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Braxton Berrios named Pre-season All-ACC PR

You know our special teams (and overall team athleticism) have fallen off when we think Braxton Berrios is a good punt returner.

We used to have guys every season that could house it. Moss, Hester, Parrish, Benjamin, etc. Now we're cool with just having guys that will secure the catch and occasionally get a few yards. SMH
 
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Coach Macho said:
You know our special teams (and overall team athleticism) have fallen off when we think Braxton Berrios is a good punt returner.

We used to have guys every season that could house it. Moss, Hester, Parrish, Benjamin, etc. Now we're cool with just having guys that will secure the catch and occasionally get a few yards. SMH
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This. Any of those guys score on that PR against FSU to win the game. ****, Berrios doesn't even stay at WR in any of our elite teams. Berrios is the goat fair catcher though.
 
LOL - Travis Benjamin

Berries is about the same or slightly better stats.

Who would you have had last year returning punts?
 
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
LOL - Travis Benjamin

Berries is about the same or slightly better stats.

Who would you have had last year returning punts?
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Don't bother. Securing the **** football and having a good yds/return isn't going to play with people here. They'd rather a guy who averages -3yds/return, but houses 3 next year.

Seriously, I want a guy who's a threat too, but nobody seems able to appreciate the value of reliably helping our field position while not turning the ball over.
 
kryptonite said:
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
LOL - Travis Benjamin

Berries is about the same or slightly better stats.

Who would you have had last year returning punts?
Click to expand...

Don't bother. Securing the **** football and having a good yds/return isn't going to play with people here. They'd rather a guy who averages -3yds/return, but houses 3 next year.

Seriously, I want a guy who's a threat too, but nobody seems able to appreciate the value of reliably helping our field position while not turning the ball over.
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At least a better example can be used. Of course, Hester is the best returner of all time in the history of football, pro or college. Moss was elite, and Parrish was very good. Throw in Kevin Williams if you want a better example than Benji.

Benji averaged fewer yds per punt, and only returned 1 for a TD in 4 years. Same as Berries in 3 years.

I'm not saying he's elite, but who should have been back there instead of him last year?
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
kryptonite said:
OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
LOL - Travis Benjamin

Berries is about the same or slightly better stats.

Who would you have had last year returning punts?
Click to expand...

Don't bother. Securing the **** football and having a good yds/return isn't going to play with people here. They'd rather a guy who averages -3yds/return, but houses 3 next year.

Seriously, I want a guy who's a threat too, but nobody seems able to appreciate the value of reliably helping our field position while not turning the ball over.
Click to expand...

At least a better example can be used. Of course, Hester is the best returner of all time in the history of football, pro or college. Moss was elite, and Parrish was very good. Throw in Kevin Williams if you want a better example than Benji.

Benji averaged fewer yds per punt, and only returned 1 for a TD in 4 years. Same as Berries in 3 years.

I'm not saying he's elite, but who should have been back there instead of him last year?
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So to sum up, people don't have a very accurate perception of Berries or our past returners.
 
He rarely muffs the ball, rarely fumbles, and always bounces back up after taking big hits.

Reliability, dependability, durability is enough for me to say it is his job to lose. That and his seniority. We have seen players come in time and time again in their Final year and really ball.
 
We should use the same philosophy when recruiting WRs. Just sign guys who catch the ball and fall down. Fck playmaking.
 
Why the **** do some people assume every elite athlete who can house kicks will fumble every other time?

And only the slow white kids can catch the ball and not fumble?



Other than Sean Taylor muffing the punt against Tenn in 2003 (maybe someone did against VT that year too), I don't remember any of our guys back then having any issues handling punts.

So once again, we are the University of Miami. We are aggressive and put pressure on our opponents. For better or for worse, that's just who we are.
 
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Berrios' fair catches are a work of art. He looks so graceful doing it. What is there not the like about seeing the GOAT fair catcher perform at the highest level?

We all got to see Jordan Play. We were lucky enough to watch Bolt run in the Olympics. Some of us were lucky to watch Ali fight. But ALL of us have the privilege of watching "Berrios the great" fair catch. I, for one, am happy I am able to witness it.
 
idk man.. Berrios lost me after he got tripped up by a punter vs FSU when he could of went either direction and score or just out run the punter to the outside.

I also don't want a PR who runs backwards all the **** time trying to force a big plays.
 
This is a new year, so let's see what happens.

Still haven't heard one suggestion about who should have been back there last year. But that's ok, let's bītch some more.
 
[video=youtube_share;DGcwppz5snY]https://youtu.be/DGcwppz5snY[/video]
[video=youtube_share;-1P374GN5hk]https://youtu.be/-1P374GN5hk[/video]

.
 
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OriginalCanesCanesCanes said:
This is a new year, so let's see what happens.

Still haven't heard one suggestion about who should have been back there last year. But that's ok, let's bītch some more.
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Maybe Berrios was the best of a poor bunch in 2016 but speed at the WR position has been vastly improved. One of Richt's first comments after seeing the team was how little speed they had. We've got Thomas, Harley, Dallas and Mullins who can compete for returner spots. Let's not be satisfied with being OK.
 
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With few exceptions normally don't put your #1 receiver back there and they weren't going to risk Corn with our CB situation.. 11th rank nationally means it wasn't a bad choice. I'm still not getting the constant bītching about this.
 
I actually agree with what Vern was saying earlier in the thread...

In terms of field position, if we're in our own 20 it makes perfect sense to have a sure thing in Berrios back there.

But, on possessions where we're getting the ball in good field position & could have the chance to score, it doesn't make sense to not allow a faster more dynamic athlete a chance to take it to the house.

The fact is, we're debilitating that aspect of our game if opponents know for a fact that there's no chance whatsoever that we're not going to at least present the threat of scoring or putting ourselves in great field position with a big time return.

Berrios only scored against FAMU & that's it, it made perfect sense to have him back there last year because we couldn't risk injury to guys like Coley, Elder or even Ahmmon & Berrios did a good job never fumbling once.

But now with an infusion of speed, it would be almost criminal to not let Thomas, Harley, Deejay or even Mullins at least get a shot to see if they can consistently provide more explosiveness in the return game.

I think it's being overstated as if it's impossible for another guy to field punts without fumbling, we know exactly what we have with Berrios & it's solid insurance in case the younger guys actually do struggle with it.

But with that said, I posted those two videos to show what having the threat of a legit return man can do for a team, it can literally be the difference between winning & losing games.

We're starting a new QB, we need to be able to use every aspect of the game in order to help us win, there's no reason we should completely neutralize the Special Teams phase of our game simply out of fear.
 
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If anything, we need to press for more special teams big plays. With our quarterback situation the way it is, housing a punt can be the difference between winning and losing a big game. Unless you want to assume a true freshman or a journeyman is going to consistently lead the offense down the entire length of the field when BB fair catches a punt on his own 30.
 
Also think of it from this perspective...

We're playing against an ACC team & for whatever reason the Offense is stagnant. Maybe the QB is out of rhythm, or the run game just hasn't gotten going yet...

Our Defense is doing what they do & getting stops, they Punt the ball to us & we actually score or even have a big return that gives us a short field.

That single Return can be a huge momentum shifter in the game, that can either put points on the board or give the Offense the spark it needs to get going.
 
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