**** I even forgot about ANOTHER JUCO we went after. Bond. Thats FIVE guys we went after in the off season to try to build up this defense. Think of how BAD the depth and/or talent must be, that we went after FIVE transfers and JUCOs just for the DEFENSE. I cant remember us EVER going after that many JUCOs or transfers in one year on just one side of the ball.
We recruited JUCO players, so that's a reason for us to get gashed to death by everyone including the 100th ranked offense that everyone's been owning this year? I'm not buying it. As for your question about why we should be better than last year from your previous post, I think that's the usual course of growth. You're supposed to get better if you're going in the right direction just because your players have been with you and in your system for another full offseason.
Come on dude, you are better than that. You know **** well what Im saying. LOL. It wasnt "we recruited JUCO players". We brought in FIVE JUCO and Transfers JUST on Defense. FIVE guys for our defense. In one off season. That has NEVER happened in the 30 years I have been watching UM Football. Weve brought in guys, but FIVE just on one side of the ball? Not ONLY does it tell you that we were thin, but regardless of wether you believe it or not, what it ALSO reveals, is how the STAFF feels about our talent and depth on Defense. Which, if nothing else, at least partially explains why they are playing as conservatively as they are. Wether its true or not, its obvious that AG and MD are not happy with the talent and depth on the defense.
I have said repeatedly that the talent of the players who play the most on D isn't all that great right now. There's no questioning that. The disconnect between those making excuses for our corches and those demanding more of them is that the talent is nowhere near bad enough to justify the atrocious results.
VT's talent had them rated 100th offensively coming into our game, and they were universally considered a **** offensive club. Everyone pretty much owned them. And they went out there and marched up and down the field at will on us and scored as much as they wanted to. We stood no chance of stopping or slowing them down and made an erratic QB look like a Heisman finalist. With EVERYTHING on the line, we laid a pterodactyl egg. That's why everyone's so tweaked.
Brother I understand perfectly why everyone is ****ed. I am ****ed and disgusted too. But what Im trying to do is have rational conversations about WHY we are in the mess we are in. To me, the "Scheme sucks, Donofrio is a moron" excuse is over simplistic and not telling the whole story, maybe not even most of it. These guys arent mentally retarded, so there is a major breakdown somewhere on the defense, and I would like to see it fixed. For all the huffing and puffing and bombastic demands, AG is NOT going to fire Donofrio tommorow, or next week, or next month. IF he goes, it wont be til the end of the season, and personally, I dont want to drop 2 or 3 more games just to "prove" that he sucks and should be fired. I would like us to win out.
I dont think anyone is making excuses for Donofrio. Its obvious he is not getting the job done. Can he get it fixed? I dont know, and I would hope that he's running out of time to figure it out. But I think people may be setting themselves up for great disappointment if they think this is a simple matter of just replacing a DC and everything is going to be fine. I think our problems are more than just schematic.