Diaz breaks down depth chart decisions ahead of opener

[Canesince85ND587]

View attachment 129419

That polar bear had 4.2 40 speed

 

[SinisterCane]

Wow Ivey is still starting

 

[Rellyrell]

Maybe he had a come to Jesus moment and realized this wouldve been the same outcome no matter what school he went to

I can see blood coming out w/ a reality show about the journey of just wanting to throw a football. Lol

But on the real; it would behoove him to move to like a Rex Burkhead role. He’s semi athletic, and pretty strong for his stature. Could carve out something becoming a H-Back

 

[RVACane]

I can see blood coming out w/ a reality show about the journey of just wanting to throw a football. Lol

But on the real; it would behoove him to move to like a Rex Burkhead role. He’s semi athletic, and pretty strong for his stature. Could carve out something becoming a H-Back

I thought the only shot potentially would have been at slot WR. Aren’t H-Backs usually bigger?

 

[Rellyrell]

I thought the only shot potentially would have been at slot WR. Aren’t H-Backs usually bigger?

My apologies; I meant halfback.

 

[Mandingo]

Ordinarily I would agree with you, but in this case we have quite a few starters who are practically equal to their backup, I believe you give the starters the bulk of the snaps when they are head & shoulders ahead of the other guys but in this situation that's not really the case, particularly at LB & Striker

Also, you have to factor in that in today's era of ball kids transfer at the blink of an eye, and because eligibility gets granted so easily there's really no incentive to sit on the bench anymore if you can just transfer to another school & be granted eligibility in a month or two.

I get what you're saying & I agree with it to a certain extent, but for us especially this season we actually have some good depth on Defense which means we can be more versatile & throw different sub-packages out there to give offenses different looks. You don't wanna get too crazy with subbing if there's a drop off in play which is what Diaz would do in the past, but this season I don't really see a big drop off at too many spots on the Defense, most of the 2nd team guys are good enough to be rotational starters on this Defense.

At LB particularly, I have no issue with heavy subbing, Sam Brooks is a starting caliber LB & our fastest LB, if he were an upperclassmen with experience he would be starting but Diaz always defers to veteran players first. But we have a versatile group of Backers, what Jennings lacks in raw sideline to sideline speed Brooks makes up for it, but what Brooks lacks in experience Jennings makes up for it being a 4th year Red Junior. Same with Huff & McCloud/Steed, so at LB I got no issue with frequent subbing.

At DT too, with guys like Jordan Miller, Jared Harrison-Hunte, Jason Blissett & Jalar Holley there's no reason to give all those snaps to Ford & Silvera only, we got a bunch of capable bodies behind them, better get them boys plenty reps or we'll be complaining about depth if they hit the Portal due to lack of playing time. Same thing with DE's as well.

I don't agree with over subbing at Safety, I think you should find your 2 guys & have a 3rd designated Nickel S for specific packages but I agree with not going crazy with the heavy subbing there.

At CB, normally I'm against subbing at all if you have 2 good corners & a solid nickel, in this case I don't mind some subbing at Boundary & Nickel because outside of Al Jr we really don't have any proven Corners who can consistently cover & I wanna see what we got with Couch & C Williams.

This is a different year. So I understand reps have to be given out. But the best defense Manny produced from top to bottom was in 2018 - when they rarely subbed players.

I also find it interesting that people find fault in our CB play but gloss over our Safety and Striker play. I had to go back and watch a few games to confirm. But other than the UNC game, I can’t recall where our CBs left guys wide open for scores while on defense. I could be wrong.

Our LBs/Striker/Safeties did that quite a bit. Especially after sudden change. UL, VT, FIU.. even the UF game (if memory serves me) UF picked on Shaq most of one drive, and eventually the QB ran it in. Then another was a dump to the RB for a score, and then the blown tackling on 4. UF had a seasoned WR Corp and didn’t do much against our CBs. There was the one bomb where Hall wasn’t on the hash and didn’t support over the top - and I think he still didn’t make the tackle(?). An easy read where he was out of position.

Our CBs shut down FSU’s guys. But that was a complete game by the defense. Everyone played well.

We scored at will against UL, so people don’t care about who was terrible on defense. But that game was an absolute clinic on bad Safety and Striker play. All three Safeties were bad. And I’m almost certain all their scores came from missed LB/Safety/Striker play. The Long TD run up the gut was Pop Warner football bad Safety play.

 

[Tru C]

Maybe put Tate on special teams. Kickoff team like like Jimmy Murphy and or fg team as the placeholder where maybe he’s always a threat for a fake fg.

 

[CaneThang2020]

For the first time in a long time we have some good depth on both sides of the ball.

And with how often Diaz likes rotating players in, having solid depth is a recipe for success.

The backend is strong at Safety & Striker has good versatility, LB group is about 7 deep & the DL is extremely deep.

To me CB is still a question mark & will come down to how often will Couch & Christian Williams play, we gotta start getting those guys more reps.

Bingo on your CB take LCE...because if history shows us anything, we may need to HEAVILY depend on Couch & Williams as our #1/#2 CBs next year due to the high probability of DJ and/or AL declaring early for the draft. I think we might could keep AL w/both Ed Reed & Rumph in his ear, but I think DJ goes regardless. I think if DJ and AL stay for the 21 season they both can catapult to 1st or 2nd rounders. Combination of length and experience/skill is exactly what NFL scouts are looking for.

 

[CaneThang2020]

Bandy will make a practice squad. I really hope its the fins.

