- Joined
- Feb 9, 2021
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- 14,394
Now, before I explain myself, as you all know, I am not someone that is quick to mope around when it comes to this football team. I held out hopes for Manny long enough and eventually got destroyed. However, I have already run out of my patience here, which is quite uncharacteristic for myself, but I guess change is inevitable.
I have defended Gattis last week at large because I didnt believe that he deserved the blunt of the blame he got for the demonstration we had against Texas A&M. And I still believe that, because what I saw yesterday from the receivers in terms of lack of ability was quite shocking. But I will get into that now.
This team lacks many, many things, where the current coaching staff cant do much. They havent recruited some of these players and most of our players have not received proper coaching in certain positions for some time. However, the coaching staff (and I mean all of them) deserve as much blame for yesterdays loss.
1. The lack of fight was inexcusable.
I know what a team without fight looks like. I have played on these teams as a young buck, I have played on them since I am a grown up and I have watched enough sports to see a team when they want it and when they dont want it. This team just does not want it. I can count the amount of players who genuinely want to play at the next level, on one hand. Everyone else seems to be contempt with where they are currently and are contempt with getting a degree and leaving the school afterwards.
This is mostly on the players here and a little bit on the coaches. I can hold a bunch of kids accountable when they dont want to fight. They arent 12. They are 18 years and older and they dont need their mommas to play hard. There is a certain sense of dignity and pride that you have and want to play with. And I didnt see that whatsoever. And the ones who dont want to play, who dont to fight: Put them on the bench and dont let them play. In fact, throw them off the team for all I care. One bad apple ruins the entire basket. And we have too many bad apples.
2. "We werent as prepared as we should have been"
When I read this statement made by C Jakai Clark, I actually felt a sliver of anger within myself before reminding myself that I would show more care for this team than the team itself does and calmed back down again.
This statement sums up what is wrong with this team: There is no winning culture because no one on this team has established winning within themselves. No one is doing the extra work. No one is focusing overtime on football. Players seem to go to the meetings and thats just it. Thats what it looked like and thats what it probably is. That is not enough to win football games. When Coach Gattis mentioned that Tyler van Dyke did not have the receivers phone numbers before the season, that in hindsight was a bigger red flag than I initially considered it. Guess what NFL players do when they sign with a new team or get traded: They exchange contact information with their teammates in the offseason and immediately get to work. One example: Devante Parker getting traded to the Patriots. Within a day he joined Mac Jones and the rest of the bunch and worked on their chemistry.
Mario was brought in for the long haul to establish just that. However, he needs to adjust things here quickly. Maybe a new bunch of players will help with that. Because the ones who have been here dont bring it. Which brings me to point number three.
3. Manny Diaz left the program with the worst collection of talent possible.
If we scratch out the mental aspect of the game and just focus on physical intangibles, this team is as unathletic as they can be. They lack of vertical speed at the skill positions is shocking. MTSU has undersized receivers left and right and they kept burning "four-stars" (247sports lmao) with ease. Jaden Harris got smoked just as bad as DJ Ivey as Malik Curtis as Tyrique Stevenson. And I´d argue Stevenson is the fastest of the bunch, there was one chunk play where Stevenson was the only player capable of catching up. The linebackers dont have speed. The receivers are slow as ****. The defensive backs cant run. You cant run go patterns with this team consistently because no player is athletic enough to take advantage of a 1v1. From the outside looking in, we have the weakest ankles in the country, because the lack of contact balance is absolutely shocking.
This needs to be a focus moving forward. Get faster players in and get them in ASAP. Football is a speed and space game. Teams got beat up by us in the 80s and 90s because we were faster than them and the game was a heck of a lot different compared to now. At this point, I dont care too much about size. The two leading receivers by MTSU were DJ England-Chisolm and Jaylin Lane. Neither of them is 6´ and neither of them comes close to 190 lbs. So miss me with the "We need an X weapon on the outside". We need speed. Lots of it, everywhere. Rohan Marley was a 5´8 205 lb linebacker, I dont think anyone cared about his lack of size when people saw him play.
4. The coaching staff needs to donate their game check for good cause. All of them. If they dont, I find them liable of theft.
