Bishop Gorman Star Tight End Elija Lofton Commits to Miami Hurricanes

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Will Mallory couldn’t block a lick and he was our top receiver last year.

I think this year’s TE production is a combination of Arroyo’s injury, Williams’s youth and McCormick (who is not a receiver) being so effective as a blocker.

Somebody like Lofton is going to find a role because he can do so much.
What exactly is Arroyo's injury? He did not look healthy against UVA plus he looks like he put on too much weight. What about Skinner? He's in the dog house isn't he?
 
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Cooper and McCoy say hello.

Cooper was 154.
Oh please. They had Mauigoa and Samson in that class who were top ten OT prospects plus Kinsler.

Even if I were to trust their OL evals to an extent, they whiffed on the higher rated guys we know they were after so all we have now are evals types. It’s not by choice though it’s by necessity.

Do ye all defenders of the Bro understand the difference? No one is saying they can’t make good evals at OL and find some hidden gems. What’s being said is that we need to stack chips on top of chips at OL - like landing some guys everyone is after - not just 1 class (2023), and that’s not happening in 2024.
 
Oh please. They had Mauigoa and Samson in that class who were top ten OT prospects plus Kinsler.

Even if I were to trust their OL evals to an extent, they whiffed on the higher rated guys we know they were after so all we have now are evals types. It’s not by choice though it’s by necessity.

Do ye all defenders of the Bro understand the difference? No one is saying they can’t make good evals at OL and find some hidden gems. What’s being said is that we need to stack chips on top of chips at OL - like landing some guys everyone is after - not just 1 class (2023), and that’s not happening in 2024.
2022 had McCoy and Cooper.
2023 had the big boys.
2024 we aren’t don’t yet
 
I’m not a Mario blind defender. If we are going to be critical, I would rather pick my battles: DT, DB, QB.

WR was a concern but we have three top 25 WRs in the class.
QB was hurt by coordinator turnover and a bad 2022. 2024 kid looks really good and Judd for all the hate has turned his 2023 season around.
DT - I would like numbers if we aren’t landing 2 elite. That would mean 2 more with great traits and upside.
DB - we are still pushing for two elite kids.

Overall- we need to finish strong on the field and in recruiting to take the next step. Returning key players for a 2024 run could have a big impact on future classes.
 
2022 had McCoy and Cooper.
2023 had the big boys.
2024 we aren’t don’t yet
These guys aren’t infallible. They had Denis and Sagapolu at Oregon and brought them here.

Right now we’re not stacking on top of 2023 at OL in 2024.

IOL

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OT

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I’m not a Mario blind defender. If we are going to be critical, I would rather pick my battles: DT, DB, QB.

WR was a concern but we have three top 25 WRs in the class.
QB was hurt by coordinator turnover and a bad 2022. 2024 kid looks really good and Judd for all the hate has turned his 2023 season around.
DT - I would like numbers if we aren’t landing 2 elite. That would mean 2 more with great traits and upside.
DB - we are still pushing for two elite kids.

Overall- we need to finish strong on the field and in recruiting to take the next step. Returning key players for a 2024 run could have a big impact on future classes.
The point was made that we’re building this OL monster essentially. We’ve built a good OL but to continue we need to stack monster OL class after monster OL class and we’re not doing that in 2024.
 
Or just maybe he is a competitor and likes what Miami is building and what has been sold to him.

Maybe he is thinking to himself, old man Cam is leaving, arroyo can’t stay healthy and I’m better than the others so I can play right away. These kids aren’t as soft as 90% of this board.

I can agree on that, but I wouldn't say the board is soft. Now our play calling and TE usage, that's soft. ****, the forward pass is going extinct around these parts while we fight it out with 2 and 3 loss teams. That's soft coaching and it deserves criticism. In half a season we went from what we'd like to be to Oregon under Mario.

Guy is starting to look like Jim Tressell battling it out every game in 2002. It isn't ****, but it can produce a win, but the margin is razor thin. This also isn't the cult of Ohio where everyone in state wants to go there so recruiting could end up a problem, it seemingly already is.

I'm sticking with what I said previously, I'll be surprised if he ends up here.
 
The point was made that we’re building this OL monster essentially. We’ve built a good OL but to continue we need to stack monster OL class after monster OL class and we’re not doing that in 2024.
position rank
2022
McCoy - 109 (6th man)
Cooper - 154 (starter)

2023
Mauigoa - 2 (starter)
Samson - 4 (hurt)
Tripp - 28
Kinseler - 36
Tinilau -74

2024
Plazz - 30
Broussard - 44
Minaya - 108
Nino - 147

Now throw in the 50/50 on transfers (Denis/Sagapolu) vs (Lee/Cohen).

This is why I'm ok with OL. 50% hit rate even with kids like McCoy/Cooper being >100 in position rank. Plazz, Broussaard, and Nino look like Miami OL. Minaya I haven't looked at this film.
 
