forums

Toxic Program

Cribby said:
Mario keeps showing he’s stubborn with the short yardage. He always goes back to he’s a former OL. He’d rather lose games and leave points off the board to prove a point. We’re five games in and they’re still beating their heads into the wall. Maybe getting stuffed by Unc multiple times wakes him up like MTSU did with how to use TVD. My only fears with this hire are proving to be justified.
Click to expand...

How much of this is Mario vs Gattis, though? And I know we've done this chicken and egg thing multiple times, the Oregon folks will tell you Mario is conservative, etc.

But he played pretty aggressively, IMO, in his decisions. The playcalls, I see your point. But we went for it multiple times on 4th down, etc. I do agree though, 1st and goal from the 2, we ran Thad for a yard, tried a sneak from well outside the 1 (why?), then ran Parrish off-tackle. Only on 4th and goal do we throw, and it's a horribly planned and executed play. I would *LOVE* to be on the headsets during that sequence. Is Mario really telling Gattis "run the ball here", etc? If he is, that's scary. You hire an OC, let him coordinate your offense.

Either way, there is just zero creativity in short yardage/goal line. None whatsoever. Whether that's Gattis unable to design it, or Mario wanting to just hammer away with an average line, I'm not sure. But what we do when we get in 3rd and 4th and short is maddening. Absolutely zero creativity and innovation.
 
Advertisement
OrangeBowlMagic said:
How much of this is Mario vs Gattis, though? And I know we've done this chicken and egg thing multiple times, the Oregon folks will tell you Mario is conservative, etc.

But he played pretty aggressively, IMO, in his decisions. The playcalls, I see your point. But we went for it multiple times on 4th down, etc. I do agree though, 1st and goal from the 2, we ran Thad for a yard, tried a sneak from well outside the 1 (why?), then ran Parrish off-tackle. Only on 4th and goal do we throw, and it's a horribly planned and executed play. I would *LOVE* to be on the headsets during that sequence. Is Mario really telling Gattis "run the ball here", etc? If he is, that's scary. You hire an OC, let him coordinate your offense.

Either way, there is just zero creativity in short yardage/goal line. None whatsoever. Whether that's Gattis unable to design it, or Mario wanting to just hammer away with an average line, I'm not sure. But what we do when we get in 3rd and 4th and short is maddening. Absolutely zero creativity and innovation.
Click to expand...
If I had to guess I’d say it’s a mixture of both but Gattis knows what Mario wants. He’s wants a physical mentality and wants to move people. Even if the OL or te’s aren’t built that way. Defenses are completely selling out the A and B gaps the last two games. 9-10 guys around the los. At some point the numbers game doesn’t make sense with the short yardage. Regardless if it’s 1, 2 or 3 yards.
 
Hoyacane1620 said:
If he has a problem, tell his buddies. Keep your mouth shut on social media as a former player. Does nothing for the good of the program, IDC who he is.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Doesn’t help. Former players have become biased just like other people and they need to realize the negative impact they can bring to the program….
 
hoops156 said:
eh I disagree. we had former players clown manny and all that stuff helps. you think herby got all that insight from the ESPN booth or from a certain former player he works with? as I said, we liked it when they did it to Manny, golden, etc. but now we hate it bc its done to a coach we like. fwiw, he didnt even say fire Mario. he even said he believes in Mario. he just said move on from a coach who no connection to the program that has bene fired for ineptitude before
Click to expand...

The no connection to the program is the bias…. Likes Mario, but not manny, doesn’t like Steele, doesn’t like Golden…
 
423Hurricane said:
Can’t argue with the game results but I believe we’ve got to give Mario time to right the ship. Firing coaches mid season usually doesn’t end well.
Click to expand...
I 100% agree. I dont think Gattis should be fired now. But at seasons end, he needs to go. I give Steele more time. Based off the play of his defense..we should be 4-1...This D played well enough to beat TAMU and UNC. Gattis is letting us down right now. Hes the weak link.
 
Cribby said:
If I had to guess I’d say it’s a mixture of both but Gattis knows what Mario wants. He’s wants a physical mentality and wants to move people. Even if the OL or te’s aren’t built that way. Defenses are completely selling out the A and B gaps the last two games. 9-10 guys around the los. At some point the numbers game doesn’t make sense with the short yardage. Regardless if it’s 1, 2 or 3 yards.
Click to expand...

