Convinced?

[kcsu]

It’s the amount of emotion and showing you care and compete during the games that I just can’t say how much I freaking love it. Fran was fired up numerous times toward the Miami sidelines and it got the players fired up. When the coach shows he cares that much and is going to fight for you, the players return the favor. Fran got all over the refs too when he needed to and I think it helped later in the game. I love this dude lol

Spot on. His not backing down to the refs and calling them out absolutely helped us win this game. Fran is a great leader. I guess his pre game speach was special

 

[AAM62]

Love Fran and he will be a better coach. For sure.

Next season is tough as hell. He’s going to need a bag to get us a 8+ win team next year.

 

[shu 49]

We can still get a new D-coordinator next year.

DART should also apply to coaches.

If not, it's just BS.

We will be better next year defensively. Gotta get a true playoff caliber corner who can offset their best receiver. Then we need a big run stopping 1or 3 shade to change the line of scrimmage back a yard or two. these things make a massive difference in how we play defense. If u noticed yesterday we were playing zone as we dont have true man up corners and Coach is choosing to not get beat over top so it gives usa chance at hopefully getting ball back. We only went to 3 down lineman 1 yesterday so he is learning. He will do a great job for us.

 

[CuseCPT]

Where do I buy my DART gear?

 

[DomeHolmes]

I was mad at him eary in year cause of the 3 man rush but nit get rid of him mad.

So much better now that he is bringing pressure.

Wake lost to Duke today due to 3 man rush on the last play giving Duke QB 10 seconds to find his receiver for a 40 yard TD.

You can see the players feed off the energy of being an attacking defense on 3rd down.

 

[swish7]

Except Special Teams. We should definitely still make a change there. But wow what a season!

Yeah, so, basically, just Fran & Nixon.
ST has gots to go.
Remains to be seen what Robinson can do with 'better' personnel, or if he indeed is the root of the problem. No way Fran makes a move, so they had better upgrade talent in a big way.

 

[Scooch]

What’s incredibly encouraging is that this should be Fran’s “worst” year of head coaching. To be a first time head coach at any level, and to have assembled his first staff, and win nine regular season games is a phenomenal accomplishment.

He’s only going to get better. His staff is only going to get better.

The man made big promises and he delivered in year one.

 

[kingtidge]

We will be better next year defensively. Gotta get a true playoff caliber corner who can offset their best receiver. Then we need a big run stopping 1or 3 shade to change the line of scrimmage back a yard or two. these things make a massive difference in how we play defense. If u noticed yesterday we were playing zone as we dont have true man up corners and Coach is choosing to not get beat over top so it gives usa chance at hopefully getting ball back. We only went to 3 down lineman 1 yesterday so he is learning. He will do a great job for us.

Perhaps.

We did get some key stops in the second half, so that was a real positive and the D seemed much more engaged/focused in the second half - a nice surprise.

My worries after watching Erob's D all season:

a. Where has that effort been in prior games and why was it lacking?

b. He's stuck to his guns this year with schemes that aren't working.

There is no question we need better players in key line positions and in the secondary... So that is certainly part of it.

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

Then there's the tackling fundamentals (or lack there of) we've seen repeatedly. That's on coaching and setting expectations on your players... It's as much a culture thing as anything, and it's not a good sign when you can't get the fundamentals handled.

If Erob is learning slowly, ok... But I think we've seen enough to say the scheming and coaching has been poor by and large and expecting blood from a stone year 2 may be folly.

I'm on the fence with him getting a year 2.

 

[CdnGuy]

4 out of 5 in November. In November!!!!

 

[SmilinBob]

4 out of 5 in November. In November!!!!

And these guys fought, limped and hobbled their way to those wins along with some actual depth.

 

[shu 49]

So much better now that he is bringing pressure.

Wake lost to Duke today due to 3 man rush on the last play giving Duke QB 10 seconds to find his receiver for a 40 yard TD.

You can see the players feed off the energy of being an attacking defense on 3rd down.

Absolutely

 

[Scooch]

Perhaps.

We did get some key stops in the second half, so that was a real positive and the D seemed much more engaged/focused in the second half - a nice surprise.

My worries after watching Erob's D all season:

a. Where has that effort been in prior games and why was it lacking?

b. He's stuck to his guns this year with schemes that aren't working.

There is no question we need better players in key line positions and in the secondary... So that is certainly part of it.

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

Then there's the tackling fundamentals (or lack there of) we've seen repeatedly. That's on coaching and setting expectations on your players... It's as much a culture thing as anything, and it's not a good sign when you can't get the fundamentals handled.

If Erob is learning slowly, ok... But I think we've seen enough to say the scheming and coaching has been poor by and large and expecting blood from a stone year 2 may be folly.

I'm on the fence with him getting a year 2.

