My Take

[sutomcat]

I know it is not reasonable to expect a lot out of this team right now. Between injuries and opt outs, our depth is almost non-existent. We were forced to move two WRs to defense just so we could field a team this week. I know we were close to not being allowed to play at all.

Many of the players who are able to play are true frosh, playing for the first time. We don’t have a lot of veterans on the team, and a number of the ones we do have are playing hurt, nowhere near the level of play they are capable of, for the good of the team.

I can’t rip these guys. They are trying. The staff has them playing hard. Just know that when you see Servais getting beat by a defender, or Hackett struggling to run out there, or Hanna or Thompson or a bunch of others I don’t know about, that they are not 100% and are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. It is a shame we don’t have backups ready for a lot of these players that can do a better job. But I think this is our reality this year.

The thing that makes me most frustrated is that UL is not a good team. With the injuries they have had, and the losses from graduation, they are mediocre at best. Cunningham has something seriously wrong with his right shoulder and was not capable of throwing the ball with any zip. His accuracy was not good either. With Hawkins down, they had no good RBs and their OL is adequate at best. The made a bunch of turnovers, continuing on a path that will lead them to the most turnovers in the country this year. They kept giving us chance after chance to get back in the game and our offense just could not take advantage. Ever.

I really want to rip Sterlin Gilbert for the utter failure of the offensive unit. But it really isn’t his fault. He is dealing with a totally dysfunctional O, a true frosh QB who is not ready to play mentally or physically, especially with this surrounding case, a really weak group of WRs, where his senior captain TE can barely run, Our best OL appears to be a 5’11 converted FB (though Bergeron appears to be doing a good job too). I think the only player he can really rely on is a true frosh RB. In short, this is not a good situation.

Some general comments:

The OL did open some holes on some plays. UL gave up almost 300 yards rushing to VT a couple of weeks ago. They are not good against the run and at times, this weakness was exposed. But our OL is so inconsistent, so incapable of holding their blocks even briefly, that we would get one TFL and with our troubled passing game, that was the end of that.

I think UL played 8 men in the box a lot and dared us to try and beat them with passes. Morgan was not capable of doing this. Neither were his WRs. A fundamental recurring problem is that we can’t give the QB enough time to throw without keeping a bunch of players back for pass blocking. So in passing situations, we often are looking at 2 WRs trying to get open against 4 or 5 defenders. Teams routinely beat our 5 or 6 man OL rushing 3 guys. This has been an issue all year, it was an issue last year and there are no signs of improvement. The UL DL is not very good. We can’t be getting dominated by a line like that one. Fundamental changes need to be made here. I don’t think the players are getting the coaching they need. They continually look confused and do not work as a unit. So many times when a sack happens, we have one or two OL blocking no one, while a defender runs to the QB untouched. Unacceptable.

Taj is not a primary WR and never will be. He has been asked to perform a role he is ill suited to fill and the results have been predictable. Veterans have to make plays and when they can’t make catches in key situations, and can’t be bothered to try and get open on a broken play, it is crushing to the offensive unit. I am not sure the other WRs are a lot better and I get the reluctance to put the young WRs out there before they are ready. Alford for instance, got out there early and immediately made a stupid penalty to ruin a good drive. Do you commit to vets who are not doing the job and hope they do better or go with the kids? I don’t think there are good choices here but at this point, it is probably time to give the kids a shot, take the mistakes that will come with this and hope some of them start to develop, so we have better WR play next season.

Props to Sean Tucker for again having a fine game under tough circumstances. I wish we could get him the ball in space more. We tried on a pass in the flat but he was covered and the throw was rushed. I bet he would be awesome on a screen play. I wish we saw a few passes to Lutz over the middle in passing situations. That looks like a pass Morgan is comfortable making and Lutz has shown he can catch it. I wish we took a few shots down the field. Don’t remember throwing a long pass all game. Why? UL was played our WRs very tight. It would seem to be something that could work.

Enough of the talk about the dysfunctional offense. Let’s talk about the defense.

Yes, Thompson was terrific. He has been by far our best LB from day one. I think he got dinged up pretty seriously, missed some time and was not the same player for a while after coming back. But he is someone we can build around. I think Carter is doing well even though he is playing undersized as a true frosh. Our CBs have had great seasons and continue to play really well. That pick Williams made was a thing of beauty. Love seeing our guys win 50-50 balls. Iffy had a nice one too. That play where he got beat deep and got called for a face mask, he was face masked as well. The refs did us no favors again. But I don’t want to talk about that.

