"Bad Eyes"

[PSU Cane]

The coaching in South Florida is indeed dog for the most part. Kids aren't being developed for the next level. Their overall knowledge of scheme is very limited.

However...

This should determine HOW you recruit and what you're looking for at certain positions. For example, playing CB generally is not rocket science, and studies show that athletic traits are a high measuring tool for future success. Same thing for DE's and DT's. You just need plus athletes. They're not intangible positions. So their level of high school coaching may not be as important, they just gotta be "dawgs".

But if I'm recruiting LB's or Safeties... I'm not taking kids unless they're well coached and/or have high IQ... especially at LB. Of all the positions on defense where rankings and measurables are the least accurate barometer for success, it's Linebacker. Recruiting services can't measure intangibles. When recruiting a linebacker, you really need to sit him down and find out about his knowledge of the game.

Furthermore, when you're recruiting Safeties you need to consider scheme fit.
It blows my mind how Miami can watch Zaquan Patterson's high school film and see him playing IN THE BOX ON 90% OF HIS SNAPS then get him to Green Tree and ask him to play up-top. Taking an elite box Safety who's a certified smacker and asking him to do something he's literally NEVER done dating back to little league. Wild! And you wonder why he gets smoked on Saturdays. Square peg vs round hole is what we've been doing with Patterson, Harris and Powell if we're being honest.

I get kids from different HS programs and/or poorly coached optimist teams EVERY YEAR. We have to erase their bad habits, start from square one and coach them up to our standard of doing things. Why...by week 5...do I have 15-18 year olds playing 5+ different coverages and 5+ different fronts... but we can't get 18-22 year olds (with unlimited resources) to lineup properly in week 13?
If there's ever a situation where my kids are making too many errors, I scale it back. You should always have something that you "master" in, and for us that's Cover-3. So in the event that the kids aren't quite executing our more complex material, then we know at least we can lean on our Cover-3 stuff. (to get lined-up fast and reduce mental errors and coverage busts)

With sound technique, good communication and high effort... you can line-up in 4-2-5 Cover-3 all **** game and field a competent defense. (Seattle Seahawks ran two **** coverages during their legion of boom era)

Defensive football is about... alignment, assignment, effort.
Looking like a Chinese fire drill in week 10+ tells me that the kids still don't know WTF they're doing.

Agree 100%.

When i watch any LB tape, the first thing i look at is movement at the snap vs the keys and the traffic inside....does the kid see it immediately and react or is he slow and relying on athletic ability after the fact. Some guys just naturally feel it and flow. I always loved watching Sean Spence for that reason.

 

[TexasCane90]

15 years later....I am still complaining about the fear of playing against a running qb because I know no one on the defense is prepared.

Running QB?? The defense can’t even line up correctly with a simple motion

 

[Noliaboi]

No defense I've ever coached has been putrid.

I demoted a 3-star D1 commit this season because he wasn't watching film, was routinely late to practice and would talk during teaching sessions.
The 5'8" kid who was behind him started the last 7 games of the season.
Shoot, I tried to demote Armondo Blount and Antione Jackson when I was at Dillard. They wouldn't let me.

Discipline, accountability, film study... none negotiables. I'll put a less talented kid out there that cares, studies, gives effort and knows WTF he's doing.

This standard may frustrate a kid or two (and it did) but it garners respect from the rest of your team. The kids see you bench a star, or chew him out, they see that there's no favoritism and that nobody is above reprimand or accountability.

That's how you get full "buy in".

We lost roughly half of our defensive roster between spring and week 6.
Addition by subtraction.

This is why I'm kinda falling out of love with college football, because of the amount of leeway we're giving kids today. It becomes harder to instill this type of discipline and accountability when kids are getting paid big money and/or they can just hit the portal if they're not starting.

They think they hold the leverage when they're in high school. Imagine in college when they're getting paid 6 figures. Miami has true freshman that are already frustrated and thinking about hitting the portal.
This generation is cooked.

