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What is Manny even saying here? PUnt return

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cameron97 said:
X looking at Pope like
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Nah, more like this...

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No_Fly_Zone said:
This is backwards IMO. Pope needs to find that confidence within himself in order to earn the job, not have the job handed to him because coaches are concerned about how losing it impacts his confidence. And if it negatively impacts his play at WR, then I bring in Payton (should be available), Worsham, or whoever is the next man up.

At the moment, Pope has all of 6 PRs for 32 yards and 2 fumbles lost. That's not earning the job. Manny, Patke, Pope's teammates, and the entire UM fanbase can all blow smoke up his @ss in an effort to make Pope feel confident. And I am sure that helps a little. But it's all meaningless if he's having bad internal monologues and down on himself.

At the end of the day, accountability to the team is important. If I was in Patke/Manny's shoes, Pope would not have returned another punt against FSpoo after his second fumbled punt in less than 10 quarters of football. And this week he'd be in an open competition with (at least) Restrepo. Drop or mishandle a punt in practice, I'd put the next guy in until he drops one. Whoever is standing at the end of the week starts on Saturday.
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Exactly.

If pulling him could shatter his already shaken confidence then he definitely needs pulled. The one job of the punt returner is for the ball to not hit the ground , the rest is gravy. He already has questionable hands so I never got putting him back there in the first place.
 
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Cribby said:
I normally don’t want a true Fr on punt return especially in this environment but X is just a different cat. I’ve been screaming this since Uab.
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Hate to use one play as an example, but did you see how easily he fielded that punt late vs fsu? It was bouncing off the ground and he ran up with complete confidence the entire time. Pope had a brown stain on his pants as he was running up on the one vs fsu
 
Cribby said:
Exactly.

If pulling him could shatter his already shaken confidence then definitely needs pulled. The one job of the punt returner is for the hall to not hit the ground , the rest is gravy. He already has questionable hands so I never got putting him back there in the first place.
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Additional fumbled punts will be far more detrimental to his confidence than being benched.
 
I like that Manny is not afraid to re-open competition. Pope doesn't look comfortable returning punts at all. Just like last season when Jeff Thomas struggled, they replaced him with KJ and he led the ACC in punt return average.
 
ThomasM said:
We might have backups that are struggling in practice fielding punts. You never know. I have been hard on Manny, but in this situation we just don't know what's happening at practice. I want to see someone else out there, and it's hard to believe that a guy with fumble problems is the best guy for the job. However, what if they backups are fumbling even more in practice? ****, just don't put anyone back there and I'll be happy.
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totally concur.

1) unless you are there in practice and the meeting room, you NEVER 100% know what is going on behind the scenes. with starters, backups, ****, even the water boy
2) number one rule for being the PR? Catch the **** ball!! second rule? See rule no. 1.
3) never trust what a coach says at any time between sunday practice and kickoff. he's not talking to you. he's talking to an individual player, the team, and opposing coach, whomever. he's just using the newspaper or twitter or ESPN to do it.

one thing i have appreciated with manny. he hasn't sat around with his thumb up his ****** while the building burns. we sucked at QB, he went out and got D'Eriq. We needed a better OC, he fired Dan ****, and hired Lashlee. His OL needed an overhaul, he got GJ and retooled the attitude of the bunch. He knew GR15 was out of here, he got Roche. etc. etc. etc.

we may get the snot kicked out of us by Clemson on Saturday. who knows.

But it won't be because Manny has been off watching his stories all afternoon.
 
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305407cane said:
He’s gotta be the only guy on the team with a kickoff return touchdown
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Adding in a few PR/KR touchdowns would boost King's Heisman stock a lot! (never going to happen)

I'd go with Restrepo though, but I still haven't decided on whether his fielding that bouncing punt in the last game was crazy or ballsy.
 
Put Restrepo back there, tell him to plant his feet at the 10yd and never backpedal.....on the other kicks, if you can field it cleanly, great. No superhero ****. Thats what got Pope in trouble (running up 20yds to try and catch a punt on the dead sprint). The earlier muff I give him a slight pass for since it was a Miami player being blocked into him that caused the muff...
 
TimeB0mb said:
Adding in a few PR/KR touchdowns would boost King's Heisman stock a lot! (never going to happen)

I'd go with Restrepo though, but I still haven't decided on whether his fielding that bouncing punt in the last game was crazy or ballsy.
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Aside from the fact that X is built like a college junior while pope looks like he hasn’t touched a dumbbell in his 3 years here
 
Restrepo looked natural at PR. If he’s catching it, you go with him. We can’t afford a big mistake like Pope has made twice in 3 games against Clemson. It’s a shame Pope plays so timid. If he would turn on the jets and just hit the hole special things would happen. He’s a blur moving so fast so smoothly. One second you think he’s gonna pull a Hester and the next he screws it all up.
 
Like all you guys have stated it’s been less than 10 quarters and you got 2 fumbles. We can’t have that against Clemson and i wouldn’t even chance it... and if he can’t man up and play then put someone else in lol
 
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JG14 said:
Hate to use one play as an example, but did you see how easily he fielded that punt late vs fsu? It was bouncing off the ground and he ran up with complete confidence the entire time. Pope had a brown stain on his pants as he was running up on the one vs fsu
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Exactly how I see it, yet some fans act like it was a bad idea to field that punt.

Also taking Pope away from punt returns won't hurt his confidence as a WR.
In fact it will help him not having to worry about that aspect of the game.
 
Cribby said:
Exactly.

If pulling him could shatter his already shaken confidence then he definitely needs pulled. The one job of the punt returner is for the ball to not hit the ground , the rest is gravy. He already has questionable hands so I never got putting him back there in the first place.
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didn’t pope return punts in high school?
 
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