Greenwood seems to be in the right place a lot but is so weak he just gets manhandled out there. Defenses have been picking on him (and now Labrosse) all season. He ends up in man coverage with no help a lot and to be effective at rover, you really need a guy at least 6’0 tall and 200 pounds, that is strong enough to deal with big WRs and TEs. Credit to him for fighting all year long. Hope he is okay...he got banged up again last night. Labrosse has the size we need but is really raw and appeared to blow his assignment on the play he was beat for the TD.

Caleb looks to be emerging at DE, which is great to see. Disappointed with Richards, who keeps blowing assignments (no discipline) and missing tackles. He has experience and talent and we need him to be a player we can rely on. I wish Kpogba got more playing time. He is an athlete and he seems to make plays when he is in there. Disappointed with Cantin-Arku, who missed an alarming number of tackles and seems to be in on a lot less plays than a MLB should be. He has size and talent but you need more than that to be a player. I saw him fail to hustle when he could have helped take a player down at least twice. Great sack though.

Cole looked good in limited minutes. I think he has been banged up and I think he was asked to play a safety position instead of his familiar CB spot. But he looked fast and surprisingly physical. Props to Sharon Johnson too for filling in at one of the safety positions and making some plays. He looked very comfortable out there and maybe this might be a place where he can help the team more than at WR?

I hope all the players hurt are okay. Especially Morgan. Hopefully he was just banged up and did not suffer a concussion. Same with Nykeim.

 

[Trueblue25]

One of the better of always great recaps imo

 

[OrangeXtreme]

A true freshman QB trying to throw to freshmen WR's usually ends in disaster (especially with this OL).

If you want Alford and Barron to get reps, it has to be Rex throwing to them.

If you want JCM and Tex to get game reps, you need the veteran WR's.

 

[buffalorange]

I know it is not reasonable to expect a lot out of this team right now. Between injuries and opt outs, our depth is almost non-existent. We were forced to move two WRs to defense just so we could field a team this week. I know we were close to not being allowed to play at all.

Many of the players who are able to play are true frosh, playing for the first time. We don’t have a lot of veterans on the team, and a number of the ones we do have are playing hurt, nowhere near the level of play they are capable of, for the good of the team.

I can’t rip these guys. They are trying. The staff has them playing hard. Just know that when you see Servais getting beat by a defender, or Hackett struggling to run out there, or Hanna or Thompson or a bunch of others I don’t know about, that they are not 100% and are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. It is a shame we don’t have backups ready for a lot of these players that can do a better job. But I think this is our reality this year.

The thing that makes me most frustrated is that UL is not a good team. With the injuries they have had, and the losses from graduation, they are mediocre at best. Cunningham has something seriously wrong with his right shoulder and was not capable of throwing the ball with any zip. His accuracy was not good either. With Hawkins down, they had no good RBs and their OL is adequate at best. The made a bunch of turnovers, continuing on a path that will lead them to the most turnovers in the country this year. They kept giving us chance after chance to get back in the game and our offense just could not take advantage. Ever.

I really want to rip Sterlin Gilbert for the utter failure of the offensive unit. But it really isn’t his fault. He is dealing with a totally dysfunctional O, a true frosh QB who is not ready to play mentally or physically, especially with this surrounding case, a really weak group of WRs, where his senior captain TE can barely run, Our best OL appears to be a 5’11 converted FB (though Bergeron appears to be doing a good job too). I think the only player he can really rely on is a true frosh RB. In short, this is not a good situation.

Some general comments:

The OL did open some holes on some plays. UL gave up almost 300 yards rushing to VT a couple of weeks ago. They are not good against the run and at times, this weakness was exposed. But our OL is so inconsistent, so incapable of holding their blocks even briefly, that we would get one TFL and with our troubled passing game, that was the end of that.

