Position by Position: The Future

[shu 49]

Understand the QB analysis but if he DOESN'T go down I think TD has grown more from this year than any other player. No idea what Summers brings but I think Rex could be serviceable in an emergency scenario.

And where are the good feelings about Caleb coming from? Haven't seen enough to feel anything yet though I am anxious to see what he brings to the table.

How do we feel about each position, as it stands, heading into the future?

QB: Terrified. We have one good option and if he goes down we may be a 1 win team.

RB: Very good. Return two hard running vets andhave Jordan and Wax heading the rear. We know much about Pierre or Garrison? Unfortunately we go as far as the OL does though. Yikes.

WR: Fine. Good talent, better size in next year’s unit. Adjustments can be made.

TE: Times are good!!! Oh wait, we rarely throw them the ball

OL: life support again in 2020, potentially solid in 2021 if we can land a few mercenaries to bridge the gap year. Scared here.

DE: good. Racking up some talent with big offer sheets. Hopefully we add some size and don’t skip a beat in 2020. IMO Jonathan’s our most talented DL period right now. Feeling great about Linton and Caleb.

DT/DL: OK/concerned. Feel better that Bear will have another year, Tuazama looks promising. Would be nice to hear some good things about Munoz and Dawson. Hope we’ll be in a place to save Black and Harper for qb pressuring downs.

LB: Better. Lee and Mikel are the real deal. Juan Wallace could get there with more size. Time to unleash the canadians in Richards and Cantin Arku in 2020. We have speed and size here paired with big talent in Jones/Lee.

Safety: Fine. Coley’s shown competency and Cisco’s continued ball hawking. Need to improve with helping vs the run. Interested to see Nunn and Jonas.

CB: with TE perhaps our brightest spots. A lot of experience with Iffy, Trill and Stritz. A lot of built depth as well that will be going into their second years.

your thoughts?

going thru like u did. Td needs someone to push him. Rb I’ll be really good. Blocking from them needs to improve drastically. Wr will be improved if we add Cam to the mix next year. He showed great promise in the Taj wineass game and haven’t seen him yet since. Need to move guys in and out here. Losing Riley but hoping Johnson returns to last years form. Te w will be set for a while. Ol osing Adams and Heckel as I hear hurts. Don’t get me wrong I thought Adams would be the man this year bye dominating guys with his size and he just doesn’t do that. He was a big letdown for me this year along with Serv. Have to get Serv out at center somehow. Back where he belongs at tackle. Bergeron will be a man bye next year. He has the right attitude. Physical and tough kid. Way better than the quitter guy. Hoping Tisdale is getting ready to take over for Adams next year. Dline we need bigger guys upfront that do not go backwards. Love black but unless he comes in at 295 he should play end. Williams I hope will be ready as will 52 Harper. First hand knowledge I hear 57 maybe as good or better than Alton was supposed to be this year at end. The other kid I hear about is Linton. Only 225 ish ut I guess nobody can block him in practice but of course sometimes we don’t block in games either. They also like tuz too. NOw we just got Kinsler also. Nice get for us there. Lb. where to begin. Linebackers have to be mean and nasty guys to do their job. They hit 320 lb lineman and then chase Rb down. I really like Jones. Natural downhill kid. Only had 6 or 7 tackles I think yesterday but 3 were at los. 46 had someone said 13 but most were after 4-5 yd gain. Both Sr should play some but give time to Richards, lee, the other can kid and Wallace who should have redshirted last year. Dumb move for him to play only specials last year. I think our biggest weakness in this position is the lb coach. Dan told me and he taught lb that three ways to cover your gap. Be in the gap is first. Second is to plug gap with a olineman . Maybe u don’t make tackle but your gap is covered. Third is to see your gap and get off block bye olinemen and make play. Throw hands hard to shock the guy then dip and rip off his gap side hip. I don’t see our starters doing anything like this. He needs to move on cause we have some legit size and speed coming here. Like the Thompson kid coming in also. P.s. for the love of god play Richards at Mike and Williams for army. Safeties are having tough time cause our lb aren’t doing their job. Some good talent here though. Cb with iffy and trill next year will be scary. Some good young cover guys in mix too. Coaches. Ward had to go and we need a dc who can make good gameplans and if it’s not working adjust and fix the issue. Yesterday was a joke and that’s on ward. He should be fired already. Monroe does a decent job in the back and our best recruiter. Stanard is a good, technical coach who I hear the kids really like. Hope he stays with Monroe. Dline coach not too sure about him. Dline plays off ball to far stances are weird. St coach love him. Oc lynch can do oline or leave but he should not be calling plays period. He has to go as oc. Stay on team but not oc. Oline coach gotta go asap or sooner. Don’t know much about other guys. Sorry so long

