Post-Game Thoughts (For the Rational Fans)

While
I agree with almost everything you said I am confused by your prediction that we go 8-4 or 9-3. You said if yourself that we won’t see anyone with a defense remotely as good as Florida’s. Our defense is stellar and as the rookies on offense improve with experience there play will improve. I can not see us dropping more then 1 more game during the regular season.
I say 8-4/9-3 factoring in another game blown by bad special team's play, and at least one other game where our OL can't get it done.

UVA will have a solid defense that'll give us issues. FSU will be a battle, no matter how good or bad our teams are. Narduzzi will have a solid D gameplan ready for us.

I can see us getting to double-digit wins, and believe our line will improve tenfold. But bad tendencies are hard to eliminate, and it'll take some time.
 
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As long as that Bad list is, we should've won the game. It took not one but two horrific mistakes to lose this game. I'd love to know what our win probability was after Deejay had scored that TD and Carter intercepted Franks and we had a FG lead with 10 mins to go and the ball inside their territory.

I'm not too worried about the penalties and atrocious offensive line play yet, but I am worried about Enos. Very poor outing from him. Expected to see a lot of things that never happened and hated his stubbornness to stick with the PA and PA rollout despite it never working. Also, Tate Martell seeing half the snaps in the second half leaves me dizzy. I hope Enos improves because if not I'm afraid we're going to see a lot of the same old Miami.
 
A frustrating loss to say the least, but if we were going to lose this was how I envisioned it. Here's what we've learned, starting with the bad:

The Bad
  • Miami gave up 10 sacks tonight, I can't remember a game in recent memory where that happened.
  • Zion Nelson had his moments but was generally overmatched. He's going to be a good one, but today wasn't his day. At the end of the season, you'll see how special he is.
  • #74 John Campbell was absolutely terrible.
  • Our OL won't be elite for at least 2-3 seasons. The goal now is to just get to average. Stacy Stearls lack of recruiting and coaching devastated us in this position. We need a big class this year.
  • Bubba Baxa ain't it. He missed a crucial FG for us that would've likely put us in position to win this game. Considering other later decisions in the game, it was evident this staff didn't have faith he could nail a big one later on the 4th & 9.
  • This team was undisciplined. 150+ yards of penalties that were mostly on the offense. Lots of game management issues from our QB and coaches. If the Cam run doesn't get called back we win this game.
  • Our Redzone offense wasn't enough. We whiffed two times.
  • JT4 wasn't elite or even good. Costly muffed punt that, if avoided, would've likely won us the game. Dropped a dime in the endzone that would've given us the win.
  • Our DT play was incredibly average. We need Silvera back pronto; Bethel and the other guys aren't enough.
  • Patchan isn't going to do it for us. I believe Hill and Rousseau will ultimately pass him and start.
  • Garvin wasn't what we needed him to be. He'll have a great year, and will only get better.
  • We coughed up the ball so many times I lost count.
  • Will Mallory was a non-factor. Dropped a few passes and wasn't an impact.
  • Our LB's were average at best.
  • We had multiple opportunities to win this game and blew every chance.
  • We couldn't stop them on fourth down. They did the bare minimum to win.
  • Too many slow-developing plays from our offense. Jarren needs to get the ball out quicker and will get better at that as the year goes on.
The Good.
  • We've found our QB in Jarren Williams. Considering the circumstances, he was phenomenal. 19/30 - 63% Completions - 214 Yd's - 1 TD. He will be a star here. The better our OL gets, the higher the ceiling for him.
  • Deejay Dallas is going to have a year, as will Cam'Ron Davis. Despite our bad OL, we got good some great plays.
  • Brevin Jordan showed up and did what he needed too.
  • KJ Osborn is going to make an impact. He played well and will do well in ACC play.
  • Our secondary played exceptionally well tonight. Considering the lack of depth and playing time, we played really well. This will be a top-25 unit by the end of the year.
  • We faced adversity and didn't give up. Last year's team would have folded, we kept our mental toughness to the end.
  • We hung around with a supposed Top-Ten team. Nobody gave us a shot; we gave them this game on a silver platter. Lots to clean up, but we've got the talent to compete.
  • Louis Hedley showed some flashes on a few punts. He has put in a generally terrible position all game. He'll be a good stopgap until we find our next guy.
  • Trajan Bandy shut down Florida's highly vaunted WR's. Anyone that he was covering didn't do a thing.
  • Amari Carter played well. Missed a significant tackle or two, but proved he was good in coverage.
  • Gurvan Hall did what he needed too. He and Carter will only get better.
  • Our rush defense played well; they'll be even better in ACC play. No worries on that end.
  • We forced four turnovers, and doing so in ACC play won't be a problem. We should've won because of this stat, but 10 sacks typically negate that.
Overall
  • Considering our OL issues, this is a team that's likely going to be 8-4/9-3. I don't see us getting to double digits with that OL. Either way, we can have a solid season and continue the long-term build.
  • Manny made a few mistakes in game management and coaching, but that is to be expected. Dan Enos did as best as he could with a swiss cheese OL. One issue I had with playcalling is that he never seemed to bring in TEs or a FB for blocking. We shifted away from a lot of motion as the game went on. Either way, our QB play has massively improved and we'll only get better. Enos will get better as a play-caller as the season goes on.
  • Florida isn't a Top Ten team. If you go over to their boards they're freaking out about how much Franks sucks. Plainly put, they're an 8-4/9-3 team this year. Unfortunately, we had every chance to win and couldn't pull it off. Nobody gave us a shot and we played them to the final whistle.
  • Mullen isn't elite. For a second-year coaching staff, UF was absolutely atrocious. Even with forcing ten sacks Miami had a chance to win this. Nothing in what they showed tonight should give their fanbase confidence that this is their guy.
  • Special teams will likely lose us another game this season. Were it not for the missed FG and muffed punt, we likely win this game.
  • UF's defense is the best we'll face all year. There isn't an ACC team with that level of intensity.
  • Jarren is going to be a good one. We've got holes on this team to fill, but we've figured out the most important position.
  • I see this season, after tonight, going a lot like the 2016 season. Every now and then we showed flashes but just didn't have the experience or depth to compete at an elite level.
  • This team was mentally prepared for this game and didn't give up, that's huge.
  • We've got a chance to beat up on UNC and get this season on track. Onto the next game. We can only go up from here, and I believe we will.

