Position battle - LB

[Memnon]

We did - we just didn’t get him and apparently he has done very well at Auburn. Elijah Melendez

He had 29tks at Auburn last year.

The board hyped him up as if he was the 2nd coming of Dan Morgan, but in reality, he just almost had 30 combined tackles on a bad Auburn team.

By comparison, Mason Posa had 30 solo tackles alone & 58 combined for a bad Wisconsin team as a True Frosh last year.

Menendez wouldn't have even played last year had he signed with Miami.

 

[Hstokes1447]

Wiley-Smith-Toure will play a lot. Heatherman rotates the LB's a good bit. Last year Wes and Toure played the most, but Smith and Popo played a good bit as well. This year Bonner and Pruitt will be sprinkled in. Look out for Edwards though.

I don’t see this staff every playing true freshman LB any more than they played Wiley last season due to they way they want the position played and High school coaches simply do not coach that way. Pruitt, Bonner and Wiley will be the LBs who rotate with Toure and Smith. I see Wiley also playing that Lightfoot role.

 

[Hstokes1447]

Chase Smith and Mo Toure will be the best starting LB tandem in the ACC and top 5-7 in the nation.

 

[Hstokes1447]

The only question that keeps popping up in my head is, why hasn't some of the youth jumped some of these dudes? We know for sure the staff lets the best play always since they been here, and also LB for some reason is a difficult position to evaluate when you look at the NFL a bunch of under rated players out of HS are becoming dogs at that spot.

Chase and Toure are the best linebackers on the team. The younger guys are more athletic but they are not better at the position of linebacker.

 

[Hstokes1447]

Yall are ******* trippin if you think Toure and Smth aren’t going to get torched in coverage. Sure they have straight line speed. But imo they’re not very good rushing the passer either. Pure downhill Run D players.

We need the young guys to play and develop. Period.

You are going to die on this hill I see lol. I guarantee you Smith and Toure will be the best starting linebackers in the ACC this season.

 

[Hstokes1447]

Can you point to a single time in the playoffs where those two got "torched" in the passing game?
What are you even talking about?
And Toure is a very good blitzer, especially in the A gap.
Our defense was great last year so I must've missed all this torching that Mo and Smith were on the field for. Was Wes Fred Warner or did I miss something.
I'm not saying Mo and Smith are great in the passing game but the overwhelming majority of college LBs aren't.
CJ Allen, Hill, Trotter are consensus top 5 MLB in the draft and that's the first thing you'll hear about them. They're not good in the passing game.
Tell me where and when they got torched?

Toure actually had multiple key pass breakups in the playoffs

 

[JgDaCane]

Smith played some really good snaps towards the end of the year. Our dline & secondary will be elite. LB just needs to be solid & with Toure & Smith you'd be hard pressed to find a pair who have played more football in the country. Nearly impossible.

 

[Coach Macho]

I cant really recall the Clemson defense back in the day when they were really good (as in what type of defense Venable was running) but I seem to recall a freaking stacked DL and a stacked secondary, then a bunch of random swoll neck white dudes making plays at LB that never really sniffed the NFL but they could diagnose plays and make plays due to talent around them. I would be cool with that kinda defense.

Exactly.

Obviously it helps if you have a LB with freak traits. That's cool. But a vast majority of the best Linebackers in the world DON'T.

You can be really successful with freaks on the DL and Secondary... and high IQ guys at LB.

I mean... being Miami fans we've all seen that dynamic a thousand times. Many of our good LB's here did not pop off the measureables chart.

 

[Coach Macho]

Let’s try it this way

The Ohio State linebacker I believe his name is Sunny styles it’s more likely gonna be the first linebacker drafted in this year‘s NFL draft


versus Miami he read the play, diagnosed the play and when it came time to make a play, he got ran over by Fletcher and most NFL scouting teams view him as one of the top three linebackers in college football

I fundamentally disagree that we don’t need a playmaker at linebacker

I'm glad you brought him up...
Because he's being drafted high for the same reason that we all want to see Wiley play...

Physical traits.

But when it came time to fill the A-gap all those impressive physical traits were null and void. All that spreed, length and "play maker" ability goes out the window when an offense lines-up and runs the ball down your throat.
I'm sure if we would've ran the ball in the perimeter Styles would've looked phenomenal. (as would Wiley)
But the truth is, Linebacker (more often than not) requires you to diagnose blocking schemes, stack-and-shed O-linemen, track the ball and stick your face in the fan.

Those things take priority over being able to cover.

There's just so many nuances to the Linebacker position, that you can't stick a kid out there because he LOOKS good.

 

[Hstokes1447]

I'm glad you brought him up...
Because he's being drafted high for the same reason that we all want to see Wiley play...

Physical traits.

But when it came time to fill the A-gap all those impressive physical traits were null and void. All that spreed, length and "play maker" ability goes out the window when an offense lines-up and runs the ball down your throat.
I'm sure if we would've ran the ball in the perimeter Styles would've looked phenomenal. (as would Wiley)
But the truth is, Linebacker (more often than not) requires you to diagnose blocking schemes, stack-and-shed O-linemen, track the ball and stick your face in the fan.

Those things take priority over being able to cover.

There's just so many nuances to the Linebacker position, that you can't stick a kid out there because he LOOKS good.

 

[Caneau]

He had 29tks at Auburn last year.

The board hyped him up as if he was the 2nd coming of Dan Morgan, but in reality, he just almost had 30 combined tackles on a bad Auburn team.

By comparison, Mason Posa had 30 solo tackles alone & 58 combined for a bad Wisconsin team as a True Frosh last year.

Menendez wouldn't have even played last year had he signed with Miami.

I learned a lesson….check stats. Yes, I knew the team was not just bad but horrible last year. Glad to hear he really isn’t that good and yes their boards and podcasts continue to hype him up.

 

[bacane]

Great respect for Toure & Smith, but LB room needs to develop in a hurry. Worry about keeping them healthy over a long season.

 

[JamesQuall]

Why on earth would anyone pick Wiley at this moment? He's done absolutely nothing and we hear zero from practice reporting.

You do know you're on CiS during the off-season, right? I'm absolutely gobsmacked I haven't seen anybody suggest he change positions yet.

 

[SinisterCane]

Chase Smith and Mo Toure will be the best starting LB tandem in the ACC and top 5-7 in the nation.

We went from "we have to get portal LBs" to best starting LB tandem in the ACC..........Chase Smith avg a tackle per game

 

[Hstokes1447]

We went from "we have to get portal LBs" to best starting LB tandem in the ACC..........Chase Smith avg a tackle per game

I just know what I see, and everything Chase does well is exactly what Heatherman wants in a LB. All reports are he is moving very well and looking athletic. If that is true he will have a big time season.

As I have stated multiple times before last season, every season of Heatherman’s career when coaching LBs at least one of his guys was named to the All conference list. I expect to see an insane jump for Chase this season in year 2 in this defense and another year removed from injury.