 

[DMDMD]

going thru like u did. Td needs someone to push him. Rb I’ll be really good. Blocking from them needs to improve drastically. Wr will be improved if we add Cam to the mix next year. He showed great promise in the Taj wineass game and haven’t seen him yet since. Need to move guys in and out here. Losing Riley but hoping Johnson returns to last years form. Te w will be set for a while. Ol osing Adams and Heckel as I hear hurts. Don’t get me wrong I thought Adams would be the man this year bye dominating guys with his size and he just doesn’t do that. He was a big letdown for me this year along with Serv. Have to get Serv out at center somehow. Back where he belongs at tackle. Bergeron will be a man bye next year. He has the right attitude. Physical and tough kid. Way better than the quitter guy. Hoping Tisdale is getting ready to take over for Adams next year. Dline we need bigger guys upfront that do not go backwards. Love black but unless he comes in at 295 he should play end. Williams I hope will be ready as will 52 Harper. First hand knowledge I hear 57 maybe as good or better than Alton was supposed to be this year at end. The other kid I hear about is Linton. Only 225 ish ut I guess nobody can block him in practice but of course sometimes we don’t block in games either. They also like tuz too. NOw we just got Kinsler also. Nice get for us there. Lb. where to begin. Linebackers have to be mean and nasty guys to do their job. They hit 320 lb lineman and then chase Rb down. I really like Jones. Natural downhill kid. Only had 6 or 7 tackles I think yesterday but 3 were at los. 46 had someone said 13 but most were after 4-5 yd gain. Both Sr should play some but give time to Richards, lee, the other can kid and Wallace who should have redshirted last year. Dumb move for him to play only specials last year. I think our biggest weakness in this position is the lb coach. Dan told me and he taught lb that three ways to cover your gap. Be in the gap is first. Second is to plug gap with a olineman . Maybe u don’t make tackle but your gap is covered. Third is to see your gap and get off block bye olinemen and make play. Throw hands hard to shock the guy then dip and rip off his gap side hip. I don’t see our starters doing anything like this. He needs to move on cause we have some legit size and speed coming here. Like the Thompson kid coming in also. P.s. for the love of god play Richards at Mike and Williams for army. Safeties are having tough time cause our lb aren’t doing their job. Some good talent here though. Cb with iffy and trill next year will be scary. Some good young cover guys in mix too. Coaches. Ward had to go and we need a dc who can make good gameplans and if it’s not working adjust and fix the issue. Yesterday was a joke and that’s on ward. He should be fired already. Monroe does a decent job in the back and our best recruiter. Stanard is a good, technical coach who I hear the kids really like. Hope he stays with Monroe. Dline coach not too sure about him. Dline plays off ball to far stances are weird. St coach love him. Oc lynch can do oline or leave but he should not be calling plays period. He has to go as oc. Stay on team but not oc. Oline coach gotta go asap or sooner. Don’t know much about other guys. Sorry so long

FFS, formatting, please

 

[shu 49]

FFS, formatting, please

I don’t understand what that meant.

 

[CanadianSU]

We don’t have a good option at QB.

 

[SUskibum]

I don’t understand what that meant.

I think he meant... For “goodness“ sake, hit the return button 2x every time you finish a thought. Will make it easier to read.

Also, I agree with every single thing you said, particularly the coaching changes.

Regarding the linebackers in particular, I find it interesting (annoying) that DFB specifically mentioned before the season started that he never wants to go into another year having to play guys who had very little experience. Well Dino, I hate to tell you but your LB coach/DC has played Williams & Army 90% of the snaps possible. Well out of 3 linebacker spots, next year 2 of them will be very very green again.

 

[Consigliere]

Lb. where to begin. Linebackers have to be mean and nasty guys to do their job. They hit 320 lb lineman and then chase Rb down. I really like Jones. Natural downhill kid. Only had 6 or 7 tackles I think yesterday but 3 were at los. 46 had someone said 13 but most were after 4-5 yd gain. Both Sr should play some but give time to Richards, lee, the other can kid and Wallace who should have redshirted last year. Dumb move for him to play only specials last year. I think our biggest weakness in this position is the lb coach.

