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Post-Season Autopsy & Next Steps

FL Cane

FL Cane

All ACC
Joined
Aug 26, 2018
Messages
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During Fall Camp, I'd predicted that this team would go 9-3/10-2. I said at the time (tried to find the post but couldn't) that anything worse than 8-4 would be an unmitigated disaster in Year 1 under Mario. Like most of us on here, the last twenty years of Canes Football has been defined by the worst possible scenario coming to fruition. Finally, I thought, the yearly worst case scenario was coming to an end. With a new staff, star QB, and some portal additions, my belief was that we'd take a step forward. Boy was I wrong. Here's some final thoughts on the season, and the path forward.
  • Our cultural issues run far deeper than anyone could've imagined. The culture that defined Canes football during its unprecedented 20+ years of success died out long ago. Replacing it was a culture of malaise, mediocrity, low-expectations, and zero accountability. Some coaches were better than others in trying to revive that culture - Richt came the closest in 16' & 17' - but the rot remained. Manny Diaz accelerated the rot by enabling an already broken culture (letting players miss practice for non-injury or family related reasons, not holding anyone accountable, consistently missing on recruiting and evals, etc). What we saw this year was partially the culmination of 20 years of cultural rot. The 2022 Hurricanes didn't care about winning, didn't care about their teammates, gave in when the going got tough, and were content with mediocrity. Plainly put, unlike elite CFB programs, it didn't bother this team that they lost. Look at OSU, BAMA, LSU, Clemson, and other elite programs. You can see the pain on their players faces when they lose. Our guys? They couldn't care less.

  • Our players couldn't execute. I've never seen a team with so many players that were incapable of executing. Go back and watch the film from our games against A&M, MTSU, UNC, and Duke, and you'll see that we would've won those four games had we just executed on even half our opportunities. We were absolutely killed in those games (especially against A&M) by dropped passes, missed blocks, muffed punts, overthrown/underthrown balls, interceptions, fumbles, and back breaking penalties. Again, if we'd just completed on HALF our opportunities, this year goes completely different. Even with Gattis's playcalling, there were so many opportunities we blew. Never seen anything like it. This is what happens when you inherit years of missed recruiting evals that create a low football IQ team.

  • We need 40-45 new players on this roster by fall camp. Turning over this roster, as quickly as possible is priority #2 (right under recruiting). The Manny Regime missed on all but a few of their recruiting evaluations over three years. What that's left us with is a ton of 3 and four star busts that wouldn't start anywhere else in the P5. Miami cannot be Miami again until it's got 11 guys on either side of the ball that could start at any other P5 school. We need to close out the Class of 23' strong, and we need to hit the portal hard. As this year has shown, we do not have the personnel to even be a .500 team.

  • It will take two more classes, at the least, to cement a new culture. It's encouraging that so many guys in the Class of 23' are vocalizing the need for change. They've bought into the vision Mario has laid out. Only with elite recruiting - consistent Top 5-10 classes - can this program return to elite status. Thankfully, this is the one area of Mario's coaching record that isn't in question.

  • Staff changes are needed, ASAP. There's no reason why Josh Gattis should have a job come spring. The fact of the matter is that Gattis is the worst OC at Miami since Patrick Nix. He has no feel for the game, no idea how to use or existing personnel (thought I acknowledge that our options are limited), and he's a divisive figure. Mario needs to go out and get a top notch OC. Plenty of great options out there that nobody could beat us in a bidding war for: Garret Riley, Alex Golesh, etc. Additionally, Mario needs to allow a new OC to make his choice on hires (of course, he'll still need to consult with him). I understand that Mirabal isn't on the chopping block (he shouldn't be imho), but a new OC should have his pick of anyone else. As for the defensive side of the ball, take another stab at a guy like Glenn Schumann (skeptical we could pull him but it doesn't hurt to try). The sky is the limit with the salaries we can offer, and there's plenty of top DC's in the country we could go after.

  • Take a look in the mirror. This is the worst coaching job of Mario's career. I believe that he will turn this program around and have great success here, but he needs to reevaluate his methods moving forward. Imho, Mario needs to move to a Saban-like CEO role. A coach that is heavily involved in recruiting, culture building, fundraising, a specialized position group (OL for Mario), and overall program building, but who leaves schematic details to a group of top assistants. Let your qualified assistants build and offense and defense that meets the moment and the personnel we have.
Looking to next year, I expect this team to be better on recruiting and roster turnover alone. However, this year has shown the depth of this rebuild. Assuming that recruiting finishes strong and we hit the portal hard, this could be a 7-8 win team next year. 9-wins is possible, if TVD comes back, all our portal additions hit, and we have some luck. However, I don't believe we'll see a big jump until Year 3 at the earliest, assuming everything goes according to plan. All in all, we have a long way to go, and if Mario can make some adjustments, I believe we will get there.
 
