forums

Rellyrell’s Review (Class of ‘23)

Advertisement
Rellyrell said:
Literally was leaning as a F, but I knew we would rotate some guys on the interior, Horton being one. I liked his film, & there’s a reason he was bumped to a 4-star late. But he’s still young, have to learn the position & get acclimated to the interior game 100%.
Click to expand...
I mean that applies to any lineman.

You don't expect Freshmen to come in and start. We need to hit the Portal for a DT or two - Jackson leaving was devastating for our rotation.
 
Rellyrell said:
Now that all of the signing periods have been completed, with Miami coming up empty on NSD, I wanted to assess our current class, including the transfer portal.

First off, kudos to Mario & the staff to navigate a tumultuous season, while pulling in a solid class in his first, full cycle. The 2008 Class, however, taught me a valuable lesson; never fully focus on the team ranking per recruiting services vs. evaluating the totality of the class, itself. As an example, Team A can recruit 25 kids that included 10-5* & 15-4*. On paper, that would be the #1 class in the nation, but if 50% of that class are strictly DEs, & the other 50% are strictly LBs…u get the point.

So here are my grades for our class, per position:

QB: C+
Though I soured on Rashada as his season progressed, the fact is we solely focused on him, when red flags began to present themselves. Our QB room is a mess, & relying upon one QB via the HS ranks, a 3* at that, is risky. This is not to say Williams won’t be the next Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, or Justin Herbert, but it is to say our QB room is in dire straights & this not the way to repair it in 2023.

RB: A-
We missed on Baxter & Young, but what a great consolation prize securing the #7 RB in the nation in Fletcher & a surging 4* RB in Chris Johnson. Fletcher showed his value & abilities in The Army All American game. He appears to be the anti-Thad Franklin, & we have a great change of pace duo in the class of ‘23. We saw the RB room look good on paper, to becoming a sore spot in the blink of an eye in ‘22, & these two immensely help restore this room.

WR: B-
This is a room that needed an infusion of talent. This is also a position that had so much talent in our back yard where we left a lot of meat on the bones (pause) from a HS & Portal standpoint. We added two dynamic guys w/ the ball in their hand, but both are on the smallish side. While they will be dynamic playmakers, neither feel like a WR1 as opposed to WR2’s. It would’ve been great if they were paired with some of the other beast that were available.

OL: A+
What an absolute haul, both recruiting via HS & Portal! If there was any position on the field I was least concerned w/, it was OL. Both Mario & Alex know what it looks like, can drop names of guys they’ve coached up to the next level, & it paid dividends this cycle.

TE: A
The room already is stacked, & adding a top 5 TE in the nation, along w/ an in-line TE that can be flexed makes this a good haul that’ll shore up an already nice room

LB: A-
Best LB recruiting we’ve had in quite some time, & got **** did we need it! Hit on 3 absolute studs w/ Papo, Malik, & Francissssssssssco Mauioga, along w/ a newly minted 4-star LB in Bobby Washington. Also, picked up some nice depth pieces in Spencer & Pulliam. Not being able to snag Hill after the smoke build up sucked, but Strong & Company identified another weak spot, & absolutely attacked it.

DE: A
Deep, rotational class. Some raw talent (Acheampong, Horton) mixed in w/ some guys who should see the field early (Bain, Wayne), along w/ a vet who will see significant time via from The Portal in Deen. This room is already primed to be the anchor of the defense, & it just got better.

DT: D-
INEXCUSABLE RECRUITING HERE. Literally whiffed on everyone. The only reason y this room is not a complete F is b/c at least we were able to snag a G5 DL from The Portal (Gore) who can play all across the line. This room has been a thorn in our side for a while, & it’s unimaginable for a school that’s produced Sapp, Brown, Wilfork, Tez, Maryland, Joseph, etc. have struggled mightily to recruit here. Not in love w/ that room as a whole, so really dropped the ball here.

S: D
Again, a lot of meat left on the bones (pause) from this position. Love Antoine as a prospect, but right now we have Kam, JW0, & Markeith Williams in the entire S room. 3 guys. This was a room where we needed to recruit, at an absolute minimum, 2 guys & we didn’t fulfill that. Here’s praying to Kam & JDub stay healthy all season.

CB: B
Listen, picking up the Brown brothers, along w/ Stafford was good, but let’s keep it 100, substituting an oft injured CB in Roberts via The Portal for arguably a top 5 player in the nation regardless of position, absolutely sucks ***. I’m not going to lose sleep over any recruit who spurns us, but I’m not going to CIS the situation either & act like that chit didn’t sting. Cormani immediately changes the dynamic of the squad, especially this room. Nevertheless, a very good haul under the circumstances.

