An underrated strength of the Canes...

Today at 11:19 AM 1 min read

...is age.

We saw it last week with the rain delay. Nobody lost focus. These are mature, experienced dudes with their eyes on the prize. Look at the ages of some of our key players this year:

9th year players

Cam McCormick

6th year players

Meesh Powell
Zach Carpenter
Elijah Alston
CJ Clark
Marley Cook

5th year players

Cam Ward
Xavier Restrepo
Jalen Rivers
Tyler Baron
Akheem Mesidor
Daryl Porter
Simeon Barrow

4th year players

Francisco Mauigoa
Elijah Arroyo
Jacolby George

Yes, this team is more talented. Yes, this team is deeper. But this is also an old, experienced team. That's the hidden advantage of using the Portal wisely to layer over your talented high school signees.

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Comments (20)

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cdmd

Today at 11:25 AM

The "9th year players" took me out lmaoooo

Angry Ibis

Today at 11:27 AM

Long Live Ye Ole Portal...

amanan28

Today at 11:34 AM

This is something I noticed when listening to Damien Martinez speak. He was the bell cow at OSU, transferred to Miami understanding he wouldn’t get the lions share of carries. He came to win. I would argue he would have improved his draft stock somewhere else.

This mindset has trickled down all the way from the top. NIL plays a role obviously, however every interview the focus is the teams accomplishments. Looking back at our rosters over the year it seemed the attention was on individual accolades.

Bird4um

Today at 11:38 AM

We get shredded next year!!

That’s a lot of great productivity.
Hope that 2nd team is ready.

JHallCanes

Today at 11:41 AM

Bird4um said:
We get shredded next year!!
That’s a lot of great productivity.
Hope that 2nd team is ready.

I have yet to confirm this but I believe the NCAA intends on having a portal again next year

JG13

Today at 11:42 AM

Bird4um said:
We get shredded next year!!
That’s a lot of great productivity.
Hope that 2nd team is ready.

Yeah, the top recruiting classes we've landed the past 2 years or so have to show out next year.

grover

Today at 11:46 AM

I was posting about this when people were worried about crowd noise at UF. Ward, Kiko, Meesh, X et al have played in a lot of games with a lot of noise. It rolled off them. It will be a non factor tonight, too.

252cane

Today at 11:50 AM

Barron 5th year was 2020 class

Fluffhead

Today at 11:56 AM

amanan28 said:
This is something I noticed when listening to Damien Martinez speak. He was the bell cow at OSU, transferred to Miami understanding he wouldn’t get the lions share of carries. He came to win. I would argue he would have improved his draft stock somewhere else.

This mindset has trickled down all the way from the top. NIL plays a role obviously, however every interview the focus is the teams accomplishments. Looking back at our rosters over the year it seemed the attention was on individual accolades.

True but he’s also lowering his carries pre -NFL. Hopefully for him, especially with where RBs get drafted, that means more contracts after the initial one.

bobbydigius

Today at 11:58 AM

Nothing underrated about it. It’s one of the main reasons we look to content if not win the ACC this year. Also, they are from the portal. This team is a 7/8 win team without these guys.

dudenate

Today at 12:04 PM

Bird4um said:
We get shredded next year!!
That’s a lot of great productivity.
Hope that 2nd team is ready.

75% of each position group is our own high school kids.

We’ve recruited well the past 2 or 3 years.

Those kids mature and pair them with a new group of portals next year…nah, we won’t be shredded

grover

Today at 12:15 PM

bobbydigius said:
Nothing underrated about it. It’s one of the main reasons we look to content if not win the ACC this year. Also, they are from the portal. This team is a 7/8 win team without these guys.

I know it’s beating a dead horse but I can’t help myself. Manny was so bad at HS talent identification and recruiting it’s unreal. He better find a RC who tells him whom to recruit at Duke or he’s DOA there, too.

A
ageezy

Today at 12:38 PM

great observation

Canesfan1899

Today at 12:38 PM

Use the portal wisely, fill a some holes and add depth. Can’t expect the portal to be your only answer as free shoes is finding out now. We some older guys who are hungry to make a name for themselves and to move to the next level, spreads down to the youngsters.

AUcane

Today at 1:08 PM

Not only do they have age but they have a lot of starts under their belt.

407cane

59 minutes ago

I know he's not gonna come back either way, but does kiko have another year of eligibility?

Squid Bumciorek

55 minutes ago

grover said:
I know it’s beating a dead horse but I can’t help myself. Manny was so bad at HS talent identification and recruiting it’s unreal. He better find a RC who tells him whom to recruit at Duke or he’s DOA there, too.

He was pretty good at DE evals. Either through recruiting or transfers we were getting guys drafted, including first rounders. Rosseau in particular was an outstanding eval. Phillips had been essentially medically retired from cfb but Diaz still convinced him to give it a go and a program that wasn’t exactly setting cfb on fire. That’s about the only position where I think UM was recruiting and evaluating at an acceptable level.