The Blueprint (Defense)

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Just an FYI...

That's 4th & 17 play versus UNC wasn't on our CB's, it was on our Safety and mainly our DC for calling that stupid a$$ coverage.
A CB wasn't covering that deep-out that UNC threw for the 1st down, it was the Strong Safety and Striker.
That play makes me mad because IT SHOULD OF NEVER HAPPENED. The 3rd down prior Rousseau gets a sack and causes a fumble we clearly recover yet Manny doesnt challenge and we get no review of play. Game is over but Manny maybe being a first year coach in 2nd game wasnt on point. Terrible terrible ending.
 
Good stuff, D$.

We've done reasonable well evaluating DEs and Safeties over time, and signed talented kids. Not the areas I see as glaring deficiencies.

We've done 'okay' at DT evals -- just not as good at selling (recruiting) the top kids ... but maybe we're improving there now. We've certainly come a ways since the days of Josh Holmes and Luqman Abdullah. I agree that the very top kids here are often SEC bag kids. But if we eval well, we can do okay here (and have), at at least have the unit as a stable contributor on D. Disruptive kids are harder to get. Winning will change the dynamic for the top kids. I don't see a big issue with our evals here. Sure, at the margin. But not fundamental.

At CB, we just haven't recruited well. That's the big issue. Harder to comment on evals. We just don't win recruiting battles here and have even lost kids to programs we should never lose kids to.

LB is all evals. We don't know what we're looking for and it shows. This is reinforced by D$'s point that many good kids at this spot are projections from other positions when you're recruiting. We need to change who and how we evaluate this position.
Facts
 
A. rumph gets sidelined Bc he can’t recruit he’s proven that. He sucks as a recruiter amd isn’t as good as a db coach
Okay, but if he's sidelined for the recruitment, and the guy actually recruiting the player fails to get them to commit, how is that Rumph failing when he isn't even given the opportunity? Now again maybe it's a smart move he isn't, but then look where we are now, Banda was 100% on Marshall, and not recruiting any other CB for some reason? The decisions Diaz is making aren't very smart imo.
 
Recruiting is an inexact science. Fans don’t have the answers, but we can try to identify trends both nationally and at Miami. Below is one attempt to collect these trends by position and see how they apply to the Canes. The offensive list is here.

DT

THE TRENDS: Defensive tackle is the ultimate bag position. There are only so many humans with the requisite size, athleticism and attitude walking the Earth. Most live in the South, and they are easy to identify. This leads to massive bidding wars. Over the past two years, seven of the eight (88%) first round DTs were blue-chip prospects from the South. Christian Wilkins (a blue chipper from Connecticut) was the only exception.

HOW DOES MIAMI STACK UP: For a program that lacks cash and cache, Miami is doing pretty well. Manny has landed the three local must-haves in Leonard Taylor, Nesta Silvera and Elijah Roberts. He’s also been creative in building up the unit’s athleticism, landing a former hooper (Jared Harrison-Hunte) and three guys with exceptional testing numbers (Jason Blissett, Jalar Holley and Quentin Williams). There is some lack of size beyond Jon Ford and Jordan Miller, but that is OK in this system.

DE

THE TRENDS: Pass rusher has quietly become the premier position in South Florida. The Bosa Brothers, Brian Burns and Josh Uche followed Jason Pierre-Paul, Olivier Vernon and Jabaal Sheard, all of whom have over 50 sacks in the pros. If a local player has sufficient length (preferably 6’4 and above) and change-of-direction, he should be a Cane. Manny’s system requires less physicality from the position than Golden’s system, so the primary criteria needs to be the ability to get in the backfield and disrupt.

HOW DOES MIAMI STACK UP: Very well. This may be Manny’s best position. We’ve consistently been among the national leaders in sacks with a steady stream of South Florida kids: Greg Rousseau, Chad Thomas, Joe Jackson and Jon Garvin. This year, Jabari Ishmael and Pat Payton both meet the criteria of long pass rushers with enough change of direction to play off-the-ball if necessary.

Miami has the most DEs in the NFL of any college and needs to sell that nationally. As Miami increases its national reach, we need to be sticklers about motor and hand usage. Those are differentiators when you are evaluating elite rush talents.