Interesting comments. It seems like the last two years the position group that has improved the most during the year has been the LBs. Makes you wonder if it has been driven by work once game films are available or by poor preseason work and not being ready for the start of the season.

 

[shu 49]

Interesting comments. It seems like the last two years the position group that has improved the most during the year has been the LBs. Makes you wonder if it has been driven by work once game films are available or by poor preseason work and not being ready for the start of the season.

Yeah Guthrie improved last year dramatically after Pitt game. We were clamoring for shy to get in and I was complaining that we don’t have a downhill presence knowing teams were gonna run. Bam said that ward wanted the lb to become more aggressive and that’s Guthrie’s natural instinct. Shy was the Same. I think whit was too small and not aggressive at all. But we improved because we weren’t stepping back first. Linebackers should stop the run first. Need big strong fast dudes like Richards. Perfect mike in size speed and aggressiveness. But we don’t play him o even try too. It’s ridiculous.

 

[shu 49]

I think he meant... For “goodness“ sake, hit the return button 2x every time you finish a thought. Will make it easier to read.

Also, I agree with every single thing you said, particularly the coaching changes.

Regarding the linebackers in particular, I find it interesting (annoying) that DFB specifically mentioned before the season started that he never wants to go into another year having to play guys who had very little experience. Well Dino, I hate to tell you but your LB coach/DC has played Williams & Army 90% of the snaps possible. Well out of 3 linebacker spots, next year 2 of them will be very very green again.

Ok I gotcha and yeah he did say that but didn’t make it happen. Sad actually.

 

[PAcuse]

Could Williams be that NT for us next year?

Possible yes, but then you have no backup at. Its all a different technique he would have to learn and would need to bulk up some inside LB.

 

[cusefan88]

DT rotation is Harper, Black, M. Williams and maybe Elmore? That seems serviceable? And gives more time to let Rondi/Munoz add size. I do think Black and Bear need to bulk up a lot. Bench press is great but if you're getting blown up on the run it's an issue.

 

[orangepassion]

QB-Not sure about Devito, think he's played better as the line has played a bit better, but we need depth there. Would love to bring in a guy like Fortin or some other hotshot QB who is stuck in a numbers game at a factory to provide competition
RB-Probably best position on the team. Like Adams and Howard and think Jordan is a potential star
WR-Okay. Would like to one physical specimen who can grab a 50/50 ball through contact. Hoping to see more Cam Jordan to see what he can do. Heck, let's give all the scholie Receivers that are working hard a chance and let's see what we got. Maybe there's a gamer in there
TE-Really like Hackett and Benson. Could use another for Depth purposes, particularly since hackett's a senior next year
OL-Need to find a Center. Even if Heckel comes back, I have no faith in his ability to stay healthy. If we find a solid center, think b/w a more experienced Vettorello and Bergeron, Servais on the outside, and the Davis boys, we'll be okay next year. Not great, but good enough to score some points, esp. w/ a more experienced Devito (or someone good enough to beat him out)
DL-Think Jonathan will be good and wouldn't be surprised at all to see Richards on the other side. My biggest concern on the team has been and continues to be the DT, particularly the lack of size. Slayton somewhat masked how limited we were there, but we need to bring in some MEN at DT, like 300+ men who need to do nothing but stop the run.
LB-Think we have talent there, but Jones and Kpogba need to put on some weight. Would love to see them, as Wallace and Cantin-Arku get significant reps these last 3 games
CB-Like Melifonwu and love Trill, but concerned about Iffy's durability. Think Stritinger is fine in the slot. Will be interesting to see where Nunn. Another I hope we get on the field, so he won't have Nunn experience going into next year. Also liked Cole's HS video.
S-Obviously Cisco is an excellent ball hawk. Think his Tackling improved some, but he still sometimes looks to me like he doesn't want to tackle. Think Coley improved a bunch from last year. Surprised we've heard nothing from Jonas. Nunn could factor in here.
Overall, we have some talent at DB. Not sure about our depth bc we haven't seen them yet.
P/K- Szmyt hasn't been as good as last year, but still an above average year. Hope the new Punter will be good. Probably will be a downgrade from the Sterling one.

