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Message: [QUOTE="DoctahLexus, post: 4249260, member: 6798"] Tough times folks. Very tough indeed. Hard to not be critical of the petro hire at present, and next year already feels like a crucial year for him. Coming around to ivory emphasizing the need for another ssdm through the portal as priority. Slide packages being over complicated could certainly be a factor, but a big part of the problem was ssdms getting beat cleanly on saturday. Cormier and Shutz made it look like none of them meet the minimum size requirements. Not a good game for Rosa who needed slides left and right. . He is one of the guys who has been battling some injury throughout the year so put it more on the staff for not trying someone new or resting him properly. Couple ssdms getting beat clean with a team that looks like it does not understand the concept of a two slide and you get Saturday's result. Healthy UVA is one of the toughest O's to stop, but as others have mentioned this ain't far off from how everyone makes us look. So sounds like we have a coach who won over everyone quickly with his personality, but also happens to be running the least efficient defense in orange history. I try to avoid the big picture negativity in year one, but it's like we voluntarily chose to transplant Hopkins' problem onto us. "Yeah the results aren't what we want but he is a legend! The players love him! He recruits so well!" It could have all been avoided if we just, i don't know, brought in a promising DC whose results are trending up?? Like every other hire ever made ever?? One more year of this crap and it will look like one of the dumbest moves of all time. Have to hope that a year of the D system under the belt of the returning players along with some potentially promising close D and ssdm talent coming in leads to an improvement. Portal still has to be used at least moderately. Meanwhile the offensive side of things has been, I would argue, at least passable, especially when one considers injuries and personnel lost, but the guy more in charge of that seems to be rubbing some the wrong way? I take the words of one or two disgruntled parents with a grain of salt, but I have had interactions with Gait and it does not surprise at all that his attitude could get under certain people's skin. With any luck all of this is forgotten when we put together a promising season, something he has been known to produce. Birtwhistle can finish the rock like nobodies business. At least those involved have come to their senses and are starting him at attack with that skillset. Even if the injury excuse was stretching the truth, I'm not freaking out about that as lineup changes across all sports happen a lot later than the hardcore fans want. Just the way it is. We see 14 games not dozens and dozens of practices. Also Berkman was not a total liability or anything like that. He was a solid finisher and underrated feeder. I have seen enough from the undermanned offense that I truly think will improve there in year 2. Dordevic returning is huge. If we take some portal losses so be it. Just don't lose Dordy or Hiltz and preferably not Birtwistle. IL not having him on the roster after double digit goal season is all you need to know about the direction they are headed in. I don't know y'all. This season has really sucked and even though we expected that it feels worse than I thought. Just ranting a little for old time's sake. [/QUOTE]

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