Re: Diggs, there’s a reason why he didn’t get a matching offer from aTM and came here. Great athlete, poor fundamentals.

Re: tackling, I don’t think that’s all coaching. A lot of that is about talent and self discipline. Guys like Baron and Chestnut have been inconsistent tacklers their whole careers and they’ve played for several coaches.

I’ve been pretty down on Robinson all season. But he’s Fran’s guy and I think it’s fair to give him another season to (a) attract more talent (I mean, that’s really why he’s here) and (b) have an offseason to adjust his strategic approach.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Re: Diggs, there’s a reason why he didn’t get a matching offer from aTM and came here. Great athlete, poor fundamentals.

Re: tackling, I don’t think that’s all coaching. A lot of that is about talent and self discipline. Guys like Baron and Chestnut have been inconsistent tacklers their whole careers and they’ve played for several coaches.

I’ve been pretty down on Robinson all season. But he’s Fran’s guy and I think it’s fair to give him another season to (a) attract more talent (I mean, that’s really why he’s here) and (b) have an offseason to adjust his strategic approach.

Yeah Robinson is a "developmental DC" that just happens to be paid like he's a top of the game DC. You don't bail on that guy after a season like this and guarantee you get the worst coaching of his career.

He'll learn, grow, and get better and the defensive unit will be better for it.

 

[shu 49]

Perhaps.

We did get some key stops in the second half, so that was a real positive and the D seemed much more engaged/focused in the second half - a nice surprise.

My worries after watching Erob's D all season:

a. Where has that effort been in prior games and why was it lacking?

b. He's stuck to his guns this year with schemes that aren't working.

There is no question we need better players in key line positions and in the secondary... So that is certainly part of it.

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

Then there's the tackling fundamentals (or lack there of) we've seen repeatedly. That's on coaching and setting expectations on your players... It's as much a culture thing as anything, and it's not a good sign when you can't get the fundamentals handled.

If Erob is learning slowly, ok... But I think we've seen enough to say the scheming and coaching has been poor by and large and expecting blood from a stone year 2 may be folly.

I'm on the fence with him getting a year 2.

You arent wrong about Diggs. He read a zone run staring at both qb and running back and went to qb while rb had ball. He should have attacked the mesh as we called it. Then 2 min later he makes a great play. The thing I see is the lack of hand strike and get off. dline and backers dont do it and every thing i have ever learned was how truly important it is and then i watch NFL andits all hand fighting. we dont do that. we throw hands and stay there which is a bit weird. I see a ton of potential but we gotta throw and then get off quickly. My nmber 2 is why sre we so far off ball. Dline needs to move los back a few yards yet we give them a yard minimum. i then see Baron run into blitz and just hit guy and stop rush. Dan Conley always mentioned dipping and ripping bye olines hip. He wasmore a throw hands and get off but he was way bigger compared to lineman he played against.

 

[richmondcuse03]

Re: Diggs, there’s a reason why he didn’t get a matching offer from aTM and came here. Great athlete, poor fundamentals.

Re: tackling, I don’t think that’s all coaching. A lot of that is about talent and self discipline. Guys like Baron and Chestnut have been inconsistent tacklers their whole careers and they’ve played for several coaches.

I’ve been pretty down on Robinson all season. But he’s Fran’s guy and I think it’s fair to give him another season to (a) attract more talent (I mean, that’s really why he’s here) and (b) have an offseason to adjust his strategic approach.

He actually had bigger offers from lsu and ole miss. He chose us to play with his brother and because of erob. I’m willing to let erob learn and get better because he’s an amazing recruiter. He also had a co d coordinator who should share the praise and blame.

 

[kingtidge]

Yeah Robinson is a "developmental DC" that just happens to be paid like he's a top of the game DC. You don't bail on that guy after a season like this and guarantee you get the worst coaching of his career.

He'll learn, grow, and get better and the defensive unit will be better for it.

... Or it's more of the same year 2 and he simply isn't cut out for the job.

I am glass half full on him and think it could go either way. Obviously hoping he grows into the job as I doubt Fran replaces him (unless they are in backroom lagerheads over direction that we don't know about.)

That said, if he doesn't come good, it won't be all that surprising either based on what we've seen.

 

[kingtidge]

You arent wrong about Diggs. He read a zone run staring at both qb and running back and went to qb while rb had ball. He should have attacked the mesh as we called it. Then 2 min later he makes a great play. The thing I see is the lack of hand strike and get off. dline and backers dont do it and every thing i have ever learned was how truly important it is and then i watch NFL andits all hand fighting. we dont do that. we throw hands and stay there which is a bit weird. I see a ton of potential but we gotta throw and then get off quickly. My nmber 2 is why sre we so far off ball. Dline needs to move los back a few yards yet we give them a yard minimum. i then see Baron run into blitz and just hit guy and stop rush. Dan Conley always mentioned dipping and ripping bye olines hip. He wasmore a throw hands and get off but he was way bigger compared to lineman he played against.