 

[AAM62]

If they get some quality transfers or jucos and a bit of luck with health, then next year can be a 7-8 win season. Otherwise it’s a 4-8 year once again.

going into this year I was baffled at how we believed multi year guys will all of a sudden be ballers. Either they were on the bench for a reason, or they had enough tape to know what they are. We really need some game ready upperclassmen to come in and plug the holes.

 

[orangenauburn]

Not concerned with OL outside C

We have a handful of good looking prospect, bidding their time developing. Losing three - four players to medical really impacted depth and talent on unit for this year (and next), but we have some kids who will do fine once they are ready to play.

Concerned about DT depth

Concerned about QB depth

Need to get bigger at WR, TE, and LB

 

[baggerbob]

Not concerned with OL outside C

We have a handful of good looking prospect, bidding their time developing. Losing three - four players to medical really impacted depth and talent on unit for this year (and next), but we have some kids who will do fine once they are ready to play.

Concerned about DT depth

Concerned about QB depth

Need to get bigger at WR, TE, and LB

Elmore needs to be moved to DT full time his natural position, he has been wasted on offense.

 

[rrlbees]

Our defensive strategy is ridiculous. The bend/don’t break Tampa 2 strategy has to go.

Does anyone wonder how this defense would do if Shafer was Dino’s defensive coordinator? I realize they would be gassed because our offense would keep them on the field too much, but would be curious to see what Shafer could do with this type of defensive talent.

Guys like Trill, Cisco, Alton and Richards are types of players that Shafer never had here. His scheme would have been exciting to watch with these guys.

we rarely use the Tampa 2 if at all

 

[orangenauburn]

Elmore needs to be moved to DT full time his natural position, he has been wasted on offense.

Of our 15 commits, maybe half of them are close to ideal size coming into the program to begin with.

The rest will need at least 1-2 years to develop, some 3 years.

We need to get a couple more bigs on both sides to round out the class.

 

[kcsu]

we rarely use the Tampa 2 if at all

We may not use it " much" but its what has been Wards base since he became Dinos DC. Regardless of what D we play his base defense has been the Tampa 2.

 

[Cusefan69]

I don’t understand why people are down on Howard. He’s mainly been afforded short yardage situations which is reflected in his ypc. He’s got good hands and bounces off tackles more naturally than our other runners. Adams is the best rb by far, but id give Howard some more 1st and 10 opps when adams needs a blow.

Yeah I still think we see Howard get more minutes. He is very solid and has shown the ability in games to run for chunks of yards. His time will come.

 

[rrlbees]

We may not use it " much" but its what has been Wards base since he became Dinos DC. Regardless of what D we play his base defense has been the Tampa 2.

that is incorrect. We ditched it last year.

 

[rrlbees]

I don’t understand why people are down on Howard. He’s mainly been afforded short yardage situations which is reflected in his ypc. He’s got good hands and bounces off tackles more naturally than our other runners. Adams is the best rb by far, but id give Howard some more 1st and 10 opps when adams needs a blow.

we play too many RBs. Nobody gets into a groove. Adams needs more than 4 touches per game.

 

[sufandu]

Could we possibly do a 3-4 next year with the LB’s we have?

We need bigger LBs for that. OLB need to play almost like LB/DE hybrids. The DE's need to bigger too, almost DT size. Dline needs to be able to eat up blocks to keep LBs clean to make tackles.

 

[TheCusian]

I don’t think it’s possible to get a great read on the RB, WR, or QB that well given the OL.

If Cav goes, I’ll have a lot more hope for the O overall.

The secondary will be good next year. LB - I like the talent - but will be growing pains again. I’m not worried about DE. Not sure on DT.

 

[upperdeck]

Howard had his best game of his career sat.. he moved the pile multiple times. he cant be you lead guy but he is a solid 2-3 if the oline creates a few holes.

 

[rrlbees]

Howard had his best game of his career sat.. he moved the pile multiple times. he cant be you lead guy but he is a solid 2-3 if the oline creates a few holes.

Eh. He was ok but he can’t be getting 10 carries with Adams getting 4. We play too many backs.

 

[upperdeck]

i agree with that. At first I thought Adams was dinged cause Howard played so soon.. I also wondered if it was a blocking thing, maybe he blocks better? to me i would play howard in the Elmore role. you get a better runner , hopefully decent blocking and he cant catch worse. Elmore was more blocking TE than anything else.