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Phil Steele: UM most improved.

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NJshoreCane said:
He has Miami most improved.
That's cool but he has UNC ranked ahead of Miami in his pre-season poll and they're not on his most improved list.
UNC and Miami each finished the season last year at 6-6.
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1 team beat the other last season with true freshman QB
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
FCS?! You're being very kind. That was 3A High School Football level field goal kickers.

We had a walk-on who hadn't hit puberty yet kicking field goals at one point.
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I wanted to say high school level kicking but that would have been an insult to the kid who kicked at my high school
 
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cway313 said:
1 team beat the other last season with true freshman QB
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From the article:
What qualifies a team to be “most improved” simply improving the win total significantly from one season to the next.
Miami's on the list. UNC is not.
Miami and UNC had identical records last year.

By deduction, he's saying Miami will have a better year than UNC.
This contradict's his pre-season poll.

I guess he changed his mind since he put out the poll and realized last year's game has zero bearing on this season.
 
NJshoreCane said:
From the article:
What qualifies a team to be “most improved” simply improving the win total significantly from one season to the next.
Miami's on the list. UNC is not.
Miami and UNC had identical records last year.

By deduction, he's saying Miami will have a better year than UNC.
This contradict's his pre-season poll.

I guess he changed his mind since he put out the poll and realized last year's game has zero bearing on this season.
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They needed a mental hiccup, on 4th and forever, from us to win...
 
No doubt we have made considerable offseason upgrades at key spots - both with players and coaches. Now let’s get these kids out on the field to prove it where it matters.
 
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Steele is pretty consistent in his methods. When picking most improved, he looks at things like:

-post-game win expectancy (if you played the same game 100x with the same stats, etc, how many would miami have won)
-returning production
-turnover luck (his theory is it should regress to the mean; this theory held true after our 1st turnover chain szn where we were 10-2 in in november, then regressed in the W/L column the next year when we didn't cause as many TOs)


Personally I think his magazine sucks, but Steele has been pretty accurate with these most-improved picks over the years. This is def positive news.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Now, none of this means a god**** thing, because the ONLY thing that means anything is wins on Saturdays in the fall. But, you can't help but take note of the weaknesses from last year and:

1. QB -- Trade Jarren Williams for D'Eriq King, who was absolutely the highest priority QB on the transfer market and a consensus top 10 favorite for the Heisman. Massive upgrade.

2. K -- Trade Bubba Baxa and his traveling circus of walk-ons for Jose Borregales, a 3 year starter and former Groza award finalist. Massive upgrade.

3. OC -- Trade Dan Enos for Rhett Lashlee, finally joining the 21st century and running a modern, spread offense. Lashlee is coming off a wildly successful season with SMU in which they set all sorts of school records for offense. And he brings with him TWO assistants who have OC experience and experience in his system.

4. DE -- Trade Jon Garvin and Trevon Hill for Quincy Roche and Jaelan Phillips. Roche is a battle tested stud on the edge, who garnered the best pass rushing grade of any player in the country last year not named Chase Young. Phillips is a former #1 overall recruit in the entire country with comical athleticism and potential through the roof of a skyscraper. Massive upgrade.

5. OT -- The tackles were complete turnstiles last year. Well, that might be a little kind. Turnstiles actually move. I think parking cones might be more appropriate. Enter Jarrid Williams, an experienced, steady senior with 20+ games under his belt as a starter. The jury is out on how dominant he will be, so I won't say massive upgrade just yet, but certainly a big upgrade at worst.

6. S -- While our boy Bobby Knowles has been the butt of countless jokes here, he did play pretty well last year. HOWEVER, we all know he's not a true Miami safety. So, exit Knowles, and enter a fully healthy and ingrained Bubba Bolden, as well as Avantae Williams. Gurvan Hall and Amari Carter are back. Bolden is healthy and ready to take the next step. Tae as talented a Safety prospect as we've seen in a while. As much as I loved Jaquan Johnson, the facts are this is far and away the best Safety room overall that Manny and Banda have had since they've been here, and we know the defense is essentially geared towards those spots to make the most impact.

