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

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305_separatist said:
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.
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Agreed. We need to get back Damari and stay healthy in the secondary.
 
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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We have the nations most effective situational running game and I'd imagine one of the most "explosive" just based on the nature of the "if we take out the big runs by each of our backs" complaints.

When their team is not there and ours is we can get the ball there. Offense is simple really.
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Not many teams go from 7-5 to national champions. 2000 Oklahoma was the last team to do something like that. They went 7-5 to 13-0 national champions. I don’t think a team has had year over year turn around better than that. It’s also much harder with the playoffs and added games now.

With Cam Ward, honestly, anything is possible. He’s that good. But, to @DMoney point, I think we lack a little bit on the elite top end talent depth. Especially at CB/WR. Keeping up with OSU or Bama at the skill spots would be my biggest concern. Not saying we can’t, but would be a tall task.
 
Reyrey said:
Not many teams go from 7-5 to national champions. 2000 Oklahoma was the last team to do something like that. They went 7-5 to 13-0 national champions. I don’t think a team has had year over year turn around better than that. It’s also much harder with the playoffs and added games now.

With Cam Ward, honestly, anything is possible. He’s that good. But, to @DMoney point, I think we lack a little bit on the elite top end talent depth. Especially at CB/WR. Keeping up with OSU or Bama at the skill spots would be my biggest concern. Not saying we can’t, but would be a tall task.
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Sure but the sport has changed, expect to see bigger swings for some teams year to year (for better or worse) with the transfer portal now a permanent fixture.

But I do agree the season length is going to put a serious strain on our depth. Based on what I've seen our 1s can hang with just about anybody and be in a position to win. The drop off to the 2s is uneven though, and 3s only RB and maybe DE have good talent lined up for minimum drop off imo.
 
In this order:
Healthy secondary in late November
Run game becomes equal to last year
Rivers bain and brown are back healthy
We play a pass happy team and excel
We stop or slow down a big time run game

Just in general keep healthy and we can beat anyone. Make no mistake we will be challenged by Louisville. That’s a dam good team with coaching. Explosive offense. Let’s play a conference game first. We’ve played 3 garbage teams and a mid upper tier G5
 
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Reyrey said:
Not many teams go from 7-5 to national champions. 2000 Oklahoma was the last team to do something like that. They went 7-5 to 13-0 national champions. I don’t think a team has had year over year turn around better than that. It’s also much harder with the playoffs and added games now.

With Cam Ward, honestly, anything is possible. He’s that good. But, to @DMoney point, I think we lack a little bit on the elite top end talent depth. Especially at CB/WR. Keeping up with OSU or Bama at the skill spots would be my biggest concern. Not saying we can’t, but would be a tall task.
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OTOH, the portal makes the almost impossible a bit less so
 
Hegemon said:
People complaining about the running game absolutely refuse to bring up opposing teams stacking the box and daring us to throw.

It is baffling

We scored how many short yardage running plays? Smfh
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Texas is statistically worse at running the ball than UM. We're averaging 6.1 ypc, average of 200 yards per game. they are averaging 4.7 and 189. I think most people would say Texas is a title contender, even without the explosive run game.
 
NCCanefan said:
OTOH, the portal makes the almost impossible a bit less so
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Yes somewhat agree. When it happens, it happens. But the traditional blue bloods that have been built over years to where they are, are the ones that have won for the past 20 years.

There’s a difference between winning a lot of games, and winning a national championship. Transfer portal can make it easier, but a larger playoff pool makes it harder.

I just hope fans don’t turn into natty or failure this year. But we are talking canes fans here ..
 
DMoney said:
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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UGA line has about a dozen of em.
 
-special teams need to be actual special and not short bus special
-get our best defensive player healthy and playing again
-more 3 and outs on defense; will lead to shorter fields for our O
-much better blocking from the offset TE in run plays
-get rivers healthy and playing again (this is not a knock on bell who has been fine)
-cause more turnovers on D and return them for points like in our glory days
-throw or bootleg cam more when we go condensed and create heavy boxes (2nd play of USF game perfect example of this - we executed the run blocking poorly and USF slanted their DL perfectly but if Cam pulls that ball he coulda dumped it to George in the flat or run for days on the bootleg)
-i didn't like Cam's decision on the first play of the game - looked like he predetermined going to brown cause had 11 boxed out his man and had cam gotten the ball to his outside shoulder he coulda housecalled that on first play if he broke the tackle from the corner, but we had 6 open in the opposite flat with blockers and X broke open inside on same side of field for a 15yarder. No need to gamble on first play of the game on the road from your own 25 (this really nitpicky tho lmao)
 
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Actually I was thinking about this earlier… It’s still VERY early in the season however for this season, we are above the timeline for “Are we Bak?” Lighting in the bottle, potentially, kinda season. With the personnel we have, we can honestly compete with anyone in the country. We’ve been watching the games… Everyone has there pro’s and con’s. But finally in the longest of times, we can finally say we can be in the hunt if we take care of business. Clemson isn’t dead yet. They can still play however if we execute correctly, on any given Saturday, we can beat anyone, legitimately.
 
I need to see Reuben Bain return and be the player he was projected to be prior to the season and the injury, which is the best defensive player in college.

If that happens then Miami would have the best offensive player in Cam and Reuben on defense. That in of itself would be all I need to see.
 
At the moment we have the same record as last year at this time…4-0. The same record as in 1996, when we had the lowest point allowed in thirty seasons. Let’s wait a few more weeks to see what we have. But the signs are very promising.
 
RightSaidFred said:
- 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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George hobbles off the field seemingly everytime he touches the ball. If he’s that banged up take two weeks or whatever and let it heal… I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt about maybe the injury is effecting his concentration but we could have put this behind us by now and even got someone like JoJo some quality reps
 
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