LB

THE TRENDS: This is a hard position to peg. I watched the HUDLs for the first round picks of the past three drafts and the LBs projected to go in the Top 50 this year. There were:
  • Four RB/LBs (Patrick Queen, Devin White, Roquan Smith and Dylan Moses)
  • Four converted QBs (Tremaine Edmunds, Leighton Vander Esch, Chazz Surratt and Zaven Collins)
  • Three high school edge rushers (Micah Parsons, Kenneth Murray and Rashaan Evans)
  • Three traditional LBs (Jordyn Brooks, Devin Bush and Nick Bolton)
  • Two WR/S (Isaiah Simmons and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah)
The one common theme is that they all had long TD runs on their clips, whether they were on offense, defense or special teams. You need to run at this position. The average testing profile coming out was bigger than expected: 6’2, 224, 4.70 forty, 4.39 shuttle and 34.1 VJ.

South Florida has been weak at LB for the past decade or so. The truly elite names (Lavonte David, Ryan Shazier, Devin Bush and Anthony Walker) all ended up in the Big 10 for some reason.

HOW DOES MIAMI STACK UP: This position has been a struggle. Miami hasn’t landed a great local LB since Denzel Perryman in 2011, and the unit is currently in disarray. It’s hard to compare our current commits since they don’t have testing numbers. However, you can see comps for Chase Smith (as a WR/DB) and Tyler Johnson (as a twitched-up rusher) in some recent first rounders. Sam Brooks has an almost identical testing and position profile to Kenneth Murray, but he’s been playing with an injured foot all year and looks like a shell of himself. One comparison for Corey Flagg could be Missouri’s Nick Bolton, who has similar testing numbers and was a hyper-productive three star in Texas.

S

THE TRENDS: Locally, the trend is clear: Miami needs to win blue-chip battles. It has won four of those since 2012: Deon Bush, Jamal Carter, Jaquan Johnson and Gurvan Hall. The jury is out on Hall, but the other three made the NFL. However, Miami has lost more battles than it has won lately. Both of Alabama’s starting safeties are from South Florida, as are starters on Georgia and UF.

Nationally, there has been a recent trend toward sleepers. In 2019, only 1 of the 12 safeties drafted in the first four rounds was a blue chipper (former Miami commit Chauncey-Gardner Johnson). In 2020, only 3 of the 12 safeties drafted in the first four rounds was a blue chipper. They are all different sizes and come from all over the country, but the consistent theme is that they also played offense. Despite Coach D’Onofrio’s famous proclamation that he wanted “safeties who play safety,” it appears the NFL disagrees.

HOW DOES MIAMI STACK UP: The 2021 class is a huge step forward. James Williams and Kamren Kinchens are the exact kids Miami has been losing to the SEC. The 2019 class had Avantae Williams (who also played RB) and three local kids who only played safety. However, it is more common for local kids to only play on one side of the ball due to the depth of skill position talent.

CB

THE TRENDS: This position is an arms race. Fifteen of the 20 first rounders since 2016 have been blue chippers. The majority of the 29 DBs drafted in the first four rounds of the ‘19-20 drafts were blue chippers, as well. Teams like Ohio State and LSU dominate. This position is starting to mirror WR in many ways—you need a premium recruiter.

Urban Meyer has a great eye for CBs and says his first priority by far is man-coverage ability. Camp footage is particularly important for CBs, as they compete against comparable talent on every snap. Many of Urban's signees also played offense. In terms of sleeper trends, there have been three recent first rounders from North Carolina (Jaire Alexander, Mike Hughes, soon-to-be Caleb Fairley) who played both ways and flew under the recruiting radar. That may be a trend to keep an eye on. South Florida also produced two 3* first rounders (DeAndre Baker and Damon Arnette), although they did not play both ways due to the local depth at the position.

HOW DOES MIAMI STACK UP: Miami needs to perform better in big-time battles. If you gave us Bama’s corners (Pat Surtain, Jr. and Josh Jobe), we’d have the deepest group in the nation. I don’t want to make this another Mike Rumph thread, but even those of us who have been patient are starting to see the writing on the wall.

