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What do you need to see to believe this team can with a Natty?

305_separatist

305_separatist

Threskiornithidae
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Conference play is upon us. We’ve looked great against 4 bottom of the barrel cupcakes (at least USF played us tough for a half).

Wha do you need to see down the stretch of ACC opponents to be confident this team could make a serious run at a Natty in the playoffs?

For me:
- This is a helluva long season. You need depth to succeed, so I need to continue to see more players getting involved at all position groups. Lyle exploding onto the scene last game was a prime example, need more of that.
- Small iterative improvements. Great teams get better over the season. Cam and the OL have been great, but have left meat on the bone. Need to keep shoring up line play and tuning up some of the throws.
- Sweep *most* opponents. Should win every game in the ACC by 2+ touchdowns. The competition simply isn’t great. However even the all time great teams (2001) have down games, so I’ll excuse a single bad showing as long as we pull out the win.
- Clean up penalties. Have no doubt, refs will try to ***** us in the playoffs. We were robbed in 2002 and if we play it close again and give them an excuse, they will do it again. Need to play clean af and lower our rate of penalties as the season progresses.

We do all those things, and obviously stay healthy, I think we will be able to compete with anyone.
 
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OldhamA said:
I need to see a more effective running game and I need to see better play from our DBs.

I think we have a puncher's chance with Ward, but we're not elite just yet.
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I don’t think our DBs have been tested at all yet so that’s also probably my largest position group concern. Hopefully we see some decent passing attacks to give them some legit reps during conference play.
 
- Health
- Better run game/variety
- WAY BETTER DB Play(Haven’t played any legit passing team yet)
- Murder the ACC Schedule - Let’s be honest, the ACC is garbage. Louisville will be the toughest team they face all year but they still should pull away in the 2nd half.

National championship is so far out but the main thing for this team is keep building depth(which helps when you blowout teams) and just be relatively healthy come the end of the season.
 
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If we (the #7 team) were playing in the playoffs this weekend, we'd be playing #10 Utah and I like our chances. However, ask me at end of November. I'm sitting back and enjoying this team because it's special. The best team I have seen in a loooooong time.

There is still A LOT of football to be played and we've already seen some injuries (Cooper, Bain, Damari, Rivers, etc). Unfortunately there will be more. When they come, who they happen to, and how long are pure chance. We can only hope we stay healthy and this team should give us a lot of great memories.
 
Run the ball better.

Stay healthy.

Get optimal match-ups in the Playoffs as everything up to then is a dress rehearsal.

Michigan doesn't win a natty last year if Alabama doesn't knock off Georgia in the SEC Championship.

Dawgs were best team out there but didn't even get a crack at the Playoffs because the Tide bested them by a field goal in Atlanta.
 
Two things concern me at the highest levels:

1) Size on DL. We are good and athletic, but we don’t have many 6’4+, 300+ mutants.

2) Ability to win outside. That goes for WR and CB. Teams that win big usually have first round talent out there.
 
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Better situational Defense. Getting off the field in key third and fourth downs against quality competition. (We may have to wait to see this until December.)

Less penalties.
 
- Better Consistency from Jacolby George. He's been up and down every game. I get why they play him, his upside is incredibly high but he's the least consistent WR we have and he should have put in more work in the offseason. The turnover was 100% on him, and that could kill us against a better team. He needs to tighten that up and we can't have that happen again from him.

The alternative is to give some of his snaps to JoJo Trader and see what he can do.

We have Horton stepping up his game, Resteppo taking his game to another level, and George still looks like a Manny WR. We can't have that.


- Better injury luck. We've had a starting CB, three starting OL, and our best DL go down so far this year. We don't have the depth to absorb that and win a natty. We need guys to get back healthy and we need to not have any more injuries to key pieces going forward.


Everything else everyone has already said.
 
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