I think UL played 8 men in the box a lot and dared us to try and beat them with passes. Morgan was not capable of doing this. Neither were his WRs. A fundamental recurring problem is that we can’t give the QB enough time to throw without keeping a bunch of players back for pass blocking. So in passing situations, we often are looking at 2 WRs trying to get open against 4 or 5 defenders. Teams routinely beat our 5 or 6 man OL rushing 3 guys. This has been an issue all year, it was an issue last year and there are no signs of improvement. The UL DL is not very good. We can’t be getting dominated by a line like that one. Fundamental changes need to be made here. I don’t think the players are getting the coaching they need. They continually look confused and do not work as a unit. So many times when a sack happens, we have one or two OL blocking no one, while a defender runs to the QB untouched. Unacceptable.

Taj is not a primary WR and never will be. He has been asked to perform a role he is ill suited to fill and the results have been predictable. Veterans have to make plays and when they can’t make catches in key situations, and can’t be bothered to try and get open on a broken play, it is crushing to the offensive unit. I am not sure the other WRs are a lot better and I get the reluctance to put the young WRs out there before they are ready. Alford for instance, got out there early and immediately made a stupid penalty to ruin a good drive. Do you commit to vets who are not doing the job and hope they do better or go with the kids? I don’t think there are good choices here but at this point, it is probably time to give the kids a shot, take the mistakes that will come with this and hope some of them start to develop, so we have better WR play next season.

Props to Sean Tucker for again having a fine game under tough circumstances. I wish we could get him the ball in space more. We tried on a pass in the flat but he was covered and the throw was rushed. I bet he would be awesome on a screen play. I wish we saw a few passes to Lutz over the middle in passing situations. That looks like a pass Morgan is comfortable making and Lutz has shown he can catch it. I wish we took a few shots down the field. Don’t remember throwing a long pass all game. Why? UL was played our WRs very tight. It would seem to be something that could work.

Enough of the talk about the dysfunctional offense. Let’s talk about the defense.

Yes, Thompson was terrific. He has been by far our best LB from day one. I think he got dinged up pretty seriously, missed some time and was not the same player for a while after coming back. But he is someone we can build around. I think Carter is doing well even though he is playing undersized as a true frosh. Our CBs have had great seasons and continue to play really well. That pick Williams made was a thing of beauty. Love seeing our guys win 50-50 balls. Iffy had a nice one too. That play where he got beat deep and got called for a face mask, he was face masked as well. The refs did us no favors again. But I don’t want to talk about that.

Greenwood seems to be in the right place a lot but is so weak he just gets manhandled out there. Defenses have been picking on him (and now Labrosse) all season. He ends up in man coverage with no help a lot and to be effective at rover, you really need a guy at least 6’0 tall and 200 pounds, that is strong enough to deal with big WRs and TEs. Credit to him for fighting all year long. Hope he is okay...he got banged up again last night. Labrosse has the size we need but is really raw and appeared to blow his assignment on the play he was beat for the TD.

Caleb looks to be emerging at DE, which is great to see. Disappointed with Richards, who keeps blowing assignments (no discipline) and missing tackles. He has experience and talent and we need him to be a player we can rely on. I wish Kpogba got more playing time. He is an athlete and he seems to make plays when he is in there. Disappointed with Cantin-Arku, who missed an alarming number of tackles and seems to be in on a lot less plays than a MLB should be. He has size and talent but you need more than that to be a player. I saw him fail to hustle when he could have helped take a player down at least twice. Great sack though.

Cole looked good in limited minutes. I think he has been banged up and I think he was asked to play a safety position instead of his familiar CB spot. But he looked fast and surprisingly physical. Props to Sharon Johnson too for filling in at one of the safety positions and making some plays. He looked very comfortable out there and maybe this might be a place where he can help the team more than at WR?

I hope all the players hurt are okay. Especially Morgan. Hopefully he was just banged up and did not suffer a concussion. Same with Nykeim.

Great summary. I thought the younger D players showed better tackling technique than the vets.

 

[Trueblue25]

Mikel Jones

just needs to gain a bit of weight to give that effort all four quarters. I see why he was a 4 star though.

I think him, Lee and Stef with Marlowe as a primary backup and GCA/Linton as depth can be an OUTSTANDING unit with an offseason of conditioning.

Tops in the ACC good

 

[orangeinohio]

A true freshman QB trying to throw to freshmen WR's usually ends in disaster (especially with this OL).

If you want Alford and Barron to get reps, it has to be Rex throwing to them.

If you want JCM and Tex to get game reps, you need the veteran WR's.