This is how it should be done. I’m like you I’m falling out of love with CFB also. Discipline a 4 or 5 star now days to hard and 90% of them hitting the portal.

 

[DrewZ2]

Everyone gets caught in guys athletic prowess but sleep on the most important thing knowing assignment. The best teams have the smartest football players. Miami back in the day always had hard workers and high IQ players . Athletic ability is useless if you’re a dumb player . That’s where evaluating comes in.

That's where good coaching comes in .... We haven't done a good job developing players in a hot minute.

 

[k9cane]

this is something I said ad nauseam this season -- Miami (on defense) had low football IQ. It wasn't just about lacking a Ray Lewis or Ed Reed. I get it, sometimes you don't have all-time great players or All-Americans

But this unit didn't have enough sound players. It wasn't about lacking superstars

I had to meet someone (who goes to literally every Miami game, home, away, bowl, etc) at the team hotel for breakfast before the Gatech game. I had a chance to speak with Mike Rumph as he was hanging out in the lobby(great guy, BTW), I had met him before. I asked him if we were capable of executing basic cover 2 and cover 3, and do the fundamentals.

He said he had been imploring the Dbacks to get into that film room and put in that work that is needed. I've wondered for years if this program has enough self-starters/grinders who understand the requisite commitment that is needed to thrive at this level, that has to occur away from the coaches. Something that the other programs don't just expect -- but demand

One of the most overlooked facets of our past great teams weren't just the elite players, but the ones who never really played that long at the NFL level, but were sound and reliable, and never hurt Miami with mental errors (guys like Terris Harris, CJ Richardson, Malcolm X Pearson, Bobby Harden, Charles Pharms, James Lewis, etc)

If you go back to our defenses coordinated by Sonny Lubick, it was an absolute clinic on playing Cover-2 and getting off the field on 3rd downs. The football intelligence of our vintage teams is not talked about enough

This isn't just about physical talent, or lack thereof

 

[k9cane]

Everyone gets caught in guys athletic prowess but sleep on the most important thing knowing assignment. The best teams have the smartest football players. Miami back in the day always had hard workers and high IQ players . Athletic ability is useless if you’re a dumb player . That’s where evaluating comes in.

the defensive bus for this season... was the short one

 

[TaylorWalls]

this is something I said ad nauseam this season -- Miami (on defense) had low football IQ. It wasn't just about lacking a Ray Lewis or Ed Reed. I get it, sometimes you don't have all-time great players or All-Americans

But this unit didn't have enough sound players. It wasn't about lacking superstars

I had to meet someone (who goes to literally every Miami game, home, away, bowl, etc) at the team hotel for breakfast before the Gatech game. I had a chance to speak with Mike Rumph as he was hanging out in the lobby(great guy, BTW), I had met him before. I asked him if we were capable of executing basic cover 2 and cover 3, and do the fundamentals.

He said he had been imploring the Dbacks to get into that film room and put in that work that is needed. I've wondered for years if this program has enough self-starters/grinders who understand the requisite commitment that is needed to thrive at this level, that has to occur away from the coaches. Something that the other programs don't just expect -- but demand

One of the most overlooked facets of our past great teams weren't just the elite players, but the ones who never really played that long at the NFL level, but were sound and reliable, and never hurt Miami with mental errors (guys like Terris Harris, CJ Richardson, Malcolm X Pearson, Bobby Harden, Charles Pharms, James Lewis, etc)

If you go back to our defenses coordinated by Sonny Lubick, it was an absolute clinic on playing Cover-2 and getting off the field on 3rd downs. The football intelligence of our vintage teams is not talked about enough

This isn't just about physical talent, or lack thereof

This is a great analysis, but too many people around here think that it can just be "coached" into anyone in the locker room.

 

[k9cane]

This is a great analysis, but too many people around here think that it can just be "coached" into anyone in the locker room.

