That's true, but the cupboard was left bare on the OL by Richt and I think we have simply had too many years of subpar play to expect to win most recruiting battles, so we're stuck with second tier guys at spots such as OL. It's going to take wins to change that which, of course, is the sad paradox: we need wins to get the top recruits, but we need the top recruits to get wins.
Kaaya was never that shook in the pocket. 
Only patchan, nnoruka, and bethel are slated to graduate on the d line. Shaq/Pinckney at linebacker. I think we definitely upgrade at linebacker with those 2 gone and don't forget we have jaelen phillips next year too. Defensive talent will be upgraded across the board next year.
The last I heard Nebraska, Arkansas, Kentucky & Auburn were all after him, but I don't think he's a take for Auburn because their DB class is pretty full.
Solid post, Brock.
I agree with Brock and this JW gives us the best chance to win. He had zero INTs going into VT and he may have been injured, contributing to the awful performance. The lack of penalties, ST mishaps, and solid defensive performance (esp redzone) cannot be overstated.
View attachment 99268
Offense:
N'Kosi Perry - 16/27 182yds 1TD 59%cmp, 9car 18yds rushing 1TD
Deejay Dallas - 13car 63yds, 2rec 14yds
KJ Osborn- 4rec 60yds
Brevin Jordan - 2rec 48yds
Mark Pope - 2rec 30yds
Mike Harley - 3rec 16yds
Jeff Thomas - 3rec 14yds
Offense gained 265yds total, 2/10 on 3rd down with 25:41 in Time Of Possession & 0 turnovers.
First MAJOR MAJOR PROPS & RESPECT to Kosi Perry, the kid played a **** of a game & was clear cut leader out there putting this team on his back & getting us our FIRST win vs a P5 opponent on the season. If it weren't for about 4 or 5 drops he would've had a well over 60%cmp & put up bigger numbers.
He was impressive showing poise in the pocket & was evasive considering he had DLineman breathing down his throat on **** near every play. The 2 major differences between he & Jarren is his arm talent & escape-ability under pressure, he knows how to extend plays with his feet & get out trouble the best he can. He'll still get sacked because our OL is just God awful, but there were multiple plays where his mobility allowed him to sneak away from rushers when in Jarren's case would've been sacked.
Give the kid his credit, he was much maligned & bashed like crazy by our fans for most of the offseason, and now it's come to fruition that he's no doubt the best QB on the team & probably would have us at 4-2 or 5-1 had he started from the beginning (IMO). It also looks as though Diaz & Enos might have a made mistake in naming Jarren the starter coming out of Fall camp, obviously Jarren was the safer thrower & didn't turn the ball over as much in the scrimmages, but I distinctly remember a Barry Jackson article from back in August where he quoted an unnamed team official that said Perry was the perfect fit for Enos's offense & probably had the best upside out of the QB's.
The Offense is still vastly under performing commiserate to the talent we have, Idk why Enos is so **** bent on forcing this slow under center offense on our personnel but it obviously isn't gonna change anytime soon. Look at the drastic difference in offensive productivity when we throw the ball more & go faster (VA Tech) as opposed to when we're taking a majority of the snaps under center with long 5-7 step drop Play actions, it's beyond clear we're a Spread team, but it seems we'll only ever see it when we're down 3-4 TD's & have no choice but to toss it around.
Zion Nelson is a HUGE liability to this Offense, he simply isn't ready for Power 5 Football & has literally given up a Sack in every game (except Bethune), he routinely gets beat like a rented mule off the snap & consistently makes it even harder to execute an Offense that already doesn't really fit the players to begin with. I would move Scaife to LT & give John Campbell another shot at RT, Zion just doesn't have it this season, he should be redshirting.
The outside zone runs where the backside Defender goes completely unblocked gets blown up in the backfield for a TFL EVERY SINGLE TIME, stop running them please. And notice how the best run plays we had came out of the Shotgun
Very good game from Deejay, he's tough physical runner that just continues to push forward, he rarely goes down on first contact. Idk why we don't throw the ball to our backs out of the backfield more, a wheel route to Deejay or Cam would be a big gain if we ever decided to throw one.
The WR's had some drops, but the with opportunities they did get they were solid. Was really happy to see Pope get loose, the kid is dynamic playmaker & the more you feed him the more he's going to ball. KJ has the best hands of the group & is a chain mover. JT4 has a bad drop just about every game, but he's explosive & can make plays at any given moment. I'd love to see Wiggins & Payton get more snaps, but it looks like they're redshirting Payton this season.
