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Some NC State thoughts after rewatch

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DMoney said:
This was the best performance of the season. But for the rest of the year, we're on a tightrope with no net. So while vibes are high right now, there's still a ton of work ahead. Here are some thoughts on the weekend before moving onto Blacksburg.

- Girard Pringle is exactly what this running game needed. He's really fast (10.56 100M), but he also runs with a decisive one-cut style that keeps the offense on schedule. He was a workhorse at Armwood with 30+ carry games, so he's capable of playing bigger than his size. While the opposing defenses will get tougher than Syracuse and NC State, Pringle is RB1 until proven otherwise.

One area I'd like to see him continue to expand is his receiving (32 yards on Saturday). He's not going to be a reliable pass protector at this stage of his career (see sack on first drive), but his ability to get out and make big plays as a receiver helps mitigate against that. I hope at one point we get to see our backfield at full strength with Mark Fletcher back. They can be Thunder and Lightning while also playing at the same time. I know Jordan Lyle is disappointed, as Pringle's role was supposed to be his, but this program is built on competition and Pringle has maximized his opportunities.

- The Class of 2025 is looking more and more like a hit. We already talked about Pringle. Malachi Toney can run, catch, return, pass and bury defenders (see his block on Pringle's 18-yard 3rd quarter run). Elite football player. Bryce Fitzgerald is a starter and impactful in the passing game. Herbert Scroggins and Donta Simpson get bigger roles every week. Josh Moore and Daylyn Upshaw are heating up. SJ Alofaituli, Luka Gilbert and Jaboree Antoine played meaningful snaps. We haven't even seen five-star Hayden Lowe yet. In terms of depth of talent, I think this group will exceed the higher-ranked classes of '23 and '24.

- This run defense is borderline dominant. We're up to 4th nationally in yards per carry against, and even that seems to sell them short. Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price have been ridiculous against everyone else and they only ran for 78 yards combined against the Canes. Hollywood Smothers and Jayden Scott came into the Rock averaging 6+ yards per carry. They only mustered 25 yards (1.9 YPC) on Saturday. Even in the SMU loss, our defense only gave up 23 rushing yards. Salute to the coaches and an underrated group of DTs and LBs, along with the rest of the defense swarming to the ball.

- The defensive line absolutely annihilated CJ Bailey and NC State. Justin Scott has stepped up in David Blay's absence and might be taking that step as a five-star true sophomore. Ahmad Moten returned and was disruptive as ever. Him and Scroggins tore through the OL on Bailey's second INT. Scroggins has added a ton of good weight and is embracing the tutelage of Akheem Mesidor. They've been doing extra work together since spring and it's paying off.

Armondo Blount spent most of the game at defensive tackle and I think that's his long-term spot. He just turned 19 and is only going to get bigger. He and Marquise Lightfoot have five-star movement skills, but they also play with really high motors. That pure activity allows them to make an impact as they hone their pass rush skill.

- The post-spring Portal season (RIP) was a massive hit for us. Jakobe Thomas and Keionte Scott look like first-team All-ACC players, Keelan Marion keeps getting better, Marty Brown is playing a consistent role and Mo Toure is a key part in our elite run defense. Everybody talks about evaluation out of high school, but it's just as important in the Portal and the staff did an excellent job this year.

- I thought this was Carson Beck's best game as a Hurricane. His release is lightning quick and can be deadly when he's in rhythm. Believe it or not, Miami is currently 22nd in scoring offense nationally (32.4 PPG against FBS opponents). That would be our second highest-ranked scoring offense since Dorsey. Of course, we watch the games and know that inconsistency on offense is the reason we're scraping for the last playoff spot instead of walking into Charlotte. But there are still many things going right on that side of the ball.

Now it's onto Virginia Tech and a bad Hokies team. But as we know from the last twenty Novembers, it's about Miami and not the opponent. Go Canes.
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These are great Monday reads, thanks! Question, apologies if redundant from other posters, but what is the sentiment around the building regarding CFP? What all has been said via pressers has been somewhat dismissive but one has to imagine there are some inside the building thoughts.

Thanks in advance, and of course, if you can share.
 
DMoney said:
Like @JHallCanes said, Pringle has been hurt on and off since spring so that slowed his ascension. He’s healthy now.

I think the staff also wanted Lyle to seize that explosive back role since he has size and is older. That didn’t happen and I’m glad they were decisive with the change.

It’s a shame about Lyle. You had guys like Coach Sol at practice comparing Lyle to the greats. Maybe he just doesn’t have the vision in full-contact (teams rarely tackle to the ground in practice). Maybe the injury set him back. Maybe it’s just confidence, or a poor system fit.

There’s probably truth in all of it. But we don’t have time to wait around. Pringle is the guy.
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Pringle has been better than Lyle and Lyle has been mostly underwhelming.

It’s not fair to completely dog Lyle when he was forced to run a scheme that doesn’t fit his style (and allows defenders to sell out to stop the inside run).

I bet he’d look more comfortable against Nc state defense with some outside runs sprinkled in
 
JD4 said:
Pringle has been better than Lyle and Lyle has been mostly underwhelming.

It’s not fair to completely dog Lyle when he was forced to run a scheme that doesn’t fit his style (and allows defenders to sell out to stop the inside run).