Man, I'd pay a lot of money to be involved in those discussions. Because if Mario is essentially telling him he needs to go heavy and try to stuff the ball down people's throats, I'd be a lot less optimistic long-term. I absolutely believe and agree with you that, long-term, Mario wants to be a physical team, start running the ball effectively, be tough in short yardage, etc.....but at some point you have to realize this isn't what you do best, and you have a pretty good QB. Be creative in short yardage.

I was somewhat encouraged by the overall decision making as far as going for it on 4th down. He went for it on 4th and 3 from the UNC 49 early in the 3rd quarter, which is absolutely the correct call, and one I don't think he traditionally makes. Went for it on 4th and goal, which should be a no-brainer, but he's usually very conservative. Went for it on 4th and 2 from the UNC 26 late in the half, and it led to a TD. Went for it twice on 4th down on the drive where Knighton fumbled. I liked to see him being aggressive. But still, the playcalling and execution needs to be better.
 
ItsAUThing.com said:
Our idiot fans have literally called for Gattis to be fired since game two against Southern Miss.
Click to expand...
You dont need to be a football expert to see that Gattis offense aint gonna work here and we are going to miss out on top end offensive recruits because of it..How can you convince Brandon Innis to play in that offense?? Jurrion ****ey? ****, any elite WR worth anything. We are lucky Ray Ray Joseph just loves UM and Robby seems like he is just plain loyal to Mario..Or we would be **** out of luck here..

Also, We as a fanbase unfortunately know all too well what a horrible OC looks like. We are well versed in that lately. (Patrick Nix, Enos, Mark Richt, etc)
 
Jassid82 said:
I 100% agree. I dont think Gattis should be fired now. But at seasons end, he needs to go. I give Steele more time. Based off the play of his defense..we should be 4-1...This D played well enough to beat TAMU and UNC. Gattis is letting us down right now. Hes the weak link.
Click to expand...

And even against MTSU, I am absolutely not going to say the defense played well enough to win when it gave up 500 yards, BUT....here is how that game started:

Kick off, force a punt. TVD throws a pick on the first play, they get the ball on our 13 yard line.
But we hold to a FG, great job.
Get the ball back, pick 6. You're down 10-0 right off the bat.
Get the ball back, fumble and give them the ball on our 40.
But we get a pick on the very next play, and the offense only gets a FG out of it.
So now, we're letting them hang around, they're confident, we're half asleep, etc. Then we forget that we actually have to cover people, and give up monster gain after monster game.

ZERO excuse for how the rest of the game played out, but talk about putting yourself in a hole right off the bat. Would be nice to play a game where your defense actually starts out well and your offense does too. But we can't have nice things, so I digress.
 
Advertisement
only thing I'll say on Steele is if he fails here. we have a pretty solid DC already on staff. Mario was smart by hiring Charlie Strong as a back-up if things go off the rails. same could be said with Ponce.
 
Angry Ibis said:
Agreed. Doesn’t help. Former players have become biased just like other people and they need to realize the negative impact they can bring to the program….
Click to expand...
And then some of them cry when they don't get the access they want.... It works both ways.. You can be frustrated and have different opinions; just don't put it out on social media. Put it in your group chat with your buddies...
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
Man, I'd pay a lot of money to be involved in those discussions. Because if Mario is essentially telling him he needs to go heavy and try to stuff the ball down people's throats, I'd be a lot less optimistic long-term. I absolutely believe and agree with you that, long-term, Mario wants to be a physical team, start running the ball effectively, be tough in short yardage, etc.....but at some point you have to realize this isn't what you do best, and you have a pretty good QB. Be creative in short yardage.