ST: N/A
Replacing Hedley “The Gawd” is going to be tough. Just b/c Joyce is from Australia like Lou doesn’t mean he’ll be Lou II, & b/c I’m not familiar w/ his game, I can’t comment on him. Just hoping he’s of the same caliber. ****, as long as he’s not remotely like Feagles, I’ll be happy.


Overall, I give this class a B+ as it took care a couple of needs (OL, LB, RB), added to others (DE, TE, CB), while leaving other rooms head scratching (DT, S, WR). Hopefully with the portal reopening later this yr, we’ll be able to change some of these rooms with better impact/depth players.

Thoughts & Discussion?
Click to expand...
Great writeup sir. We still have so many obvious needs.
 
Advertisement
SinisterCane said:
Which coaches are a liability on the recruiting trail?
Click to expand...

Gattis was clearly a liability on the trail, on the field, w/ dude's moms (allegedly). Seems like Ponce and Addae were a bit lazy in their recruiting this year, though Ponce may have been hurt by the offense (and Gattis). I don't think Steele really even recruits, lol.

Coach Joe seems to have done a better job with the poly kids than his own position group, but I'm not totally dogging him considering the quality of the commits he helped land.

Strong, Smith, Field, and Wright have reps as solid recruiters and their position groups were recruited very well. Similarly, I suspect the combo of Mirabal + Mario will continue to kill OL recruiting.
 
Rellyrell said:
I was. Lol; I initially had it as a C-, but I do love Ray Ray & Robby. Those two r special w/ the ball in their hand, so I bumped it to a B- after re-watching, extensively, their film, along w seeing first hand Ray Ray in the Army All American game doing his thing. However, like I said, both feel like complimentary stars vs. WR1, & seeing how deplorable that room was for 2022, yeah, I should’ve left that as a C-.
Click to expand...
We need an X WR badly but I do believe that a a creative OC can do serious damage, especially in the sisters of the poor ACC with Robby and Ray Ray.
 
Advertisement
Overall Class Grade: C+

Mario’s strength is supposed to be recruiting. Sure as **** ain’t game day coaching. Miami is paying him far more than they’ve ever paid a coach, given him unlimited funds for staff, facilities improvements. He has billionaires backing NIL deals. This is Mario’s bump class.

So to finish at #7, only one spot above Richt’s first full class, while Richt had none of these advantages…it’s hard to give a higher grade than just barely passing.

Sure, we had a bad season, and that probably affects the class. But whose fault is that? Mario. One failure (season and coaching hires) can’t excuse another (below expectations in recruiting).

QB: D. One 3-star kid isn’t setting us up for the future, especially when we had a good depth wb transfer out.

RB: B-. What we got is decent, but Baxter was the prize and we missed.

OL: A+. Mario crushed it here. This OL haul is elite.

WR: D. We got slot guys, but missed on every outside receiver with a pulse.

TE: A. We got some good talent here, well done.

DT: F. Complete failure. This was a position of need that went totally unaddressed, aside from one developmental kid. No immediate impact players here.

DE. A-. We got some high end talent here

CB: D-. We lost Cormani and failed to land any impact players. We did add some depth ACC level guys who can play, but nobody elite

S: F. Didn’t land anything

LB: B-. We landed some good players but nobody elite. ACC type guys.

All in all, the class was a disappointment. Mario was hired to be an elite recruiter but so far has failed to meet expectations. A lot of the things that hurt our recruiting- Gattis, Addae, the season, etc - were Mario’s doing and totally within his control.

This class is good enough to compete in the ACC, but fails to get us closer to the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world. We are not on track to winning championships unless recruiting significantly improves
 
RightSaidFred said:
Overall Class Grade: C+

Mario’s strength is supposed to be recruiting. Sure as **** ain’t game day coaching. Miami is paying him far more than they’ve ever paid a coach, given him unlimited funds for staff, facilities improvements. He has billionaires backing NIL deals. This is Mario’s bump class.

So to finish at #7, only one spot above Richt’s first full class, while Richt had none of these advantages…it’s hard to give a higher grade than just barely passing.

Sure, we had a bad season, and that probably affects the class. But whose fault is that? Mario. One failure (season and coaching hires) can’t excuse another (below expectations in recruiting).

QB: D. One 3-star kid isn’t setting us up for the future, especially when we had a good depth wb transfer out.

RB: B-. What we got is decent, but Baxter was the prize and we missed.

OL: A+. Mario crushed it here. This OL haul is elite.

WR: D. We got slot guys, but missed on every outside receiver with a pulse.

TE: A. We got some good talent here, well done.

DT: F. Complete failure. This was a position of need that went totally unaddressed, aside from one developmental kid. No immediate impact players here.

DE. A-. We got some high end talent here

CB: D-. We lost Cormani and failed to land any impact players. We did add some depth ACC level guys who can play, but nobody elite

S: F. Didn’t land anything

LB: B-. We landed some good players but nobody elite. ACC type guys.