Coaches can really only be as good as the person they are coaching. And Im not saying it doesn't matter, because it absolutely does. But beyond just the physical traits, IMO, Miami has to get guys who really love football 365 days a year

It sound cliche, but it's the truth

Someone who was in the football building a couple of years ago admitted to me he was stunned that we had so many guys who were, shall we say, a tad indifferent to football.

Finding the guys that do is really ''changing the culture''

 

[Coach Macho]

Stop it! There are plenty of great coaches and teachers in South Florida. Players go elsewhere and ball out! We just don’t teach that well here at Miami. Highly rated guys come here and regress. BTW, most of the defense is NOT local kids!! So there goes that argument. If anything, dumb the playbook down for the guys you have if you need to. Don’t be Al Folden and try and fit a square peg into a round hole. Defenses don’t have to be extremely complex to work. Guidry defenses usually take a step forward in year 2 cause he installs a munch of new stuff.. well he just overcomplicated the system with information overload. So I agree with the Guidry part. But not the south Florida kids are not well coached part. That’s an insult to all these coaches in the area! They go up to TX, CA, and GA and usually whip on their best teams! lol. And it is not because they have an overwhelming advantage in talent. They often are overmatched physically, but make up for it in speed, skill, and awareness. They are ALWAYS well prepared and well coached.

Ironically Al Golden has the best defense in college football right now. Lol

 

[Coach Macho]

Watching Georgia and Notre Dame play defense today was so disheartening.

We're not even in the same stratosphere.

 

[88]

Ironically Al Golden has the best defense in college football right now. Lol

Not sure if you pay attention to DCs schemes around the league too much but to you, is that just the Freeman defense he's running or does it seem like a reinvention of his defense from his time in the NFL?

 

[Coach Macho]

Not sure if you pay attention to DCs schemes around the league too much but to you, is that just the Freeman defense he's running or does it seem like a reinvention of his defense from his time in the NFL?

No clue bro, I just think it's ironic as ****.

 

[Odysseus]

We must have some dumbass players on defense then

 

[E1k]

Not sure if you pay attention to DCs schemes around the league too much but to you, is that just the Freeman defense he's running or does it seem like a reinvention of his defense from his time in the NFL?

Freeman but golden should get credit for coaching it and calling it. I think he has adjusted his philosophy, im sure if someone hired him he wouldn’t have the same defense as he did when he was here at miami

At this point he has been under a top defensive mind in the nfl and in college now

 

[DTP]

GT having our number is proof. Give me a highly intelligent, self motivated, "all in" team over selfish, stupid, talent any day.

We have not been a smart selfless team and therefore waste the talent that we do have.

I get your point but Georgia Tech isn’t good. They’re a perennial 6-7 win team. You need talented players who are willing to learn. A bunch of small, slow, weak, good effort guys won’t win ****.

 

[caneizzle#1]

I get your point but Georgia Tech isn’t good. They’re a perennial 6-7 win team. You need talented players who are willing to learn. A bunch of small, slow, weak, good effort guys won’t win ****.

And I get your point, BUT.... that 6-7 win team seems to semi-regularly happen to be one of our crucial losses. Notice the words that I used. Did I say anything about small, slow, and weak over talent? Nope. Reading comprehension is not a strength of yours and that is okay. Not everyone is blessed with a 3rd grade understanding of words strung together to make a very basic point. The point that I expressed with very simple words, was that we are wasting the talent that we do have, by not being smart. Do we have more talent than GT? Yep. Syracuse? Yep? Iowa? Yep. Let me know after looking at the results of those games if any dots are connecting.

I do appreciate the insight. We are all very appreciative of your comment. The flavor, wisdom, and ability to waste perfectly good O2 going to your brain is amazing. We are all impressed that darwinism somehow hasn't bubbled up from the depths of the the vacuum inside your cranium and the fact that you are still here with us today is a miracle. You are an inspiration to me and our fellow CANES fans.

