- Joined
- Oct 10, 2022
- Messages
- 30
As Bill Parcells famously stated 30 years ago, "you are what your record says you are." This statement sums up the team, we are 3-3 and a mediocre football team. Why? It clearly is a litany of administration coaching choices, recruiting and the lack of culture over the past 20 years. IMO, here is my humble evaluation of the roster and where we go from here:
1. We lack overall speed on both sides of the ball. Shockingly, as a South Fla school speed should never be an issue. Look at our skill people and back 7 on d and the absence of speed is glaring. Even FSU looks much faster than us 9will probably be the difference when we play). Clearly, Mario is aware of what he inherited and will upgrade the speed issue (Washington, Joseph and some others on the hook) db-wise, not sure we have answers there yet.
2. TVD is a good college QB, who seems to be a one trick pony (Lashlee spread is only offense he can comfortably run). I am not sure you can win in today's College landscape with an immobile QB, while also having a below average line. Just a bad recipe.
3. Running backs are ok, nothing special. Our two best guys, Chaney and Citizen are not available, and the rest are serviceable with Parrish being a good portal pickup.
4. Wide receivers, are nice size, but as mentioned no break away speed. I would say every receiver on Bama is faster than our guys. Just some bad recruiting by Richt/Diaz,Likens, etc.
5. Oline is just horrid. Total finese and would dare say our best lineman are frosh or currently playing at IMG and Pancake in Massachusetts. Mario and Mirabel must be shaking their heads every day seeing these junior and senior lineman practice and play.
6. Dline shows promise, but we need to get bigger and stronger. Mario and his staff brought in some very good players (imagine Dline without Mesidor, Jackson, etc.) I think portal will be used quite a bit here next year.
7. Linebacker play is abysmal. Again, horrible recruiting by Manny and guys are too small or too slow. Best guy is Wesley and that is a damning statement, as a true frosh should never be your best player. Guys like Huff, Steed, pure busts. K. Smith and C. Smith appear to be JAGS. Bryant, Washington and Aguirre should help, but portal is necessary big-time.
8. DB's are at best average-too many bad habits, and can only play man to man, yet aren't fast or big enough to play man. Safeties are brutally bad, Avante is clueless on a good day, while Kam and James make as many mistakes as good plays in every game. We need major portal help here, while hoping we can recruit better. So far we have basically struck out in secondary.
Lastly, a couple of major areas I would like to touch upon, which regardless of not having enough talent, signify the current state of program.
1. We are not a smart football team. Our players simply do not have football IQ. As Jimmy Johnson has said repeatedly, ".......smart players are a necessity to winning games." Our best teams had the smartest players, Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Leon Searcy, Bryant McKinnie, Vince Wilfork, Mike Barrow and Jonathan Vilma , etc. Besides being great players they were all really high football IQ guys. I watch TVD (not running down time clock with lead, TeCoury hitting a guy 5 yards out of bounds, Avante and James Williams not understanding basic concepts, penalties on every other play etc. Some of these mistakes are not correctable, just dumb football.
2. There is a culture on this team that Mario recognizes must be changed, unfortunately can't be done in 9 months. Kirby was 8-4 year one and almost lost to Nichols State at home, Nick lost 12 games his first 3 years at LSU. They both inherited bad rosters and more importantly bad cultures. Our players are used to losing close games and become easily dejected when things go astray. That has been happening since 2005, and isn't changed overnight.
3. Everyone says we have to "keep south fla players home." I would counter that by saying, we have to keep the "BEST players home. Urban Meyer rarely recruited South Fla, as he felt they were generally poorly coached and had a sense of entitlement. Bama, Georgia, etc. poach the best receivers, dlinemen, backers, rb's and db's, but don't go overboard with South Fla talent. Typically, this area is void of qb, oline and te talent. Bottom line, this is where Alonzo should and will have his greatest impact. We have to get better at talent selection and acquisition. We have simply been really bad at recruiting. Mario/Alonzo will fix this issue. At the end of the day, it is really about the 'Jimmy and Joes." Remember, Coker, Ed O, Chizek, Les Miles all won titles, and none are x and o geniuses. They had great assistants and managed not to ***** up crazy talented rosters. Give Mario 2 more years to replenish this roster and watch what happens.
