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Assessing this recruiting class

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aelmiami said:
Just gotta nail the portal QB. Literally all that matters until Nickel is ready to start.
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Um, no. It's massively important, for sure. But we nailed it better than any program in the country this year, and we went 10-2 and won't play for the ACC, again. While it is the most important position in sports, we need defensive help in the back 7 just as badly.

I know this won't be popular, but if you said I could have a slight downgrade from Cam at QB combined with the same secondary for 2025, or I could have Emory Williams combined with the best DB portal class in the country, give me Emory and an influx of DBs.

A new DC factors into this as well, but we had the worst secondary I can remember ever having at Miami in my lifetime, and that's saying something because we've recruited that group like dog**** for a LONG time.

So you can't say the portal QB is literally all that matters. That is not true. I'd argue it matters very little if we trot Jaden Harris and Jadais Richard and Dyoni Hill out there again.
 
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The game has changed with the portal and NIL but recruiting will always be 1A. Make no mistake, this is a good class but it felt Manny-ish and not Mario-ish. I'm pretty surprised that with a heisman finalist, 10 wins, and money we weren't able to close like we all thought we would but losing games late and the defensive product on the field cost us. Florida and in particularly South Florida had a down year in 2025... but we whiffed on big time talents that we went all in on such as Pickett, Hanks, V Brown, Ffrench, Stubbs, etc.

Mario needs to take the secondary personally - both in the portal this off season and recruiting for 2026. That room needs a complete flip like he did with the offensive line.

Anyway, pleased with the class. My fav guys are Pringle, Nickel, Schott, SJ, and Buchanan. Congrats to all the new canes!
 
JHallCanes said:
Recruiting and the portal go hand in hand and I’m not really a person that believes one way is better than the other all the time

I think high school recruiting should in general be the backbone with the portal complementing that but it’s not gonna happen all the time like that and that’s fine

Truth is we won’t know the answers until a year from now how this played out

The lack of high end players and really a lackluster recruiting effort for the past 6 months is tough to take but also not a deal breaker…yet
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Its a one year slip up that I think we can Definity recover from in the portal. We obviously can't get in the habit of this. Luckily for us, the quality of the 26 class is without a doubt a step up
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
Um, no. It's massively important, for sure. But we nailed it better than any program in the country this year, and we went 10-2 and won't play for the ACC, again. While it is the most important position in sports, we need defensive help in the back 7 just as badly.

I know this won't be popular, but if you said I could have a slight downgrade from Cam at QB combined with the same secondary for 2025, or I could have Emory Williams combined with the best DB portal class in the country, give me Emory and an influx of DBs.

A new DC factors into this as well, but we had the worst secondary I can remember ever having at Miami in my lifetime, and that's saying something because we've recruited that group like dog**** for a LONG time.

So you can't say the portal QB is literally all that matters. That is not true. I'd argue it matters very little if we trot Jaden Harris and Jadais Richard and Dyoni Hill out there again.
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I don’t blame the defense all on Guidry. When something is that bad it’s a combination

Maybe this is just me being too stubborn to accept things but I also don’t think the current players on defense are THAT bad either. Just felt like the wheels came off and there was no saving it. No matter who took the field they looked awful. Even guys like Bain which I refuse to believe

I don’t think it’s all Guidry but a fresh start could help
 
252cane said:
Noticed you said you think nickel will be the backup so are you thinking Emory is gone at some point? Fitzgerald potentially moving to wr is interesting
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I took it as we strike out on portal qb and Emory the starter.
 
Not trying to put lipstick on a pig, but you are watching college football change in front of your eyes. What has happened over the last 2 years and this year have fundamentally changed what we call college football. I have been the biggest supporter of many of the changes that have taken place, in which these players deserve a part of the pie, and what we have seen is them getting a bigger piece of it than before (make no mistake, there was part of it going on under the table with bags).

With that said, there are no rules per se on it, so it is the wild wild west. In that type of environment, you are going to see where it makes sense to do what we did last year, because the players were there to pay big. Then you are going to see what you see this year, where we let some of them walk because the value isn't there.

Overall, I think we did the right thing in both years. This year doesn't look as **** when you walk away. In addition, UM Novembers hurt us once again, there is no fixing that other than winning in November going forward.

I hope we are right this year, where you have the grunt style of non-**** class that builds for a more solid future. Do I think that next year isn't as good as wins as this year... Yeah, Cam 2.0 isn't walking through that door.

