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Objective Canes Season Grades

PIPO said:
Starting this with 2 games left because nothing that happens in these last 2-3 games won’t change much in my mind one way or another.

Regardless of the final record, IMO, the product on the field has improved compared to last year. With that said, here are my coaching & positional grades (no recruiting grade) without my Mope or Slurper green & orange shades. My Grades are based on performance only. Not whether there was talent or not enough talent in the room.

QB:
TVD: D- (Easily could be an F, but had a decent start to the season and played ok vs UNC. Because he was playing with significant injuries, gave him a D- despite the mental collapse).

Emory: C+ (Warrior/Leader: 1-1 vs two of the most difficult defenses on our schedule while thrown into the fire).

Overall Grade: F

RB:
Grade based on performance with this offensive line:

Overall Grade: B-

WR:
Tough to grade with the QBs struggling.

Overall Grade: B

TE:
Coaching staff failed in bringing in more players via the portal especially with Arroyo coming off ACL injury.

Overall Grade: D (not an F because I felt bad they got worn down only blocking and OC never really called anything for them).

OL:
Overall Grade: A

Overall Offensive Grade: 22.3 PPG in the ACC = D

DEFENSE:

DE/DT:
Overall Grade: B+

LBs:
Overall Grade: A

CBs:
Overall Grade: B

Safeties:
Overall Grade: B-

Overall Defensive Grade: B+

Special Teams: B (Borregales = A).

Coaching:

HC: F (Win the GT game and grade is a C).
OC: D
DC: A
Addae: B+ (I see development and improvement with safeties and Corner Play).
Taylor/Salave’a: B+
Mirabal: A
Beard: B+
Harris: B-
Nicholson: A
Woodiel: I almost want to give an ”I” for incomplete but will give a D.

What are your best objective grades?? Can’t wait for the OC talk all off season!

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I agree with all of this, minus TVD.

The dude gets an F. You can't throw that many interceptions and expect to receive anything other than a failing grade. I don't care how good he looked at the beginning of the season. Just because you got the first 4 answers on a 12-question test right does not mean you didn't fail, and fail spectacularly, he did.
 
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U187 said:
"there are three types of lies: lies, **** lies and statistics". 😂 For the record, based on the totality of the circumstances, I would assign Emory a B+ or A-. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Agree to disagree, brother. His heart, passion, and effort are A-level, but his on-field performance is a C at best. You cannot throw that many incompletions as a QB and get praised.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
OK, but you still have to see what happens?

There's a good chance nothing changes and your opinion won't change, but you're submitting grades before all the tests are taken. That doesn't make sense. What if we look good and win the next 2? Or what if we look lifeless and get blown out twice. That's 16% of the season, my guy. We only get 12 of these games a year. You can't say 2 of them are literally meaningless, especially when one is against a Top 10 team.
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Fair, but we just played our Super Bowl and we are back to square 1 with the same QB.

You make a good point but like you, being a fan for such a long time, we’ve seen how this plays out. Just like last year we knew we had no chance the last 2 games of the year.

I feel pretty confident in how these last two games will play out. Will feel fortunate to finish 1-1.
 
JamesQuall said:
I agree with all of this, minus TVD.

The dude gets an F. You can't throw that many interceptions and expect to receive anything other than a failing grade. I don't care how good he looked at the beginning of the season. Just because you got the first 4 answers on a 12-question test right does not mean you didn't fail, and fail spectacularly, he did.
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Fair. I do feel like the injuries had a factor in his grade.

I think he just played bad vs GT, played well and got extra injured vs UNC, he shouldn’t have been on the field vs UVA and likely NC State because of those injuries and i feel those injuries exacerbated his bad state of mind. I don’t feel like the coaches helped him enough as well.

I agree he’s fried and done and I don’t want him back here next year.
 
JamesQuall said:
Agree to disagree, brother. His heart, passion, and effort are A-level, but his on-field performance is a C at best. You cannot throw that many incompletions as a QB and get praised.
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Our quarterbacks went 10/30 Saturday night. That's 33% completions. That's an F for any level of football about the 95lb Optimist level.

He tried hard. That's awesome. He also completed 8 out of 23 passes. That's....not awesome.

And before someone yells at me and tells me he's a true freshman, or Mario is a caveman, or Dawson sucks, or he played really hard, or at least he didn't turn the ball over....I got it. I don't care. We are grading his performance. I'm fairly confident in saying the player he is today is not nearly as good as he will be in a year or two. But again, I don't care. We aren't a year or two down the road. We are living in today. And today, he was not nearly good enough. Although the 2 TDs were absolutely excellent throws, no doubt. He just didn't make nearly enough of them. Almost every QB at this level can make those throws. What separates the good ones from the poor ones are how consistently they do it.
 
PIPO said:
Fair. I do feel like the injuries had a factor in his grade.

