In person game observations

[Brains]

Cooper isn’t having a great year. He’s having a solid year and is one of my favorite Canes, but not the year I was expecting from him where I thought he’d sure-fire be drafted early for a G.

I could see him staying unless he plays like a monster in the back half of the season here.

In the grand scheme of the Samson discourse, I’m just really bummed about his injury. Don’t know what the future holds, but that undoubtedly set him back more than I think people thought it would given the level of competition around him here.

Whatever, though. Just give me the best 5 for the Hurricanes.

Cooper has been playing hurt almost all year.

 

[skyman]

Well, if Samson doesn't work out that's a hefty NIL we can now redirect towards more corners & safeties.

We need a whole depth chart basically.

 

[Cookie917]

Cooper isn’t having a great year. He’s having a solid year and is one of my favorite Canes, but not the year I was expecting from him where I thought he’d sure-fire be drafted early for a G.

I could see him staying unless he plays like a monster in the back half of the season here.

In the grand scheme of the Samson discourse, I’m just really bummed about his injury. Don’t know what the future holds, but that undoubtedly set him back more than I think people thought it would given the level of competition around him here.

Whatever, though. Just give me the best 5 for the Hurricanes.

This was based on my own opinion and I do not know Coop but it looked like as TF he was just a nasty mauler and had a good TF year, then his Soph year it seemed like he got some coin (deserved) , re-shaped his body (needed to) and had a bit too much sunshine, idk like he was feeling himself a bit. He didnt regress but I guess didnt make the leap I expected. This year I thought he started much stronger and IDK if its either he maybe has peaked and he is who he is but I think 2 or 3 games this year I have seen him hobble off. 2 for sure (lville and Ball State) so I wonder if he is just dealing with injuries.

With Samson injury def set him back. Maybe he is a true late bloomer but I hope he turns it on and stays. My starting 5 was also who is on the roster now. Obviously portal can change things and if we keep up winning like this I imagine we may have a portal gift or 2 fall in our lap, especially with the OL.

 

[Damiencane86]

We need a whole depth chart basically.

We needed a whole new OL, DL, LB room since Mario got here and he's gotten it done so the secondary is just the last piece. I think eventually it gets done even if it takes a bit longer than we would've liked.

 

[skyman]

We needed a whole new OL, DL, LB room since Mario got here and he's gotten it done so the secondary is just the last piece. I think eventually it gets done even if it takes a bit longer than we would've liked.

But you need balance and to me DB is like OL DL (well like any position but yea) in passing era you need talented experienced guys to hold you down, we cant depend on 2025 freshman (like even if you land pickett kid looks very frail with his height, he need a college weight room and judging by Markeith, cyrus moss, chris johnson, robert stafford our program not really strong for hard gainers)

We gonna need to BAG UP with REAL DEAL portal DBs. Marshall, vandy rejects not working too well for championship run.

 

[DubCaliCane]

Cooper has been playing hurt almost all year.

Do you have any insight into Kiko’s health? He looks horrendous out there.

I watched Louisville and then rewatched 2023 tape on him from last night and he looks like a completely different human being.

I’m at the point where I assume he absolutely MUST be playing through a serious injury.

 

[jsy]

Can we start this also at DB or we need a DB centric HC?

if you notice the positions where we have stacked talent
bad evals dont really matter
so far we have it for oline and DE
we lost THREE top 100 prospects in Kelly, Wayne, Moss
but it was bye felicia
thats why stacking is so important its essentially like hedging in the market
i would even say RB
WR is getting close
were starting to stack LB too
but DT and DB is very concerning esp if we cant stack 1 or two high level recruits onto last years team

i make myself feel better by playing mental copium gymnastics and saying that A Jones is going to count for this year hahahaha

 

[Brains]

Do you have any insight into Kiko’s health? He looks horrendous out there.

I watched Louisville and then rewatched 2023 tape on him from last night and he looks like a completely different human being.

I’m at the point where I assume he absolutely MUST be playing through a serious injury.

I know nothing in that regard.

 

[ddann]

same play

I'd love to see a come back screen option or crosser there, sets up perfectly,

Either that, or just keep hitting George in the back of the end zone.

 

[CapitalCane]

Great stuff man!

Louisville fans are absolutely classless. I know sometimes the few idiots make the larger group look bad but that’s not them. It’s a trash university

Some of them went out of their way to be welcoming.An equal or greater amount of them went out of their way to be huge gaping a**holes.

I underestimated the amount of pieces of sh*t I encountered. I was in 215 and the 2nd half was chippy.

In the end, fck em and I am glad that my day was solid and their Teddy Bridgewater / ACC Unity / Blackout / homecoming wasn’t as good.

On to the next.