In this class, I'd like to see us pick up at least one player with big-time physical upside. It's good to build our floor with quality local cover guys. Shannon and Golden didn't do that and it killed our depth. But we also need someone to emerge as a frontline size/speed guy.
Maybe Miami's problem is nobody uses "blueprints" anymore.
 
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It blows my mind that some NFL teams carry more CBs on their 53 man roster than the Canes keep on their 85 man roster.

Just an FYI...

That's 4th & 17 play versus UNC wasn't on our CB's, it was on our Safety and mainly our DC for calling that stupid a$$ coverage.
A CB wasn't covering that deep-out that UNC threw for the 1st down, it was the Strong Safety and Striker.

It wasnt just the 4th and 17....

A cb also was covering that out route...Bandy was in the nickel spot as well with Gurvan Hall. It was a dumb covg to call...but apparently they were bracketing it and both gave it up. **** Bandy and Hall appeared to be point shaving that game.

 
Just an FYI...

That's 4th & 17 play versus UNC wasn't on our CB's, it was on our Safety and mainly our DC for calling that stupid a$$ coverage.
A CB wasn't covering that deep-out that UNC threw for the 1st down, it was the Strong Safety and Striker.
Gurvan Hall was put in a weird position on that play AND he seemingly froze (kinda like when the WR crossed his face last game). Why? Well, for one, we sent a delayed DB blitz. If I remember correctly, Frierson was sent from the boundary and about 10 yards back. He was sent into a more loaded protection so basically got zippo. There was a long *** twist with someone going to the outside, too. Got nada. The overcomplicated blitz call left 3 to cover 2 on the field side. I don't remember who played field corner, but the Field Safety lined up in front of the #2 WR was Hall. It looks like he and the corner didn't communicate at all and were in separate worlds. Hall didn't move off the hash or basically froze. Again, this is from memory, so correct me if I misremembered.

I remember the field Corner sat underneath the route that eventually landed over him. And, Hall was left 1 on 1 with an inside WR who could go in any direction on the field. Hall kept sinking and didn't have the situational awareness to realize the 1st down marker happened to be where the UNC WR ran like a 20 ******* yard half-assed "out" or semi-7 route. The result was a QB who had time to wait to see an inside WR matched up 1 on 1 (not sure that was by design, depending on field Corner's responsibility) with a flatfooted, hesitant Safety. I would be absolutely shocked if Hall played that the same way if he were at Bama. Stupid blitz calls lead to weak coverages and increase the likelihood of frozen players. Hall is also to blame because at some point you say "**** it, let's play football." I'm skeptical he would have stayed tied to that hash if he were playing a pickup game of football with his friends.

I usually wouldn't rehash that play, but many of the same things happen this season. And, that's definitely frustrating.
 
Okay, but if he's sidelined for the recruitment, and the guy actually recruiting the player fails to get them to commit, how is that Rumph failing when he isn't even given the opportunity? Now again maybe it's a smart move he isn't, but then look where we are now, Banda was 100% on Marshall, and not recruiting any other CB for some reason? The decisions Diaz is making aren't very smart imo.

Why do you always come in here doing this?. At this point its only you and dsdcane left.

Also Banda is the south miami contact..the area Marshall is from
 
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Gurvan Hall was put in a weird position on that play AND he seemingly froze (kinda like when the WR crossed his face last game). Why? Well, for one, we sent a delayed DB blitz. If I remember correctly, Frierson was sent from the boundary and about 10 yards back. He was sent into a more loaded protection so basically got zippo. There was a long *** twist with someone going to the outside, too. Got nada. The overcomplicated blitz call left 3 to cover 2 on the field side. I don't remember who played field corner, but the Field Safety lined up in front of the #2 WR was Hall. It looks like he and the corner didn't communicate at all and were in separate worlds. Hall didn't move off the hash or basically froze. Again, this is from memory, so correct me if I misremembered.