Last, I think part of the evolution we are seeing is that you have to rely more and more on the portal (proven kids at the D1, maybe high D2 level) than kids out of high school. If I was spending my own money, I personally would have as 60-40 split or even higher on portal versus high school.
 
WR Cane said:
"Let's go hard in the Portal" ~ Mike Norvell
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I get what you are saying but Norvell changed his Portal approach and screwed himself.

He went from signing proven productive guys Jared Verse, Jermaine Johnson, Brendan Fiske, Keon Coleman, Jaheim Bell, Jammie Robinson, Tatum Bethune, etc to signing guys who were big names recruits but couldn’t break into to the two deep at their previous stop like MJJ, Jalen Brown, Earl Little Jr, Davonte Brown, Shawn Murphy, Richie Leonard, Roydell Williams, Malik Benson, Terrence Ferguson, etc.

Norvell also didn’t have a good HS foundation to build on.

Norvell wrote the book on what not to do in the portal and recruiting. He is trying to correct it now but his HS recruiting has been so bad especially at OL, I don’t think he will be able to dig out in time.
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
Um, no. It's massively important, for sure. But we nailed it better than any program in the country this year, and we went 10-2 and won't play for the ACC, again. While it is the most important position in sports, we need defensive help in the back 7 just as badly.

I know this won't be popular, but if you said I could have a slight downgrade from Cam at QB combined with the same secondary for 2025, or I could have Emory Williams combined with the best DB portal class in the country, give me Emory and an influx of DBs.

A new DC factors into this as well, but we had the worst secondary I can remember ever having at Miami in my lifetime, and that's saying something because we've recruited that group like dog**** for a LONG time.

So you can't say the portal QB is literally all that matters. That is not true. I'd argue it matters very little if we trot Jaden Harris and Jadais Richard and Dyoni Hill out there again.
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Obviously other stuff matters. But I’m talking from an optics perspective. If Mario lands another QB who does numbers, wins 10 games and keeps some forward momentum going, I’d be ok with the defense struggling some. If Mario regresses with atrocious QB play, it’ll be the same Mario QB killer narrative.
 
Good writeup, D.

I really like our LB haul despite missing out on Alford and Nix. OL haul could be great but it's contingent on development of 2 very raw kids. We've been taking more projects than I would like lately but I am hopeful.

DB - brutal.

DT - we keep playing this "if they fill out" game and that doesn't always work in our favor and game changing DTs at this level are typically already filled out.

WR - I wish people would stop focusing on the back flip as any indication of athleticism - especially a running back hand spring. Yeah, that requires some coordination and ability, but if all good WRs at that level practiced it, they'd all be able to do it. My 6 year old son could do that. Just sayin...
 
JHallCanes said:
I don’t blame the defense all on Guidry. When something is that bad it’s a combination

Maybe this is just me being too stubborn to accept things but I also don’t think the current players on defense are THAT bad either. Just felt like the wheels came off and there was no saving it. No matter who took the field they looked awful. Even guys like Bain which I refuse to believe

I don’t think it’s all Guidry but a fresh start could help
Click to expand...

I always say on here and in my personal life, things are very rarely black and white. I agree, it's not all Guidry and it's not all the kids. But let's be real, when it's THAT bad, it's very likely the kids stink and the coach stinks.

So I'm not putting it 100% on Guidry, his defense did look better when he had NFL kids back there last year. But it really doesn't matter, when you produce a unit that terrible, you have to go. I'm not even saying it's 100.0% deserved, but when it's THAT terrible, people lose jobs. They have to. He can't be the DC here next year. I know Mario won't fire every single defensive coach, nor should he, I'm just saying when your defense is that terrible, you really can't justify keeping a single one of those guys.

We finished 92nd in the country in scoring defense for only conference games. Ninety. Second. That's worse than the 2022 defense finished.

68th in yards per play allowed in conference games.

You really wanna throw up? We all watched Miami vs Florida on 8/31. Complete mismatch. They didn't even belong on the same field against us.

We finished 68th in YPP allowed vs Duke, Cal, VT, Syracuse, Wake Forest, FSU etc.

That gator defense finished 62nd in YPP allowed playing LSU, Ole Miss, Texas, UGA, A&M etc.

Sickening.
 
I am of the mindset that the portal will be a go to more often than the recruiting of high school kids. It was said on another thread that the high school kids are enamored with the constant ESPN coverage of the SEC and BIG 10. Those conferences make the most money for ESPN. So ESPN is going all in. The ACC Network is awful. The reporters, talks show people, and coverage.