1. We lack overall speed on both sides of the ball. Shockingly, as a South Fla school speed should never be an issue. Look at our skill people and back 7 on d and the absence of speed is glaring. Even FSU looks much faster than us 9will probably be the difference when we play). Clearly, Mario is aware of what he inherited and will upgrade the speed issue (Washington, Joseph and some others on the hook) db-wise, not sure we have answers there yet.
2. TVD is a good college QB, who seems to be a one trick pony (Lashlee spread is only offense he can comfortably run). I am not sure you can win in today's College landscape with an immobile QB, while also having a below average line. Just a bad recipe.
3. Running backs are ok, nothing special. Our two best guys, Chaney and Citizen are not available, and the rest are serviceable with Parrish being a good portal pickup.
4. Wide receivers, are nice size, but as mentioned no break away speed. I would say every receiver on Bama is faster than our guys. Just some bad recruiting by Richt/Diaz,Likens, etc.
5. Oline is just horrid. Total finese and would dare say our best lineman are frosh or currently playing at IMG and Pancake in Massachusetts. Mario and Mirabel must be shaking their heads every day seeing these junior and senior lineman practice and play.
6. Dline shows promise, but we need to get bigger and stronger. Mario and his staff brought in some very good players (imagine Dline without Mesidor, Jackson, etc.) I think portal will be used quite a bit here next year.
7. Linebacker play is abysmal. Again, horrible recruiting by Manny and guys are too small or too slow. Best guy is Wesley and that is a damning statement, as a true frosh should never be your best player. Guys like Huff, Steed, pure busts. K. Smith and C. Smith appear to be JAGS. Bryant, Washington and Aguirre should help, but portal is necessary big-time.
8. DB's are at best average-too many bad habits, and can only play man to man, yet aren't fast or big enough to play man. Safeties are brutally bad, Avante is clueless on a good day, while Kam and James make as many mistakes as good plays in every game. We need major portal help here, while hoping we can recruit better. So far we have basically struck out in secondary.
Lastly, a couple of major areas I would like to touch upon, which regardless of not having enough talent, signify the current state of program.
1. We are not a smart football team. Our players simply do not have football IQ. As Jimmy Johnson has said repeatedly, ".......smart players are a necessity to winning games." Our best teams had the smartest players, Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Leon Searcy, Bryant McKinnie, Vince Wilfork, Mike Barrow and Jonathan Vilma , etc. Besides being great players they were all really high football IQ guys. I watch TVD (not running down time clock with lead, TeCoury hitting a guy 5 yards out of bounds, Avante and James Williams not understanding basic concepts, penalties on every other play etc. Some of these mistakes are not correctable, just dumb football.
2. There is a culture on this team that Mario recognizes must be changed, unfortunately can't be done in 9 months. Kirby was 8-4 year one and almost lost to Nichols State at home, Nick lost 12 games his first 3 years at LSU. They both inherited bad rosters and more importantly bad cultures. Our players are used to losing close games and become easily dejected when things go astray. That has been happening since 2005, and isn't changed overnight.
3. Everyone says we have to "keep south fla players home." I would counter that by saying, we have to keep the "BEST players home. Urban Meyer rarely recruited South Fla, as he felt they were generally poorly coached and had a sense of entitlement. Bama, Georgia, etc. poach the best receivers, dlinemen, backers, rb's and db's, but don't go overboard with South Fla talent. Typically, this area is void of qb, oline and te talent. Bottom line, this is where Alonzo should and will have his greatest impact. We have to get better at talent selection and acquisition. We have simply been really bad at recruiting. Mario/Alonzo will fix this issue. At the end of the day, it is really about the 'Jimmy and Joes." Remember, Coker, Ed O, Chizek, Les Miles all won titles, and none are x and o geniuses. They had great assistants and managed not to ***** up crazy talented rosters. Give Mario 2 more years to replenish this roster and watch what happens.
![Miami[]_[]Smoke](https://data.canesinsight.com/avatars/m/16/16959.jpg?1664075159){kind=avatar}