Yeah the blitzing has been sparse and I get it to a point... Our secondary is suspect at best, but even when we do blitz, the lineup spacing is off a lot. Your point about Barron is spot on... His off spacing on the blitz can mean and extra couple yards on a run play before tackle and more first down conversions for opponents. Again, goes into to the fundamentals bucket... Proper lineup spacing and speed/technique off the line... Lots of room for improvement.

 

[DomeHolmes]

Re: Diggs, there’s a reason why he didn’t get a matching offer from aTM and came here. Great athlete, poor fundamentals.

Re: tackling, I don’t think that’s all coaching. A lot of that is about talent and self discipline. Guys like Baron and Chestnut have been inconsistent tacklers their whole careers and they’ve played for several coaches.

I’ve been pretty down on Robinson all season. But he’s Fran’s guy and I think it’s fair to give him another season to (a) attract more talent (I mean, that’s really why he’s here) and (b) have an offseason to adjust his strategic approach.

True about Diggs. Often looks lost. Best is to put him in at DE, (No LB) and Bull rush vs getting up field.

also the biggest misconception is that you can “coach up“ tackling and angles with 22 year olds. They are what they are. Darius, Tebucky, Shamarko, etc just instinctively know angles and how to blow things up. Those things can be tweaked but not taught.

I think if our D blitzed like last 2 games we likely win BC and Stanford.

 

[Cusefan69]

Definitely convinced HCFB can do it and is off to a great start. Great first year. No corners turned yet though. Need to see what happens year 2 and 3. The outlook is promising.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

I’m convinced Fran is going to work hard to get a great product on the field. Not as concerned about our 2025 schedule after seeing what he could do in a rebuilding year against fine competition… and excited to see who joins the team this year.

It was heartening to see how our fans responded yesterday. Growing our fanbase is important because I can’t make it to every home game to put us over the top!

 

[pokercuse08]

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

All year I would have liked to see Diggs drop into coverage less and rush more, and in conjunction with that rush more out of a three or four point stance and less as a stand up rusher. Also less reading responsibility in the scheme, and more getting up the field.

Schematically when you frequently drop your edge rushers into coverage, it's a lot harder to get pressure without blitzing.

 

[baggerbob]

Perhaps.

We did get some key stops in the second half, so that was a real positive and the D seemed much more engaged/focused in the second half - a nice surprise.

My worries after watching Erob's D all season:

a. Where has that effort been in prior games and why was it lacking?

b. He's stuck to his guns this year with schemes that aren't working.

There is no question we need better players in key line positions and in the secondary... So that is certainly part of it.

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

Then there's the tackling fundamentals (or lack there of) we've seen repeatedly. That's on coaching and setting expectations on your players... It's as much a culture thing as anything, and it's not a good sign when you can't get the fundamentals handled.

If Erob is learning slowly, ok... But I think we've seen enough to say the scheming and coaching has been poor by and large and expecting blood from a stone year 2 may be folly.

I'm on the fence with him getting a year 2.

Look you lost 4 of your top 8 DL early in the year to injuries. It was a miracle we were able to keep enough able bodies to play a 3 man front this year.

 

[Chip]

All I know is belief WITH evidence is way better.

 

[baggerbob]

All I know is belief WITH evidence is way better.

And you didn't have to imagine for 3 years to be ready to be good.

 

[FrancoPizza]

Perhaps.

We did get some key stops in the second half, so that was a real positive and the D seemed much more engaged/focused in the second half - a nice surprise.

My worries after watching Erob's D all season:

a. Where has that effort been in prior games and why was it lacking?

b. He's stuck to his guns this year with schemes that aren't working.

There is no question we need better players in key line positions and in the secondary... So that is certainly part of it.

We also have not gotten the best out of the talent we have. Diggs is a perfect example. He's an elite physical talent on the edge and a huge matchup problem for most teams, but his offensive reads have been terrible at times and he simply runs past and around the play in front of him too often. He had some good reads yesterday but a bunch (as usual) where he misread and ran past the play unfolding. That's bad coaching and it happens too much with him.

Then there's the tackling fundamentals (or lack there of) we've seen repeatedly. That's on coaching and setting expectations on your players... It's as much a culture thing as anything, and it's not a good sign when you can't get the fundamentals handled.

If Erob is learning slowly, ok... But I think we've seen enough to say the scheming and coaching has been poor by and large and expecting blood from a stone year 2 may be folly.

I'm on the fence with him getting a year 2.

the biggest indictment of ERob is the defensive regression from last year to this. Can only pin so much on the players.

McCord covered up a lot of issues and he won’t be here next year. Unfortunately ERob is like P’s D. Won’t be separated unless a team wants to hire him away.