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The Bottom Line for 2024

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I have two minds on this:

1. Mario has proven to me that nothing will stand in his way, even his own mind. I knew a CEO who once said to me, “I don’t look at the numbers. What do the numbers tell me? That culture is bad? That we don’t have the right people in place? That our methods are outdated? If I can’t see that morale is low by looking into the eyes of the people who run our teams, if I can’t discern that we need changes by talking to the people on the manufacturing floor, if I can’t learn we need to adapt by sitting in on meetings, well buddy, the numbers sure aren’t going to tell me that either.” This is how I could feel about Mario: he’s more than his numbers.

2. I took that CEO’s job at 11pm on the night before he hit his retirement max. The next morning I showed up at the first hole for the tee time he’d held for 16 years, at “that one place in Georgia”, and put my cigar out on his caddie’s throat. Told him I didn’t want to carry the cigar anymore and if I threw it away it would risk a forest fire. Made him thank me for it. The guy used to order an old fashion after every round, so I made the bar girl pour every ounce of whiskey behind the counter into one large crystal vase, which I then sold to the other occupants at the bar at an increased rate. He was good natured about the ribbing, what choice did he have, so I filed a harassment complaint with HR. He lost tens of thousands in litigation and his third marriage.

This is similar to some areas in which I think Mario might struggle.

He needs to make the playoff imo
 
RightSaidFred said:
9 wins.

We should have an elite offense but they haven't addressed any of the problems on defense and objectivlely we should be worse on that side of the ball next year. We lost our two starting DTs, our two starting safeties, and our CB's, which were already bad last year, we only picked up a guy from Marshall.

Totally on board with drinking the kool aid on what we did on offense. But you gotta play defense too, and we don't have the talent at DT and DB to win 10 games.
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This starting CB group will be better than last year. DT will be addressed. Powell at Safety plus incoming portal starter TBA. There are spots on defense that could be better but we will have enough to win 10 games. Again 10 or GTFOOH!
 
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If Mario wins 10 games, give the man is due. Don’t give me this “well that was the floor!” crap. I know many of us are living in the turn of the century, but it’s been an uphill battle for every coach, including him, just to win games he should have.

Yes, I want to him make that big leap this Fall, but am not drinking one sip of Kool-Aid until my Christmas tree is set up.
 
FL Cane said:
With the recruiting class we landed in December, and with recent additions in the portal, expectations have risen for this 2024 team. I've said since the end of last year that Year 3 is pivotal for Mario. There's plenty of coaches with recent success (e.g., Sark, Franklin, Norvell, etc.) that made huge jumps in Year 3 at the helm. This year is make or break for him. It's apparent that Mario knows this too, since he's gone all in across the board.

We have an elite starting QB.

We have an elite starting RB.

We have an experienced and solid OL.

We have three starting WRs that could start at any P5 school in the country; best WR room in the ACC by a mile.

We have major talent at TE.

We have a talented and experienced LB room. We have good pieces on our defense and need more depth in some areas (DB and DL).

Anything less than a 10-2 regular season record would be failure. 9-3 would be fine, we haven't won nine games in a season since 2017, but with the talent and weapons we have it would still be a disappointment. We have the talent and experience to win now, and we need to.
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nickster said:
I wouuld agree with a minimun 0f 10-2 but go a step further. As long as key positions stay healthy I think undefeated is acheiveable. Mario has done a creditable jon with the portal and recruiting. Now all he has to do is get out of the way of day game coaching and we make the playoffs.
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Mario isn't an OC or a DC. He's already done the hard part of getting the best ingredients he could. He needs to stay out of the way on gameday and let his coaches cook.

His game day should be easier than other head coaches that have OC/DC responsibilities. Keep your team motivated. Let your OC and DC do their jobs. Call timeouts when appropriate and make 4th down decisions. Keep it simple.
 
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561caneforever said:
That would be the beginning of the end for Mario.
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I agree with the holes defensively, but patchwork OL and only 1 good RB? NO. We have one of the best OL's in the ACC. Who's OL is better? At RB, we have 1 great RB healthy and a bunch of unproven talent. That doesn't make them not good. They just don't have experience.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
I agree with the holes defensively, but patchwork OL and only 1 good RB? NO. We have one of the best OL's in the ACC. Who's OL is better? At RB, we have 1 great RB healthy and a bunch of unproven talent. That doesn't make them not good. They just don't have experience.
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That comment about us having a patchwork OL just floored me. For someone to follow spring practice where Francis Mauigoa was out because he had a knee or a shoulder scoped with the clear understanding that he will be back shortly after, then watch as coach Mirabal moved everyone around(because that's what he does during spring, he crosstrains them trying different guys out at different spots.) then from that, conclude that we have a patchwork offensive line as if what the OL showed in spring is the way we are going to look in the fall is just mind blowing to me. More than that it's shocking.
 
canes_aaron said:
3 losses means you probably lost to FSU and the gator. Or you beat one/both of them and then lost some head scratchers.

Wouldn’t be ‘OK’ for me. Considering we were a knee away from 8-4 last year, that would mean going all in yielded 1 additional W.

As you said, 10-2 (or better) or bust.
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FSU and Louisville are the two toughest games. Win those .... then our only losses are on coaching. 12-0 is the goal.
 
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If the coaches can maximize what we have 10-2, if im just going off our roster 9-3, worst case scenario 8-4

I think we have a supremely talented offense, might be the best set of starting skill players in a while, im still not sold 100% on the oline dominating games. Last year the oline was a very good pass blocking group and even then we max protected ALOT and when we didn’t our tackles got exposed at times so lets see how much that improves …run blocking left alot to be desired in acc play. Also replacing cohen and lee who were 3 plus year vets so thats a step down

We have good top of the acc talent but idk if its dominant talent that i can comfortably say its 10 wins or bust, that would be hoping EVERYTHING went right and that’s just unrealistic. But like i said up top, if the coaches maximize what we have this can be a 10 win team but that remains to be seen.
 
301cane said:
As favorable as the schedule looks right now I’d have to say 10 wins should be doable if we can maintain some semblance of a healthy squad
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Yeah, injuries are always the big x-factor. Need Ward, Martinez, Restrepo, Kiko, and Bain healthy, and don't have the depth to lose anyone in the secondary.
 
Number1CanesFan said:
Mario isn't an OC or a DC. He's already done the hard part of getting the best ingredients he could. He needs to stay out of the way on gameday and let his coaches cook.

His game day should be easier than other head coaches that have OC/DC responsibilities. Keep your team motivated. Let your OC and DC do their jobs. Call timeouts when appropriate and make 4th down decisions. Keep it simple.
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" Call timeouts when appropriate"
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