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What we knew and what we don't...sort of

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If King gets healthy and our wr's start the season strong, with our much improved OL, I think that this team will be 10ppg game better than last year. Not quite good enough to beat Bama but I think good enough to keep us around 10-13pts away.
 
Can’t say I disagree much. OP is usually solid with his posts. To me there’s very few questions on offense outside of King’s health and maybe who’s going to join Harley and Rambo as the third receiver. Although it looks like Smith is grabbing that role. Offensive line should be improved with the extra experience and position switches. Maybe not a great line but above average is a reasonable expectation. Alabama will be a tough assignment but they should be able to handle the other opponents on the schedule especially since there’s no Clemson and Pitt is replacing a lot of guys up front. The offense should give us at least a puncher’s chance against anyone and should be fun to watch this year. Can we top 40 points per game?
 
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Nice job OP. Can’t argue with your assessment of last year nor your reasonable expectations for this year. I’ll just add it’s reasonable for us to expect our Canes to be a top 10 team this year.
 
Mallory is explosive and can be a match-up nightmare if he’s targeted and focused, but he tends to disappear and doesn’t seem to be a prime-time player.


Well if you go back to the tape the times Mallory is disappearing he's wide open and King doesn't see him. I think Roman might have mentioned this that Mallory was open a lot and King either didn't have time to hit him or just didn't see him open.
 
The team is better at every single position this year except tight end and defensive end. This is a better team. Although our sacks will be down and our receivers need to step up. Which I feel Rambo and an older Harley are capable of.

You moped aren’t gonna like this but this is actually a pretty good team. If we get a portal mike linebacker we may really be cooking. And if Harvey emerges and deandre Johnson is an anober average starter look out
 
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305407cane said:
The team is better at every single position this year except tight end and defensive end.
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And kicker. I expect Little B will follow in his big brother's footsteps, but he's not there yet. Your overall point still stands, though. This is the most complete team we have had in a long while.
 
305407cane said:
The team is better at every single position this year except tight end and defensive end. This is a better team. Although our sacks will be down and our receivers need to step up. Which I feel Rambo and an older Harley are capable of.

You moped aren’t gonna like this but this is actually a pretty good team. If we get a portal mike linebacker we may really be cooking. And if Harvey emerges and deandre Johnson is an anober average starter look out
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Agreed. We legitimately have a better team at every position save for DE and TE - which is far from catastrophic. Everything is setup well for Manny to succeed this year, so I hope he takes full advantage.

It literally comes down to our OL giving King time to make his throws and open holes for our RBs to dominate. And on D it's our LBs - can they man the second level and take pressure off our DL and Safeties?
 
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CashMoneyCane said:
Then Jake Garcia looked half decent in a spring game with a diluted offense where he couldn't get hit, and should definitely start over King.

Some of you are absolutely f**king retarded.

Separately, expect the OL to be much improved this season. Lot of guys with a lot of playing experience and a few years in the weight room.
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Then I'll be F@*king Idiot #1. As the Great Doug Williams once said, "stats don't win games points do". I'll give King a break for the lame OL and more drops than a bare handed baseball team. But! He's a good athlete playing QB. I watched every minute of every Cane game and it was clear to me that King was not a good deep ball passer. Bad at the 10-15 yards out/sideline patterns. Throws too many passes late/high/into the turf. **** his HS backup ended up being a better QB and has already been drafted by the NFL Super Bowl Champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers!

It only took me several plays to see why Garcia was so highly regarded by College scouts, King not, and why the staff was so elated to sign him. Let me get right to it. Garcia can make "ALL" the throws accurately and with NFL caliber velocity. Makes reads faster than King after only a few months on campus. Gets the ball out faster and accurate giving the receivers a chance for YAC. Especially on the WR screen. Believe what you want, but just like Clemson promoted a true freshman over an established athletic QB, early in this season we need to do the same.
 
Billy D Williams said:
Then I'll be F@*king Idiot #1. As the Great Doug Williams once said, "stats don't win games points do". I'll give King a break for the lame OL and more drops than a bare handed baseball team. But! He's a good athlete playing QB. I watched every minute of every Cane game and it was clear to me that King was not a good deep ball passer. Bad at the 10-15 yards out/sideline patterns. Throws too many passes late/high/into the turf. **** his HS backup ended up being a better QB and has already been drafted by the NFL Super Bowl Champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers!