The teams that have won championships for the past two decades play this way. Georgia is the latest.

In the past, the argument was that Miami would never recruit OL well enough to play that style and should instead lean into its natural base of WR talent. That was a strong argument. But now we can build an OL that is as good, if not better, than Alabama and Georgia. So what’s the new argument?

You can be physical and still be modern. Lincoln Riley uses multidimensional FB/TEs that can block. So do Kyle Shanahan and Mike McDaniel. You just need the personnel. This kid helps open up possibilities with his versatility.

I’m not convinced we can build that OL. There isn’t even a 4* OL recruit in this class.

And the UGA argument is lazy. Yes, if can recruit like UGA, it probably doesn’t matter what we run. But we can’t.

The highest ranked F+ offense Cristobal had at Oregon was 16th. And that’s with Justin Herbert in his prime.

A defensive guru took over for him and made it the 8th ranked offense his first year, and currently has it 3rd. And did that because he went with a more wide open spread attack.

bunching the box with Multiple TEs and multiple guys lined up in the backfield and 3 WRs near the line, is never going to work. There will always be a ceiling to that, and it lends itself to upsets.

Outside of some garbage time TDs against UNC, we have struggled to score 20 points the last 4 games. It’s crazy to me that people don’t see some of that is due to the bro ball we are running.

If we were going a spaced out 4 wide with tempo, does anybody think TVD would look *this* bad? That the offense would be struggling to score *this* much against bad defenses?
 
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position rank
2022
McCoy - 109 (6th man)
Cooper - 154 (starter)

2023
Mauigoa - 2 (starter)
Samson - 4 (hurt)
Tripp - 28
Kinseler - 36
Tinilau -74

2024
Plazz - 30
Broussard - 44
Minaya - 108
Nino - 147

Now throw in the 50/50 on transfers (Denis/Sagapolu) vs (Lee/Cohen).

This is why I'm ok with OL. 50% hit rate even with kids like McCoy/Cooper being >100 in position rank. Plazz, Broussaard, and Nino look like Miami OL. Minaya I haven't looked at this film.
I agree that we have bigger problems at QB, DT and CB. I also think that they can build a decent line with their evals. I think we need an elite OL though based on what I’ve seen on offense. We’ve gone back to Bro Ball. My comment is aimed at tempering the presumption that we’ll be elite on the OL. We’re not there yet and to get there we have to stack some top talent each year. This year is not that.

I have no idea why we whiffed on the top targets given the coaches at OL here. I’d assume it’s money. That would also explain a lot of misses.
 
I’m not convinced we can build that OL. There isn’t even a 4* OL recruit in this class.

And the UGA argument is lazy. Yes, if can recruit like UGA, it probably doesn’t matter what we run. But we can’t.

The highest ranked F+ offense Cristobal had at Oregon was 16th. And that’s with Justin Herbert in his prime.

A defensive guru took over for him and made it the 8th ranked offense his first year, and currently has it 3rd. And did that because he went with a more wide open spread attack.

bunching the box with Multiple TEs and multiple guys lined up in the backfield and 3 WRs near the line, is never going to work. There will always be a ceiling to that, and it lends itself to upsets.

Outside of some garbage time TDs against UNC, we have struggled to score 20 points the last 4 games. It’s crazy to me that people don’t see some of that is due to the bro ball we are running.

If we were going a spaced out 4 wide with tempo, does anybody think TVD would look *this* bad? That the offense would be struggling to score *this* much against bad defenses?
You gotta be kidding right? Even Dawson and Cristobal said they had to revaluate what they where doing. Because teams had 4 games worth of tape on Dawson's offense. bro ball is the 2nd option offense because of our RB room!
 
I agree that we have bigger problems at QB, DT and CB. I also think that they can build a decent line with their evals. I think we need an elite OL though based on what I’ve seen on offense. We’ve gone back to Bro Ball. My comment is aimed at tempering the presumption that we’ll be elite on the OL. We’re not there yet and to get there we have to stack some top talent each year. This year is not that.

I have no idea why we whiffed on the top targets given the coaches at OL here. I’d assume it’s money. That would also explain a lot of misses.

And the OL is good this year. Can it get better? Sure. But this is a pretty **** good OL that we should probably set as the expectation for most years.

And we can’t do anything with it against P5 teams. And people actually think we have to wait until the line gets infinitely better than this before we can expect to score 3 TDs against UVA under Cristobal?

At the point where that is common sense and being a realist, is the point where the pitch forks need to come out.
 
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I agree that we have bigger problems at QB, DT and CB. I also think that they can build a decent line with their evals. I think we need an elite OL though based on what I’ve seen on offense. We’ve gone back to Bro Ball. My comment is aimed at tempering the presumption that we’ll be elite on the OL. We’re not there yet and to get there we have to stack some top talent each year. This year is not that.