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FL Cane said:
During Fall Camp, I'd predicted that this team would go 9-3/10-2. I said at the time (tried to find the post but couldn't) that anything worse than 8-4 would be an unmitigated disaster in Year 1 under Mario. Like most of us on here, the last twenty years of Canes Football has been defined by the worst possible scenario coming to fruition. Finally, I thought, the yearly worst case scenario was coming to an end. With a new staff, star QB, and some portal additions, my belief was that we'd take a step forward. Boy was I wrong. Here's some final thoughts on the season, and the path forward.
  • Our cultural issues run far deeper than anyone could've imagined. The culture that defined Canes football during its unprecedented 20+ years of success died out long ago. Replacing it was a culture of malaise, mediocrity, low-expectations, and zero accountability. Some coaches were better than others in trying to revive that culture - Richt came the closest in 16' & 17' - but the rot remained. Manny Diaz accelerated the rot by enabling an already broken culture (letting players miss practice for non-injury or family related reasons, not holding anyone accountable, consistently missing on recruiting and evals, etc). What we saw this year was partially the culmination of 20 years of cultural rot. The 2022 Hurricanes didn't care about winning, didn't care about their teammates, gave in when the going got tough, and were content with mediocrity. Plainly put, unlike elite CFB programs, it didn't bother this team that they lost. Look at OSU, BAMA, LSU, Clemson, and other elite programs. You can see the pain on their players faces when they lose. Our guys? They couldn't care less.

  • Our players couldn't execute. I've never seen a team with so many players that were incapable of executing. Go back and watch the film from our games against A&M, MTSU, UNC, and Duke, and you'll see that we would've won those four games had we just executed on even half our opportunities. We were absolutely killed in those games (especially against A&M) by dropped passes, missed blocks, muffed punts, overthrown/underthrown balls, interceptions, fumbles, and back breaking penalties. Again, if we'd just completed on HALF our opportunities, this year goes completely different. Even with Gattis's playcalling, there were so many opportunities we blew. Never seen anything like it. This is what happens when you inherit years of missed recruiting evals that create a low football IQ team.

  • We need 40-45 new players on this roster by fall camp. Turning over this roster, as quickly as possible is priority #2 (right under recruiting). The Manny Regime missed on all but a few of their recruiting evaluations over three years. What that's left us with is a ton of 3 and four star busts that wouldn't start anywhere else in the P5. Miami cannot be Miami again until it's got 11 guys on either side of the ball that could start at any other P5 school. We need to close out the Class of 23' strong, and we need to hit the portal hard. As this year has shown, we do not have the personnel to even be a .500 team.

  • It will take two more classes, at the least, to cement a new culture. It's encouraging that so many guys in the Class of 23' are vocalizing the need for change. They've bought into the vision Mario has laid out. Only with elite recruiting - consistent Top 5-10 classes - can this program return to elite status. Thankfully, this is the one area of Mario's coaching record that isn't in question.

  • Staff changes are needed, ASAP. There's no reason why Josh Gattis should have a job come spring. The fact of the matter is that Gattis is the worst OC at Miami since Patrick Nix. He has no feel for the game, no idea how to use or existing personnel (thought I acknowledge that our options are limited), and he's a divisive figure. Mario needs to go out and get a top notch OC. Plenty of great options out there that nobody could beat us in a bidding war for: Garret Riley, Alex Golesh, etc. Additionally, Mario needs to allow a new OC to make his choice on hires (of course, he'll still need to consult with him). I understand that Mirabal isn't on the chopping block (he shouldn't be imho), but a new OC should have his pick of anyone else. As for the defensive side of the ball, take another stab at a guy like Glenn Schumann (skeptical we could pull him but it doesn't hurt to try). The sky is the limit with the salaries we can offer, and there's plenty of top DC's in the country we could go after.