I think he just played bad vs GT, played well and got extra injured vs UNC, he shouldn’t have been on the field vs UVA and likely NC State because of those injuries and i feel those injuries exacerbated his bad state of mind. I don’t feel like the coaches helped him enough as well.

I agree he’s fried and done and I don’t want him back here next year.
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I'm not saying he isn't injured. He clearly is or was. The coaches didn't do him any favors letting him throw 5 INTs a game.

He couldn't make throws because he was injured, yet he needed to make those throws to build his confidence.

Unless he has a come-to-Jesus moment in the next few days, this offense isn't scoring more than 20-24 points in regulation. We're in for more slugfests that come down to the wire these next two games.
 
JamesQuall said:
I'm not saying he isn't injured. He clearly is or was. The coaches didn't do him any favors letting him throw 5 INTs a game.

He couldn't make throws because he was injured, yet he needed to make those throws to build his confidence.

Unless he has a come-to-Jesus moment in the next few days, this offense isn't scoring more than 20-24 points in regulation. We're in for more slugfests that come down to the wire these next two games.
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The only thing that comes to mind for me is this:

Imagine if we had the same DC coordinator that we had last year? Guidry is covering up for a lot of the offensive ineptness.

If Kevin Steele is our DC, we win what games?

Temple, Miami of Ohio (maybe) & Bethune?

We certainly lose the Clemson game and likely UVA. Even if we say we win UVA, that’s only 4 wins going into the last 2 games.

We are looking at a 3 win Miami coming off a 5-7 season.

Am I crazy analyzing it in this way do to how bad our offense is two years in a row?

Credit to Mario for getting Guidry. Otherwise, I think this program is in definite burn down mode to the 1,000 degree compared to now.
 
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Some bright spots:

OL
LB
Guidry
Beard
Our 2023 recruiting class

Joyce, Bain, Fletcher, Mauigoa, Brown, Popo, Wayne, Riley Williams (yes a LONG way to go but he will get there) have all had their moments relatively speaking and a few others like CJ/Joseph etc
 
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PIPO said:
Starting this with 2 games left because nothing that happens in these last 2-3 games won’t change much in my mind one way or another.

Regardless of the final record, IMO, the product on the field has improved compared to last year. With that said, here are my coaching & positional grades (no recruiting grade) without my Mope or Slurper green & orange shades. My Grades are based on performance only. Not whether there was talent or not enough talent in the room.

QB:
TVD: D- (Easily could be an F, but had a decent start to the season and played ok vs UNC. Because he was playing with significant injuries, gave him a D- despite the mental collapse).

Emory: C+ (Warrior/Leader: 1-1 vs two of the most difficult defenses on our schedule while thrown into the fire).

Overall Grade: F

RB:
Grade based on performance with this offensive line:

Overall Grade: B-

WR:
Tough to grade with the QBs struggling.

Overall Grade: B

TE:
Coaching staff failed in bringing in more players via the portal especially with Arroyo coming off ACL injury.

Overall Grade: D (not an F because I felt bad they got worn down only blocking and OC never really called anything for them).

OL:
Overall Grade: A

Overall Offensive Grade: 22.3 PPG in the ACC = D

DEFENSE:

DE/DT:
Overall Grade: B+

LBs:
Overall Grade: A

CBs:
Overall Grade: B

Safeties:
Overall Grade: B-

Overall Defensive Grade: B+

Special Teams: B (Borregales = A).

Coaching:

HC: F (Win the GT game and grade is a C).
OC: D
DC: A
Addae: B+ (I see development and improvement with safeties and Corner Play).
Taylor/Salave’a: B+
Mirabal: A
Beard: B+
Harris: B-
Nicholson: A
Woodiel: I almost want to give an ”I” for incomplete but will give a D.

What are your best objective grades?? Can’t wait for the OC talk all off season!

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I think you nailed it. It's amazing that our OL - biggest weakness last year - has been terrific AND 100% healthy every game and we STILL can't manage more than a 4 pt improvement over last year's offense. Simply cannot explain that. Goes to show how clumsily this year was completely wasted.
 
PIPO said:
The only thing that comes to mind for me is this:

Imagine if we had the same DC coordinator that we had last year? Guidry is covering up for a lot of the offensive ineptness.

If Kevin Steele is our DC, we win what games?

Temple, Miami of Ohio (maybe) & Bethune?

We certainly lose the Clemson game and likely UVA. Even if we say we win UVA, that’s only 4 wins going into the last 2 games.

We are looking at a 3 win Miami coming off a 5-7 season.

Am I crazy analyzing it in this way do to how bad our offense is two years in a row?

Credit to Mario for getting Guidry. Otherwise, I think this program is in define burn down mode to the 1,000 degree compared to now.
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I don't think you're wrong to think that way.