I bet he’d look more comfortable against Nc state defense with some outside runs sprinkled in
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I’m not dogging Lyle at all. I think he’s going to be a good player, even if it’s not here. Very good physical tools and runs hard. But we haven’t seen it yet on the field.
 
252cane said:
I already knew. He has played there most of the year and before the season started they had him do media day with all the DTs. Only way it makes sense is if they give him a rs for 2024 because he played only 4 games
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Respect to you for owning up to it
 
DMoney said:
It’s a shame about Lyle. You had guys like Coach Sol at practice comparing Lyle to the greats. Maybe he just doesn’t have the vision in full-contact (teams rarely tackle to the ground in practice). Maybe the injury set him back. Maybe it’s just confidence, or a poor system fit.

There’s probably truth in all of it. But we don’t have time to wait around. Pringle is the guy.
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Or....maybe Lyle was just overrated / misevaluated?

Seems like that's the most likely reason - but the reason being mentioned the least.
 
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aelmiami said:
I’m probably going to be more frustrated if this team misses the ACCCG/CFP than last year’s. I think most of us expected a game or two last season where the offense would be more average than video game numbers.

This year I don’t feel as if any team has beaten us. Watching GT & Syracuse last year it just felt like we were beaten. SMU & Louisville this season feels like we lost the game. Maybe it’s recency bias but it just feels like this team was better constructed top to bottom than last years.
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Agreed, we didn’t have the defensive talent or scheme to hold up against a good Syracuse offense and good team in GT last year.

This year the defense is top notch and our offense should be above average and plenty good to not lose to Louisville and SMU the way we did

That’s the depressing part of it. Season could be a let down even at 10-2. Lets hope it’s not
 
It seemed like we weren’t in condensed nearly as much this week and I think that’s not being talked about enough, especially as far as Lyle is concerned.

Is it me, or did we not run out of 3/4 wide a few times? How often did we do that with Lyle?

That said, Pringle is the more decisive back and should start. And two back in the backfield could work something nice, with Fletcher staying in to block and Pringle running quick Texas routes/flat routes. Take out the TE in these 2 back sets and I promise you’ll be cooking with grease.

Have we given any thought to reducing the TE role at all? In my humble opinion, the ROI on the TE isn’t there for us this year and I think we would get better returns on using an extra RB or WR in their place in many situations.
 
JHallCanes said:
Pringle was also injured

Just glad to see forcing Jordan Lyle in the game is over. Took about 2 carries to see Pringle is better

Very happy with the offense this week but I’m skeptical if we will do it against Pitt. We like to bully and front run against teams that can’t threaten us. Fingers crossed.

Also add Jaden Baugh to the list of talented backs we’ve made look absolutely pedestrian
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Easy to say this now, but golly do I wish we gave Pringle 5-10 touches against SMU. Think he was healthy at that point, since he played against Stanford the week before.
 
252cane said:
I never denied it did I? I don’t remember. I do remember having the convo with somebody and they were saying Blount was going to stay at DE
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You did in the JJ thread a while back. I got called out for calling him a DT recruit (was on his profile), and saying he’s likely mold into that spot full time. Past is the past though
 
nvlahos said:
Agreed, we didn’t have the defensive talent or scheme to hold up against a good Syracuse offense and good team in GT last year.

This year the defense is top notch and our offense should be above average and plenty good to not lose to Louisville and SMU the way we did

That’s the depressing part of it. Season could be a let down even at 10-2. Lets hope it’s not
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Had it been 10-2 with a loss to a 11-1 ND, then an 8,9 win ACC team I’d be able to stomach that. It’s just losing those two games the way we did after playing such good football the first five games that makes it tough to accept this year.
 
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Lyle seems like he's going to hit the portal and then go to his next team and dominate. I really hope he stays. Interesting how the RB room will look like after the portal window.
 
rascon said:
Running out of 3 and 4 wide helped too. Who would have known spreading your wrs out would take defenders out of the box?
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We have run out of 11 a lot this year. The running out of 10 we started at the beginning of the Stanford game. I mentioned it in another thread but I'd be curious to see the data of what sets we have run out of game by game and how often we have pulled OL on called runs. My guess is that the NC St game isn't a massive outlier in frequency, just in effectiveness (credit to Pringle)
 
LuCane said:
I'd like to see the same approach against better defenses. This was a very bad defense. Let's not get tight when things get tight or we want to latch on to control, which has seemingly been our default.
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The problem is Dawson panics the moment things stop going our way and snaps right back into that “bully” ball nonsense. Like you said, when he’s facing an inferior opponent, he gets more adventurous and aggressive. But against tougher teams? He tightens up every time.

Spread the field. Stop slowing down the game so much and speed it up to put up points. Be aggressive and innovative. Nobody is ******* with us if Dawson gets out of his own way.
 
Hurracanes said:
The problem is Dawson panics the moment things stop going our way and snaps right back into that “bully” ball nonsense. Like you said, when he’s facing an inferior opponent, he gets more adventurous and aggressive. But against tougher teams? He tightens up every time.

Spread the field. Stop slowing down the game so much and speed it up to put up points. Be aggressive and innovative. Nobody is ******* with us if Dawson gets out of his own way.
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That is easy to pick up when the offense is getting tense.... you will see Beck bumbling around in the huddle and doesn't break huddle until the play clock hits 11 secs.. then it runs down to under 3 sec before the ball gets snapped...
 
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