In the light of the day, several hours after the end of the game, I can see that this is frustratingly true.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I think the most disappointing thing about yesterday was the major mistakes were made by upperclassman. Harris wiff, Nykiem and Hackett fumbles on KO, Servais swing and miss were the biggest plays. I get the defense is young but the older guys really blew this one. And that is very frustrating.

 

[Millhouse]

I know it is not reasonable to expect a lot out of this team right now. Between injuries and opt outs, our depth is almost non-existent. We were forced to move two WRs to defense just so we could field a team this week. I know we were close to not being allowed to play at all.

Many of the players who are able to play are true frosh, playing for the first time. We don’t have a lot of veterans on the team, and a number of the ones we do have are playing hurt, nowhere near the level of play they are capable of, for the good of the team.

I can’t rip these guys. They are trying. The staff has them playing hard. Just know that when you see Servais getting beat by a defender, or Hackett struggling to run out there, or Hanna or Thompson or a bunch of others I don’t know about, that they are not 100% and are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. It is a shame we don’t have backups ready for a lot of these players that can do a better job. But I think this is our reality this year.

The thing that makes me most frustrated is that UL is not a good team. With the injuries they have had, and the losses from graduation, they are mediocre at best. Cunningham has something seriously wrong with his right shoulder and was not capable of throwing the ball with any zip. His accuracy was not good either. With Hawkins down, they had no good RBs and their OL is adequate at best. The made a bunch of turnovers, continuing on a path that will lead them to the most turnovers in the country this year. They kept giving us chance after chance to get back in the game and our offense just could not take advantage. Ever.

I really want to rip Sterlin Gilbert for the utter failure of the offensive unit. But it really isn’t his fault. He is dealing with a totally dysfunctional O, a true frosh QB who is not ready to play mentally or physically, especially with this surrounding case, a really weak group of WRs, where his senior captain TE can barely run, Our best OL appears to be a 5’11 converted FB (though Bergeron appears to be doing a good job too). I think the only player he can really rely on is a true frosh RB. In short, this is not a good situation.

Some general comments:

The OL did open some holes on some plays. UL gave up almost 300 yards rushing to VT a couple of weeks ago. They are not good against the run and at times, this weakness was exposed. But our OL is so inconsistent, so incapable of holding their blocks even briefly, that we would get one TFL and with our troubled passing game, that was the end of that.

I think UL played 8 men in the box a lot and dared us to try and beat them with passes. Morgan was not capable of doing this. Neither were his WRs. A fundamental recurring problem is that we can’t give the QB enough time to throw without keeping a bunch of players back for pass blocking. So in passing situations, we often are looking at 2 WRs trying to get open against 4 or 5 defenders. Teams routinely beat our 5 or 6 man OL rushing 3 guys. This has been an issue all year, it was an issue last year and there are no signs of improvement. The UL DL is not very good. We can’t be getting dominated by a line like that one. Fundamental changes need to be made here. I don’t think the players are getting the coaching they need. They continually look confused and do not work as a unit. So many times when a sack happens, we have one or two OL blocking no one, while a defender runs to the QB untouched. Unacceptable.

Taj is not a primary WR and never will be. He has been asked to perform a role he is ill suited to fill and the results have been predictable. Veterans have to make plays and when they can’t make catches in key situations, and can’t be bothered to try and get open on a broken play, it is crushing to the offensive unit. I am not sure the other WRs are a lot better and I get the reluctance to put the young WRs out there before they are ready. Alford for instance, got out there early and immediately made a stupid penalty to ruin a good drive. Do you commit to vets who are not doing the job and hope they do better or go with the kids? I don’t think there are good choices here but at this point, it is probably time to give the kids a shot, take the mistakes that will come with this and hope some of them start to develop, so we have better WR play next season.

Props to Sean Tucker for again having a fine game under tough circumstances. I wish we could get him the ball in space more. We tried on a pass in the flat but he was covered and the throw was rushed. I bet he would be awesome on a screen play. I wish we saw a few passes to Lutz over the middle in passing situations. That looks like a pass Morgan is comfortable making and Lutz has shown he can catch it. I wish we took a few shots down the field. Don’t remember throwing a long pass all game. Why? UL was played our WRs very tight. It would seem to be something that could work.

Enough of the talk about the dysfunctional offense. Let’s talk about the defense.