Pretty sure Bandy is on the Steelers practice squad

 

[Scorpioncane]

Wow Ivey is still starting

Come on sinister, first year starting and that didnt Happen first game! I believe bandy and blades started vs uif. And, he led da team in ints! He at least gets this year to prove us/you wrong.

 

[Miami Nights]

Ordinarily I would agree with you, but in this case we have quite a few starters who are practically equal to their backup, I believe you give the starters the bulk of the snaps when they are head & shoulders ahead of the other guys but in this situation that's not really the case, particularly at LB & Striker

Also, you have to factor in that in today's era of ball kids transfer at the blink of an eye, and because eligibility gets granted so easily there's really no incentive to sit on the bench anymore if you can just transfer to another school & be granted eligibility in a month or two.

I get what you're saying & I agree with it to a certain extent, but for us especially this season we actually have some good depth on Defense which means we can be more versatile & throw different sub-packages out there to give offenses different looks. You don't wanna get too crazy with subbing if there's a drop off in play which is what Diaz would do in the past, but this season I don't really see a big drop off at too many spots on the Defense, most of the 2nd team guys are good enough to be rotational starters on this Defense.

At LB particularly, I have no issue with heavy subbing, Sam Brooks is a starting caliber LB & our fastest LB, if he were an upperclassmen with experience he would be starting but Diaz always defers to veteran players first. But we have a versatile group of Backers, what Jennings lacks in raw sideline to sideline speed Brooks makes up for it, but what Brooks lacks in experience Jennings makes up for it being a 4th year Red Junior. Same with Huff & McCloud/Steed, so at LB I got no issue with frequent subbing.

At DT too, with guys like Jordan Miller, Jared Harrison-Hunte, Jason Blissett & Jalar Holley there's no reason to give all those snaps to Ford & Silvera only, we got a bunch of capable bodies behind them, better get them boys plenty reps or we'll be complaining about depth if they hit the Portal due to lack of playing time. Same thing with DE's as well.

I don't agree with over subbing at Safety, I think you should find your 2 guys & have a 3rd designated Nickel S for specific packages but I agree with not going crazy with the heavy subbing there.

At CB, normally I'm against subbing at all if you have 2 good corners & a solid nickel, in this case I don't mind some subbing at Boundary & Nickel because outside of Al Jr we really don't have any proven Corners who can consistently cover & I wanna see what we got with Couch & C Williams.

I can agree with substituting a guy here and there with the starters but not mass subbing. I do like those young DT's especially miller. Agree with most you said but my biggest thing is mass subbing for a series IE having second and third teams all in at once. Just silly to me. If you have some guys that are close that's fine ...rotate them in with the starters...... like let ford stay in and rest nesta for miller etc. etc.

 

[ghost2]

Safety especially I want to see Hall, Bolden, and Carter pretty much exclusively all year, barring injury. This is such a safety-reliant defense those guys need to get into a groove.

 

[Odin]

Wow Ivey is still starting

Had a much,much better fall camp than Blades,let's see if it translates to actual games.

 

[grover]

Safety especially I want to see Hall, Bolden, and Carter pretty much exclusively all year, barring injury. This is such a safety-reliant defense those guys need to get into a groove.

Hopefully the offense will put a lot of games out of reach, and we can actually sub in more people without too much risk.

We can’t go into 2021 with only Hall and Bolden having game experience. Plus one of those guys might bolt early to the league if they have a good year.

I feel the same with a lot of positions actually. We need to start getting 3 scores up on teams, at least the crappy ones like UAB and Georgia Tech, so our second and third team era get more experience.

 

[dirtyred786]

This is a different year. So I understand reps have to be given out. But the best defense Manny produced from top to bottom was in 2018 - when they rarely subbed players.

I also find it interesting that people find fault in our CB play but gloss over our Safety and Striker play. I had to go back and watch a few games to confirm. But other than the UNC game, I can’t recall where our CBs left guys wide open for scores while on defense. I could be wrong.

Our LBs/Striker/Safeties did that quite a bit. Especially after sudden change. UL, VT, FIU.. even the UF game (if memory serves me) UF picked on Shaq most of one drive, and eventually the QB ran it in. Then another was a dump to the RB for a score, and then the blown tackling on 4. UF had a seasoned WR Corp and didn’t do much against our CBs. There was the one bomb where Hall wasn’t on the hash and didn’t support over the top - and I think he still didn’t make the tackle(?). An easy read where he was out of position.

Our CBs shut down FSU’s guys. But that was a complete game by the defense. Everyone played well.

We scored at will against UL, so people don’t care about who was terrible on defense. But that game was an absolute clinic on bad Safety and Striker play. All three Safeties were bad. And I’m almost certain all their scores came from missed LB/Safety/Striker play. The Long TD run up the gut was Pop Warner football bad Safety play.

Our corner play has never really been much of a problem. Its just some posters here hate Rumph so much that they convince themselves our corners suck

 

[NorthEastCane]

I can agree with substituting a guy here and there with the starters but not mass subbing. I do like those young DT's especially miller. Agree with most you said but my biggest thing is mass subbing for a series IE having second and third teams all in at once. Just silly to me. If you have some guys that are close that's fine ...rotate them in with the starters...... like let ford stay in and rest nesta for miller etc. etc.

Millers not too young anymore. He came in the same time as Nesta but took a red shirt. He's done good when he's played. I expect him to be the first off the bench, but he has to get his conditioning up.