tite lines, while Donaldson and Gaynor are losing at the point of attack to smaller guys constantly. The RPO with King when some combination of his limitations as a passer, his height, an OL he doesn't trust, and a serious knee injury. The penalties and drops. The personnel and unwillingness to at least try out younger guys and see if they have it when the lights are on.

The soft coverage when the best trait of our starting DBs (I include Ivey here) is their size, combined with the lack of pass rush - we can't get home, yet we still give them 8-10 yards without even trying to disrupt the routes to maybe give the pass rush an extra second to get there. And then all we do is delayed blitzes behind this? I guess I can understand it vs Bama when they had WRs that could just run right past our guys and an OL/QB combo that could make us pay for being too aggresive - but vs App State? Why don't we just have guys like Bolden and Flagg blitzing off the edge? Antrelle Rolle didn't disguise when he was coming, and he was one of the best blitzing DBs we've had in recent memory.

I don't have all the answers, but I am not at practice every day nor am I getting mid 7 figures to figure it out. Where I finally flipped to the dark side was the post-game presser. Saban tore into his team on Monday, and again after the game last night. I don't expect Manny to be Saban, and everyone has their own style, but when you are the University of Miami and you, as HC, are constantly talking about the "Miami Standard," then you need to tear into your guys and let them know this wasn't good enough.

Harley needed to be benched after his drops. He sat for a while I think, but he was right back in. Give those reps to X or Brinson/B Smith. Find a way to get K Smith more involved when he is tearing it up like that. Reward the guys who make plays, even if it means taking some of those snaps from the guy that is the 1st one in the weight room and the last to leave.

It's gonna be a tough go without Chaney and Kenotra. Carter played one of his best games last night (at least from watching live), but our whole LB core can't be converted DBs. Just roster mismanagement and recruiting failures. At some point, the HC has to be held accountable for this, and that time has come for me.

I had high, but realistic, hopes for this season. I do not expect championships, or even ACC championships. I didn't expect to beat Bama. But I do expect progress, and we don't see that. No player development, no coaching to fit the players. Manny needs to go, and I am not sure he is even a FBS DC at this point. I am serious when I say I don't even know if he has a future in football - he is a horrible position coach, and not to be a ****, but his lisp will keep him from getting a job as an analyst. He would probably be a decent AD, with all the rah rah bullisht. But this needs to be his last season.