Yes, Thompson was terrific. He has been by far our best LB from day one. I think he got dinged up pretty seriously, missed some time and was not the same player for a while after coming back. But he is someone we can build around. I think Carter is doing well even though he is playing undersized as a true frosh. Our CBs have had great seasons and continue to play really well. That pick Williams made was a thing of beauty. Love seeing our guys win 50-50 balls. Iffy had a nice one too. That play where he got beat deep and got called for a face mask, he was face masked as well. The refs did us no favors again. But I don’t want to talk about that.

Greenwood seems to be in the right place a lot but is so weak he just gets manhandled out there. Defenses have been picking on him (and now Labrosse) all season. He ends up in man coverage with no help a lot and to be effective at rover, you really need a guy at least 6’0 tall and 200 pounds, that is strong enough to deal with big WRs and TEs. Credit to him for fighting all year long. Hope he is okay...he got banged up again last night. Labrosse has the size we need but is really raw and appeared to blow his assignment on the play he was beat for the TD.

Caleb looks to be emerging at DE, which is great to see. Disappointed with Richards, who keeps blowing assignments (no discipline) and missing tackles. He has experience and talent and we need him to be a player we can rely on. I wish Kpogba got more playing time. He is an athlete and he seems to make plays when he is in there. Disappointed with Cantin-Arku, who missed an alarming number of tackles and seems to be in on a lot less plays than a MLB should be. He has size and talent but you need more than that to be a player. I saw him fail to hustle when he could have helped take a player down at least twice. Great sack though.

Cole looked good in limited minutes. I think he has been banged up and I think he was asked to play a safety position instead of his familiar CB spot. But he looked fast and surprisingly physical. Props to Sharon Johnson too for filling in at one of the safety positions and making some plays. He looked very comfortable out there and maybe this might be a place where he can help the team more than at WR?

I hope all the players hurt are okay. Especially Morgan. Hopefully he was just banged up and did not suffer a concussion. Same with Nykeim.

I agree with this. Even though I was all in on babers, if he can't recruit, we need someone else. But I just don't know if this year is how you judge it. Covid is weird, they swung and missed on regarded recruits, everyone's hurt. Perfect storm of awful

I get why people are done with this. I still don't think it's scheme but what's the difference, scheme or recruiting either way it's on the coach

If they were any good, I probably wouldn't think this goofy season is a waste but it really is. Best to put it out of our minds

 

[NineOneSeven]

I assume you meant Hanna is undersized, not Carter? Carter is surprisingly big considering his age. Hanna is the one who must get stronger. I think he can be solid but he gets hurt often just because he simply isn’t big enough just yet.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I agree with this. Even though I was all in on babers, if he can't recruit, we need someone else. But I just don't know if this year is how you judge it. Covid is weird, they swung and missed on regarded recruits, everyone's hurt. Perfect storm of awful

I get why people are done with this. I still don't think it's scheme but what's the difference, scheme or recruiting either way it's on the coach

If they were any good, I probably wouldn't think this goofy season is a waste but it really is. Best to put it out of our minds

I would feel more comfortable if I heard more ownership from Dino.

He seems pretty content to buy into the weirdness of the year. Which I get on one hand. But it's not what I want to hear from him.

 

[AngryOtto]

Completely agree on the take on the OL. Multiple times I saw OL players blocking air when the man next to them was being beat one on one. To me it’s coaching and it will not improve unless there is a change. If you do not want to fire Cav move him to a consultant position. Go out and spend what ever it takes to get the best OL coach possible.

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

I would feel more comfortable if I heard more ownership from Dino.

He seems pretty content to buy into the weirdness of the year. Which I get on one hand. But it's not what I want to hear from him.

I agree. It’s a common theme with this season. Richards gets charged with DUI and gets one game. Taj is unable to control his emotions over and over, flips the bird and gets one game. Doesn’t seem to be accountability for anyone. This idea of a “free” season is strange. I haven’t spent a penny on the program this year so maybe it really is a free season.

 

[Nahson]

I understand the hits to the offense. Problem is, even when we had Tommy in there the play calling was bad and super vanilla.

 

[DPCuse]

Completely agree on the take on the OL. Multiple times I saw OL players blocking air when the man next to them was being beat one on one. To me it’s coaching and it will not improve unless there is a change. If you do not want to fire Cav move him to a consultant position. Go out and spend what ever it takes to get the best OL coach possible.