MTSU ran the same blitz about 90% of the time. An adjustment came on the third or fourth drive. The opponent is zero blitzing all ******* game and the lack of RPO versatility in the offense got exposed. HB Screens were completely missing. TE screens? Not there. Bubble screens? **** no. Runs off tackle? Nah. MTSUs incentive was to collapse the interior of the O-Line 1. by force and 2. by bodies. I saw there linebackers literally pushing the DTs into Miamis O-Line. But again, the lack of response was... oof.
5. Pull TVD away from interviews.
Thats it. Thats all I have to say. Sit down and be humble.
6. Next week is the biggest game of the entire season.
Win this game and win it convincingly and you may be able to get some of the fire back. Lose it and the season is done and dealt with. The consequence of a loss should be a team makeover like Michigan State had it in 2021. A third of that roster was turned over. I sincerely hope that the coaching staff is looking at themselves and the players on equal terms. In fact, if they send the players to run 110s as penalties, they should join them.
7. I hope Mario has no voice at the end of next week because of screaming at his players in practice.
We make fun of Grumpy Saban for smashing headsets and breaking his voice. But it works. Every single great coach in this beautiful game that has been successful has screamed at their players. From Saban to Belichick, from Joe Gibbs to Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson... you name them. They all have done it, regardless of their voice and their size. Gibbs threw Gatorade bucks at half time because his team played like crap, Parcells has gone after LT more than any other player, Holmgren was forced by his wife to stay away from Matt Hasselbeck after he screwed up because they would literally get into a fight if they didnt, Walsh screamed at this coaches all the ******* time when a play didnt work to perfection as he wanted it and I dont even have to mention Lombardi, Noll and JJ. Their stories are well known and so were the players responses.
They gave the players trust vs Southern Miss and I am sure, none of the coaches yelled at them at halftime again. Because the response didnt show it. I dont know what others in here have had their experiences with, but when I screwed up during a game, whether I was a child or now, my dad screams so loud I could hear him out of 1000 people. Its what I am missing in this team. If anything, it could be a litmus test to figure out who has the grits to play for this team.
The only good response we had after the game were some of the recruits backing their commitment after their game, especially Joseph and Washington. Its the kind of mentality and loyality we need in the future. The future class will be the building block for how the team will be in the next 3-4 years. And I hope that we make everyone in there feel needed. Because they are needed.
My 25 cents.
I have defended Gattis last week at large because I didnt believe that he deserved the blunt of the blame he got for the demonstration we had against Texas A&M. And I still believe that, because what I saw yesterday from the receivers in terms of lack of ability was quite shocking. But I will get into that now.
This team lacks many, many things, where the current coaching staff cant do much. They havent recruited some of these players and most of our players have not received proper coaching in certain positions for some time. However, the coaching staff (and I mean all of them) deserve as much blame for yesterdays loss.
1. The lack of fight was inexcusable.
I know what a team without fight looks like. I have played on these teams as a young buck, I have played on them since I am a grown up and I have watched enough sports to see a team when they want it and when they dont want it. This team just does not want it. I can count the amount of players who genuinely want to play at the next level, on one hand. Everyone else seems to be contempt with where they are currently and are contempt with getting a degree and leaving the school afterwards.
This is mostly on the players here and a little bit on the coaches. I can hold a bunch of kids accountable when they dont want to fight. They arent 12. They are 18 years and older and they dont need their mommas to play hard. There is a certain sense of dignity and pride that you have and want to play with. And I didnt see that whatsoever. And the ones who dont want to play, who dont to fight: Put them on the bench and dont let them play. In fact, throw them off the team for all I care. One bad apple ruins the entire basket. And we have too many bad apples.
2. "We werent as prepared as we should have been"
When I read this statement made by C Jakai Clark, I actually felt a sliver of anger within myself before reminding myself that I would show more care for this team than the team itself does and calmed back down again.
This statement sums up what is wrong with this team: There is no winning culture because no one on this team has established winning within themselves. No one is doing the extra work. No one is focusing overtime on football. Players seem to go to the meetings and thats just it. Thats what it looked like and thats what it probably is. That is not enough to win football games. When Coach Gattis mentioned that Tyler van Dyke did not have the receivers phone numbers before the season, that in hindsight was a bigger red flag than I initially considered it. Guess what NFL players do when they sign with a new team or get traded: They exchange contact information with their teammates in the offseason and immediately get to work. One example: Devante Parker getting traded to the Patriots. Within a day he joined Mac Jones and the rest of the bunch and worked on their chemistry.