It only took me several plays to see why Garcia was so highly regarded by College scouts, King not, and why the staff was so elated to sign him. Let me get right to it. Garcia can make "ALL" the throws accurately and with NFL caliber velocity. Makes reads faster than King after only a few months on campus. Gets the ball out faster and accurate giving the receivers a chance for YAC. Especially on the WR screen. Believe what you want, but just like Clemson promoted a true freshman over an established athletic QB, early in this season we need to do the same.
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Skrong werds hear -- I agree that 13QB will be damm good. Experience counts for so much. Players who have no experience have a ceiling. Pre-injury King all day over Garcia. Post-injury King on first game -- I just dont think he'll be close enough to be as effective. I'd be ok with Garcia starting game 1 and Lashlee *really* earning his money and coaching the young guy in-game. I dont expect Garcia to play except early season before King comes back 100% and in blow outs.

It's a bad hand to be dealt for King if 13 passes him this year. I think in a vacuum it could happen but Manny is senior-loyal and maybe Lashlee is too. 13 has the potential to make more "WTF was that" plays in this his first year than King does. King is safe and steady and known and Lashlee prolly feels more comfortable with him atm.

It's the offseason -- I reserve the right to claim my account was hacked and this post isnt mine as we get closer to start of season
 
Billy D Williams said:
Then I'll be F@*king Idiot #1. As the Great Doug Williams once said, "stats don't win games points do". I'll give King a break for the lame OL and more drops than a bare handed baseball team. But! He's a good athlete playing QB. I watched every minute of every Cane game and it was clear to me that King was not a good deep ball passer. Bad at the 10-15 yards out/sideline patterns. Throws too many passes late/high/into the turf. **** his HS backup ended up being a better QB and has already been drafted by the NFL Super Bowl Champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers!

It only took me several plays to see why Garcia was so highly regarded by College scouts, King not, and why the staff was so elated to sign him. Let me get right to it. Garcia can make "ALL" the throws accurately and with NFL caliber velocity. Makes reads faster than King after only a few months on campus. Gets the ball out faster and accurate giving the receivers a chance for YAC. Especially on the WR screen. Believe what you want, but just like Clemson promoted a true freshman over an established athletic QB, early in this season we need to do the same.
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****, dude. You are one head strong persistent mf, I'll give you that. You're STILL beating the 'Garcia should start over King' drum.... SMH

basketball knocking GIF by NBA
 
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Moonman said:
This is gonna be long. So if you have a short attention span maybe you should go read another thread. I recommend the 10,000th Butch thread. Those are always good for some mindless bull****.

Anyways, 2020 was a unique season to say the least. There were plenty of questions going into spring after a disastrous end to the 2019 campaign...and that was even before the whole Fauci virus thing hit.

What this post is gonna be about is what we knew or didn’t know then, compared to what we know and may or may not know now.

Let’s get started.

What we knew (QB):

We had a new QB who was almost guaranteed to be 110% better than the debacle we had at QB in 2019. Also, a new OC.

What we didn't know:

How the marriage of King and Lashlee would look on gameday.

What we know now:

King flourished under Lashlee. Here's where King ranked statistically in 2020 among returning P5 starting QBs entering 2021:

Total offense: #6
Passing yards: #5
Passing yards per game: #10
Rushing yards per game: #8
Completion percentage: #12
Yards per attempt: #6
Yards per completion: #14
Passing efficiency: #5
Passing touchdowns: #4
Points responsible for: #4
Points per game: #7

Led by D'Eriq King, Lashlee's offense produced 34 points and 440 yards per game.

Unfortunately, as we all know King injured his knee in the bowl game. While he's on pace to return in the fall, we don't really know how the knee will affect his play in 2021.

At Auburn, both Nick Marshall and Sean White improved in every passing category in their second year(s) with Lashlee. I think we can expect a mature, driven D'Eriq King to perform at a high level in 2021.

What we knew (RB):

With Deejay Dallas departing early for the NFL, there was no doubt that Cam'Ron Harris was our #1 back entering 2020.

What we didn't know:

Could Harris handle the load? Would freshmen Chaney and Knighton be ready to step in and contribute right away?

What we know now:

Harris started strong but a then had a three game stretch in which he gained a grand total of 35 yards on 28 carries. Chaney and Knighton combined for 537 yards and 4 touchdowns on the season. Harris bounced back and averaged a respectable 60 yards per game over the final 5 games of the season, but I think it’s obvious that Harris is not the guy. He’s got above average speed and below average contact balance. He’s elusive enough to make the average defenders miss, but he’s not going to bad plays into good plays which is something a #1 running back must do. I think it’s pretty clear that Chaney is a back with special traits. He will eventually be the starter. Knighton is a weapon who will be difficult to keep of the field. He’s got elite explosiveness and is tougher than he looks. At the very least we know we have options entering 2021, which is more than we could say 12 months ago.