I was somewhat encouraged by the overall decision making as far as going for it on 4th down. He went for it on 4th and 3 from the UNC 49 early in the 3rd quarter, which is absolutely the correct call, and one I don't think he traditionally makes. Went for it on 4th and goal, which should be a no-brainer, but he's usually very conservative. Went for it on 4th and 2 from the UNC 26 late in the half, and it led to a TD. Went for it twice on 4th down on the drive where Knighton fumbled. I liked to see him being aggressive. But still, the playcalling and execution needs to be better.
Click to expand...
I know some folks will think I’m crazy but I felt like something changed and maybe the light went on for some players and coaches. The defense was in the second half. That side of the balls biggest issue has been busts , we’ve given away four or five td’s, which is absolutely mind blowing .Take those away and things look dramatically different. At this point I just want to see improvement and end the season on a positive note.

Its rare for me to feel somewhat positive after a loss but Saturday I did. And I haven’t exactly been Mr sunshine the last four weeks lol. Hopefully my eyes aren’t lying to me.
 
Last edited:
Cribby said:
I know some folks will think I’m crazy but I felt like something changed and maybe the light went on for some players and coaches. The defense was in the second half. That side of the balls biggest issue has been busts , we’ve given away four or five td’s, which is absolutely mind blowing .Take those away and things look dramatically different. At this point I just want to see improvement and end the season on a positive note.

Its rare for me to feel somewhat positive after a loss but Saturday I did. And I haven’t exackry been Mr sunshine the last four weeks lol. Hopefully my eyes aren’t lying to me.
Click to expand...

I don't think you're crazy. I saw some things that made me feel better about the rest of the season, namely the QB looked decisive and there were open receivers, and he found them and delivered the ball. I think we actually caught the ball better than we have, although there were still a few drops. But early in the game, TVD wasn't razor sharp, and some balls were not accurate but they were still caught.

The defense adjusted, and there were no busts later in the game like there were early. Also, and this is somewhat trivial but it still was nice to see, on the last drive, when we knew they were going to run the ball 3 times to milk clock, we actually got them off the field, and especially on the 3rd down play, the kids were well prepared and diagnosed the Maye run beautifully. I remember being in the same situation in 2016 against FSU, and Francois ran the exact same play and fooled the entire defense, and FSU was able to run the clock out. At least we were able to give the offense a chance. I thought, overall, the defense played well enough to win. Just like I did against A&M, although A&M's offense is much worse than UNC's. But we just couldn't make enough plays when we had to on offense, which has been a recurring theme. More yards, more first downs, got 5 sacks....but just gave up too many explosive plays and didn't produce enough ourselves. As usual.
 
Cribby said:
I know some folks will think I’m crazy but I felt like something changed and maybe the light went on for some players and coaches. The defense was in the second half. That side of the balls biggest issue has been busts , we’ve given away four or five td’s, which is absolutely mind blowing .Take those away and things look dramatically different. At this point I just want to see improvement and end the season on a positive note.

Its rare for me to feel somewhat positive after a loss but Saturday I did. And I haven’t exackry been Mr sunshine the last four weeks lol. Hopefully my eyes aren’t lying to me.
Click to expand...
****, even Stevie Wonder could see the improvement in the passing game and the 2nd half D last Sat. At this point, I think all we can hope for is seeing improvement every week.
 
Last edited:
Advertisement
423Hurricane said:
That’s a reasonable take. I don’t think they intentionally lied maybe just didn’t know the roster well enough until bullets started flying. Not making excuses, which I never do, just a little insight as to the cause of what we’ve seen so far.
Click to expand...
you never can tell if someone can take the heat until the heat is applied
 
dirtyred786 said:
Steele wasn't the problem. We need better players on defense. Offensively, I dont know if its Mario or Gattis, but they have to realize we do not have the OLine necessary to line up and knock people off the ball in the redzone.
Click to expand...
No, we may not...but you have to try. You have to give them chances to fail to learn from it.
 
Cribby said:
I know some folks will think I’m crazy but I felt like something changed and maybe the light went on for some players and coaches. The defense was in the second half. That side of the balls biggest issue has been busts , we’ve given away four or five td’s, which is absolutely mind blowing .Take those away and things look dramatically different. At this point I just want to see improvement and end the season on a positive note.

Its rare for me to feel somewhat positive after a loss but Saturday I did. And I haven’t exactly been Mr sunshine the last four weeks lol. Hopefully my eyes aren’t lying to me.
Click to expand...
Nice time for the Light to come on, 5 games into a season.
 
Back
Top