Mario was brought in for the long haul to establish just that. However, he needs to adjust things here quickly. Maybe a new bunch of players will help with that. Because the ones who have been here dont bring it. Which brings me to point number three.
3. Manny Diaz left the program with the worst collection of talent possible.
If we scratch out the mental aspect of the game and just focus on physical intangibles, this team is as unathletic as they can be. They lack of vertical speed at the skill positions is shocking. MTSU has undersized receivers left and right and they kept burning "four-stars" (247sports lmao) with ease. Jaden Harris got smoked just as bad as DJ Ivey as Malik Curtis as Tyrique Stevenson. And I´d argue Stevenson is the fastest of the bunch, there was one chunk play where Stevenson was the only player capable of catching up. The linebackers dont have speed. The receivers are slow as ****. The defensive backs cant run. You cant run go patterns with this team consistently because no player is athletic enough to take advantage of a 1v1. From the outside looking in, we have the weakest ankles in the country, because the lack of contact balance is absolutely shocking.
This needs to be a focus moving forward. Get faster players in and get them in ASAP. Football is a speed and space game. Teams got beat up by us in the 80s and 90s because we were faster than them and the game was a heck of a lot different compared to now. At this point, I dont care too much about size. The two leading receivers by MTSU were DJ England-Chisolm and Jaylin Lane. Neither of them is 6´ and neither of them comes close to 190 lbs. So miss me with the "We need an X weapon on the outside". We need speed. Lots of it, everywhere. Rohan Marley was a 5´8 205 lb linebacker, I dont think anyone cared about his lack of size when people saw him play.
4. The coaching staff needs to donate their game check for good cause. All of them. If they dont, I find them liable of theft.
MTSU ran the same blitz about 90% of the time. An adjustment came on the third or fourth drive. The opponent is zero blitzing all ******* game and the lack of RPO versatility in the offense got exposed. HB Screens were completely missing. TE screens? Not there. Bubble screens? **** no. Runs off tackle? Nah. MTSUs incentive was to collapse the interior of the O-Line 1. by force and 2. by bodies. I saw there linebackers literally pushing the DTs into Miamis O-Line. But again, the lack of response was... oof.
5. Pull TVD away from interviews.
Thats it. Thats all I have to say. Sit down and be humble.
6. Next week is the biggest game of the entire season.
Win this game and win it convincingly and you may be able to get some of the fire back. Lose it and the season is done and dealt with. The consequence of a loss should be a team makeover like Michigan State had it in 2021. A third of that roster was turned over. I sincerely hope that the coaching staff is looking at themselves and the players on equal terms. In fact, if they send the players to run 110s as penalties, they should join them.
7. I hope Mario has no voice at the end of next week because of screaming at his players in practice.
We make fun of Grumpy Saban for smashing headsets and breaking his voice. But it works. Every single great coach in this beautiful game that has been successful has screamed at their players. From Saban to Belichick, from Joe Gibbs to Bill Parcells, Mike Holmgren, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson... you name them. They all have done it, regardless of their voice and their size. Gibbs threw Gatorade bucks at half time because his team played like crap, Parcells has gone after LT more than any other player, Holmgren was forced by his wife to stay away from Matt Hasselbeck after he screwed up because they would literally get into a fight if they didnt, Walsh screamed at this coaches all the ******* time when a play didnt work to perfection as he wanted it and I dont even have to mention Lombardi, Noll and JJ. Their stories are well known and so were the players responses.
They gave the players trust vs Southern Miss and I am sure, none of the coaches yelled at them at halftime again. Because the response didnt show it. I dont know what others in here have had their experiences with, but when I screwed up during a game, whether I was a child or now, my dad screams so loud I could hear him out of 1000 people. Its what I am missing in this team. If anything, it could be a litmus test to figure out who has the grits to play for this team.
The only good response we had after the game were some of the recruits backing their commitment after their game, especially Joseph and Washington. Its the kind of mentality and loyality we need in the future. The future class will be the building block for how the team will be in the next 3-4 years. And I hope that we make everyone in there feel needed. Because they are needed.
My 25 cents.