  • Take a look in the mirror. This is the worst coaching job of Mario's career. I believe that he will turn this program around and have great success here, but he needs to reevaluate his methods moving forward. Imho, Mario needs to move to a Saban-like CEO role. A coach that is heavily involved in recruiting, culture building, fundraising, a specialized position group (OL for Mario), and overall program building, but who leaves schematic details to a group of top assistants. Let your qualified assistants build and offense and defense that meets the moment and the personnel we have.
Looking to next year, I expect this team to be better on recruiting and roster turnover alone. However, this year has shown the depth of this rebuild. Assuming that recruiting finishes strong and we hit the portal hard, this could be a 7-8 win team next year. 9-wins is possible, if TVD comes back, all our portal additions hit, and we have some luck. However, I don't believe we'll see a big jump until Year 3 at the earliest, assuming everything goes according to plan. All in all, we have a long way to go, and if Mario can make some adjustments, I believe we will get there.
Click to expand...
"Liked" but someone please provide short version. My take quickly is, "We still SUCK "
Thanks
 
Vegas set our win total at 8.5

So 5 wins was a disaster. No question.

But if you thought at the start of the season "anything worse than 8-4 would be an unmitigated disaster" - I think you're looking through the wrong lens.
 
You also should understand that the whole culture in college football has changed. How many players from the teams in the 1990-2003 would have left this program early to protect their draft status?. While it doesn't apply to recent teams, it is an indication of overall culture change in all of football. And the free use of the portal gives everyone a way to give up on their program
 
matty1 said:
You also should understand that the whole culture in college football has changed. How many players from the teams in the 1990-2003 would have left this program early to protect their draft status?. While it doesn't apply to recent teams, it is an indication of overall culture change in all of football. And the free use of the portal gives everyone a way to give up on their program
Click to expand...
That’s a pretty good point. Things have definitely changed. Unfortunately, we’re 20 years late on investing in our program at a level that’s expected of elite programs. Additionally, our culture rot continued to fester.
 
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crossover22[]_[] said:
If i hear culture one more ******* time!!!!

Holy ****!
Click to expand...
Cul....
dave chapelle chapelle's show GIF

ture.
 
harphong said:
getting to 5 will be a huge accomplishment
Click to expand...
^This is where things stand right now.

Guys on here are talking about turning the roster over by 40 to 45 players in one offseason. And Lincoln Riley ain’t coming in and bringing his 5-star QB with him.
 
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FL Cane said:
That’s a pretty good point. Things have definitely changed. Unfortunately, we’re 20 years late on investing in our program at a level that’s expected of elite programs. Additionally, our culture rot continued to fester.
Click to expand...

Our downfall started when they let Butch leave.He doesn’t leave and we’re working on rings for our toes right now…
 
I am sick of hearing this team had no talent, it wasn't the talent it was the schemes. Gattis was not flexible, play calling was predictable. Energy was missing and lazy players still played. Using Brown in front of Garcia was a huge mistake, especially when TVD got hurt. We've had Matocha for several years yet he never saw the field for any extent...we have no idea if he is talented. Our conditioning expert ran a MASH unit. Our halftime adjustments were nonexistent. I cannot remember any special play calls. Our WR's were either poorly coached or lame....just watched an LB for Michigan convert to RB and dominate in thier biggest game, you have to find talent with who you have. I thought our CB's with WR high school highlights like Dunston should've seen the field as WR's in an effort to find a reliable wide out. Gattis didn't call plays that would help our QB's since our OL was lame, there are ways to do quick routes. I've said during Manny's years and with Mario that our RB room was too shallow and for another year we had few backups. Great coaches hire great assistants and are innovative, we looked mediocre or worse. I am hoping Mario feels pressured into making drastic changes instead of constant chatter in places like this he needs several years...I am impatient and too old to wait years. SIGH!
 
fraggle said:
I am sick of hearing this team had no talent, it wasn't the talent it was the schemes. Gattis was not flexible, play calling was predictable. Energy was missing and lazy players still played. Using Brown in front of Garcia was a huge mistake, especially when TVD got hurt. We've had Matocha for several years yet he never saw the field for any extent...we have no idea if he is talented. Our conditioning expert ran a MASH unit. Our halftime adjustments were nonexistent. I cannot remember any special play calls. Our WR's were either poorly coached or lame....just watched an LB for Michigan convert to RB and dominate in thier biggest game, you have to find talent with who you have. I thought our CB's with WR high school highlights like Dunston should've seen the field as WR's in an effort to find a reliable wide out. Gattis didn't call plays that would help our QB's since our OL was lame, there are ways to do quick routes. I've said during Manny's years and with Mario that our RB room was too shallow and for another year we had few backups. Great coaches hire great assistants and are innovative, we looked mediocre or worse. I am hoping Mario feels pressured into making drastic changes instead of constant chatter in places like this he needs several years...I am impatient and too old to wait years. SIGH!
Click to expand...
You show exceptional clarity…what’s your diet regimen lately? Although, I must add it was both.
 
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