Keep it real homie.

 

[Jassid82]

And this is why im not in the crowd that says, "Let the kids make 100M if they can! Good for them!"...No way. How can you coach them? How can you discipline them? How can you say ANYTHING to them? They yield ALL the power. NIL has to somehow be regulated as welll as the transfer portal. Things have gotten out of hand imo. Let them make their money but put some rules in place. Right now..its the wild west.

Look, if its indeed true that Xavier Lucas took 500k from Wisconsin and now is trying to dip after the funds cleared his bank account..then I cant co-sign that. And if anyone of our players did that to us we would send a hitman after them. If we matched whatever Horton got and then he took the money from us..then put his name in the portal in the Spring window..you think Mario would just let him walk? **** no. I want Lucas as much as the next guy but I can see where Wisconsin is coming from. (Again, IF that story is true. Which it could be a lie)

As far as the defense is concerned, like k9cane said..we got a long way to get to the level I saw on display with ND and UGA. We have the raw talent in the room to get there..but Mario cannot swing and miss on a DC again. He has to hit a home run.

 

[DTP]

And I get your point, BUT.... that 6-7 win team seems to semi-regularly happen to be one of our crucial losses. Notice the words that I used. Did I say anything about small, slow, and weak over talent? Nope. Reading comprehension is not a strength of yours and that is okay. Not everyone is blessed with a 3rd grade understanding of words strung together to make a very basic point. The point that I expressed with very simple words, was that we are wasting the talent that we do have, by not being smart. Do we have more talent than GT? Yep. Syracuse? Yep? Iowa? Yep. Let me know after looking at the results of those games if any dots are connecting.

I do appreciate the insight. We are all very appreciative of your comment. The flavor, wisdom, and ability to waste perfectly good O2 going to your brain is amazing. We are all impressed that darwinism somehow hasn't bubbled up from the depths of the the vacuum inside your cranium and the fact that you are still here with us today is a miracle. You are an inspiration to me and our fellow CANES fans.

Keep it real homie.

Ok cool. I wasn’t trying to be an ******* but you clearly are.

YOU used Georgia Tech as an example of what you want our players to be. And while they seem to be able to beat Miami sometimes, they’re generally not very good at beating anyone else.

So for someone who doesn’t have a basic understanding of football, I’ll make it simple. Hold the standard for what you want our team to be a little higher. I’m not aiming for Georgia Tech level of play because you saw them play one game really hard against Miami.

Hopefully that clears it up for you since you didn’t understand my first comment.

 

[DTP]

And this is why im not in the crowd that says, "Let the kids make 100M if they can! Good for them!"...No way. How can you coach them? How can you discipline them? How can you say ANYTHING to them? They yield ALL the power. NIL has to somehow be regulated as welll as the transfer portal. Things have gotten out of hand imo. Let them make their money but put some rules in place. Right now..its the wild west.

Look, if it’s indeed true that Xavier Lucas took 500k from Wisconsin and now is trying to dip after the funds cleared his bank account..then I cant co-sign that. And if anyone of our players did that to us we would send a hitman after them. If we matched whatever Horton got and then he took the money from us..then put his name in the portal in the Spring window..you think Mario would just let him walk? **** no. I want Lucas as much as the next guy but I can see where Wisconsin is coming from. (Again, IF that story is true. Which it could be a lie)

As far as the defense is concerned, like k9cane said..we got a long way to get to the level I saw on display with ND and UGA. We have the raw talent in the room to get there..but Mario cannot swing and miss on a DC again. He has to hit a home run.

Re: Lucas. There’s a reason why contracts are involved. If he has broken some kind of contract, Wisconsin can go after him legally. If Wisconsin just gave him money with no contract requirements, that’s just stupid.

 

[Cribby]

Al has adjusted a lot. From personnel to aggression.