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Phil Steele: UM most improved.

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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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all true, depends on O line, if they perform 9,10 wins not out of question...hope we get a season in
 
CaneSwag1995 said:
Surprised you have us going to the ACCCG.
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Where is the surprise in that? We play the girls YMCA 11 times this year and our offense SHOULD utilize speed. Combined captain planet would be envious. What's the other option UNC or vag tech? If u go into a season scared of that it's time to call it a rap. Its not because I think all of a sudden the staff is gonna become Bear Bryant and co. It's by default essentially. But right now even default would be great as long as people see it for what it is. Until we're able to play atleast good teams and hold our own it's a lil early for all the other discussions. I just feel the ACC as a whole (RIGHT NOW) & in particular the coastal there is zero legit talent. We can and should be the best of that. We have talent all over the field. Now it's just about coaching and utilization.
 
dsddcane said:
Where is the surprise in that? We play the girls YMCA 11 times this year and our offense SHOULD utilize speed. Combined captain planet would be envious. What's the other option UNC or vag tech? If u go into a season scared of that it's time to call it a rap. Its not because I think all of a sudden the staff is gonna become Bear Bryant and co. It's by default essentially. But right now even default would be great as long as people see it for what it is. Until we're able to play atleast good teams and hold our own it's a lil early for all the other discussions. I just feel the ACC as a whole (RIGHT NOW) & in particular the coastal there is zero legit talent. We can and should be the best of that. We have talent all over the field. Now it's just about coaching and utilization.
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I think everyone on the board agrees with you. The problem is, we have watched Cane teams blow the Coastal numerous times the last 15 years by losing to teams they shouldn’t. The only team that slightly worries me is UNC. Even though Mack Brown is basically retired, the majority of coaches he hired are solid, and their talent is steadily improving. But, we get them at home.
 
406Cane said:
Remember when he had us in the 05 title game against USC?
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Maybe you didn't realize we SHOULD'VE BEEN THERE... That Georgia tech game doesn't get rescheduled & played when we were hurt and trying to rest up we walk into the championship game or atleast **** close. Instead we lost a game we should've dominated and gave up the season after that. Got mollywhopped by lsu & never been the same since... The end
 
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CaneSwag1995 said:
I think everyone on the board agrees with you. The problem is, we have watched Cane teams blow the Coastal numerous times the last 15 years by losing to teams they shouldn’t. The only team that slightly worries me is UNC. Even though Mack Brown is basically retired, the majority of coaches he hired are solid, and their talent is steadily improving. But, we get them at home.
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Agreed. However that team is not one that needs to be feared. It's just a matter of coaches getting kids to show up and utilizing the weapons on the field. We do that and no one currently on this schedule should stay close even. Coaches gotta do their part and show up too.
 
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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UNC's worst loss was to App St, with a forgivable loss to Clemson. They also won their bowl game against a G5 team.
Miami's worst loss was to FIU, with a game against UF that we found every way possible to lose. We lost our bowl game against a G5 team.

We also lost head to head.
 
Astcloud11 said:
UNC's worst loss was to App St, with a forgivable loss to Clemson. They also won their bowl game against a G5 team.
Miami's worst loss was to FIU, with a game against UF that we found every way possible to lose. We lost our bowl game against a G5 team.

We also lost head to head.
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UNC can be expected to be a little better than last year. We can expect to be a **** of a lot better than last year.
 
JD08 said:
UNC can be expected to be a little better than last year. We can expect to be a **** of a lot better than last year.
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And we still should've beat them last year at their place, at night, and on national tv if not for horrid offense, special teams, and a 4th and 17 blunder.

We should pay them back with an ND style beat down just in case they have some delusion they are the team to beat on our side of the conference.
 
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Salt said:
And we still should've beat them last year at their place, at night, and on national tv if not for horrid offense, special teams, and a 4th and 17 blunder.

We should pay them back with an ND style beat down just in case they have some delusion they are the team to beat on our side of the conference.
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That's a great idea. We should have the boys get right on it.

If anyone connected with the team is reading this, please pass our request on. It's the kind of thing we need to know we're on the right track.
 
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Salt said:
And we still should've beat them last year at their place, at night, and on national tv if not for horrid offense, special teams, and a 4th and 17 blunder.

We should pay them back with an ND style beat down just in case they have some delusion they are the team to beat on our side of the conference.
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ohhhhhh, you mean we would have won if 2/3 of our team didn’t play horribly? Thanks for the insight, duly noted.

i also remember unc scoring 17 in the first quarter because we came out ready to play as usual
 
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Liberty City El said:
If you're a Miami fan & you don't think he's right, you're either not really a fan or you're a mopey batty boy who needs to toughen up & quit crying about last year...

- Hiring a proven X's & O's uptempo offensive guru in Lashlee
- Hiring a very good OL coach who's a West Va Trickett disciple
- Hiring a WR's coach who has developed two 1st round draft pick WR's in the last 2 drafts & has a long extensive history as an OC
- Hiring the greatest Safety in Football history in iconic legend Ed Reed
- Hiring Telly Lockette who's a long time South FL coach with great recruiting acumen & high level community respect
- Hiring Benedict Hyppolite who's a young up & coming coach with good local HS recruiting connections that will be groomed into a legit full time position coach in a few years
- Hiring Edwin Pata & Terry Jefferson from FAMU, both being well versed in South FL HS football & are good additions to the recruiting department
- Hiring Dominique Nwoko from UGA to be our new Graphics creative designer
- Landing one of the most dynamic weapons at QB in D'Eriq King
- Getting a DE who was top 5 in sacks last year in Quincy Roche
- Getting a transfer Kicker in Jose Borregales to replace Basura Baxa
- Getting a good RT in Jarrid Williams to sure up our offensive line
- Getting the former #1 ranked player in the Nation in OLB/DE Jaelan Phillips (even though it didn't happen this offseason)
- Getting Zach McCloud to Redshirt & return for a 5th year
- Getting Issaih Walker from UF (will be a starting LT in the future, not this year though)
- Getting 13 TF's to early enroll including 4 WR's & 2 RB's who will all be able to play day
- Getting 5 Spring practices before the C19 shutdown when many teams didn't even get a chance to start their Spring camp
- Maintaining White Hot recruiting momentum despite last seasons L's
- Having the bill that allows Florida college athletes to be paid for name, image & likeness signed at the University of Miami Carol Soffer Indoor Practice facility.

I could go on, but regardless of how much you don't wanna believe or still will be a scared "I don't wanna get my hopes up" type fan, it can't be denied that we've had an impactful offseason & done just about every single thing we could to put ourselves in the best position possible to have a winning season.

Off just OC & QB alone we definitely improved.
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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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I THINK WE CAN BEAT MIKE TYSON!!!
 
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