Cuse12
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I shut off the game when we were down 30+ and purposely did not indulge in any football forums, radio, media etc. since Saturday. I have been mulling over some low and high level thoughts and figured this is the outlet.
1. The past has ruined my mindset.
I wish this was not the case, but being burned so often in our last decades and of recent, I just feel like “yup of course this is how it’s going to go” in regards to starting a season strong and petering out. It’s amazing how like clockwork Dino’s teams seem to flame out. Yes injuries I get it, but regardless it’s just conditioned into my brain unfortunately that we are heading for yet another rocky back half of the season. Yes we can turn it around after FSU and have an excellent season for cuse standards. But, I am naturally feeling glass half empty and I am not a glass have emptied kinda guy. Anyone else stuck in this rut of having a hard time seeing positivity?
2. I like Dino, but…
I really do like Dino as the face of our program. Clean cut program. But, I mean if my first point happens and we go 6-6, like what is there to look forwards to? I know it’s cuse not bama. I don’t expect complete domination every year, but I do expect to field a respectable team that likely will lose 3-6 games a year (more then 6 is not an option at this point of Dino’s tenure so I won’t go past 6), but it does matter in regard to how you lose them…. We are laying eggs against better competition. At this point in year 8 I do not think it’s over zealous to want to have a “chance” in every game. Hell App State fans for example feel like they have a shot against anyone I guarantee it. They put up FIGHTS with a great UNC team, yes they’re overmatched like us, but those fans know their team is going to rise to the occasion and fight. I think that’s all I’m asking for in these big games and once a season we upset a better team. Losses of that magnitude send waves across the CFB landscape. The casual guy goes “Jeesh cuse stinks” when scrolling. Not good for recruiting and perception. I can live with losing all these big 3 games, but how are we losing? Yes it matters as this is a barometer for us.
3. What am I trying to say…
Not sure exactly what I’m trying to say. Just rambling really, so let me ramble a little more and let’s see where this paragraph goes.
Our stud WR is just not a stud. Alford was hyped up big time and I am unsure why. Is he a practice star? He does not have enough quick twitch to be effective. Our best healthy wide out is obviously Hatcher right now. I just can’t get over how poorly our WRs have been under Dino. We can’t compete with upper end ACC teams with the talent at WR, I know we got guys hurt, but so does everyone. It’s part of the game and literally has to be a constant every year. Our stars will be hurt, how many? Who knows but we will never go a full season healthy, so we need depth. We were told we have depth but do we? We have bodies but where is the playmaking ability? Seems like our only two playmakers are hurt to me, OG and IJ. Not sure what we have to do to find productive ACC wide outs, but we are suffering severely because we can’t beat ACC defenders.
I am a huge fan of Shrader. Kids got the heart of a lion. But the recipe is kinda simple, stop his legs and you will win the game. As much as he says he wants to pass first and really seems to want to be a good pocket passer, I just don’t think he is great at it. I think he is a good pocket qb. But with our line perennially suspect like - we need a QB who can sling it quickly and effectively. Also I’m not ignorant to the fact that our WRs are not probably helping him. What I’m getting at, is if a team shuts down our running game between Shrader and Allen….we cannot win with an air raid attack. We simply need to have the legs open up the play action. It’s a symbiotic relationship. And we definitely can’t pass first to open up run I don’t believe at this time.
I am not calling for Dinos head. Let me say that first. But, if we finish mediocre again this year (limping to 7-5/6-6 meaning we went 3-5 or 2-6 after starting 4-0) , then what exactly is next for our trajectory at being a competitive ACC team going forward? I know this school is hard to win at, but there are also a lot of hard to win at schools who find ways. I feel like our team is pretty solid in the talent department for a Dino led team. One of the best I thought. More decent depth all over the team then in the last I thought. So if we don’t look like we belong on the same turf as UNC this year…. What’s the future going to bring? I’m very conflicted in my thoughts of Dino going forward.
Thanks for reading this if you got this far and I hope we see a team progress through the back half of the year instead of deteriorate (maybe I finally found a single sentence that sums up why I began this post.) That’s what I need to see to keep me on the Dino train. Dino please win out or something and make us forget about UNC,Clemson and FSU. Lol.