 

[Cookie917]

Also regarding Coop, did anyone else see on the 3rd and 1 (maybe 2) call where I felt like he tried to do the Cam Ward call out against USF? Ill see if I can find it if a full replay comes on youtube but it was the play where it was 3rd and short and we were driving from right to left. We got stuffed and then picked it up on 4th and short both were runs by Fletcher. On the 3rd and 1 call it was legit the same USF play, where we run right behind Cooper for the TD where Cam was heard on audio saying we are running it right here (pointing between Coop and Carpenter on the right side)

Well it seemed like Coop got ahead of himself, did that same ish then got stuffed. Thank god they got it on 4th down but that is kinda what I meant when I said it felt like Coop got out over his skiis once he got a taste of real success.

 

[edge]

Borregales did blast one in the end zone when he needed to. I think our coaches as usual got cute, and wanted to Louisville to start their drives inside their 25.

I thought the same thing. But he did not kick into the end zone the next kick after the return TD. That tells me his leg as off that day.

 

[edge]

Lo

I know this will sound strange, but there was a wind blowing into the CLOSED end zone. It was blowing from the closed side to the (somewhat) open side. Definitely more touchbacks kicking to the "less populated" end zone.

Louisville kicker had no problem kicking into endzone on both sides.

 

[edge]

as to the kickoffs being short, it only happened going from right to left (on the TV) for both teams IIRC so it must have been the wind

There was no wind. We were on the visitors side end zone line. The flags on top of the poles were not moving at all. On that side the Ville kicker basically kicked it out of the endzone. Borregales could barely get it to the end zone line. The kick return TD was to the opposite end zone. But again, I looked up and did not see the flags moving.

 

[TheOriginalCane]

There was no wind. We were on the visitors side end zone line. The flags on top of the poles were not moving at all. On that side the Ville kicker basically kicked it out of the endzone. Borregales could barely get it to the end zone line. The kick return TD was to the opposite end zone. But again, I looked up and did not see the flags moving.

**** the flags. I was there, the wind was blowing. I'm not saying it was hurricane force, but it was happening.

 

[Hegemon]

I'm never going to worry about our OL with Mario here.

 

[JayCane20]

1. We had the perfect vantage point for the TD to George. It was just like wow, wow. How did he see him and how did he make that throw while drifting left. That was a Heisman moment.

2. I have no clue what was going on with Borregales kickoffs. There was no wind to speak of. Yet he could not get his normal distance. And the TD was not only short but no hang time. A disaster in the making and that’s what happened. This was truly the biggest head scratcher of the day.

3. What I loved about Cam this game is he really learned from the last two games as far as protecting the ball. On a couple of those sacks you could tell he really wanted to get crazy with it but he thought better of it and went down. He also hit his check downs when he needed to. He was very smart with the ball.

4. The TD by Martinez ripped the heart out of Ville and their fans. They all quickly exited after that. There was no one in stands for the Cardinals last TD. I thought that was interesting. There is always a chance in college football.

5. Cardinals fans were totally classless. Instead of the throwing up the L it was always throwing down the U. We let them know as they exited. Then fans started throwing stuff from top deck. I got hit in back of head by a nickel. I turned around and saw bottles and all kinds of crap being thrown. No place for that. Complete trash man.

6. Someone talked about Samson not being very engaged on sidelines. I can tell you he was first to the tunnel. We yelled his name and he did not even look up. No emotion at all. It was the same thing for the walk to the buses. First guy out and no expression. Maybe that’s his personality. But he sure looks unhappy and like a guy that doesn’t want to be here.

7. Met Armondo Blount. Nice kid. From my perspective he is a DE all the way. Can’t see him ballooning into a DT.

We had bottles of water and beer thrown at us from the stairs as fans filed out after the Martinez TD.

Dude sat in the section above us all game and talked but didn’t do anything until he was too far away and started throwing stuff from the stairwell leaving the club section.

Their fans went from decent to bytch mode in about 2 minutes. It was pretty funny to watch.

 

[AUcane]

With Bell coming in and taking quality snaps, I figured it wouldn't end well with Samson. But, truthfully, he's had every opportunity to start at LT or LG.

Spring is make or break for him at his NIL deal. Bell has that LT spot all but locked up for the spring imo. Francis is our RT next year and Samson doesn't strike me as a guard (besides, he's not supplanting McCoy or Coop next spring). Realistically, he's the 6th/7th OL next spring (after Bell, Mccoy, RRod, Coop, FM, ??) as a 3rd year sophmore. Is that enough to keep him here? I hope so because he has a lot to work with and he can be a 2 year starter here at tackle eventually.

 

[ageezy]

i said in the spring that samson was on portal alert ... its up to him, he can grind it out and earn his way or bounce ... but it's obvious the competition he played up north led to inflated ratings/rankings ...

 

[jsy]

i said in the spring i that samson was on portal alert ... its up to him, he can grind it out and earn his way or bounce ... but it's obvious the competition he played up north led to inflated ratings/rankings ...

yea nothing wrong with it
not every 5 star will play up to their ranking
ppl always get in their feelings over the term jag
nothing wrong with being a jag
90% of players are Jags
jag just means avg aka mid at best