I remember the field Corner sat underneath the route that eventually landed over him. And, Hall was left 1 on 1 with an inside WR who could go in any direction on the field. Hall kept sinking and didn't have the situational awareness to realize the 1st down marker happened to be where the UNC WR ran like a 20 ******* yard half-assed "out" or semi-7 route. The result was a QB who had time to wait to see an inside WR matched up 1 on 1 (not sure that was by design, depending on field Corner's responsibility) with a flatfooted, hesitant Safety. I would be absolutely shocked if Hall played that the same way if he were at Bama. Stupid blitz calls lead to weak coverages and increase the likelihood of frozen players. Hall is also to blame because at some point you say "**** it, let's play football." I'm skeptical he would have stayed tied to that hash if he were playing a pickup game of football with his friends.

I usually wouldn't rehash that play, but many of the same things happen this season. And, that's definitely frustrating.


look up @LuCane i posted the highlight. Your pretty spot on. It was Bandy inside at nickel to though and he didnt get depth either
 
look up @LuCane i posted the highlight. Your pretty spot on. It was Bandy inside at nickel to though and he didnt get depth either
Ya, my bad. I didn't see your post until after I posted my response. That play ****es me off for reasons other than our loss. We still see some of the root causes.
 
LB is always gonna be a tough position to recruit down here if you're not willing to take undersized guys. (i.e. Sean Spence, Lavonte David, Devin Bush, Hypolite, etc)

We simply don't have a lot of 6'1" 220lb kids playing LB down here. Those type of kids tend to play the edge in South Florida. (i.e. Ryan Shazier)
I've got 2 traditional Linebackers playing the edge for me right now, as a matter of fact.
One is around 6'3" 210lb and the other is around 6'1" 215lb.
Even Gemon Eaford was an edge guy when he was here. In my 3 seasons at Deerfield we haven't had one single true DE, they've all been LB's.
True Defensive Ends are hard to come by on the high school level so coaches often stick "college linebackers" on the edge. Unless you're STA or Heritage, it's hard to have REAL Defensive Ends on your roster every year.

I actually think I may have the next prototype LB from South Florida in Jayvant Brown. Kid is already around 6'1" 210lbs as a 10th grader and he's an athletic freak. Plays LB and RB. He's going to be a big time recruit. Let's hope Macho doesn't ***** him up. LOL
Hopefully Miami jumps on board soon.

A few years ago I had a conversation with the Pitt Linebacker coach while he was recruiting the Tampa area. We talked about the LB position in the state of Florida, particularly South Florida. His words were somewhere along the line of...
"I love those kids down there! Those undersized kids that run all over the field, hunt everything down, strike ball carriers! I call'em Dade County Linebackers. They're just too small to take unfortunately. I can't bring a bunch of 5'10"-5'11" kids back to Pitt, I'll get fired."
We need to be creative and use good evaluation when recruiting the LB position.

CB we should never struggle to recruit. It's embarrassing actually. They grow on trees down here. Unfortunately it's a money position and the elite ones ain't coming here yet so we need to be more willing to recruit the smaller, pesky guys. I feel like our coaches (and sometimes our fans) struggle to come to grasps with WHO WE ARE right now and WHERE WE'RE AT. We're not the elite Miami of old that can afford to be so **** picky. We're not in that position right now. We're fvckin...Duke practically. LOL (well maybe not that bad) Virginia Tech? Now if we can win-out and finish highly ranked then perhaps that perception will start to change.
Point being, we can't recruit with this "we're Miami" attitude. Nobody gives a fvck about that right now because we haven't won **** in forever. We need to be recruiting and developing like a program that's trying to COME UP not a program that's already elite and can afford to be picky. Those local kids that go to Louisville, Boston College, Pitt, Oklahoma, Utah, etc...WE NEED TO BE LOOKING AT THOSE KIDS TOO. Sometimes we ignore those kids because "we're Miami" and they're "too small". But then they go to college and ball the fvck out while we're left here with Larry Hope and Nate Dortch.

Until we can afford to sign more big fish we need to do a much better job of evaluating the lower ranked ones that can contribute here and compete in the ACC. We have NOT done a good job of that for years and we've watched wayyyy too many local 3-stars go to other programs and ball out. (I'm even watching some of them in the NFL)

I couldn't agree more. I been saying @Coach Macho; Wisconsin, Louisville, **** even Auburn and Oklahoma are Power 5 programs that routinely come down here to sign kids and they're usually not going after the same kids Bama, Clemson, Ohio State and UGA are going after down here. But somehow they always leave with quality kids.