Cuse12
1. The past has ruined my mindset.
I wish this was not the case, but being burned so often in our last decades and of recent, I just feel like “yup of course this is how it’s going to go” in regards to starting a season strong and petering out. It’s amazing how like clockwork Dino’s teams seem to flame out. Yes injuries I get it, but regardless it’s just conditioned into my brain unfortunately that we are heading for yet another rocky back half of the season. Yes we can turn it around after FSU and have an excellent season for cuse standards. But, I am naturally feeling glass half empty and I am not a glass have emptied kinda guy. Anyone else stuck in this rut of having a hard time seeing positivity?
2. I like Dino, but…
I really do like Dino as the face of our program. Clean cut program. But, I mean if my first point happens and we go 6-6, like what is there to look forwards to? I know it’s cuse not bama. I don’t expect complete domination every year, but I do expect to field a respectable team that likely will lose 3-6 games a year (more then 6 is not an option at this point of Dino’s tenure so I won’t go past 6), but it does matter in regard to how you lose them…. We are laying eggs against better competition. At this point in year 8 I do not think it’s over zealous to want to have a “chance” in every game. Hell App State fans for example feel like they have a shot against anyone I guarantee it. They put up FIGHTS with a great UNC team, yes they’re overmatched like us, but those fans know their team is going to rise to the occasion and fight. I think that’s all I’m asking for in these big games and once a season we upset a better team. Losses of that magnitude send waves across the CFB landscape. The casual guy goes “Jeesh cuse stinks” when scrolling. Not good for recruiting and perception. I can live with losing all these big 3 games, but how are we losing? Yes it matters as this is a barometer for us.
3. What am I trying to say…
Not sure exactly what I’m trying to say. Just rambling really, so let me ramble a little more and let’s see where this paragraph goes.
Our stud WR is just not a stud. Alford was hyped up big time and I am unsure why. Is he a practice star? He does not have enough quick twitch to be effective. Our best healthy wide out is obviously Hatcher right now. I just can’t get over how poorly our WRs have been under Dino. We can’t compete with upper end ACC teams with the talent at WR, I know we got guys hurt, but so does everyone. It’s part of the game and literally has to be a constant every year. Our stars will be hurt, how many? Who knows but we will never go a full season healthy, so we need depth. We were told we have depth but do we? We have bodies but where is the playmaking ability? Seems like our only two playmakers are hurt to me, OG and IJ. Not sure what we have to do to find productive ACC wide outs, but we are suffering severely because we can’t beat ACC defenders.
I am a huge fan of Shrader. Kids got the heart of a lion. But the recipe is kinda simple, stop his legs and you will win the game. As much as he says he wants to pass first and really seems to want to be a good pocket passer, I just don’t think he is great at it. I think he is a good pocket qb. But with our line perennially suspect like - we need a QB who can sling it quickly and effectively. Also I’m not ignorant to the fact that our WRs are not probably helping him. What I’m getting at, is if a team shuts down our running game between Shrader and Allen….we cannot win with an air raid attack. We simply need to have the legs open up the play action. It’s a symbiotic relationship. And we definitely can’t pass first to open up run I don’t believe at this time.
I am not calling for Dinos head. Let me say that first. But, if we finish mediocre again this year (limping to 7-5/6-6 meaning we went 3-5 or 2-6 after starting 4-0) , then what exactly is next for our trajectory at being a competitive ACC team going forward? I know this school is hard to win at, but there are also a lot of hard to win at schools who find ways. I feel like our team is pretty solid in the talent department for a Dino led team. One of the best I thought. More decent depth all over the team then in the last I thought. So if we don’t look like we belong on the same turf as UNC this year…. What’s the future going to bring? I’m very conflicted in my thoughts of Dino going forward.
Thanks for reading this if you got this far and I hope we see a team progress through the back half of the year instead of deteriorate (maybe I finally found a single sentence that sums up why I began this post.) That’s what I need to see to keep me on the Dino train. Dino please win out or something and make us forget about UNC,Clemson and FSU. Lol.
Cuse12
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