The 17 or 18 year old kid wants to be apart of great coverage and visibility. This is why you see the top 10 teams in the rankings all coming from the SEC and BIG 10. Once a kid gets to a school and realizes it's not all its cracked up to be, they hit the portal, and that's where we see success. We need to focus on that 300 to 150 type player. Then spend the money on a known commodity in the portal.

With ESPN fluffing with Paul Finebaum and "Booger" McFarlan. The Joey Galloways and the Food Network's own Joey Palmer, we have no shot. Spending 2 million on a DE out of high school is laughable. Spend it on a portal dude we have some tape on. I hate to say it, but they way our conference visibility is trending, landing in the top 10 in recruiting may be a thing of the past.

We just won 10 games and you would have thought we disbanded the program.
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
I always say on here and in my personal life, things are very rarely black and white. I agree, it's not all Guidry and it's not all the kids. But let's be real, when it's THAT bad, it's very likely the kids stink and the coach stinks.

So I'm not putting it 100% on Guidry, his defense did look better when he had NFL kids back there last year. But it really doesn't matter, when you produce a unit that terrible, you have to go. I'm not even saying it's 100.0% deserved, but when it's THAT terrible, people lose jobs. They have to. He can't be the DC here next year. I know Mario won't fire every single defensive coach, nor should he, I'm just saying when your defense is that terrible, you really can't justify keeping a single one of those guys.

We finished 92nd in the country in scoring defense for only conference games. Ninety. Second. That's worse than the 2022 defense finished.

68th in yards per play allowed in conference games.

You really wanna throw up? We all watched Miami vs Florida on 8/31. Complete mismatch. They didn't even belong on the same field against us.

We finished 68th in YPP allowed vs Duke, Cal, VT, Syracuse, Wake Forest, FSU etc.

That gator defense finished 62nd in YPP allowed playing LSU, Ole Miss, Texas, UGA, A&M etc.

Sickening.
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Good coaches take bad kids and make them more productive than most think possible. In my humble opinion, Guidry is not in that bucket. A bad coach can take bad players and make them look worse, a bad coach can take good players and make them look worse. A good coach can take bad players and make them look better, a good coach can take good players and make them special.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I always say on here and in my personal life, things are very rarely black and white. I agree, it's not all Guidry and it's not all the kids. But let's be real, when it's THAT bad, it's very likely the kids stink and the coach stinks.

So I'm not putting it 100% on Guidry, his defense did look better when he had NFL kids back there last year. But it really doesn't matter, when you produce a unit that terrible, you have to go. I'm not even saying it's 100.0% deserved, but when it's THAT terrible, people lose jobs. They have to. He can't be the DC here next year. I know Mario won't fire every single defensive coach, nor should he, I'm just saying when your defense is that terrible, you really can't justify keeping a single one of those guys.

We finished 92nd in the country in scoring defense for only conference games. Ninety. Second. That's worse than the 2022 defense finished.

68th in yards per play allowed in conference games.

You really wanna throw up? We all watched Miami vs Florida on 8/31. Complete mismatch. They didn't even belong on the same field against us.

We finished 68th in YPP allowed vs Duke, Cal, VT, Syracuse, Wake Forest, FSU etc.

That gator defense finished 62nd in YPP allowed playing LSU, Ole Miss, Texas, UGA, A&M etc.

Sickening.
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Yeah Guidry is done here. Has to be. Fortunately we have some pieces in place to make the new guys job easier especially if the 2024 class can get up to speed. Very very good defensive recruiting up front and the emergence of OJ, maybe someone like Dylan Day, couple pieces in the portal…might be ok there
 
I believe @DMoney referenced this over the summer, but hopefully the staff evaluates the level of recruiting effort associated with legacy recruits and prioritizing them on the Board moving forward. It really felt like Hanks and Brown were going to be uphill battles, especially after they made their commitments to UF. And while he committed all the way back in April, UM recruited Iose Epenesa harder than any program. We lost all three battles. You gotta shoot your shot, but these three guy were identified as priorities, and they were always going to be difficult pulls.
 
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252cane said:
I highly doubt that what he meant and I highly doubt they strike out on a qb. Good try tho Mr.williams
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What a weird response, I gave you my opinion but because you say “highly” before doubt, you think you’ve done something.
 
And another observation. The preseason rankings are all opinions to set up TV ratings for ESPN. So yeh, when you have 90 % of the conference ranked, everyone will be playing a ranked opponent. It makes it look better when you lose to a ranked opponent. LSU shouldn't be ranked. But they were, because everyone they lost to were ranked. It was all upfront opinion.
 
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