Rare optimism

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Re: Rare optimism

Oct 29, 2023, 2:22 PM

Carter and Wiggins are sure to leave. Trotter is still a possibility to leave. Even with S.Brown coming in, Woodaz being back, and optimism that J.Anderson will be a good player, I cannot see anything other than our LB Corp having weaker overall personnel to go along with (again) limited quality depth.

Makuba would be nuts to leave, even though he is having a very good year. I just think he is a tweener as far as NFL is concerned.

Our CB unit should be good, but will take a step backward. S.Jones (good CB) will be gone and J.Lukas (I’m worried that his shoulder is shot, similar to what sidelined Landen Zanders a couple of years back) may be done. T.Pride is an excellent player, all ACC caliber. But he’s not elite like N.Wiggins. In other words, we will have a weaker starting group and worse depth.

Safeties should be OK and Nickel should be outstanding, especially if Makuba stays as he should.

DT unit will still be solid assuming that P.Woods is healthy and stays healthy and T.Williams is fully fixed up.

DE unit scares me again for 2024 season. Maybe Hoeffler will be a good other DE to start alongside TJ Parker. Maybe Denhoff will make additional significant improvement; maybe not. Will Ojiebje be ready after RS’ing this year? Will S.Lawson develop into a guy who can provide some depth? Lots of ???’s at DE for next year; us not being elite is a certainty, not a question.

Briningstool? If he keeps catching 7+ passes and notching 75+ yards per game (on average for remaining 4+ games, then he’ll probably leave. With less impressive per game averages, he’d be smart to return. Neither Miami nor NCSU are the type of teams that inspire the ‘how did he pull that off?) type of reaction.

Coaches?

OC. I am pleased that G.Riley is toning down the offense to more closely align with what CK2 can do. Not sure if there is any further ‘toning it down’ that Riley can do. Finally, my optimism about G.Riley is improving. That said, if Dabo makes a big stones move to cut Riley loose and elevate J.Scott, then I’d be pleased.

OL. I’m worries that our linemen are still unsure about their blocking assignments as of game 8. My goodness, how could C.Sadler have not known to block the DE (instead, he teamed with M.Tate to double team NCSU’s DT) on that blind side assassination fumble sack of CK2? (The one where Mafah recovered the fumble and ‘only’ a 17 yard sack was the result.). What on earth has Thomas Austin been teaching his OL?

WR. I don’t blame T.Grisham for the WR problems. This will be unpopular, but I hope B.Collins comes back for his COVID year. We need for N.Turner to return to full health and prove that he can catch the ball consistently. A.Williams must return to full health. T.Brown and Stellato should be better (more consistent) with more experience. A.Randall … needs to prove it. Wesco and Moore? They need to be ready to go, along with RS FR’s Noble Johnson and Hannifin.

RB. I think we’re in trouble here. Shipley may be getting too beaten up to perform in 2024 as he did back in 2022. Our incoming RB recruit better be ready to go to accompany Mafah as our #2 RB.

(***). We will not be anywhere near having national championship caliber players all over the field for the 2024 season.

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1. No, only if you look at high school evaluations. When you look at the play this year, who has been national title caliber on offense? Which lineman? Which receiver? Do we have a single receiver who would have cracked the two deep on our 2018 and 2019 teams? Antonio and Tyler are decent, but are not NFL stars. The line is absolutely horrible. Shipley is highly overrated. Mafah could be good with a great offensive line as he's a wrecking ball once he gets going, but we don't have a line who can make holes. Cade has talent, but he is reckless, makes terrible decisions, stares down receivers, and doesn't have the arm strength of a championship team. He's decent enough, but he hasn't developed at all this year to where you can say he's elite. I don't know that we have a single NFL player on the offense. And let's not even discuss special teams.

I'm very pleased with the defense thus far (though I don't know how they'd do against a truly elite offense), but have you not seen how old our defense is? Of our 11 starters, 7 are seniors or graduates. They're gone. Of our 4 juniors, that includes Trotter, Carter, Wiggins, and Mukuba. I'd guess at least 3 declare for the draft. So we're losing almost the entirety of our elite defense. There are some bright spots in the backups (Barnes, Parker, Woods) but a ton of question marks.

2. Riley's a great offensive coordinator. But to be able to be an offensive coordinator, you have to be able to have freedom to call your own plays and the right to hire the right person at the positions. Riley wasn't able to hire his own staff but had to hire Dabo's unqualified flunkies and Dabo interferes with playcalling even though he's incapable of being a gametime coach. I don't see how Riley will improve while Dabo keeps both hands behind his back.

3. Agreed. We could lose recruits. And let's see if Wesco and Brown remain if we drop 3 of our last 4 games and miss bowls completely.

4. Dabo was good at stopping transfers out until NIL became a thing. We've lost a decent number of players to the portal ever since. But for the sake of argument, I'll assume we don't lose a single impact player.

5. Stupid argument. 5 players won't revenge and will turn down millions in the NFL, especially after seeing how that hurt the players who did this year. They only risk injury and their draft stock. As I said, 3 of those defenders will go. Briningstool will probably come back. He's not good enough to declare this year.

6. I hope you're right there. But it will be much harder for him to fire someone who played for him who he recruited, coached, and then brought in to coach for him. I think there's an off chance he might get rid of someone, but I doubt he'll fire enough people as he needs to, unless someone forces him (Nikki Haley was instrumental to his firing Streeter as she's on the board and repeatedly mocked the Clemson offense last year).

Thx ericford36 for rational & positive thinking!

Honestly, it feels like you are stretching a bit for these points.

Re: Honestly, it feels like you are stretching a bit for these points.

Re: Honestly, it feels like you are stretching a bit for these points.

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I think Cade's deficiencies can't be unlearned

There is optimism and then there is delusion. Your post is the latter.

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I wish I could be optimistic

Re: I wish I could be optimistic

Stopped reading at no. 1***

Stopped reading at no. 1***

Re: Rare optimism

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