I have no idea why we whiffed on the top targets given the coaches at OL here. I’d assume it’s money. That would also explain a lot of misses.
As far as the oline recruiting it's because of the tackles we recruited last year and with rivers, cooper, McCoy, Cohen, and Lee! Would you come here? I do think the oline is a notch below elite.
 
And the OL is good this year. Can it get better? Sure. But this is a pretty **** good OL that we should probably set as the expectation for most years.

And we can’t do anything with it against P5 teams. And people actually think we have to wait until the line gets infinitely better than this before we can expect to score 3 TDs against UVA under Cristobal?

At the point where that is common sense and being a realist, is the point where the pitch forks need to come out.
If it was the oline fault then yeah! But, tvd is responsible for the performance at uva!
 
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I’m not convinced we can build that OL. There isn’t even a 4* OL recruit in this class.

And the UGA argument is lazy. Yes, if can recruit like UGA, it probably doesn’t matter what we run. But we can’t.

The highest ranked F+ offense Cristobal had at Oregon was 16th. And that’s with Justin Herbert in his prime.

A defensive guru took over for him and made it the 8th ranked offense his first year, and currently has it 3rd. And did that because he went with a more wide open spread attack.

bunching the box with Multiple TEs and multiple guys lined up in the backfield and 3 WRs near the line, is never going to work. There will always be a ceiling to that, and it lends itself to upsets.

Outside of some garbage time TDs against UNC, we have struggled to score 20 points the last 4 games. It’s crazy to me that people don’t see some of that is due to the bro ball we are running.

If we were going a spaced out 4 wide with tempo, does anybody think TVD would look *this* bad? That the offense would be struggling to score *this* much against bad defenses?
I’ll be even more straightforward: it’s completely alarming that the owner of his website thinks in this manner, because the sheep on here will just regurgitate that info. Others more knowledgeable than me pointed that out as well.

First, we are completely ignoring UGA has surrounded their team with five stars everywhere.

Kirby Smart’s recruiting classes

2017: 20 blue chips out of 25 kids
2018: 22 blue chips out of 26 kids
2019: 21 blue chips out of 24 kids
2020: 19 blue chips out of 25 kids
2021: 16 blue ships out of 20 kids
2022: 25 blue chips out of 33 kids
2023: 22 blue chips out of 26 kids
2024: 22 blue chips out of 27 kids

Mario Cristobal (I’ll ignore 2022)

2023: 16 blue chips out of 24 kids
2024: 10 blue chips out of 24 kids????

Kirby has multiple 5 stars at QB, we have Emory Williams and Judd. Kirby has multiple 5 stars in the secondary, we have slow 3-stars and 1 Damari Brown. Kirby has multiple five stars at LB, we have a twice-injured Isaiah Thomas. Kirby has multiple 5-star DL, we have Daylen Russell.

And while DMoney says this blueprint works for a national title contender, it works because they (UGA) recruit in the top 3 every year, not the top 12.

TCU in 2023, FSU, Oregon, Texas, OU, USC, UNC, Ole Miss, Tennessee, even Alabama all have or can present physical rushing attacks sure, but they’re diverse. We run the ball up the middle 30 times and expect to wilt down our opponents. They’re running the ball in a variety of ways to try and score each time, and even if that doesn’t happen, it’s to set up a vertical passing attack.

Oh, and UGA happens to feature one of the greatest TE’s we’ve seen in college football recently. Guess they don’t have to always block.

I don’t think I’ve quite seen goal-post moving for an incredulous amount of whiffs in this class as I’ve ever seen on this site. It really must be eval season, because I’m sure the data says that works. We’ve gone from April (wait til June), to June (wait til July), to July (beat our chests for 3 commits and say watch the finish), to August whiffs (wait for the season to start and all our current commits will get massive bumps once the stupid 247 guys come to their senses with how good our players are) to now (just keep winning and watch the finish).

Some of the goal-post moving is done by fake insiders wanting to re-affirm their “credentials”, but that’s a whole different discussion.

Also, SHANAHAN AND MCDANIEL??? Have you lost your mind??? You think Mario’s offense compares to the motion they use? The intricate play designs? George Kittle as a weapon, while McDaniel makes guys like Durham Smythe look good???

I thought you were better than that.
 
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I’m not convinced we can build that OL.
They just did it. We have a Top 5 OL, currently. And they built top OLs consistently at Oregon. The track record at OL is extensive and it has already translated to Miami. That includes recruiting and Portal additions.

You say that Oregon is "wide open" compared to our Dawson spread attack. What makes it wide open compared to ours? Have you done any analysis?

I'll admit I haven't. I'm focused on Miami. But since your post focuses on TEs on the field, here's Oregon's past three games compared to Miami's past three games with TVD:

Oregon- 208 plays, 307 tight end snaps
Miami- 220 plays, 205 tight end snaps
 
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