gogeta4
All-ACC
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- Nov 8, 2011
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He had a baby in between that as well at a young age
forums
DE Romello Height visiting this weekend
- Thread starter DMoney
- Start date
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BoxingRobes
Junior
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- Aug 24, 2013
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- 11,259
Best breakdown of our need at this position.
Two of - what you'd consider - your top 4 EDGE players might be 50/50 props at best to play the full year and maybe you get a full season out of both combined clears it up quite a bit.
Just doing this on the back of a ****tail napkin...
Bain /
Alston /
Am I missing someone?
This gets real light real quick and the reliance on the young guys will be noticeable unless one of these young gives you a flirting-with-all-conference level performance.
Even looking it over, I hope Wayne is ready to go. He seems like he'd be in line to play a lot this year.
Da Jumbo Mutombo
Senior
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- Jun 15, 2020
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Rank our team positions from best to worst. Consider talent and depth.
I'm willing to bet DE is top 4 and that is the reason ppl don't want a depth piece (who hasn't really produced) at DE. Because other positions need the help much more. Sure, we don't have 8 NFL ready DEs to roll out every week, but its not thin at all.
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Okay now apply this logic of just 100% removing two starter-level players from the rest of the position groups lol.
Sounds like we REALLY need RB, WR, TE, DT, LB, CB, S…maybe only OLine wouldn’t be a MAJOR concern? lol
CanesFan20
Redshirt Freshman
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- Oct 29, 2017
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Pass rushers are important, you need as many quality ones that you can get. Height can come in and give you 20-25 snaps a game just rushing the passer and give our top guys a breather.
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- Nov 30, 2014
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- 10,818
Ranked with consideration to injury unknowns: OT, LB, QB, OG, WR, TE, DT, DE, RB, CB, S
Ranked without considering injury unknowns: OT, DE, LB, QB, OG, WR, RB, TE, DT, CB, S
DE is a top 2 position group on the team if you tell me Mesidor is full-go and there's no concern or elevated risk that he reaggravates his foot for the 3rd time since he's been here or that he's not limited. Maybe even THE strength of the team if that was the case. Also, you'd have to tell me Kelly is full-go and ready to build off of his freshman year and not look like the bogged down version of himself before he was injured last season. As some have pointed out he had a baby and was coming off some clean-up procedures in last off season. That will obviously take its toll and make it look like you regressed.
If the above is true, **** Romello Height. Don't need him. If even 1 of those is not the case... you need him... or someone else in the portal. He's just currently the best option because it hasn't fully opened yet.
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QB > OL > EDGE > WR > LB > CB > DT > RB > S > TE.
- listed OL as a whole cause players are interchangeable if necessary, like if Carpenter went down I'd feel confident with Rivers or Rodriguez. If Rivers went down I'd feel pretty comfortable with okunlola/Kinsler, etc. Guard in general I'm pretty confident we'll at least get solid play from whoever is necessary. I think we are a legit 7+ deep on the OLine.
- I listed RB near last, but expect to get a transer no matter what, so once this happens I'd move it up closer to the top most likely. However it is also the position I'd feel most confident in relying on a completely unproven player for. Like even If we HAD to get contribution from Chris Johnson and Lyle, and Fletcher didn't return till 2nd half of season, Citizen never got healthy... I still think we're probably fine tbh.
- TE I have long viewed as a major concern. People want to talk about injury risk, well Arroyo is clearly one. After him we have Riley Williams. Tough to rely on a true frosh TE in Lofton - even if very talented. We literally saw how that played out with Riley Williams who was a top rated guy last year. Carver is a long-term development TE. I think old man Cam is worthless and would be addition by subtraction.
- I'm basically including Powell as a CB here, cause I expect him to basically just be our starting nickel and rarely actually play safety. So I feel confident with Porter jr, Powell, Damari, and Richard as our top 4 CBs basically. However this makes Safety a bigger concern. But Long term I view CB as by far our worst position group.
- LB I think you have way too high. Really theres no reason to have it that much above WR. At LB we have Mauigoa who is proven. After that we are expecting a big step from Bissainthe, but he wasn't anything special last year. In fact he looked lost to me most of the time. And the rest is 100% unproven. Not sure how this is much different than what we're looking at with WR... Who we know we have 2 proven guys with. And just like we have talented young LBs, same is true at WR. I'd actually say relatively we have more talented young wrs than Lbs. ... though I guess the argument for LB is just that we only really need 2 mostly...
