Post-Game Thoughts (For the Rational Fans)

[gcane44]

Appreciate that there are some posts with reason and perspective in this thread.

A lot of frustrating things from the game but I’m generally very encouraged.

For the most part, every single one of our struggles were things we reasonably expected heading into the game.

We knew we had freshmen OTs starting. We knew we had a freshman QB getting his first real PT. We knew we had a new OC and whole offensive staff heading into game 1.

The good news is all these concerns are things that can reasonably be expected to improve over the course of the season.

As excited as many were/are for Enos, the reasoned expectation was always that it would take some time to get the offense clicking. Those who studied his offenses at ARK were excited for the offense but they were also communicating that we shouldn’t really expect to see the offense taking shape until mid season of year 1. I have zero reason to think we shouldn’t still expect that.

Our OL has some concerns. Some of that can be attributed to youth and inexperience. Most of the great left tackles in college were not great starting left tackles in game 1 of their freshman year. Zion has talent and will end up a good one imo. Campbell I’m less sure about. I do think experience and time will do nothing but help him, but I’m just not sure I see it with him rn. My best case hope is he can grow into a Tyree St Louis level RT in a year or so. IDK.

Game 1 of Manny Diaz’s tenure after s tumultuous last season under Richt and we’re the same level team as a Florida squad coming off a double digit win season with expectation. We have no where to go but up with youth all around (esp offense).

UF is clearly overrated and will have some struggles this season. They’re not a top 10 team rn and neither are way. We’re both probably top 25 caliber teams this year. That’s disapointing for them given their trajectory. Nothing but positive for us considering where we’re headed and what we have to build off of.

I’m generally encouraged

 

[Handsome Squidbum]

Don't know about Hightower but someone said Pope does not get the playbook. But yea, ****ed me off how Martell was suddenly WR1 after a few days of practice.

Martell is smart and knows the playbook. I believe a couple weeks ago one of the recruiting gurus (Blustein maybe?) was talking about the Miami WR room and said flat out that Miami did not have smart WRs. He wouldn't be surprised to see Martell move up the depth chart because ALL the WRs were struggling to learn concepts.

Maybe there is a reason Richt only ran verts- it was the only route that the WRs couldn't ***** up.

 

[bobbydigius]

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.

DeeJay is a player but I saw Harris get wrapped up pretty easily in the open field where if he made a move he was off to the races.
Too early to tell what we have with Jarren, but there are things to be excited about.
Ive seen this team fan adversity under Golden and Richt and not give up. Fvck these moral victories we need to win.
Through it all as you said, UF just isn't that good, and us losing is just that, we lost to a team we should have beat on the national stage yet again. Its no longer about giving up, its about executing in those clutch moments and we didnt do that.

EDIT: something to add to the GOOD, while I was underwhelmed by our pass rusher, it was refreshing to see that even though we had mistackles which drives us all crazy, there wasn't any particular play where our guys were completely out of position that allowed for a busted play, ie any retarded telegraphed blitz or sub that lead to a TD.

 

[Southbeach44]

Martell is smart and knows the playbook. I believe a couple weeks ago one of the recruiting gurus (Blustein maybe?) was talking about the Miami WR room and said flat out that Miami did not have smart WRs. He wouldn't be surprised to see Martell move up the depth chart because ALL the WRs were struggling to learn concepts.

Maybe there is a reason Richt only ran verts- it was the only route that the WRs couldn't ***** up.

 

[kruker]

really well said. I also wondered what happened to the motion and where the TE help to the Oline was. Mallory just seemed lost on the field tonight.

I think there was plenty of positives to take away. I expect to see alot of improvements and changes by UNC

My assumption is that whatever issues were causing them to struggle getting plays off in time weren't correctable in game. So Enos dropped the pre-snap movements to avoid delay of games. Disappointed in our prep if I'm right about that.

 

[Cribby]

There isn’t rational fans here , t

He must have been at another game. That OL didn’t block for ****.

He had a couple on him, he held on to the ball too long to go along with god awful protection

 

[the storm]

Frankenweenie was so busy smart-mouthing to the camera and should have been paying more attention to his own performance. The guy is a complete clown.

 

[ZuCrew]

You pretty hit it on the head. I thought we’d probably lose by less than a touchdown. Lots of POSITIVES and things to work on after chicken little fever ran it’s course. One telling thing was Herbstreit said Mike Locksley didn’t get enough credit for calling plays. That showed tonight. This isn’t Dans first rodeo. He’s been a HC and OC before. Maybe he’s really good at developing QB’s and has a deficiency in play calling. I wouldn’t be mad if we got an OC to help Dan while Dan develops the QB’s, we’ll see. We lost this game more than UF won it. Waaaaay more but in a sense it’s good. Don’t want that false sense of “we back” playing a team that’s not very good. That’s not UM standard. I don’t see how we don’t play Clemson in the ACC ship but that’s long off. Lots to work with here boys. Year 1, game 1...let’s work..

 

[MainLineCane]

This game was completely winnable.

No one can say that we didn't have or chances. We just couldn't execute at critical times.

The last drive when we ended started at the 20 something and endured a series of costly penalties moving us backwards beyond the 50 was indicative of our overall offensive ineptness the entire game.

I don't place the blame for the loss on any one individual, as I said despite our numerous errors we still had our chances.

The team as a whole has to improve. Players and especially our coaches.

Hopefully this serves as a wake up call about how far we still have to go to become elite.

We can't talk our way to greatness. We have to learn how to execute consistently....maybe then we'll start executing our opponents