Brevin is the best TE in the country hands down. Idk why Enos thought it was a good idea to run a TE reverse in the Red Zone to short side of the field, but that's no fault of his. Brevin should be/better be a Mackey Award finalist this year.
Overall, the Offense still can't run the ball well enough & cannot protect the QB. I believe they're better at moving the ball down the field with Perry but for what Enos is getting paid the production just isn't consistently good enough. Our Red Zone offense is just plain terrible, no creativity at all & just about every play is easily diagnosed & stopped. He's one of the top 5 highest paid OC's in college football, but we're not seeing it maturate on the field that he was worth the money.
Defense:
Romeo Finley - 8tcks
Gregory Rousseau - 7tcks 2TFL's & 1sack
Trajan Bandy - 6tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1FR
Mike Pinckney - 6tcks 1TFL, 1sack, 1PBU
Shaq Quarterman - 6tcks 1TFL
Gurvan Hall - 5tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1PBU
Jon Ford - 4tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1FF
Al Blades Jr - 3tcks & 1PBU
Trevon Hill - 3tcks
Bubba Bolden - 2tcks & 1PBU
Defense played its best game thus far which isn't really saying much (lol), but held UVA to just 74yds rushing. Our Run Defense has been stout all season having allowed only ONE 100 yard rusher this year.
We finally got see what happens when the Defensive staff pulls their head out of their *** & starts Rousseau, he was the most dominant player on the field & should've been starting from day 1. Even vs UF he was our best DE & it still took them till we lost 3 games before they realized they had an absolute monster on the edge. The decision to give Patchan more snaps than Rousseau wil ring out for years with this staff, easily one of their dumbest decisions in a long list of dumb decisions. Rousseau is by far the BEST player we have on Defense.
Jon Ford was a BEAST! He played like a man possessed & was absolutely dominating on the interior, even on the play where he got the sack he was being held big time by 2 UVA linemen & still got to the QB (of course the refs didn't call the egregious holding smh). Both he & Jordan Miller are great run stopping DT's, then add on Nesta Jade Silvera & we have a **** good trio of DT's for the next few years.
The Secondary has regressed. They really miss Jaquan, Redwine & Mike Jack. The Safety play outside of Gurvan has been subpar & the CB's have struggled a lot this season. I like Al Blades a lot, I think he's played well this year (not perfect but good enough).
DJ Ivey has been a big let down thus far, I heard a lot from people that had seen him in Fall camp that both he & Blades would be up to speed, but it's pretty clear he just doesn't have the technique in order to hold down a starting spot, he got ABUSED out there last night & simply isn't good enough right now. His hips are too stiff & he just doesn't know how to read a receiver, as someone who pays close attention to CB's & played CB I can tell you there's clear cut difference in Blades & Ivey's ability to cover. Al does get beat sometimes when he's too flat footed & doesn't get enough depth vs his man, but he has good hands & can make a play on the ball when he keeps his man in front of him, Ivey on the other hand is just slow with poor technique & gets lost in coverage. Al has natural cover ability that you can't teach, he needs to be the starter opposite of Bandy.
The pass rush finally showed up this game, they were in the backfield a lot & put pressure on Perkins with 5 sacks. The starting DL needs to be Rousseau, Ford, Nesta & Garvin, with Miller, Hill & Bethel rotating in. Not trying to pile on but I'm sorry Patchan is *** bruh, I'd rather Jahfari Harvey get his snaps than see him on the field again, he just doesn't have any explosion as a pass rusher & gets overran out of plays all the time.
The best players on Defense are Rousseau, Ford, Nesta & Gurvan.
Mad props to the walk-on Kicker Turner Davidson, he needs to kick all of our XP's & short yardage FG's for the rest of the season. And a BIG shoutout to Christian Williams for a TD saving tackle on that Kickoff return. He's done well on ST's this year I'd like to see him get snaps at CB this year.
Overall this was a great win for this team, after coming off a loss to a Va Tech team we should've beat, they could've packed in & come out lackadaisical but they didn't, they fought & persevered and beat a top 20 team, can't minimize how big that is for this team that was essentially playing for this season in this game. We're still a very inconsistent team & this win doesn't mean we're going 9-3 (I hope we do), but it's a start in the right direction. The staff still makes some very questionable decisions & we still can't Block to save our lives or get INT's on Defense but hopefully we can use this as a momentum booster to start playing up to our talent level.