Agreed. There is a difference between getting over powered and standing there blocking no one looking confused. Guys getting over powered can be attributed to people trying to play through injuries. We need about 3 OL transfers. Seasoned vets. Not guys who we have to wait 2 years for.

 

[Nick44]

People who truly understand this program I think would agree with Sutomcat. No one is mad or even disappointed with the performance from these players. I can’t even be mad at the coaches (for the most part) for the performance of this team. It is loaded with freshman, inexperience, injuries, walk-ons and little depth. Not to mention we now live in an age where not only will a talented player leave after 3 years, they would rather opt out prior to the end of year 3 than to play. So when we do finally find a talented player...

The problem is and always has been the inability to build depth around talent. The problem has been injuries, year after year after year. 5 scholarship QBs on this roster and we ended last night with the 4th one down the depth chart. In 7 of the last 8 seasons, the QB to start the season has not been the same guy that finished the season.

This program cannot recruit sufficiently and has a fundamental problem of not being able to protect itself. It is so disappointing at this point I don’t even know what the solution is. Ugh.

 

[Orangezoo]

Great take as always. One thing I noticed is that we had a high pct of success with running motion/misdirection on runs. To the point it felt we could have ran that most of the night as the base package and Tucker could have had a good night. The team also seems to be comfortable running tempo out of that package as well.

I know how this offense is designed but with the problems across the board can we be a tempo running team? I know Pitt is the Jet Sweep team but they do have success with it a lot and it seemed we did the majority of the time. Run swing passes and TE options off of that package. The threat of Tucker and Lutz should keep the short/medium pass reads open. I could be too optimistic (if you even would call it that) for this group to even execute a whole quarter let alone a game that way but it just seemed we treated that far too much as a gadget vs every down when it honestly was the only thing working.

When I look into next year too with Hough coming in and a healthy Jordan we once again have the backfield talent to run that more even with Tommy or Justin or whoever. Stop sacrificing our QBs until the OL is good enough in pass protection and the WRs can get open regularly.

 

[money3189]

Great post. I see a lot of good things with the defense. They have gotten better. They have improved on a lot of the things that I saw early in the season. I am completely frustrated with the offense. Something is really off, Its not the scheme. I see teams running the same stuff with high success. Its not just recruiting, Ive seen less talented kids come in and perform better than their recruiting ratings. The biggest issue is coaching and development. There's a bad culture within the offense. Even with the injuries/opt outs, there is no reason for us to be this inept. The game planning was very disapointing coming off a bye. I didnt see packages added that could help and protect a young QB. No roll outs? (half field reads) No quick fades ? (have to influence the safeties/ corner to loosen up), this makes it easier to throw quick game and run the ball more efffectively. No play action boot passes? This allows him to make half field reads and make easy throws without a hand in his face. We need some outside minds to come in to develop players and revamp the offense. It starts with the offensive line.

 

[GoSU96]

I agree with this. Even though I was all in on babers, if he can't recruit, we need someone else. But I just don't know if this year is how you judge it. Covid is weird, they swung and missed on regarded recruits, everyone's hurt. Perfect storm of awful

I get why people are done with this. I still don't think it's scheme but what's the difference, scheme or recruiting either way it's on the coach

If they were any good, I probably wouldn't think this goofy season is a waste but it really is. Best to put it out of our minds

While getting pushed around, it's pretty apparent the last two classes have brought in some really good players. The 21 class on paper is his best yet.

Problem is there aren't enough day one game ready, i.e. Sean Tucker, types to plug in this year. But this roster is already far ahead of most in terms of underclass game snaps. That should pay off in accelerated development. It's just extremely ugly getting out of the blocks.