- DT I think we are going to be looking good next year, but I won't count on any freshman this year. I think we have 3 solid DTs, but nothing great. And I'd worry about Run Defense out of our DTs - which I'd say is probably one of my biggest concerns about this defense. Possibly the biggest tbh.
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canadianhurricane
Sophomore
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- Nov 4, 2011
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- 3,062
We brought in 4 DEs last cycle (McConathy, Lightfoot, Booker and Rudolph).We also brought in 1 portal Edge
We also have an all American returning at the same position
Unless someone, who we were depending on, in that room is on their way out I don't know why we would let any of the young pups (you can add Wayne and Bryant to the names above) get some much needed WORK
We also have an all American returning at the same position
Unless someone, who we were depending on, in that room is on their way out I don't know why we would let any of the young pups (you can add Wayne and Bryant to the names above) get some much needed WORK
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D_G87
Sophomore
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lol sounds good, but do YOU expect some “ experienced” DE depth to depart in spring portal?
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It’s possible. Nothing set in stone right now. A lot goes into this stuff- injuries, money relative to performance, disciplinary matters.
I wouldn’t worry about spots. The budget is a real thing, but people don’t know the numbers so it’s hard to analyze properly with the information you guys have.
The main message I want to get across is that they are doing everything they can to win the ACC next year. Height is already in the Portal so they are working on him now. There will be much more action in the weeks to follow at multiple spots.
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And if ANY of those 4 get meaningful snaps this year, we still are not "there" yet. (forget about being "back"...we not even at the "there" stage if we still depending on true freshmen in the 2 deep unless they are a "Bain" level player and we found out that is lightening in a bottle)
We have to get out of the mindset as fans that we need to depend on TF in our 2 deep especially at a key position like DE. A famous coach once said, "You will most likely have 1 loss for every true freshman you have in your starting lineup or getting starters minutes"....That coach wasnt far off...we had 6 losses last year..we had 6 true freshmen either starting or getting starters minutes. (Bain, Mauigua, Fletcher, Riley Williams, Damari Brown, Emory Williams)
If Mario is telling folks he is going for the ACC title..then this move makes sense. Those 4 true freshman DE should only be seeing time when we play FAMU and Ball State if our DE depth is at a ACC Championship level.
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I don’t even care about Height. I’m not understanding the need for him. I’d feel better with a high level or even moderately high level CB
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canadianhurricane
Sophomore
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- Nov 4, 2011
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I could understand your argument if we didn't already have talent and depth at that position.
Edge/DE is arguably the most stacked position we have. Our starters (Mesidor and Bain), if healthy, could easily be All-ACC caliber players. Behind them (Kelly and Wayne), were highly recruited and need actual game experience. Alston, our Portal Edge, is set to be our pass rush specialist. That's 5 highly athletic/productive players
Mailk Bryant is someone I've loved to see actually get on the field as well. With him, that's 6.
So, where does Height did in this room? To me, Height is a someone who, much luck Kelly and Wayne, has the measurables to be productive but has yet to make any meaningful impact. I don't see the benefit of portalling in someone who will, most likely, will just be a depth piece, when you've recruited similar athletes at the same position, who will need actual game experience eventually.
ST26
All-American
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- Sep 26, 2017
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- 1,300
I think the “if healthy” is what scares the coaches. Kelly, Mesidor, and Bain have all been dealing with injuries recently. If the staff feels that Height can make an impact, then we can’t complain
Da Jumbo Mutombo
Senior
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Hasn't height dealt with a great amount of injuries also?
Seems ironic. Worried about injury, go get an injury prone non productive depth piece.
We dont have to defend every single move. We can be objective. Mario is an elite recruiter. Relentless worker. Many other positives.
But he brings in some players through the portal that are useless and questionable at best.
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Could not agree more, especially the bolded.
Height missed most of the 2022 season, was nicked up in the fall in ‘23, and only had one sack in his last seven games. In fact, he had half his sacks on the year against Arizona State (dog ***** team) and another the following game against one of the worst O-Lines in the country in Colorado. He did very little the remaining seven games following that two-game stretch to start conference play. Nine tackles in seven games to finish up the year.
I think he was banged up at Auburn as well, but I’m not 1000% sure.
Anyways, I think there will be much better options in the Spring to pursue from an edge perspective. This potential move screams cost-effective. But hey, I’m just a fan on a message board. If Mario sees something, then I guess we’ll see what happens.
But as you mentioned, aside from Cam Ward and Kiko (who came here because of his brother)…his portal acquisitions have been downright atrocious compared to expectations, and severely lacking instant-impact guys. Hopefully this crop of Alston, Clark + some of the holdover secondary guys, etc. can erase that stigmatism.
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