PODCAST: 2021 Season Wrap - Offense ft. D$

[Cribby]

Pass blocking definitely improved, but I think the main reasons for that were: (1) Zion played a lot better after UVA; (2) Williams played better than Scaife; and (3) Scaife was surprisingly good at guard.

Seymore has an opportunity at C. Hopefully he puts in the work. Mirabal recruited him at Oregon.

A lot of our pressures came up the middle the last couple years. The g/c's were the biggest issues.

 

[DMoney]

Why do you think the o-line looked better when Clark got in or do you think it was mostly TVD

Zion was lights out after a rough start, Scaife played much better at G than he did last year, and Williams was a better RT than Scaife.

Just to be clear: I’m not trying to dog Clark or pump up Gaynor. Clark is a Cane and Gaynor is the enemy now. They are in just the same talent category to me: average ACC and below average SEC/Big 10. We need improvement.

 

[LuCane]

Gaynor isn’t what I thought he’d be. That ship sailed a long time ago. It’s a miss.

But we are comparing two limited players. Either three consecutive coaches had the same blind spot for Gaynor, or he was the best of bad options. The latter is much more likely.

I hope Clark improves with Mirabal and we finally get push. More than that, I hope we get a true talent in there and get CFP-level center play for the first time in a while.

I think you're undervaluing some things Clark can do that Gaynor never showed. Namely, he got to spots. One of the reasons we got better in pass blocking was because Clark moved his feet on some of those A-gap blitzes. He's better moving off combo blocks, too, but I'm no OL expert. Just telling you what I saw on game re-watches.

You're right that they both struggled to establish themselves physically in the run game. For different reasons. Gaynor was actually decent once he squared someone up. But, if he had to move in the zone game or reach block, he just could not consistently get there.

Separately, who are the three coaches? Wouldn't it be Searels and Justice? It's completely possible they just outright missed this one. For some time, our coaches miss a lot in interpreting what they saw at Greentree and how it carried over into live game play. Anyway, again, I hope they put Gaynor in the spot to block JHH and LT coming across his face. Or, we get a big NT to maul him.

 

[DMoney]

Separately, who are the three coaches? Wouldn't it be Searels and Justice?

Butch Barry would be the third one.

If I’m playing fantasy GM, get me a portal G and RT (we’ve already offered a couple), move Scaife to C and have Campbell play the swing tackle. He was coming along well in spring before the injury.

 

[Number1CanesFan]

Our last two OL coaches thought Gaynor was better than Clark, and a third OL coach just brought him as a transfer to a P5 school.

Clark is fine and probably equal to Gaynor at this point. But if Gaynor cost us the UNC game like Clark did on that INT, people would be calling for his head.

The guy who would truly upgrade the center position is Scaife. If we strike gold in the Portal, I hope he gets a look there. Seymore is also a superior talent to what we’ve had the past few years.

Clark was a clear upgrade especially in calling out blitzes and blocking shifts. Remember how much pass blocking improved when he was inserted into the starting lineup. That had everything to do with Clark.