It seems like your expectations of our front 7 are unreasonable. We don’t have a superstar DT anymore but our front 7 was great tonight. Florida is a power running team and we shut them down for the entire game. Ford was overhyped this off-season but we might be better against the run then we were last year. LB’s are so under appreciated by our fan base because they’re not top 10 picks, we’ll miss all 4 of them next season.
 
I say 8-4/9-3 factoring in another game blown by bad special team's play, and at least one other game where our OL can't get it done.

UVA will have a solid defense that'll give us issues. FSU will be a battle, no matter how good or bad our teams are. Narduzzi will have a solid D gameplan ready for us.

I can see us getting to double-digit wins, and believe our line will improve tenfold. But bad tendencies are hard to eliminate, and it'll take some time.
UVA will be at the Rock and the team will be looking for payback. There gimmick offense won’t work and our offense will be better than it was last year. As bad as our OLine is FSU’s is worse. They may not have a QB left by that game!
 
It seems like your expectations of our front 7 are unreasonable. We don’t have a superstar DT anymore but our front 7 was great tonight. Florida is a power running team and we shut them down for the entire game. Ford was overhyped this off-season but we might be better against the run then we were last year. LB’s are so under appreciated by our fan base because they’re not top 10 picks, we’ll miss all 4 of them next season.
Also, we were rushing only 3 lineman for like half the game because we we dropping DE’s into coverage. The D is solid this year. That electric Gaytor offense was supposed to drop 50 on us tonight but our D proved to be superior!
 
UVA will be at the Rock and the team will be looking for payback. There gimmick offense won’t work and our offense will be better than it was last year. As bad as our OLine is FSU’s is worse. They may not have a QB left by that game!
It'll be interesting to see what happens with FSU next week. If they lose to Boise State, I think it's the beginning of the end for Taggart. As for UVA, we've got a short week to prepare after Virginia Tech and that's always a concern. While I do think we should beat them, they've given us a lot of problems over the years.
 
Also, we were rushing only 3 lineman for like half the game because we we dropping DE’s into coverage. The D is solid this year. That electric Gaytor offense was supposed to drop 50 on us tonight but our D proved to be superior!
They're going to get blasted by UGA, LSU, and Auburn. Factor in Mizzou, a rivarly game at Tennessee, and an away game at UK, and they could be heading for disaster. Granted, we've got a solid to elite defense, but they're nowhere close to great on offense. Those teams won't make the massive amount of mistakes we made tonight.
 
VA Tech should be easy least half the team has quit on the coach and even Bud Foster is retiring after the season. If anything I think that game will give us confidence to be ready during the short week for UVA!
 
VA Tech should be easy least half the team has quit on the coach and even Bud Foster is retiring after the season. If anything I think that game will give us confidence to be ready during the short week for UVA!
I'm not worried about them. They've got more problems than we could imagine, and even Richt owned them. We've got a bye to prepare for that game.
 
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They're going to get blasted by UGA, LSU, and Auburn. Factor in Mizzou, a rivarly game at Tennessee, and an away game at UK, and they could be heading for disaster. Granted, we've got a solid to elite defense, but they're nowhere close to great on offense. Those teams won't make the massive amount of mistakes we made tonight.
Agreed, they also have no depth and any injuries will kill them. I think the Canes showed the other SEC teams the blueprint to shutdown the UF offense. Stop the run and force Franks to beat you. He proved he is dog**** tonight....
 
What's infuriating is how we still can't capitalize on turnovers. Florida was begging us to win the game. That one drive where we had like 5 penalties on our end zone was flat out embarrassing. Also, Manny calling a timeout to punt after taking a delay of game. Looked like we were learning to play football for the first time.
 
I'm not worried about them. They've got more problems than we could imagine, and even Richt owned them. We've got a bye to prepare for that game.
I think Zion will be fine at LT. Zuniga is a stud and he won’t see anyone his caliber again. I am more concerned with Campbell but I think he will improve and I think Enos will have scheme a bit more to help them and trust UMs superior skilled athletes to win against inferior talent.
 
What's infuriating is how we still can't capitalize on turnovers. Florida was begging us to win the game. That one drive where we had like 5 penalties on our end zone was flat out embarrassing. Also, Manny calling a timeout to punt after taking a delay of game. Looked like we were learning to play football for the first time.
Agreed. The delay of game penalties were the worst. Total momentum killers. I trust they will get it straightened out. We did a have a Green QB playing against the #8 team in the nation.
 
Agreed, they also have no depth and any injuries will kill them. I think the Canes showed the other SEC teams the blueprint to shutdown the UF offense. Stop the run and force Franks to beat you. He proved he is dog**** tonight....

agree. UGA, LSU are licking their chops...
 
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