What we knew (TE):

We knew we had an all-American talent with a durability problem in Brevin Jordan.

What we didn’t know:

Was the Will Mallory that showed up in the final four games of 2019 the guy we could count on moving forward, or was that just a tease?

What we know now:

Mallory is explosive and can be a match-up nightmare if he’s targeted and focused, but he tends to disappear and doesn’t seem to be a prime-time player.

Is there another tight end on the roster who gives us an x-factor? Yes, I believe Elijah Arroyo is that guy. The question is will he be ready for immediate playing time in the fall coming off injury?

What we knew (OL):

The 2019 OL was the worst I’d seen in 35 years as a CANES fan. Just in case anybody needs a reminder, we were 127th (dead last) in sacks allowed and 120th in rushing offense in 2019. It was almost certainly impossible that we could be worse.

What we didn’t know:

Was is the coaching, or did we just have a bunch of **** scrubs on the OL?

What we know now:

It was probably a little bit of both. We still allowed too many sacks and our rushing offense was not reliable enough to keep opposing defenses honest in 2020. I think it’s clear now that we had so many questions entering 2020 that it was impossible to have enough answers. Zion Nelson is better than he performed in 2019. That’s obvious now. Ousman Traore is not a P5 lineman. That’s obvious now. Scaife is better at tackle. That’s obvious now. Jakai Clark needed a redshirt year. That’s obvious now. Navaghn Donaldson needed to get healthy. That’s always been obvious. Corey Gaynor is scrappy and a leader, but he is what he is. That’s obvious now. You could argue that some of these thing were predictable, but the question is; could anyone have been expected to answer every one of these questions with the correct answers in an offseason that was cut short by the “pandemic”?

Here’s what I know. The OL is in better shape now than it was 12 months ago. It’s clear now that we have at least eight guys we can expect to play at a high enough level that we can run an offense. Do we have enough talent to be dominant? Probably not yet...but do we know enough now that we can competently run our offense? I believe so.

What we knew (WR):

Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch.

We literally had nobody returning at WR in 2020 who we could point to and say “yeah this guy could be our #1 guy”.

Our leading returning WR in 2020 was Mike Harley, a 5’9” 165 lb senior slot receiver with 68 career receptions. Dee Wiggins and Mark Pope had 27 and 19 career receptions respectively. Our great hope was Jeremiah Payton who had one, uno, a single reception entering 2020. We were in deep ****.

What we didn’t know:

Was Mark Pope finally gonna live up to his 5* hype in year three?

What we know now:

Big ******* NOPE on Pope...but surprisingly, Mike Harley is actually pretty fxckin’ good! Also, Keyshawn Smith might actually be the steal of the 2020 recruiting cycle. Actually, we don’t know this yet, so maybe I should step back a little but. However, we at least know that two out of three of our starting receivers are somewhat competent. Rambo is without a doubt an improvement over Pope and/or Wiggins. Pope is now the 3rd string slot receiver behind Restrepo. Wiggins is now behind Rambo. Payton is...I don’t know what the fuxk Payton is but it doesn’t matter because Brinson and Smith are probably about to push everyone else’s *** to the portal. The bottom line is, we’re in much better shape today than we were 12 months ago.

So I’m gonna cut this here it’s god**** long as fxck already and let y’all do what you do.

I’ll be back with the defense at some point...or maybe I won’t. Whatever.
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You're absolutely correct.

I DID like the Butch Davis threads much better - but yours is good too!
 
The Sphinx said:
****, dude. You are one head strong persistent mf, I'll give you that. You're STILL beating the 'Garcia should start over King' drum.... SMH

basketball knocking GIF by NBA
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Bro I been around football a long time. I know the real deal when I see it. Sight unseen, ask any good coach and they will tell you, they can identify their best players after a few practices. If you didn't know King was the vet and you were at a Canes practice, both with first team reps, I guarantee you Garcia would be the guy that wowed you. Experience matters, but Garcia has a bigger Dyke
 
I think you guys mean "we SHOULD have a better team this year". We have not seen them play, not sure how you can definitively say "we ARE a better team".

This is why the board melts down every season IMO.
 
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