All in all, the class was a disappointment. Mario was hired to be an elite recruiter but so far has failed to meet expectations. A lot of the things that hurt our recruiting- Gattis, Addae, the season, etc - were Mario’s doing and totally within his control.

This class is good enough to compete in the ACC, but fails to get us closer to the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world. We are not on track to winning championships unless recruiting significantly improves
Click to expand...
Couple of things, and I do appreciate your high standards as that is what we should be striving for. WR is better than D, Robby and Ray Ray are players, still major misses here, I give it a solid C to B-. RB is a B, we got a top 10 guy in Fletcher and a change of pace guy who runs a 10.4. CB is another one I diagree with here, I will assume that you are only grading HS players. Stafford is an excellent athlete and was a composite top 150 kid, I would call him a top tier ACC guy. Damari was outright coveted by Bama, that is not our guys saying that is them saying it and when I say them, I mean their Cribby in Hank South. CB was a B- for me, losing Cormani was a major major loss. In terms of LB, Popo was absolutely heavily recruited by UGA and at the top of their board at MLB, Bama wanted him as well. Malik is a weird one as he was a tweener and while some SEC schools wanted him, he wasnt that heavily pursued by the big boys. The rest I. think is spot on.
 
RightSaidFred said:
Overall Class Grade: C+

Mario’s strength is supposed to be recruiting. Sure as **** ain’t game day coaching. Miami is paying him far more than they’ve ever paid a coach, given him unlimited funds for staff, facilities improvements. He has billionaires backing NIL deals. This is Mario’s bump class.

So to finish at #7, only one spot above Richt’s first full class, while Richt had none of these advantages…it’s hard to give a higher grade than just barely passing.

Sure, we had a bad season, and that probably affects the class. But whose fault is that? Mario. One failure (season and coaching hires) can’t excuse another (below expectations in recruiting).

QB: D. One 3-star kid isn’t setting us up for the future, especially when we had a good depth wb transfer out.

RB: B-. What we got is decent, but Baxter was the prize and we missed.

OL: A+. Mario crushed it here. This OL haul is elite.

WR: D. We got slot guys, but missed on every outside receiver with a pulse.

TE: A. We got some good talent here, well done.

DT: F. Complete failure. This was a position of need that went totally unaddressed, aside from one developmental kid. No immediate impact players here.

DE. A-. We got some high end talent here

CB: D-. We lost Cormani and failed to land any impact players. We did add some depth ACC level guys who can play, but nobody elite

S: F. Didn’t land anything

LB: B-. We landed some good players but nobody elite. ACC type guys.

All in all, the class was a disappointment. Mario was hired to be an elite recruiter but so far has failed to meet expectations. A lot of the things that hurt our recruiting- Gattis, Addae, the season, etc - were Mario’s doing and totally within his control.

This class is good enough to compete in the ACC, but fails to get us closer to the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world. We are not on track to winning championships unless recruiting significantly improves
Click to expand...
Nonsense. First of all the "lowly" #7 ranking is a small fraction of a point from the #5 ranked class. #5-7 this year are essentially tied.

Your CB grade is laughably ridiculous. Stafford and Brown are both highly regarded recruits that were coveted by top programs. Not getting Cormani doesnt devalue them.

The LB haul was also excellent.
 
bobbydigius said:
Couple of things, and I do appreciate your high standards as that is what we should be striving for. WR is better than D, Robby and Ray Ray are players, still major misses here, I give it a solid C to B-. RB is a B, we got a top 10 guy in Fletcher and a change of pace guy who runs a 10.4. CB is another one I diagree with here, I will assume that you are only grading HS players. Stafford is an excellent athlete and was a composite top 150 kid, I would call him a top tier ACC guy. Damari was outright coveted by Bama, that is not our guys saying that is them saying it and when I say them, I mean their Cribby in Hank South. CB was a B- for me, losing Cormani was a major major loss. In terms of LB, Popo was absolutely heavily recruited by UGA and at the top of their board at MLB, Bama wanted him as well. Malik is a weird one as he was a tweener and while some SEC schools wanted him, he wasnt that heavily pursued by the big boys. The rest I. think is spot on.
Click to expand...
Yea we have the top 2 corners going to the ACC from high school and 2 of the top 4 linebackers (3/7 if we want to include Bobby). We've certainly seen some subpar linebacker and corner classes in our past but this wasn't one of them.
 
Advertisement
dk72 said:
Nonsense. First of all the "lowly" #7 ranking is a small fraction of a point from the #5 ranked class. #5-7 this year are essentially tied.

Your CB grade is laughably ridiculous. Stafford and Brown are both highly regarded recruits that were coveted by top programs. Not getting Cormani doesnt devalue them.