It's a lack of tempo, creativity, too many bunch formations, and being extremely predictable that makes our offense bad. Throw in the fact TVD has been dog**** and it looks even worse than it is. I think if you took away half of TVDs interceptions and the offense goes from terrible to mediocre which is all that we need (it seems that way at least) to separate us from 6-6 to 9-3 possibly better.

Dawson definitely seems to be a disappointing hire. Either that or he has his hands tied.
 
PIPO said:
Starting this with 2 games left because nothing that happens in these last 2-3 games won’t change much in my mind one way or another.

Regardless of the final record, IMO, the product on the field has improved compared to last year. With that said, here are my coaching & positional grades (no recruiting grade) without my Mope or Slurper green & orange shades. My Grades are based on performance only. Not whether there was talent or not enough talent in the room.

QB:
TVD: D- (Easily could be an F, but had a decent start to the season and played ok vs UNC. Because he was playing with significant injuries, gave him a D- despite the mental collapse).

Emory: C+ (Warrior/Leader: 1-1 vs two of the most difficult defenses on our schedule while thrown into the fire).

Overall Grade: F

RB:
Grade based on performance with this offensive line:

Overall Grade: B-

WR:
Tough to grade with the QBs struggling.

Overall Grade: B

TE:
Coaching staff failed in bringing in more players via the portal especially with Arroyo coming off ACL injury.

Overall Grade: D (not an F because I felt bad they got worn down only blocking and OC never really called anything for them).

OL:
Overall Grade: A

Overall Offensive Grade: 22.3 PPG in the ACC = D

DEFENSE:

DE/DT:
Overall Grade: B+

LBs:
Overall Grade: A

CBs:
Overall Grade: B

Safeties:
Overall Grade: B-

Overall Defensive Grade: B+

Special Teams: B (Borregales = A).

Coaching:

HC: F (Win the GT game and grade is a C).
OC: D
DC: A
Addae: B+ (I see development and improvement with safeties and Corner Play).
Taylor/Salave’a: B+
Mirabal: A
Beard: B+
Harris: B-
Nicholson: A
Woodiel: I almost want to give an ”I” for incomplete but will give a D.

What are your best objective grades?? Can’t wait for the OC talk all off season!

Sarcastic Season 9 GIF by The Office
Click to expand...
Taylor and Salave'a are a C+ for me due to our recruiting situation. Overall team grade is a D. Can be a C if we beat BC and close well in recruiting.
 
Brains said:
Taylor and Salave'a are a C+ for me due to our recruiting situation. Overall team grade is a D. Can be a C if we beat BC and close well in recruiting.
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Yeah, I decided to leave recruiting/portal acquisitions out of it.

Judging/evaluating/grading based on the actual players in the field.
 
surfcane said:
Definitely coaching makes a huge impact - I was watching several games over the weekend and during the bama uk game - they mentioned how the coaches entirely redid the whole play book in the middle of the season to run what worked for the QB and kept adding/adjusting to the QB. Is the QB Milroe a great QB? Not yet maybe not ever - still missed wide open wr etc - But what a concept to call plays that work for the QB and the team.

On that same note - what happened with Chaney? he had a couple of excellent runs and then not sure if I remember seeing him get a lot of runs after that (I was at work and very busy in stretches so could have missed some runs etc)
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Like everything with Chaney, had a few very good runs and then he got dinged up and thus he was out. It wasn’t them holding him out because they decided not to give him the ball.

It’s the story of Don Chaney.
 
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surfcane said:
Definitely coaching makes a huge impact - I was watching several games over the weekend and during the bama uk game - they mentioned how the coaches entirely redid the whole play book in the middle of the season to run what worked for the QB and kept adding/adjusting to the QB. Is the QB Milroe a great QB? Not yet maybe not ever - still missed wide open wr etc - But what a concept to call plays that work for the QB and the team.

On that same note - what happened with Chaney? he had a couple of excellent runs and then not sure if I remember seeing him get a lot of runs after that (I was at work and very busy in stretches so could have missed some runs etc)
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He came off the field and his lower left leg appeared to have some sort of ding. Was walking ok, but with a strange hop of his left when he put pressure on the lower leg.

Due has never been healthy. Whatever explosion he has in high school is now mostly gone.
 
RB - C. a bit too generous. 4 Horseman BS really means you have 4 above avg backs but not a single difference maker. Lack of explosion and big plays really kills us. Not a single run over 30 yards vs P5 team (and only 1 run vs G5 against prevent D before halftime), Let me repeat - NOT A SINGLE RUN OVER 30 yards vs. P5. Puts everything on QB for chunk plays

OC - D+. You can Bro Ball (if true Mario is influencing offense) and STILL be creative. Dawson is not creative with play design, does not script drives well, does not scheme to playmakers (B. Smith, etc.), does not adjust at halftime. Thats ALL ON OC, not Mario.
 
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