Gotta take everything one week/one game at a time with this team, we should beat GTech handily, but you know that means it'll be a dogfight & once we hit the road vs Pitt & FSU there's no telling which version of this team will show up.
Either way I'm happy we got a W vs a good team, let's keep winning & keep building, the Coastal is not in our hands right now but all we can do is win out to put us in the best position to possibly win it, although we probably won't.
Great post @Liberty City El per usual. I agree with everything. Couldn't agree more about not understanding why Enos seems so determined to force a slow under center offense on an offensive unit that is obviously a spread team by nature. His garbage offense is literally suppressing the talent on this offense and it's criminal.View attachment 99268
Offense:
N'Kosi Perry - 16/27 182yds 1TD 59%cmp, 9car 18yds rushing 1TD
Deejay Dallas - 13car 63yds, 2rec 14yds
KJ Osborn- 4rec 60yds
Brevin Jordan - 2rec 48yds
Mark Pope - 2rec 30yds
Mike Harley - 3rec 16yds
Jeff Thomas - 3rec 14yds
Offense gained 265yds total, 2/10 on 3rd down with 25:41 in Time Of Possession & 0 turnovers.
First MAJOR MAJOR PROPS & RESPECT to Kosi Perry, the kid played a **** of a game & was clear cut leader out there putting this team on his back & getting us our FIRST win vs a P5 opponent on the season. If it weren't for about 4 or 5 drops he would've had a well over 60%cmp & put up bigger numbers.
He was impressive showing poise in the pocket & was evasive considering he had DLineman breathing down his throat on **** near every play. The 2 major differences between he & Jarren is his arm talent & escape-ability under pressure, he knows how to extend plays with his feet & get out trouble the best he can. He'll still get sacked because our OL is just God awful, but there were multiple plays where his mobility allowed him to sneak away from rushers when in Jarren's case would've been sacked.
Give the kid his credit, he was much maligned & bashed like crazy by our fans for most of the offseason, and now it's come to fruition that he's no doubt the best QB on the team & probably would have us at 4-2 or 5-1 had he started from the beginning (IMO). It also looks as though Diaz & Enos might have a made mistake in naming Jarren the starter coming out of Fall camp, obviously Jarren was the safer thrower & didn't turn the ball over as much in the scrimmages, but I distinctly remember a Barry Jackson article from back in August where he quoted an unnamed team official that said Perry was the perfect fit for Enos's offense & probably had the best upside out of the QB's.
The Offense is still vastly under performing commiserate to the talent we have, Idk why Enos is so **** bent on forcing this slow under center offense on our personnel but it obviously isn't gonna change anytime soon. Look at the drastic difference in offensive productivity when we throw the ball more & go faster (VA Tech) as opposed to when we're taking a majority of the snaps under center with long 5-7 step drop Play actions, it's beyond clear we're a Spread team, but it seems we'll only ever see it when we're down 3-4 TD's & have no choice but to toss it around.
Zion Nelson is a HUGE liability to this Offense, he simply isn't ready for Power 5 Football & has literally given up a Sack in every game (except Bethune), he routinely gets beat like a rented mule off the snap & consistently makes it even harder to execute an Offense that already doesn't really fit the players to begin with. I would move Scaife to LT & give John Campbell another shot at RT, Zion just doesn't have it this season, he should be redshirting.
The outside zone runs where the backside Defender goes completely unblocked gets blown up in the backfield for a TFL EVERY SINGLE TIME, stop running them please. And notice how the best run plays we had came out of the Shotgun
Very good game from Deejay, he's tough physical runner that just continues to push forward, he rarely goes down on first contact. Idk why we don't throw the ball to our backs out of the backfield more, a wheel route to Deejay or Cam would be a big gain if we ever decided to throw one.
The WR's had some drops, but the with opportunities they did get they were solid. Was really happy to see Pope get loose, the kid is dynamic playmaker & the more you feed him the more he's going to ball. KJ has the best hands of the group & is a chain mover. JT4 has a bad drop just about every game, but he's explosive & can make plays at any given moment. I'd love to see Wiggins & Payton get more snaps, but it looks like they're redshirting Payton this season.
Brevin is the best TE in the country hands down. Idk why Enos thought it was a good idea to run a TE reverse in the Red Zone to short side of the field, but that's no fault of his. Brevin should be/better be a Mackey Award finalist this year.