These were all decent to gigantic holes in the 2019 team. And every single one has not only been addressed, but addressed rather impressively. So what can we take as a "negative" for this team? Honestly, not much.

Deejay Dallas is gone, but Cam Harris has proven he can play, and we just signed THE BEST Running Back class in the entire country last cycle. While we'll certainly miss Deejay's leadership and heart, this is as talented a RB room we've seen here in a long time.

Jeff Thomas and KJ Osborn are gone, but there is certainly enough talent to go around. Likens has proven he can develop WRs. Lashlee has proven he can feed them. And a healthy Brevin Jordan helps out a ton here. I don't see much of a drop-off, if any.

The backers are gone, but what we lose in experience and leadership, we gain in athleticism and speed. Huff and Brooks are heat seeking missiles who will miss assignments, but are going to jump off the page at you with their explosiveness. Again, another spot that is more athletic than we've been in probably a decade.

Trajan Bandy is gone, and IMO this spot is the biggest ? on the team. Who plays opposite Blades? If you want to point to any weaknesses on this team (and IMO there are not many), the #2CB spot is probably the biggest one along with who plays tackle opposite Jarrid Williams.

So with the above being spelled out, how can you possibly not think Miami will make a huge jump this year? We have 4 years of evidence now that Manny Diaz is going to field, at worst, an above average defense. We have an above average kicker. We have an above average punter. We have a superstar QB running a system he was created to run. We have speed everywhere. We have a soft-*** schedule, as it stands today. If Manny is able to motivate this team out of a wet paper bag, I fully expect a massively successful season. Steele is always on our nuts, and it rarely works out for him, but I don't think you can truthfully say any team in the country will be as improved as this one. LFG.
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Agree on most of those takes. The one person on the entire team I really can't wait to see the jump he makes this year is Sam. I think he'll be an all American before he leaves. But as we all know being an all American comes to an extent with your team winning. Seems logical all those components are aligned. From what I've seen out of DJ for two years now I'm really hoping he can transition practice to the games finally. The kid is lock down in practice than questions his reads far too tough in games. It'll come with confidence hopefully sooner rather than later. Some of that is due to how passive he is outside of football. Real question is with mobility being the key on offense and transition of spacing for the line how will the guards develope. Mobility isn't exactly their strength. Right tackle I'm a lil curious on too. Far as the dline I think we play three ends with Jade but as aggressive as we are it would make sense simply rotating two units in and out to keep them fresh. Interior play still worries me as we're weak at tackle. A weakness at tackle can potentially create(like it did last year)issues for the ends getting keyed on. The fact that our backers will be more explosive should help because they're a disruptive unit. Well see if other than Sam they can match the aggression necessary. Mike backer really worries me since I think Zach takes that over and he flat out looks lost some times. Overall as I've been said we won't know what we really got until the acccg. The rest is just practice since we won't face anyone that should expose us to issues potentially.
 
dsddcane said:
Agree on most of those takes. The one person on the entire team I really can't wait to see the jump he makes this year is Sam. I think he'll be an all American before he leaves. But as we all know being an all American comes to an extent with your team winning. Seems logical all those components are aligned. From what I've seen out of DJ for two years now I'm really hoping he can transition practice to the games finally. The kid is lock down in practice than questions his reads far too tough in games. It'll come with confidence hopefully sooner rather than later. Some of that is due to how passive he is outside of football. Real question is with mobility being the key on offense and transition of spacing for the line how will the guards develope. Mobility isn't exactly their strength. Right tackle I'm a lil curious on too. Far as the dline I think we play three ends with Jade but as aggressive as we are it would make sense simply rotating two units in and out to keep them fresh. Interior play still worries me as we're weak at tackle. A weakness at tackle can potentially create(like it did last year)issues for the ends getting keyed on. The fact that our backers will be more explosive should help because they're a disruptive unit. Well see if other than Sam they can match the aggression necessary. Mike backer really worries me since I think Zach takes that over and he flat out looks lost some times. Overall as I've been said we won't know what we really got until the acccg. The rest is just practice since we won't face anyone that should expose us to issues potentially.
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Surprised you have us going to the ACCCG.
 
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This place has turned into virtual Portland.
 
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