If those 2nd tier south florida CBs and LBs are good enough to play at these other Power 5 programs, some of which are having more success than us lately, who are we to turn our nose up at them? Wisconsin's not gonna ever get the Patrick Surtains or Jason Marshalls down here, but they'll get a Rachad Wildgoose, Faion Hicks & Semar Melvin and be just fine. Auburn's not gonna walk into St. Thomas and take every 5 star, but they'll go over to Dillard and Chaminade and get multiple 3 (and sometimes 4) stars and make it work.

Utah (UTAH!) came down here and went to Hallandale and got multiple quality kids that (other than the RB Moss) were prolly gettin overlooked by the geniuses in Coral Gables. Same with those locals on Pitt's roster.


There are always a plethora of kids who might not be program changers like Leonard Taylor and James Williams , but they'll fill in the gaps and be program stabilizers. We can do better with those kids. ESPECIALLY at CB.

That's more irritating & embarrassing than not getting the blue chip CBs. If there's one area in the USA where 2nd best would still be enough in recruiting to field a good defense, it's South Florida. And yet...
 
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WR's and Upper classmen LB's play is **** level
The widereceiver are actually developing, SHOUTS OUT to coach likens, this man got wiggins actually catching slant routes now, I think wiggins caught more slant routes last game than he has his whole career here, I don't get impressed easy but to see wiggins go from one of the poorest quick slant route receivers ever at UM that started, to the at least 2 he caught last game, by him actually developing and becoming more proficient in several routes, with his speed, he'll start to see and it'll start picking how easy it is to get open because defenders won't know what's coming!
 
Okay, but if he's sidelined for the recruitment, and the guy actually recruiting the player fails to get them to commit, how is that Rumph failing when he isn't even given the opportunity? Now again maybe it's a smart move he isn't, but then look where we are now, Banda was 100% on Marshall, and not recruiting any other CB for some reason? The decisions Diaz is making aren't very smart imo.

its a HC dumb decision to not put his worst recruiter on a marquee prospect that Banda is in charge of? banda is 10000x the recruiter your boy rumph is and its been proven over and over and over and over. if not for banda, we arent even in some recruitments and dont even land some of the guys we have. we have brought in other guys to help rumph recruit a position he cannot. he cannot recruit and he hasnt done enough on field to make up for thst
 
Fire both Rumph and Panda and get real DB coach
banda has proven that hes worth every dime he makes in just his recruiting alone. you need to get rid of rumph and bring in a guy who can do both (on field and recruit) bc at the end of the day, hes a position coach and he should be at the very least be an average recruiter. he was a **** recruiter under Richt and has been under diaz.
 
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banda has proven that hes worth every dime he makes in just his recruiting alone. you need to get rid of rumph and bring in a guy who can do both (on field and recruit) bc at the end of the day, hes a position coach and he should be at the very least be an average recruiter. he was a **** recruiter under Richt and has been under diaz.
I agree that Rumph needs to be lets go but I'm also amazed how much Patke and Blake get a pass on the recruiting trail.

Patke was hired for almost getting a TX recruit lol
 
I agree that Rumph needs to be lets go but I'm also amazed how much Patke and Blake get a pass on the recruiting trail.

Patke was hired for almost getting a TX recruit lol

Patke atleast has unearthed some guys. He is the plug ont he NYC guys we got ( weird) and the NJ lb. Harrison Hunte is already showing huge promise.

Blake Baker i thought would give us a foot in Louisiana didnt even realize he is from Houston...now im like wtf. Dude should have us with all kind of offers that way. His recruiting prowess also needs to be in question.
 
Patke atleast has unearthed some guys. He is the plug ont he NYC guys we got ( weird) and the NJ lb. Harrison Hunte is already showing huge promise.

Blake Baker i thought would give us a foot in Louisiana didnt even realize he is from Houston...now im like wtf. Dude should have us with all kind of offers that way. His recruiting prowess also needs to be in question.
So basically Patke hasn't signed anyone # unearthed
 
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