The LB haul was also excellent.
Click to expand...
We agree on CB and LB but we weren’t just a fraction away from the #5 class. We would have needed a top 100 recruit to job there. When you get that high up in points, it takes a mountain to move up. Getting Roderick Pleasant would have given us 289.78. In the end we did not.
 
RightSaidFred said:
Overall Class Grade: C+

Mario’s strength is supposed to be recruiting. Sure as **** ain’t game day coaching. Miami is paying him far more than they’ve ever paid a coach, given him unlimited funds for staff, facilities improvements. He has billionaires backing NIL deals. This is Mario’s bump class.

So to finish at #7, only one spot above Richt’s first full class, while Richt had none of these advantages…it’s hard to give a higher grade than just barely passing.

Sure, we had a bad season, and that probably affects the class. But whose fault is that? Mario. One failure (season and coaching hires) can’t excuse another (below expectations in recruiting).

QB: D. One 3-star kid isn’t setting us up for the future, especially when we had a good depth wb transfer out.

RB: B-. What we got is decent, but Baxter was the prize and we missed.

OL: A+. Mario crushed it here. This OL haul is elite.

WR: D. We got slot guys, but missed on every outside receiver with a pulse.

TE: A. We got some good talent here, well done.

DT: F. Complete failure. This was a position of need that went totally unaddressed, aside from one developmental kid. No immediate impact players here.

DE. A-. We got some high end talent here

CB: D-. We lost Cormani and failed to land any impact players. We did add some depth ACC level guys who can play, but nobody elite

S: F. Didn’t land anything

LB: B-. We landed some good players but nobody elite. ACC type guys.

All in all, the class was a disappointment. Mario was hired to be an elite recruiter but so far has failed to meet expectations. A lot of the things that hurt our recruiting- Gattis, Addae, the season, etc - were Mario’s doing and totally within his control.

This class is good enough to compete in the ACC, but fails to get us closer to the Alabama’s and Georgia’s of the world. We are not on track to winning championships unless recruiting significantly improves
Click to expand...
Imagine giving a B- for two of the top six backs in Florida.

A B- for LB LOL

Respectfully, You’re smoking Crack.
 
bobbydigius said:
Couple of things, and I do appreciate your high standards as that is what we should be striving for. WR is better than D, Robby and Ray Ray are players, still major misses here, I give it a solid C to B-. RB is a B, we got a top 10 guy in Fletcher and a change of pace guy who runs a 10.4. CB is another one I diagree with here, I will assume that you are only grading HS players. Stafford is an excellent athlete and was a composite top 150 kid, I would call him a top tier ACC guy. Damari was outright coveted by Bama, that is not our guys saying that is them saying it and when I say them, I mean their Cribby in Hank South. CB was a B- for me, losing Cormani was a major major loss. In terms of LB, Popo was absolutely heavily recruited by UGA and at the top of their board at MLB, Bama wanted him as well. Malik is a weird one as he was a tweener and while some SEC schools wanted him, he wasnt that heavily pursued by the big boys. The rest I. think is spot on.
Click to expand...

Those are arguments that can be made. In the big picture though, a #7 class with all of the advantages Mario has been given (NIL, funds for staff, improvements to facilities etc)… we should expect better.

You want to beat teams like Alabama, then you need to recruit like Alabama. I believe Mario is a good recruiter but he handcuffed himself with a bad OC he refused to fire until the class was already signed, and he didn’t have the team ready to play which results in losses on the field and in recruiting
 
Advertisement
WeBallinBoyz said:
Imagine giving a B- for two of the top six backs in Florida.

A B- for LB LOL

Respectfully, You’re smoking Crack.
Click to expand...

Two of the top six in Florida. If I remember my fractions, that’s the same as 1/3.

There are three power programs in Florida, us, UF, FSU. The “big 3.”

Getting 1/3rd of the best of anything in Florida should be the bare *** minimum. That’s doing just enough, nothing amazing. B- is right on the money
 
I think it's a little too harsh for DT I would give a C because of the portal guys, I think we get another after spring ball anyways.
 
Rellyrell said:
Oh, that’s solid then. 247’s Portal Ranking (4-star) had him as a 255 transfer. I knew the idea floated on him primarily being on the interior, but saw that weight & got shook. Lol. But at 285, that’s a different story. Still, that room scares tf outta me, & with so many “war daddies” available, just not impressed w/ us attacking it appropriately, not just for today, but for the future.
Click to expand...
I feel like all we have at DT is pass rushers. With JHH being a solid pass rusher, Taylor could have an amazing year pass rushing, and Deen & Gore are two above average to good level pass rushers. We can legit wreck havoc on passing downs. But who in that group can stop the run. We need at least 1 maybe 2 war daddy 310lb plus space eaters after spring or We in trouble vs the run this year.
 
Advertisement
Back
Top