 

[Crusty]

Here's the thing. Even given the covid issues the defense has shown signs of good coaching and future promise. Gilbert has shown nothing. He reminds me of George McDonald and I wonder if he is an ACC coordinator.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Great post. I see a lot of good things with the defense. They have gotten better. They have improved on a lot of the things that I saw early in the season. I am completely frustrated with the offense. Something is really off, Its not the scheme. I see teams running the same stuff with high success. Its not just recruiting, Ive seen less talented kids come in and perform better than their recruiting ratings. The biggest issue is coaching and development. There's a bad culture within the offense. Even with the injuries/opt outs, there is no reason for us to be this inept. The game planning was very disapointing coming off a bye. I didnt see packages added that could help and protect a young QB. No roll outs? (half field reads) No quick fades ? (have to influence the safeties/ corner to loosen up), this makes it easier to throw quick game and run the ball more efffectively. No play action boot passes? This allows him to make half field reads and make easy throws without a hand in his face. We need some outside minds to come in to develop players and revamp the offense. It starts with the offensive line.

Yup.

We need to make the game easier.

 

[GoSU96]

Here's the thing. Even given the covid issues the defense has shown signs of good coaching and future promise. Gilbert has shown nothing. He reminds me of George McDonald and I wonder if he is an ACC coordinator.

That's a reasonable question. Again it's tough to judge given what he has to work with. If we were getting these results with the five best OL on the roster available and a healthy Devito behind them, then absolutely give him his parting gift and move on. But that's not what has happened.

If they can go get better, then do it. But change for change sake isn't a plan.

 

[All4SU]

It’s all about the lines to me. Everything else will be dramatically improved/disguised if we can get healthy and more quality depth on the lines. Now is there a problem in recruiting linemen? I don’t know. White was certainly a quality recruit. Is there a problem developing linemen? Smarter people than I have to tackle that one. Is it as simple as getting all of the players healthy for once!? I don’t know. But we need to be able to put an OL out there who can function together at a higher level. Solve that and the other issues don’t seem so daunting.

 

[Crusty]

That's a reasonable question. Again it's tough to judge given what he has to work with. If we were getting these results with the five best OL on the roster available and a healthy Devito behind them, then absolutely give him his parting gift and move on. But that's not what has happened.

If they can go get better, then do it. But change for change sake isn't a plan.

We are going to find out next year - probably in September. Dino has a lot riding on him,

 

[orangezen]

Did we ever run a draw play ?

 

[sutomcat]

That's a reasonable question. Again it's tough to judge given what he has to work with. If we were getting these results with the five best OL on the roster available and a healthy Devito behind them, then absolutely give him his parting gift and move on. But that's not what has happened.

If they can go get better, then do it. But change for change sake isn't a plan.

Agree with Go here. Tony White has been really impressive to me this year. He started with what was at best a decent crew of players with decent experience, has had to deal with massive attrition due to injuries and opt outs and still, he finds a way to get a decent defense out there week after week. Even with no one on th staff and none of the players versed in his 3-3-5 defense. Even with the losses of Trill, Andre and maybe McKinley, Josh and Kingsley, there is a lot of reason for optimism on the defensive side. Get a couple of serviceable DL transfers and I think we will be one of the top 3 or 4 defenses in the ACC next year. At least middle of the pack.

It would be great to see Sterlin find similar ways to do more with less on the offensive side. That clearly is not happening and it is a concern. But we are on what, our 4th or 5th string QB and RB. He doesn’t have a lot to work with at WR, his senior TE is a beat up mess and the OL, never a strength, got destroyed by injuries. When you have a 5’11 FB starting at OG, you have serious issues.

We have seen some development. Sean Tucker has emerged as a real player as a true frosh at RB. Cooper Lutz looks promising there too. Anthony Queeley has emerged as a solid option at WR and Nykeim Johnson has recovered from a lost year last season to again be a solid slot WR. I think Bergeron has been doing a good job at RT, then LT.

I am disturbed Tommy didn’t show much improvement from last year but given the OL and WRs he had to work with, it would be hard for Trevor Lawrence to shine. The one player I think has largely been wasted is Luke Benson, who I think should be targeted at least 5 times a game. He has largely been forgotten.

The play calling is a concern. The game plans are a concern. I want to see signs of adapting, signs that Sterlin is tweaking things to adjust to the personnel he has. Not seeing much on this front.

Iit is important to remember that Sterlin did not have a spring to work with his unit and see what he had to work with. So again, I give Sterlin a pass for this year. I think that is fair. He now knows what he has and he needs to figure out what is needed to have a successful offense next season.

There should be an unprecedented number of quality transfers, all eligible immediately, available to join the team next season. Sterlin and Tony and the rest of the staff are going to need to get some immediate help from the transfer portal. How they do here will play a key role in how their units do next season.