Overall, the Offense still can't run the ball well enough & cannot protect the QB. I believe they're better at moving the ball down the field with Perry but for what Enos is getting paid the production just isn't consistently good enough. Our Red Zone offense is just plain terrible, no creativity at all & just about every play is easily diagnosed & stopped. He's one of the top 5 highest paid OC's in college football, but we're not seeing it maturate on the field that he was worth the money.
Defense:
Romeo Finley - 8tcks
Gregory Rousseau - 7tcks 2TFL's & 1sack
Trajan Bandy - 6tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1FR
Mike Pinckney - 6tcks 1TFL, 1sack, 1PBU
Shaq Quarterman - 6tcks 1TFL
Gurvan Hall - 5tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1PBU
Jon Ford - 4tcks 1TFL, 1sack & 1FF
Al Blades Jr - 3tcks & 1PBU
Trevon Hill - 3tcks
Bubba Bolden - 2tcks & 1PBU
Defense played its best game thus far which isn't really saying much (lol), but held UVA to just 74yds rushing. Our Run Defense has been stout all season having allowed only ONE 100 yard rusher this year.
We finally got see what happens when the Defensive staff pulls their head out of their *** & starts Rousseau, he was the most dominant player on the field & should've been starting from day 1. Even vs UF he was our best DE & it still took them till we lost 3 games before they realized they had an absolute monster on the edge. The decision to give Patchan more snaps than Rousseau wil ring out for years with this staff, easily one of their dumbest decisions in a long list of dumb decisions. Rousseau is by far the BEST player we have on Defense.
Jon Ford was a BEAST! He played like a man possessed & was absolutely dominating on the interior, even on the play where he got the sack he was being held big time by 2 UVA linemen & still got to the QB (of course the refs didn't call the egregious holding smh). Both he & Jordan Miller are great run stopping DT's, then add on Nesta Jade Silvera & we have a **** good trio of DT's for the next few years.
The Secondary has regressed. They really miss Jaquan, Redwine & Mike Jack. The Safety play outside of Gurvan has been subpar & the CB's have struggled a lot this season. I like Al Blades a lot, I think he's played well this year (not perfect but good enough).
DJ Ivey has been a big let down thus far, I heard a lot from people that had seen him in Fall camp that both he & Blades would be up to speed, but it's pretty clear he just doesn't have the technique in order to hold down a starting spot, he got ABUSED out there last night & simply isn't good enough right now. His hips are too stiff & he just doesn't know how to read a receiver, as someone who pays close attention to CB's & played CB I can tell you there's clear cut difference in Blades & Ivey's ability to cover. Al does get beat sometimes when he's too flat footed & doesn't get enough depth vs his man, but he has good hands & can make a play on the ball when he keeps his man in front of him, Ivey on the other hand is just slow with poor technique & gets lost in coverage. Al has natural cover ability that you can't teach, he needs to be the starter opposite of Bandy.
The pass rush finally showed up this game, they were in the backfield a lot & put pressure on Perkins with 5 sacks. The starting DL needs to be Rousseau, Ford, Nesta & Garvin, with Miller, Hill & Bethel rotating in. Not trying to pile on but I'm sorry Patchan is *** bruh, I'd rather Jahfari Harvey get his snaps than see him on the field again, he just doesn't have any explosion as a pass rusher & gets overran out of plays all the time.
The best players on Defense are Rousseau, Ford, Nesta & Gurvan.
Mad props to the walk-on Kicker Turner Davidson, he needs to kick all of our XP's & short yardage FG's for the rest of the season. And a BIG shoutout to Christian Williams for a TD saving tackle on that Kickoff return. He's done well on ST's this year I'd like to see him get snaps at CB this year.
Overall this was a great win for this team, after coming off a loss to a Va Tech team we should've beat, they could've packed in & come out lackadaisical but they didn't, they fought & persevered and beat a top 20 team, can't minimize how big that is for this team that was essentially playing for this season in this game. We're still a very inconsistent team & this win doesn't mean we're going 9-3 (I hope we do), but it's a start in the right direction. The staff still makes some very questionable decisions & we still can't Block to save our lives or get INT's on Defense but hopefully we can use this as a momentum booster to start playing up to our talent level.
Gotta take everything one week/one game at a time with this team, we should beat GTech handily, but you know that means it'll be a dogfight & once we hit the road vs Pitt & FSU there's no telling which version of this team will show up.
Either way I'm happy we got a W vs a good team, let's keep winning & keep building, the Coastal is not in our hands right now but all we can do is win out to put us in the best position to possibly win it, although we probably won't.
